Managing Automation - January 2009 - (Page 45) Hrudicka’s predecessor was ready to invest in OutlookSoft Corp.’s financial planning tool, an on-premise licensed solution that was going to cost upward of $400,000 and require a year to deploy, he says. (OutlookSoft was acquired by SAP in May 2007.) Instead, he decided to couple an on-site costing analytics tool from Acorn Systems Inc. with the SaaS-based balanced scorecard software from Host Analytics, an enterprise performance management tool that measures corporate goals and progress against targets. “There is a tremendous advantage to a hosted application in terms of affordability without sacrificing functionality,” Hrudicka says, noting that he addressed two significant needs of the business — cost analysis and scorecarding — for the same price he would have paid for OutlookSoft. ning environment.” The ultimate goal, Aberdeen’s Viswanathan says, is to empower people. With or without the technology, “best-inSPENDING PRIORITIES class companies need to have Here are the top supply chain application good people who know how investment areas for manufacturers. to run their business.” Supply chain visibility Similarly, at Otis Spunk54% meyer, which operates 52 sales Sales and operations planning centers, there is a new level of 34% detail available to end users, Inventory optimization one that sor ts sales by cus32% tomer, region, and product. “Now we have a different level Supplier/customer collaboration of accountability within our 25% sales organization which will Supply chain network design ultimately be our biggest trans21% formation,” Wegener says. Performance management And if the sales organization 19% NOWHERE TO HIDE can track accounts more reliTransportation management While Otis Spunkmeyer’s Wegener chose ably, the manufacturing side of 19% the Host Analytics software as a budgeting the house can adjust accordSource: Aberdeen Group, tool, Hrudicka is counting on Host Analytics’ ingly. For example, the John “The Supply Chain Executive’s Strategic Agenda 2008” balanced scorecard to instill accountability Galt planning portal, which Otis across the company and, more important, Spunkmeyer is in the process to make finance strategic rather than an unof installing as an on-premise licensed product, der-valued function. can pull information from the Host Analytics “I wanted to transform the financial organsystem, as well as from other parts of the orization to have an equal seat at the table drivganization, including inventory, scheduling, ing the business results,” Hrudicka says. The and capacity planning. Ultimately, it may serve way to do that is to first understand the fias a tool to figure out the most efficient way to nancial dynamics of the company. schedule batches of cookies. The scorecard, coupled with an executive That piece of the puzzle is not live yet, dashboard, provides charts and graphs showbut it will be just as important as the fronting how Elkay is performing against targets. end finance tool. Individuals, departments, business units, and For manufacturers such as Otis Spunkthe overall corporate strategy are measured meyer, the motivation to assemble the right against established key performance indicatools to support the S&OP process goes betors. It is basically a financial performance yond just coping with a surge in cookie sales. It’s about gaining the agility required The scorecard and executive dashboard to survive. “How many companies provide charts and graphs showing how managingautomation.com out there, when they were Elkay is performing against targets. doing their annual [finan- RELATED ARTICLES: Islands of Automation management application, but, when coupled cial] plan in October, could foresee www.managingautomation.com/trans5 with the Acorn system, the tools can measure a 3,000-point swing in the Dow or Don’t Forget About the New Products profitability by customer and even by SKU. that, over the summer, oil would www.managingautomation.com/newproducts At Elkay, the scorecard touches finance in go from $80 a barrel to $160 a barDirectory Listings Update — April 2007 every department, from human resources to rel? They can’t; there’s no way,” www.managingautomation.com/directory3 marketing. And now, “everything is transsays Host Analytics CEO Jon Konparent,” Hrudicka says. “Every initiative is do. “That’s what we see driving COMPANIES MENTIONED: tracked and measured for everyone to see corporate performance manageAcorn Systems Inc. www.managingautomation.com/acorn There is nowhere to hide.” ment. Old spreadsheets aren’t Of course, the goal is not to punish unnimble enough to do this. You Host Analytics www.managingautomation.com/host derperformers, rather to create self-manhave to be able to sit back and say, aged employees who can execute against a ‘Our world changed overnight. John Galt Solutions www.managingautomation.com/johngalt corporate strategy that continues to evolve. Now what are we going to do It’s what Hrudicka calls a “continuous planabout our business?’ ” ■ moneytalks maonline 45 January 2009 http://www.managingautomation.com http://www.managingautomation.com/trans5 http://www.managingautomation.com/newproducts http://www.managingautomation.com/directory3 http://www.managingautomation.com/acorn http://www.managingautomation.com/host http://www.managingautomation.com/johngalt
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