Managing Automation - October 2008 - (Page 19)

iRise i Visual mapping software brings constituents together for early requirements phase of deploying enterprise applications. From its early roots as a simulation tool mostly for homegrown applications, iRise in the past year has found the pendulum swinging toward customers using packaged applications, such as those from Oracle and SAP. Near term, the company hopes to tighten ties with Oracle, SAP, and others. Long term, Keeffe and company hope that by 2020, all software will go through visual mapping before deployment. — Chris Chiappinelli Rise Corp., founded as a consultancy in 1996 and rebranded as a software provider in 2002, is the company behind iRise Studio, a simulation tool that lets companies test-drive enterprise applications before devoting money and time to their build-out. A manufacturer with plans to tailor an SAP or Oracle ERP package to its particular needs, for example, must bring together three important constituents: the business user who will interact with the software, the software developers who will customize the application, and the business analyst who will act as liaison between the two. The conventional tool of the business analyst is paper-based requirements documents. iRise’s answer: an application that visually simulates the processes and user interfaces of the software package while the business analyst sits in a room or interacts online with the business users. Once the two parties settle on the proper configuration, that visual spec becomes the template the developers use to modify the software. Emmet Keeffe, founder and CEO of iRise, likens his software to the transition that automakers made from designing on drafting boards to designing with CAD software. “At the end of Emmet Keeffe CEO the day,” he says, “it’s all about significantly improving how business and IT communicate when building software, and visualization really transforms that communication and allows the upfront requirements phase to go quicker, [with] less rework.” i FOUNDED: 1996; launched as a software company in 2002 PRODUCT/CATEGORY: iRise Studio for application simulation INDUSTRY SEGMENTS SERVED: Automotive, biotech, energy, high tech, industrial/general manufacturing (outside manufacturing: financial services, government, insurance, healthcare, publishing, retail, hospitality, telecom) KEY PROBLEM SOLVED: iRise’s simulation tools allow companies to visually map how an application will work before they customize it, saving time and money involved in detailing application workflows and screens via paper requirements. DIFFERENTIATION: iRise is a full-scale simulation tool that replicates the screens and work flows of packaged or homegrown applications, shrinking the requirements development phase of any rollout. CUSTOMERS: Eli Lilly, General Motors, Xerox FUNDING: Private; institutional investors include Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank LLamasoft L Supply chain simulation tool boosts decision-making acumen. distribution centers, for instance, or increasing supply from 10 to 15 days — and see how those conditions would affect customer service rates, inventory holding costs, and other business metrics. Supply Chain Guru’s optimization engine may advise a manufacturer to close five plants; it’s the simulation tool, Hicks says, that lets the company test the effects of closing a particular plant first and realigning those customers to other facilities. Computing power has been LLamasoft’s ally across the years — Hicks says today’s supply network models are “100 times larger than what people were doing five years ago.” He says the continued improvement in technology’s ability to process fecund data sets means it won’t be long before a manufacturer can create a product-level simulation of an entire business of 10,000 SKUs. Donald Hicks President & CEO One of LLamasoft’s key goals for the years to come involves tighter links to ERP systems to create better information feeds (master data, products, sites, demand, financials, and costs) to LLamasoft’s simulation and optimization engines. On a grander scale, the company’s founder wants to grow the app into the world’s foremost strategic planning and analysis tool. Only time will tell whether he succeeds, but Hicks is in no hurry. Like the two kinds of llamas from which the company takes its name, he knows that wisdom leads to enlightenment, but he also knows that it takes a long time to get up the mountain. — Chris Chiappinelli Lamasoft, founded in 1999 to help manufacturers make better decisions about everything from where to locate their facilities to how to arrange their product mix, markets its flagship Supply Chain Guru application as a combination supply network modeling and optimization tool. Using modeling technology, “you [can] essentially predict the future of a complicated operation before you ever make any mistakes on the plant floor,” says Donald Hicks, founder, president, and CEO of LLamasoft. A manufacturer, for instance, may run a simulation of its 2009 fulfillment performance based on expected demand. Supply Chain Guru allows that company to specify various scenarios — leaning out inventory stocks at the i FOUNDED: 1999 PRODUCT/CATEGORY: Supply Chain Guru, for supply network modeling and optimization INDUSTRY SEGMENTS SERVED: CPG, food & beverage, medical device, petroleum, electronics, general manufacturing, retail, government, logistics KEY PROBLEM SOLVED: Helps companies decide how to organize their supply networks for maximum business benefit DIFFERENTIATION: Some vendors supply optimization, others simulation; very few provide both capabilities CUSTOMERS: Unilever, Coca-Cola, Conoco-Phillips FUNDING: Private; profitable, mainly self-funded 19 October 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Managing Automation - October 2008

Managing Automation - October 2008 Contents Take 1 Systems Integration Market Braces for a Wave of Consolidation Kinaxis Launches Program to Lure i2 Customers Patent May Give Mobility a Needed Shot in the Arm New Group Aims at More Efficient Smart Devices Solar, Life Sciences Will Be the Next Frontier For Robots Notes Cover Story:�2009 Companies to Watch Special Report:�Siemens plus UGS: Is the Merger Working? Transformation:�Driving Energy Efficiency Integration: How Clean is Your Data Industries:�Fed Raises Red Flag on Chemicals Product Scan Advertiser Index Next

Managing Automation - October 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.