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September 2006
September 29, 2006 The Human Capital Management Market—Hot, but also Overpopulated? Many human capital management (HCM) vendors try to cover most of the bases through broader product suites. While there have been noticeable consolidation moves in the market, which vendors will eventually dominate cannot be exactly stated at this time.
September 28, 2006 Performance and Compensation Management at the Core of Human Capital Management? Strategic human capital management (HCM) solutions can help organizations transform their people into a competitive advantage by aligning managers and employees with corporate goals. There is now a statistical and causal relationship among key HCM applications and operating income growth.
September 26, 2006 Thou Shalt Manage Human Capital Better Although the human resources department has long been seen as a necessary evil at best, the scope of human resources management systems (HRMS) has been extended to include recruiting, competency management, training, time management, performance management, and so forth.
September 25, 2006 Success Keys for Proposal Automation Proposal writing has become a common requirement throughout the entire business world. And for many sales people, they are a necessary evil. If you're thinking about automating your proposal process, there are ten critical success keys to a successful implementation.
September 25, 2006 Seven Magic Questions: How to Improve Your Win Ratio by Selling Value Instead of Price There are many consultative sales methods. Each has unique strengths and techniques, but they all try to focus on what matters to the customer. To improve your win ratio, there are seven questions you must first be able to answer.
September 22, 2006 Warehouse Management Systems by the Numbers When it comes to warehouse management systems (WMS), the stats are both shocking and thought-provoking. And although you don't see these stats in the marketing brochures of WMS vendors, you need to think about them before you purchase a WMS.
September 21, 2006 A New Customer Relationship Management Framework: Twenty-first Century Necessity, or Blowin' in the Wind? The business ecosystem has shifted focus from corporation to customer, and the location of value has changed with it. Where value had historically been located in products and services, it is now located in the value produced by the customer.
September 20, 2006 Architecture Evolution: Service-oriented Architecture versus Web Services Collaboration and interoperability are critical where multiple business units reside under one larger corporation, or where there is a requirement to integrate the system into a disparate system when a business-to-business or business-to-consumer extension is part of the business model.
September 19, 2006 Architecture Evolution: From Web-based to Service-oriented Architecture Traditional enterprise systems have proven difficult to change and extend. The inherent problem of old core code and business logic duplication is part of the reason traditional enterprise resource planning systems have not readily taken to e-commerce.
September 18, 2006 Architecture Evolution: From Mainframes to Service-oriented Architecture Product architecture is going to do much more than simply provide the technical functionality, the user interface, and the platform support. It is going to determine whether a product is going to be able to accommodate increasingly evolving user requirements.
September 15, 2006 Fear of the Unknown, the Art of War, and Competitiveness It is not unusual to use the metaphor of war to construct theories of business competition—substituting competing vendors for the mortal enemy. But what about the enemy within? And what if it is in fact a company's strongest resource?
September 14, 2006 Creating a Business from a Project Many software services companies are not able to turn their individual project successes into a line of business that brings in additional revenue streams. At the root of this is the simplistic assumption that "if you build, they will come."
September 13, 2006 Professional Services Automation: Affordable Hosted Solutions for the Small to Medium Business Market Although technology is pivotal in maintaining a competitive edge, many smaller professional services organizations (PSOs) have limited time and resources to dedicate to their IT infrastructure. For this reason, the application service provider model can be a very attractive offering.
September 12, 2006 Mill Industries: A Generic ERP Challenge Mills are factories where value is added to raw material by processing it into a form suitable either for further manufacturing, or for immediate end-use. However, general enterprise resource planning software typically does not meet the requirements of these industries.
September 8, 2006 Cut-to-size/shape Industries The specialized material resource planning module for cut-to-size/shape industries must be able to recognize when current demand cannot be satisfied by the in stock inventory due to dimensional issues, and include that unsatisfied demand in its reorder messages.
September 7, 2006 Quoting and Costing for Multiple Units of Measure A common need of plastics producers is real-time shop floor production monitoring. This serves many purposes, including tracking cycles on tools or machines, data collection, precision measurement, analysis and reporting, gage management, and material usage and labor tracking.
September 6, 2006 Differing Plastics Flavors There is no one process used when manufacturing plastic products, since manufacturing methods depend on the final product. Indeed, products range from injection molding and plastic extrusion, to extrusion blow molding, injection blow molding, stretch blow molding, and thermoformed plastics.
September 5, 2006 The Tricky Enterprise Applications Needs of Plastics Producers General enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers, even those which are viable companies with a solid product, typically do not meet the tricky requirements that are vital to the plastics industry and related so-called mill or material converter businesses.
September 4, 2006 Professional Services Organizations Automate their Processes Major vendors are entering the professional services software market and small niche vendors are repositioning themselves to compete. This changing market is conveying mixed messages; however, users can navigate this space by separating market messages from vendors' functional capabilities.
September 1, 2006 2006 PMI Research Conference Aims to Link Project Management Discipline with the Business Community The 2006 PMI Research Conference was an excellent venue for gauging the direction in which project management research is heading. The presentations of the areas of portfolio management and program management confirm the rising demand for project portfolio management solutions.

 
August 2006
August 31, 2006 Microsoft Retail Systems Microsoft Point of Sale and Microsoft Retail Management System provide a complete point of purchase solution suite for small and midsize specialty retail businesses. Released in 2005, Microsoft Point of Sale has enabled Microsoft to further penetrate the retail market.
August 30, 2006 Off-shoring: Are You Getting Your Money's Worth? Are companies that offshore software development, call center operations, and remote implementations really saving money? Are customers and users realizing benefits? Indeed, there are areas where savings can be misstated. But companies can do something to protect themselves against disappointments.
August 29, 2006 Improving and Expanding: The Road Ahead for a Drop-ship Facilitator CommerceHub may be destined for leadership in collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment; trade promotions; new product design and introduction; sourcing and procurement; and so on. But given its current size and low global brand recognition, it is not there yet.
August 28, 2006 A Drop-ship Enablement Pioneer Leads the Way By providing a single plug-and-play connection to multiple trading partners, CommerceHub strives to enable basically any retailer to electronically integrate with its suppliers, regardless of the idiosyncratic systems and capabilities that might exist among them.
August 25, 2006 Is Enterprise Resource Planning Becoming a Commodity? All was fine, methodical, and elegant until enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors started aspiring to new customer acquisitions in the hundreds per annum. And with the advent of "ERP for small to medium businesses," the numbers are simply mind-boggling.
August 24, 2006 Asset Data for Accurate Lifecycle Management Among the areas where modern enterprise asset management (EAM) systems provide substantial benefits is the driving out of inefficiencies in business processes. This is why the development of effective maintenance policies is generally the foremost consideration for modern asset managers.
August 23, 2006 Captured by Data The benefits case for enterprise asset management (EAM) has been used to justify huge sums in EAM investment. But to understand this reasoning, it is necessary to explore how asset data can be used to further the aims of maintenance.
August 22, 2006 Customer Data Integration: A Primer Customer data integration (CDI) involves consolidation of customer information for a centralized view of the customer experience. Implementing CDI within a customer relationship management initiative can help provide organizations with a successful framework to manage data on a continuous basis.
August 21, 2006 Drop-Shipping—Internet Retailers' ''Little Helper''? Relying on drop-shipping (sometimes called "virtual inventory") is neither as easy nor as profitable as it may appear to be. Nothing has hurt the adoption of multichannel shopping more than orders which are delayed—or even cancelled—because of stock-outs.
August 18, 2006 Paradoxes of Software Estimation Software development has spawned an independent industry in its own right. But the processes of asking for service, offering service, and pricing are all somewhat haphazard. Perhaps it's time to focus efforts on resolving the key paradoxes of software estimation.
August 17, 2006 A Customer Relationship Management Solution Aims To Cover all the Bases Surado Solutions aims to provide a complete customer relationship management suite. We'll analyze Surado CRM 5.0 from the perspectives of core functionality, its distinguishing factors, and the challenges users may face when considering the Surado solution.
August 15, 2006 Enterprises May Be Overlooking Profits from After-sales Service If service parts and service personnel management are well managed, manufacturers can significantly improve their profits from service operations. This will lead in turn to significant overall profit margins.
August 14, 2006 The Challenge of Fulfillment Integrated multichannel retailing will inevitably become the norm. For retailers, the key to multichannel success lies in understanding the factors that drive revenues and the ability to fulfill Web orders. Other challenges center around electronic integration, visibility, and exception management.
August 11, 2006 Nimble Enterprise Applications Vendor Faces Stiff Challenges in A Competitive Environment Despite intensifying competition in the enterprise applications market, IFS likes its chances. IFS has released the seventh generation of its component-based applications, while competitors are still on their first, or second at best. Nevertheless, IFS has a tough road ahead.
August 10, 2006 Resilient Enterprise Solutions Vendor Displays Sociability and Pragmatic Product Development During its stabilization phase IFS product development has brought about pragmatic developments, including its latest release, IFS Applications 7. The vendor has also been surging forward by harnessing new partnerships, including turning high-profile customers into developers and subsequent resellers
August 9, 2006 Enterprise Applications Vendor Reverses Fortunes - But Will Perseverance and Agility Be Enough? With seven consecutive profitable quarters, a feat unprecedented in the company's recent past, IFS enters a new phase of sustained profitable growth, along with its new chief executive officer. However, there are some challenges that just will not go away.
August 7, 2006 Enterprise Content Management Solution Creates the Ultimate Customer Experience Interwoven has grown from a web content management vendor to an enterprise content management (ECM) vendor providing a full suite of ECM components. With this suite, it helps its clients provide the ultimate customer experience.
August 4, 2006 Challenges and User Recommendations for a Global Trading Solutions Provider on a Roll The market is competitive, rapidly evolving, and highly fragmented, and one should only expect the intensity of competition to increase in the future. For the present, the biggest challenge remains a lack of awareness of the need for TradeStone's applications.
August 3, 2006 The Future for an E-sourcing Solutions Builder TradeStone will introduce several planning capabilities that bind existing sourcing and order execution functionality, and featuring significant enhancements to the Finance and Logistics modules, with the idea of fostering rapid adoption and deployment across expanding supply chains.
August 2, 2006 Web-based Solution Steps Out for Cohesive Retailer Sourcing TradeStone recently announced the commercial availability of its Unified Buying Engine, a technology platform that should enable user companies to streamline all purchasing into a single view and business process.
August 1, 2006 A Well-designed Solution for Sourcing: Its Technological Foundation and How It Works TradeStone has developed an application that can be quickly configured to shift data in and out of traditional enterprise planning systems. Organizations can thus more easily intertwine basic procurement information with crucial sourcing data such as specifications, schedules, and statuses.

 
July 2006
July 31, 2006 Collaborative Sourcing Solution Vendor Leaves No Stone Unturned By layering across an organization's current infrastructure and building a sourcing system that needs hardly any training, TradeStone users anywhere can sign on and have the system handle all the intricacies of international trade (without ever experiencing its complexities).
July 28, 2006 Challenges and User Recommendations for a Focused Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Some major SSI competitors, while possibly inferior regarding process or mill industry focus, will influence some purchase decisions through more comprehensive horizontal product portfolios, and superior global presence, localization capabilities, and viability—which are still hurdles for SSI to overcome.
July 27, 2006 Impressive Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Gets A Little Help From Its Friends Despite impressive product depth and breadth (for instance, customer relationship management [CRM], workflow, traceability, and quality management are provided natively), Strategic Systems International (SSI) has longstanding partnerships with several best-of-breed specialists.
July 26, 2006 Web-based Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Exhibits Lean Approach SSI's approach appeals to process manufacturers, as well as some discrete manufacturers with short lead times and high volumes, where the traditional manufacturing resource planning (MRP) approach often shows many shortcomings (and can even be a recipe for disaster).
July 25, 2006 A Focused Web-based Solution for Chemicals, Drugs, and Mill-based Industries SSI shows deep understanding of the requirements for chemical, drug, and mill-based industries. Consequently, it has developed such must-have capabilities as potency controls, container movements, top-down and bottom-up traceability, and controls for customs and excise, shelf life, and location validation.
July 24, 2006 Vendor Defends Its Strongholds with Focused Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Strategic Systems International (SSI) needs no special introduction to British process industries (such as consumer products manufacturers and whisky distillers), but it largely remains a well-kept secret elsewhere.
July 21, 2006 Supply Chains: Reinventions, Successes, and Failures Reinventing the supply chain can increase a company's value, or can in some extreme cases cause bankruptcy. Just a few case studies are enough to demonstrate the critical factors that can make all the difference between success and catastrophic failure.
July 20, 2006 Retailing Trends—Shopping Anyway and Everywhere Multichannel retailers have to flawlessly execute a full range of services to engage, transact, and fulfill orders placed via Internet. Thus, they either have to build a complete set of these services in-house, or outsource some (or all) of them.
July 18, 2006 How To Write a Winning Proposal Your proposal should prove your case, and motivate the client to buy your services or applications. But all too often, reading a proposal is almost as painfully difficult as writing one. So what are the secrets of truly successful proposal-writing?
July 17, 2006 Discovering and Creating Value in Procurement through Continuous Assessment and Innovation Improvement is not simply an idea: it is a process. And processes without frameworks are recipes for underachievement, or worse, chaos. For this reason, value leakages in procurement functions must be resolved in a systematic, progressive, incremental, and formalized manner.
July 14, 2006 From Shoestring Budget to Millions: The Road Ahead for an Enterprise Management Software Vendor Indisputably, Deltek remains an enterprise applications vendor of choice for project-based businesses. With its recent capital infusion and product deliveries, it has taken some critical steps towards creating even more value for its customers.
July 13, 2006 Sweet Spots and What-Nots: Enterprise Management Software Vendor Provides Notable Solutions Deltek uses a wealth of standalone and bundled modules to target various markets, including professional services firms both domestically and internationally, as well as the full range of federal contractors and project-focused enterprises.
July 12, 2006 Enterprise Management Software Vendor Welcomes Additions Deltek recognizes that most organizations run their enterprises by using a sort of closed-loop, corrective action process. However, most product-based businesses still need solutions to replace manual workarounds, and Deltek has embarked on a mission to garner a one-stop-shopping portfolio.
July 11, 2006 Mountainous Investment Transforms Enterprise Management Software Vendor After decades of father-son stewardship, Deltek has been transformed by a New Mountain Capital LLC majority capital investment. Already a recognized enterprise resource planning leader for North American project-based businesses, Deltek is now looking to strengthen its global position.
July 10, 2006 The Work Game that Motivates: The Holy Grail of Change Management Can change really be "managed"? It is possible to create motivators for accepting proposed changes. In fact, it's not only possible, but obvious, if the five principles of change are understood, and the five principles of recreational motivation applied.
July 7, 2006 Hosted versus On-premises Customer Relationship Management The dot-com revolution has left few impressions as significant as the hosted software phenomenon. In fact, its success has caused many organizations with reservations about hosted solutions to think twice. So what exactly are its advantages and disadvantages?
July 6, 2006 Product Lifecycle Management Challenges: From Solution Evaluation to Kickoff In future, companies will be releasing products practically every other day, due to fierce global competition, and the significance of product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation will increase. However, it is possible to provide some guidelines for a rigorous PLM implementation.
July 5, 2006 An Overview of Product Lifecycle Management Implementation Challenges Product lifecycle management (PLM) implementation brings its own set of challenges, whether considering vendor selection, employee perception management, or actual implementation. However, based on experience and study, it is possible to describe the best practices for overcoming these challenges.
July 4, 2006 Quality Reassurance: How To Get What You Need from Acceptance Testing Integrating a new system with your organization places new opportunities, and new risks, at the heart of your business. We look at the thinking and negotiation that shape acceptance testing, and how it influences your assessment of the new system.
July 3, 2006 CIO Horror Stories and What They Mean For Vendors Customers and vendors do not always see eye to eye as illustrated in the following horror stories about how customers have been treated by vendors. The vendors did the opposite of selling; they pushed these companies away.

 
June 2006
June 30, 2006 Microsoft Takes A Shot at the Business Intelligence Market Microsoft Business Scorecard Manager 2005 has allowed Microsoft to enter the business intelligence (BI) market by using its client base to expand its offering. Microsoft offers a complete solution with its SQL Server platform, OLAP, reporting analysis, and scorecarding capabilities.
June 29, 2006 The Fashion and Apparel Retailers' Conundrum Retail remains a very tactile industry, focused on the hand, drape, and durability of fabrics and trim—besides which, designs are still being sketched on paper and pinned on size models or mannequins.
June 28, 2006 The Intricacies of Global Retail Sourcing Retailers should aim at curbing traditional firefighting practices in favor of productive planning and collaboration with customers. Retailers must take steps to reconcile these disparate solutions to improve their reaction time and gain maximum leverage from their sourcing activities.
June 27, 2006 The Gain and Pain of Global Retail Sourcing The appeal of global sourcing for many industries is certainly understandable, given the potential lower cost benefits, but without careful elimination of all the hidden challenges, the entire process may turn out to be only a costly "siren song" adventure.
June 26, 2006 Benchmarking: How Am I Really Performing? Benchmarking, as defined by the dictionary, is "a standard against which something can be measured or assessed." But what is benchmarking? What does it do? Why should I do it? What do I benchmark? And how can it help me?
June 23, 2006 Is Your Store Customer-centric? Most retailers might say that they are customer-centric, but what does that really mean? After all, there is a huge difference between simply serving a customer and centering on a customer's specific needs and satisfaction.
June 22, 2006 Federal Procurement Essentials: Sealed Bidding Selling to the government can bring new life to contract winners, particularly small and medium businesses. In fact, organizations that understand and leverage federal acquisition methods and processes can grow from scratch to a profitable bottom line, whatever their size.
June 20, 2006 IT Governance and Project Portfolio Management: Vendor Delivers a Phase-based Approach Although most vendors provide organizations with the project portfolio management tools to meet their objectives, few provide strategies to implement an IT governance framework successfully. Pacific Edge offers a three-stage approach to implementing IT governance, based on an organization's maturity.
June 16, 2006 BLM—Buzzword Lifecycle Management The management of buzzwords represents a significant area for improvement, for both buzzword users (BU) and buzzword consumers (BC). Buzzword lifecycle management (BLM) is a proven discipline being applied to this crying need within the software industry.
June 15, 2006 Using Predictive Analytics within Business Intelligence: A Primer What are predictive analytics, and how are they used within business intelligence applications and for business performance management?
June 14, 2006 Competuition: Teach Competition to Your Procurement Process High-profile corporate scandal has resulted in laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to monitor business practices. To help safeguard against unethical practices during procurement, entities are also adopting elements from the US Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).
June 9, 2006 The Ghost in the Machine: Where Has Process Automation Left the Consumer? Business process automation is all very well and good. After all, nothing succeeds like success, especially automated success. But what is the effect of automation on the consumer, that most unpredictable of systems?
June 8, 2006 Enterprise Content Management: It Is More Than Just Web Content Management Enterprise content management (ECM) is moving beyond web content management. To meet enterprises' needs, large vendors are introducing scaled down versions, others are integrating ECM with other systems, and all are focusing on key areas.
June 7, 2006 User Recommendations for Project-oriented Software Selecting the right project-oriented software may depend on the specific requirements of the industry niches in which an organization competes. But since not all software is created equal, it's worth examining some leading candidates in depth.
June 6, 2006 Project-oriented Software: Many Choices, Many Differences Professional service organizations sell not just time, but knowledge. Thus, in addition to time and expense management, a business management software product must support a means for knowing how this knowledge is tracked, assigned, managed, and billed. But which product?
June 5, 2006 Technology's Role in Strategic Human Resources The human resources (HR) department can—and should—deliver contributions to the organization's bottom line. Through technologies and service providers, HR can move from being merely a cost center to being an essential component for achieving corporate objectives.
June 2, 2006 Modern ERP Processes Behind Historic Scotch Whisky The whisky industry is an example of a process industry where it is impossible to accurately predict demand for the final product. Goods stocked must also be meticulously accounted for, in both intermediate (partially finished) and bulk forms.
June 1, 2006 SAP for the Chemicals Industry: Challenges and User Recommendations Using the SAP ERP Chemicals Packaged Solution may represent a significant advantage—but only if SAP is the right enterprise resource planning system for the prospective user company, and if the prepackaged business processes are a suitable fit.

 
May 2006
May 31, 2006 SAP for Chemicals Functionality SAP has been delivering on its chemicals industry strategy by expanding its capabilities for manufacturing and supply chain management, broadening its composite package applications in areas such as emissions management, pricing management, and manufacturing dashboards, and focusing on mid-market companies.
May 30, 2006 SAP for Chemicals: A Packaged Solution for Mid-market Companies Packaged solutions for the chemicals industry are available from SAP and selected partners. Still, given a number of other viable solutions, prospective users will have to decide whether SAP would indeed be the best solution without the packaged option.
May 29, 2006 The Future of Business Process Management: Where is BPM heading? The need for quick responses to changing business environments has resulted in the growth of business process management (BPM). Thus, BPM vendors are embarking on merger and acquisition strategies to meet the functional requirements of businesses.
May 26, 2006 Yes, We Have No Bananas: Consumer Goods Manufacturers Serve Demanding Customers Consumer packaged goods manufacturers have to measure the most important metric of all: orders delivered on time, in full. To accomplish this requires sophisticated inventory management and optimization tools for the consumer goods supply chain.
May 25, 2006 SAP Industry Solutions for Mid-market Companies For over a decade, SAP has offered industry-specific applications, starting with oil and gas and utilities solutions. Media, insurance, chemicals, banking, and public sector offerings have followed, highlighting SAP's lesser-known side as a market-oriented provider of industry-tailored solutions.
May 24, 2006 Now Just Where Did I Put My Search Engine? Barraged with terms like "structured and unstructured data," "enterprise search," "federated query," and "business intelligence and analytics," corporate decision makers are awash in ambiguous and overlapping meanings. Making the distinction between metadata and data may reduce the confusion.
May 23, 2006 Sales Force Automation, Customer Relationship Management, and Sales Training: A Fusion of Methodology and Technology Many organizations find it challenging to adopt sales force automation and customer relationship management solutions. Formal sales training and the related reinforcement tools can make the difference. We examine the key challenges and propose some solutions.
May 22, 2006 Embracing Complexity: A Speedy Business Performance Management Solution Applix is a leading business intelligence and performance management vendor for Global 2000 mid-market organizations. For users considering implementing a solution such as Applix TM1, it is vital to consider key TM1 modules and strengths, along with opportunities for improvement.
May 19, 2006 Continuous Improvement Case Study: Taking Baby Steps towards Tangible Benefits To improve supply chain operations with a fresh look and new ideas, Harris Tea worked with a consulting firm, Supply Chain Consultants. The objective was to optimize the entire supply chain, not just the pieces.
May 18, 2006 Innovative Approaches in the Free-for-all World of Value-added Resellers The universe of existing applications partners is relatively stable; some occasional movement from dropping one product in favor of another occurs naturally, and no vendor is immune to losing partners. But some innovative vendors are doing their best.
May 17, 2006 How Are the Market Leaders Navigating the World of Value-added Resellers? Notwithstanding moves from major vendors and value-added resellers, addressing the needs of small and medium businesses requires significant changes within traditional business models. And although some of these changes can be trying, some seem to have the formula for success.
May 16, 2006 The Cha(lle)nging World of Value-added Resellers In today's cutthroat business environment, value-added reseller aspirants are seeing the need for faster deployment, improved systems quality, better cost control and resource utilization, and more flexibility to change requirements on short notice. The alternative? To disappear altogether.
May 15, 2006 Application Portfolio Management: Are You Getting the Most from your Enterprise Software? Information technology organizations are faced with the challenge of managing a host of diverse enterprise applications, and the need to evaluate application metrics and performance. To address this challenge, it is worth considering application portfolio management solutions.
May 12, 2006 Managing Demand: Considerations for the Chemicals Industry Enterprise systems have brought many benefits to chemical environments, but for individual enterprises, gaining these benefits requires selecting a solution that can deal with the unique needs of the business.
May 11, 2006 Overcoming Chemicals Industry Challenges through Optimization of Distribution and Inventory For chemical companies, optimizing the distribution network and rationalizing inventories are the keys to an efficient supply chain and smoother operations. They must also resolve the challenges posed by environmental regulations and the need for seamless data integration.
May 9, 2006 No Yawn Intended: Enterprise Applications Giant Introduces a Mid-tier Support Choice Many market observers might yawn at SAP's recent Premium Support announcement, but users increasingly appreciate more choice and certainty, and may take notice of what the market leader is trying to do with this middle-of-the-road support option.
May 8, 2006 Supply Chain Management Vendor Finds Balance for Service Supply Chains Click Commerce recognizes that the SCM playing field is highly competitive and fragmented. However, it believes it will remain competitive because its composite applications will create business process solutions that follow the current trend toward integrated suites of best-of-breed applications.
May 5, 2006 User Recommendations for Pricing Management Price management might improve revenue (by a few percent) and gross margin (even by an umpteen percent), but the truly amazing benefits should only come when price management is integrated with appropriate cost information and demand management.
May 4, 2006 The Retail Battleground for Pricing Management The imperative to respond to constantly-evolving customer requirements more efficiently is driving retailers to look at applications giants to provide standardized software that provides flexible, integrated demand intelligence.
May 3, 2006 Applications Giants Bolster Their Pricing Management Capabilities Previously price management was an overlooked area by vendors because they lacked the native capabilities to meet this need. However, through partnerships and acquisitions, they are creating viable products, which are enabling enterprises to see greater return.
May 2, 2006 Recommendations for Users of Acquired Enterprise Resource Planning Systems The added value of both SSA Global and Infor is that existing users of relatively small and dubious ERP products should now gain the benefits of synergistic software developments from other ERP siblings.
May 1, 2006 Acquisitions Fuel Vendor Growth in the Enterprise Applications Field Infor cites continued organic growth, license revenue from new customers, and install base cross-selling and up-selling as key growth drivers for the group. The acquisition of Formation Systems and Geac can only fuel Infor growth.

 
April 2006
April 28, 2006 People Don't Leave Bad Organizations. People Leave Bad Managers! One of the most neglected areas of an enterprise is the warehouse. When errors occur here, the whole company is affected, so it is crucial that good managers nurture the skills of warehouse employees.
April 27, 2006 The Impact of the 'Assembler Strategy' in the Enterprise Applications Field Infor's latest acquisitions and vertically-focused "assembler strategy" are furthering its goal to be number three (after SAP and Oracle) in the world of enterprise resource planning vendors.
April 26, 2006 New Vendor Acquisition Strategies in the Enterprise Applications Field The latest acquisitions of SSA Global indicate a new phase in the vendor's acquisition strategy and development cycle, and are furthering its goal to be number three (after SAP and Oracle) in the world of enterprise resource planning vendors.
April 25, 2006 Contributing to the Rejuvenation of Legacy Systems in the Enterprise Resource Planning Field With its focus on service-oriented architecture, SSA Global appears to be sticking to its pledge to protect the user's investment as much as it can, while still modernizing the users' applications.
April 24, 2006 The Enterprise Applications 'Arms Race' To Be Number Three Although their consolidation appetite is not diminishing by any means, some major acquisition protagonists like SSA Global and Infor seem to be showing signs of more deliberation and even restraint, rather than jumping the gun to indiscriminately gain market share.
April 21, 2006 Vendor Articulates Message and Vision for Product Lifecycle Management SAP has developed some crucial themes as it moves forward with their PLM vision and solution strategy. Product development lifecycles are shrinking, and managing the innovation process is becoming a broader requirement of manufacturers and retailers alike.
April 20, 2006 A Small Enterprise Resource Planning Vendor: The Vision and the Challenges Although Jeeves has developed a very fruitful relationship with its partners, it will still have to overcome challenges that are mainly about lack of respect or recognition—that is, if there is even any recognition of Jeeves at all.
April 19, 2006 Getting It Right: Product, Quality, Timing, and Price The most important factor in industry is no longer the mere price of the product. Increasingly, the purchaser's task has become to obtain the right product of the right quality at the right time—and for the right price.
April 18, 2006 The Formula for Product Success: Focus on Flexibility and Cooperation Jeeves has retained the concept of having a single innovative product with broad and reliable functionality, and an open architecture. But beyond the solid nature of the product, Jeeves also takes pains to communicate effectively with both customers and partners.
April 17, 2006 Jeeves—Thriving Organically as a Humble Servant Jeeves Information Systems, an innovative Swedish enterprise applications provider, seems to be making the right moves towards remaining a force within its markets. But becoming a more globally recognized player remains a tall order, even for an obliging butler-like vendor.
April 14, 2006 Product Lifecycle Management Agility Founded on Innovation Agile Software recognizes product lifecycle management (PLM) as an emerging business imperative for innovation. Now, Agile has a unique opportunity to leverage its position as the sole PLM vendor of significance to have a pure PLM pedigree.
April 13, 2006 Enterprise Resource Planning for Services, and Professional Services Automation: Where Do You Draw the Line? Since the late nineties, enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors have developed functionality for vertical markets in the service industry. Simultaneously, professional services automation (PSA) became a viable software category. Consequently, deciphering the difference between ERP and PSA remains a challenge.
April 11, 2006 Outsourcing Supply Chain Planning Processes Supply chain planning tools deliver potentially tremendous savings when well implemented, and wreak havoc when they fail. A company considering an outsourcing strategy for their supply chain planning processes should first address some key aspects of these tools.
April 10, 2006 Point of Sale: To Stand Alone or Not? When selecting a point of sale (POS) solution, users have a choice between stand-alone solutions and integrated solutions. They should first evaluate core and non-core components of POS systems, and assess the strengths and weaknesses of best-of-breed and integrated approaches.
April 7, 2006 Vision Software Brings a Solid Business Process Management Solution to the Table The business process management market is shifting, and more players are entering the market. Several smaller organizations, such as Vision Software, are bringing a fresh look and a good product to the market, and should certainly be considered.
April 6, 2006 Using Business Intelligence Infrastructure to Ensure Compliancy with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) has affected organizations, their data, and their reporting processes, putting a strain on how their financials are managed. Business intelligence solutions provide answers to these issues, allowing organizations to address SOX compliancy.
April 5, 2006 Aligning Information Technology with Corporate Strategy Aligning information technology (IT) with corporate strategy is key to maximizing the business impact of IT investments. Tree Top's structured process of reviewing proposed IT investments will allow an enterprise to understand this alignment, and prioritize investments.
April 4, 2006 The Rise of Price Management New analytical software tools have recently emerged to combine and condense a wealth of information that should give the salesperson a more definitive "yes or no" answer fairly quickly when it comes to offering specific pricing, while also giving management a higher-level view of business efficiency and profit/loss drivers.
April 3, 2006 The Case for Pricing Management Savvy and dynamically optimized pricing can mean the difference between survival and failure. In many environments it might be smarter, quicker, and more useful to calculate pricing based on systematic analysis rather than on fuzzy thinking or human emotions.

 
March 2006
March 31, 2006 Web-enabled Sales Tactics The Internet has changed the buying process for enterprise level solutions and sales departments must learn to adapt to today's self-directed buyer. The new, competitive sales high ground is to effectively manage a convenient on-line/off-line buy cycle experience at every point of contact.
March 30, 2006 The Web-Enabled Sales Process Traditional enterprise-level sales strategies are no longer sufficient in bringing new customer accounts. Today's self-directed buyers delay sales contact and pre-qualify solutions via the Internet. Sales can leverage this medium by understanding the buy cycle to deliver value and begin an influential on-line relationship.
March 29, 2006 Competition from a Small Vendor One reason to look at small specialist providers is the ongoing success of Sweden-based Jeeves Information Systems AB. Even the largest players acknowledge the challenges and the driving forces coming from the focused and innovative likes of Jeeves.
March 28, 2006 Major Vendors Adapting to User Requirements SAP and Microsoft have finally realized that their products will increasingly be evaluated by how well they interconnect, how flexible they are, and how intuitive their user interfaces are. However, these trends have already been incorporated by lesser-known vendors.
March 27, 2006 Acquisition Changes Product Lifecycle Management Landscape Dassault Systèmes' recent acquisition of MatrixOne could potentially expand its range over a broader set of industry sectors, and may increase its North American visibility. The potential for a joined product suite is considerable, as are the organizational challenges ahead.
March 24, 2006 Business Engine: Driving Project Portfolio Management for IT Departments in the Enterprise Market Business Engine provides best-of-breed PPM functionality for internal IT departments, focusing on financial governance. For organizations seeking flexible workflow and IT governance capabilities, BEN delivers functionality in the financial services, health care, government, manufacturing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and retail vertical markets.
March 23, 2006 Driving Factors in The Enterprise Applications Market The enterprise applications market is converging resulting with fewer providers; however, there are still the same number of competing systems. What are the factors that are driving the market and what are the emerging trends?
March 22, 2006 Sales Force Performance Understanding market drivers is key to managing customer behavior. To do this, organizations must state and qualify their assumptions about the real drivers of sales performance. An improvement strategy can then be created, and with integrated budgets, success metrics, etc.
March 21, 2006 What Drives Profitability Growing customer sophistication and lifetime value means managing customer behavior is key to long-term profitability. Customer profitability and customer behavior metrics enable an organization to create alignment within the go to market process, while other metrics aid in decision-making.
March 20, 2006 Assessing the Drivers of Sales Performance Outmoded measures are being used to develop marketing strategies and allocate resources. Existing go to market models often fail to consider the customer's total experience, and provides little information for planning. The solution is to reorient performance metrics to become value-driven.
March 17, 2006 Software as a Service beyond Customer Relationship Management and Sales Applications are more often outsourced than infrastructure, and this is increasingly done through software as a service (SaaS). Vendors such as WebEx, Webcom, MCA Solutions, and Ariba are delivering applications as SaaS.
March 16, 2006 Software as a Service for Customer Relationship Management and Sales Major vendors are noting the growing demand for software as a service. However, smaller providers are forging new ground by offering services for inventory and collaborative planning.
March 15, 2006 What Is Software as a Service? Though born from the ashes of traditional hosting models, software as a service differs fundamentally from its predecessors. Its software is designed to be delivered as a service, security is better, rich user interfaces are available, and it has greater interactivity.
March 14, 2006 Software as a Service Is Gaining Ground Software as a service is the latest incarnation of the hosting model. The demand for cost efficiency, information technology flexibility, and faster return on investment, coupled with new technology advancements, has caused the hosting model to be reborn.
March 13, 2006 Retail Systems: A Primer The core components of a retail information system are inventory management, inventory optimization, revenue management, sales management, and reports and inquiries. Non-core components can include financial, supply chain management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and warehouse management systems.
March 9, 2006 Vendor Feels the Heat in Hot Product Lifecycle Management Market The product lifecycle management (PLM) market is expected to experience double digit growth through 2008, driven by market dynamics like outsourcing and global product development. However, not all PLM software vendors are riding this wave of PLM market growth and profitability.
March 7, 2006 Comparing Business Intelligence and Data Integration Best-of-breed Vendors' Extract Transform and Load Solutions There are two types of extract transform and load (ETL) vendors. Business intelligence (BI) vendors integrate ETL functionality into their overall BI framework, while best-of-breed data integration vendors, who provide enhanced ETL functionality, have an increased focus on data cleansing and integrity.
March 6, 2006 On-demand Product Life Cycle Management: Not Just for Small to Medium Businesses Anymore Product lifecycle management (PLM) is set to transition to an on-demand model. On-demand models are quicker and cheaper to deploy, but software providers must gain user enterprises' trust before on-demand PLM really takes off.
March 3, 2006 Enterprise Application Provider May Deepen Market Impact The worst is past for SoftBrands. However, the vendor must still deal with the problem of blending many formerly independent organizations together, while figuring out how best to leverage their different technological and industrial strengths.
March 2, 2006 Vendor Extends Welcome Mat for Hospitality Industry SoftBrands Hospitality business supports the enterprise information management needs of hotels and resorts. SoftBrands' range of hospitality software products includes the property management systems Medallion and PORTfolio, and RIO, a leisure management system.
March 1, 2006 Extended Enterprise Resource Planning Vendor Shows Its Lean Side About two-thirds of SoftBrands' revenue comes from its manufacturing division, which includes evolution, a platform neutral, extended enterprise resource planning product, and DemandStream for lean automation.

 
February 2006
February 28, 2006 Classic Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Shifts Over About two-thirds of SoftBrands' revenue comes from its manufacturing division, which includes the Classic Fourth Shift solution and Fourth Shift Edition for SAP Business One, the result of a joint initiative to integrate Fourth Shift functionality with SAP Business One.
February 27, 2006 SoftBrands' Recovery Softens the AremisSoft Bankruptcy Blow SoftBrands believes it has finally repositioned itself for growth going forward by capitalizing on the reputation of Fourth Shift, coming to an arrangement with SAP Business One, and introducing more reliable versions of its hospitality software products.
February 23, 2006 Coping with the Crunch: How Innovation Helps the Johnson & Johnson Sales and Logistics Company, LLC Optimize Transportation Capacity The Global Transportation Organization, a division of Johnson & Johnson, successfully dealt with the global transportation crunch. Factors contributing to its success included its approach to relationships with carriers, its push for innovation, and its use of technology.
February 23, 2006 HP's Remarkable Collaboration Journey: Sree Hameed Interviews HP's Curtis Suyematsu HP's transformation from a vertically integrated enterprise to a virtual business network was about structural change. Insights into control, exception management, risk sharing, and architectures for information management can be gained from this supply chain success story.
February 23, 2006 Sales Is from Mars, Marketing Is from Venus There is a disconnect between marketing and sales. Marketing is focused on the consumer experience while sales is all about the merchandise. Technologies, such as auto identification technologies, radio frequency identification, sensors, and voice activated technologies, may be able to narrow this gap.
February 23, 2006 The Supply Chain of Sitcoms—Enhanced with Radio Frequency Identification Imagine what sitcoms like Cheers, Laverne and Shirley, and Green Acres would look like if they were radio frequency identification (RFID) enhanced. Then picture the impact that RFID technology can have on the customer experience in your own enterprise.
February 23, 2006 E-learning Course Design This article provides hints for the design of e-learning courses with regard to target audience, navigation, objectives, motivation, media, interactivity, assessment, aesthetics, tool selection, and evaluation.
February 22, 2006 Reflections on Lean Philosophy and the Theory of Constraints The theory of constraints (TOC) is similar to, yet different from, the lean philosophy. TOC focuses on optimizing production through critical bottlenecks in order to meet market demand.
February 21, 2006 The Theory of Constraints Enters the Lean Manufacturing Arena Lean principles are difficult to employ in complex environments, but materials requirement planning has well-known limitations. The theory of constraints, which is complementary to lean manufacturing when it comes to low volumes and complex environments, may provide an answer.
February 20, 2006 Enterprise Resource Planning Vendors Address Lean Manufacturing Intentia, Fujitsu Glovia, QAD, and SSA Global's solutions supporting lean manufacturing are examined. Which areas the extended enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors excel in depends on their original ERP system's suitability for repetitive versus to-order environments.
February 17, 2006 So What: The Big Test of Your Positioning Strategy Failing to ask "so what?" of a positioning statement can mean losing an opportunity to communicate what is really important to the target market, and to gain some credibility.
February 16, 2006 Manual versus Information Technology Enabled Lean Manufacturing All good lean systems have both physical systems in the plant and near real time information technology backbones that centralize data. The primary advantage of enterprise systems is that they can handle considerably more information than can be accommodated manually.
February 15, 2006 How to Achieve Lean Manufacturing Lean manufacturing is a transformational exercise that requires an organization to cast aside long-held beliefs and business processes. The five main steps to achieving lean transition are defining value, mapping the value stream, making the activities flow, responding to customer demand, and continuous improvement.
February 14, 2006 Lean Tools and Practices that Eliminate Manufacturing Waste A number of lean manufacturing tools and practices have long been used to reduce manufacturing waste. These include the five S's, visual controls, standardized work, mistake proofing, total productive maintenance, cellular manufacturing, single-digit setup, pull systems, sequencing, activity-based costing, and leveled production.
February 13, 2006 The TEC Quick Case for Made2Manage Made2Manage specializes in manufacturing management for small and medium-sized discrete, engineer-to-order, and make-to-order manufacturers. This Quick Case for Made2Manage provides concise background information, which is oriented toward organizations considering its Enterprise Business System.
February 13, 2006 Lean Manufacturing: A Primer Lean manufacturing emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. The typical areas of hidden waste are over-production, waiting, transportation, over-processing, motion, excessive inventory, and defective units.
February 10, 2006 Microsoft's Dynamic New Approach to Professional Services Automation In the short term, Microsoft Dynamics SL will likely follow the professional services automation (PSA) trend of extending functionality to the Web. In the long term, its eventual absorption into the Microsoft Dynamics product line may affect Microsoft's strategy in the project portfolio management marketplace.
February 9, 2006 Globalization Has a Profound Impact on the Supply Chain and Supporting Information Technology Globalization, the Internet, and demand-driven supply networks are driving technology change. When it comes to supply chain management, globalization has created a need for supply network integration and real time data with event visibility.
February 8, 2006 IDeWeb Provides Best-of-breed Product Portfolio Management Functionality for the Manufacturing Sector Integrated Development Enterprise (IDe)'s IDeWeb 5.3 is a product portfolio management best-of-breed solution for new product development. It is tailored to discrete and process manufacturers in the electronics, food and beverage, specialty chemicals, and telecommunications sectors.
February 7, 2006 Enterprise Resource Planning Vendor Gains Connectivity through Acquisition of Plant Intelligence Provider SAP has gained connectivity to virtually any source on the plant floor and analytical functionality through its acquisition of Lighthammer's products for plant intelligence. SAP users in the process of evaluating plant intelligence solutions should seriously consider Lighthammer.
February 6, 2006 Has SAP Nailed Plant Level Leadership with Lighthammer? The acquisition of the formerly loyal composite applications partner Lighthammer bolsters SAP's capabilities of connectivity and visibility into manufacturing plant performance. However, it does not, at this stage, provide much added industry-specific shop-floor functionality per se.
February 3, 2006 Where is Oracle in the Product Lifecycle Management Software Market? Oracle is in the processing of developing their product lifecycle management capabilities. The question is whether they will accomplish this through the acquisition of a pure-play PLM vendor, or through internal technology development.
February 2, 2006 SAP NetWeaver Background, Direction, and User Recommendations SAP is using NetWeaver to reach to the shop floor by aggregating and presenting information to users, thus empowering them to improve manufacturing performance. It is also addressing concerns about the lack of standards for interoperability between various systems.
February 1, 2006 Multipurpose SAP NetWeaver The capabilities of SAP NetWeaver and its peer service-enabled platforms, which were originally transaction and integration platforms, have lately been expanded to include composition and business process-oriented capabilities, such as master data management and business process management.

 
December 2006
December 20, 2006 Server and Desktop Solutions: What the Research Means for Small and Medium Enterprises Different types of organizations show distinct preferences when assigning importance to the criteria on which to base their operating system selection. Small and medium enterprises need to carefully analyze the available data to accurately evaluate their strategic IT investments.
December 19, 2006 Choosing Between Linux and Microsoft Windows Using an Analytical Hierarchy Process Because small to medium enterprises are limited in their resources, they must carefully consider which of the two major operating systems available—Microsoft Windows or Linux—will better serve their needs and be more cost-efficient to implement.
December 18, 2006 Evaluating Strategic Information Technology Investment: An Appraisal of Software Alternatives for Small to Medium Enterprises The problem of information technology investments particularly concerns small and medium enterprises, as they are much more limited in resources than large enterprises. One of the critical questions is whether to implement an open source or closed source solution.
December 15, 2006 The 2006 ECM West Conference: A Trial from AIIM The Association for Information and Image Management recently held a conference to educate organizations on the latest content and information management technologies. Among the key topics addressed were emerging trends in enterprise content management and the future of the Internet.
December 14, 2006 The Challenges of SAP Relationship and User Recommendations The potential of enterprise incentive management systems, as being closely related to human capital management, should not be ignored. This software category promises a fairly rapid and tangible return on investment in addition to its wide range of benefits.
December 13, 2006 Enterprise Incentive Management Leader's Challenges and Response Enterprise incentive management is an emerging field, and a number of players have entered the market. Callidus recently expanded its service offerings by introducing two new strategic service programs both to woo customers and to survive in this emerging field.
December 12, 2006 The Flagship Enterprise Incentive Management Offering The idea behind the Callidus TrueComp's initial design was for it to be sophisticated enough to tackle and manage the most complex and variable compensation plans, and yet simple enough to administer without heavy reliance on information technology (IT) resources.
December 11, 2006 Enterprise Incentive Management Leader Responds to Market Demands The market for enterprise incentive management (EIM) products is in its early stages and is rapidly evolving. Callidus Software is the EIM vendor of choice for some of the largest companies in the world.
December 8, 2006 Case Study: Community College Embarks on Financial Reporting System Implementation The Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) implemented Business Objects to create a financial reporting system that would run in real time, as opposed to taking weeks to generate reports. However, the NSCC environment presented its own unique set of challenges.
December 5, 2006 Project Portfolio Management's Missing Functional Link: Stakeholder Management A project's success is determined by the diverse stakeholder expectations. If some see return on investment as their primary stake, others may focus on profitability—meaning that stakeholder communication tools are only as good as their adaptability to stakeholder dynamics.
December 4, 2006 The CEO, CFO, and TCO Total cost of ownership (TCO) is a key component of the "investment" in "return on investment" (ROI). Naturally, the chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO) care about ROI, but is TCO really a measure of agility?
December 1, 2006 Sizing the Enterprise Incentive Management Opportunity—And the Challenges Ahead Pure-play enterprise incentive management (EIM) vendors who have focused on providing the capability to manage highly complex compensation systems will be well positioned to take advantage of the major growth projected in the EIM market.

 
November 2006
November 30, 2006 Enter Enterprise Incentive Management and Incentive Compensation Management Companies with large sales forces, huge product portfolios, and complex incentive plans with many variables need to offer variable pay. This has created opportunities for a new enterprise software category called enterprise incentive management (EIM), or incentive compensation management (ICM).
November 29, 2006 What Makes Incentives and Compensation So Tricky? Managing incentive compensation presents challenges to almost every large and midsized company, due to the complex nature of the calculations. But along with the ability to perform these calculations, an effective compensation management solution must also provide visibility and transparency.
November 28, 2006 Are Sales Incentives Even In Tune With the Corporate Strategy? With sales being the lifeblood of virtually any company, selling should be an accurately accountable process forming the basis of overall strategic objectives. Still, the question remains: how much enterprise incentive management (EIM) do enterprises need, and in what form?
November 24, 2006 Difficult Conversations: Discussing CRM with Your CEO
        Part 2: Elements of the Discussion A customer relationship management (CRM) system's potential can be lost if the chief executive officer (CEO) doesn't play a continuous role in its implementation—especially when it comes to pain management, the operational relevance of CRM, and potential impediments.
November 23, 2006 Difficult Conversations: Positioning Your CEO in a CRM Implementation
        Part 1: Sources of Misconception and Faulty Assumptions For a successful customer relationship management (CRM) implementation, the chief executive officer (CEO) must have an ongoing role in the process. The project implementer must be aware of common CRM misconceptions, and communicate the nature of CRM to c-level management.
November 22, 2006 The Case Against Modifying Your Enterprise Software The case against modifying enterprise software is a strong one. Standard software offerings are the products of millions of dollars of research, development, and extensive testing for consistent performance. For this and various other reasons, modifications almost never make sense.
November 21, 2006 To Upgrade, or Not To Upgrade: That Is Not The Question—But How To Upgrade Is Companies can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) package. After completing this rollercoaster ride, however, companies are typically faced with the question of whether to implement the latest, greatest version of the package.
November 17, 2006 Unlikely Acquisition Has Insiders Scratching Their Heads The announcement in September 2006 that Illinois Tool Works Inc. had made an offer to acquire all of Click Commerce's common stock made many market insiders scratch their heads. However, the real benefits—and the challenges—may lie ahead.
November 16, 2006 Challenges for an Expanding Supply Chain Solutions Vendor Although Click Commerce is a thriving provider of on-demand supply chain management (SCM) solutions for a variety of worldwide industries, it does have to face up to a variety of challenges, some of which are of its own making.
November 15, 2006 Method to the (Expansion) Madness: Some Common Threads Click Commerce has been impressively active in its expansion efforts, and now offers quite a few solutions outside its traditional realm. While each of its solutions has a unique focus, the vendor's target market often requires solutions from several categories.
November 14, 2006 A Supply Chain Applications Vendor Expands Beyond Its Roots Click Commerce has evolved beyond its roots, into a provider of much more comprehensive on-demand supply and demand chain management software, consulting, hosting, and related services that should enable users throughout the world to collaborate in near real time.
November 13, 2006 Will a Tool Manufacturer and a Supply Chain Software Vendor ''Click'' in Matrimony? The merger of traditional brick-and-mortar manufacturer Illinois Tool Works with Internet-based Click Commerce is puzzling, but has some method to the madness. Only time will tell how easily and tightly their tools will "click" with each other.
November 9, 2006 User Recommendations for the Food and Beverage Industry Software systems must be able to handle your business basics. A focus on the details is essential. Look meticulously for the fatal flaws. If you don't select a system that meets your detailed needs, it can be fatal.
November 8, 2006 Fatal Flaws and Technology Choices Food and beverage manufacturers rely on information technology to meet market demands. However, food is one market where most enterprise applications show a number of "fatal flaws"—capabilities whose omission can impede operations to the extent of complete failure.
November 7, 2006 Business Process Management Notations within Business Process Management Business process management notation (BPMN) is an initiative to increase standardization within process modeling. What are the principles of BPMN, and what is the value of BPMN to vendors and organizations using business process modeling?
November 6, 2006 Competing Globally—Predicting Demand and Delivering Optimally To benefit from globalization (or to meet its threat), a food manufacturer must be prepared. To sell into new markets, the manufacturer needs to be a better partner, and collaborate with customers who have different needs from its traditional customers.
November 3, 2006 Dealing with Food Industry Pressures Small and medium food and beverage companies have the same regulatory requirements as large companies, but with significantly fewer resources with which to address them. Companies need systems that can provide comprehensive traceability information at the touch of a button.
November 2, 2006 Food Safety, Government Regulations, and Brand Protection Many food companies are investing significant funds in building awareness for their brands in the market, which can pay off amply in competitive, commodity markets. One highly publicized recall, however, can turn an established brand asset into a liability.
November 1, 2006 Margin Squeeze and Globalization in the Food and Beverage Industry In the food and beverage industry, the channel master makes final volume decisions and mostly controls the unit price, with the manufacturer having limited power to increase or maintain prices. The only real variable the manufacturer does control is cost.

 
October 2006
October 31, 2006 Food and Beverage Industry Trends and Issues Food and beverage manufacturers and distributors supplying major supermarket retailers share many common business challenges. The customers—powerful and demanding supermarkets and retail chains—want products manufactured "to order," with lead times measured in hours rather than days or weeks.
October 30, 2006 Food and Beverage ''Delights'' Food and beverage manufacturers and distributors have many challenges on their plate, and even industry giants cannot afford to sit back. Given this backdrop, how can small to medium manufacturers cope with the same external pressures with comparatively fewer resources?
October 27, 2006 The Challenges of a Business Intelligence Implementation: A Case Study The University of Illinois provides a good example of extensive integration of its business intelligence (BI) solution and data warehousing environment with its enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.
October 26, 2006 Is there any Differentiation in the Corporate Performance Management Market? A Perceptual Map Gives You the Answer The corporate performance management (CPM) market is a good example of a common problem in the enterprise business-to-business software and services market—lack of differentiation. However, a perceptual map clarifies the positioning of the top five vendors in the space.
October 25, 2006 A One-stop Event for Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Information The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) hosts quarterly World Conferences to help organizations involved in data warehousing, business intelligence, and performance management. These conferences supply a wealth of information aimed at improving organizational decision-making, optimizing performance, and achieving business objectives.
October 24, 2006 Customer Relationship Management and the Next Generation Network Next generation networks may eventually allow us to interact with the world in a way compatible with how we live. This would have the greatest impact on our ability to add value to the people we do business with.
October 19, 2006 Aiming for Agility: Challenges and User Recommendations The preferred agile architecture will rationalize business processes without ripping out current application investments. In such cases, Agresso will have to explain whether its solution can leverage existing applications and fill in the cracks that exist in current business processes.
October 18, 2006 Soured on Expiration: The Value Proposition and Strategy for an Agile Enterprise Systems Vendor Post-implementation agility should be the goal of most companies in their enterprise resource planning (ERP) selection. However, it is not so easy to dispel a widespread preference for the "usual suspect" ERP choices that currently stop short at post-implementation agility.
October 17, 2006 How One Vendor Supplies Agility to Post-implementation Enterprise Systems Agresso's information warehouse, business process, and reporting and analytics information delivery models are inextricably linked in a virtual cycle. A change in any of these core competencies automatically informs a change in the others without instilling business disruption.
October 16, 2006 Enterprise Systems and Post-implementation Agility—No Longer an Oxymoron? The need to support flexibility prior to installation of enterprise systems has largely been mastered by many vendors. But what is really more important is ongoing agility after the installation. Agresso seems to have raised the bar in this regard.
October 13, 2006 Delivering Adaptive Discovery for Business Process Management Designing processes for business process management solutions can be daunting, as all flows, rules, and exceptions have to be defined. With Adaptive Discovery from Ultimus, however, processes can be designed on a high level, and exceptions defined after deployment.
October 12, 2006 An Unusual Human Capital Management Suspect With Infor Human Capital Management (HCM) 3.0, Infor has combined transactional and strategic human resources functionality with planned integration to its flagship enterprise resource planning and extensions solutions, so that customers can better align HCM initiatives with overall business strategy.
October 11, 2006 The Modelling Approach to Post-implementation Agility in Enterprise Systems Change happens, and it will always happen in virtually every business environment. The underlying enterprise system should thus be an aid to changing the business, rather than an obstacle, as is the usual case today.
October 9, 2006 Business Process Analysis versus Business Process Management Business process analysis (BPA) vendors are trying to enter the business process management (BPM) market by marketing themselves as BPM solutions. This article discusses the differences between BPA and BPM vendors, and examines the benefits of each.
October 6, 2006 Retail Applications Vendor Provides a Solid ''Platform'' As spending on technology by major players is growing at an increasing pace, there are good opportunities for vendors which have been in the market for a while, such as One Network Enterprises. But they also face some unique challenges.
October 5, 2006 Microsoft .NET-managed Code Enablement: Examples and Challenges Intuitive, Visibility, and Epicor offer .NET Framework-managed code products, but their "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset might work against them unless they can prove higher value propositions, such as new, more quickly developed vertical functionality.
October 4, 2006 Microsoft .NET Enablement: Analysis and Cautions Using technologies that are intrinsically compatible should result in faster and less costly development. Thus, any application suite rewritten in the Microsoft .NET managed code framework should not have to contend with inefficiencies resulting from mixing or wrapping technologies.
October 3, 2006 Examples of Microsoft .NET Enablement SYSPRO and Epicor are examples of .NET-enabled legacy software systems that have partly been componentized (rewritten), with "wrappers" added to the rest so that the legacy functionality can be used and extended through Web services on the .NET Framework.
October 2, 2006 Subtle (or Not-so-subtle) Nuances of Microsoft .NET Enablement The Microsoft .NET strategy continues to confuse many, due to the lack of understanding of the technology. Indeed, because of the massive marketing campaign undertaken by Microsoft, many vendors have adopted a "too liberal" approach to marketing .NET Framework-based initiatives.

 
January 2006
January 31, 2006 Pelion Systems Champions Manufacturing Process Optimization Manufacturing operations are characterized by a need for factory transformation management. Via software that uses a "virtual factory" approach to synchronize the supply chain, Pelion Systems is attempting to establish a new market category, manufacturing process optimization, to satisfy this need.
January 30, 2006 Enterprise Resource Planning Giants Eye the Shop Floor Because production systems on the shop floor are typically not synchronized and integrated with the planning ones, there is a lack of timely and accurate information that results in disconnected business processes.
January 27, 2006 The TEC Quick Case for Tero Software Tero Software specializes in maintenance and asset management solutions for small and medium businesses. This Quick Case for Tero Software provides concise background information, which is oriented toward organizations considering its Web Work solution.
January 26, 2006 Gain More from Your IT Projects IT investments are not a magic pill that will remedy business problems, but if used properly, they can help. Businesses should set business-oriented objectives for their IT projects and measure returns through the use of return on investment techniques.
January 25, 2006 As Hype Becomes Reality, a Radio Frequency Identification Ecosystem Emerges
        Part 3: Radio Frequency Identification Opportunities Abound and Summary We may soon find radio frequency identification (RFID) tags routinely associated with common products. However, in order for RFID to achieve its full potential, the gap between the vision of RFID and the current realities of RFID must be closed.
January 24, 2006 As Hype Becomes Reality, a Radio Frequency Identification Ecosystem Emerges
        Part 2: The Middleware Dilemma, Partnerships, and What Next? Given the pressures on radio frequency identification (RFID) middleware vendors, pure-play middleware suppliers will likely either diversify or get absorbed by larger companies. All RFID vendors, regardless of category, will tend to form partnerships to hasten time to market.
January 23, 2006 As Hype Becomes Reality, a Radio Frequency Identification Ecosystem Emerges Radio frequency identification (RFID) is the latest technology to gain major recognition as being a sizeable market for the future. The RFID ecosystem includes a diverse grouping of solution providers, but the opportunity for market leadership remains wide open.
January 20, 2006 Extending Quality's Reach to Manage Quality in the Supply Chain Quality does not start at the receiving dock and end at the shipping dock. The focus on the supply chain demands that the quality department be involved from the beginning to the end of the supply chain.
January 19, 2006 SSA Global finds Little Known SCM Gems in Filling Out its Solution Portfolio SSA Global's strategy to grow both organically and through acquisition while developing an end-to-end suite of applications with one open platform architecture has allowed this traditional enterprise resource planning vendor to evolve into a supply chain management solutions provider.
January 18, 2006 E-learning and Organizational Culture The success of an e-learning initiative depends as much on the people and culture of the organization as it does on the technology used. Several corporate cultural factors that affect the success of an e-learning implementation are discussed and illustrated.
January 17, 2006 Exact Faces Challenges Exact Software faces significant challenges ranging from competitive challenges to user education, and product definition. Nonetheless, it is still a stalwart vendor within the small and mid-markets of accounting, manufacturing and distribution software.
January 16, 2006 Exact Acquires Vanguard Solutions Group With the acquisition of Vanguard, Exact Software expects to more tightly integrate Exact Business Analytics with its existing product family, and develop additional capabilities to meet the evolving needs of both Exact and Vanguard customers and prospects.
January 12, 2006 Giving a Business Process Management Edge to Enterprise Resource Planning By providing business process management functionality, Exact hopes to bring competitive enhancements to enterprise resource planning systems used by small and medium businesses.
January 11, 2006 A Single Software Solution That Enables Business Process Management By focusing on improving and optimizing the processes instead of only the departments, any user company should be better aligned and prepared to take on the challenges ahead.
January 10, 2006 Global Software Aspirations Exact has established a global infrastructure and network of offices offering direct support, sales and services, with the aim of providing customers a consistent level of service.
January 9, 2006 Exact Software Continues with Its Share of Judicious Acquisitions Through determined and prudent product enhancement initiatives, Exact Software demonstrates itself as an earnest enterprise in the small and medium market, and it is growing its global base.
January 6, 2006 Project Portfolio Management for New Product Development: Tracking the Project Cycle from Idea to Launch Resource allocation and phase-based processes are key features to consider when selecting a project portfolio management solution for new product development (NPD) projects. More importantly, NPD projects demand a best practices framework, like Stage-Gate®, for their success.
January 5, 2006 What Are Your Competitors Telling You? A Case Study: SAP's New Advertising Campaign SAP has a new marketing campaign. What does this mean for competitors, prospective buyers, and business-to-business marketing professionals? This case study explains why it's important to dig deeper when a company of interest to you changes its marketing campaign.
January 4, 2006 The Fragile Consumer Packaged Goods Market and Private Label Products The drive towards private labels has many impacts on the industry. A consumer packaged goods manufacturer's business strategy must recognize this and deal with the opportunities and threats it creates.
January 3, 2006 How Is Business Process Management Applicable to Financial Services? Business process management (BPM) allows financial services companies to manage internal processes and to increase efficiency and accuracy. Organizations, especially those that deal with Sarbanes-Oxley, should focus on BPM to ensure compliance and to minimize error and risk.
January 2, 2006 Project Portfolio Management for Service Organizations: Bridging the Gap between Project Management and Operations There are two types of project portfolio management (PPM) solutions for professional services organizations (PSO). For smaller PSOs, best-of-breed vendors provide hosted solutions with out-of-the-box integrations, while integrated PPM solutions provide the complete back-office systems preferred by many larger PSOs.

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