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— January 31, 2006

Execution Technology

Hope Springs Eternal: A Good Year for Execution Vendors?
It's been tough sledding for vendors of supply-chain execution software, these past few years. The force of the dotcom crash of 2000 is still being felt today, as companies continue to struggle for a piece of their customers' shrinking I.T. budgets. Or maybe not. Bruce Richardson, chief research officer of AMR Research, Inc. believes that 2006 "is going to be a great year for software vendors." He told an audience at AMR's recent Strategy 21 conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif. that $1 trillion currently sits "on the sidelines" but will soon go to corporate capital expenditures. According to an AMR survey conducted in the last quarter of 2005, 46 percent of respondents saw their I.T. budgets as increasing in the coming year; only 14 percent expected a decrease. "These are the most confident numbers we've seen," said AMR president and chief executive officer Tony Friscia. And execution vendors stand to get a substantial piece of that spend. Just look at AMR's roster of the best-performing supply-chain tech stocks of 2005 it's well-represented by sellers of execution-based software. At the top of the list is Logility, with a 104.5-percent appreciation of its stock last year. Also ranking near the top in terms of stock rises are SSA Global (66.4 percent)and Descartes Systems Group (57 percent). Among the big areas of focus for buyers this year will be service-oriented architectures (SOAs), a series of self-contained services that communicate easily with one another. In the view of Lora Cecere, manager of AMR's Supply Chain Strategies group, the greatest near-term advances in the use of SOA will come in the supply-chain execution space. Companies will achieve differentiation in their supply-chain management efforts, lower the cost of software upgrades, and enable the reuse of I.T. investments for processes that cross multiple applications. One caveat for smaller vendors of narrowly defined systems: you face a significant and continuing threat from the big enterprise vendors. "Best of breed is dead," said Shai Agassi, president of the product and technology group of SAP (one of those encroaching behemoths). "Five years from now, nobody will buy point solutions."
http://www.amrresearch.com

Elizabeth Arden Revamps System for Generating Key Data
Elizabeth Arden, the venerable producer of cosmetics, recently consolidated all shipping operations from its facility in Miami, Fla. into a warehouse in Roanoke, Va. At the same time, the company sought to revamp its system for generating documentation on the shipping of hazardous materials. The goal was to streamline logistics processes while staying in compliance with ever-evolving hazmat regulations, especially on product ingredients. In addition, Elizabeth Arden had to cope with the highly seasonal nature of its business. The company acquired the TRAXi3 software of Precision Software to manage all international shipments leaving the Roanoke facility. The previous system was highly manual and require a warehouse employee to hand over pick slips and other information to a shipping clerk, who would then create the packing list. With TRAXi3, Elizabeth Arden has eliminated the rekeying of information. By scanning each carton's UCC128 label against a pallet label generated by TRAXi3, the operator can systematically build a packing list electronically. Other documentation, including information on hazardous materials, is then generated from that data.
http://www.precisionsoftware.com/

Klaussner Furniture Aligns Inventory With Customer Demand
Klaussner Furniture, Inc., a large manufacturer and distributor of home furnishings in the U.S., has improved the accuracy of its customer-demand forecasts, allowing the company to reduce inventory and carrying costs. With 20 U.S. manufacturing facilities and more than 7,000 employees, Klaussner provides upholstered furniture, case goods and home accessories to more than 3,000 customers. The company selected Voyager Demand Planning, software from Logility, Inc., to address the problem of forecasting accuracy. The tool will aid in the company's quest to deliver the perfect order, while shortening cycle times and reducing both finished goods and obsolete inventory, Logility claimed. Klaussner also plans to implement Logility Inventory Planning to maximize the information derived from Demand Planning, and measure the tradeoff between time-phased inventory investments and desired customer levels.
http://www.logility.com/

SeeControl Releases Mobile Display Scanner for Warehouses
SeeControl Inc. has released the Mobile Display Scanner (MDS), a tool that increases scanning mobility and eliminates restrictions on the size of warehouse spaces. MDS is a portable scanner with an independent display, which removes the need for an operator to be close to a visible wall unit, while providing real-time feedback on inventory scans. The scanner allows for the locating of inventory without the use of a computer terminal. It provides information about which fields have been scanned into the system, so that the user can verify that the correct information has been collected prior to its being submitted to the system. The result, says SeeControl, is higher accuracy in the collection of information. Without the need for proximity to readouts on visible wall units, the typical depot or warehouse can be greatly enlarged in size, to match the physical needs of the user. The scanner comes with a color graphic screen, and can be used with any mobile software. It will become generally available in the first quarter of 2006.
http://www.seecontrol.com/

Cognex, Handheld Offer New Readers for Direct Part Mark I.D.
Cognex Corp., a vendor of machine vision sensors and industrial identification readers, has developed the next generation of handheld direct part mark (DPM) readers, the DataMan 7500 series. The equipment reads all printed and DPM codes for manufacturers implementing traceability programs in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, healthcare and defense industries. The 7500 readers combine Cognex's IDMax code-reading software with new UltraLight illumination technology, to read codes regardless of marking method, part material, shape or surface texture. The 7500 series includes the 7500 corded and 7550 cordless models. Cognex teamed up with Hand Held Products, a vendor of image-based auto ID, on the development of both models. At the same time, Hand Held has announced two DPM readers under its own brand, the 6308 and 6328 cordless. Both devices are powered by Adaptus Imaging Technology 5.0, and provide high-performance DPM reading. The 6308 supports USB, keyboard wedge and RS232 communications, while the 6328 features Bluetooth v1.2 wireless connectivity. Both the Cognex and Hand Held models are rugged enough to withstand up to 50 drops onto concrete from a height of two meters.
http://www.cognex.com/
http://www.handheld.com/

Hankyu Cargo Adopts SSA Warehouse Management Tool in Europe
Hankyu Cargo, an international provider of freight forwarding for shipments by air, land and sea, has implemented the Warehouse Management software of SSA Global at three new customer warehouses across Europe. Hankyu has been transforming itself from a traditional provider of import and export services into a "value-added" partner, supplying integrated global logistics, warehousing and transportation services. It needed a flexible, scalable system to manage the transformation. SSA Warehouse Management 4000 contains a series of translatable add-on packs which support full Japanese-language operation an essential feature, given that many of Hankyu's customers in Europe are Japanese, especially those in the automotive and electronic sectors. Following the implementation of SSA Warehouse Management 4000 at Hankyu locations in Newcastle, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam, the company plans to extend the software to its operations at London's Heathrow Airport and Frankfurt. It also plans to take advantage of SSA's portal and event-management capabilities, so that customers will be able to access their own inventory across Europe via a secure connection to the internet.
http://www.ssaglobal.com/

Radio Beacon Unveils New Version of Warehousing Software
Radio Beacon Inc., a developer of warehouse-management software, has released Radio Beacon WMS v5.4 Gold. The latest version adds two new modules, License Plates and Carton Splitting, to the Radio Beacon suite. License Plates keeps track of item information on a pallet, including lots, serial numbers and pack sizes, using a single label. The tool eliminates the need to process individual items when the pallet is moved from one location to another. Carton Splitting breaks an order into standard cartons using product dimensions, and creates compliance and carton-content labels for the empty carton. By picking directly into the final shipping carton, users can eliminate repacking, reduce errors and increase productivity, Radio Beacon claimed. Customers of Radio Beacon have access to modules in cost-effective bundles, with the flexibility to purchase additional individual modules to support their business needs. Radio Beacon markets its systems to distributors, manufacturers and third-party logistics providers.
http://www.radiobeacon.com/

More Than 30 Partners Integrate Through NetSuite Platform
More than 30 business partners of NetSuite, Inc., a vendor of business-management software for small and medium-sized businesses, are integrating with the company through its NetFlex platform. The company also announced the new NetFlex Applications Program, an offering that combines tools, technology and support to enable independent software vendors and other third parties to extend NetSuite with complementary applications. NetSuite offers itself as the "system of record" to customers, combining customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning and e-commerce in a single application. Third-party applications built on the platform are more powerful than those created on ancillary systems, such as a standalone sales-force automation application, NetSuite said. Telephony vendors building applications on NetSuite can provide traditional call-center capabilities and enable orders via a touch-tone phone. E-commerce vendors can display inventory held in NetSuite on eBay and Amazon.com as well as return orders to their NetSuite accounts placed on those sites.
http://www.netsuite.com/

Blue Sky Logistics Debuts With Tracking, Monitoring Dashboard
Blue Sky Logistics, Inc., a new company offering supply-chain visibility software, has created its first product. Dubbed Insight, it is a visibility dashboard that is designed to monitor critical decision information at all management levels. Insight is a Web-native application that uses a company's real-time data to track and monitor key performance metrics and trends. It comes with a library of pre-defined supply-chain gauges and alerts, and is integrated with existing major planning and execution systems. Blue Sky Logistics was formed by Randy Marble, Steve Hensley, Richard Stanford and Brian Deterling, all veteran application software specialists. The four previously worked together at EXE Technologies. Blue Sky's real-time application is intended to oversee a company's extended operations, including planning, sourcing, manufacturing, delivery and returns. The company has adopted metrics derived from the Supply-Chain Council's Supply-Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model, which provides customers with more than 250 standard metrics for tracking and monitoring of supply chains on an exception basis. SCOR will be the basis for additional products and services in the future, Blue Sky said.
http://www.blueskylogistics.com/


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