IDII News - New Website Features

• NEW! MRP Books added to our book catalog! SAP Books & Peoplesoft Books are also listed in our book catalog!
• New Warehouse & Logistics Software Directory by IDII
• WMS & SCE Discussion - Ask a question! - Share your knowledge! - Discuss trends & frustrations!
  
  

• New White Papers!
• New - Cross Enterprise Trade, Sigma Six, SCPM
• New - Technology Corner: Building A Superstructure - Great Article
• New - Tools for Maximizing Warehouse Operations
  
  
• In the last newsletter, IDII announced these white papers:
  
• Last Issue - New - Slotting Optimization - The Cuber™ - Great Article
• Last Issue - New - Dynamic Scheduling - Excellent
• Last Issue - New - Multi-Tasking (Interleaving) Paper - Excellent
• Last Issue - New - eService - Strategies for Success in the Customer Age - Excellent
  

Software Company News

• Berger Software (WMS, TMS) announced the release of TIMe suite of solutions to gradually transform a business from paper to e-paper. TIMe – short for Total Information Management electronically – addresses all modern input and output demands on an organisation’s core Business Applications, including Forms Data Capture, Reporting and Analytics and Web Access. It provides all the components required to fully manage each of these using electronic processes.
  
  

  TIMe comprises a selection of best-of-breed software tools (eForms, eAccess, eReports) that provide specific e-transformation components such as form design, report re-formatting, e-mail and web output and analytics. Complementing these software tools, Berger Software has developed templates and industry-specific solutions to reduce the risk and cost of software integration. Editor's Notes: A 6 month payback (ROI) is indicated. CONGRATULATIONS to Berger, for integrating a WMS, TMS, with forms & document processing!

• Catalyst International, Inc. (WMS, Nasdaq: CLYS) and TrenStar, Inc. (TMS, WMS, Asset, RFID), announced plans to a worldwide software distribution alliance whereby Catalyst will resell and integrate TrenStar's mybarcode.com SAP R/3 certified middleware product. mybarcode.com is a leading SAP R/3 enhancement solution designed to extend the warehousing and logistics capabilities of SAP's WM and MM modules.
  
  About mybarcode.com: mybarcode.com is a component-based, mobile data computing middleware solution for use with SAP R/3's WM/MM modules. mybarcode.com provides flexible integration of data collection and printing technologies while enabling mobile data communications for SAP R/3. Through its business process management capabilities, mybarcode.com extends the reach of SAP through a portfolio of function-specific templates including automatic identification (Auto ID), data capture and printing, warehousing and logistics fleet management, security and retail point of sale applications. Based on user requirements one or more of these functional templates will be integrated. mybarcode.com also supports user-defined business processes and rules through its rapid development Business Logic Manager toolkit that is based on a certified (SAP V4.xx) seamless IDOC, RFC & BAPI integration with the SAP host. A transitional database supports extended business processes without affecting the core SAP solution or introducing a third party warehouse management or logistics system.
  
  
• Celarix (TMS) Announces the Release of Rate Explorer 8.2 Web-based solution for ocean carriers which Adds More Than 100 Functional Enhancements. The complete solution allows carriers to manage service contract negotiations, eliminate rating errors and improve productivity by auto-calculating contracts, maintaining rate histories, and auto-rating bookings and bills-of-lading (BOL). "In addition to calculable service contracts, Celarix Rate Explorer 8.2 gives our customers a combination of productivity, rate analysis and rate retrieval enhancements beyond any other solution on the market," said Mark Carleo of Celarix.

• Logility (WMS, TMS, APS, Nasdaq: LGTY) announced the latest version of Logility Voyager Collaborate for event management. Key Features of Logility Voyager Collaborate 6.2 include:
  
  
  • Collaborative Event Calendar coordinates a consolidated graphical view of each trading partners' corporate calendar, synchronizing critical information on product launches, new store openings, special events and promotions that impact demand creation and fulfillment. Additionally, users my select special icons to visually identify specific event types.
    
  • Events Control Tower optimizes the user's time with a role-based view of events such as promotions, new product introductions, substitutions and close-outs related to specific buyer and seller trading pairs. The user can view a list of new or updated events providing a consistent understanding of scheduled activities. Additionally, each trading partner can respond to prioritized supply chain alerts and focus on resolving exceptions to accelerate the value chain and ensure optimal product availability.
    
  • Expanded Event-based Monitoring incorporates special event related exceptions that identify discrepancies in promotional lifts, sell-in and sell-through rates, calendar schedules, item assignments or availability as well as missing data. Additionally, event status parameters allow trading partners to track proposed events during various stages from inter-company approval through campaign completion.
  • Campaign Summary provides a flexible synopsis that incorporates
    additional information such as the event name, date, owner, and items assignments as well as trade dollar funding, coupon information, event status, revenue or volume goals, and performance-to-date.
    
  • Event Audits provide complete visibility of all changes and comments made for an event from start to finish including date changes, status updates, item assignments, product availability, etc.
    
    
• Logility (WMS, TMS, APS, Nasdaq: LGTY) announced the latest version of Logility Voyager Collaborate providing comprehensive support for collaborative sales and operations planning. Key Features of Logility Voyager Collaborate:
  
  
  • Multiple Demand and Supply Plans consolidates 120 different data arrays to facilitate interactive online collaboration for both time-phased information such as a forecast, order, shipment or production plans as well as non-time-phased information such as pricing, cost or syndicated
    market information.
  • Expanded Exception-based Management leverages the additional data arrays to alert responsible parties to key supply chain events such as a comparison of POS to shipment data to determine if you are meeting desired in-stock goals or comparison of demand forecast to syndicated market intelligence data to gain a more comprehensive view of your plan.
  • Telescoping Periods allow users the flexibility (on a single screen) to see information in multiple time buckets such as weeks for the first six periods and months for the subsequent periods.
  • Flexible Unit of Measure (UOM) selection allows the user to set a display preference for measurements such as item quantity, packaging, pricing, and cost, providing more relevant information in the context of the user's operational area (production, demand planning, marketing, finance, etc.).
  • Comprehensive Collaborative Platform flexibly supports diverse internal S&OP processes as well as external standards-based CPFR collaboration for procurement, logistics and demand management, as well as customized collaboration for any number of business processes.
  • Enhanced Graphics and Role-based User Preferences speeds deployment and provides more control over what a user chooses to view on a specific plan basis, for example, product family information versus item-level detail. Numerous configurable graphs visually identify business trends and potential constraints enabling a quick assessment of the operational impact.
  • Zero Deployment Client speeds implementation and eliminates maintenance efforts with an intuitive and configurable Internet-browser interface.
    
    
• Manhattan Associates Inc. (WMS,TMS,Visibility Nasdaq: MANH) announced the latest release of it's WMS named "PkMS" release 2002R1, The new version offers significant functionality enhancements across all areas including increased visibility and control of inventory throughout the supply chain; greater flexibility in defining how inventory is categorized and tracked; and streamlined operations resulting in dramatic improvements in usability and productivity in completing essential activities, such as receiving and putaway. Enhancements include:

  * Enhanced yard management system
  * Improved lot management functionality
  * Dynamic routing -- enabling dynamic determination of routing instructions from the supplier to the retailer's transportation optimization systems and the ability to make updates, real-time, when
  those instructions change.
  * Rules based route determination – enabling rules-based route determination for route assignments at the carton level to provide more flexible shipping capabilities in a retail environment;
  * SKU renumbering – enabling a retailer to quickly and easily change SKUs throughout its system; and
  * Enhanced receiving and putaway – including rules based functionality to sort product upon receipt for efficient putaway within the DC.

• Merkur Group has partnered with Esker Software (e-document) to extend the output capabilities of leading ERP solutions, including mySAP.com, Baan, Oracle, and PeopleSoft. Using Esker's Pulse(TM) product as the core of its Merkur Pulse solution, Merkur Group now gives organizations the ability to transform traditional ERP print output into electronic documents and deliver them through the channels most widely used by today's customers and trading partners--web, wireless, email, fax, and distributed print.
  

• Microlistics (WMS, TMS) Launches ISIS Gateway. The `ISIS Gateway' is a new tool that allows smooth data exchange across multiple formats and multiple applications while accommodating all the business flows involved with the management of the warehouse. The new tool was developed in Java and acts as a stand-alone message service between the warehouse and the rest of the business.

  The new tool provides integration between the ISIS Warehouse Management suite and ERP systems or legacy systems. Because of the proliferation of SAP clients using the ISIS Warehouse management suite, the development team configured `ISIS Gateway' to communicate with SAP in its native tongue, the SAP `iDoc format'.

• Prophet 21, Inc. (ERP, WMS, B2B, Wholesale, Nasdaq:PXXI) has released the latest version of their Internet trading network, Trading Partner Connect version 7.0. The commerce process between distributor partners has also been furthered streamlined with the addition of a workflow alert notification system. Distributors are alerted when a purchase order (PO) has been received through Trading Partner Connect. Distributors also receive workflow alerts when pricing and availability information requests are made on their dead stock items. Trading Partner Connect automatically delivers the updates to members, which helps alleviate pricing discrepancies and revenue loss due to not receiving the information via traditional updates such as diskettes or CDs through the mail.

  Distributors also benefit by gaining the ability to view their trading partners' and their own stock availability and pricing in real time over the Web, letting them access information remotely. Other enhancements to Trading Partner Connect version 7.0 include:

  -- Enhanced search capability on unique information fields
  -- Dead stock report enhancement quantify and qualify flagged items
  -- Data mining report presents a familiar format
  -- New transaction handler processes 820 electronic data interchange (EDI) documents
  -- Item maintenance field simplifies dead stock identification
  -- Additional identification parameters increase sales for dead stock
  

• Savi Technology Achieves SAP Interface Certification. Savi SmartChain ERP-S Integration Module has received interface certification from SAP. Savi's SmartChain ERP-S Adaptor links Savi's suite of SmartChain applications with SAP® R/3®. This integration of Savi's real-time application suite with R/3 will enable both companies to extend solutions to customers through software applications that improve supply chain security, monitoring and management.

• This extends Savi's suite of real-time supply chain security and asset management solutions with SAP solutions that provide additional world-class planning and materials management solutions sought by Savi customers. At the same time, SAP customers will have access to Savi's applications and software platform that uniquely leverage automatic data collection and identification technologies such as GPS, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), barcodes and smart cards. Savi's SmartChain ERP-S Interface Module was tested and certified against a comprehensive list of integration scenarios at the SAP Integration & Certification Center in Palo Alto.

• Timogen Systems (Advanced SCEM) introduces Timogen Action Controller(TM) 1.0. Timogen Action Controller combines event management, real-time analytics, and closed-loop business process management for intelligent supply chain execution. Timogen Action Controller allows manufacturers to decrease inventory and increase revenue by reducing the time between unexpected event occurrence and intelligent resolution across the extended supply chain.

  With Timogen Action Controller, manufacturers can actively monitor sales order activity, purchase order status, production plans, and inventory levels globally. By aggregating information from inter-enterprise systems and analyzing the financial and production impact in real-time, Timogen Action Controller allows manufacturers to quickly recognize and correct supply and demand imbalances before they affect the bottom line. Combining real-time, distributed impact analysis with Timogen's patent-pending dynamic business process management system, Timogen Action Controller provides manufacturing organizations with the flexibility and intelligence to deliver closed-loop, supply chain discovery-to-resolution capability.
  

• Vcommerce Corporation (SCE) and K2B (SCP) announced they have entered into a strategic alliance for distribution of the companies' supply chain execution and planning suites. The companies will integrate, co-brand, and cross-market their solutions. Vcommerce will distribute the new application as V-Planning. This addition allows Vcommerce to seamlessly extend its end-to-end Supply Chain Execution (SCE) suite from planning through logistics management. The alliance makes Vcommerce and K2B the first to fully integrate supply chain execution with planning systems.

  
  

Quotes to Ponder - List of Quotes to Ponder from prior issues.

• "The best way to break a bad habit is to drop it."
  --Leo Aikmain
  

• "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?"
  - Amos 3:3 NIV
  

• Automatic Guided Vehicle Systems (AGVS) web site located at http://www.agvsystems.com/.
  This site is intended to be a reference site for AGVS. It is full of unbiased information relating to the history of AGVS, types of systems, how to concept and prepare bid specs, how to evaluate AGV suppliers, etc. In addition, there are tools for estimating the AGV fleet size for a give application along with a significant library of pictures and video clips.

Online Book Catalog - Intuitive Categories

Books on Shipping, Warehousing, Distribution, Operations, WMS, ERP, MRP, CRM, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Logistics, Facility Layout & Design, Metrics & Measurements, and books on software solution providers SAP, Peoplesoft.

"Warehouse & Logistics Software Directory" Order From Amazon or IDII

"Supply Chain Management Based on SAP Systems" Order From Amazon

"ADVANCED WMS RFI Search Bundle" Available from IDII only
Obal, Philip	Advanced Version is available only from IDII

Valuable Future Events - List Your Event or Convention

Warehouse of the Future Conference - June 24-26, 2002 - Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. 40 conference sessions in 5 tracks including Material Handling, Government Logistics, and Supply Chain Management. Other highlights include a 100,000 sq. ft. working warehouse lab and tours of distribution centers. 717-295-0033 or visit http://www.dcenter.com

Frontline Solutions' Supply - September 23-26, 2002 - McCormick Pace, Chicago, IL. 250 technology & service providers, and over 100 conference sessions help you understand and compare the latest generation of data-capture, mobile computing, warehousing, and collaborative technology. Visit http://www.frontlinexpo.com or call 1-800-331-5706.