Telecommunications company raises demand forecasting and planning to a strategic level; provider honored for business success
Pleasanton, CA October 10, 2003 Enterprise demand management (EDM) provider Steelwedge Inc. today announced the implementation of Steelwedge EDM at Tellabs, a telecommunications equipment and services company.
Steelwedge said it was also awarded first runner-up in the Technology Partnership category of the APICS Corporate Awards of Excellence at the 2003 APICS International Conference and Exposition, held October 5 through 9. The APICS Technology Partnership Award of Excellence recognizes partnerships between technology providers and customers with a strong emphasis on the practical role technology played in the company's business success.
In late 2001, when the telecommunications industry faced widespread overcapacity and erratic markets, Tellabs decided to refocus its business and reprioritize product initiatives. "Our technology partnership with Steelwedge is a great story of success in the face of adversity," said Christine Pfefferle, director of Global Forecasting for Tellabs. "We felt that to be successful we needed to raise demand forecasting and planning to a strategic level. The EDM solution provided us with a cross functional demand planning process that supported our complex product and service lines. With Steelwedge, Tellabs was able to more accurately predict and react to future demand. This allowed us to maximize revenue and profitability while minimizing inventory."
Steelwedge explained that its product marries planning analytics to familiar desktop productivity tools like Microsoft Excel and Outlook, adding business process management and data translation to enable a seamless consensus process. The provider claimed its EDM solution is the only planning suite to combine accessible user interaction, process automation, adaptive analytics and data transformation for an enterprise-wide view of demand.
Rob Schneider, CEO and president of Steelwedge, said, "Tellabs is a leader in the telecommunications industry and understood very early the positive impact EDM could have on their business, especially in uncertain times. Steelwedge is proud of our partnership with Tellabs and the results we have delivered."
Tellabs continues to use Steelwedge EDM software to manage its cross functional demand planning process during a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty in the telecommunications industry.
