Stepping up Support for Demand-Driven Supply Networks

Provider Optum says solutions enable, coordinate and optimize execution across supply chain networks

Provider Optum says solutions enable, coordinate and optimize execution across supply chain networks

White Plains, NY — August 25, 2004 — Supply chain execution (SCE) solution provider Optum says it is stepping up support for demand-driven supply networks by extending execution across disparate networks.

With more than 20 years' experience in the supply chain execution space, Optum said its new approach to supply chain management can help companies take advantage of a networked technology backbone to drive trading partner optimization and to increase the responsiveness and velocity of their supply chain networks.

Typical demand-driven supply networks (DDSN) integrate demand, data and processes — at both the daily operational level and across the network to suppliers and customers — to ultimately drive execution to effectively meet customer demand. At a recent Optum-sponsored supply chain executive conference, Kevin O'Marah, vice president of technology consultancy AMR Research, led a roundtable discussion on the evolution of the supply chain from a "push" to a "pull" model and the steps needed to transform a supply chain to meet the needs of demand-driven business.

According to an article by O'Marah published in a June 2 AMR Research Alert: "DDSN gives leading companies cost, time and efficiency advantages that boost profits. It also positions winners to grow with dramatically faster response to business opportunities — at the level of lower stockouts for current products and as much as 70 percent faster time to market for new products. More innovation with a better perfect product launch performance means more new business opportunities seized as customer or market demand evolves."

"At Optum, we have seen first-hand the dramatic changes to supply chain management," said Kevin Hart, president and COO of Optum. "To improve profitability, a demand-driven supply network architecture is essential. Our solutions ... can support DDSN models by enabling, coordinating and optimizing information and business processes to drive execution across networks."

Optum believes it is positioned to take advantage of a projected market surge toward a demand-driven supply chain through its supply chain execution solutions that can help companies enable supply chain execution, communication and real-time visibility. The solutions coordinate process lifecycles and supply chain execution workflows by configuring business policies to define workflow behavior, modeling and managing processes, and controlling supply chain transactions across participants, according to Optum.

The provider added that its solution can help optimize business processes by synchronizing disparate systems across the network, by providing dynamic exception, detection and management, and by leveraging real-time intelligence and analytics to improve response and execution.

For more information on the supply chain execution market, read "Demand Management," part of the Global Enabled Supply Chain Series, in the December 2002/January 2003 issue ofiSource Business (now Supply & Demand Chain Executive) magazine.

Latest