Palo Alto, CA September 30, 2002 Extreme Networks, a provider of switching solutions for global networks, has tapped a supply chain control solution from software company Valdero in a bid to enhance key relationships with suppliers and drive the overall performance of its manufacturing supply chain.
The software company said that its Valdero 2.0 solution, released in early July, is specifically designed for companies like Extreme that rely on collaborative supply chains to meet variable customer demand for their products. The complexity of managing multi-tiered supply chains with multiple partners means that these companies have limited visibility into remote operations, high latency in communicating changes in supply and demand, poor responsiveness to disruptions and a high liability for poor execution. All of these problems can result in high inventory costs, high liabilities and missed revenue opportunities.
Valdero aims to address those very problems. "Think of Valdero as an air traffic control system for the supply chain," explained Walt Rossi, vice president of marketing at the solution provider. "If you think about planning applications and transaction-oriented applications like [enterprise resource planning systems], there's a gap between the plan and changes that can occur. Valdero deals with the changes and bridges the gap between planning and execution systems."
The solution provides visibility into an extended supply chain, allows a manufacturer to identify exceptions and problems in its supply chain and analyze the cause of those problems, and then provides guidance on how to address the problems, Rossi said.
Further, S. Singh Mecker, Valdero's president and CEO, said that the solution gives manufacturers and their supply chain partners a common platform for executing on key processes based on shared, real-time information and agreed-upon metrics, plans and performance thresholds. "We're allowing businesses to react quickly to changes and achieve closed-loop control over their supply chain performance," Mecker said.
Extreme plans to use the Valdero solution's new supply-demand match engine and collaboration platform to gain visibility across its global supply chain. Diane Pewitt, Extreme Networks' vice president of operations, said that the company is looking to create a highly efficient and responsive supply chain to help strengthen its competitive advantage.
"By allowing easy access to changes across the entire supply chain, Valdero gives us the opportunity to dramatically reduce our inventory and process costs," Pewitt said. "And, by simplifying what used to be the most time-intensive part of managing our supply chain, Valdero enables us to raise the bar on other, more sophisticated elements, such as customer fulfillment and long-term supply positioning."
Extreme signed up to use 2.0 in July, following the solution's release, and plans to go live in early October.
