Tempe, AZ December 14, 2001 Innovation continues apace in the solution provider community, with new products and upgrades rolling out for the sell side, the buy side and every side in between.
Here's an update on the latest news from the technology providers Yantra, Viacore, Sequencia, PTC, nMetric, Blue Martini Software and Arzoon.
· Yantra has added multi-enterprise capabilities to its warehouse management application, DCS 6.2. The new release gives companies a view of warehouse facilities throughout their networks and adds dynamic slotting and broad parcel carrier integration capabilities to connect businesses' warehousing operations with their multi-enterprise distribution networks. DCS 6.2 also links to Yantra's Multi-Enterprise Order and Inventory Management applications to connect warehousing operations more closely with other supply chain events, which the solution provider says can enable faster replenishment of stock by suppliers, lower inventory levels and more flexible response to changes in supply and demand. Yantra is headquartered in Tewksbury, Mass.
· Viacore unveiled a new integration utility service, QuickConnect, which provides a bundled solution that the software company says includes all the technology and services needed to establish system-to-system integration into private exchanges. According to Irivne, Calif.-based Viacore, the service, available starting at $1,040 per month, eliminates the upfront software licensing and systems integration costs that have formed a significant barrier for small and midsize trading partners who are integrating their systems into one or more private exchanges. Viacore worked together with Microsoft on the QuickConnect solution, which utilizes the BizTalk Server Accelerator for RosettaNet, and Microsoft has participated with Viacore in its implementation.
· Phoenix-based Sequencia rolled out version 3.0 of its processPoint product lifecycle management (PLM) solution for process industries, adding new features that the provider says can accelerate research and development and speed product introductions. New functionality includes locating similar recipes for modification, identifying substitute materials, calculating mass balances, ingredient and nutritional aspects of a given recipe, and multi-lingual product label generation. Version 3.0 improvements, aimed at providing a better view of the new product development process, include stage-gate process management, market requirements lifecycle tracking, packaging material and process development, and manufacturing capability modeling. processPoint can be implemented within an enterprise, across a supply chain, or as an element of a private trading exchange (PTX).
· PTC added to its lineup of Windchill product collaboration applications with the release of DynamicDesignLink, a solution targeted at companies that produce products with many design variations. The software permits end users at a company's customers to interactively customize and define "designed-to-order" products, allowing for mass customization, product line rationalization or design modularization, according to Needham, Mass.-based PTC (formerly Parametric Technology). For example, manufacturers could offer the ability to tailor simple or complex, highly engineered products via the Web; sales reps, distributors, dealers and customers could be given access to design products online, not just by choosing pre-defined options, but also by changing specifications such as size, flow, performance or capacity.
· nMetric, of Costa Mesa, Calif., is offering its 4C manufacturing collaboration solution as a way for small and midsize manufacturers to gain visibility into their operations and up-to-date knowledge of individual order status in real time. The 4C system continuously monitors orders to assure status and ensure that delivery expectations are being met, according to nMetric. The solution provider says that midsize manufacturers can use the software to determine where their production hot-spots are located, determine if there is a contention for resources now or in the future, and ascertain ahead of time what order delivery dates may be in jeopardy. 4C also has the ability to resolve at-risk orders, capacity constraints, engineering changes or other operational events that are impeding the order's progress and notifies all who need to know in time to react accordingly, nMetric says. When and if resources or demands change or might change, 4C attempts to resolve any problems that could affect delivery dates and/or proactively notifies all specified partners. If the event of prospective large shifts in plans or resources, users can use 4C to manually determine the impact of various "what-ifs" on present order dates in the queue.
· Blue Martini Software has shaken and stirred its customer relationship management (CRM) applications together with automated business processes specific to manufacturing to create Blue Martini Manufacturing. The new solution lets manufacturers deploy customer and partner self-service portals as a way to improve marketing, sales and service through their direct and indirect distribution channels, according to the software company. Blue Martini, based in San Mateo, Calif., says that Manufacturing reduces the costs of populating, managing and deploying product and content catalogs; accelerates time-to-market for new product introductions; increases customer acquisition through targeted marketing campaigns; maximizes revenue potential by selling the way that customers want to buy; and drives more revenue by empowering channel partners. Pricing will start at $70,000 per CPU when the solution ships (tentatively) in the first quarter of 2002.
· San Carlos, Calif.'s Arzoon took the wraps off new logistics software bundles designed to address the specific logistics needs of procurement, sales/customer service, finance, logistics and international trade-compliance professionals at manufacturers and distributors. Arzoon says that the bundles allow companies to focus on their most pressing logistics problems first, then grow their logistics resource management infrastructures by purchasing and turning on pre-integrated functionality as needed. The new software bundles include Import Manager (for procurement and compliance professionals); Export Manager (for sales/customer service and compliance professionals); Inbound Transportation Manager and Inbound Transportation Manager Global Edition (for procurement professionals); Outbound Transportation Manager and Outbound Transportation Manager Global Edition (for sales/customer service professionals); Freight Payment (for finance and logistics professionals); and Total Transportation, Total Transportation Global Edition and FastTrack Rail Manager (for logistics professionals).