At 30,000 feet, answer these questions to drive improved adoption:

• Have we trained everyone? If the answer is no, or the training was year’s ago, chances are that the team isn’t leveraging the full functionality of your tools and are leaving significant efficiency and savings on the table.
• How many of our sourcing events are run through the system? Tools like eSourcing generate maximum results when used on a continuous basis.
• Is usage increasing according to plan? When usage stays flat, it’s a sign that ongoing training and skill development is necessary.

But even at 30,000 feet, you still can’t see all the details. This level doesn’t say much about increasing supplier value, maintaining transparency or increasing efficiency. Without better visibility into the sourcing process, procurement can’t uncover the problems they need to fix.
Your next level of questions could include:

• How can the sourcing process uncover more spend?
• How can the solution map directly to monitoring regulatory compliance?
• Why aren’t category managers using the solution to maximize supplier value?

This entire post could be a list of questions to ask and what you could uncover. Adoption measurement is a tall task, so don’t go-it alone. Make your procurement team active participants in the process – share what you’re learning, have honest conversation about their concerns and limitations, and showcase why adoption matters. Don’t just do it once – adoption measurement should be an essential aspect of continuously improving procurement overall.
Because here’s the lesson I’ve learned: Best of Breed Sourcing and Best of Breed software adoption programs are strikingly similarly. Procurement cares about realized savings, not what’s negotiated. The same is true for common supply chain tools like spend analysis and contract management – ROI is only maximized when your team uses them correctly.

Paul Martyn

Paul Martyn is VP of Supply Strategy at procurement and sourcing specialist BravoSolution

With its corporate office in Copenhagen, Demark, Damco provides logistics services to over 10,000 global customers through its network of over 300 offices worldwide. Damco manages and services some of the most complex supply chains in the world across a diverse range of industries.

“Damco differentiates itself by supporting its customers with a supply chain strategy tailored to their businesses. We want to help customers make the right choices at the right time,” said Simon Kristensen, Head of SCD Operations for Damco. “To assist this effort, we have chosen LLamasoft’s solution because it provides us with a full range of tools for design, analysis, optimization and simulation of our customers new supply chain scenarios. The result is a supply chain with the right balance between service, risk and cost for our customers.”

The freight forwarding business is complex and requires constant analysis of transportation networks—not only to create short-term efficiencies for the end customers, but also for long term competitiveness.

By using Supply Chain Guru® users are able to optimize their complete inbound and outbound transportation strategies to make certain that service deliveries are met while achieving savings for all parties involved. Companies that optimize their supply chain network designs can reduce costs by as much as 10-20% while maintaining, or even significantly improving, their customer service levels.

Toby Brzoznowski, LLamasoft’s Executive Vice President added, “We are excited that Damco has selected LLamasoft as its strategic supply chain design partner and we are looking forward to helping Damco support its ongoing supply chain design initiatives.”?

About LLamasoft

LLamasoft provides software and expertise to design and improve supply chain network operations. Supply Chain Guru® is the leading supply chain design and predictive analytics application available in the market today. It enables companies to model, optimize and simulate their supply chain operations, leading to major improvements in cost, service, sustainability, and risk mitigation. For more information, visit http://www.LLamasoft.com or contact info(at)LLamasoft(dot)com.

LLamasoft Media Contact:

Bob Gallagher

VP Marketing
LLamasoft, Inc.
201 South Main Street, 4th Floor
Ann Arbor, MI USA 48104
Tel: 734-418-3119
Fax: 734-418-3138

bob(dot)gallagher(at)LLamasoft(dot)com

http://www.LLamasoft.com

JDA® Shelf-Connected Cloud is designed to help supplier and retailer trading partners effectively collaborate at the shelf level to improve on-shelf availability, remove unnecessary inventory across enterprises and set new strategies that leverage cost savings across the entire value chain. Trading partners that collaborate using this new paradigm will be able to offer their joint consumers a new level of competitive pricing by connecting their supply chains.

In a shelf-connected supply chain, suppliers collaborate with their distribution and retail customers to plan an optimal product assortment and planogram for each store or store cluster, then develop and synchronize their demand and inventory replenishment plans driven by consumer sales. This framework integrates a supplier’s planning and execution processes with a retailer’s planning and execution processes to better align all processes with consumer demand. By having a view of the cross-enterprise supply chain flows, partners can develop strategies that consider the cost savings across enterprises and leverage it to deliver more value and innovation to their consumers.

Suppliers can collaborate with retailers to create a time-phased retail order plan. Many large retailers today still struggle with developing or completing accurate, bottom-up time-phased order plans that are driven from shelf sell-through. So, suppliers who leverage a shelf-connected solution can strategically elevate their partnership levels with retailers. Benefits of the solution include the ability to:

> Scale to the shelf-level
> Deliver fast time to value by leveraging the cloud
> Quickly see the effects of assortment, space and supply chain strategies and their impact on performance and financial results
> Deliver a collaboration platform to drive efficiencies across enterprises and their inter-connected supply chains
> Align the people, processes and tools necessary to focus attention on the critical few actions that will drive significant and immediate results
> Develop optimal supply chain, promotion and pricing plans driven from shelf-level demand signals

As part of the comprehensive JDA® Shelf-Connected Cloud solution suite, JDA Software today also announced the release of JDA® Collaborative Shelf Planning & Analytics. Suppliers managing sell-through at the shelf must be equipped to handle the associated exponential increase in planning intersections and decisions. JDA’s supply chain planning architecture is unique in its proven ability to scale to meet the challenges of driving decisions from the shelf. JDA Collaborative Shelf Planning & Analytics enables companies to manage and transform mountains of data into actionable information. This solution drives visibility and enables analytics such as out-of-stock detection, sell-through analysis and inventory performance directly from the shelf.

“In today’s ultra-competitive markets, the ability to manage products across multiple channels and the entire product lifecycle becomes essential to maintaining profitability and competitiveness,” said Fred Baumann, vice president, industry strategies, JDA Software. “By leveraging shelf-connected supply chain practices, trading partners become aligned on not just the next order, but on the larger horizon of orders. The insights associated with these activities are leveraged by both the supplier and retailer to drive higher consumer satisfaction in a mutually beneficial and profitable way.”

For more information about how companies can become more consumer- and shelf-centric with end-to-end supply chain collaboration visit www.jda.com/solutions/shelf-connected-cloudor email info@jda.comfor more information.

Tweet this: .@JDASoftwarereleases Shelf-Connected Cloud for improved retailer/supplier collaboration at the shelf. http://jda.com/twshelfc

About JDA Software Group
JDA® Software Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: JDAS), The Supply Chain Company®, is the leading provider of innovative supply chain management, merchandising and pricing excellence solutions worldwide. JDA empowers more than 6,000 companies of all sizes to make optimal decisions that improve profitability and achieve real results in the manufacturing, wholesale distribution, transportation, retail and services industries. With an integrated solutions offering that spans the entire supply chain from materials to the consumer, JDA leverages the powerful heritage and knowledge capital of acquired market leaders including i2 Technologies®, Manugistics®, E3®, Intactix® and Arthur®. JDA’s robust services offering, including complete solution lifecycle management via JDA Cloud Services, provides customers with leading-edge industry practices and supply chain expertise, lower total cost of ownership, long-term business value, and 24/7 functional and technical support. To learn more, visit jda.com or email info@jda.com.

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This press release contains forward-looking statements that are made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally accompanied by words such as “can,” “will,” “ensure,” “help,” “enable” and “expect” and other words with forward-looking connotations. In this press release, such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, comments that JDA Shelf-Connected Cloud and JDA Collaborative Shelf Planning & Analytics can provide certain benefits to its customers, including increased profitability, improved collaboration, and increased competitive advantage. The occurrence of future events may involve a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to: (a) our solutions may not perform exactly as we anticipate; (b) there may be implementation and integration problems associated with our solutions; and (c) other risks detailed from time to time in the “Risk Factors” section of our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additional information relating to the uncertainty affecting our business is contained in our filings with the SEC. As a result of these and other risks, actual results may differ materially from those predicted. JDA is not under any obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

“JDA” is a trademark or registered trademark of JDA Software Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name “JDA” is a trademark and/or property of JDA Software Group, Inc.

JDA Software Group, Inc.
14400 N. 87th Street
Scottsdale, AZ 85260

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While the malware couldn’t do anything to the 10 Gbps-capable line of LAN switches, if the customer ever decided to re-use the card and insert it into a computer, that computer would likely be compromised.

It’s not that unlikely a scenario. The switches ship with 1GB cards, and someone frantically looking for a flash card could conceivably borrow the card to perform a quick task.

Business owners don’t always think about the integrity of the supply chain when buying hardware and software components. Even the biggest brands can ship infected components if a computer in the factory is compromised. See full post at PC Magazine.

According to various news sources, including the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is moving its European logistics activities from Germany to the Netherlands as a risk-avoidance measure related to its ongoing legal battle with Motorola Mobility Inc. (NYSE: MMI).

Microsoft says that, even though it would prefer to stay in Germany (an important regional technology center and Europe’s largest economy), the risk was too great to stay there. It is reportedly concerned that a court decision expected April 17 on patents could halt sales and distribution of its Xbox gaming consoles and Windows 7 software. To sidestep any potential business fallout from the ruling, the company opted to head across the border, where it’s considered safer to warehouse physical goods, because there’s less of a chance of facing court-imposed injunctions.” See balance of article from Jennifer Baljko at EBN.

Intelleflex’s expanding portfolio of award-winning XC3 Technology™ products, combined with its new ZEST Data Services, provides significant business benefits, including:

> Improving the quality, safety and delivered freshness of fresh, frozen and packaged foods while reducing waste and delivering track-and-trace records in the event of recalls.

> Providing automated data capture to help ensure the quality and efficacy of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals in the supply chain through the last mile – without unpacking or tampering with the container.

> Optimizing asset management and personnel monitoring for improved worksite operations in all venues where high-value assets are deployed.

> Enabling information sharing among supply chain partners, and product traceability records with customers and insurance and financial services companies.

With the availability of the CMR-6100 and ZEST Data Services, Intelleflex continues to develop new solutions that can help reduce staggering losses in global supply chains totaling over $35 billion in perishable foods1 and $5.4 billion in pharmaceuticals2 annually. These losses occur because supply chains have inherently lacked on-demand access to actionable data that enables real-time decision-making about a product’s freshness and quality and documents the freshness and safety of delivered products. This problem is compounded by the nature of data collection for perishables: many points along the supply chain lack network connectivity, and data collected by condition-monitoring readers and tags – while current when it is collected – is not always immediately available for review and analysis to assess and ensure relative remaining shelf life, quality, or efficacy of products at the end of the supply chain. This lack of visibility limits companies to decision-making based on collecting data only at the end points of the supply chain, often only after a product has spoiled. Working with its partners, Intelleflex enables the ability to proactively manage the supply chain, with on-demand data visibility delivered through ZEST Data Services.

“Making actionable data available on-demand throughout the supply chain is critical for improving operations, improving the delivered freshness of food, and protecting the integrity and efficacy of pharmaceuticals,” said Peter Mehring, President and CEO of Intelleflex. “With the introduction of our CMR-6100 Cellular Reader and ZEST Data Services, Intelleflex leads the way in expanding the ability to capture and share data about the condition and location of products and making that information available for improved decision-making and collaboration across the supply chain. Intelleflex is making location-based, time-stamped data more accessible to users, enabling them to manage fresh delivery – versus monitoring for possible spoilage – and improving the delivered freshness and quality of the product.”

Actionable Data: Enabling the Intelligent Supply Chain

To achieve full efficiency, the supply chain needs secure, accurate and timely data on the inventory status and condition of its products. Intelleflex is enabling the intelligent supply chain with actionable data to optimize decision-making, reduce waste, and maximize quality and delivered freshness. The family of Intelleflex readers and tags, combined with ZEST Data Services, provides the ability to share data across the supply chain by making it easier to more easily design and deploy solutions without relying on costly and cumbersome middleware or edge servers.

“Intelleflex’s new CMR-6100 cellular reader and data services are a remarkable advancement in condition monitoring of fresh, frozen and packaged foods – as well as pharmaceuticals,” said Jack Sparn, CIO of iGPS, a provider of intelligent, cost-efficient pallet-based shipping solutions and an Intelleflex partner. “In the majority of today’s cold-chain operations, data from condition monitoring is either nonexistent or requires hours or days to procure – making it inactionable. The capture of iGPS’s producer/manufacturer and retail pallet-level product condition and location data will enable our customers to make informed decisions using that data in near real-time via the ZEST Data Services platform, and it will help iGPS further improve information sharing and decision-making across the supply chain.”

“Ease of implementation is a critical factor in the implementation of RFID solutions in global transportation processes, especially when RFID readers need to be installed on different continents,” said Eelco deJong, Managing Director of Antaris Solutions, a global provider of cold chain management solutions for the pharmaceutical and food industries and an Intelleflex partner. “The new ZEST Data Services from Intelleflex represent a huge step forward, making it very easy to integrate sensor data from various locations into our SmartView web application. With the CMR-6100 reader and ZEST, Intelleflex creates a ‘plug-and-play’ solution that we can easily deploy at international customer locations.”

Intelleflex CMR-6100 Cellular Reader

The Intelleflex CMR-6100 is the first ISO/IEC 18000-6:2010 and EPCglobal C1G2 multi-protocol RFID reader to incorporate a fully-integrated cellular modem and GPS capabilities, ensuring reliable machine-to-machine connectivity; easy, wireless connectivity to global cellular networks; time-stamped, location-aware product tracking; and standards-based high performance. The CMR-6100 is easy to install and maintain, requiring only connecting it to an AC or DC power source – or even a solar power source – and attaching RFID antennas. The system also includes support for a separate battery backup. Built with XC3 Technology, the CMR-6100 offers unparalleled performance in battery-assisted passive RFID, with the ability to reliably read and write at distances of 300 feet or more, or in and around RF-challenging environments including pallets, inside containers, and around metals and liquids.

With built-in self monitoring, interference detection and loopback test mode capabilities, the reader can be managed, maintained and updated remotely, making it ideal for deployments at worksites, fields or where access to local area networks is not an option. Furthermore, the reader reduces costs and overhead, requiring no involvement of IT personnel or integration into IT operations. As a result, multiple supply chain partners – all benefitting from secure access to the same data via the cloud – can work together seamlessly and cost-effectively to ensure product freshness and quality and reduce waste.

ZEST Data Services

Intelleflex ZEST Data Services is a secure, multi-tenant cloud-based data collection platform for aggregating permission-based sharing of information. ZEST provides easy access to secure, authenticated reader and tag data – without the need to interface directly with the readers. This actionable data can be easily utilized via web-enabled, partner-built applications for tracking, managing and monitoring products, assets and personnel. ZEST Data Services makes it easier for Intelleflex partners to develop enterprise-aware applications by pointing to a single data source. The ZEST “data as a service” model enables businesses to collect, evaluate and share data within a department or company, or across trading and business partners, removing arbitrary “siloing” of data and powering a broad base of applications and data analytics. This model improves operational efficiency, reduces friction and waste in the supply chain, and improves inventory management, asset tracking and personnel monitoring. With support for Remote Device Management, ZEST Data Services makes it easy to manage, monitor and update readers and other devices.

New Visibility for Food and Pharmaceutical Safety

The CMR-6100 and ZEST Data Services combine to enable broad-based data collection across the supply chain, delivering actionable data to supply chain managers. With ZEST, supply chain managers have access to data that enables actual management of perishable products based on their past and current condition data, as opposed to traditional products that provide data only after products have been delivered and it is too late to make proactive decisions that would improve quality and safety. Product condition in-transit can be evaluated to help providers reprioritize or redirect shipments to ensure the delivered freshness and quality of perishables products including fresh, frozen and packaged foods and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. This actionable data also provides documented traceability, helps to reduce time to invoice, and documents quality of delivery to improve supply chain management.

“The supply chain industry has tried for decades to solve the ‘black hole’ problem; and while great strides have been made in terms of having more visibility to goods in motion around the world, supply chain partners to date have had to rely on visual inspections and guesswork about the actual condition of those products,” said Michael Liard, Director, RFID, VDC Research. “When it comes to perishables, this isn’t good enough; in the case of temperature-sensitive food safety or biologics, if efficacy is compromised, grave consequences can result. Intelleflex’s new solution provides cold chain partners with a cost-effective means to collect on-demand evidence of the condition of goods as they travel throughout the global supply chain, enabling partners to make real-time decisions to ensure safety and freshness or efficacy of the delivered product.”

Configuration, Pricing and Availability

The Intelleflex CMR-6100 Reader is available now through Intelleflex partners. ZEST Data Services is currently available in beta and will be fully released in the fall of 2012 as a component of end-to-end services from Intelleflex partners. Intelleflex partners deliver applications for monitoring and managing foods, pharmaceuticals, assets and personnel. Pricing for partners is available from Intelleflex.
To learn more about the Intelleflex CMR-6100 Reader and ZEST Data Services, contact Intelleflex at 1-408-200-6500, email info@intelleflex.com, or visit www.intelleflex.com/Products.

About Intelleflex

Intelleflex® provides on-demand data visibility solutions for cold chain and asset management. Its industry-leading XC3 Technology™ RFID products enable a range of solutions for fresh produce, perishable food, and pharmaceutical temperature monitoring, asset tracking, personnel monitoring, retail, healthcare and other applications. These real-time monitoring solutions can help organizations reduce shrink or loss, more closely track and manage assets, reduce cost of operations, and increase profitability. For more information, visit www.intelleflex.com.
# # #
Intelleflex is a registered trademark, and CMR-6100 and ZEST Data Services are trademarks of Intelleflex. All other trademarked names in this document are the properties of their respective owners.

Editorial Contacts

Kevin Payne
Senior Director of Marketing
Intelleflex
408-200-6567
kpayne@intelleflex.com

Ross Perich
Trainer Communications
925-271-8203
Pr-intelleflex@trainercomm.com

1 “Shelf Life,” Forbes, Suzanne Hoppough, May 12, 2006. Note: the quoted annual figure has remained accurate through 2011. 2 [Name of report], EPCglobal, [date of report]

This company stays on top of technology. In 2003, Coca-Cola enterprises began a five year, $200 million IT plan called Project Pinnacle. As part of this effort, they combined their logistics with the retail expertise of SAP software. The purpose was to streamline the supply chain by providing the latest technology to managers, delivery drivers and merchandisers. When faced with the dilemma of decreasing sales, they knew that profitability depended on maximizing production and distribution.

Getting More Flexible

Coca-Cola confronted significant challenges during the last ten years as consumers found new interests in flavored waters and juices. Though the company had benefited from equity interests in franchised bottling groups, the need to make more from less prompted Coca-Cola to buy out their main North American distribution groups. With these acquisitions, Coca-Cola was able to better control supply chain operations. The result was improved flexibility of production, as well as better inventory and asset management. After these changes, during the fourth quarter, North American sales rose 3% while the quarterly profit almost quadrupled. They tightened a few belts along the supply chain and the outcome was a success.

Setting a Good Example

While aiming for profits, Coca-Cola has devoted some energy to sustainable packaging. In order to take their bottle from 30% renewable to completely renewable, the company partnered with Gevo, Virent and Avantium in order to develop a route to the biobased para-xylene which would fulfill their goals. A scalable version of para-xylene has eluded chemists, but Coca-Cola is determined to perfect a completely renewable supply chain. This may become a reality as soon as 2015, and they are providing global aid in other unexpected places.

Taking Advantage, in a Positive Way

In even the most rural parts of Tanzania, you can find a bottle of coke. Unfortunately, access to antiretroviral drugs is far less reliable. About 1.3 million people in Tanzania have HIV/AIDS out of the total population of 45 million. Interestingly, the original push for profit has caused Coca-Cola to become an excellent resource in medical distribution. The company uses vehicles that vary from large trucks, to pushcarts, to donkeys. This indomitable supply chain innovation is now being put to use for the delivery of much-needed medications.

“Watered Down” Coca-Cola

Water is an essential resource in Coca-Cola’s supply chain. In the U.S., Coca-Cola uses 2.36 liters of water per liter of soda, and the ratio is 4:1 in India. This simple resource has numerous variables including depletions of water supplies due to population growth, climate change and old water infrastructures. Though the company has taken some criticism in the past for reducing water supplies in some communities, Coca-Cola has researched climate change and committed to four sustainable strategies: reduce, recycle, replenish and risk management. Looking into the future, Coca-Cola’s prominent interest in water supplies could fund productive research in methods of protecting this essential resource.

Global Guidelines

Even though the company achieved success with development of IT and partnership with SAP, there were still some gaps in the supply chain as of 2010. To further streamline their approach, Coca-Cola partnered with ITC Infotech, a global leader in supply chain consulting. Coke’s main desires in terms of supply chain improvement included metrics with no manual intervention, industry standards that are not Coke specific and an even more vigorous system for reporting hierarchies. Ultimately, Coca-Cola is planning on new global initiatives that will monitor supply chain strategies.

Obviously, Coca-Cola does not sit back and let the world go by. The company has fascinating and proactive strategies in supply chain management which keep it at the top of the business sector. Next time you pick up a coke bottle, look at it more carefully, from a manufacturing point of view, and you might feel refreshed in a less obvious way.

Kaitlyn Nakagoshi

This article was submitted by University alliance, in partnership with the University of San Francisco’s online program, which offers a variety of advanced professional certificates. A supply chain management certification provides up to date information about the industry, best practices, and focuses on sustainability factors. For more information on the courses offered please visit http://www.usanfranonline.com.

The all-cash deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter, will be Amazon’s (AMZN, Fortune 500) biggest acquisition since its purchase of Zappos in 2009.

Kiva, which was founded in 2002, makes robots that scoot around warehouse floors and pick up items from shelves to help fulfill customer orders. Amazon is already a customer, along with other major retailers including Staples (SPLS, Fortune 500), The Gap and CrateandBarrel.com.

Snagging those customers wasn’t easy, Kiva CEO and founder Mick Mountz told CNNMoney in November.

“Fulfillment is the core of these operations, so when we were pitching them, they were hearing ‘heart-lung transplant,’” Mountz said.

The orange Kiva fleet doesn’t come cheap. A “startup kit” of robots costs $1 million to $2 million, and a large warehouse operation with 1,000 robots costs $15 million to $20 million.” See full article and video at CNN

The report data was compiled through a series of executive interviews and industry surveys with retailers across every segment of retail, with the goal of understanding the capabilities that drive exceptional retail supply chain performance. One hundred and ninety-nine retail supply chain executives took part in the research. The criteria for participation included: company revenue exceeding 1 billion, multichannel operations, and Director-level or above responsibilities. The respondents have 17 years of retail experience, on average.

“This study will be essential reading for a wide cross-section of retail supply chain executives seeking insights into the key supply chain trends taking place in retail, including multichannel operations,” said Parag Jategaonkar, senior executive with Accenture’s Retail practice. “Accenture’s own experience with clients indicates an increasing focus amongst retailers on developing their supply chains to more effectively deliver a compelling customer experience, regardless of the channel.”

The most significant takeaway from the report centered on the importance of multichannel operations including fulfillment of .com, mobile, and tablet orders. The report states that electronic ecommerce sales have grown by more than 15 percent to $35.3 billion versus an overall sales growth of 4.1 percent versus the previous year. With predictions that e-commerce sales will grow 10 percent annually, multichannel has become a game changer for retailers. It has also added a new layer of fulfillment complexity that retail SCM executives must manage.
According to the report: Over 85 percent of survey participants indicated that direct consumer fulfillment is a top priority for them and that it is imperative to create a seamless customer experience regardless of the fulfillment channel, order size, origin, or delivery requirement.

“Consumer expectations are changing, and as a result, retail business models are changing,” said Casey Chroust, executive vice president of retail operations. “Traditionally retailers have used separate operational models to move goods and fulfill orders. Now those models need to be merged so that companies can continue to deliver the products consumers want across any channel without losing efficiency or adding cost. This requires advanced integration and innovation and working closely with suppliers and service providers while utilizing technology,” concluded Chroust.
According to the report: In this “anytime, anywhere, any way I choose” environment, supply chain leaders must establish the appropriate mix of fulfillment capabilities. Their networks and processes must be properly aligned with each channel’s order characteristics, inventory profiles, and service requirements.

The report also highlighted the various multichannel challenges facing retailers, including: variation in shipment size, order filling processes and delivery methods as well as the inconsistent SKU assortment of multichannel retailers. Less than 18 percent of the retailers surveyed offer the same SKUs across channels.

When it comes to solutions to the multichannel challenge, the report explored the various technologies that SCM executives are looking at to meet their multi-channel needs. With the complex challenges facing supply chain leaders, utilizing the right technology can mean the difference between mastering multi-channel and succumbing to it.

“The real challenge for today’s multichannel retailer is to become channel agnostic and fulfill demand effectively regardless of order type or origin,” said Brian Gibson, Professor of SCM at Auburn University. “As sales volume grows in nontraditional channels, achievement of technology integration, operational flexibility, and process visibility will separate the leaders from the pack. These capabilities provide the fulfillment agility, accuracy, and cost efficiency needed for multichannel success,” summarized Gibson.

According to the report: experts are recommending distributed order management (DOM) software as a common-sense response to retailers’ multi-channel needs. DOM allows retailers the ability to capture, manage and optimize orders regardless of origin-computer, retailer store, kiosk, or mobile phone. After the order capture, the DOM system identifies the fulfillment facility or channel that will best serve the customer and the retailer.
While not a silver bullet, DOM offers promise for cross-chain visibility, integration and service improvement. Analysis from the report concludes that full utilization of DOM across all fulfillment processes earns the greats cost reductions. DOM also allows customers to shop across all channels with the ability to make returns at any location regardless of where the order was fulfilled.

Other takeaways in the report included insight into supply chain strategy, sourcing practices, the reemergence of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), and emerging challenges in the retail supply chain.

Retail Industry Leaders Association

RILA is the home of the world’s largest and most successful retail companies, whose executives participate in RILA for its unique educational forums, its effective public policy advocacy, and its advancement of the retail industry. RILA membership includes more than 200 member companies – from Abercrombie & Fitch to Walmart – representing more than $1.5 trillion in sales. Through its board of directors, Leaders Councils, committees and working groups, RILA members determine the issues and focus areas for public policy, educational offerings and research. Visit www.rila.org.

Auburn University College of Business

The Supply Chain Management program brings the unchanging values of Auburn University – practical education and research, honesty, and hard work – to a changing world. We actively collaborate with supply chain professionals to ensure that our research, academic degree programs, and industry outreach events effectively reflect current supply chain theory and application. Auburn SCM graduates are well-prepared for the classroom-to-workplace transition and our alumni enjoy successful supply chain careers with retail, manufacturing, 3PL, transportation, and service firms. For additional information, visit www.business.auburn.edu.

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New channels such as social, mobile, and virtual goods create new business models that disrupt and expose the weaknesses and rigidity in existing models. Our research helps guide clients on how to optimize and deploy Matrix Commerce for the right customer audiences. Matrix Commerce extends beyond the sales and customer focus to include management and optimization of supporting sourcing and supply chain facets.

Specific focus of the Matrix Commerce research theme at Constellation Research will be:

> Market landscape of next generation products
> Relevant use cases by customer type
> Nature of Matrix Commerce
> Vendor selection criteria
> Future of Matrix Commerce

Stay tuned for more details as we prepare to launch Matrix Commerce and see summary of the three IBM announcements mentioned above and our POV in relation to Matrix Commerce.

Summary: IBM Completes Acquisition of Emptoris to Expand Smarter Commerce Initiative

“IBM today announced it has completed its acquisition of Emptoris Inc. The acquisition expands IBM’s cloud-based analytics offerings that provide supply chain intelligence leading to better inventory management and cost efficiencies. Emptoris solutions bring more intelligence to procurement and supply chain operations with spend, supplier and contract management for Smarter Commerce. Smarter Commerce helps organizations that are struggling to meet the demands of a rapidly changing market. The acceleration in online connectivity and speed, combined with the explosion of information and unprecedented access to it, is reshaping globally interconnected commerce systems.” Link to the Press Release

Additional capabilities Emptoris brings to IBM’s Smarter Commerce include:

Automation of buying processes allowing companies to respond rapidly to customer demands of new digital marketplace.
Extends Smarter Commerce capabilities to Chief Procurement Officers
Improved supplier management, spend analysis and contract management
Automation of vendor selection, negotiation, management and compliance.
My POV: The emergence of Matrix Commerce means the procurement and sourcing process must become more flexible, rapid and automated, period. Costs, terms, lead times and available delivery format and timing information must be readily available and always up to date. Only in this way can all potential delivery service and pricing options be profitably supported, while at the same time reliably meeting the Perfect Order mandate.

IBM’s acquisition of Emptoris adds these capabilities to their Smarter Commerce offering.

Summary: IBM to Acquire DemandTec to Expand Cloud-Based Analytics for Smarter Commerce

“The acquisition of DemandTec will extend IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative by adding cloud-based price, promotion and other merchandising and marketing analytics to help companies better define the best price points and product mix based on customer buying trends.

Organizations are struggling to meet the demands of rapidly shifting customer buying patterns in the era of mobile and social networks. This new digital marketplace requires companies to be highly responsive to consumer demands on the fly.” See the full Press Release here.

Specific relevant capabilities for Matrix Commerce:

Examine different customer buying scenarios, both online and in-store.
Spot trends and shopper insights to make better price, promotion, and assortment decisions that increase revenue and profitability.
Merchants and suppliers can work together to understand how one shopper segment differs from another to craft the best merchandising plan.

Connect retailers and manufacturers for collaborative planning through the cloud

My POV: Perhaps one of the greatest complexities surrounding the advent of Matrix Commerce is profitable product selection, assortment, promotion and pricing. Never before have manufacturers and merchants of all sorts been faced with such a dynamic and competitive environment. Add to this the unprecedented information access customers now have to instant pricing, promotion and delivery options comparison to complete these aspects of the matrix. By completing the acquisition of Demandtec IBM will be positioned to deploy a collaborative cloud solution for rapid analysis and optimized resolution of these issues.

Summary: Announcement Letter for IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus XE

“IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus XE V7.2 is a packaged decision-support solution for supply chain strategic planning such as network design and sourcing optimization. IBM ILOG LogicNet Plus XE V7.2 enables you to more easily address both strategic and tactical supply chain decisions through enhanced ease of use and improved network design, sourcing optimization, and transportation modeling capabilities.” Link to announcement.

Specific improvements in this release include:

Speedier development of recommendations for more rapid business value and agility.
New navigation structure to understand context and relationships of data tables, for faster model building and scenario comparison.

Introduces first multi-objective optimization technology
More accessible and intuitive solution for effective use by general business analysts.
For more details, see Michael Watson’s blogpost on the Smarter Commerce blog.

My POV: Procurement and pricing are critical components of Matrix Commerce but the supply chain is where the rubber meets the road. The proliferation of customer channels and product sources increases the potential supply chain network and delivery options geometrically. Additionally, the past complexity around supply chain network analysis needs to be simplified allowing more general business analysts to participate in the decision and deployment process. Addition of multi-objective optimization capability will allow the many tradeoffs present in these networks to be optimally sub-optimized across the competing variables of cost, carbon and service present in these increasingly complex scenarios. The LogicTools LogicNet tool was already a quality Supply Chain Network Strategy product in 2007 when acquired by ILOG which company IBM acquired two years later in 2009. With these upgrades and advances IBM has demonstrated their commitment to enhancing and advancing this key component of leading edge Matrix Commerce readiness.

Conclusion:

With these three moves IBM again demonstrates their vision and commitment to meeting the current and future challenges surrounding Matrix Commerce. IBM customers should take comfort as these moves signal ongoing investment and capabilities extension to rapidly meet and respond to emerging commerce complexity. By acquiring and further developing these leading edge solutions this ongoing commitment by IBM has once again been validated. Competitors should be tracking and responding to these commerce shifts to ensure capabilities are in place to address Matrix Commerce. Marketers, merchants and manufacturers need solutions that address the new volatility of the Matrix Commerce environment. Only in this way can they rapidly sense and effectively respond to channel and pricing shifts that may threaten their business. Here at Constellation we are committed to tracking and identifying providers and solutions that will allow merchants and suppliers to most effectively understand and manage Matrix Commerce. Watch this space for upcoming detailed definition, reports and webinars as we continue to build out our Matrix Commerce research theme.

Jeff Ashcroft