IDII News - New Website Features

• NEW Edition 7 - October 2002 - IDII Warehouse & Logistics Software Directory. Click here to order. It lists 340 companies that provide over 900 solutions. Highly focused on warehouse management systems and software related to the warehouse - such as labor management, slotting optimization, shipping systems, load optimization, and more! Indexed by operating system, database, and software categories.
• Short List of Educational Publications on Warehousing, Inventory, Supply Chain. These are educational and had to pass our litmus test of being worthy of our time (and yours)!
  
  

• NEW White Papers
• New - The Human Side of WMS Installation by Catherine Cooper - Excellent
• New - Understanding the Software Contracts Process - Excellent
• New - RFID Raises the Bar - Great Article
• New - Demand Chain Optimization: Pitfalls and Key Principles - Excellent
• New - Supply Chain Event Management, Function or Just Another Buzzword? - Excellent
• New - The Green Mile - Yard Management Systems - Excellent
  
  
• White Papers Announced In Last Newsletter
• New - Ultimate Enterprise Value Creation Using Demand Based Management - Excellent
• New - Bar Code Users and Their Performance - Very Good
• New - Guide to Scanning Technologies - Very Good
  

Software Company News

• American Software (ERP, MRP, Parent company of Logility, Nasdaq: AMSWA) expanded its operations in Central America via E-soft company for the company's Shop-Floor Control and Full-Package Management Software. Working in partnership with E-Soft, a company that provides technology consulting services to apparel producers and full-package providers in Central America, New Generation Computing, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software, has added sales representatives, programmers and project implementation and support personnel to service new and existing customers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Belize. The expansion comes at a time that the demand in Central America for two of New Generation Computing's software products -- TPM, or The Production Manager, and FPM, or Full Package Management System -- has increased over the past few years that the company and E-Soft have worked together.
  
  
• Anisa Group (ERP, Unix, MPEi/X, Windows, 300 customers) has acquired the RIVAStore warehouse management system (WMS) business from azurri.. The deal is for the total WMS business including software, staff and customer base and further strengthens Anisa Group's ERP software solution "Open Business Solutions". RIVAStore is a warehouse management solution (WMS) having established a customer base, which includes Eli Lilly, Christian Salvesen, Hozelock, Allied Carpets and Rosebys. Open Business Solutions will now support azurri’s customers providing them with an ongoing future strategy for WMS solutions.
  
  
• AquiTec (WMS) and Voxware, Inc., a supplier of voice-based solutions announced they are integrating their technologies to provide customers with a voice-enabled solution to increase accuracy and productivity in warehouse operations. Under the terms of the agreement, AquiTec's SCM/400tm and SCM/etm products will be integrated with Voxware's VoiceLogisticstm, a user-wearable, wireless, web-based speech interface that streamlines fulfilment and distribution operations. The integrated solution will use audio instructions to direct activities of warehouse and distribution centre workers, and allow these workers to use spoken responses to provide data directly back to AquiTec's products. It will work alongside SCM/400's Radio Frequency functionality to support real-time inventory.
  
  
• Baan (PDM, SRM, Optimization) Adds SRM Capabilities With iBaan Sourcing Launch and iBaan E-Procurement Enhancements. With the Baan solutions for SRM, businesses can:

  - Analyze their spend and supply base as well as their product lifecycle and production needs
  - Plan commodity, procurement and supplier management strategies
  - Source raw materials, components, goods, services and capital equipment with an emphasis on obtaining best total cost
  - Procure items from negotiated contracts to sustain savings
  - Measure supplier performance and contract compliance while tracking savings

• EXE Technologies Inc., (WMS, Optimization, 3PL, Nasdaq:EXEE) has introduced EXceed(TM) Warehouse Planner, a logistics workflow analysis program that increases order fill rates by optimizing a company's use of manual and automated fulfillment resources.

• An increasing number of variables in the fulfillment process make it difficult for businesses to ensure efficient order collection and distribution. Labor forecasting, demand surges and order priority can unbalance workloads and cause bottlenecks, slowing the shipment of customer orders. To better manage this situation, Warehouse Planner rapidly performs "what if" analysis against the backlog of shipment orders, accounting for available resources and organizing the workflow process to enhance order throughput and resource utilization.

• Irista, Inc. (WMS, TMS) highlights the latest features of their iristaWare™ 8.3 release. New capabilities of the iristaWare suite include:
  Enhanced Expiration and Incubation Processing: iristaWarehouse has added new inventory allocation strategies for companies requiring ‘Allocation Windows’ to meet customer requirements for expiration controlled products. In conjunction with these new allocation strategies, the control of incubated product may now be automated including the ability to ship product while still in an incubation state.
  Automated Inventory Control Functions: Warehouse personnel may now further automate cycle counting programs and replenishment strategies for their warehouse. Using the new filtering and scheduling functions, cycle counts and replenishments are created automatically based on user determined parameters.
  New FedEx® Capabilities: iristaTransport’s shipment execution module embeds FedEx’s 6.11 Powership™ server functionality into the iristaTransport shipping application, eliminating the need for a separate Powership server. This release includes updates to compliance labels and manifests to support FedEx US Origin to US. New capabilities include global messaging to support FedEx Express and Ground Services including Home Delivery.
  iristaTransport Announces support for UPS® Host Access: This allows high volume shippers or
  shippers with multiple locations to centralize their UPS rating, routing guides, and electronic manifesting while distributing the printing of shipping documentation and compliance labels. This approach simplifies contract maintenance, improves performance, and integrates UPS tracking capabilities at an enterprise level. In addition, customers can take advantage of Centralized PLD (Package Level Detail) upload to UPS along with Simplified Format Manifesting (SPF).
  Enhanced LTL and Truckload Planning Functions: iristaTransport’s planning module includes new features to improve the planning of LTL and Truckload shipments including: the ability to maintain NMF classes by carton, as well as freight cost allocation routines that factor in both weight and freight cost, have been added. Additional flexibility has also been added to support upcharge functionality by customer.
  Expanded Technology Certification: iristaWare’s technology stack has been upgraded and certified to support Windows2000™, Oracle 9i™ and JAVA 1.3™. In addition, Irista’s XML based integration layer has been enhanced to include support for a JAVA Message Service (JMS) Adapter providing a “plug and play” environment with leading Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) products such as IBM’s Websphere® MQ, SeeBeyond’s e*Gate™ Integrator and TIBCO Enterprise™ for JMS. This release also supports Open Application Group Inc.’s (OAGI®) version 7 Business Object Documents (BODs) including full Data Type Dictionary (DTD) compliance.
  
  
• Prophesy Transportation Solutions, Inc. recently announced the release of ShipperMailTM version 2.1. ShipperMail 2.1 is a comprehensive transportation management system designed to facilitate the movement of bulk mail and small parcels from point of origin to all U.S. Postal Facilities and including BMCs, SCFs, ASFs and DDUs. Built upon the company’s ShipperPlusTM software, and developed with input from key mail distribution companies, ShipperMail allows users to build loads quickly and flexibly, and route them as far into the postal system as possible to maximize savings.
  
  
• Provia Software (WMS, TMS) Announces Windows 2000 Version of ViaWare WMS. Available December 15, Provia's Windows 2000 WMS has exactly the same robust functionality as the company's powerful Unix-based product because the same source code is used for both versions. By offering the same WMS product for both Unix and Windows 2000, Provia is delivering a standard, scaleable and database independent solution capable of meeting the needs of the most demanding WMS environments.

  "For companies with advanced WMS requirements such as wave building, labor planning, task management, advanced kitting, automatic replenishment, compliance labeling, serial number/catch weight capture, cross docking, cluster/batch picking, and cycle counting, Provia's ViaWare WMS for Windows 2000 is up to the task," said Ken Lewis, Provia president and CEO. "Because we use the same source code for both platforms, the Windows 2000 version has already essentially been tested in the field by our current Unix customers. With Provia, there are none of the 'new' product concerns for prospects looking for a full-featured Windows 2000 WMS. The only difference between this version and our Unix version is the platform."

• SuSE Linux and SAP AG (ERP, NYSE ADR: SAP) announced a global technology partnership. SuSE is the first Linux enterprise operating system to enable SAP clients worldwide to run SAP's leading e-business applications on Linux.
  
  
• Syspro (ERP, CRM, MRP) Unveils New Brand and New Software Release. Both the company and product will be recognized as "Syspro". New in SYSPRO 6.0 are:
  Business Analytics enables users to create multi-dimensional views of their financial and operational data. Business Analytics includes a series of data mining cubes to produce dynamic, general and enterprise specific metrics, ratios and analyses. An administrator toolset allows for the manipulation of the cube(s) to suit customer requirements without any special On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP) knowledge.
  The Document Flow Manager allows a company to automate business processes and build communication infrastructures that facilitate seamless collaborative commerce. The Document Flow Manager automates the flow of business transactions as they electronically arrive at a company in a document format defined using XML. Inbound and outbound transactions can be tracked and posted directly and automatically into and from the ERP system.
  SYSPRO CRM closes the gap between the front office and the back office by integrating all activities without duplicating input. With SYSPRO CRM sales, market and customer support operations work collaboratively to achieve total customer satisfaction. SYSPRO CRM offers powerful synchronization features and web tools to facilitate remote and off-line access via browser, laptop and web-enabled portable or handheld PDA devices.
  SYSPRO APS provides planners with an easy-to-use finite scheduling tool aimed at improving lead times, increasing production flexibility, reducing inventory levels and speeding delivery times.
  Enhancements to nearly all-existing SYSPRO modules. For example, SYSPRO 6.0 incorporates a Report Writer that now produces documents in XML format.
  

Quotes to Ponder - List of Quotes to Ponder from prior issues.

• "You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today."
  - Abraham Lincoln
  

• "Do not be among those who give pledges, among those who become sureties for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take your bed from under you?"
  - Proverbs 22:26-27
  

• The Stanford Global Supply Chain Management Forum is a leading research institute in partnership with industry and the School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business at Stanford University that advances the theory and practice of excellence in global supply chain management. See http://www.stanford.edu/group/scforum/
• XML Standards - FREE - RosettaNet - PIP - http://www.rosettanet.org/pipdirectory and http://www.rosettanet.org/rnif.
  

Online Book Catalog - Intuitive Categories

Books on Shipping, Warehousing, Distribution, Operations, WMS, ERP, MRP, CRM, Supply Chain, Customer Service, Logistics, Facility Layout & Design, Metrics & Measurements, and books on software solution providers SAP, Peoplesoft.

"Warehouse & Logistics Software Directory" Order From Amazon or IDII

"Value Stream Management" Order From Amazon

"Lean Performance ERP Project Management" - Implementing the Virtual Supply Chain" Order From Amazon

"Supply Chain Management Based on SAP Systems" Order From Amazon

"ADVANCED WMS RFI Search Bundle" Available from IDII only
Obal, Philip	Advanced Version is available only from IDII

Valuable Future Events in 2002 - List Your Event or Convention

ProMat 2003 - February 10 - 13, 2003. ProMat 2003 will provide business, IT and operations professionals with a comprehensive solutions showcase of 700 exhibitors and nearly 80 educational sessions. Focus is Material Handling and Software. See http://www.promat2003.com

Valuable Future Events in 2003 - List Your Event or Convention

National Conference on Operations & Fulfillment (NCOF) - April 13 - 16, 2003 - Orlando, FL. The Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Exhibits: April 14 and 15 The Conference Exclusively for Direct-to-Customer Operations and Fulfillment Management.