HighJump Software Archives

Guest Commentary: Three Reasons We’re all Moving to the Cloud

Cloud/Software-as-a-Service | By Chuck Fuerst • 09/19/2013

Did you buy something with a credit card today? Are you working from a location other than your company’s headquarters? Did you check your bank account online this morning or download a file housed in an online data storage service? These are all examples of how we live our daily personal and professional lives in the cloud, often without even realizing it. Our data is stored in a secure location not physically near us, and the appropriate systems exchange our data seamlessly so that we can move through the day smoothly and efficiently.

The supply chain and logistics worlds are no different. An increasing number of companies are embracing the move to cloud-based versions of software and systems – and the adoption rate is accelerating. Warehouse management systems (WMS) in the cloud are an important part of this shift, and several analysts firms agree that growth in the cloud-based WMS market will continue to accelerate in the next several years. With a cloud-based WMS, the customer gains the functional benefits of a new WMS without the up-front costs or IT drain, plus implementation times are much shorter because there is no lengthy installation process. If the cloud-based WMS’ functionality and R&D investment are focused on the same code base as the vendor’s on-premise tier 1 solution (which they should be), you benefit from the same product enhancements and new features regardless of which deployment model you select.

In addition to the functional benefits, more companies will be moving their WMS to the cloud for three major reasons: Recent leaps in WMS innovation, the ability of a cloud-based system to scale to the needs for a business, and our society’s comfort with communicating sensitive information via remote systems. Let’s look at these reasons in more detail:

WMS innovation: Maybe you don’t need all of the bells and whistles of a full-scale WMS. No problem. The WMS market is more accessible than ever for small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), thanks to versions that provide the key features needed to quickly deliver ROI, including the tracking and visibility of inbound orders, directed put-away, variety of picking methods, shipping, directed replenishment and inventory control. And with a cloud-based service, a company can add more complex capabilities as demands warrant without implementing a new platform or searching for a new WMS.

Scaling the cloud: You may need certain functionality today, but you’ll likely have different needs down the road. Many of today’s cloud-based WMS systems come with adaptability tools, from architecture that allows you to customize the WMS to fit your business to app stores that provide a collection of new workflows that can be easily downloaded and installed, eliminating the time and cost associated with going through a vendor for changes. You can also scale up or down a cloud-based system, allowing you to access more power or less to adjust for seasonal spikes and changes in demand.

Everyone else is doing it: As I noted above, we’ve already moved significant and sensitive areas of our lives to the cloud. Market-leading, certified vendors provide extremely high levels of data security, often surpassing your own internal IT department’s standards. Not to mention being able to forgo the up-front cost and security investment in new servers, storage, and additional software that comes with managing your own deployment. So if your money and your employees don’t have to physically be in the same room with you in order to be successful, why does your WMS?

Today’s WMS is adaptable, scalable and secure. I have no doubt that the speed at which we are seeing our customers adopt a cloud-based WMS will only accelerate and reflect analysts’ predictions that more of our lives will be moving to the cloud.

Chuck Fuerst is the director of product strategy at HighJump Software. He has more than 15 years of experience in the technology market, working for supply chain and ERP software companies to deliver innovative solutions. Chuck is responsible for monitoring supply chain industry and technology trends and identifying ways to enhance the value of products for HighJump’s customers. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing management and innovation from Concordia University.

This Week in Logistics News (August 19-23, 2013)

This Week in News | By Adrian Gonzalez • 08/23/2013

I went to Home Depot earlier this week to return a purchase, and the customer in front of me wanted to exchange a defective power tool with the same model, but he couldn’t find any on the shelf even though the store’s inventory system said 5 units were in stock.

For all the talk about Big Data, omni-channel fulfillment, and other sexy technology, at the end of the day, bad data (and in many cases, store-level execution) remains the Achilles heel of supply chain management.

Here’s the news that caught my attention from the past two weeks:

JDA Software announced the latest release of its supply chain planning suite, which is comprised of more than 20 applications. New innovations include inline analytics, process-driven workflows, packaged event-response levers, consolidated demand signals and in-memory technologies. Here’s some additional details about inline analytics:

JDA’s latest supply chain planning suite introduces inline analytics, the next generation of analytics that go beyond visibility to offer diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics that provide the “why”, “what if” and “what’s optimal” insights necessary to take action. With analytics embedded within the processing platform, planners can respond to changes and resolve disruptions immediately. This approach allows organizations to reduce supply chain risk and potential customer dissatisfaction, versus traditional analytics that require postmortem analysis to determine root cause.

Embedding analytics within the processing platform is certainly the ideal way to enable users to make smarter decisions faster. However, not all insights and intelligence reside in a database. The missing link, in my opinion, is the ability for users to tap into the insights, advice, and experience of their peers to aid in the decision-making process. In other words, the next frontier is to integrate social networking capabilities within the user interfaces of supply chain management applications (for related commentary, see “A Pulse on Social Networking for Supply Chain Management”).

Meanwhile, Manhattan Associates announced the 2013 release of its Inventory Optimization solution, “which provides customized, automated inventory optimization strategies designed to address a customer’s specific business issues and objectives.” According to the press release, Nature’s Best decreased labor costs by 66 percent and increased inventory accuracy by 14 percent after implementing the solution. Here’s a quote from Russell Parker, senior vice president of marketing, brand management, and inbound logistics at Nature’s Best:

“The software does all the heavy lifting. It does the thinking. It does the analysis. It updates itself. It reviews and discards outlying data. It recommends changes for everything from forecasts to order frequency.”

Going back to my Home Depot experience, too bad the software can’t go into the backroom of a retail store and restock an empty shelf. But maybe a robot can in the future.

On the 3PL front, Ryder announced that it is introducing new transportation and logistics solutions for the oil and gas industry, including customized Dedicated Fleets, Transportation Management, and fleet Leasing and Rental services. This is another example of how 3PLs can differentiate themselves in the market by integrating their services into industry-specific solutions — especially for industries that are growing and generally underserved by other providers. According to the press release, Ryder already serves clients in the oil and gas industry. “For example, the company manages all port deliveries to support 18 offshore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for a major oil company, with 61 dedicated drivers and a network of transportation partners. Its Control Tower solution for an equipment and supplies provider includes on-site staff in Houston, Oklahoma and Louisiana executing more than 75,000 truckloads per year.”

Innovation in logistics also occurs outside the realm of bits and bytes, as Con-way Manufacturing’s announcement this week demonstrates. At the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, the company unveiled the Kevin Rutherford Signature Series Trailer that features “advanced options not found on standard models available to owner operators, including the SmartTruck UT6Plus UnderTray System to reduce aerodynamic drag and improve fuel economy.” Here are some additional details from the press release:

[The trailer also includes] a Meritor™ suspension with disc brakes and MicroBlue® bearings. The trailer is also fitted with a Fusion Floor™ by HAVCO™ and Michelin® X One® XTA® single-wide tires. Together, these features reduce the weight of a standard trailer by 400 pounds, contributing to impressive fuel efficiency numbers and significantly exceeding the EPA’s requirements for SmartWay certification.

Is it me or did summer go by too fast this year? Time to enjoy the remaining days of sun and warmth. Have a happy weekend!

Song of the Week: “Pompeii” by Bastille

Note: HighJump Software, JDA Software, Manhattan Associates, and Ryder are Logistics Viewpoints sponsors.

This Week in Logistics News (July 15-19, 2013)

Mergers-Acquistions | By Adrian Gonzalez • 07/19/2013

I passed on spending $1100 to fix my car A/C, so I’ve been driving around with the windows down this summer. When you have Cuban blood, 99 degrees is nothing to complain about (although I reserve the right to change my mind).

In this week’s news, new products and services and a couple of acquisitions top the list.

Con-way Freight announced this week that it has enhanced its Mexico service offering with the introduction of real-time, door-to-door online tracking, a 24-hour Customer Resource Center and new web tools for tendering and managing shipments moving to and from Mexico. As I’ve commented in previous postings, if you are a 3PL or transportation company and you’re not involved in cross-border shipping with Mexico, then you are missing out on a growing business opportunity (see Reuters article from December 2012). Based on the comment below from the press release, Con-way is making these enhancements in response to increased customer demand for Mexico services:

A recent survey of Con-way’s customers showed that with increased NAFTA traffic, and more manufacturing being shifted from Asia to Mexico, the provision of fast, efficient and simplified services, coupled with enhanced door-to-door visibility to shipments, is increasingly a requirement for today’s fast-response demand cycles.

On the technology front, LLamasoft announced the release of Data Services, “a new offering that provides reference and benchmark data to LLamasoft customers and others in the supply chain design community…[this data] enables significant reduction in model building time and validates model outputs against realistic standards.” Here are some additional details from the press release:

Data Services data sets will include mode-specific transportation costs and transit times, facilities cost estimates, demographics, risk metrics, duties and taxes, sustainability metrics and others. Users can access Data Services initially through an Excel macro interface with future direct connections planned to LLamasoft supply chain modeling software such as Supply Chain Guru and Transportation Guru, or through a Web-based interface. Source data is a combination of reference and benchmark data from third parties as well as econometric models and formulas.

Meanwhile, Oracle announced the general availability of two new Oracle In-Memory Applications for Oracle Value Chain Planning: Oracle In-Memory Consumption-Driven Planning and Oracle In-Memory Performance-Driven Planning. According to the press release:

Oracle In-Memory Consumption-Driven Planning helps organizations understand and respond on a daily basis to true end-customer demand thus helping to reduce bullwhip effect and to improve on-shelf availability and inventory turns.

Oracle In-Memory Performance-Driven Planning helps organizations analyze and plan massive amounts of supply chain data and get better, more timely business insights to simulate multiple real-time scenarios in order to improve decision making and reduce risk.

The merging of supply chain software and trading partner connectivity continues, with HighJump Software announcing this week that it has acquired Evenex, a provider of business-to-business integration solutions. Evenex has “over 3,000 customers exchanging more than 375,000,000 documents every year and is the leading and preferred business-to-business integration provider in Denmark.”

Last-mile logistics is a niche segment of the 3PL market that is starting to heat up, as evidenced by XPO Logistics’ announced acquisition of Atlanta-based 3PD — “the largest non-asset, third party provider of heavy goods, last-mile logistics in North America” — for about $365 million. Here are some additional details from the press release:

3PD reported year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA1 of 20 percent and 36 percent for the full year 2012 and the first five months of 2013, respectively; and trailing 12 months revenue of $319 million through May 31, 2013.

3PD provides blue chip retailers with customized solutions tailored to their supply chain needs, and serves small and mid-sized shippers by matching them to carriers on a transactional basis. The business has differentiated itself through its ability to assure a superb customer experience using proprietary technology and industry-leading process management.

And finally, UPS raised a red flag by lowering its full-year EPS expectations. “Overcapacity in the global air freight market, increasing customer preference for lower-yielding shipping solutions, and a slowing U.S. industrial economy drove revenue and operating profit below expectations [in Q2 2013],” said the company in the press release. “In addition, UPS experienced some slowing in package volume growth as a result of labor negotiations.”

Will the growing trend of retailers fulfilling online orders from stores negatively impact UPS and FedEx in the future? A Reuters article published this week raises this question, and it includes the following quote from Joel Anderson, president of walmart.com:

“We are at least two zones closer [to the customer] by utilizing the stores,” Anderson said. “The closer we can inject the order into our network, the more this saves the customer time and reduces what it will cost us to get it to the customer.”

I wonder if Mr. Anderson is factoring in the difference in labor costs between stores and distribution centers in his calculation, as well as the cost of transporting the goods to the stores in the first place.

And with that, have a happy weekend!

Song of the Week: “Safe and Sound” by Capital Cities.

This Week in Logistics News (June 24-28, 2013)

Pharma & Life Sciences | By Adrian Gonzalez • 06/28/2013

Another crazy Friday morning, now with the kids out of school, so let’s go straight to this week’s news:

Retailers and small and midsize businesses (SMBs) – the two market segments supply chain and logistics software vendors are hyper-focused on these days. This week, for example, JDA announced enhancements to its workforce management (WFM) and all-channel commerce solutions that enable retailers “to simplify and automate retail execution, as well as unify their associates, to create and deliver a seamless and superior customer experience across all shopping channels while maintaining a consistent brand vision.” You can read the press release for more details, but here’s an excerpt about the enhancements made to JDA Workforce Management:

JDA Workforce Management includes a mobility platform that allows retailers to mobilize their workforce across the enterprise to drive sales, increase employee engagement and reduce time spent on administrative tasks.

Available in this latest software release, JDA’s workforce management solution includes the following workforce mobility applications: JDA Mobile Employee Connect, JDA Mobile Operations Connect, JDA Mobile Shift Connect and JDA Mobile Manager Connect. Functionality offered through these mobile applications includes: time and attendance, operations and reporting, dashboards and KPIs for managers, employee shift pickups and swaps for unplanned schedule changes, and more.

Meanwhile, HighJump Software announced that it has updated HighJump Warehouse Advantage Express, its warehouse management system (WMS) specifically designed for small and mid-sized wholesale distribution operations. HighJump Warehouse Advantage Express is built upon the same technology as its tier one HighJump Warehouse Advantage solution. Here are some details from press release:

The HighJump Warehouse Advantage Express WMS is affordably priced for small and mid-sized distribution operations. It provides the key warehouse management features needed to quickly deliver ROI, including the tracking and visibility of inbound orders, directed put-away, variety of picking methods, shipping, directed replenishment and inventory control.

The WMS can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise. Companies can purchase only the functionality they need, then add more complex features and modules as needed over time.

On the logistics service provider front, FedEx announced that it is buying 1,900 lightweight, composite-body Reach vehicles from Utilimaster, a division of Spartan Motors. According to the press release, “The Reach van, with its four-cylinder, 3.0-liter Isuzu diesel engine, demonstrates a 35% fuel efficiency improvement over traditional vehicles in the FedEx Express fleet. The lower-weight body design, along with the engine, allows every Reach to significantly reduce fuel consumption and exhaust emissions compared to conventional walk-in vans.” This purchase is part of the company’s efforts to improve the fuel efficiency of its vehicle fleet 30 percent by 2020 (compared to 2005).

One way for 3PLs to differentiate themselves in the market is to specialize — that is, go deep in meeting the unique requirements of a vertical industry. A great example is what UPS has been doing in the healthcare industry — an industry that was relatively late to logistics outsourcing, but is now a growth market (see “Understanding Why Companies Outsource Logistics”). This week UPS launched UPS Proactive Response Secure, “a proactive shipment monitoring and risk management solution…[that] helps ensure time-and temperature-sensitive shipments reach their destinations and guarantees up to the retail value, in addition to other costs, when unexpected events occur – including weather delays.” According to the press release, the solution provides “round-the-clock, 24/7 proactive monitoring and intervention services” and “leverages proactive technology to provide continuous visibility into potential delivery disruptions in near real time to ensure successful product delivery.”

When you consider that a single pallet of a high-value pharmaceutical drug can be worth millions of dollars, UPS must have a lot of confidence in its technology, processes, and people to offer such a guarantee, and I’m sure the cost of the service takes into account the risk the company is assuming.

Last week, I provided my perspective on the future trucking. This week, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) released the latest edition of U.S. Freight Forecast to 2024, which projects an overall increase in freight volumes for all modes of more than 20 percent and an increase in the amount of freight moved by trucks. According to the forecast, overall freight revenue will grow by 63.6 percent to $1.3 trillion annually in 2024 and trucking will see its share of those revenue rise to 81 percent from 80.7 percent in 2012. Truckload volumes will grow 3.2 percent through 2018 and 1.1 percent annually between 2019 and 2024, and intermodal rail will continue to be the fastest growing freight mode, growing an average of 5.1 percent a year until 2018 then slowing moderately to 4.8 percent annually through 2024.

I have a hard time predicting what’s going to happen next month, never mind 11 years from now, especially with so many moving parts involved (the global economy, regulations, geopolitical issues, and so on). But it’s an educated guess nonetheless.

Finally, last October I wrote that the most significant problem facing 3PLs and shippers was a shortage of supply chain and logistics talent. 3PLs are starting to take action, as evidenced by this week’s announcement by Menlo Worldwide Logistics that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Temasek Polytechnic, a tertiary education institution in Singapore, to establish new scholarship program for students pursuing careers in logistics and supply chain management. Here are some details from the press release:

Under the programme, Menlo has established four annual scholarships of S$2,500 each. The scholarships will be awarded to selected students in their third and final year of study at Temasek Polytechnic who are pursing Diploma in the School of Operations and Logistics Management.

The programme includes a three-month internship at a Menlo facility for each scholarship recipient, enabling the students to gain real-world, hands-on experience in logistics operations as they pursue completion of their studies. Upon graduation, and with the recommendation of their internship mentor at Menlo, graduates will be considered for full-time employment opportunities with Menlo.

And with that, have a happy weekend!

Song of the Week: “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis

Note: HighJump Software, JDA Software, and Menlo Worldwide Logistics are Logistics Viewpoints sponsors.

Guest Commentary: How Do You Tackle Big Data?

Guest Commentary | By Chuck Fuerst • 06/06/2013

There are a lot of hot topics swirling around the supply chain industry right now, but one that seems to be permeating almost every discussion is “big data.” And big data is big: Put simply, it’s the collection and integration of massive amounts of information that can’t be processed using traditional data processing applications. This could include everything from inventory details to customer emails to fulfillment statistics. Just the thought of working with and integrating massive amounts of data is daunting, let alone accomplishing it. But if we take a step back for a moment and appreciate what the exercise can do for our organization, we can approach tackling big data the same way the old saying goes about eating an elephant: one bite at a time.

In other words, don’t worry about integrating massive amounts of information across your entire company. Instead, look at what is possible and then determine what is practical. Start by choosing one or two targeted processes to focus on and gather the data accordingly. Here are some key steps to consider when starting an operations plan involving big data:

Start small. Yes, this sounds contradictory in a big data exercise, but taking on too many processes or departments will only create confusion and frustration. Instead, work closely with business counterparts across the organization to discover what types of information would improve business outcomes and where that information might come from. Identify the source(s) and frequency of the data to integrate. This includes key reports, vendor profiles, customer ordering habits, DC locations, inventory levels and more.
Determine who needs to know what. Have a clear understanding of which key pieces of information would benefit which individuals, and when they need to know it in order to make timely decisions.
Determine whether technical solutions for the selected business ideas exist. If so, decide on the appropriate solution based on the complexity of the data.
Execute with the right team and a realistic timeline.

With the exponential growth of data and the increasing complexity of decisions in the extended supply chain, companies can no longer rely on manual analysis in decision making. One of the significant barriers to succeeding with big data will be the ability to ask the right questions and use the right technologies to get the answers. Unfortunately, there is not one technique or technological solution, but an approach that relies on a wide variety of tools, methods and often new skill sets to support decision making across the supply chain. You must have a very clear understanding of what you are trying to accomplish or what problem you are trying to solve.

It is too easy to get lost trying to find your way through a large jungle of data. Make sure you develop a solid plan, get buy-in from the right people and have a definition around the value you can generate from the data. Big data doesn’t have to be daunting, but it often has to be addressed in small steps to help increase the chances of buy-in, follow through and ultimately reaching your objectives.

This Week in Logistics News (May 20-24, 2013)

Retail | By Adrian Gonzalez • 05/24/2013

I’m still recovering from my red-eye flight back from Las Vegas earlier this week. Sleep deprivation was a small price to pay to get home in time for my son’s “moon-bounce-in-my-backyard” birthday party. Take a huge plastic structure, fill it with air, and toss a group of 8-year olds in it — a recipe for hours of ear-piercing fun and laughter. Luckily, no tears were shed, and no bones were broken. I’m now wondering if the same recipe would work for my birthday party. What would happen if you tossed a bunch of forty-somethings in a moon bounce?

While you think about that, here’s the news that caught my attention this week:

I was in Vegas for Manhattan Associates’ Momentum 2013 User Conference, where I moderated a shipper-carrier discussion panel (more on that in a future posting). The theme for this year’s conference was Supply Chain Commerce, “the evolution of digital technology in bringing customers and supply chains closer than ever before.” Among the announcements this week was the release of Manhattan’s Store Inventory and Fulfillment solution, “which transforms store locations into efficient, omni-channel fulfillment centers.” Here are some details from the press release:

Store Inventory Fulfillment enables a store associate to execute pick-up-in-store, ship-from-store and store-to-store transfer tasks entirely on a mobile device, while interacting with customers on the store floor. In another industry-leading development, the new release includes One-Step Receive and Reserve, which allows store associates to take receipt of and hold site-to-store and store-to-store deliveries for online customers who have chosen to pick up their orders in-store – all with a single step on a mobile device.

In addition, the new release includes Store Operations Intelligence, a reporting and visibility component purpose-built for the omni-channel store manager…Store Operations Intelligence provides greater visibility by surfacing actionable, relevant, and real-time information to the store manager regarding on-going fulfillment and inventory activities in their store.

As I’ve joked before, if you’re in any industry other than retail and CPG, you’re not feeling much love these days from software vendors, the media, and analysts. All the buzz is about omni-channel fulfillment and consumers shopping online with their smartphones and tablets, and store associates walking around with their smartphones and tablets too.

Also this week, HighJump Software released a new version of its product suite, Supply Chain Advantage 12.0. According to the press release:

The HighJump Supply Chain Advantage 12.0 features track and trace enhancements, including new reports that provide greater visibility into inventories to help speed product recalls and support accurate returns processing. Furthermore, the latest version supports an expanded portfolio of configurable voice solutions, including distribution voice-enabled workflow for areas such as picking, receiving and replenishment.

The enriched interface and streamlined navigation allow applications to respond more swiftly and nimbly to the user’s needs than ever before: customers will see up to a 75 percent reduction in network bandwidth over previous versions. It has also expanded beyond Internet Explorer to support all major desktop browsers. In addition, the interface includes new formatting controls to rapidly reformat and rearrange data, as well as the ability to navigate even more quickly between pieces of information.

On the social front, Infor announced this week a Social Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) model, “an innovative approach to sync compartmentalized facets of communication across the S&OP process on a real-time basis” powered by Infor Ming.le, the company’s platform for social collaboration, business process improvement and contextual analytics. You can read the press release for additional details. I haven’t seen a demo of the solution, but I strongly believe that social tools are ideal for people-to-people communication and collaboration, which is at the heart of the S&OP process (see “Want a Fast-Response Supply Chain? Facilitate People-to-People Communication”). The main challenge is not the technology, but getting people to use it. Change management — i.e., “Why is doing it this new way better than the way I currently do it?” — remains a big hurdle to broader adoption of social networking solutions (see “Why Companies Aren’t Using Social Media for Supply Chain Management”).

One more thought: Are software vendors going to start adding the word “social” to all of their solutions, just like they added “e-” back in the dot-com era? Will we see Social TMS, Social WMS, Social Demand Planning? It wouldn’t surprise me, but if you believe (like I do) that social capabilities will become ubiquitous in enterprise applications, eventually the word will get dropped, and social business will just be business again, just like e-business evolved back to business.

And with that, have a great holiday weekend!

Song of the Week: “Why Can’t I Be You?” by The Cure

Note: HighJump Software, Manhattan Associates, and SAP are Logistics Viewpoints sponsors.

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