MarketWatch

— October 11, 2006

ILOG Creates System for Customizing Optimized Planning and Scheduling Apps
ILOG has developed a system for building customized, optimization-based planning and scheduling applications. The Optimization Decision Management System (ODMS) lets companies create decision-support tools to solve a range of business issues, from near-real-time scheduling to long-term strategic planning. They can perform “what-if” analyses and scenario comparison, clarifying their options and balancing conflicting business goals. The new system eliminates the need to settle for generic applications or Excel-based models that are limited in their ability to devise optimal solutions, ILOG said. ODMS brings together the vendor's various optimization engines, including ILOG CP, a constraint-programming system, and OPL Studio, a modeling tool with specialized application tools. Such tools include ILOG's Optimization Decision Manager, which supports the development of multiple types of optimization-based applications, ranging from strategic planning to detailed scheduling processes. The product supports the complete model and application-development process, starting with quick prototyping through model and application refinement, all the way to deployment and maintenance.
http://www.ilog.com/

Glovia Unveils Hosted Services Unit for Smaller Manufacturers
Glovia International Inc., a vendor of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for manufacturers, has formed a new company to provide hosted applications to manage the operations of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs). The new Glovia Services Inc. is built on the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Its software can support numerous key manufacturing processes, including inventory management, order management, procurement and financial and accounting management. Services will be focused exclusively on the expanding marketplace of smaller manufacturers, Glovia said. SMBs have a growing need for sophisticated manufacturing-management tools that would not otherwise be available to companies with limited I.T. resources and strict budgets, it added. At the same time, Glovia has introduced GSInnovate, software based on the vendor's existing manufacturing application. The comprehensive suite, again aimed at SMBs, supports such critical manufacturing processes as inventory management, bill of material and manufacturing-resource planning, procurement, sourcing and accounting. GSInnovate features a Knowledge Center which houses Glovia's various processes. Glovia International is a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited.
Glovia Services: http://www.gsinnovate.com/
GSInnovate: http://www.gsinnovate.com/

SAP Augments On-Demand CRM; Strengthens Fujitsu Partnership
SAP AG has released the “third wave” of its on-demand software for customer relationship management (CRM). The product allows service managers quickly to consolidate and track service tickets, establish rule-based escalations for fast follow-up, and tighten up on adherence to service-level agreements, the vendor said. Improvements to the SAP Sales system include several new capabilities to improve the identification and pricing of specific product offerings. A new product-support feature allows for the rapid uploading of detailed product data directly into mySAP ERP. Quotation management helps sales staff to assign products to customer quotes, track quotations issued to customers, manage pricing and discounts, and export all quotes to Excel spreadsheets. In another SAP announcement, the vendor has expanded its technology partnership with Fujitsu Limited in the services area. Fujitsu has become an SAP global service partner, the first Japan-based services company to achieve that designation. The two companies will team up globally to market and sell SAP applications based on Fujitsu's platform products and consulting services.
New SAP CRM: http://www.sap.com/
Fujitsu Partnership: http://www.sap.com/

HighJump Debuts Version 9.0 of Supply Chain Advantage Suite
HighJump Software has released version 9.0 of its HighJump Supply Chain Advantage suite of software applications. The new version features improvements in internationalization, support for system readiness, and an updated user interface. HighJump Warehouse Advantage offers support for distribution centers with complex, high-volume parcel-shipping requirements, along with enhancements for cross-docking, inventory moves, purchase-order handling and container picking by voice. Manufacturing Advantage offers a new, Web-based touch-screen user interface, while extending material-flow management to support lean manufacturing methods. Labor Advantage contains updates based on feedback from early adopters of the product. The system displays goal times as well as overall daily performance upon task completion. Transportation Advantage is the product formerly called FreightLogic, acquired by HighJump when it purchased transportation software provider Pinnacle Distribution Concepts Inc. New features help transportation planners to identify orders requiring planning and using user-defined rules. HighJump Software is a 3M company.
http://www.highjumpsoftware.com/

Dassault Upgrades PLM With New Enovia MatrixOne Platform
Dassault Systemes has beefed up the capabilities of its Enovia Matrix One platform for product lifecycle management. Matrix 10, as the latest PLM application is known, includes enhanced support for environmental and material compliance; improved industry-specific tools for the apparel, medical device and automotive industries; the enabling of concurrent printed circuit board development, and the ability to distribute product-development data throughout the organization, including to non-traditional PLM users. On the compliance side, the application helps companies to meet the requirements of new environmental regulations, including the European Union's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE), Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) and End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) directives. “Design for compliance” updates include support for the IPC 1752 regulation, the current industry standard for the exchange of materials declaration data. New vertically oriented elements include enhanced fabric management and seasonal line-planning tools for apparel; a design history file and corrective and preventive action processes for medical device companies, and advanced product-quality planning for automotive suppliers.
http://www.3ds.com/

Four Ocean Carriers Link India, S.E. Asia With U.S. East Coast
Four ocean carriers have joined to offer a new service linking ports in Southeast Asia, India and Sri Lanka with the Mediterranean Sea and U.S. East Coast. The partners are Hanjin Shipping Co., Ltd., Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (“K” Line); Yang Ming Ltd. and United Arab Shipping Co. S.A.G. Dubbed SINA, the new service will have a port rotation of Singapore, Colombo, Nava Shiva, Tundra, Port Said, New York, Norfolk, Savannah, Port Said, Jeddah and Singapore. Transit time in the Nava Shiva (India)-to-New York York market will be 18 days, the lines said. The SINA service is scheduled to commence at the end of November, deploying eight vessels of between 3,500 and 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) each. It will provide weekly, fixed weekday service with each of the four partners contributing two vessels. SINA will serve shippers between the Southeast Asia and U.S. East Coast, as well in as the trade from India to the East Coast.
http://www.hanjin.com/

NGC Offers New Releases of Sourcing, PLM, ERP Software
New Generation Computing (NGC), a vendor of business software for the apparel and sewn products industries, has made major enhancements to its applications, the company said. The action covers NGC's systems for enterprise resource planning (ERP), product lifecycle management (PLM) and global sourcing. The ERP system, RedHorse 2006, features an advanced report-generation tool, enhanced allocation and reservation function, and improvements in screen design. E-PDM 2006, for PLM, has new time and action calendars as well as refinements to product specifications, line-planning, merchandising and costing functions. E-SPS 2006, for global sourcing, includes upgraded quality and logistics modules, with improved requests for quotation (RFQ) and bids, time and action calendars, production tracking and exception management. Together the various products make up NGC's SQL Series, an end-to-end suite of applications. NGC is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Software Inc.
http://www.ngcsoftware.com/

Magenta Offers Ocean Logistics Scheduler for Online Trial
A new ocean logistics scheduling tool is available for trial online from its developer, Magenta Technology. Magenta is a vendor of software for planning, simulation and network design. The applications cover logistics and fleet operations, supply-chain execution, resource allocation, distribution operations, product management, field services and collaborative manufacturing. Magenta's new application for chartering and scheduling uses multi-agent technology to help providers of ocean logistics choose the most profitable deployment of ships and cargo. The Ocean i-Scheduler allows users to cope with unexpected circumstances, and operate from optimized schedules in markets where freight rates and costs fluctuate significantly. Carriers can assess potential cargoes and match them against their vessels' specifications, for an accurate calculation of voyage profitability. The tool allows for re-planning so that users can employ the most advantageous schedule for a given moment. The software checks against constraints for vessels and ports, then performs all calculations for distance, sailing times, consumption and draught, to produce suitable options for each event.
http://www.magenta-technology.com/

ERP Edition of TerraTrace Is Now Available From Archetype
Archetype, Inc., a supporter of remote wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) data communications, has released the enterprise resource planning (ERP) edition of its TerraTrace system for satellite tracking. The product tracks and monitors mobile assets, issuing real-time location and status information. It utilizes a small, onboard GPS/GSM transmitter which communicates position coordinates and other sensor data to a secure data center. The information is then made available to authorized users via a secure internet connection. According to Archetype, TerraTrace integrates seamlessly with all major ERP platforms, including SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, IBM and Hewlett-Packard, as well as industry-specific software suites. The system can be configured with tiered permission settings for “need-to-know” information levels; the Web-based interface can be customized to meet a company's specific requirements and formats. TerraTrade ERP Edition can also be integrated into a company's Hours-of-Service (HOS) monitoring program for truck drivers.
http://www.archetypecorp.com/

Terra Tech Issues Latest Version of Real-Time Forecaster
Terra Technology has made generally available version 3.5 of its Real-Time Forecasting software. According to the vendor, the new release improves forecast accuracy for large consumer products companies with complex global supply chains. The application combines real-time data and advanced mathematics to cut forecast error. It features flexible modeling to accurately forecast for holidays in the U.S. and abroad. The software also has the ability to analyze history for patterns that reflect promotions, and derive promotional volume when no actual promotional data is available. Users can allocate forecasts for generic items when more than one SKU is selling for any of those items at a time. Real-Time Forecasting offers easy integration with SAP, allowing for implementation in 90 days for SAP users, Terra Technology said.
http://www.terratechnology.com/

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