Event
Summary
In October and November, interBiz, the eBusiness applications division
of Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA), expanded
its back-office solutions with the announcement of product enhancements
and a free benchmarking service. The announcements were:
- A free
benchmarking service for businesses in durable goods industries
- General
availability of MK Manufacturing version 8.4
- Premium
Services Plans which provide maintenance for modifications
and the migration of modifications to new versions of interBiz software
applications
This, Part
One of a two-part note, discusses these announcements and their Market
Impact. Part Two will discuss the Challenges faced by interBiz and make
User Recommendations.
Free
Benchmarking Service
On November 13, interBiz announced a free benchmarking service for businesses
in durable goods industries. The benchmarking provides wholesalers and
distributors with a comparison of their performance against the industry
average and best-in-class. The benchmarking report also estimates the
financial benefits of performance improvement.
interBiz
has determined that there are approximately 35,000 distributors and wholesalers
in the durable goods industry. The research has also reportedly found
that the velocity of eCommerce has caused inventory and safety-stock levels
to rise; that orders have become smaller and more frequent and consequently
more expensive to process than before; that the customization of products
has made forecasting more difficult; and that all of this has taken place
at the same time that competition on price has stiffened.
The
interBiz benchmarking service questionnaire was commissioned from Buker
Inc., the global, independent consulting organization that developed
Class-A certification and specializes in the distribution and manufacturing
industries. The questions, and their interpretation, vary industry to
industry but usually focus on delivery performance (by both the subject
company and its suppliers), order management, cycle times, stock-out rates,
costs, and cash management. Algorithms developed by Buker Inc. are applied
to determine such things as impact on profitability. The interBiz benchmarking
service is free. Wholesalers and distributors in the automotive aftermarket,
professional and commercial equipment, electrical goods, hardware and
plumbing, machinery, equipment, and supplies segments may participate.
MK
Manufacturing Version 8.4
On October 29, interBiz announced the general availability of one of its
many flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions MK Manufacturing
version 8.4. Approximately one-half of the functional enhancements in
version 8.4 relate to logistics management. MK Manufacturing 8.4 provides
ERP and integrated order fulfillment on Windows NT and Unix platforms.
Most popular relational databases are also supported.
Many
of the feature enhancements in version 8.4 of MK Manufacturing are related
to logistics management and fulfillment and include improvements in drop
shipment, advanced shipping notices (ASNs), out-tracing of serial and
batch numbers, multiple deliver-to addresses, greater carrier and forwarding
agent flexibility, and consolidated delivery staging. Because advanced
warehouse management is integral to MK Manufacturing, the inventory handling
enhancements in version 8.4 (additional radio frequency (RF) support,
interleaving of pick and put-away, cycle counting improvements, etc.)
are reportedly available to all aspects of the enterprise, i.e., raw materials
and work-in-progress (WIP) inventories, as well as the traditional finished
goods inventory. In addition to logistics and fulfillment enhancements,
MK Manufacturing version 8.4 delivers improvements to its service functions,
planning, financial management, projects, and product customization features.
Premium
Services Plans
On October 15, interBiz announced Premium Services Plans, which provide
maintenance for modifications and the migration of modifications to new
versions of interBiz software applications. The company touts to be the
first software company to develop a migration and modification plan that
focuses on the mitigation of risk concept. The Premium Service Plans are
available to all interBiz ERP and logistics solutions customers. In-house
developed, third-party and interBiz-created modifications can be covered
under the plans. Two plans are offered: the Migration Support Plan
and the Maintenance Support Plan.
The
Migration Support Plan ensures that when customers migrate to new versions
of interBiz products their modifications will be migrated as well, at
no additional cost. Additionally, customers that opt for the Migration
Support Plan can have interBiz patches checked for compatibility with
modifications (and any affected modifications that need to be adapted)
before they install the patch on their system.
The
Maintenance Support Plan provides business level and technical support
for modifications. Maintenance Support Plan customers can place support
calls on modifications through the ISO 9000 certified, 24x7 telephone
and online support system interBiz maintains. Maintenance Support Plan
clients no longer need to identify whether an issue is related to a modification
or base product - both are covered under the Maintenance Support Plan.
Pricing for the two packages is based on a percentage of the modification's
initial cost and is billed on an annual basis.
Market
Impact
The market should appreciate the fact that interBiz continues to enhance
the bundle of its back-office solutions. interBiz is a combination of
many former ERP vendors, which has been seeking to reinvent itself in
e-Business, and seemingly doing it well, especially with a recognized
presence in distribution and logistics industries. InterBiz is a division
of Computer Associates (CA) formed by combining a number of previously
acquired ERP providers such as the MK Group, Acacia Technologies, and
ACCPAC.
When
in 1999 the company announced that 'the ERP era, as we know it, is over',
the market interpreted it in a mixed manner. While some understood it
as a natural evolution towards the era of inter-enterprise collaboration,
the others took it as the company's attempt to 'stabilize' a number of
possibly outdated ERP products and to focus on professional service revenue
through an immense ensuing plumbing work disguised as e-business enablement.
The fact remains that interBiz has been endeavoring to integrate CA's
proven infrastructure technologies with enterprise applications for financial
management, human resources, banking, supply chain management (SCM), and
e-Business, breathing thereby a new life into tried-and-true but overly
mature ERP products.
Nevertheless,
despite some customers' defections, growth and an expanding customer base
can be associated with interBiz that can now boast over 5,000 customer
sites worldwide. Much of that expansion can be attributed to BizWorks,
what the company prefers to refer to as its e-Business Process Management
Suite, as opposed to a mere data-level enterprise application integration
(EAI) suite.
Announced
in 1999, the BizWorks suite includes EAI, business intelligence (BI),
workflow event management, 3D visualization, wireless support, e-commerce
software extensions, and Neugents, a neural network-based pattern recognition
technology (learning agents). Many of these technologies CA obtained through
the acquisition of Platinum Technology (see Computer
Associates Splashes Into the Data Warehousing Market with Platinum Technology
Acquisition). Neugents can reportedly spot business problems before
they happen, as they look for patterns or anomalies and are able to digest
significant historical information. BizWorks runs on CA's Jasmine database
platform and leverages the stable of the company's respected infrastructure
technologies, including Unicenter TNG's enterprise management backbone
and Jasmine's intelligent infrastructure (ii) technology (see Computer
Associates Jasmineii-When Is A Portal Not Just A Portal?)
BizWorks
was devised to layer (wrap) over third-party and legacy applications too,
which is quite important given the reality of homogonous applications
environments that need to be made as cohesive as possible.
InterBiz
Array of Applications
interBiz also offers an array of enterprise applications of its own, including
ERP, supply chain management (SCM), and warehouse management system (WMS)
software. PRMS is one of the flagship manufacturing ERP offerings. The
product supports manufacturing, distribution, financial, and warehousing
capabilities for discrete, repetitive, process and co-existent manufacturing
and distribution enterprises. Although having long been present in the
market and been confined to the IBM iSeries (formerly AS/400) platform,
the product has been undergoing continuous rejuvenation, partly through
BizWorks' e-commerce enablement.
Another
manufacturing-related product that continues to attract new customers
includes the above-mentioned MK Manufacturing - a versatile Unix and NT-based
ERP solution that supports make-to-order (MTO), configure-to-order (CTO),
and make-to-stock (MTS) discrete manufacturing requirements. The company's
flagship ERP products are backed up well with Warehouse BOSS, a rules-based
stand-alone WMS and interBiz Logistics, an e-fulfillment distribution
management package.
With
the privilege of leveraging the parent company's wealth of technologies,
interBiz has been delivering 'new economy' applications for wholesalers,
distributors and third-party logistics (3PL) firms. The company seems
to be betting on its logistics and e-business intelligence to differentiate
itself in the market though. To that end, its BizWorks' rules-based management,
reporting and visualization, and its Neugents may put a new twist in collaborative
e-commerce. These and solid ERP functionality make a good foundation for
supply chain event management (SCEM), which has recently been embraced
by other ERP vendors with strong distribution incline, like SAP,
Intentia, and J.D. Edwards.
Furthermore,
interBiz offers full software and implementation services with tools and
methodologies for mapping and improving business and manufacturing processes.
The recent launch of interBiz's Online ASP offering may also bolster its
mid-market acceptance. The company also caters for Unix, Windows NT, AS/400,
and proprietary platforms support. All the former MK Group (Unix and NT)
products are web-enabled, while Acacia's web-enablement (AS/400) is still
in progress.