Newsletter Archives

Does that make sense to you? Of course not. That’s because buzzwords are getting in your way.

Learn the top 10 buzzwords used by enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors—and how to make sense of them—in Are ERP Software Vendors Messing with Your Head?

In other news, principal TEC analyst P.J. Jakovljevic says “many companies do not have a strong link between sales, operations, and finance departments, and this chasm can lead to…” What? What will it lead to? (Find out)

“Our current ERP system could not communicate effectively with the different systems in the other facilities,” said Mike Anstey, IT manager, Flakeboard. So Mike did something about it (full disclosure: TEC helped).

Read Top 10 ERP Buzzwords. BUSTED!

In breaking news: Dassault Systèmes acquires IBM PLM. TEC Analyst Kurt Yu analyzes how this latest industry shakeup really shakes out.

And here’s a clear, concise white paper I thought you should read before doing anything rash: Criteria for Selecting a Business Intelligence, Reporting, and Analysis Solution. Title says it all.

Thanks for reading today’s TEC Newsletter—please let me know if you’ve got questions or comments about anything that strikes you as interesting, contentious, or just plain odd. Have a great day.

Read As the Economy Rebounds, Will Your Organization Be Ready for New and Increasing Demand? A Summary of the 2009 APICS Conference

In breaking news: Dassault Systèmes acquires IBM PLM. TEC Analyst Kurt Yu analyzes how this latest industry shakeup really shakes out.

And here’s a clear, concise white paper I thought you should read before doing anything rash: Criteria for Selecting a Business Intelligence, Reporting, and Analysis Solution. Title says it all.

Thanks for reading today’s TEC Newsletter—please let me know if you’ve got questions or comments about anything that strikes you as interesting, contentious, or just plain odd. Have a great day.

Read I Hate You, I Love You: What the Heck Are Your Customers Really Saying?

I’ve always wondered about the best way to manage pricing and promotion in retailing. Is it an art? Is it a science? Can software play a key role? All these questions and more are answered in today’s feature blog post.

Vertical integration? Come again? Before you type it into Wikipedia, read today’s second feature blog post to find out how vertical integration can help you gain control over your supply chain, and how you can benefit from bringing your supply chain activities in-house.

Read The Best of APICS: TEC Analysts Speak Out!

So how do you go about measuring and analyzing this customer chatter?

Try “opinion mining.” Never heard of it? Neither have I. A few enterprising business intelligence (BI) vendors have, though, and they’re now making it possible for you to find out what your customers are thinking. Learn more in The Intelligence of Social Media.

Need more intelligence? Learn about (among other things) the five requirements of a scalable data warehouse strategy, in Bye-bye to the Old BI: BI for Midsized Companies.

Oh, and one last thing before I head off for the weekend: TEC's principal analyst P.J. Jakovljevic weighs in on BigMachines, a provider of inventive configure, price, and quote (CPQ)/quote-to-order (Q2O) solutions. Get the dirt, in BigMachines: Getting Bigger and Better – Part 1.

Read It's 9 AM. Any Idea Where Your Customers Are?

That’s why this Ohio (US)-based leader in professional photography and lighting equipment hired TEC. Get a behind-the-scenes look at how TEC helped F.J. Westcott cut through the vendor blah-blah—and impartially identify, prioritize, and evaluate its ERP requirements.

I thought this made for interesting reading—and I think you will too: it’s a comprehensive ERP Systems Buyer’s Guide, including cost and vendor considerations, and top buying advice directly from buyers like you.

And now for the riddle of the day: When a customer receives two phone calls from your company, how many people is your company really talking to? Hint: maybe It’s the Time to Master Your Master Data.

Read A Behind-the-scenes Look at F.J. Westcott's ERP Selection Project