Oracle Helps Companies
Meet Global Demands and Increase Top-Line Growth with Latest Version of
Supply Chain Management Applications
New 11i.10 Capabilities Support
Supply Chain Risk Management and Compliance; Provide Building Blocks for
a Lean Enterprise
Hong Kong, August 5, 2004 - To help
companies better compete in the global marketplace and evolve their supply
chains to centers of top-line growth, Oracle Corp. today detailed the
latest version of Oracle® Supply Chain Management, 11i.10.
Developed with extensive input from Oracle customers
spanning numerous industries and sizes, the new Oracle Supply Chain Management
11i.10 helps companies meet evolving supply chain management challenges,
eliminate waste, comply with government regulations, improve standards-based
collaboration and increase profitable growth.
"Our supply chain impacts every facet of our
daily business operations and, ultimately, corporate goals, including
providing unparalleled customer service, increasing revenue growth opportunities,
and streamlining our major supply and demand processes," said Robert Moon,
CIO and vice president of Information Services at ViewSonic Corporation.
"We are very interested in the latest release of Oracle Supply Chain Management
and believe it will play a critical role as we deploy advanced business
initiatives, such as RFID-enabled inventory management, global order fulfillment
processes, and new customer relationship and partner relationship management
capabilities, to support our overall corporate objectives."
Global Growth
Facing increasing cost pressures and shrinking margins, companies continue
to outsource supply chain operations to regions around the globe. In order
to effectively coordinate key supply chain activities such as manufacturing
and fulfillment across multiple geographies, key decision makers must
have accurate visibility into regional customer forecasts, inventory levels,
and resource utilization, among other constraints. Failure to coordinate
extended partners in the supply chain can lead to costly inventory gluts
or shortfalls, missed shipments, poor resource utilization and missed
sales.
- Oracle Supply Chain Management 11i.10 includes new
global capabilities that help companies create truly open supply chains
for better collaboration and data exchange, while supporting all currencies,
languages and time zones. New functionality includes: International
drop shipment capabilities for helping companies meet customer demands
quickly and cost-effectively, regardless of physical location;
- Enhanced global forecasting capabilities that coordinate
demand planning activities across extended supply chain partners and
all geographic locations; and,
- Mobile supply chain functionality to bring wireless
capabilities to the entire supply chain, connecting all departments,
trading partners and geographies.
"With manufacturing plants in Malaysia and China
and distribution centers in Chicago and London, it was critical for Knowles
Electronics to create a centralized environment for demand planning and
execution," said Randy Kjell, vice president and CIO, Knowles Electronics.
"Leveraging Oracle Supply Chain Management, we have eliminated our numerous
silos and created a truly transparent environment where management can
now evaluate sales, inventory and costs globally — resulting in
a 50 percent reduction in total inventory worldwide."
Managing Supply Chain Risk and Compliance
New government mandates focused on corporate accountability and financial
transparency, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, influence every aspect of business
operations, including the supply chain. Oracle Supply Chain Management
11i.10 helps companies manage risk and compliance in the supply chain
by monitoring and managing complete business activity across the enterprise.
New capabilities include:
- Expanded electronic signatures and records capabilities
supporting compliance with 21 CFR Part 11. The new functionality provides
better control, information and flexibility, while supporting over 80
business events across process and discrete manufacturing, bill of materials,
inventory, purchasing, quality, recipe management, and shipping;
- RFID-enabled transactions to automatically track
inventory movement throughout the supply chain for improved visibility,
security and decision making capabilities;
- Integration with Oracle Internal Controls Manager
to closely monitor and manage all transactions throughout the supply
chain, helping ensure compliance with corporate governance policies;
- Quote management and version control to help companies increase
flexibility in delivering against customer demand, while maintaining
compliance with business practices;
- Liability analysis for generating an accurate up-to-date
analysis of corporate exposure to inventory and work in process risk;
and,
- Freight payment and auditing to help shippers accurately
account for, and avoid overpaying, for third-party transportation services.
Enabling the Lean Enterprise
Because of its ability to eliminate waste and inefficiencies across the
supply chain, companies continue to explore "lean" techniques for all
facets of supply chain operations, including manufacturing, order fulfillment,
procurement, and maintenance, among others. In a manufacturing environment,
for example, Oracle Supply Chain Management helps companies control product
production, cost and quality for minimized risks from overproduction.
New lean capabilities include:
- Scarce inventory allocation for fulfilling orders to maximize
corporate profitability;
- LPN and lot/serial receiving to help reduce labor costs by improving
labor resource utilization in the warehouse;
- Catch weight support to help companies accurately measure and
price variable order sizes and amounts; and,
- Lot specific costing to enable companies to accurately account
for and measure cost variability in production output.
"The latest release of Oracle Supply Chain Management
will help companies take advantage of the great ROI opportunities associated
with creating collaborative global operations, enabling a lean enterprise
and managing compliance and risk," said Keith Ip, senior sales consulting
manager, Supply Chain Management Solutions, Oracle Greater China. "In
addition, companies can take advantage of the thousands of new capabilities
to solve challenges unique to their own industries, such as high tech,
healthcare and industrial manufacturing."
Independent Research Reports Underscore Oracle's
Leading Position
Oracle's leading position in the supply chain management
(SCM) market has been further reinforced by the independent market research
reports. In a recent report by Gartner Dataquest, Oracle's SCM global
market share increased 1 percent to 7.8 percent, and maintained its second
place market share rating, helped by double-digit growth in its license
revenue during the 2003 calendar year. As reported in the Gartner Dataquest
"SCM Software, Worldwide, 2003" report, Oracle's SCM software license
revenue grew by 12.6 percent in 2003.
"The Supply Chain Management Applications Report, 2003-2008,"
conducted by independent analyst firm AMR Research, Inc., ranks Oracle
second among software vendors for 2003 SCM license revenue and estimates
the company to grow SCM revenue by nine percent in 2004. The report states,
"Oracle has built out a great deal of Supply Chain functionality during
the last 2 years and as a result is successfully earning new Supply Chain
business, particularly in high-tech and discrete verticals, topping other
Supply Chain Planning (SCP) vendors in these markets and leading to a
healthy growth rate in 2003."
About Oracle
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) is the world's largest enterprise software company.
For more information about Oracle visit our Web site at www.oracle.com.
Trademarks
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates.
Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Back to Press Release Content
|
 |
