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–>Does the world need yet another version of supply chain planning software?
This week sees the launch of Quintiq 5.0, the latest release of the Quintiq supply chain planning and optimization (SCP&O) platform.
Of course there are many exciting new features for planners, but I’m not going into them here. There’s a bigger issue at stake, and one that Quintiq 5.0 tackles head on: the ability of SCP&O software to support a company’s competitive differentiators.
We’ve all seen planning systems that turn into planning straitjackets. (Who hasn’t witnessed a planner working around a planning system rather than with it?) Even worse, are the outright failures – cases where plans simply cannot be used because the system couldn’t incorporate all the relevant constraints.
Is it too much to expect SCP&O software to enable you to achieve your business goals on your terms? Must you sacrifice your unique business model to accommodate software?
At Quintiq, the answer has always been a resounding ‘Of course not!’
Over the years, leading organizations worldwide have embraced the advantages of the Quintiq SCP&O platform: a ‘best-of-both-worlds’ approach that combines the cost benefits of standard software with the advantages of a fully configurable solution.
So what could possibly be better than an SCP&O platform that easily captures any business model – down to the last significant detail?
Well, how about an SCP&O platform that makes it even easier to capture new business rules and constraints?
Quintiq 5.0 takes configurability and, therefore, supply chain agility to a whole new level. If your business logic changes – for example, because of new machines, service level agreements or government regulations – much of the work of configuring the new business rules and constraints can be done within your IT department.
This ability to respond swiftly is critical. In a 2011 survey by IDC, 45% of C-level respondents expected ‘noteworthy business changes’ within the next 12 to 24 months. Almost the same number (44%) believed that their enterprise applications had a ‘negative impact on business agility’.
But there’s more to Quintiq 5.0 than radical configurability with respect to a company’s unique business rules and constraints. There’s also the way configurability has been carried through to the planning environment.
Gartner recently identified ‘actionable analytics’ as one of its top 10 strategic technology trends for 2013. At Quintiq, ‘actionable analytics’ have been part of SCP&O implementations for over a decade. At the heart of every Quintiq deployment is ‘live KPI-based planning’ – an innovation that enables planners to see the consequences of a decision on KPIs so that every decision advances your business goals.
This focus on full business control extends to enabling planners to create their own planning environment. With Quintiq 5.0, they can configure KPI gauges, point-and-click to implement advanced filtering, and generally create their own views, dashboards and workflows with greater ease than ever before.
A rapidly changing business environment requires SCP&O software that can adapt just as rapidly. Quintiq 5.0 goes beyond configurability to give 21st century supply chains the agility they need to succeed.
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