No this blog entry is not going to be a behavioral reminder from your pre-school teachers…rather this is about how the supply chain software market continues to change, specifically for DSD users. Long gone are the days where features and functionality were the key factors to any software purchase decision. It is true that without solid functionality and key market features software will quickly drop off the desirable list, but these two points are merely the first gauntlet to pass towards a positive decision regarding software selection.
Today, being able to provide “out of the box” integration options, tool kits and breadth of product solutions are more important than ever in the DSD world. A next generation RAS is great, but what else comes with it? Does it provide a flexible mobile sales solution? What about your inventory and truck loading solutions? Traditional (aka Green Screen style) RAS solutions have been able to provide batch data entry for inventory, and load sheets for your picking team but does this technology really cut it in today’s world? That covers some of the basic points of entry of data into your system…but what are you going to do with it once you have it there? Do you have a robust report generation solution? Even better than that, how about a data mining tool with not only canned reports, but also an easy interface where users can define their own “custom” queries to identify the exact data elements you want and need for executive dashboards?
Beyond what I would consider fairly “standard” offerings listed above, many operations are running back end ERP software solutions as well. Being able to provide reproducible integrations to these solutions is quickly becoming as important as the software solution itself. Software users today have existing structure and systems that are not going away, and any future solutions must integrate easily and seamlessly in order to maximize benefit of your DSD solution. This is one area where most companies want to avoid being on the “bleeding edge” of technology, and would really prefer to see an offering that can reference others.
Another reason to consider integration options is as simply as taking advantage of the strength of other solutions. Leveraging the functionality of other solutions not only provides the users benefit, but can do so in a more cost effective manner (if done properly) than building additional modules outside of your core competencies. This may be a difficult decision for some to make, but I think that this is an area that can definitely be used to your advantage if properly evaluated.
I will end this post with the following question…can you really only consider one component to your DSD solution in isolation, or will you look at the end to end integration of all components?
I’m enjoying my second cup of coffee while learning about HighJump’s product strategy in our second day’s opening session at Innovation 2009. Sitting at my table with me are HighJump customers from the consumer goods, manufacturing and wine and spirits industries. Quite a representation!
HighJump’s Vice President of Product Strategy, Chad Collins, explains that HighJump plans to continue with the expansion of direct store delivery footprint into other geographies (HighJump is already the largest provider of DSD technology in North America), and deepen manufacturing execution and transportation capabilities.
As we get deeper into the presentation, we’re getting live demonstrations of some of HighJump’s most impressive new product offerings, including:
- HighJump Performance Advantage – HighJump’s new business intelligence dashboarding solution for supply chain products that provides quick visual representation of key operational data/metrics
- HighJump RouteCenter – HighJump’s go-forward route accounting system for the beverage industry has some pretty sophisticated drilldown, search and adaptability capabilities and many customers are already converting from older systems onto this modern platform.
- GPS – HighJump’s DSD customers get more than just dots moving around a screen. This new real-time tool is great for any companies operating in a dynamic sales environment and creates staff coaching opptys and helps with fuel consumption – it’s already being used in the rendering and dairy DSD industries
- HighJump Supply Chain Advantage 11.0 – our newest release is coming later this year and includes some pretty cool cloud computing and interoperability capabilities. Stay tuned!
- Unique upgrade process - HighJump's upgrades stand apart from our competitors in that our customers can choose to include only the workflows they need when they upgrade, and keep existing configurations! See how it works at www.highjump.com/easy_upgrade
I'm highly caffeinated and ready to hit my first product session!
Today, HighJump Software announced the release of HighJump Performance Advantage, a business intelligence dashboard specifically designed to enable supply chain process improvement. The solution combines modern graphical dashboard technology with industry-developed standards to produce actionable visual data for executives and management.
For more information, read the press release or visit the HighJump Performance Advantage page on our website.
My purple people eaters rolled the dice last week and came to terms with future HOF quarterback Brett Favre. While I do take some issue with the way in which the Vikings organization handled the courtship, I cannot deny that I am more excited about this season’s prospects and that it clearly makes the Vikings a better football team.
Another reason I am excited is the official release of HighJump’s Performance Advantage! HighJump Performance Advantage is our supply chain dashboard visibility product. We have incorporated over 30 industry recognized best practice metrics with the capability for people to build their own dashboards with company specific metrics. This is an important step in executing on HighJump’s business intelligence vision and offering more actionable data to our customers. Below is a sneak peak at one of the dashboards.
I look forward to discussing this new product with customers just as I and the rest of Minnesota hopes the Viking’s dice don’t show seven at the end of the season.
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