become a CIBER practical innovator
We are always seeking talented and innovative people. We have IT careers open all around the globe.
Is a SaaS WMS Solution Right for Your warehouse?
Mike Krabbe, Senior Manager : 25 August 2010 / 10:25 AM : 0 
We’ve all heard and read the buzz over the past year about SaaS WMS software solutions. There are several vendors in the marketplace touting a lower cost of ownership as compared to a Best of Breed or traditional WMS software installs. Is this true? Well I’ll get to that, but first what other factors should be considered besides costs when choosing the right WMS solution for you? I’ve spoken to many SaaS providers and seen demos of their products. After reviewing these solutions first hand, I thought it would be good help our readers differentiate between SaaS and traditional WMS solutions and review some factors to consider when determining if a SaaS solution is right for you.
Access and Install
SaaS WMS software accessed over the internet through a standard web browser and RF connectivity is over the internet because the WMS is hosted on the vendor’s servers. Best of Breed WMS systems are installed on the client’s servers and are accessed over a company’s WAN or LAN for both full screen and RF access.
Integration
Integration between an ERP and SaaS WMS software is typically encrypted data via the web. SaaS customers run the gamut from being tightly integrated with their ERP to having no integration at all. It depends upon the customer’s size and needs. More traditional WMS implementations require ti...
Posted in Supply Chain on 25 August 2010
More by this author 
Tagged: CIO IT Strategy Supply Chain WMS
Enterprise Security with Related Content
Chris Couture, Principal Consultant : 17 August 2010 / 2:55 PM : 0
Configuring and maintaining security across numerous PeopleSoft enterprise applications is always a challenge. There's the need to ensure that each user has the appropriate access in each application, without giving away too much or hiding important functionality. There's a need to ensure that synchronizations are working, and troubleshoot those that fail. There's a need to empower varied levels of security "team" members while having oversight on their activities.
A security administrator's work isn't made easier by having three or four different instances of PeopleSoft applications running, either. As a portal consultant I watched security team members grapple with the requests I and others were making. Later, as a security lead, I discovered first-hand how painful security configuration and troubleshooting can be!
Shortly after my first security project, I started crafting a mental picture of a "Security Center" in the Enterprise Portal, using the Collaborative Workspace as a foundation. With the release of Tools 8.5 came Related Content Services, and my idea went from concept to functioning in short order. And I mean in really short order – I had my first working model in a handful of hours.
The result of subsequent work will be the core of my presentation with Oracle at the upcoming OpenWorld conference. In a nutshell, though, the Securit...
Posted in Higher Education on 17 August 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Collaboration Enterprise 2.0 Information Security Security consulting Web 2.0
Use DecisionDirector to Jump Start Your Project
Tom Payne, National Director of Business Development : 16 August 2010 / 1:52 PM : 1
No one plans to fail, some just fail to plan! We have all heard this old adage. It can be no truer than applying it to the large and complex administrative software projects taking place on campuses across the country and around the globe. Colleges and universities are trying to become more “commercialized” and thinking more about the bottom line when approaching these grandiose technology projects. Obtaining true return on technology investments is driving the decisions made on the same campuses that pre-Y2K would have been less scrutinizing in how dollars were spent within IT. The end-users of the technology, the “consumers”, are much more readily engaged and leading the evaluation of how and why to implement a solution. Gone are the days of merely focusing on the “what” product to implement.
In shifting to more of a “how and why” mentality, Higher Ed has been turning more and more to tools that help identify how business is done today, how the institution would like to improve those processes tomorrow, and how those as-is and to-be processes compare with the commercially off-the-shelf available products on the market. The DecisionDirector tool from Advantiv Solutions (www.advantiv.com) has taken a simple concept an...
Posted in Higher Education on 16 August 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Business Continuity Business Impact Analysis CIO IT Planning IT Strategy IT to Business Alignment IT Value Oracle Process Improvement
40-something and Infatuated with Aéropostale Supply Chain Strategy
Alonzo Bright, Senior Supply Chain Consultant : 11 August 2010 / 12:34 PM : 0
I’m a forty something year old man overflowing with curiosity to the point that I have been planning a trip to the local mall for the last five days. I’ll tell my buddy’s that I’m headed to Best Buy, but in reality I’m infatuated with teen fashion retailer Aéropostale. Before you alert authorities, let me explain.
I confessed a long time ago to a group of people sitting in a circle, “My name is Alonzo, and I am a Supply Chain Nut!” So, since I found out about Aéropostale’s business supply chain strategy that they will be using as a weapon in the battle for 2010 holiday sales, I’ve been planning my stealthy trip.
So let me tell you about this strategy that makes my palms sweat and heart pound. And, then because I want to be like Aéropostale, I’ll tell you what the confessed Supply Chain Nut would do to make this strategy a success!
Aéropostale Business Supply Chain Strategy: Chase Demand for Fashion Items!
In a Wall Street Journal article (July 16, 2010) titled “Tug-of-War in Apparel World”, Elizabeth Holmes provided obsessed people like myself a quick peek at Aéropostale’s weapon.
Posted in Supply Chain on 11 August 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Supply Chain WMS
PeopleTools history review and a tip of the hat to a wonderful techie PeopleTools Book - PeopleSoft PeopleTools Tips and Techniques by Jim J. Marion, ISBN-13: 978-0-07-166493-6
Mark Sanderson, Consultant Manager : 10 August 2010 / 5:08 PM : 1
For those of us that work on PeopleSoft systems grinding out code everyday, it's been an interesting experience witnessing the transformation of the PeopleTools tool set over the past 15 years. Back in the mid 1990's we had a classical two tier, fat client model that has indeed transformed it's self nicely into a state-of-the-art, web-based, industrial grade development platform that can be very effective at it's intended goals.
In spite of this steady progression towards a full featured, object oriented development platform, one of the significant challenges over the years has been learning how to best take advantage of this proprietary development environment. If it was the java or C language, we could simply go to our nearest bookseller and find an abundance of high quality books that would provide plenty of examples of how to best use that tool. PeopleTools on the other-hand, has never had much in the way of a market for books that demonstrate the use of PeopleTools. I suspect much of this is because PeopleTools obvious proprietary nature with a limited market.
During PeopleSoft's initial era as an independent company, PeopleTools was a pure proprietary tool that was somewhat of a step-sister product to PeopleSoft's primary product line, it's Enterprise Resource Planning applications such as PeopleSoft Financials and Human Resources. PeopleTools did a fin...
Posted in Higher Education on 10 August 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Campus Solutions Oracle Skill Development
A Benefit of Supply Chain Network Design and Analysis to Consider
Jill Hays, Senior Supply Chain Consultant : 28 July 2010 / 10:25 AM : 0
The complexity of a network design and optimization study significantly increases when components such as multinational business units and third-party logistics/services are added. But then, so do the opportunities for increasing operational efficiencies and gaining a more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the respective supply chain.
One often overlooked, often intangible benefit of completing a Supply Chain Network Analysis Project is the key learning's. The data collection and project development process are great opportunities for organizations to collaborate and learn.
Take for example, a project where a major corporation’s existing supply chain network evolved over the last several decades, with the last major change made in the 1990's. It is in short, a legacy network with all the commonly associated benefits and pitfalls. The catalyst for the study is the sudden closure of one the distribution facilities, due to catastrophic weather. Several options for a future supply chain infrastructure could be considered. During the study, several sub-projects, including a truckload utilization study were undertaken based on key learnings and findings exposed during the data collection and analysis stage of the study.
The data collection and analysis portion of any major supply chain optimization project is ...
Posted in Supply Chain on 28 July 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Business Impact Analysis Business Modeling Business Value CPG Retail Supply Chain
Getting Started with Collaboration
Chris Couture, Principal Consultant : 22 July 2010 / 11:18 AM : 0
Welcome to Web 2.0. Just when you’ve seen the final “click here” hyperlink cleaned off the department’s web site, your boss rushes in, going on about great new things he read on a blog. His excitement peaks as your adrenalin level spikes – you’ve just heard “…collaboration…”, plus “…new software…” and “…you!”
Relax! Whether you’re aware or not, you collaborate every day. Adding technology to the mix, be it a new ERP collaboration suite or Google Docs – can make collaboration much more effective. As with many new initiatives, the chosen approach truly makes the difference between failure and success. Pursuits of simple, quick successes give you and your team good experience and set the course for continued collaborative effectiveness.
Here’s one way to get started.
First, review the activities you do that require involvement of others. Which ones require you to pass documents, communications, pertinent information back and forth with a handful of colleagues? Which ones require that you make decisions collectively? Which lead you to a specific end or met goal?
Make a list of those activities. Then, for those listed, consider the people involved. Which do you work best with? Who do you find to be easiest to communicate with, least likely to have a sidebar agenda, most likely to focus on the goal rather than the per...
Posted in Higher Education on 22 July 2010
More by this author
Tagged: ERP IT Strategy Collaboration Web 2.0 Enterprise 2.0
Scripted Demonstrations in a WMS Selection: The Moment of Clarity
Cal Petty, Supply Chain Solutions Director – WMS/TMS : 14 July 2010 / 7:12 AM : 0
Your company has performed all the necessary due diligence and determined there is sufficient payback to proceed with acquiring a warehouse management system (WMS). Now what? How do you select the best product for your needs?
For some this is the beginning of a lengthy journey involving internet research, possible trade show attendance, purchasing analyst reports, contacting vendors, and on and on and on. When I talk with companies about their selection process, inevitably the process leads to a few software vendors coming in to do product presentations. Might I be so bold as to suggest we abolish all standard product presentations in the WMS market? My associates in the software sales space will surely protest. However, I believe it will not only save wasted customer time but will allow them to spend less time in airports, planes, trains, transfer buses, cabs, etc. Even better the time could be spent preparing for more scripted demonstrations … the focus of this blog.
As a side note, I discourage this selection “journey” as there are qualified consultants who live in the WMS marketplace every day and can help you quickly develop a quality list of possibilities that fit your company. I estimate that quality selection assistance averages only about 5% of total WMS implementation project cost.
Nuances of each WMS product are...
Posted in Supply Chain on 14 July 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Supply Chain WMS
CRM vs Social CRM – What is the difference?
Thomas Wieberneit, National Manager CRM Practice : 09 July 2010 / 12:09 PM : 0
Just looking at the terms, Customer Relationship Management and Social Customer Relationship Management are sharing the same roots; Social CRM is either a limitation to or an enhancement of (traditional) CRM – or is it something entirely different?
Let me take a brief view at what CRM and Social CRM are and are not and then come to a conclusion.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management – is a business strategy. If you do research on the web you will find many definitions with their own tweaks. What most of them have in common is that they all say that the strategy is about the customer and about how to engage a customer so that the company applying the strategy
As such, a CRM strategy covers all relevant actions to market the right products to customers, sell the products and potentially provide service afterwards.
CRM by no means is a technology, although sometimes this is still in the minds of people. A CRM application/system merely enables and supports the business in pursuing its CRM strategy. The system does this by providing the necessary tools to perform the necessary tasks and by provi...
Posted in CRM on 09 July 2010
More by this author
Tagged: CRM Multi-Channel Retail Social Networking
Turning Disorganized Data into Actionable Information
Frank Rinaldi, Senior Business Intelligence Leader : 30 June 2010 / 9:25 AM : 0
Welcome to my SAP BusinessObjects blog. I will be presenting a series of real-life case studies where CIBER has used BusinessObjects software to solve clients’ data challenges.
Case 1 – Turning Disorganized Data into Actionable Information
Problem: Our public sector client was collecting volumes of information in their county social services department, but there was no system or tools in place that would allow management to easily aggregate and analyze information needed to track their department’s performance.
Proposed solution: CIBER proposed to build a centralized data warehouse which pulled metrics from across the counties IT systems into one place. BusinessObjects was proposed as the tool for building a semantic and visualization layer. The end product to the business user was a series of web-based dashboards with drilldown capability, so that not only could managers get an overall view of how well they were serving the public’s needs, but could easily drill down into the detailed information in order to investigate any trends or outliers in the summarized data.
Detailed Description of Solution:
Posted in SAP on 30 June 2010
More by this author
Tagged: Business Intelligence DW / BI Architecture Information Management
|
