Next week we are off to Scottsdale to attend the Kinaxis annual customer conference which is termed Kinexions.  Readers will note that Kinaxis has been one of our original Supply Chain Matters sponsors, and we are thrilled to have them as a partner.  More importantly, the Kinexions event brings together an impressive collection of multi-industry customers that are practicing supply chain response management across their planning and customer fulfillment business processes.  This year also features some new and interesting speakers and events.

In our summary impressions from last year’s conference we observed the acknowledgement by those in high tech, pharmaceutical and other industry supply chains that events are moving at an incredible rapid rate of external and internal business change and the need for informed decision-making and business scenario analysis has become ever more apparant.  Likewise in supporting ongoing S&OP business processes.  We expect to hear more in these dimensions and possibly new product directions for Kinaxis in the coming months.

Stay tuned to our daily conference commentaries which will be featured on both Supply Chain Matters and the Supply Chain Expert Community.

Bob Ferrari

A few weeks back, Supply Chain Matters had a briefing and product demonstration from the Kinaxis product marketing team regarding the Spring 2011 release of the company’s flagship RapidResponse application.  We have always been impressed with this product and that is one of the principle reasons that Kinaxis remains as one of the original sponsors of this blog.  With this updated release, the application is an even stronger offering.

Last October in our Supply Chain Matters summary impressions of the annual Kinaxis customer conference, we noted a consistent impression from attendee conversations that Kinaxis customers are generally pleased with the overall two-way relationship and support received from this vendor.  Product releases are therefore targeted toward customer priorities and feedback, and the latest release is no exception.

There are four three principle enhancement areas included this latest Spring 2011 release:

• Enhancement of S&OP process support through the addition of deeper visualization and charting capabilities along with usability features in added configurable, role-based dashboards. One of the prime attractions of RapidResponse has always been its usability factors or worksheets, with a look and feel similar to utilizing spreadsheets.  In the new release, every worksheet can become a ‘widget’ with augmented visualization tools.   For users, large amounts of data in a planning or S&OP scenario can now be easily visualized for analysis or management and contract manufacturing communication needs. The enhanced role-based dashboards allow specific users to view the unique data required for their specific role.  This is an important enhancement because in many Rapid Response implementations, users extend beyond the planning team, often including product management, procurement t and other functional supply chain users.
• Process automation additions in scripting and web services assist users to focus more on planning process exceptions in a much more- timely basis. Scripting checks certain conditions and helps RapidResponse to remain in-sync with events throughout the day.
• Scalability enhancements are the most significant takeaway of this release, with enhanced in-memory capabilities allowing users to incorporate much larger volumes of data in the planning model. Previously, Rapid Response was limited to supporting a ceiling of 128 gigabytes of in-memory data.  This new release expands the support model to several terabytes.  We were informed that Kinaxis has tested models up to 1 terabyte with 1.1 billion related records.  Many RapidResponse implementations exist in multiple ERP or legacy application environments and enhanced in-memory capabilities will allow users to either incorporate more historic data, more planning scenarios, or larger planning models within Rapid Response. While several ERP vendors continue to promise enhanced in-memory capabilities, Rapid Response is delivering.
• Even tighter high-frequency integration with ERP backbone or legacy applications via a two-way update of net changes, inuring integration to transactional systems is more timely and synchronized.

Overall, we remain impressed with the progress and functionality enhancements of RapidResponse and believe that Kinaxis installed base customers and prospects should be impressed as well.

Bob Ferrari

Note: Kinaxis is one of other noted  sponsors of the Supply Chain Matters blog.

It is a sincere pleasure to announce to our Supply Chain Matters readers that supply chain technology provider Kinaxis will be a continuing Silver sponsor of this blog during 2011.

Kinaxis was the very first sponsor of this blog in 2008, and we are proud to be able to continue our close relationship.  They recognized early on that educational and insightful blogs would play an increasing role in how supply chain professionals share thought leadership and gather insights.

Kinaxis has been one of very few technology companies that has successfully designed and leveraged a highly successful B2B content and social-media community and we are proud of  our abilities to help in this effort.  As an example, The Supply Chain Expert Community has garnered multiple accolades and awards from industry publications, the latest being a highly complimentary write-up on ContentMarketingInstitute.com . The article begins: “Research the best examples of a successful B2B content marketing strategy, and this year’s breakout winner is clear: Kinaxis.”

This author is pleased to be able to provide continued weekly guest blogger commentary in this community throughout 2011. My specific Supply Chain Expert Community commentary is also co-published on the Supply Chain Matters blog.

Kinaxis technology has been designed to address needs for managing supply chain complexity and fostering agility in business processes. The company continues to grow its broad industry presence and customer base and recently announced a record year in 2010, demonstrating double-digit revenue and cash flow growth.  Customers include names such as Cisco, Genzyme, Honeywell, Jabil, Research In Motion, Toshiba and most recently, Olympus Corporation.. The Kinaxis RapidResponse technology that is available today is much more than a supply chain planning system, incorporating many features for scenario-based analysis and sales and operations business process support.  The technology is available to serve multi-industry supply chain process needs.  Current RapidResponse implementations can accommodate users in the thousands, integrating key information from large numbers of ERP systems.

It is a delight to have Kinaxis as an ongoing Supply Chain Matters sponsor.

If your organization has needs for extended supply chain visibility, rapid response, or sales and operations planning process support capabilities that can be implemented in a very timely manner, I recommend you place Kinaxis on your short list.

Bob Ferrari, Executive Editor

This is the final of our Supply Chain Matters blog dispatches coming from the Kinaxis Kinexions conference held these past two days in Phoenix.  Previous commentaries included Dispatches One, Two, Three, Four. And Five.

The conference planning team wanted to establish an overall theme of learn, laugh, and share.  They did not disappoint. From my lens, many of the attendees enjoyed the opportunity to partake of this conference and it seemed to this observer that many attendees were pleased they came.  A large shout-out goes to Kirsten Watson, Carol Watson, Lori Smith and the entire team at Kinaxis for coordinating an enjoyable conference.

Reviewing my notes and conversations, I noted that many of the customer presentations emphasized:

• Continued expansion in internationally sourced demand or supply sourcing
• A far more accelerated pace of business requiring quicker planning and decision-making cycles.  The uncertainty of markets coupled with the complexity of global supply chains often requires teams to be able to evaluate different business scenarios.
• An increased need for supply chain segmentation based on desired business outcomes.
• Supply chain risk remains an important need.
• Sales and operations planning processes involving dynamic and often changing business and supply chain dynamics does require technology augmentation.

I also come away with the following summary impressions from the conference.

In the positive category:

One consistent impression from this and previous year’s presentations and conversations is that Rapid Response customers are generally pleased with their overall relationship and support received from Kinaxis.  Many became engaged with this vendor either because no effective planning automation tool existed, frustration with the capabilities of their existing planning systems, and specifically the inability to keep-up with the current speed of required business decisions. That trend shows signs of increased momentum.

The Kinaxis RapidResponse core industry verticals of high tech, aerospace and pharmaceutical are each individually moving at an incredibly rapid rate of external and internal business change and many of the customer presenters consistently reinforced these themes. RapidResponse is in my view, well positioned to be in the ‘sweet spot’ of supply chain capability needs in this ‘new normal’.

The true story of Kinaxis comes from its collection of satisfied customers who continue to work in a two-way collaborative relationship.  Customers seem generally pleased with their vendor relationships. The energy and enthusiasm of the overall Kinaxis team is discernable, and I state that in honest objectivity. I’m pleased to have Kinaxis as one of other extended Supply sponsors of this blog, and to be deemed one of other contributors to the Supply Chain Expert Community.

Kinaxis is one of very few vendors in the supply chain arena that can demonstrate a culture of combining good natured humor with the stress of business. The Late, Late Supply Chain Show format was well received by attendees.  Another tip-of-the-hat goes to Bill Dubois for serving as show host and effectively combining business and humor segments.

In the needs work category

Kinaxis, like any other technology vendor, listens and respond to ongoing needs of customers, especially large globally based customers. I did discern some needs in overcoming the objections of internal IT in having yet another analytical system, perceived not to be in support of common systems architecture, information integration security and reporting standards.  This problem is not solely a Kinaxis one, but rather a challenge for any mission critical supply chain technology vendor evaluated as an alternative to the ERP supply chain planning option. The Kinaxis technology stack is sound. However, supply chain functional teams want the ability to reassure their respective IT teams on adherence to technology standards, whether such systems are either inside or outside the firewall.

Bottom-line, Kinexions was a great conference.

Bob Ferrari

This is the fifth of our postings coming from the Kinaxis Kinexions conference being held these next two days in Phoenix.  Previous commentaries included Dispatch One, Two, Three, and Four.

The morning of Day Two included a series of presentations representing other core industry verticals for Kinaxis, namely pharmaceutical and aerospace. I especially enjoyed a presentation delivered by Rayne Waller, Vice President, Supply Chain, and Elisabeth Kaszas, Director, Supply Chain, both of bio-pharmaceutical manufacturer Amgen.  Rayne began is presentation with an observation that I believe, that many other pharma-related supply chain teams should embrace, namely that the supply chain planning and synchronization challenges within the industry are similar to those that are being addressed in other industries such as high technology and consumer products.  There are certainly the unique challenges involved in scheduling complex biology-related batch manufacturing, shelf life and expiry date.  But the challenges for demand and supply synchronization, along with sales and operations planning alignment are similar.  Both presenters did a superb job of identifying internal and external business drivers that drive required supply chain planning capabilities within a dynamically changing business environment. They also addressed the successful adoption of an information integration strategy that allows information to flow from a backbone ERP system to and from the Kinaxis RapidResponse application.  The Amgen implementation is about to reach its first year anniversary, and the Amgen supply chain teams are benefitting from reduction in planning cycle times, increased capabilities in scenario planning, expiry and shelf life planning considerations and more efficient inventory management.

The other interesting dynamic was the interplay of the vice president, driving strategy and change management, with the director who manages day-to-day supply chain planning iterations.  We all got a first-hand, unscripted look at how that interchange occurs in terms of setting strategic expectations, setting the next milestone, and communicating supply chain’s impact to the business.  In the case of Amgen, the supply chain team is setting an impressive example on addressing and implementing pragmatic change.

To no surprise, the first question in the Q&A session of the Amgen presentation sought more details on the integration to the backbone SAP ERP system, and how the Amgen supply chain team addressed its information integration strategy. Many of the customer presentations over these past two days have provided rather positive experiences on Rapid Response’s capabilities in information integration, especially in SAP and Oracle ERP backbone environments.  In my view, this robust integration capability is a clear strength, and one that the Kinaxis teams should not be bashful in expressing to prospects.

Other morning sessions included a presentation by Kinaxis’s most widely deployed customer, Jabil, and a presentation from newest go-live customer, Raytheon Missile Systems.

This afternoon, the conference begins to wind down with a continuation of customer training workshops and a final product roadmap presentation.

Our final Supply Chain Matters dispatch will provide summary impressions from this year’s conference.

Bob Ferrari