SAP Helps Companies Meet the Challenges and Reduce the Costs of Global Trade
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SAP Delivers New Transportation Management Functionality to World-Class Supply Chain Management Solution, Allowing Companies to Better Plan, Maintain and Execute Shipments Globally
WALLDORF, Germany, Dec. 18 -- Delivering on its commitment to help companies adapt processes and optimize revenue across the most cost-intensive global trade operations, SAP AG (NYSE:SAP) today announced the immediate availability of new transportation management functionality for mySAP(TM) Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM). Building on SAP's existing transportation management software, used today by more than 2,200 companies worldwide, the new functionality delivers enhancements in the areas of ocean shipping management and transportation planning. These enhancements will help companies increase visibility and control of shipments globally while reducing the costs associated with transportation management by making the process more flexible and dynamic.
With the delivery of this new transportation management functionality -- a composite application based on the newest version of mySAP SCM and enterprise service-oriented architecture (enterprise SOA) -- SAP delivers a key milestone on its road map for service-enabled transportation management software. (See October 19, 2005 press release, titled "SAP Charts New Frontiers in Transportation Management.") The new functionality provides enhanced planning capabilities for current transportation planning and vehicle scheduling (TPVS) customers while at the same time introduces new business processes for mySAP SCM customers. It also brings key functionality for scheduling, routing, regulatory compliance and customs processes to the mySAP SCM application and the SAP for Logistics Service Providers solution portfolio, addressing global demand for an end-to-end transportation management solution spanning enterprise and information network boundaries.
As the global marketplace grows, transportation management becomes more complex and freight costs more expensive. In their efforts to grow revenues and cut transportation costs- which already today account for up to 60 percent of overall logistics spending-companies worldwide are constantly seeking to increase visibility into and control over their supply chains, improve flexibility of their processes and minimize coordination inefficiencies.
"Belgo's supply chain is growing from a national to a global dimension and we continuously are looking for ways to increase supply chain efficiency," said Henrique Morais, logistics general manager, Belgo - Arcelor Brasil. "Belgo is live with SCM transportation planning from SAP and we plan on leveraging the additional capabilities of the transportation management solution for the planning and optimization of individual trailers, trains and scheduling of ocean freight."
Enhanced Ocean Shipping Capabilities
The latest transportation management functionality enhances the international shipping capabilities of mySAP SCM for companies that are involved in exports and imports. Collaborating with multi-carrier e-commerce platforms for the ocean shipping industry such as INTTRA, mySAP SCM now enables electronic capacity reservations and shipping instructions that can significantly improve the interaction with and service by ocean carriers. The integrated business process monitoring with event management functionality supports compliance with government regulations and helps companies avoid costly delays in customs processes.
"INTTRA's strategy is to provide easy and robust connectivity to all sectors that use ocean containers," said Harry Sangree, senior vice president of Business Development and Corporate Strategy, INTTRA. "SAP represents a large and important number of ocean shippers. Therefore, we are pleased to join forces with them to provide an off-the-shelf solution. INTTRA is pleased to expand the value of SAP's SCM product line by offering seamless carrier connectivity to ocean container shippers that cater to food, automotive, high tech, mill and consumer products."
Improved Transportation Planning
The new transportation management functionality to mySAP SCM also delivers additional flexibility by improving the vehicle scheduling and routing optimization capabilities in transportation planning. New capabilities include the ability to separate trucks from trailers as a unit, model drop and hook scenarios, and the ability to change equipment without timely exception processing. Customers can also make use of compartment planning to concurrently transport various liquids or products (such as grades of fuel), restrict dangerous goods to certain compartments or model incompatibilities between freight units to avoid loading them on the same vehicle. The ability to more effectively plan, maintain and execute a private fleet empowers companies to make better decisions between in-house or outsourced transportation.
"As businesses face increasing pressure to become global across their entire supply chain, they struggle to find ways to do so as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible," said Hans Thalbauer, vice president of SCM Solution Management, SAP. "SAP is addressing this imperative business need by making transportation management a key focus area in our SCM development efforts. With these latest enhancements, SAP continues to expand its supply chain and transportation management solutions, making them more flexible and more powerful in the ways that matter most to SAP customers."
Enabling Adaptive Supply Chain Networks with mySAP SCM
Part of the family of cross-industry applications within mySAP(TM) Business Suite, mySAP Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) is the world's leading supply chain management application. (See June, 29 2005 press release, titled "SAP Leads Enterprise Software Market Worldwide.") Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform and leveraging emerging technologies and "real world aware" practices -- using technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, smart cards and sensors -- mySAP SCM transforms traditional, linear supply chains into adaptive supply chain networks to meet the challenges of rapidly changing market dynamics.
These adaptive supply chain networks allow all participants, including suppliers and logistics providers, to sense changes in demand and supply conditions as they occur and to share the critical knowledge needed to respond intelligently. The result is an adaptive supply chain network that is not only demand-driven but can also leverage its assets to influence demand where appropriate.
mySAP SCM offers a dynamic synchronization of demand-driven planning, logistics and network execution based on real-time information that provides the capability to synchronize supply with demand by balancing push and pull network planning processes and to replenish and produce based on actual demand; sense and respond with an adaptive supply chain network in which distribution, transportation and logistics are driven and integrated into real-time planning processes; and enable network wide visibility, collaboration and analytics across the extended supply chain.
About SAP
SAP is the world's leading provider of business software*. Today, more than 36,200 customers in more than 120 countries run SAP® applications-from distinct solutions addressing the needs of small and midsize enterprises to suite offerings for global organizations. Powered by the SAP NetWeaver® platform to drive innovation and enable business change, SAP software helps enterprises of all sizes around the world improve customer relationships, enhance partner collaboration and create efficiencies across their supply chains and business operations. SAP solution portfolios support the unique business processes of more than 25 industries, including high tech, retail, financial services, healthcare and the public sector. With subsidiaries in more than 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges, including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol "SAP." (Additional information at www.sap.com/ )
(*) SAP defines business software as comprising enterprise resource planning and related applications such as supply chain management, customer relationship management, product life-cycle management and supplier relationship management.
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