Software produces consensus view of enterprise demand.
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Press Release Summary:
Steelwedge EDM provides accurate view of enterprise-wide demand by seamlessly connecting all planning process participants and systems across sales, marketing, finance, and operations. Software combines planning analytics and desktop productivity tools with business process management and data translation for seamless consensus process. Application also combines accessible user interaction, process automation, adaptive analytics, and data transformation.
Original Press Release:
Steelwedge Inc., Delivers Enterprise Demand Management for High-Tech and Industrial Manufacturers
Addressing the Widespread Failure of Traditional Demand Planning, Steelwedge EDM Enables Executives and Planners to Drive a Consensus View of Enterprise Demand
PLEASANTON, Calif. - September 16, 2003 - Steelwedge, Inc., the leading innovator in the emerging field of Enterprise Demand Management, today announced the general availability of its integrated software suite, Steelwedge EDM. Built from the ground up for high-tech and industrial manufacturing companies, Steelwedge EDM provides an accurate view of enterprise-wide demand by seamlessly connecting all planning process participants and systems across sales, marketing, finance and operations. Steelwedge customers include Juniper Networks, Tellabs and FederalExpress.
"Failures to accurately forecast demand continue to plague discrete manufacturers in the current economic environment, resulting in huge inventory write-offs and lost opportunities," said Rob Schneider, CEO and president of Steelwedge. "Traditional supply chain and ERP systems simply cannot solve the demand-supply equation, because they are both too narrowly focused on operational history and too complex for business users. We took a fresh approach and built Steelwedge EDM, the industry's first demand management platform that enables sales, marketing, finance and operations to derive a single, forward-looking version of the truth."
"The downturn in both the telecommunications market and the general economy underscored the flaws in our demand management systems and approach," said Christine Pfefferle, Director of North American Forecasting at Tellabs. "Steelwedge Enterprise Demand Management was an important catalyst in helping us to maximize our revenue, reduce our costs and gain business efficiencies. Steelwedge has helped Tellabs accelerate cycle times, increase fill rates and improve mix accuracy, resulting in approximately $10M in annual savings on inventory and logistics."
Traditional, operations-based approaches fail to accurately predict demand because they do not address the problem on an enterprise level. ERP & SCM demand planning modules are designed for expert power users, and their content is limited to operational history. On the other hand, forward-looking enterprise-level processes, such as Sales & Operations Planning, are currently based on manual processes that fail to drive consensus and disparate spreadsheets that lack credible detail, drill-down capability and consistent terminology.
Steelwedge bridges the gap between operational planners and sales, marketing and finance executives by wedding sophisticated planning analytics to familiar desktop productivity tools like Microsoft Excel and Outlook, then adding business process management and data translation to enable a seamless consensus process. Truly a breakthrough solution, Steelwedge EDM is the only planning suite to combine accessible user interaction, process automation, adaptive analytics and data transformation for an enterprise-wide view of demand.
"The Steelwedge Enterprise Demand Management product suite has been developed to support High-Tech and Industrial manufacturers in synchronizing component supplies with demand plans generated from a variety of sources - rather than statistical forecasting-based demand plans that are prevalent at Consumer Product and Life Sciences companies," said Larry Lapide, Vice President, AMR Research, in AMR Research Alert, "Your Sales and Operational Planning Process May Need to be Refreshed," Wednesday, September 10, 2003.
"Adding to its credibility, Steelwedge has built its product suite with a strong supply-demand collaboration focus, as embodied in one of its products, Sales & Operations Planning," said Lapide. "Our recent research shows that companies are not taking full advantage of external supply and demand data to improve internal collaborations in the S&OP process. Refreshing your S&OP process will help your company get that last drop of scarce revenue in this tough economic climate."
Steelwedge EDM: At Last, Demand Management for the Enterprise
For the first time, Steelwedge enables companies to easily engage all participants in the demand management process through a familiar and flexible user environment, while seamlessly connecting with the existing enterprise application infrastructure. The Steelwedge EDM technology platform sets Steelwedge apart from both point forecasting solutions and ERP/SCM product suites by delivering the following unique combination of core capabilities:
Accessible User Interaction. Steelwedge has extended the intuitive, familiar desktop environment of spreadsheets, email and web browsers to engage everyone from executives to planners in a meaningful, relevant planning dialog. Steelwedge Enterprise Enabled Excel (E3) technology combines the familiarity, ease of use and flexibility of Microsoft Excel with the architecture, security and collaborative capabilities of an enterprise system.
Process Automation and Management. Robust yet intuitive business process management and exception-based planning keep information flowing across the enterprise, ensuring timely participation. This element, missing from traditional planning solutions, is critical to the collaborative, cross-functional planning process.
Adaptive Analytic Engine. Based on 12 years of research at more than 400 companies, the Steelwedge adaptive analytic engine combines quantitative techniques, including time-series and causal regression analysis, with advanced qualitative techniques to maximize forecast accuracy. Expert system logic and business heuristics are employed to automatically select the optimum combination of forecasting techniques.
Intelligent Data Integration and Transformation. Steelwedge combines industry-standard Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) technology with deep domain expertise to automatically aggregate and normalize data, providing smart translation to get every department - from sales to materials planning - speaking the same language.
The Steelwedge EDM Application Suite
To enable a truly enterprise-wide approach to demand management, Steelwedge EDM includes the following application modules:
Demand Forecasting & Planning (DF&P). Improves forecast accuracy and dramatically increases revenue predictability by engaging all users and departments in a managed, exception-based process. Accurately models complex manufacturing processes and products, delivering enhanced performance for competitive advantage.
Sales Pipeline Management (SPM). Translates sales pipeline data into detailed forecasts that are meaningful to marketing, operations and finance. Enables manufacturers to align sales-pipeline-based and demand-history-based forecasts, quickly respond to changing market conditions and improve revenue predictability.
Product Lifecycle Planning (PLP). Allows planners to effectively forecast and manage new products throughout their lifecycle, combining quantitative and qualitative data, market research and proven statistical techniques with factors such as cannibalization, supersession and "looks-like" in an advanced approach to composite forecasting.
Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP). Automates and streamlines cross-functional communication and collaboration, including scenario analysis and what-if capabilities for modeling the operational and financial impact of strategic options.
Company History
Since its founding in 2000, Steelwedge has built a thought-leadership position in the emerging field of Enterprise Demand Management, issued three major releases of its software suite and acquired several early customers. The company has secured $8 million in funding from Sigma Partners and Globespan Capital Partners. The Steelwedge management team comprises industry veterans of enterprise software and services companies including Manugistics, PeopleSoft, Accenture and Sybase. The Steelwedge Adaptive Analytic Engine is based on research by Dr. John T. Mentzer, the internationally recognized authority on demand forecasting and planning.
About Steelwedge
Steelwedge, Inc., is the leading innovator in the field of Enterprise Demand Management, helping high-tech and industrial manufacturing companies consolidate, predict and manage demand across the enterprise, and effectively balance supply with an accurate view of demand. Founded in 2000, Steelwedge is privately held and is based in Pleasanton, California. For more information about Steelwedge, go to www.steelwedge.com.
Steelwedge and all Steelwedge product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Steelwedge, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective holders.
Contacts:
Kit Robinson
Kit Robinson Communications
510-333-2124
kit.robinson@lmi.net
David Rowe
Steelwedge, Inc.
925-249-3413
drowe@steelwedge.com
