Seeking to give manufacturers visibility into not only incoming supplies, but also the movements of finished products, E2open today unveiled version 7.0 of its self-named software suite, calling it a breakthrough in end-to-end supply chain execution.
E2open 7.0 comprises three main applications: the Demand Network Solution, the Supply Network Solution, and the Outsourced Partner Network Solution. The distinguishing addition — and the feature that makes the 7.0 version a next-generation offering — is the demand capability, said Rich Becks, senior vice president of supply-demand solutions at the company.
“Basically, what we did was we leveraged the experience and technology we brought on the inbound side and we moved it into the outbound side,” Becks told Managing Automation in an interview.
That technology taps into the vast stream of transactions that connect a manufacturer — in the case of E2open’s customer pool, primarily those with sales of $500 million and up — to its suppliers, distributors, and other business partners. The supply-side application taps information on the shipment of components or raw materials from suppliers to the manufacturer. In 7.0, E2open closes the loop between supply and demand, helping a company gaze into the marketplace with near real-time visibility to understand how products are performing.
The software does this, in part, by monitoring EDI transactions between a manufacturer and its distributors — all the way from tier-one outfits to local shippers, if needed, Becks said. It also gathers information on product sales from B2B connections such as WalMart’s Retail Link, or on the movement of products from 3PL companies. Using these connections to understand the complexion of demand allows for better sales and operations planning, collaborative forecasting, and collaborative order management, he said.
The promise of the software depends heavily on a manufacturer’s ability to secure the participation of its demand-side partners. For distribution-chain partners that don’t already have direct communications links, E2open installs an integration router on the partner company’s LAN and monitors it for data on product activity, including store receipts, inventory reports, and shipping transactions. The software then turns that data into a dynamic picture of demand, according to Becks.
The manufacturer’s challenge, he said, is to “make a value proposition for your customers or your distribution partners that [says], ‘Look, I can sell more product, you can make more money, and we can both reduce the amount of time we spend doing this if you follow us on this journey.’ ”
If product performance at a particular location veers from the plan, the software alerts users to the problem, even suggesting remedies — for instance, redirecting a shipment of products bound for a certain distribution center to another location that has experienced a demand spike.
For companies that have outsourced production to a network of contract manufacturers, the 7.0 suite features an expanded E2open Outsourced Partner Network Solution, which helps brand owners keep tabs on their products as they move through various stages of third-party production.
Becks said E2open mainly serves the discrete market, but also sees interest from hybrid companies that must deal with process-like production but ultimately ship discrete products.