With its key automotive sector stuck in neutral, QAD Inc. used its recent Explore user conference to give mid-tier customers far and wide some extra octane to accelerate into IT's passing lane.
Coming off some recent challenging quarters, the ERP vendor rolled out three modules for its year-old, SOA-based GXE enterprise applications suite. The new modules are said to enable geographically dispersed mid-tier manufacturers to more easily detect, administer, and adapt to demand signal changes. Moreover, the Carpinteria, CA, company met earlier promises by unveiling usability enhancements for its ERP applications built on Microsoft's .NET framework. As part of its Microsoft embrace, QAD is now offering SQL Server as a lower-cost-of-ownership alternative to the Oracle Corp. and Progress Software Corp. databases it already offers.
A new demand management engine and related tools are aimed at helping manufacturers optimize inventory planning and promotions management. New rule- and role-based order management tools are focused on helping GXE customers more easily accommodate changes in how and where products are built, assembled, delivered, and, most importantly, accounted for. A new configurator module, meanwhile, is positioned to help engineers and sales representatives more efficiently adapt their products to ever-expanding market requirements.
The integration of demand management functionality into GXE vis-a-vis a new workbench and a Web portal should help QAD keep pace with its ERP brethren and make life increasingly difficult for best-of-breed supply chain management vendors.
The new distributed order management module enables GXE customers running multiple instances of the ERP software that are either physically or logically separated to more easily split orders so they can be fulfilled and accounted for in the most efficient manner. "Say one plant builds this part and the other does [another] part, or they do the same things, but one has more capacity than the other... The customer can set up a rule that says use plant A when it has more stock or choose A when the customer is located in these geographies because it is less costly to ship," says Jim Kirkley, QAD's CTO.
Functionality enhancements aside, QAD's adoption of the Microsoft .NET framework-based user interface and support of SQL server is designed to make its ERP support easier -- and less costly -- to use.
"Customers used to need IT for expert mapping of a section of an unformatted spreadsheet, or had to spend two hours setting it up," says QAD chief marketing officer Mike Lodato. "Now the system understands the relationship, sets it up, and automatically does the mapping."
SQL Server support, meanwhile, puts QAD in contention for customer short-lists that pivot around lower cost of ownership, he says, noting that the company would no longer be "boxed out" of deals from manufacturers that have standardized on the fast-growing database management system.
This article originally appeared in the July 2006 issue of Managing Automation magazine.