Search Results for: gartner

  • Why SAP SPP Continues to Have Implementation Problems

    ByPrimary Researcher

    Executive Summary

    SAP created a partnership with MCA that was designed to get into the service parts planning market.
    We cover the outcome of this partnership.

    Introduction
    The pathway is not clearing for SPP as the successes have been few and far between. However, there is a solution.
    Bringing Up SAP SPP in the Market
    SPP has been a long haul for SAP. First of all, this product was an attempt to bring service parts planning into the mainstream. Rightly so, SAP identified service parts planning as a key underinvested in an area in the enterprise.
    SAP thought it could …

  • Why Deloitte Has Problems Implementing SAP

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … SAP AG and SAP Services were joined to the complaint as additional parties.  The basis of SAP’s liability, as alleged in the complaint, is that SAP through its partnership with Deloitte knew or should have known of Deloitte’s fraud and continued to give them credibility.
    However, Marin County would have known that SAP and Deloitte are so financially linked that SAP will never call out an implementation partner if they are a large consulting firm.
    What Companies that Hire Deloitte Should Be Concerned With
    There are many things to be concerned with when hiring Deloitte or if …

  • How to Understand SmartOps MIPO

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … to either the SAP execution or planning system by sending either parameter(s) that populate the material master in SAP ERP or actual safety stock values that populate the APO planning book.
    For companies that are not setting up service level agreements and which want a very simple and straightforward integration (as SmartOps only integrates master data and not transaction data to SAP) to either ERP or SAP) ERP, SmartOps would be a good choice. This is likely why SmartOps was selected by SAP as their partner for multi echelon and inventory optimization (MEIO).
    How SmartOps Rates on the Inventory

  • Why It Is Time for the SAP xApps Program to be Terminated

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … companies can do their research and find third-party solutions themselves. This is supposed to be the role of large consulting companies to help with this research, but the significant firms are so SAP biased, that they often do not do this role adequately. The issue is when high-status partners see third-party solutions as a threat to their revenues.
    Large consulting companies have SAP resourced to sell, so small solutions get less focus. Also, how unbiased is this program? If say for instance, one third-party software company is on the price list, and another third-party company …

  • How to Best Understand Multi Echelon Planning

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … understand all the implications of multi-echelon, because of multi-echelon mathematics break with the previous assumptions held by most supply chain professionals. But “getting” something the first time should not necessarily be a goal of understanding complex subject matter. Complex subjects often require multiple exposures. Once understood, the multi-echelon method of inventory positioning in the supply network cannot help but be seen as significantly superior to the old ways of determining the best place for the stock to be positioned. Although often ignored or trivialized, multi-echelon planning is truly an equal partner to inventory optimization in MEIO.

  • How Good are the SAP Solutions for 3PL and 4PL?

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … the freight marketplace side of the equation

    EWM – Extended Warehouse Management

    This offers advanced warehouse management functionality. EWM was developed at CAT Logistics and is designed for a large scale outsourced provider. Therefore it is really directed at the 3PL and 4 PL market, even though SAP and their consulting partners often try to sell EWM into shippers.

    EM – Event Management
    This is a status system that can be used to create a notification system for when things occur in the supply network.
    Trade-Offs of Cost and Complexity with SAP APO
    SAP is a complex and expensive implementation. However …

  • The Best and Worst Fourth Party Logistics Providers

    ByPrimary Researcher

    Executive Summary

    Fourth party logistics providers were predicted as the wave of the future.
    Fourth party logistics providers are a non-asset-based approach that is based upon using the most up to date technologies.

    Is Fourth Party Logistics Providers an idea whose time has come?
    Introduction: The 4PL as a Coordinator
    A fourth party logistics provider is a primary coordinator of other supply chain partners through the ownership and maintenance of information systems. This is differentiated from third-party logistics providers that provide physical handling and or transportation of goods. You will learn how technologies rather than assets differentiate …

  • Introduction to SAP SNC - Supplier Network Collaboration

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … effective. A company does not need to collaborate with all of its supply chain partners to use this software type. Instead, a company can merely collaborate with its biggest suppliers. This spreads the effort of the collaboration over a broad product base. In fact, the collaboration that has historically been at least semi-effective has been between partners where large percentages of each other’s businesses. One example is the collaboration between Wal-Mart and significant CPG companies such as Proctor and Gamble.
    Areas of Collaboration
    The most substantial candidate areas for collaboration include:

    CPFR – Where retailers are collaborating …

  • How to Understand SAP Supply Network Planning

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … is primarily a tool of operations. There was, at one time, a product called SEM. However, this product has died in the marketplace. The best way we know of to support SOP is with extracts from the SCM system.
    Collaborative Supply Planning: This opens up a web page and allows partners to enter values that persist in SNP.

    The SNP Environment
    The IMG environment area allows some housekeeping functions to be auctioned. This includes forecast generation, release to demand planning, mass maintenance of time series key figures, forecast to demand, and process chain maintenance.

    Planning in The Background
    This allows …

  • How to Understand PPDS Production Planning and Scheduling Heuristics

    ByPrimary Researcher

    … we doubt the ability of PPDS to be taken live at all with the optimizer if live means the majority of production orders are not to be manually adjusted after the optimization run.
    I run into clients who think they are performing constraint-based planning when running the PPDS heuristics, which is not correct. SAP consulting, sales, and support hides this fact from companies. You can’t get this information from Accenture, IBM, Deloitte, or any of the usual suspects. SAP consulting partners normally mislead their clients as to the status of PPDS implementations – repeating false claims made by SAP.