Jan 7, 2009
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
IBM Inks Big Apps, Finance, and Procurement Deal With Sara Lee
Dana Stiffler, Phil Fersht, Lora Cecere
IBM has landed a seven-year contract with consumer goods giant Sara Lee, handling finance and accounting, indirect procurement, and application services activities in North America and Europe. Three elements of the deal struck us, besides it being a good indicator that big services contracts will continue to get the green light in this economy.
Oct 16, 2008
Industry Value Chain Strategies Service
Help Is Here: A Shortlist of Consulting Partners for the CP Industry
Lora Cecere, Dana Stiffler, Phil Fersht
The average consumer products company will spend 13% of its IT budget on third-party consulting services in 2009, which is a substantial expenditure in a market with tight resources. This article short-lists consulting partners by project area.
Sep 14, 2007
Industry Value Chain Strategies Service
Is a Demanding Customer a Profitable Customer? Improved Tools Can Tell You
Lora Cecere, Heather Keltz
Increasing customer demands mean increasingly complex supply chains, but at what cost? Companies have to start questioning whether customer demands help profitability or just burden them with costs. It's time to once again embrace cost-to-serve analysis. While not a new concept, new technologies are now hitting the market and offering some compelling ROI.
Jun 22, 2006
Industry Value Chain Strategies Service
SCM On Demand: From No Way to Maybe
Lora Cecere, Eric Klein
The supply chain management market has been based on a licensed software sales model with long sales cycles. Our recent study, however, finds a sizable shift in the acceptance and adoption of alternative models, including software as a service (SaaS), hosted/ASP, and business process outsourcing. Here we outline these changes and what they mean to the market.
Feb 23, 2006
Industry Value Chain Strategies Service
i2 Buys RiverOne
Bill Swanton, Lora Cecere, Mark Hillman, Mickey North Rizza
The consolidation of the B2B e-commerce and supply chain markets continues with i2 Technologies acquiring multitier supply chain management vendor RiverOne. Following last week's acquisition of Viacore by IBM, it is part of a trend AMR Research expects to accelerate over the next year as small supply chain vendors reach for-or are pushed to-an exit strategy.
May 25, 2005
Market Service: Global Business and Outsourcing Services
SAP Supply Chain Planning Service Providers: A Risk Assessment Profile
Dana Stiffler, Lora Cecere, William McNeill
The ideal SAP SCP service provider has expertise across SCP modules, strong general SAP knowledge, and industry-specific supply chain consulting capabilities-a tall order in this still-developing market. In this Report, we assess eight service providers, finding that while there are pockets of deep product and process expertise, no provider yet supplies the ideal mix of skills.
Nov 18, 2004
Industry Value Chain Strategies Service
Stressed Supply Lines Threaten Christmas This Year and Years To Come
Greg Aimi, Lora Cecere
Santa isn't stuck in the chimney--he's stuck in Long Beach. The global and U.S. logistics infrastructure is dangerously stressed, and just in time for the holidays! Because of the dramatic, faster-than-expected growth in Pacific trade, companies are scrambling to overcome logistics delays, increased lead times, and soaring costs. Those that didn't predict the congestion and the extended lead times may well be missing their own Christmas bonuses. The complexities of a stressed logistics infrastructure have logistics professionals feeling more like the Grinch than alive with holiday spirit. Heightened security regulations and increased trade rules have further complicated the situation. There are no signals that relief will come in 2005; in fact, there are indicators that it will get worse before it gets better.