Products/Services
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 11/1/2002 12:00:00 AM
PeopleSoft launches application integration product suite
Pleasanton, Calif.-based enterprise suite vendor PeopleSoft announces PeopleSoft AppConnect, a suite of pre-integrated portal, integration, and data warehouse solutions said to reduce the complexities of integrating multivendor applications. PeopleSoft AppConnect utilizes Web services technology to simplify integration, which allows users to reduce custom development and ongoing maintenance of multiple integration technologies.
The AppConnect suite includes the Enterprise Portal, Integration Broker, and Enterprise Warehouse. PeopleSoft AppConnect products communicate using Web services and legacy integration methodologies. Additionally, AppConnect is compatible with J2EE and .NET, and works with IBM WebSphere and BEA WebLogic application servers.
"More than 35 percent of today's information technology [IT] budgets are spent integrating multivendor applications," says Michael Barnes, senior program director with Stamford, Conn.-based analyst firm META Group. "By simplifying integration and leveraging a more consistent, well-defined application infrastructure, companies can extend their core business processes across the enterprise. This results in reduced IT costs and improved business performance."
CIMNET MES uses XML to integrate factory information into the supply chain
CIMNET, a Robesonia, Pa.-based leading developer of manufacturing execution system (MES) software, reports that the Supply Chain Connector module for its Factelligence MES can dynamically integrate plant-floor information into supply chain management and enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems using eXtensible markup language (XML) and other methods.
Factelligence is a configurable, Web-based product that reportedly manages, tracks, and optimizes manufacturing facilities. With 12 MES modules that plug into its core XML data conduit, each module provides specific functionality: product specification and labor management, production and material lot tracking, work-in-process inventory, and machine utilization management.
Factelligence is said to reduce the significant cost of integration with ERP and control systems due to its user-configurable XML and OPC capabilities, and by managing product definition, quality, processing, and packaging in one system. The Supply Chain Connector supports XML, direct database connections, and file exchange to integrate any information from the Factelligence MES. Plant-level information such as production status, quality results, and plant availability can be provided to the ERP system; while schedules, bills of material, and procedures can be electronically presented to plant operators and downloaded into process control systems.
Provia offers its WMS ViaWare on Windows 2000
Provia Software, Grand Rapids, Mich., announces its ViaWare warehouse management system (WMS) for the Windows 2000 platform, offering what Provia says is Tier 1-level functionality in a single WMS for the Windows 2000 and UNIX platforms. Provia's single-source strategy also includes database independence, so companies can choose between an Oracle, SQL, or Informix database for the WMS.
"For companies with advanced warehousing requirements—such as wave building, labor planning, task management, advanced kitting, automatic replenishment, compliance labeling, serial number/catch weight capture, cross docking, cluster/batch picking, and cycle counting—Provia's ViaWare WMS for Windows 2000 is up to the task," says Ken Lewis, Provia president and CEO. "Because we use the same source code for both platforms, the Windows 2000 version has already essentially been tested in the field by our current UNIX customers. With ViaWare, there are none of the 'new' product concerns for prospects looking for a full-featured Windows 2000 WMS. The only difference between this version and our UNIX version is the platform."
Access Commerce optimizes lead-to-order process
According to Chicago-based Access Commerce, its guided selling software simplifies the sale of complex products and services over the Internet and through traditional sales channels. Through the use of relationship management applications, manufacturers can guide their employees, partners, and customers through needs analysis, configuration, pricing, quotation, and order fulfillment processes to improve order accuracy and shorten sales cycles.
Access recently released its Cameleon Direct Selling 4.1 customer relationship management solution, which offers enhanced opportunity management features, team selling, support for sales methodologies, graphical funnel reporting, and the integration of workflow and advanced reporting technologies.
Cameleon Direct Selling integrates needs analysis, catalog, product, and pricing configuration capabilities to ensure that quotes and proposals are completely accurate. Additionally, the solution enables instantly applying complex pricing policies and rules.
Configuration Solutions launches document, proposal management
Configuration Solutions, Kalamazoo, Mich., announces CS-Publish, a proposal generator and document management application said to allow organizations to more effectively configure, price, and execute product and service orders for customers. CS-Publish, an extension of CS-Enterprise—a fully integrated configuration software suite for complex product and service environments—generates on-demand quotes and proposals for product/service offerings with highly variable and diversified components; or for goods/services that are customized by enumerating (through a large database) both feature- and function-based information. The application then creates a pricing and lead-time proposal that is then stored in a database and can be accessed in different formats.
CS-Publish inserts all variable data—quote number, customer name, base price, lead time and line-item pricing—into template-based proposals based on either proprietary or CS-Enterprise rules, while deleting unspecified options for proposal. All data can then be sent remotely, or through Internet-based technologies, so that documents can be stored or retrieved across the enterprise.
The solution is built on Microsoft technology; works in Internet, intranet, and extranet applications; and employs JAVA, C++, Oracle, UNIX, and NT technologies.
