White Paper

Supply Chain Intelligence

An Evolution From Process Automation to Business Insight

Authors:

Alan Probert, director of strategic alliances for Business Objects. Daniel ORegan, senior member of the Accenture Supply Chain Management Practice. Richard Horswill, managing director, In Logistics Limited.

Contributors:

Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ii Beyond ERP: Driving Intelligence From Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
The Changing Supply Chain

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

The Eternal Riddle: Two Beers or Four?

The Foundation: SCM Process Automation e-Business: Opportunity and Challenge The Supply Chain Maturity Roadmap

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

The Next Level: Extended Means Intelligent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Breadth: The KPI Radar Screen Depth: The Devil in the Details Real Money Means Real-Time

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Transparency Demands Data Integrity

A Catalyst for Organizational Transformation

Analytic Applications for the Supply Chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Source Deliver

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Executive Summary

The unexamined life, declared Socrates, is not worth living. If the ancient Greek philosopher were alive today and in charge of supply chain management for a Fortune 1000 company, he might well introduce a twist into this venerable philosophical adage: The unexamined supply chain is not worth running or at least it wont be in a few years. Supply chain management certainly experienced a stunning transformation in the past decade. Applications for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) have enabled organizations to automate and streamline planning, scheduling, and execution at every link in the supply chain. With smart implementations, leading companies have achieved remarkable improvements in supply chain performance that not only bettered their bottom lines, but reshaped entire industries. ERP and SCM applications have laid the transactional foundation to facilitate this change, but there is still some way to go before true supply chain excellence can be achieved. The next phase is about the Socratic ideal of examining the supply chain of analyzing it, and measuring the improvements realized through ERP and SCM applications to drive efciencies in the supply chain. It is an evolution in supply chain technology, from supply chain management to supply chain intelligence that will support and facilitate this change. Supply chain intelligence is the convergence of supply chain management and business intelligence the capability to access, integrate, analyze, and share information across and beyond the enterprise. The key to this is the analytic application software designed expressly around supply chain processes including procurement, manufacturing, and distribution. By applying rich analytics and standardized metrics to vast and complex supply chain data, companies can reduce costs, drive revenue growth, build loyalty among customers and partners, and achieve competitive advantage. Supply chain intelligence complements the tactical execution of SCM with long-range strategic dimensions. It is the key to achieving the extended supply chain that many envision, but few if any have achieved a near real-time, e-business network that transcends a companys boundaries to achieve precise synchronicity and protable collaboration among thousands of moving parts and partners. The bar is being raised. In the years to come, supply chain intelligence will become a prerequisite not just to win, but to compete. In this white paper, Business Objects and Accenture explore this next frontier of supply chain intelligence and how organizations can continue to build on existing investments and best practices to deliver the supply chain performance required to succeed in the 21st century.

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Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Beyond ERP: Driving Intelligence From Data

The Changing Supply Chain

The very term supply chain suggests a linear process a series of simple, sequential links to get from point A to point Z. This is a misnomer with roots in an age long past, when managers relied on common sense, experience, and instincts to make multi-million dollar supply chain decisions crucial to the fortunes of their companies. Now, as then, information is the lifeblood of the supply chain. Even ten years ago, a purchasing manager would choose a supplier based on a limited amount of information, often weeks old, and concerned with basic elements of cost and quality. Geography and the immaturity of international trade also limited choices and therefore the amount of information a decision-maker faced. Assessing consumer preference was left to guesswork and, frequently, disastrous misinterpretation. The supply chain universe and its information was far smaller and more easily managed. Todays supply chain is anything but simple. It is, in literal terms, not a chain at all, but an incredibly complex, dynamic, data-driven network of inter-relationships among dozens, hundreds, or thousands of suppliers, customers, and partners. It spans a multitude of interdependent functions, and a myriad of metrics associated with each function. It puts a premium on characteristics that are being redened by e-business: Collaboration: Communication on timely information among supply chain analysts, managers, suppliers, and customers. Flexibility: Information and resources to meet challenges and seize opportunities. Agility: Ability to swiftly respond to changing market conditions. Visibility: Instant access to information driving supply chain operations and performance. As dened by the Supply-Chain Council (SCC), supply chain management encompasses supply and demand, sourcing raw materials and parts, manufacturing and assembly, warehousing and inventory tracking, order entry and order management, distribution across channels, and delivery to customer. The council distills these functions into a model of ve basic management processes: plan, source, make, deliver, and return. Figure 1 Supply chain ow/loops

Entreprise Resource Planing Production Fulfillment Warehouse management

Material management Procurement Manufacturing

Order management Distribution Inventory

Sales Service Marketing Customer

Accenture 2001-All Rights Reserved.

Supplier

DATA
Transportation Logistics

GOODS

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

The Eternal Riddle: Two Beers or Four?

Even at its most fundamental level, the supply chain dees easy management. This phenomenon is reected in the beer game, an exercise popularized at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Four people assume the roles of retailer, wholesaler, distributor, and beer factory boss. The objective for each is to maintain supply chain stability optimized production, delivery, and inventory by accurately assessing consumer demand. MITs spreadsheet analyses of thousands of beer games show uncanny patterns of misinterpretation and overreaction among the participants. Invariably, the supply chain ends up with serious kinks. If a simple theoretical supply chain problem cannot be mastered, how is a real supply chain to operate efciently in the dynamic ecosystem of e-business? More than ever, it is information that drives the supply chain. And more than ever, it is the profusion of information globalized, fast-moving, ever-changing, dauntingly complex, and frequently contradictory that threatens to drive more than a few supply chains into the ground. This profusion of information is both internal and external to the enterprise. Internally, a patchwork proliferation of applications specic to and associated with the supply chain is generating data of unprecedented volume and complexity. The supply chain enterprise faces considerable difculties in efciently linking newer applications with legacy software that is crucial to business operations. Externally, the Internet provides a source of information as rich as it is overwhelming while at the same time requiring organizations to utilize this medium to build a collaborative e-business environment for partners and customers. The decision matrix is getting more complex and that makes the eternal riddle even more difcult.

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

The Foundation: Supply Chain Management Process Automation

Companies have invested billions of dollars in ERP and SCM software in attempts to master the supply chain, and spending on SCM applications shows no sign of slowing. In early 2001, research rm International Data Corp. predicted that worldwide SCM software expenditures would grow at a robust 46% compound annual growth rate, to $20 billion by 2003.1 ERP and SCM applications serve ably to automate, streamline, and standardize processes within distinct functional units of the supply chain. What supply chain intelligence seeks to do is build on this data expanse with advanced capabilities in three key areas: Rich, deep analytics on cross-functional supply chain areas Data integration from cross-functional supply chain areas, legacy and back-ofce applications and e-business systems User-friendly key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards that intuatively highlight areas for action Building supply chain intelligence is highly complementary to the many organizations that have invested in ERP and SCM applications. The new analytic capabilities that are being developed provide a much needed and new rich source of data from which to drive key business decisions in real-time to deliver competitive advantage in the market place. With the volume and complexity of data growing by the minute, decision-makers need the ability to monitor and measure KPIs from the swell of information within the organization. The presentation of and accessibility of hands-on KPIs delivered by the analytic application will become as essential to the supply chain manager as indicators of airspeed, altitude, and fuel supply to the pilot of a 747. Without a set of KPIs that can be readily understood and acted upon, a manager can swiftly be confronted with an information-overload and make decisions that will impact business performance adversely. A supply chain intelligence system will typically use a data warehouse or data marts to integrate data from functional supply chain areas and related operational, nancial, and e-business systems. The consolidation of data from disparate sources is important in avoiding multiple version of the truth, the result of basing supply chain decisions on an archipelago of data stores. Such a fractured supply chain infrastructure poses more than a mere inconvenience, it can exact severe penalties in business efficiency, decision-making, and customer satisfaction. In one celebrated misadventure, a Big Three Detroit automaker had implemented standalone customer relationship management (CRM) and SCM applications. The objective of the CRM solution was to track sales and buyer preferences, and in turn help the automaker decide which models to manufacture. The company discovered that lime-green vehicles were selling poorly, and offered price cuts and incentives. When consumers began snapping up lime-green vehicles, the supply chain overcompensated by increasing production of lime-green cars. The absence of an intelligent, enterprise-wide view of the supply chain resulted in a multi-million dollar mistake.2

1 Supply Chain in the Spotlight, Line56.com, May 15, 2001. 2 Facing Up to CRM, Business 2.0, August 2001.

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

e-Business: Opportunity and Challenge

While the internet offers an unprecedented wealth of supply chain information it also demands of any e-business a degree of openness, speed, and data accuracy unimaginable decades ago. Suppliers and customers now expect instant access to data through a secure extranet, with capabilities to analyze data for the best deals. The successful e-business supply chain requires an environment that is both collaborative and transparent. Otherwise, the partner is apt to do business with a competitor. Despite apprehensions over transparency, businesses are plunging full-speed into this new model of the collaborative e-business supply chain. In a survey of 40 supply chain executives at $1 billion-plus companies, Forrester Research discovered that as of 2001, 57 percent either had not begun or were just getting started with web-enabled collaborative supply chains. By 2003, however, Forrester found that 80 percent expected to have these efforts nearly or fully complete.3 Some are further along the road of supply chain excellence. Dell Computer, for instance, revolutionized the personal computer industry by maximizing performance of its supply chain. The pioneering build-to-order and just-in-time systems that Dell implemented in the mid-1990s practically eliminated inventories and associated costs, and helped Dell achieve extraordinary levels of customer satisfaction. Wal-Marts mastery of just-in-time systems propelled it to the top of the retail industry and left rivals such as the now-defunct Montgomery Ward and F.W. Woolworth Co. well behind.

3 The Forrester Report, When to Share Supply Chain Secrets, September 2001.

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

The Supply Chain Maturity Roadmap

For every Dell and Wal-Mart though, there are thousands of companies struggling simply to manage their supply chains against a rising tide of data, e-business competition, and changing economic conditions. The majority resides on the lower tiers of what Accenture calls the Supply Chain Continuum. These tiers consist of four distinct stages on route to supply chain excellence: Traditional: Supply chain and SCM practices are loosely structured, ill-dened, and specic to functional and geographic units Integrated: Internal supply chain processes and systems are structured and integrated across functional and geographic boundaries Collaborative: A breakthrough level in which collaboration and control are extended to suppliers and partners over the web eSynchronization: Internal and external supply chain processes and systems are dynamically driven over the web (see Figure 2) The stage of eSynchronization has not been reached by any company to any signicant level. Accentures research and systems-implementation eld experience clearly shows that the gap between supply chain leaders and also-rans is widening, in virtually every industry. Moreover, the rate of growth of that gap is alarmingly rapid. Businesses that have exploited technology to improve supply chain performance have leapt substantially ahead of competitors, with the emergence of supply chain intelligence providing a powerful agent to reach even higher plateaus. It is clear that businesses that neglect to undertake a broad, strategic effort to improve the performance of their supply chains stand to be blindsided by rivals that do. Figure 2 It is the provision of real time information and analytics that will drive synchronization and improve performance.

The Supply Chain Continuum

Across Alliance Partners

Scope of Impact

With Customers & Suppliers

Web-Based Entrants
sin gB e fi ne ts

Between Business Functions

In
Within Business Activities

a cre

sin

gC

b pa

ilit

ie

In s,

a cre

eSynchronization
Step 3: Virtually Synchronize the supply chain across players into one logic enterprise

Collaborative

Integrated

Step 2: Improve collaboration and control with vendors, customers

Traditional Optimization

Step 1: Integrate functions of the existing supply chain

Integration Collaboration Synchronization

Relationships Along the Supply Chain

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

The Next Level: Extended Means Intelligent

The road towards the eSynchronized supply chain requires integrated performance measurement able to weigh variables against one another. Intelligent cross-functional and inter-enterprise information management and analysis is required. This sort of integrated performance measurement will for example allow a supply chain manager to correlate component cost and quality against product return and warranty obligations. The aggregation of data from separate but related applications, say manufacturing and product returns, will enable a balancing of variables and deliver insight into the best course of action. Applications that can support this level of analysis are far more than simple data warehouses or data marts that consolidate data. They take advantage of new analytic capabilities, allowing organizations to access, integrate, and share disparate information across the enterprise, and with external parties via an extranet. This new breed of analytic applications for the supply chain take a step beyond BI tools by providing built-in functionality particular to supply chain processes such as procurement, logistics, or manufacturing. Analytic applications are engineered around business processes, rather than technical features with a robust analytic platform that will provide hundreds of metrics, often tailored to specic organization requirements that will drive best practice and performance for leading organizations. In simplifying what otherwise would be a complex analysis process, these tools will signicantly reduce the time to create actionable business data and further compact both development and deployment cycles, allowing organizations to achieve and realize signicant value and return on investment within very short timescales. Figure 3 Typical SCI architecture

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

A dening characteristic to this supply chain intelligence infrastructure and analytic applications is their ability to provide both breadth and depth.

Breadth: The KPI Radar Screen

At the highest level that of breadth a supply chain intelligence infrastructure will provide a snapshot view of KPIs determined by the executive or manager. For instance, the vice president of supply chain operations will have access to a portal-like view of indicators that span the supply chain: Component price uctuations/availability from suppliers Manufacturing capacity utilization Logistics efciency and costs by channel Inventory levels, stock turns, latency Returns to suppliers and from customers For a logistics manager, the KPI interface is altered to report on logistics-specic data: Capacity utilization of transport vehicles Delivery efciency (inbound/outbound) Logistics costs (i.e., equipment, fuel, labor) Delivery lead-time trends Anomalies (i.e., accidents, breakdown, delivery rejection) Such a KPI interface is essential for fast, intelligent decision-making. The acceleration and intensication of supply chain processes and proliferation of data make it imperative that decision-makers be spared from wading through volumes of amorphous data to ascertain the facts and gures most crucial to operations.

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

At the same time, this KPI interface serves as a radar screen for anomalies, often with pre-dened thresholds that, once breached, trigger a notication to the decision-maker. An instantaneous alert of an equipment breakdown at a factory in Illinois, for example, enables a manufacturing operations VP to intelligently decide whether to boost production at a plant in the Far East. To approach the ideal of the nely synchronized extended supply chain, such disaster-prevention capabilities are indispensable. Further, this technology can also broadcast alerts through a variety of channels, including wireless phones and PDAs, emails, faxes, and landlines to maximize exposure in todays fast-moving business environment. Figure 4 KPI Radar Screen

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Depth: The Devil in the Details

As important as KPIs are to intelligently managing a supply chain, they represent just the tip of the pyramid. The key to realizing signicant supply chain performance improvement lies not only in a snapshot of data, but in ability to examine the underlying detail from which the snapshot is derived. The vast majority of companies do not engage in deep analytics on supply chain operations, mainly because of the absence of that advanced functionality. In many ways, the potential enhancements are unexplored territory. In view of the revenue-generation and cost-cutting opportunities identied through the use of business intelligence against nancial, sales, and customer information, it is fair to say that the dividends from supply chain intelligence stand to be substantial. For example, a purchasing manager at Acme Super-Widgets relies on a single manufacturer to supply circuit boards for his companys products. The circuit boards are recognized to be of good quality and fairly priced. The supplier, however, has historically suffered from sporadic manufacturing interruptions. Though infrequent, these interruptions have resulted in major and costly setbacks to Acmes own manufacturing and delivery schedules. By consolidating data from the disparate but interdependent functional areas of procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service, the supply chain intelligence system enables Acme decision-makers to analyze the issue from multiple perspectives: What is the cost differential between circuit boards from our supplier and its competitors? What are the relative component and product quality implications? What costs have we incurred as a result of our suppliers manufacturing interruptions? What consequences have resulted in terms of customer satisfaction? What are the historical trends in interruptions from our supplier? In a sizable supply chain, even an incremental improvement or cost-savings can deliver big dividends a little of a lot, after all, is still a lot. The size of the supply chain and the casual relationships among its components tend to magnify improvements (and degradations). The ideal supply chain infrastructure will be engineered to find the devil in the details by aggregating cross-functional and inter-enterprise data and exploiting it at the atomic level.

Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Real Money Means Real-Time

A traditional rap against data warehousing and business intelligence has concerned latency of information. Data is extracted from applications and loaded into the warehouse periodically. This throughput-intensive extraction and loading process is frequently executed overnight, when user demand is low and bandwidth is high, or over a weekend. For maximum access and responsiveness to real-time supply chain information, this approach leaves something to be desired. The intelligent supply chain can take advantage of maturing enterprise application integration (EAI) technology to accelerate data ows and decision-making capabilities. EAI serves as a hub that connects disparate systems and makes information available and actionable in real time. For instance, EAI technology is in use at some large enterprises to accelerate and simplify purchase order processes. EAI takes a purchase order logged over the web by a customer, siphons relevant data, and passes it to order fulllment and logistics to execute the transaction. At the same time, the data is routed to the supply chain intelligence data warehouse, where it is available immediately for access and analysis.

Transparency Demands Data Integrity

The transparency of the e-business supply chain can mean that aws and glitches are exposed for the world to see. Such perils were recognized at Penske Logistics in Ohio, one of the largest providers of transportation services in North America, as it rolled out Business Objects business intelligence software to support a supply chain intelligence extranet that would enable its customers to track and analyze shipments. Youre basically wearing your business on your sleeve, as Tom Nather, a Penske senior systems analyst, put it. Transparency requires that information be accurate.4 The supply chain intelligence infrastructure provides a platform in which dirty data such as contradictory customer contact or location data in separate applications is reconciled. This dividend of supply chain intelligence is frequently overlooked, but is crucial to the transparency required by e-business. The integrity and accuracy of data made available to external parties heavily inuences a companys credibility, customer satisfaction, and in turn, its prospects.

4 Bernard Liautaud, e-Business Intelligence: Turning Information Into Knowledge Into Prot, November 2000.

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Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

A Catalyst for Organizational Transformation

Another characteristic of supply chain intelligence is as an agent for organizational change. Half of the battle in supply chain performance improvement is not information, but the structure and responsibilities of organizations and personnel in managing that information. The ability to achieve collaboration among functional units is frequently inhibited by ingrained practices, calcied hierarchies, and territorial disputes. Left to themselves, the inclination of many managers naturally is towards functional performance, not enterprise performance. Supply chain intelligence provides a common ground for collaboration among units. It offers a communal reservoir of information, rather than a scattering of puddles. Through its loose coupling of interdependent systems, supply chain intelligence is a powerful catalyst for dissolving organizational barriers. Properly driven by senior executives, it can serve to reorient the focus and responsibilities of managers beyond isolated functional units to the supply chain as a whole.

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Analytic Applications for the Supply Chain

As analytic applications are designed to reect industry best practices and standard metrics, they customarily are built around a business concept or model. Several applications are available today, for instance, based explicitly around the balanced scorecard business performance measurement system outlined by business strategists Robert Kaplan and David Norton in the Harvard Business Journal in the mid-1990s. For the supply chain, the Supply-Chain Council offers a compelling proposition in its taxonomy of Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return (see below). This framework serves as a unied view of supply chain operations and to synchronize among the interdependent parts applicable to business in any industry consumer packaged goods, automotive, electronics. The Supply-Chain Councils 700-plus member organizations include leading businesses in diverse industries including Lockheed Martin, Procter & Gamble, Anheuser-Busch, and Amazon.com, to name a few. Firmly established, its view of the supply chain provides a common supply-chain framework, standard terminology, common metrics, benchmarks, and best practices that can be used for evaluating, positioning, and implementing supply-chain improvement programs. Below is the framework Business Objects used in developing its supply chain intelligence software: Plan Assess supply resources Business planning Manage planning infrastructure Source Sourcing/materials acquisition Raw materials warehouse management Raw materials transportation Make Manufacture and testing Business planning Manage planning infrastructure Deliver Order management Finished goods warehouse management Finished goods transportation Return Return to supplier Return from customer Using this framework, it is easy to see how supply chain analytic applications can start to make signicant impacts on performance within and across organizations. The following illustrates this using an example from the Source and Deliver elements of the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model.

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Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Source
An analytic application built around the Source component will enable both a high-level view of KPIs and exploration of granular data to manage, measure, and improve procurement processes. It should be geared for the informational needs of executives, managers, and analysts in planning, procurement, supplier management, and warehousing, and be customizable to each user. It should provide for examination of both linear and network ows of information and decision-making within the Source management process.
Identify sources of supply Select supplier Schedule delivery Receive product Verify product Transfer product Authorize payment

Included within a broad range of functionality, a Source application should provide for monitoring and measurement by the ve key determinants outlined by the Supply-Chain Council.
Reliability Order accuracy Timely delivery Material quality Documentation Flexibility Expedite orders Change orders Change contracts Responsiveness Improve cycle times Shorten lead times Cost Acquisition costs Distribution costs Transportation costs Assets Optimize inventory turns Reduce stock holding

Any analytic application should, of course, provide prebuilt metrics to measure each attribute, and provide the capability for further exploration via ad hoc query. It would also need to support best Source practices, as dened by the councils SCOR 5.0 reference model. For instance: Electronic links to integrate supplier resource information (inventory, capacity utilization, and availability) with a companys own resources. Joint service agreements that dene required exibility and performance. Distinct links to ensure that disruptions in material resources are visible and actionable. Detailed component-level inventory planning based on supply and demand variability. Master production scheduling reects management of capacity and/or supply constraints. In short, using a supply chain intelligence analytic application to measure data and information on source elements would allow organizations to manage this specic part of the supply chain for improved performance focused on reliability, exibility, and responsiveness.

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Deliver
An analytic application for the Deliver component should be engineered to the informational needs of executives, managers, and analysts in logistics, warehousing, customer service/order, and inbound/outbound transport. It ideally enables analysis of the logistics process with an eye to identication of inefciencies and performance improvement. As with the Source application, it should enable analysis of variables from both linear and network perspectives.
Receive customer order Reserve inventory Plan & build loads Select carrier, route, rate Execute transit Verify product delivery

Invoicing

The prebuilt metrics and capability for ad hoc query should be designed for integrated performance measurement across all aspects of the Deliver process. Here again, standard metrics should be provided for monitoring and measurement by the councils ve key determinants:
Reliability Quality (non damaged goods) Fill rate Order accuracy Availability Flexibility % customer managed inventory % deliveries direct from supplier Responsiveness Reduce lead time On time delivery End of life inventory Cost Inventory days supply Delivery costs/sales revenue Installation costs Asset utilization Load capacity Stock turns Location utilization

As with Source, the application should also account for best practices in the Deliver process as dened by the council, including: Real-time visibility into backlog, order entry, shipments, customer credit history, inventory positions. Consolidation of orders by customer, source, trafc lane, carrier. Distinct communications link supporting continuous replenishment and vendor-managed inventory. Dynamic carrier and route optimization processes. Electronic transfer of shipment information to nance unit. In conclusion, using a supply chain intelligence analytic application to measure standard metrics over time, with the exibility to perform ad hoc analysis, would encourage the continuous improvement of the deliver process.

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Accenture and Business Objects Supply Chain Intelligence

Conclusion

To tweak the age-old Socratic adage: Is the examined supply chain worth running? The answer is an unqualied yes. Businesses embarking on the long odyssey to supply chain excellence have good reason to believe that we are only now beginning to witness the scope and degree of performance improvements that may be achieved through the intelligent exploitation of an unprecedented abundance of data. Analytics are the route to signicant improvements in supply chain performance. The ability to monitor supply chain metrics in real-time and react instantly stands to deliver genuine business value and competitive advantage. Leading companies beginning to deploy supply chain intelligence systems are gaining a sizable lead, and the gap between those leaders and the also-rans is rapidly widening. The supply chain is an enormously complex piece of machinery. Through sizable investments in ERP/SCM systems, businesses have equipped this machinery with the working parts, oil, and fuel to needed run in the 21st century. The next step is to equip it with the advanced maneuvering, navigation, and trouble-shooting technology required to explore the uncharted frontiers of supply chain intelligence.

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About Accenture

Accenture is the world's leading management and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach--in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, afliated companies and other capabilities Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With more than 75,000 people in 47 countries, Accenture can quickly mobilize its broad and deep global resources to accelerate results for clients. The company has extensive experience in 18 industry groups in key business areas, including customer relationship management, supply chain management, business strategy, technology and outsourcing. Accenture also leverages its afliates and alliances to help drive innovative solutions. Strong relationships within this network of businesses extend Accenture's knowledge of emerging business models and products, enabling the company to provide its clients with the best possible tools, technologies and capabilities. Accenture uses these resources to serve as a catalyst, helping clients anticipate and gain value from business and technology change. For the scal year ended August 31, 2001, Accenture generated net revenues of $11.44 billion. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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About Business Objects

Business Objects is the worlds leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. It helps organizations improve operational efciency, build protable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings. The companys products include BUSINESSOBJECTS 2000, the industry's leading integrated business intelligence toolset and platform; and BUSINESSOBJECTS ANALYTICS, an integrated suite of enterprise analytic applications. Business Objects pioneered the modern BI industry in 1990 by inventing a patented semantic layer that insulates users from the complexity of databases. In 1995, the company was rst to focus on enterprise-scale BI deployments and today supports customers with more than 20,000 users. The company moved aggressively to the internet in 1997 by pioneering the market for BI extranets, a market that it continues to lead today. In 2000, the company delivered the industry's rst interactive mobile BI solution. Today, Business Objects continues to innovate, creating and delivering a unique vision for enterprise analytic applications. Business Objects has more than 15,500 customers in over 80 countries. The company's stock is publicly traded under the ticker symbols NASDAQ: BOBJ and Euronext Paris (Sicovam code 12074). It is included in the SBF 120 and IT CAC 50 French stock market indexes. Business Objects can be reached at 408-953-6000 and http://www.businessobjects.com.

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The Business Objects product and technology are protected by US patent numbers 5,555,403 and 6,247,008. The Business Objects logo is a trademark of Business Objects SA in the United States and/or other countries. All other company, product, or brand names mentioned herein, may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Specications subject to change without notice. Not responsible for errors or omissions.

Copyright 2002 Business Objects SA. All rights reserved.

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