Enterprise Profit Optimization (EPO) Emerges as Next Major Global Wave in Enterprise Management
Manugistics Defines EPO at Strategic Summit; Outlines Plan to Dominate Market for Solutions that Enable New Business Discipline
biz.yahoo.com
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Rockville, Md.-based Manugistics Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: MANU - news), today at its Strategy Summit defined the powerful, new business discipline of Enterprise Profit Optimization(TM) (EPO), and provided a roadmap for how the company plans to dominate what it believes will be the next major global wave in enterprise management.
Enterprise Profit Optimization refers to a company's ability to drive profitable growth through the simultaneous optimization of its supply-side and demand-side functions. Only recently has EPO technology become possible through the combination of the proven cost reduction power of Supply Chain Management (SCM), and the revenue enhancing capacity of breakthrough Pricing and Revenue Optimization (PRO) solutions.
On the supply side, SCM optimizes the design, purchase, manufacture, storage, transportation, marketing, and selling of goods and services, and links trading partners, via the Web, to create high-value marketplaces. On the demand side, PRO segments the market, determines what customer segments are willing to pay for specified goods or services, and then optimizes pricing and availability for each product by customer segment.
For a customer using Enterprise Profit Optimization, pricing, forecasting, and operational planning and execution are integrated to help produce a higher level of return across the extended enterprise.
The AMR Research Alert on Supply Chain Management for January 16, 2001 estimates that up to $95 billion in annual incremental operating margin could be generated with tools such as these in the U.S. manufacturing economy alone. AMR calls Enterprise Profit Optimization ``a big step toward the vital new perspective that costs and revenue can be optimized.''
``Forecasting tools notwithstanding,'' the alert says, ``little has been done to actually marry the functionality of price, promotion, and yield management to capacity planning in manufacturing. The issue is profit creation, and EPO aims to reconcile these two schools of thought with packaged software. The reward is worth pursuing.''
The potential for EPO, according to Greg Owens, Manugistics chairman and chief executive officer, is tremendous. ``Because it can integrate the disparate parts of the value chain into a powerful engine of efficiency and profitability, we see EPO becoming an important technology wave not unlike the Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management waves that preceded it,'' said Owens. ``We are moving aggressively to satisfy emerging demand for innovative EPO solutions that draw on our proven implementation success, innovative Supply Chain Management and Pricing and Revenue Optimization offerings, and deep multi-industry expertise.''
Manugistics already offers combined SCM and PRO solution sets to a variety of industries. The company expects to launch the first commercially available EPO solutions, which successfully integrate SCM and PRO, to the global marketplace this summer. Manugistics EPO solutions will enable enterprises to:
* Unify promotional pricing and planning -- identifying targeted
promotional opportunities and then incorporating predicted results into
forecasting and supply planning;
* Deliver profitable order fulfillment by establishing prices that
incorporate the latest information on cost, competitor pricing, customer
price sensitivity and product availability;
* Optimize promotional impact based on profit and volume targets; and
* Maximize profit in all stages of the product life cycle while minimizing
costs and greatly improving operational efficiencies.
The Manugistics EPO solutions will also help enterprises increase operational velocity and better manage their responsiveness to changing customer requirements and market conditions.
About Manugistics Group, Inc.
Manugistics is the leading provider of Enterprise Profit Optimization (EPO) solutions -- the first solutions to simultaneously optimize a company's supply- and demand-side functions. Manugistics EPO and Marketplace solutions help companies lower operating costs, enhance profitability and accelerate growth. The company's list of clients includes industry leaders such as 3Com, Amazon.com, Boeing, BP, Brown & Williamson, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, Coca- Cola Bottling, Compaq, DuPont, eConnections, Ford, General Electric, Harley- Davidson, Hormel, Levi Strauss & Co., Marriott, Nestle, Timberland, Unilever, and United Airlines. For more information, go to manugistics.com . |
