roadtrip
in with the old
The days of three-day software user conferences complete with
over-the-top evening entertainment and plenty of swag are
over. Nowadays, software companies, like their customers, are
looking to do more with less and do it more efficiently.
JDA Software’s annual Focus Conference is a case in point.
The demand chain software provider scaled this year’s conference back from three days to two, and introduced a host of
virtual sessions to supplement its live presentations. Instead
of trumpeting new solutions or innovations, Chief
Operating Officer Chris Koziol talked about the company’s
efforts to make its tools more user-friendly and ways in
which customers were using existing solutions to control
costs and increase productivity.
It’s the smaller projects with a guaranteed return on investment that are getting the green light in boardrooms across the
continent. “Gone are the days of the monolith project,” said
Koziol. “We don’t have the time and resources to wait for the
promises of the monolithic project anymore.”
Indeed, customer presentations at the conference focused,
for the most part, on operational efficiencies gained from
implementing tried-and-true ideas—like Hershey’s successful
continuous moves program, Heinz’s initiative to manage and
balance inventories, and Mars’s use of sales and operations
planning to react more swiftly to changes in demand. None of
these concepts are new, but they have all helped the user companies weather the economic storm.
purchase outcomes, not products
The Department of Defense (DOD) may be pushing performance-based logistics (PBL) as one of its key strategies, but there are still
some obstacles standing in the way. These include the lack of a clear
implementation policy from the DOD, reluctance on the part of senior
industry leadership to engage in PBL, and a communication gap
between the logistics and acquisition communities.
The Performance Based Logistics 2009 conference from July
27–29 in Arlington, Va., will provide a forum for defense logistics leaders and their industry partners to discuss these concerns. According to
the conference organizer, Worldwide Business Research, this year’s
event will focus heavily on strategies for implementing PBL. Topics
include managing the PBL team, measuring and reporting metrics, and
developing lifecycle management strategies that support PBL. The
conference will feature speakers from NATO, the office of the secretary
of defense, the U.S. Navy, and Raytheon.
The conference includes a supplier relationship management summit and an idea exchange with separate sessions for the military and
industry. The exchanges give attendees a chance to gather in small
groups to swap ideas and brainstorm solutions to common PBL hurdles without having to worry about their partners’ being in the room.
For more information, see www.pblusa.com.
