As Agilisys might have changed its name and owners but never its nature, it has been executing the strategy it espoused at the time when the spin-off was announced. The new independent company has benefited from having control of its own financial and product development destiny, being able to make decisions based upon its own needs and objectives rather than being a small part of the much larger and consequently more rigid entity's needs and objectives. With the above positive signs of acquiring a number of customers even during a transient re-branding phase amid difficult trading times for everybody, and of retaining a vast majority of critical employees, Agilisys might now even gain eligibility for the general capital market beyond the pockets of the existing investors, as to possibly even better execute its professed strategy. Since access to any capital depends on the ability of Agilisys to prove its financial and corporate viability over the short and medium term, the company seems to be tackling the issues that would vouch for both.
To that end, Agilisys comes to market with a broad and deep product line as it has significantly repositioned and extended itself during last several years. When the company first entered the process manufacturing scene in 1995, it provided only Adage, its formerly called flagship ERP suite. Through the 1998 acquisition of Fygir Logistic Information Systems B.V., it subsequently became involved in supply-chain management (SCM) applications, and most recently developed or partnered to introduce a number of e-business and collaboration components and business intelligence (BI) (see SCT Extends Into Business Intelligence, and SCT Corporation Means (e)Business For Process Manufacturing).
Due to its unrelenting process manufacturing focus, the products reflect the rigorous functionality required by process companies (primarily batch oriented, only in part for continuous process companies though), and Agilisys continues to execute well in the plant level-centric applications. In doing this it has avoided the tradeoffs that are inevitable to attempting to serve other unrelated markets (i.e., discrete manufacturing industries) with one product, such is the case of many other process ERP wannabes who are still mainly selling generic �white collar' applications (e.g., HR/payroll, financial accounting, etc.) into the process industries.
Despite being somewhat late to market, the company has succeeded so far due to a dearth of competition and due to compelling functional and technical vision it has delivered to its target customers. The company's name change from SCT to Agilisys has created an added challenge, though, of creating new brand awareness from the product suite that had recently before the spin-off been called iProcess.sct.
A summary of current Agilisys product offering includes:
* Agilisys Supply Chain & Optimization (featuring Advanced Scheduling, Advanced Planning Enterprise Optimization, Advanced Planning Formula & Procurement Optimization, and Demand Planning modules)
* Agilisys Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
* Agilisys Internet Commerce (featuring Internet Commerce and Remote Order Management modules)
* Agilisys Business Analytics (e.g., Demand Analytics, Market Analytics, etc.)
* Agilisys Applied Relationship Technology (ART) (formerly Relationship Network Management (RNM))
As it can be seen from the above new contract wins' announcements, these products can be sold as an entire suite, a functional suite (e.g., Supply Chain & Optimization) or as individual components (e.g., Demand Planning). The products are packaged in such a way that a customer can buy a spot solution (e.g., Advanced Planning) and let it incrementally, at its comfortable pace, grow into an integrated suite (Supply Chain Planning) as the needs of the company evolve. While some customers use the entire Agilisys product suite, many more use only portions, coexisting with other solutions. For example, the company has shown success with integrating its SCM or ERP products with the SAP and PeopleSoft back-office systems.
The company cites a significant penetration within SAP's customer base in process industries, where its product complements traditionally strong SAP's back-office multi-national functionality. It is therefore important that the company continues to enhance its product offering footprint and interconnectivity both internally and via partnerships like it has done it until recently, in order to fill some product gaps (see Is SCT And Logistics.com Partnership A D�j� vu?).
To that end, while still being a part of SCT, the company released in March 2001 its new Interactive Customer Assistance components of then iProcess.sct to enable real-time customer interaction through its sell-side internet commerce solution, making it possible for companies to extend internet commerce applications by providing live on-line communications and call-center capabilities. The new eCRM functionality thereby included instant messaging, live chat, e-mail, and real-time "follow-me browsing," which enable a customer service representative to remotely guide a customer through the on-line interactive sales process.
The company then also addressed another key component of successful e-business -- enabling trading partners to choose how (the channel) and when they will do business with each other, whether it be through a website, over the phone, or even via a handheld or personal digital assistant (PDA). With the Agilisys Wireless solution, customers as well as sales managers, brokers, and other trading partners are no longer restricted by physical boundaries, since wireless business activities such as placing or checking orders, inquiring on goods available, and looking up quality specifications on newly arriving shipments can all be performed from the convenience of a PDA.
The more recently released impressive product is Agilisys Collaborative Replenishment (CR) that can be implemented as part of a comprehensive Agilisys offering, or integrated with existing supply chain or enterprise systems. Its components comprise a comprehensive solution that Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers might need, as these manufacturers have long recognized the importance of effective distribution and inventory deployment in assuring point-of-sale (POS) performance and the repeat purchases of loyal consumers, and, to achieve optimal deployment thereof, they have banded together to define collaborative buusiness processes that leverage emerging technologies. The most visible and successful example of this cooperation has been the Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards Association's (VICS) establishment of the Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) Committee. To that end, Agilisys CR supports the modeling of upfront defined collaborative processes with rule-based and role-based policy definitions (e.g., stocking policies, timing of routine tasks, alerts, exceptions & approval boundaries, performance metrics & benchmarks, etc.).
To that end, Agilisys comes to market with a broad and deep product line as it has significantly repositioned and extended itself during last several years. When the company first entered the process manufacturing scene in 1995, it provided only Adage, its formerly called flagship ERP suite. Through the 1998 acquisition of Fygir Logistic Information Systems B.V., it subsequently became involved in supply-chain management (SCM) applications, and most recently developed or partnered to introduce a number of e-business and collaboration components and business intelligence (BI) (see SCT Extends Into Business Intelligence, and SCT Corporation Means (e)Business For Process Manufacturing).
Due to its unrelenting process manufacturing focus, the products reflect the rigorous functionality required by process companies (primarily batch oriented, only in part for continuous process companies though), and Agilisys continues to execute well in the plant level-centric applications. In doing this it has avoided the tradeoffs that are inevitable to attempting to serve other unrelated markets (i.e., discrete manufacturing industries) with one product, such is the case of many other process ERP wannabes who are still mainly selling generic �white collar' applications (e.g., HR/payroll, financial accounting, etc.) into the process industries.
Despite being somewhat late to market, the company has succeeded so far due to a dearth of competition and due to compelling functional and technical vision it has delivered to its target customers. The company's name change from SCT to Agilisys has created an added challenge, though, of creating new brand awareness from the product suite that had recently before the spin-off been called iProcess.sct.
A summary of current Agilisys product offering includes:
* Agilisys Supply Chain & Optimization (featuring Advanced Scheduling, Advanced Planning Enterprise Optimization, Advanced Planning Formula & Procurement Optimization, and Demand Planning modules)
* Agilisys Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
* Agilisys Internet Commerce (featuring Internet Commerce and Remote Order Management modules)
* Agilisys Business Analytics (e.g., Demand Analytics, Market Analytics, etc.)
* Agilisys Applied Relationship Technology (ART) (formerly Relationship Network Management (RNM))
As it can be seen from the above new contract wins' announcements, these products can be sold as an entire suite, a functional suite (e.g., Supply Chain & Optimization) or as individual components (e.g., Demand Planning). The products are packaged in such a way that a customer can buy a spot solution (e.g., Advanced Planning) and let it incrementally, at its comfortable pace, grow into an integrated suite (Supply Chain Planning) as the needs of the company evolve. While some customers use the entire Agilisys product suite, many more use only portions, coexisting with other solutions. For example, the company has shown success with integrating its SCM or ERP products with the SAP and PeopleSoft back-office systems.
The company cites a significant penetration within SAP's customer base in process industries, where its product complements traditionally strong SAP's back-office multi-national functionality. It is therefore important that the company continues to enhance its product offering footprint and interconnectivity both internally and via partnerships like it has done it until recently, in order to fill some product gaps (see Is SCT And Logistics.com Partnership A D�j� vu?).
To that end, while still being a part of SCT, the company released in March 2001 its new Interactive Customer Assistance components of then iProcess.sct to enable real-time customer interaction through its sell-side internet commerce solution, making it possible for companies to extend internet commerce applications by providing live on-line communications and call-center capabilities. The new eCRM functionality thereby included instant messaging, live chat, e-mail, and real-time "follow-me browsing," which enable a customer service representative to remotely guide a customer through the on-line interactive sales process.
The company then also addressed another key component of successful e-business -- enabling trading partners to choose how (the channel) and when they will do business with each other, whether it be through a website, over the phone, or even via a handheld or personal digital assistant (PDA). With the Agilisys Wireless solution, customers as well as sales managers, brokers, and other trading partners are no longer restricted by physical boundaries, since wireless business activities such as placing or checking orders, inquiring on goods available, and looking up quality specifications on newly arriving shipments can all be performed from the convenience of a PDA.
The more recently released impressive product is Agilisys Collaborative Replenishment (CR) that can be implemented as part of a comprehensive Agilisys offering, or integrated with existing supply chain or enterprise systems. Its components comprise a comprehensive solution that Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturers might need, as these manufacturers have long recognized the importance of effective distribution and inventory deployment in assuring point-of-sale (POS) performance and the repeat purchases of loyal consumers, and, to achieve optimal deployment thereof, they have banded together to define collaborative buusiness processes that leverage emerging technologies. The most visible and successful example of this cooperation has been the Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards Association's (VICS) establishment of the Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR) Committee. To that end, Agilisys CR supports the modeling of upfront defined collaborative processes with rule-based and role-based policy definitions (e.g., stocking policies, timing of routine tasks, alerts, exceptions & approval boundaries, performance metrics & benchmarks, etc.).
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