Why Should Your Business Outsource its Supply Chain Operations?
Companies today want supply chain management implementations that drive quick value. Too often in the past, these implementations required significant upfront financial investments and took years to realize a return on investment. i2 is revolutionizing supply chain management—making faster time to market and higher profit margins a reality. Leveraging i2’s more than 20 years of leading-edge knowledge and domain expertise, i2 Operations Services represents the intersection of intelligent minds and supply chain problems.
i2 takes inventive, outcome-based approaches to solving these problems—redesigning processes when necessary, implementing technology to reflect those process changes, and helping companies make sense of their data.
Using i2 Operations Services, companies can outsource the following core supply chain processes while bundling the services and solutions that they need to meet their business requirements:
Forecast tuning
Multi-Channel sales management
Inventory optimization
i2 customers are realizing that to gain maximum value from supply chain solutions, they cannot just implement and walk away. To deliver value, implementations must constantly be monitored and adjusted to market conditions. In our experience, when customers hand us the keys and tell us to drive, we take them where they want to go - sometimes faster than they thought possible. Our rich heritage of supply chain innovation, backed by more than 1,000 supply chain implementations and some of the world's most intelligent supply chain minds, allow us to provide customers a truly unique experience. i2 enables them to focus on their business, while we run their supply chain operations.
End-to-end Supply Chain Initiative Support
With secure hosting and working environments and a dedicated staff of specialists in both the United States and India, i2 Operations Services provides end-to-end supply chain initiative support, from implementation to hosting and application maintenance. This one-stop shop for supply chain operations management is supported by i2’s industry experts, who not only run day-to-day supply chain functions, but also offer business and strategic guidance.
These experts have deep operations experience within their specific industry areas, giving them the ability to set up and deploy i2 solutions with the users’ specific needs in mind. Executive affiliates also provide practical insight and expertise derived from their years of working within industry.
Customer Results from i2 Operations Services
Applying the experience from more than 1,000 supply chain initiatives, i2 Operations Services has demonstrated success with some the world’s leading companies. By outsourcing supply chain management functions to i2, our customers are increasing profits, removing hardware and personnel costs, and reducing risk. i2 Operations Services enables customers to eliminate significant upfront financial investments.
With the shorter cycle times that i2 Operations Services delivers, customers reap benefits as soon as they implement changes. By creating a dedicated environment for supply chain operations, i2 Operations Services gives companies the ability to stay in continuous innovation mode, updating and implementing new processes so they can gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Existing i2 users can extend the value of their existing solutions though i2 Operations Services. i2 takes care of software upgrades and related training—continually helping customers to improve supply chain processes by managing the operational details and supporting applications for them.
i2 Center for Supply Chain Operations Management
For nearly a decade, i2 has offered KPO capabilities, providing customers the option of outsourcing supply chain components. As customer needs have evolved, i2 has adapted its offerings and expanded its capabilities by establishing the i2 Center for Supply Chain Operations Management. Through the Center, i2 delivers software and managed services, implementation support, a hosting environment and the ability to regularly adjust the supply chain in accordance with key performance indicators. Using world-class software and services, i2 specialists closely monitor supply chain initiatives with a focus on continuously innovating new business processes to keep customers on the leading edge of their industry. Secure hosting and working environments in both Dallas and Bangalore, India enable i2 to keep customer information proprietary and safe. Whether working to extract additional value from existing applications, or implementing new solutions, i2 experts fine-tune solutions, provide business process support and drive more bottom-line value.
Leading personal computer manufacturer Lenovo outsourced its supply chain management operations to i2 after acquiring the personal computer division of IBM. Its goal was simple: to run the company with more efficient processes and decrease costs.
"i2 delivers a total business solution driving a superior customer experience through our Web channel across all customer segments driving the efficiencies our business requires," said Lenovo Vice President of Global eCommerce Ajit Sivadasan. "There are key drivers within the supply chain that drive complexities in delivering a superlative customer experience - especially when you are talking about the business processes involved in PC manufacturing. Imagine working with thousands of highly configurable products and standard SKU's, with constant new product introduction, price changes and promotions - all of which need to be synchronized with the supply chain to ensure a seamless customer experience. Lenovo has been using i2's Center for Supply Chain Operations Management over the past 12 months and it has been a key driver in our drive to gain operational efficiency and improve customer experience."
Growing market share and profitability at Lenovo
Real Player: 56K100K300K
Media Player: 56K100K300K
The company needed a partner to help in redefining its collaborative relationship with its key channel partners and to get the process up and running within six months.
“When Panasonic took on the project of shifting our emphasis from supply to demand and shifting our forecasting to a point-of-sale system, we had two choices. We could go through the traditional process of buying software and installing it inside our company…or we could have i2, which has extensive software development and consulting services, perform the data capture and analysis for us. We decided to ‘rent’ both the software and i2’s expertise in forecasting analysis. We were able to get this project going in just a few months rather than a few years.”
—Mike Aguilar
Executive Vice President of Supply Chain Strategic Initiatives Panasonic
(Supply Chain Leader Interview, Spring 2006)
What kind of results did panasonic receive for their investment?
Within a year, Panasonic’s plasma TV sales increased
five-fold, even though the industry was growing
only two-fold
The average inventory level at the channel partners’
DCs fell from 17 weeks to 5 weeks
The order lead time to ship a retail order dropped
to 3–5 days instead of the original 2–3 weeks
Panasonic can now respond to changes in customer demand within a week instead of 6–8 weeks in the original process
