December 21st, 2011 | Posted by Renat StewartThe US retail industry is in turmoil. Manufacturers are facing increasing commodities prices, ever resilient competition, uncertainties in financial markets and customer behavior. The retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online, are viciously fighting for customers’ dollars and cents. Customers are worried about economic downturn and try to sniff out deals and save, and they have many [...]
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August 10th, 2011 | Posted by F. Shan McAdooIT managers and staff are under fire, spending most everyday keeping existing systems up and running, and more often than not, they are understaffed, lacking in processes, and viewed too frequently as the bad guys. I’ve been known to refer to them as the “Department of No”, because of the numerous times I’ve heard, “Not [...]
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June 28th, 2011 | Posted by Eric KelsoFor the next few seconds, think paper – any type, any use, for anything. Think of all the paper products you use. (If you are drawing a blank, consider: newsprint, brown bags, tissue, napkins, towels, books, magazines, phone directories, photocopy and computer paper, corrugated packaging material, etc.) The list might be longer than you even [...]
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June 10th, 2011 | Posted by Robert WhitehairThe single most important differentiator for Enterprise Optimizer® (EO) is its proprietary ability to calculate Opportunity Values™. Opportunity Value is essential in the new economic science, Integrated Business Planning (IBP). IBP is an empirical science that resolves problems in conventional economic science to provide analytical power comparable to Newtonian physics, especially with respect to predictive [...]
Read More » May 24th, 2011 | Posted by Eric KelsoInteger variables are often required to model reality – a fact well understood for the last 50 years. Still, five decades of advancement has resulted in few distinct mixed integer (MIP) modeling approaches. As if most software vendors simply copied each other, the common approach has always relied chiefly on programming skills and expert knowledge. [...]
Read More » May 19th, 2011 | Posted by F. Shan McAdooPlanning solutions need to be adaptable, and they need to work within the existing decision-making paradigm. For many years decision support quantitative analysis has been used to support decisions, but it suffers from some problems which limit its mass adoption. First, quantitative analysis in decision-making is too slow. By the time you have completed work [...]
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May 11th, 2011 | Posted by Carlos CenturionThis post is the final in a series of four. All series’ content provides guiding principles for S&OP managers and their partners – helping them better understand which best practices are possible through what-if analyses. In the first post of the series, Strengthening the S&OP Process with What-if Analyses – Demand Shaping, I discussed that [...]
Read More » May 9th, 2011 | Posted by Robert WhitehairRecently, I participated in a conversation with our development team about solution-building. I thought it was important for them to understand a few key points. When providing my thoughts, I also considered development partners and clients currently using Enterprise Optimizer® (EO) to build solutions to differentiate themselves and/or gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. [...]
Read More » April 20th, 2011 | Posted by Carlos CenturionThis post is the third in a series providing guiding principles for S&OP managers and their partners to help them better understand which best practices are possible through what-if analyses. In the first post of the series, Strengthening the S&OP Process with What-if Analyses – Demand Shaping, I discussed that the key underlying requirement for [...]
Read More » April 8th, 2011 | Posted by Robert WhitehairTo differentiate Enterprise Optimizer® (EO) from other products in the market, it useful to understand the relationship between the following programming languages – 5th Generation Programming Language (5GPL) and 4th Generation Programming Language (4GPL). EO can be described as a 5GPL. Alternatives to EO can be considered 4GPLs (there are also 3GPLs). These alternatives include [...]
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