CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
6 December 2007
Product News
ecVision Focuses on Visibility Features in Latest Product Release: XpressCommerce 8.8 Enables Greater Visibility into Supply Chain Tasks
The release of ecVision XpressCommerce version 8.8 last week will provide improved features and functionality to retailers and private brand owners in need of a software solution that enables greater visibility into the product development and design, sourcing, production, and shipment of goods in the global marketplace.
As private label retailers and brand manufacturers continue to predominantly outsource product manufacturing, they are faced with a new set of supply chain constraints. As supply chains get longer, the physical movement of goods increases manifold. Ultimately, supply failures ripple through the supply chain and result in performance degradation, lost sales, and lost revenue.
The enhancements in XpressCommerce 8.8 are designed to solve the increasingly complex issues of supply chain planning and execution. ecVision XpressCommerce® is an Product Lifecycle ExecutionT solution that combines the key functions of product lifecycle management (PLM) and supply chain execution (SCE) systems into a single, web-based solution. This more comprehensive view of the supply chain allows businesses to shorten the order to ship process, streamline logistics, and optimize the efficiency of their work forces as they gain a competitive advantage.
The changes start at the user's home page where various features enable users to proactively "manage by exception" - focusing on selected issues and drilling into them to analyze what needs their attention.
• This page can be configured to support portlet windows that display dashboard reports or link to external web sites.
• To-do tasks, Alerts and Discussions are grouped by category for efficiency.
• Also on the home page is the Workspace Menu that allows users to quickly link to most frequently accessed areas.
Each of these features are intended to provide a snapshot of the current state of the product line and put the most relevant information at the users' fingertips.
A built-in reporting tool enables users to create, filter, save, and share detailed reports that provide views into all functions of the supply chain. From these reports, Dashboard Reports can be created to visually display the information on the home page. These graphic reports are drillable down to the source documents to provide access to the root data.
Another dynamic feature in this release is the What-if Scenario Date Calculator. With this feature, users can view how changes to a task's scheduled due date, dependency or duration will affect the overall outcome. Users can calculate the changes and choose to accept or reject them.
Self-reporting capabilities are provided to all users, including your external suppliers, in the Schedule Progress Report. This feature allows users to see overall progression of particular tasks, filter to the segment of data most important to them, then easily view completion percentages without creating detailed reports.
Finally, the Real-Time Visibility Tool provides real-time, editable views into functions throughout the system. Multiple data types and their respective schedule workflows can be combined into one view allowing users to access and edit multiple data points in one click.
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