Kinaxis™ Inc., the global leader in Response Management solutions providing visibility and coordinated response to change for manufacturing and fulfillment organizations, recently held its Annual User Conference - Kinexions '07 - in Chicago.
Attendees at the two-day event included some of the world's largest brand owners and manufacturers; collective revenue for the Kinaxis customer companies represented at Kinexions' 07 totaled over $410 billion US, making evident the prominence and influence of the audience. The event, which was sponsored by Tata Consultancy Services and Microsoft Corporation, provided an opportunity for attendees to gain in-depth product knowledge, network with other industry users, and share best practices on leveraging the RapidResponse solution to address the diverse Response Management challenges each faces.
In his address, keynote speaker and AMR Research analyst Stephen Hochman spoke about how Response Management is a new software category and highlighted the industry trends that are driving the need for a distinct class of capabilities aimed at enabling companies to better manage at the moment. Case-study presentations further reinforced Hochman's message and included sessions by a select group of market leaders, namely:
- Cisco
- PRTM Management Consultants
- Qualcomm
- Research in Motion (RIM)
Throughout the conference, the challenge of multi-enterprise management within an environment of demand volatility and rapid production innovation dominated as the prevalent theme. Changes in demand, supply and product occur constantly and simultaneously. Combining this volatility with the reality of today's elongated and more complex supply chains, companies are challenged by their need for supply chain flexibility and responsiveness.
RapidResponse is serving as the backbone of supply chain transformations that help make these global market leaders more demand-driven. RapidResponse is replacing ad hoc processes of consolidating and analyzing supply and demand data, allowing companies to move away from their inefficient and ineffective dependence on spreadsheets to make decisions and take action. Companies are also putting focus on leveraging the solution to manage and drive business growth, as responsiveness helps retain customers and win new bids.
Results of a survey provided to attendees confirm the strategic value of Response Management, with 98 percent of survey participants agreeing that Response Management is a critical component of their supply chain management strategy. Consistent with the Kinaxis value proposition, 64 percent of respondents rated improving responsiveness and collaboration as "business critical", while 33 percent rated it as "important". When asked to the rank the top three business challenges their organization faces, "managing customer demand," "ensuring reliable supply" and "improving service to the customer" were the front runners.
About Kinaxis
Kinaxis delivers an on-demand Response Management service for visibility and coordination to drive rapid response to constant change across global supply and fulfillment networks, resulting in breakthroughs in customer service and operating performance. Kinaxis RapidResponse combines multi-enterprise visibility, collaborative "what-if" analysis and rapid decision support to empower front-line manufacturing and fulfillment teams to take quick and effective action when faced with constant changes in demand, supply and product. Global leaders such as Casio, Honeywell, Jabil, Raytheon and Benchmark Electronics use Kinaxis RapidResponse to empower their supply networks with superior responsiveness and gain competitive advantage. For more information, visit the Kinaxis web site at www.kinaxis.com or the company's blog at blog.kinaxis.com.