Logistics Management - June 2010

supply chain and logiSTics technology
ERP software
By Bridget McCrea, Contributing Editor
The big players continue their aggressive
push into the supply chain management
software space, using acquisitions and
internal technology development to beef
up their WMS and TMS offerings, build
out planning and optimization, and even
add event management to their menus.
There was a time when an enterprise resource
planning (ERP) system was thought of as
the jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
Born from the manufacturing resources
planning (MRP) systems that gained popularity
in the 1980s, ERPs span numerous
areas of an organization, including manufacturing,
engineering, finance, customer service, project management,
human resources, and accounting.
ERP also reaches outside of the traditional corporate boundaries
to include supplier and customer systems. When this
occurs, ERPs get pushed out into the supply chain—a place
where companies like Oracle and SAP have been moving toward
over the last few years.
With the goal of folding transportation management systems
(TMS), warehouse management systems (WMS), and even
business intelligence functions under a single umbrella, the
ERP software developers have become one-stop-shops for many
shippers looking to simplify their supply chain software.
“An increasing number of manufacturers, retailers, and 3PLs
are looking to their ERP vendors for supply chain management
capabilities,” says Jim Shepherd, senior vice president at AMR
Research in Boston. “Where there once was a distinctive line
between the ERPs and best-of-breed supply chain software vendors,
that line has since blurred.”
Driving that “blur,” according to Shepherd, is a reduction in the
number supply chain software vendors that cater specifically to the
3PL market and a “very aggressive push” by ERP vendors looking
to get into the supply chain space. To get there, the ERPs are using
both acquisitions and internal technology development, he says,
and beefing up their WMS and TMS offerings, building out their
supply chain planning and optimization functions, and even adding
event management and other logistics capabilities to their menus.
“The ERPs now have much more to offer in terms of supply
chain capabilities,” says Shepherd. Shippers are responding
to the uptick in offerings, he notes, and like being able to tie
their traditional ERP applications with their supply chain and/or
38 Logistics Management WWW.LOGISTICSMGMT.COM | June 2010