Your Problems Span Broadly… So Should Your Supply Chain Software!

What it is:

RapidResponse accommodates different user needs without any custom coding. The RapidResponse experience is configurable for each user community.

How it works:

Companies can configure views into RapidResponse data as applicable for different uses and users:

• Workbooks can be customized for power users and analysts
• Dashboards and treemaps can be used by managers and executives
• A mobile interface can be employed by frequent travelers
• Application areas can be protected to ensure teams are focused where they need to be

All data views are derived by the underlying business model, without any coding and without the need for IT involvement.

How it's different:

Most supply chain software products are custom built for specific point agendas, which significantly limit their flexibility and reach outside of the original scope. RapidResponse was built to solve cross-functional demand and supply business issues, across departments, processes and external business partners. It was built with flexibility in mind from day one, and has been proven time and again since.

Why it's important:

• Makes the user experience easy, intuitive and focused to a person's needs.
• Drives high participation from all decision-makers, resulting in more effective actions and breakthrough operations performance results.

What it is:

RapidResponse is a single product for planning, monitoring and responding across all corporate functions. With the added flexibility of being delivered in the cloud, companies can add

• new sites,
• hundreds or thousands of users, both internal and external, and
• new application extensions

Companies can expand and extend the solution anytime, with minimal to no impact on performance.

How it works:

Scalability is about being able to easily broaden both the use and value of a solution within an organization. Ultimately, the potential for scalability comes down to the solution's architecture. RapidResponse has been designed from the ground up to solve real business management issues on a single product, employing a single high-performing database, with a single set of analytics, all while leveraging a flexible user interface. It has been designed with software scalability as a core priority.

How it's different:

The level of scalability that enterprises need today cannot be addressed by solutions that ultimately reinforce the silos and fail to rectifying data latency and data trust issues. What's not scalable? These options:

• A suite of separate software modules for each individual function of the organization, using different data stores and rules engines, but marketed as a single solution because it runs on a piece of middleware that keeps it patched together. Data staging and aging is a fact of life under this architecture.
• "One-off" custom solutions developed in-house, which characteristically lack scale and have massive sustainability costs.
• Hundreds of Excel spreadsheets with thin layers of underlying data and typically with "hidden" business rules buried in cell formulas, which are held together as a process by dozens of individuals, often external consultants.

Why it's important:

With the velocity of change in the market, the scalability offered by RapidResponse enables enterprises to:

• Involve all stakeholders in the overall decision-making process—across departments, processes and business partners—increasing the quality of decisions.
• Fold new functional applications into the solution—adding value to the organization.
• Provide a reference data and analytics environment—supporting a "single source of truth".

What it is:

RapidResponse integration services includes:

• Bulk Transfers via sFTP (for bulk data import and data update processes)
• RapidResponse SOAP web services API (for transactional data transfers)
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
  • Connectivity Adapters — plug-in connections to various system applications, particularly ERP
  • Data Orchestration — pushes and pulls data on a scheduled basis or by a triggering event
  • Data Transformation — supports required message format or delivery through configurable business objects
• Integrated Message Queues, Logging, Auditing, and Management

How it works:

• Integration established and managed within RapidResponse environment, leading to improvements in time to value
• Interfaces implemented by Kinaxis Integration Consultants with deep domain knowledge
• Interfaces managed by Kinaxis (for cloud service deployments), minimizing customer resource investment
• RapidResponse and integration services managed under one SLA, ensuring:
  • Maintainability
  • Scalability
  • Security
  • Adaptability
  • Sustainability
  • Governance

How it's different:

Companies are faced with the challenge of managing complex supply chains, yet they do so in systems that run independently of one another, often even within different companies in the case of outsourced manufacturing. For global performance management, companies require an accurate, single view of the business. This inherently requires sophisticated system integration resources to ensure the right data is in the right place at the right time. This need cannot be addressed simply by middleware solutions that may patch things together, but ultimately fail to rectify the fundamental data silo and latency issues.

Why it's important:

• Assures synchronized data, thus decision-making is based on the most current state of the business;
• Shortens cycle times across all types of planning, performance monitoring and response management processes;
• Provides a technically simpler integration layer leading to faster time to value, more robust operation, and easier maintenance;
• Allows for system rationalization and eliminates need for additional software components.

Today, RapidResponse® powers a control tower cloud solution that can link multiple business processes to supply chain operations to understand and manage the cross-functional consequences of actions. Past, current, and future state of business performance is now fingertips away from all stakeholders. And connecting mobile devices has never been easier.

As a cloud offering, RapidResponse delivers value by:

• Addressing a broad range of users' needs—From a single system, RapidResponse provides decision support for many different roles and business processes on a day to day basis.
• Directly connecting to in-house systems, including SAP, Oracle ERP, and other planning systems—RapidResponse connects securely to existing sources and consolidates heterogeneous data into a single version of the truth. While it ties to the formal systems of records, the functionality of RapidResponse can be quickly applied to any specific business process and priority.
• Reducing the burden on IT—By empowering people to solve their own problems without the need for multiple "one-off" custom solutions; costly, disparate planning systems; or the unsustainable and complicated use of Excel, point software solutions can be rationalized and IT backlogs can be avoided.

And typical with a cloud software service, RapidResponse offers distinct advantages over a traditional enterprise software license:

• Faster to deploy—proven methodology for completing a new deployment, supported by tools to ease the integration and deployment process, minimizing the impact on IT resources.
• Lower total cost of ownership and no capital investment—our service requires no user-owned or managed infrastructure and eliminates the need for up-front capital investments and ongoing maintenance.
• Easy upgrades—available through an all-inclusive monthly subscription pricing, upgrades enable companies to scale the service as and when needed. New releases are delivered as a part of the service itself.
• Secure—the on-demand RapidResponse world-class network security and availability, with security personnel on site 24 x 7 x 365. All data is encrypted using SSL technology, and third-party security evaluations are conducted regularly. RapidResponse has SAS 70 Type II certification.
• Scalable—you can add sites and users at any time.