i2 TECHNOLOGIES SOFTWARE REVIEW
COMPANY OVERVIEW
Founded in 1988, i2 was one of the first distribution software companies to focus exclusively on supply chain management. JDA had plans to acquire i2 in 2008, however, the acquisition was called off in large part because of the 2008 credit crunch. i2’s 2007 revenues were $260 million.
VERTICAL MARKETS
i2 is a cross industry provider of supply chain management software solutions with customers in automotive, apparel, retail, high tech, consumer goods, food & beverage and life sciences.
SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
i2 develops and markets SCM systems. Their enterprise software products include a broad base of general and industry specific SCM applications.
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FEATURES
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE AND CROSS APPLICATION SOLUTIONS
The i2 Agile Business Process Platform provides support for standardized software components such as data models, business rules, user interfaces and workflows. The platform also serves as a system integration platform for data, messaging and web services.SALES AND OPERATION PLANNING
i2’s solution was developed for the automotive industry and is called Sales and Operational Management (S&OM). Features include process setup, demand and supply planning, what if analysis, and an audit of plan versus actual performance.i2 does not market their S&OP solution to non-automotive companies.
DEMAND MANAGEMENT
Demand planning and forecasting includes segmentation, demand optimization and analysis, new product planning and what if analysis for demand shaping.Order fulfillment supports allocations based on available-to-promise (ATP) and capable-to- promise (CTP).
A demand shaping solution called Promotion Optimizer is available for the retail industry.
SUPPLY MANAGEMENT
Strategic Network Planning – i2’s solution for SNP is i2 Supply Chain Planners. The network design component models locations, transportation modes and production capacity for planning mid-term and long term sourcing decisions. Optimization features support allocations and distribution planning.Distribution Planning – i2 planning features include:
- Analyzing Product Mix Constraints
- Planning Alternative Sources
- Setting Demand Priorities
- Analyzing Resource Constraints
Replenishment – Demand fulfillment supports flexible allocation modeling based on manufacturing constraints. Also, replenishment has the ability to auto-generate POs from demand, sales orders, and sourcing agreements.
Vendor Managed Inventory – VMI replenishes customer inventories based on stock and sales data sent to the supplier or vendor.
Procurement Management – Purchase orders are generated and tracked through invoicing. Features include forecast orders, change orders, receipts, ASN matching, invoice matching, and alert notification of milestones and exceptions.
WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT
Not supported.TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT
Planning – i2’s features include a modeling tool for:
- Least Cost Options
- Multi-Modal Options
- Zone Routing and Multi Drops Analysis
- Carrier Selection Analysis
- Cross Dock Options
- Merge In Transit Options
Dispatch – Based on load, modes of transportation, and routes, the dispatcher performs the following:
- Assigns carriers to routes
- Produces Shipment Documents
- Generates EDI transactions
Visibility is provided throughout the shipment lifecycle.
Freight Charges and Settlements – i2’s freight settlements supports automated freight audits, payments and cost allocation.
Fleet Management – A key feature of fleet management is optimizing the mix of private assets and common carriers.
SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Catalog Management – A key feature of catalog management software suite is the search capability on internal and supplier databases, based on keywords and attribute values. Also, catalog management supports the functionality to categorize search results.Sourcing – The i2 sourcing strategy focuses on spend analysis (keeping cost down) and providing the tools to evaluate categories, supplier selection and supplier performance.
Contract Management – Supplier contracts are monitored to identify and resolve performance and compliance issues.
Supplier Compliance – Qualitative and quantitative data is collected and updated to supplier scorecards. The scorecards are integrated with sourcing spend analysis.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Not Supported
SUMMARY OF STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
i2 is considered an industry leader and innovator in SCM systems. Their SCM planning products are considered best in class caliber solutions. The TMS solution has been ranked as the top rated transportation solution in a Gartner study. The Software Architecture has been recognized as a top tier SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) platform for SCM.
i2’s weakness is the absence of WMS and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software suite. Without an integrated suite of products, i2 is at a disadvantage when competing against vendors with an enterprise-wide suite of integrated applications.
Without the full support for demand shaping functionality i2’s demand management solution is limited in gathering and managing planning data for causal forecasts. Causal forecast is a key component of S&OP. The S&OP solution was designed for the automotive industry and lacks a full set of features to support the S&OP process at the executive level.
i2 Software Evaluation
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