Product Analysis Infor WM Provia Software IDII Industrial Data & Information Inc. 2010
Infor is Established, Experienced, and Ready Infor is a large privately-held international company started in 2002 and currently has 8,000 employees based in 100 countries. Infor has an extensive product line that spans 70,000 customers. Infor has extensive experience in the supply chain and has acquired numerous software companies with ERP, MRP, SCM, WMS, TMS, CRM, Workforce Management, and other types of application software. Product Overview WM Provia is Solid with Proven High Transactional Throughput! This WMS product is called WM PROVIA, which is a fully web-based WMS. This new product suite is available as an on-premise hosted solution, or an alternative is to host through a dedicated outsourced hosted site. Currently the application is not available in a hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) manner. Development of this WMS software product was started by Provia Software. Provia initially developed WM Provia in 1991 and it was released as a GUI product in 1999. In 2005 Provia developed a new web-based user-interface and released WM Provia Version 7. Shortly after that. 2006 March Provia Software was acquired by SSA Global. 2006 May SSA Global was acquired by Infor, renames product to WM Provia 2008 Infor releases WM Provia with 3PL Billing module 2009 Infor releases WM Provia with Labor Management module 2010 Infor to release WM Provia 7.1 2011 Infor to release WM Provia 7.2 1 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Infor WM Provia Overview Infor continues to develop, sell, and support the WM Provia software product. Due to acquisitions of multiple supply chain software companies, Infor has seven WMS solutions, with the future R&D focus on three of these solutions. WM Provia is one of these three solutions that Infor is continuing to put R&D, sales, and marketing efforts into. Solid Installation Base WM Provia is currently installed at over 100 customers spanning 350 installations (sites) for English and Spanish languages. The WM Provia solution is marketed to all vertical markets. It is currently installed at manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and 3PL operators which are in vertical markets of consumer packaged goods, industrial supplies, food, frozen food, pharmaceuticals, electronics, publishing and plumbing. The average number of online users per installation is 50. An interesting note is that this WMS solution scales up well on high user counts, as a few installations have over 1,000 online users. WM can be run on Oracle, Microsoft Sql Server, or the Informix database. Customers are running WM Provia primarily on Oracle and Sql Server databases. High-volume installations running WM Provia are interfaced to material handling equipment vendors such as: PCC, Reddwerks, Dematic, Forte, Clark, Versa, Design Conveyor, Seaco, Cisco Eagle, Fortna, Real Time Solutions, Interlake Conveyor, GD Conveyor, Mathews Conveyor, Alvey, White, Diamond-Phoenix, and RTS. WM Provia s success in Latin America is also noteworthy. Over 50 Latin American and Caribbean companies run the solution across 150 distribution centers, a result of the alliance between Infor and Tecsys Latin America (TLA). TLA has offices in Chile, Colombia, Miami and Venezuela and has been working with the WM Provia solution for almost 10 years. 2 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Major Features to Highlight WM Provia is a first class tier 1 solution that plays extremely well for any small to large organization. The inbound, outbound, resource management, and inventory control functions have deep functionality value, making this solution very competitive with the leading WMS applications in the market place. Web-Based Equals Lower Total Cost of Ownership All modules in WM Provia are web-based starting with the version 7.0 release. One can run the WM Provia application in an Internet Explorer web browser. These web-based screens have an intuitive look and feel. The software industry continues the move from GUI to web-based applications, as IT departments prefer new applications to be web-based. The reason for this motivation is the lower total cost of ownership (TCO). Graphical user interface (GUI) applications require software on each & every PC. Every time a new version of a GUI application is released, each & every PC running the application must be updated with the new GUI software. With a webbased application, there is no application software residing on the PC, therefore work for the administrators is minimized. RF Personalization WM Provia is strong in RF configurability and it saves implementation time by configuring task setup and defaults, rather than customizing the code for each RF task. This is significant, as a good number of WMS vendors still have to re-code (customize) the software when basic RF task changes are required. The following items are configurable in the RF Personalization: Can re-arrange the sequence of fields being displayed or asked for. Can hide fields that are not required for the task. Can skip prompts that are optional. Can add fields to be displayed or prompted for. Can change field labels. Can set initial default values. Task Management Profiles Users can have one or more Task Management Profiles assigned to them. These profiles tie back into a set of RF tasks done in the warehouse, such as RF Receiving, RF Putaway, RF Cycle Count. If the user has more than 1 task profile, the user can switch & select the appropriate profile to use. This is extremely useful for third party logistics providers and for wholesale operations that tailor their warehouse processing to their customer s needs. 3 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Intuitive Web-Based User Interface Layout Multiple key user navigation items to note in this user layout. Navigation Menu is on the left side. Top right of screen is a Fast Path mechanism to move to another function rapidly. Top middle shows Excel icons to rapidly take current data to a new Excel spreadsheet. Top middle has record navigation menu (first, previous, next, last, select record ). Data query is top window. Individual record panel is on bottom window. 4 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Data Manipulation Importing & Exporting Data Operations personnel need fast data manipulation that is easy to use and results in accurate data. WM Provia allows robust manipulation by leveraging web services, data validation, and XML between the database and an Excel spreadsheet. No programmer is required at all, as intermediate users can easily run the below functions. Export of Master Data Tables to a spreadsheet or delimited files. One may export any master table (or a subset of it), such as the part, warehouse, zone, bin, or customers table. Most WMS solutions perform this export function. The important part to notice is the import abilities. In WM Provia - once the data is exported, it may be highly manipulated, and imported back into the same table. This is extremely useful for the bin table, when creating new bins, which commonly occurs in most warehouses during a warehouse expansion or a re-warehousing logistics process. Import of Master Data Tables dynamically via spreadsheets. This import of data is impressive as the data is imported from the spreadsheet view and is validated. Any row of data that is not loaded is highlighted with an error message, so one can fix it right away and try uploading it again --- right away. These steps are easy enough to be performed by the average spreadsheet user. Updating Existing Data. Existing data can be rapidly updated for multiple rows of data. Using a desktop inquiry, the rows are highlighted and field values are changed. Once these changes are finished by the user, the new values are validated and data rows are changed if it passes the validation. Again, if validation is not passed, the data rows are highlighted with an error message explaining why it failed validation. The user can fix the field values and try it again. No programmer, DBA, or administrator needed. This is extremely handy for updating a sequence of bins or part data. All companies need the above functions, especially third party logistics providers (3PLs), which are adding and updating part masters from multiple clients on a daily basis. This happens as companies frequently start new product lines and discontinue old product lines. 5 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Figure: Sample Export to Excel and Location Creation Validation 6 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
History of Data Changes All changes to data are accessible by built-in inquiries. This means that one can finally find out: who changed it, when was it changed, and what was changed as the information is clearly visible. This is a differentiator among software solutions, as most ERP and WMS systems do NOT have this feature. It is feature that users continue to ask for year and year most software companies have ignored this common user need and requested feature. Figure: Sample historical record of master file change 7 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Event Based Alerts WM Provia has an advanced alert system to notify the appropriate subscriber when that event has occurred. The message text is user configurable. This is where one builds the content of the message by selecting database columns and entering text. This is done via a mini-report writer screen. Users specify effective dates, tolerance, and subscribers to existing alerts. For example, the warehouse supervisors need to be alerted via a text email message whenever a picking shortage occurs in all distribution centers. Another example - on a receipt overage alert, the buyer only wants to receive an alert with the overage is 10% over on a specified vendor or part number. An administrator can create new alerts on any entity and action within the WM database. By selecting database columns and field operator values, the administrator creates the equivalent of a SQL statement to establish the event trigger condition. Now the users may add subscribers to this newly established alert. Figure: Sample Subscription Setup 8 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Business Intelligence and Reporting With the WM Provia solution, a Cognos-based Business Intelligence Analysis Tool is imbedded and installed with the WMS. This provides a zero foot print client and the reporting features are run from the WMS reporting menu. This solution provides multiple levels of reporting, analysis, monitoring and related functionality including: A pre-configured meta-data layer and historical data structures to facilitate WMS specific report creation. WM Provia has provided an exposed data interaction layer which eliminates the need for users to have detailed technical knowledge of the database, field names, file & directory structures & joining techniques. Standard WM Provia reports across multiple functional areas including inbound, outbound, task management, management/kpi, and inventory End user accessible ad-hoc reporting using simple drag and drop reporting mechanics. These reports can be standard paper based formatted reports, pivot tables, as well as graphical charts. Figure: Sample Ad-Hoc Report Advanced, complex report creation offering full function web-based report authoring. This provides for multiple distribution options including (email, XML, PDF, web page, and PDF). Advanced options also include report routing and scheduling. Home page dashboard personalization capabilities to focus users on key metrics & real time operational progress. 9 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Figure: Sample User Reporting Dashboard 3PL Billing Module In 2008, Infor released Provia 7.0.3 which included a 3PL Billing Module. This module is designed from the sophisticated 3PL billing engine in the Foursite WMS, which Infor acquired in the SSA Global/Provia acquisition. IDII has reviewed the 3PL billing engine in Foursite, which is very thorough & complex - even technical consultants have a learning curve in mastering how to setup contracts, charges, and rates. One item that is missing that would help 3PL companies is the 3PL profit & loss estimator. The WM Provia bills out detailed charges and tracks an estimated internal cost for each charge as well. This provides the data for 3pl to review revenues versus cost at various levels including by customer, by transaction, by date range, etc. While this data is available for reporting, the 3PL would need to create these reports to fit their P&L specific needs. In this manner, the 3PL could analyze a rough-cut profitability on each client, warehouse, or transaction (receipt or shipment). Less than half the WMS solutions in the software industry have this estimator ability. 10 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Figure: Sample Invoice Format 11 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Engineered Labor Standards Module Only 10% of the WMS solutions in the software industry have an integrated Labor Standards module. Therefore, those WMS solutions with this module are considered serious contenders. Infor with the WM Provia is a serious player in the WMS market place. This module includes a Labor Workbench, Labor Planning, and Labor Standards. A good feature is the ability to live recalculate the goal time (the standard ) on a RF task when a different bin location is utilized. On the RF Putaway screen above, notice the goal time is shown to help the warehouse worker. This is a configurable item, to show/not show the goal time on each of the RF tasks. Some warehouse operations want the goal time shown, while others do not. 12 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
On the following RF screen, notice the visibility to actual, standard time, and the % performance indicator. The Labor Standards module is tightly integrated with the WMS, which means it must run with WM Provia. 13 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Warehouse Setup for Labor Standards During setup of any warehouse for labor standards, a digital map of the warehouse, aisles, dock doors, and bin locations must be established. The WM Provia has that ability. In this manner, the route from point A to B can be accurately calculated by a routine within the Labor Standards module. Distance and travel time are automatically calculated using standards. In addition to warehouse setup, employee work group and equipment metrics must be configured. Infor management has indicated the willingness to develop an incentives module in the future based upon new clients willing to partner in the development. The logical sequence is to add an incentive pay module on top of the labor standards module.. 14 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Software as a Service (SaaS) WM PROVIA is web-based and is primarily delivered as an on-premise, customer hosted solution. Infor offers a dedicated hosted service as an alternative for customers looking to outsource the IT infrastructure of the WMS deployment. Infor is providing 24x7 support to its current international customer base. Concluding Thoughts on WM Provia Infor has the deep pockets to continue to put significant R&D dollars into their products. Infor management has indicated that WM Provia is on that list of solutions that will be heavily invested in, so that future releases contain significant new functionality. It takes both cash funding and the commitment by the executive level to continue improving a software product. IT departments for major tier 1 and tier 2 companies prefer web-based solutions rather than GUI with some web-enabled functions. For numerous WMS vendors this is a problem, but not for the WM Provia, as it is web-based. WM Provia has numerous clients with high volume transaction throughput. A WMS is definitely a highly interfaced system to many other systems. With numerous interfaces to material handling equipment (MHE), parcel manifesting systems, transportation systems, and multiple host ERP systems WM Provia does well in this area utilizing the Infor WMS Gateway which has their standard interfaces for MHE equipment as well as well known ERP solutions like Oracle, SAP and Infor. All transactions in WM Provia have an equivalent Web Service. This is very important for integrating third party software and MHE to Provia. The ability to export and import data into the WMS is excellent (see above for details). If you are in the market for a new WMS investing in a functionally rich and web-enabled WMS makes excellent common sense web-based solutions is the current IT trend setter that is here to stay. 15 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com
Contact Information Infor Global Solutions, 13560 Morris Road, Suite 4100, Alpharetta, GA 08844 Phone: 800-260-2640 Email: sales@infor.com Web: http://www.infor.com In South America Tecsys Latin America Bogotá: (571) 640 8300 Caracas: (58212) 740 6903 Santiago: (562) 342 5428 Email: marketing@tecsys-lat.com Web: http://www.tecsyslatinamerica.com About this Research Analysis and research report has been done by IDII. IDII has done in-depth reviews of WMS & TMS software including Infor s WM Provia solution. About IDII IDII is a research & management consulting firm that specializes in independent research on software companies in the supply chain. IDII is available for consulting for business process evaluation, software selection, software implementation, speaking engagements, and detailed software company/product analysis. IDII publishes research & educational publications, as well as two complimentary newsletters on supply chain software. Contact IDII Contact IDII at sales@idii.com Industrial Data & Information Inc. (IDII) 2448 East 81 st Street, Suite 2044, Tulsa, OK, 74133 USA (918) 292-8785 Voice (918) 512-4132 Fax www.idii.com 16 2009 Industrial Data & Information Inc. www.idii.com