Oracle delivers on supply chain execution

One year after purchasing G-Log, Oracle looks to the future of supply chain execution.

By Bob Trebilcock, Editor at Large -- Modern Materials Handling, 11/16/2006

One year ago, Oracle made a major commitment to the supply chain execution market when it purchased G-Log, a leading provider of global transportation management solutions.

A year later, Oracle continues to strengthen its supply chain execution suite, according to Jonathan Chorley, Oracle’s vice president of supply chain strategy.

“Nowadays, global companies understand that in order to get maximum efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness, they have to have their transportation, warehousing and planning systems working together,” says Chorley. “We have each of those pieces and by having them integrated together, each makes the other more effective.”

Oracle’s advantage, in Chorley’s view, is in providing solutions for companies that view their overall supply chain as a strategic asset.

“There’s a maturing of thought around the supply chain at many companies,” says Chorley. “At those enterprises, it’s becoming a board room discussion because they realize their supply chain controls their ability to do business.”

In those instances, Chorley believes the synergy of an integrated solution trumps any advantages in functionality a best-of-breed point solution may offer. “We can honestly claim our planning is best in class,” says Chorley. “Our transportation solution is best in class. Our WMS may not meet everyone’s needs, but it offers robust functionality for many people. Knit them together and you get the synergies and scale advantage of working with a best-in-class enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider like Oracle.”

What’s next? At last month’s OpenWorld user conference, Oracle announced a manufacturing execution (MES) option.

“We are pitching this at mid-level manufacturers that require shop floor data collection and supervision,” says Chorley. After that, Chorley says, Oracle plans on introducing network planning tools. “If a company takes on a new customer, how do you reconfigure your supply chain to meet that demand?” asks Chorley. “We’re going to tie execution into long-term planning.”