Of its three central acronym components, ERP specialists are all too often focused on E for ‘enterprise’ goals, targets, deliverables and profits margins. While R for ‘resources’ comes a close second as ERP systems work to apply big data analytics engine power to the coalface of live operational systems, it is P for ‘planning’ that actually underpins and forges many of the core links in any productive and truly functional ERP system.
Aiming to champion the need for intelligent planning at the heart of modern ERP systems across global supply chains is Vuealta, a connected planning specialist that works as an Anaplan certified partner with its own services and application technology proposition.
In what is hoped to be the ‘wake’ or latter stages of the global Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, Vuealta says it has maintained strong growth throughout this period, as it has helped existing and new international customers navigate the disruption.
A ‘reimagined’ ERP supply chain
The pandemic has put global supply chains in the spotlight, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses across networks. According to Gartner, the need for supply chain transformation and digitalisation, has now been significantly accelerated and is forcing businesses to embark on rapid change to completely reimagine the future supply chain.
With the 2021 Suez Canal shipping container debacle only adding to highlight the need for supply chain effectiveness, strength, flexibility and robustness, Vuealta says it has worked with many customers small, medium and large who have for too long relied upon simplified spreadsheet-based planning mechanisms (we don’t need to mention brand-names, everybody knows which product excels in this space), when they should be embracing digital planning solutions to drive a more functional and solid planning quotient in their ERP mix.
Vuealta insists that it has always been committed to helping customers transform their supply chain planning processes. As such, the company launched its SaaS Supply Chain Planning applications suite in 2020. Its SaaS-based applications are built on the Anaplan connected planning platform to harness its analytical and processing capabilities.
Rapid pre-built applications
Rapidly deployable, these pre-built applications deliver faster time-to-value than a traditional consulting approach, meeting the urgency that the supply chain community is currently expressing for an agile and resilient planning solution.
The applications here promise to solve the challenges that supply chains face day-in day-out and include solutions for demand planning, supply planning, inventory planning, promotions planning and real-time sales and operational planning. Any ERP practioners thinking that planning was just planning would (arguably) do well to consider the sub-genres and nuanced variety of planning practices expressed here.
With the integration of the recently announced general availability of PlanIQ, Anaplan’s newest Machine Learning (ML)-based solution powered by Amazon Forecast (the cloud giant’s time-series forecast service), Vuealta says its customers will experience even higher levels of forecast accuracy by applying advanced ML techniques to their data, driving more intelligent and confident decisions.
“Vuealta is leading the way to a higher tier of strategic planning excellence by building applications on the Anaplan platform, offering our customers speed, affordability and agility. Our customers have consistently given us glowing feedback when it comes to our supply chain planning applications suite, because it takes away the need to build custom-made solutions, which is a considerably longer, complex and convoluted process. Richer functionality, continued application support and demonstrable competitive advantage are all adoption drivers for our SaaS-based supply chain planning applications,” said Ian Stone, CEO and Co-founder of Vuealta.
Stone reminds us that the addition of PlanIQ means his firm is thrilled to be able to supercharge its applications with machine-learning capabilties, delivering meaningful insights from growing volumes of internal and external data, quickly into the hands of customers.
“We see 2021 as a crucial year to help even more organisations take full control of intelligently forecasting, planning and optimising their supply chains and being ready to tackle any shocks to their operating environments in real time,” added Stone.
What the customers say
Over the past year, Vuealta has seen strong demand for its applications and now counts more global brands like skincare specialist Glossier and dairy co-operative organisation Fonterra on its books. Growth has been demonstrated in every geography in which Vuealta operates, including the US, APAC and the UK.
“We are pleased to have partnered with Vuealta to address our supply chain planning requirements. Its suite of applications contains specific built-in intelligence, very relevant to our operating environment, allowing us to benefit from a much faster implementation cycle. Readily available ongoing support was an important consideration for us when making a selection for a product and partner,” said Edith Chen, Head of Supply Chain Operations at Glossier.
“Vuealta’s applications will allow us to implement demand and inventory planning processes across our six major South East Asia markets. In doing so, we will be able to introduce best-in-class planning capabilities into those markets whilst at the same time ensuring that each market’s specific needs are catered for. This combination of pre-configured capability with local flexibility was key for us in choosing the combination of Vuealta and Anaplan,” said Aamir Mehdi, Director of Supply Chain at Fonterra.
Vuealta has also significantly expanded its global headcount in the last 12 months to help keep up with increasing customer demand. With a strong focus on the Americas in 2021, the US team is expected to triple in size this financial year.
To support this continued growth, Vuealta has appointed Roger Singh, as its Global Head of Supply Chain Solutions. Singh will be responsible for building the go-to-market strategy for Vuealta’s applications and brings a wealth of industry experience having spent over 14 years at Steelwedge Software Inc (now part of E2Open).
