Some Flowers may be Perennials

February 23, 2010
12:38 am

I am a gardener. I love to spend Saturday afternoons with my shovel and trowel. Having a neighbor stop by to comment on its beauty, gives me pleasure. To get the accolades, I need to have the right mix of annuals and perennials. Annuals have bigger, brighter flowers, but they only last a season. Perennials have less flair, but are the dependable contributors season after season. It dawned on me this week, that my garden has some parallels with the Supply Chain Management (SCM) market. My recent post, Where have all the Flowers gone?, I describe the brightly blooming software start-ups that could not last the season. In this post, I want to celebrate the companies, that like perennials, have lived to see the new season.
What do Kinaxis, Logility, WAM Systems have in common? Despite turbulence in the SCM market, over the past fifteen years, they have achieved growth and profitability. They are small. They are not headline news, but each is thriving and will see the new season.

What can we learn?

Why did these three companies survive when over fifty competitors succumbed to less than optimal take-over strategies? I offer three thoughts:

Solve an industry-specific problem. Focus on serving this user group. Don’t stray. Each of the suvivors focused on solving an industry–specific problem. Kinaxis for high-tech, Logility for consumer products and WAM Systems in the chemical market. They have focused on serving their user group through networking, conferences, and steering committees. For companies that spun out of control, a common characteristic was trying to serve to wide of a market. Let’s face it. SCM is industry-specific. When a company’s focus strays to beating competitors versus serving customers, the game will soon be over.
Over-hyping leads to under-delivering. Each has stayed the course. While their roadmap’s are not the most exciting and don’t garner the highest rankings on analyst frameworks like Forrester’s Wave Diagram, or Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, they have provided consistent, reliable solutions for their target market. While these high-flyers pander to analyst community, Line-of-Business buyers are less willing today to buy promises.
It’s the balance sheet stupid. Revenue recognition issues put AspenTech, i2 Technologies, and Manugistics into uncontrolled tailspins. A healthy balance sheet is necessary to survive the season.

What do Ortec, OM Partners, ModelN, Terra Technology, Retail Solutions, SmartOps have in common? They are promising, and relatively recent newcomers (since the e-commerce bubble) to the SCM market. Each is adding their version of market innovation. However, the jury is still out on whether they are perennials or annuals. What do you think?
The jury is still out on whether the 40% of the market that has been acquired by existing entities will be milked for their maintenance stream or melded into a new solution to help supply chain leaders drive value. Follow my blog to get the latest news and updates on what this market coalescence means for you.

AI Defining a Middle Ground Between Custom and Packaged Applications in Supply Chain Planning

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Supply chain planning has evolved technologically, but its underlying processes remain rooted in historic practices that no longer fit today’s volatile, complex environment. Packaged applications promise faster, lower-cost, lower-risk business outcomes, yet extensive customization, fragmented data, and rigid workflows often undermine that promise. Cloud data and AI platforms like Databricks and Snowflake offer an alternative: build interoperable applications on top of existing planning systems to address gaps in direct procurement, plan consumption, bullwhip reduction, operational planning, and dynamic master data. The opportunity is not simply to automate existing processes with AI and agentics, but to redefine how work gets done through end-to-end orchestration, value-based trade-offs, and clear decision governance.

Reflection and Celebration for the Supply Chains to Admire Methodology

October 19, 2026 12:00 am

The Supply Chains to Admire to is an objective, data-driven standard for measuring supply chain excellence and moves beyond industry reputation, anecdotal evidence, and technology claims. Using revenue growth, operating margin, inventory turns, and return on invested capital (ROCE, the research evaluates how companies perform relative to industry peers over time. Here Lora shares information on an upcoming event to celebrate the Supply Chains to Admire Award Winners.

Five Things I Don’t Understand

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Solutions that we never imagined years ago are emergining, but I pause when companies are unwilling or unable to roll up their sleeves and redefine work. Historic practices are not best practices, and there is a wealth of opportunity for those that do challenge the existing status quo. .

My Answer to Joe. The Future of APS

October 1, 2026 12:47 am

Traditional Advanced Planning Systems (APS) are unlikely to become true enterprise platforms because organizations remain functionally siloed, metrics are misaligned, and current APS architectures were designed for an environment that has fundamentally changed. Here I share how I think that APS systems can adapt to drive more value.

Teaching Your Organization to Jump

September 25, 2026 11:18 pm

Remember the story of the frog in the pot of water? If the water temperature rises slowly, the frog doesn’t recognize the danger until it is too late. Put the frog directly into boiling water, and it jumps.

I think the analogy applies to today’s supply chains.

Companies are absorbing increasing volatility and complexity without fundamentally redefining how work gets done. Companies have confused historic practices with best practices. They are now taking those same processes and attempting to automate them with agents and agentic AI—without first stopping to ask a more fundamental question: Is it time to jump? Here I give a five-step action plan.

Navigating Supply Chain Economic Downturns

August 30, 2026 5:28 pm

In 2007, the average company took six months to sense market shifts and adapt its supply chain. My estimate, based on work with clients, is that if a downturn happened today, the average company would take 20-30% more time to adjust than in 2007. Here I give insights on preparedness.

Supply Chain Shaman