Will feature Connected Excel designed to enhance end-user experience
i2 PLANET 2005 – PHOENIX --
May 11, 2005Companies today want technology that is flexible, easy to configure and quickly delivers results. They also want technology that is accessible to multiple users through a common, easy-to-understand user interface. In response to those customer needs, i2 Chief Executive Officer Michael McGrath today delivered his holistic vision of the supply chain, including key technology developed by i2 to deliver supply chain agility by enabling supply-demand synchronization. The comments were made in his keynote address at i2 Planet, a three-day forum for thought leadership sponsored by i2 Technologies, Inc. (OTC: ITWH).
“i2 has a 16-year history of working with companies who have the top supply chains in the world, and we have developed what we believe to be the next generation of supply chain management. Our customers are ready for software that extends supply chain management much more broadly. We’ve developed solutions that can allow them to encompass our customer’s customer and supplier’s supplier to deliver visibility across the extended value chain,” McGrath said.
McGrath told attendees that the company is responding to customer needs through a number of unique offerings. This includes the i2 Agile Business Platform, a unique service-oriented architecture designed specifically to meet the requirements of the next generation of supply chain management, and the i2 Connected Excel Initiative, whereby i2 is developing a Microsoft Excel-based rich client for many of its supply chain planning applications. Additionally, i2 offers the i2 Next Generation SCM Solutions framework, which is designed to substantially shorten time-to-results for process improvements, reduce software and implementation costs and minimize implementation risks, leveraging best practices from i2 and its partners.
The i2 Agile Business Platform and Next Generation SCM Solutions Framework
The i2 Agile Business Platform is a unique service-oriented architecture designed specifically to meet the requirements of the next generation of supply chain management. The platform includes a layer of technology services, a business process workflow engine and a rules-based business programming language.
In addition, it features a reusable functionality layer that provides capabilities such as plan management, execution management, visibility and collaboration. The platform also contains capabilities for master data management for synchronizing, validating and staging data. The platform also interoperates with legacy, ERP and other enterprise architectures.
The key to the i2 Next Generation SCM Solutions Framework is the use of workflows – easy-to-use visual programming capabilities based on i2’s industry and supply chain expertise – designed to enable companies to automate solutions via the i2 Agile Business Platform. Using i2 Studio, these workflows can be modified with process changes or expanded capabilities and are delivered to users through a common integrated user interface.
i2’s Connected Excel Initiative
Business professionals worldwide use and depend upon Microsoft Excel to turn data into business-critical information that can be communicated, analyzed and shared. Through the i2 Connected Excel Initiative, i2 is developing a rich client for many of its supply chain planning applications based on the popular Excel software. To enhance the user experience, i2 aims to make tasks easier and more efficient through a rich client that can:
- Empower users to customize and extend their personal Excel spreadsheets
- Help users connect to distributed data sources both within and outside of the enterprise
- Enable greater ease-of-use and accessibility of i2 solutions, minimizing the need for additional training
- Allow users to leverage Excel’s powerful capabilities to enhance i2’s solutions while maintaining corporate IT standards such as data integrity and security
Through the connected Excel rich client, companies could use i2 Master Data Management (MDM) to synchronize and maintain data in real-time throughout their enterprise. As a component of the i2 Agile Business Platform, i2 MDM offers a common platform for supply chain professionals to exchange real-time data internally and externally with partners to achieve supply chain agility.
“Improving supply chain performance is a key focus area of our recently launched Peak Performance Initiative,” said Celestine Vettical, Worldwide Director of Manufacturing Industry Solutions for Microsoft. “The i2 Agile Business Platform featuring Connected Excel can help drive collaboration among all supply chain players and enable enhanced information sharing between business and manufacturing applications. Our recently announced partnership with i2 is designed to deliver improved flexibility and ease of use of i2’s SCM solutions on the Microsoft platform, allowing customers to make better and faster decisions in a cost-effective manner.”
i2 Planet Continues
i2 Planet continues for a third day tomorrow, May 12 with general session presentations, the announcement of the global Ken Sharma Award of Excellence winners and an afternoon filled with break-out session offering supply chain case studies and best practices from some of the world’s top companies. For more information about i2 Planet, visit http://www.i2.com/PlanetHome/.
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About i2
i2 is a leading provider of demand-driven supply chain solutions designed to enable business agility. i2's flexible solutions can synchronize demand and supply across an ever-changing global supply network. Nineteen of the AMR Research Top 25 Global Supply Chains belong to companies who are i2 customers. Seven of the Fortune global top 10 are also customers of i2. Founded in 1988 with a commitment to customer success and supply chain innovation, i2 has a history of delivering value by implementing solutions designed to provide a rapid return on investment. Learn more at www.i2.com.
i2 is a registered trademark of i2 Technologies US, Inc. and i2 Technologies, Inc.
i2 Cautionary Language
This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including forward-looking statements regarding development of Connected Excel, the customer's ability to implement or integrate i2 solutions successfully and in a timely fashion, receive expected functionality and performance, or achieve benefits attributable to i2 solutions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those projected. For a discussion of factors which could impact i2's financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, please refer to i2's recent filings with the SEC, particularly the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed May 10, 2005 and the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 16, 2005. i2 assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this news release.
For further information, please contact:
Beth Elkin
i2 Corporate Communications
469-357-4225
beth_elkin@i2.com
