Expanding supply chain management software specialist I2 Technologies Inc has licensed its Rhythm planning and decision support software to Texas Instruments Inc who will use it as a global planning system for semiconductors. The long-term agreement, said to be worth some $24m, includes software licenses, services and support. Irving, Texas-based I2, which recently announced a take-over of rivals Think Systems Corp and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Optimax systems (CI 3163), has seen revenues rocket seven-fold over the last seven quarters and says it expects to see continued growth in the supply chain management business with moves towards globalization and increased focus on customer service. People want to make savings through better customer service, reductions in inventory and more stability in manufacturing – I think the manufacturing side’s been squeezed to death but there’s lots of factors no-one’s dealt with on the supply chain side, says vice president of demand management Stan Beal. I2’s approach is to take a bi-directional overview of the problem. It makes no sense to approach the capacity side without the material side; in high tech businesses it’s almost impossible to isolate any one manufacturing problem…you have to look at the whole supply chain globally. Beal believes the company’s memory resident technology will give it the edge. It’s the only way to go – either by integrating into one large model or multiple models that talk to each other. Essentially, memory resident software boosts performance by loading the data straight into memory, saving time in writing information back and forth to disk. He dismisses the competition, such as Baan NV and PeopleSoft Inc. They’re very good at what they do but they rely on more traditional technology. The company also has its eye on new markets. Says Beal: We’ve been very successful in the high tech business, consumer goods is the fastest growing section but I think the automotive industry will be the next big market.
