Digitize. Transform. Revolutionize. The board read these exact three words as I made my way towards the annual user and training conference, Kinexions ’18. Above the three words, one name was mentioned in bold letters, one name that has been significant in driving innovation in the supply chain management space—Kinaxis. In addition, obviously enough, the conference gathered the whos-who of the industry. Supply chain managers, planners, executives and experts had gathered in hundreds to hear what Kinaxis has in store next. And for a company that has been transforming the way companies run their supply chains and their businesses, it was a no-brainer for me. As John Sicard, the CEO of Kinaxis took the centre-stage and started his opening key note, my pupils started dissipating to focus, and I was not disappointed. “We’re well on the journey to digitization,” mentions Sicard. Although a short sentence, the address was a poignant reminder that despite all the hype recently, many of the ‘latest innovations’ people are screaming about have actually been around and available in products such Kinaxis RapidResponse for years. However, despite the differences between the gathering—countries, industry, age, gender and role—everyone had a singular question. What comes next in the pipeline toward the future?

For Kinaxis, the answer is quite simple. For them, it is not about the future, the company focuses on what is beyond that. And although when you think about Kinaxis, it’s all about innovation, at the core they know that when it comes to supply chain management, it is all about two things: digital, and the people enabling it. They certainly have the experience and drive to do it. Twenty years ago, Kinaxis literally broke the supply chain planning software mould, delivering possibilities and features that people could only dream about. “We’ve continued on that path ever since and once again find ourselves challenging the status quo—this time around some of the industry’s biggest trends like optimization, silos and the future of work,” says Sicard.

With the state-of-art technique of concurrent planning, and a seamless and smart platform, RapidResponse, Kinaxis has always been ahead of the supply chain vendor curve. The reason? Well, as they gone along the long road, it has been ensured that their platform always incorporates the latest techniques and technologies such that they can always stay abreast of the clients’ needs and demands. Kinaxis’ platform has allowed users to use the concurrent planning technique to make collaborative business decisions in a faster and more efficient manner. With RapidResponse, organizations do not have to worry about not being able to keep customer promises as it provides end-to-end visibility, reduces unexpected risks and allows them to even track the performance of their supply chain.

The platform delivers planning automation, cut costs and improved productivity, which leads to streamlined workflows and responsibilities, enabling the clients in turn to focus their attention where it matters most—their organizational operations.

Along with the cloud-based platform, Kinaxis also delivers code base and data model, which allows its clients in six different industries to synchronize all aspects of their supply chain. This helps the clients in comprehending their current performance, instantly observes, and interprets the impact of a change across the end-to-end network. The result is dynamic supply and demand balancing. RapidResponse is also instrumental in finding and engaging the right people and the right information in an automated and seamless manner. The platform’s responsibility matrix delivers the context that the clients need and archives their decisions as well—all within a singular platform. Further, it also allows the clients automate the routine and escalate the exceptions through the in-built predictive algorithms. Being an ERP-agnostic solution, RapidResponse allows the clients connect all internal and external data sources, including multiple ERPs, without duplication—creating a unified, connected, and digital enterprise. Lastly, the platform also gives the ability to mature and scale a supply chain at their own pace without needing any custom code.

Our commitment extends beyond just our software

At the core of the platform is a cutting-edge technique, which the company calls, concurrent planning. The technique can be compared to being on a great conference call as it allows everyone using the platform to share information at the same time and then work in collaboration through any issues, and that too on the spot. This ensures that the entire supply chain is always in-sync and everyone has access to the people, information and results they need, which ultimately results in supply and demand balancing—instantly and continuously.

On the security front, RapidResponse leverages advanced internet security technology available to keep the supply chain data, safe and secure. “Our commitment extends beyond just our software,” says Sicard. The company is dedicated to ensuring every aspect of the business adheres to strict security policies, providing protection for the customers. With secure logins using HTTPS/SSL encryption and customer-defined user permission levels, the users can choose who can see what data and interact with specific information and application functionality, extending through suppliers to customers. The users can also configure their own password management policies to align with corporate guidelines including password expiry, complexity requirements and user lockouts. Additionally, they can take advantage of Kinaxis’ support for SAML/Single Sign On. This allows the users to take control over the user authentication parameters, including enforcing additional factors like tokens or stronger passwords than required by RapidResponse.

Kinaxis is SOC2 Type II certified and browser access is secured using SSL/TLS protocols, ensuring each web session is encrypted with unique keys.

The company adheres to strict industry standards for data privacy and security and routinely conduct internal and external audits and have a formal process, including management oversight, to ensure controlled access to the data. Further to ensure that the supply chain data always remains safe, Kinaxis has also implemented a comprehensive network monitoring system, including in-depth vulnerability scanning. They also provide live security and analyst monitoring and escalation of verified security risks as defined in its incident handling procedures. With end-to-end service monitoring, the clients can leverage on-request access to historical traffic performance analysis and triple-stage verification when there’s a failure, determine any localized or general service outages in a faster way.

What really differentiates Kinaxis is that the company can take its clients beyond the siloed planning techniques of the past to help them stay profitable in today’s volatile world. Unlike other planning platforms, the company provides instant what-if simulations, synchronized end-to-end collaboration and breakthrough concurrent planning techniques, resulting in unmatched agility, speed and efficiency for integrated supply chain planning. Backing up the company is their prestigious partners in Deloitte, Accenture, and Capgemini, to name a few. With an objective to grow its partner ecosystem, Kinaxis is establishing itself as a credible industry resource that can offer a win-win value proposition in whatever format a partnership may take.

"We’ve continued on that path ever since and once again find ourselves challenging the status quo—this time around some of the industry’s biggest trends like optimization, silos and the future of work"

What drives the company is its continuous drive toward innovation. To this end, the company is enhancing the power of concurrent planning with new data visualization and analysis capabilities. The new capabilities from Kinaxis deliver a modern alternative to unify planning teams and extend the value of investments in transaction-oriented ERPs such as SAP and Oracle. Kinaxis does this by bringing an enterprise’s data, processes and people together on a single digital platform for integrated supply chain planning, monitoring and response. “Successfully managing your supply chain requires making countless decisions daily, but the reality for most people is that the choices they are making are based on outdated and incomplete information, and without the necessary understanding of how their choices might negatively impact other parts of the business,” comments Sicard.

These new capabilities, underpinned by the unique Kinaxis concurrent planning technique, help customer’s further collapse the time it takes to make decisions. Concurrent planning instantly and continuously balances all aspects of the end-to-end supply chain, so when a planner in one area makes a change, everyone else across the supply chain immediately sees the impact. “Our recent innovations provide instant end-to-end visibility of how decisions affect your supply chain and the people who run them. Gone are the days of working with fog between each supply chain function, and gone are the days of guessing the right course of action. Confidence is restored when everyone is aligned, everyone is working from the same truth and no one works alone,” concludes Sicard.