Ariba called off its acquisition of Agile and said it plans to lay off one-third of its workforce because of weak revenue. Saner or not, some analysts don't see a doomsday scenario for supply-chain software vendors, but only slower growth for a market that more than doubled in the last two years according to two research firms IDC and AMR Research. For i2 Technologies, it's a matter of having hired people in anticipation of growth that wasn't as strong as expected. SupplyWorks competes directly with i2. Helps to stay on top of many details Large corporations that have gained experience in using supply-chain management software say it helps managers stay on top of the multitude of detail that surrounds shipping a variety of products to resellers or end users.
Many companies deploy more than one vendor's products, depending on the application.
For instance, Motorola has deployed i2 Technologies software for planning and scheduling but uses ClearCross for tracking international trade logistics and Siebel for sales-force automation. Motorola uses the Oracle 10.7 financial and human resources applications, but is still undecided on the Oracle 11i supply-chain suite. The Yantra application can receive business data from the Oracle ERP system and the i2 Technologies demand-planning system that Motorola uses. Motorola hasn't provided Web access to its customers for online tracking but may do so.