Software from two developers, IQNavigator Inc. and Adexa Inc., is providing enterprises with more tools for managing costs.
IQNavigator early next year will begin shipping Version 6.0 of its namesake services procurement platform, which provides companies with tools for managing the process of finding employees with an eye toward improving quality and lowering costs.
A prime feature of IQNavigator 6.0 is a new capability for managing the hiring of day laborers. Using the software, a manager could set up a hiring assignment and complete most of the paperwork without having the prospective laborers personal information. That is inserted at the time of hiring. This capability will be helpful in the light-manufacturing industry, where labor requirements can change quickly, according to officials at IQNavigator, of Denver.
Version 6.0, which adds support for French, will also provide more flexibility for users to configure the labor procurement steps applicable to their company. An augmented rules engine lets a company send a hiring requisition to its primary staffing supplier then automatically forward that requisition to other suppliers if the first one cant fill the request.
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As the economy warms up, many companies are beginning to hire more people, but often they are hiring contract laborers rather than full-time employees, said Christa Degnan, an analyst at Aberdeen Group Inc. However, the employers face new hurdles ensuring that the contractors they hire have all the necessary qualifications and in dealing with the extra paperwork those contractors require.
“A big pain point is contract labor,” said Degnan, in Boston. “Now you can use these [IQNavigator] tools and keep your contract labor agencies honest.”
Separately, supply chain planning software developer Adexa last week released the beta version of its COP (Collaborative Operations Planning) software, which helps companies plan and schedule for product demand.
COP is geared to provide the missing link between operations planning and demand planning by ensuring that financial targets are considered during every phase of the planning process, according to officials at the Los Angeles-based company.
To achieve its ends, COP dynamically considers all costs required for planning, along with material and capacity constraints, and identifies the most profitable plans and schedules to meet demand. Each transaction in an order can have variable costs for components such as materials, manufacturing or subcontracting. COP, which will be generally available next quarter, automatically measures the profitability of each step in the manufacturing process to develop an optimal plan to provide the best returns, officials said.
Once a demand plan is in place, a companys customers, distributors and partners can use the Internet to access and make changes to the plan.