Vanguard Solutions: Business Intelligence for Manufacturing and Operations

VentanaView™

Summary

Vanguard Solutions Group is an information technology provider offering an integrated BI solution for operations that improves performance. Through a decade of technology investments, Vanguard has created a BI platform that provides analytic and enterprise reporting capabilities that directly integrate into ERP, SCM, and CRM systems. Ventana Research believes solutions like Vanguard’s provide a single and simplified platform approach to delivering BI for performance management.

Assessment

BI continues be a critical priority as organizations realize that more time must be spent measuring the effectiveness of meeting their business objectives. This imperative continues to drive organizations and industries, especially within the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers have to manage the complexity of their supply chain, internal manufacturing, and operations along with meeting their distribution and customer requirements.

Vanguard Solutions provides an integrated BI platform and application solution designed to help organizations to integrate data from their disparate systems and distribute the data to management, analysts, and information consumers who have different usage requirements. Unlike many BI providers, Vanguard has taken its deep understanding of operational systems and built its own data and information integration capabilities that can quickly assemble data into pre-defined data models. Vanguard’s integration and information management competency, combined with partnerships with application providers like PeopleSoft/JD Edwards, Workwise, Lilly Software, and Exact Software, have helped its customers achieve rapid deployments and leverage their existing ERP and SCM system investments.

When examining analytic-centric solutions for performance management, Ventana Research recommends formulating a list of requirements that simplify the adoption of information technology for improving performance. Vanguard differentiates itself by offering a product that integrates data access and deployed applications for finance and operations organizations. Vanguard’s additional focus on providing a distributed enterprise solution that can be deployed in a disconnected and mobile fashion also provides organizations with the ability to obtain widespread adoption. Ventana Research expects Vanguard will continue to advance its focus on scorecarding and dashboards to meet the evolving needs of performance management.

Market Impact

Vanguard Solutions operates in a BI market that is divided between providing (a) a generic platform and tools and (b) pre-integrated solutions for industries like manufacturing. The accelerated focus on BI has forced many organizations to consider the financial cost and resources associated with deploying analytic solutions for performance management. Vanguard continues to differentiate itself by providing a practical and cost effective solution centered on delivering value for business while providing a way to maintain and integrate existing ERP, CRM and SCM systems.

Recommendation

Manufacturing organizations with a simple or complex supply chain and operations environment should examine their analytic solutions for optimal performance management. It is critical to define a set of evaluation criteria for applications and platforms, to focus on supporting data and information integration into existing ERP, CRM and SCM systems, and to support centralized and disconnected deployments. Ventana Research recommends that organizations looking to begin their journey in performance management closely examine Vanguard Solutions, because its solutions can rapidly be installed, deployed, and managed.

Mark Smith is CEO & Senior Vice President of Research at Ventana Research (www.ventanaresearch.com), a research and advisory services firm.