Webplan to Kinaxis: supply chain planning to "response management"

Webplan seemed like the perfect name for a company selling software that lets manufacturers use the Internet to determine exactly when, where, and how to move inventory through their supply chains. But even some satisfied customers say the name hindered the company's ability

That logic led the company to adopt the name Kinaxis , which Marketing VP Randy Littleson says is a play on words—kinetic energy and global axis—to illustrate perfectly what the product does: help companies respond quickly to changes in global supply chains.

The new name became effective at the end of May 2005, but the company's transformation began in 2001, when current CEO Doug Colbeth first joined the board of directors. Colbeth previously served as CEO of Spyglass , which developed the underlying technology for Microsoft 's Internet Explorer.

Upon joining the board, Colbeth learned customers were using Webplan's product—at the time named Manufacturing Insight—for more than simple supply chain planning. "They were using it to solve problems they 'couldn't plan their way out of,'" he remarked.

Colbeth then cajoled the development team to make the product easier to use, install, and maintain. After taking over as CEO in 2003, he changed the product's name to RapidResponse and built a whole new marketing campaign around the concept of "response management."

"We help companies respond to change in demand, supply, capacity, and products," Littleson says, adding that the new strategy produced an 83-percent increase in new customers and a 221-percent increase in new license revenue last year.

Jim Wood, supply chain information systems manager at Teradyne , a Boston-based manufacturer of semiconductor test equipment, purchased the Webplan product in 1997. He says the system has greatly improved Teradyne's ability to meet customer orders—even when new ones come in unexpectedly—with short lead times, and without keeping large stocks of inventory.

Wood says two capabilities are primarily responsible for Teradyne's success with the system:

• A fast planning engine that can do "what-if" analysis whenever any conditions that affect orders actually change; and

• The ability to pull information about customer and supplier inventory positions into that engine. Bringing partner data into the mix makes it easier to collaborate on methods for handling unexpected changes.

Still, Wood agrees the changes Colbeth brought to Webplan—including the new product and company names—were needed.

"Those of us who are into the details of what the product can do think it's a fabulous tool, but it was hard to explain why to a VP who has to fork over the money to buy it," Wood concludes.