WALTHAM, Mass., Sept 1, 2009 -- Oco, Inc., a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of business analytics solutions (BI) announced today its new Supply Chain Analytics Solutions Suite, which gives companies visibility into key supply chain functions, including transportation & logistics, inventory & customer service, and sourcing. The new suite of solutions provides analytical insight that enables companies to implement key supply chain strategies, such as targeted cost reduction, improved inventory management, working capital reduction, enhanced supplier performance and improved customer service levels.

Oco's new solutions provide powerful, actionable analytics that drive superior business performance. They offer true analytical insight, which requires transaction-level data to be incorporated from multiple different data source systems to generate a more complete view of the business situation. Oco's analytics solutions integrate data from multiple sources, host data in a data warehouse, and offer business intelligence tools to enable companies to gain insights from advanced analytics and visualization capabilities. The solutions are typically deployed and operational in just six to ten weeks. The analytics are presented to the extended supply chain in different ways, and targeted at various roles within companies – from executives to staff.

Kevin O'Marah, lead researcher on the AMR Supply Chain Top 25 described the importance of analytics for leading supply chain companies. "I recently saw a demonstration of Oco's product sets for business intelligence (BI) and was impressed. What stood out was the power of simplicity the Waltham, Massachusetts-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor had managed to capture. From its easy user interface (UI) to the logic of how and why it might help companies manage their supply chains better, Oco took me from zero to 60 in seconds." said Kevin O'Marah, chief strategy officer, AMR Research in the July 2008 AMR Research Report, "Complexity Tamed."

"High-performing companies realize that effectively managing their supply chains can provide a competitive advantage," said William Copacino, president and CEO of Oco, Inc. "We have seen a number of companies leverage their supply chain data with more insightful analytics to help drive down costs and operate more efficiently with improved service levels. Since our solutions are up and running within just a matter of weeks and are targeted at key business improvement areas, companies are generating a very attractive ROI."

The New Supply Chain Analytics Solutions Suite

The solutions enable companies to achieve payback within 90 days and gain a 3x ROI. Oco's Supply Chain Analytics Solutions Suite provides powerful, complete solutions to end users. The capabilities include:

Reporting that allows users to easily analyze ("slice and dice") integrated supply chain data across numerous dimensions;

Interactive executive dashboards;

What-if scorecards;

Exception reports and alerts;

Ad-hoc analysis tools to immediately address any inquiry; and

Powerful, graphical visualization capabilities.

The solutions also allow companies to effectively collaborate with customers, suppliers, and other outside parties through an easy-to-use web interface.

The solutions in the Oco Supply Chain Solutions Suite include:

Oco Transportation Analytics provide a complete view of an organization's entire transportation performance, including all transportation spend on a detailed level, capacity utilization, carrier performance, comparison to budget or revised plans, and delivery performance. These analytics are typically integrating data from different information systems, including order data from an ERP system, payment data from a freight pay or TMS (transportation management system), data from carriers themselves or other external sources, budgeting systems and spreadsheets. For example, one analytical solution deployed for a customer enabled analysis of transportation spend and trailer utilization across shipping lanes, modes, customers, and geographies with an ability to analyze 11 different types of accessorial charges and drill down to view details on individual freight bills. This customer achieved a payback in less than 90 days by consolidating shipments, changing shipping days, and targeting specific categories for cost reduction.

Oco Inventory Analytics enable companies to gain visibility into their inventory across a multi-tiered global network, including quantities, value, status, availability, age and expected usage. These analytics provide a complete view of various inventory components, such as raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP) and finished goods, by integrating data from multiple source information systems, including different ERP systems or instances, demand planning systems, and spreadsheets. For example, one analytical solution for a customer consolidated globally dispersed inventory data, enabling detailed inventory analysis, such as estimating inventory levels against targeted usage, redistributing inventory across locations to avoid new purchases, and identifying aged inventory to move or write-off. The customer's benefits included a 17% reduction in inventory levels with improved in-stock availability levels.

Oco Sourcing & Supplier Analytics provide a complete view of a company's supplier performance and spend to optimize suppliers, and get the best costs balanced against quality and delivery performance. These analytics cover a number of areas, including spend analysis, supplier performance tracking and evaluation, and purchase order status. Typically these analytics require data from multiple systems, including ERPs, one-off procurement databases, supplier relationship management systems and spreadsheets. For example, one analytical report on supplier performance evaluation provides a supplier evaluation score and ranks suppliers based on the weighted average of multiple criteria. It has allowed companies to drive significantly better supplier performance and assemble data and analysis with virtually no effort, allowing them to work with suppliers to drive identified improvements. Other analytics include strategic sourcing analysis, Purchase Price Variance (PPV) tracking, and order status.

The new Supply Chain Analytics Solutions Suite incorporates data from multiple systems into a hosted data warehouse and can be deployed standalone or integrated with Oco's other business solutions. The solutions are configured to each customer's specific needs and are available today. Individuals interested in learning more about how leading companies are leveraging analytics for competitive analysis, can view a webinar with Kevin O'Marah, chief strategy officer, AMR Research, in which he discusses his research on the Top 25 Supply Chain Management companies.

About Oco, Inc.

Oco is a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based business analytics solutions. The company provides complete BI solutions to customers such as Casual Male, Dunkin' Brands, Fidelity Investments, Office Depot and Welch's. Oco's unique business-centric approach to BI helps companies solve targeted business issues, achieve ROI within 90 days and triple their return on investment. Leveraging best-practice analytics, pre-built data models, and patented technology, Oco's SaaS-based solutions are delivered in a fraction of the time, at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions, with fewer IT resource requirements than traditional approaches. In addition to its own product portfolio, Oco also offers an on-demand BI solution through its partnership with SAP BusinessObjects. Oco was founded in 1999 and its headquarters are in Waltham, Mass. More information about Oco can be found at www.oco-inc.com.

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