Edge Dynamics App Facilitates Order-Management ProcessesEdge Dynamics App Facilitates Order-Management Processes

Edge Dynamics Inc. this week debuted a release of its commerce-optimization software that combines aspects of enterprise-resource-planning and business-intelligence applications. The vendor is initially targeting the pharmaceutical industry with the software, but plans to adapt it for other manufacturing industries.

Edge 2.0 provides managers with real-time visibility into their order-processing systems, giving them better control over distribution channels and helping them eliminate problems such as product stockouts, speculative buying, and unauthorized chargebacks and deductions.

Demand from drug wholesalers varies widely over time, which makes managing pharmaceutical distribution channels difficult, says John McGrory, Edge Dynamics' president and CEO. That can result in product stockouts or distribution pipelines stuffed with too much product.

The Edge application sits in front of order-processing systems, collecting and analyzing data about orders in real time and using that intelligence to help managers develop and enforce distribution policies. A pharmaceutical maker may want to maintain an 18-day stock of products in its distribution channel, for example, and the Edge software helps managers take the steps needed to make that happen.

Edge says the first release of the software, which has been available for about 18 months, is being used by several major pharmaceutical companies to manage $30 billion worth of orders annually, although Edge would not name the companies.

"I think they're on to something interesting," says Julie Fraser, principal with Industry Directions, a market-research firm. "They're solving a real problem." She says integrating analytics with transaction processing is a more sophisticated approach than the simple rules that are built into most order-transaction systems. "Interenterprise transaction" software like Edge Dynamics' is potentially a major new category of applications, she says.

The Edge system includes development tools, analysis reports, and a portal, as well as modules for specific functions such as order-compliance automation, continuous channel scorecarding, and forecast gap detection and control. New functions in the 2.0 release automatically allocate products to avoid stockouts and reduce "panic" orders, enforce inventory management and fee-for-service agreements, and monitor compliance with government regulations.

The new release is available now for Windows, Linux, and Solaris systems. Pricing on a per-server basis starts at $500,000.