The founders of the startup OpsVeda have over 30 years of combined experience working in and around SAP and Enterprise Software. So you might say they are somewhat experts in SAP’s software, ERP data, and customer ecosystem. So when the Company was launched in 2010, OpsVeda’s founder, Sanjiv Gupta, recognized the vast potential for a real time visibility platform for enterprises in a variety of industries, “when you are able to have your data in-memory, and access it in real time, the possibilities are vast”.
During its initial development, OpsVeda retrieved SAP ERP data, and data from other sources, streaming it into a natively-built platform. It soon became apparent however that in order to scale, and to enable predictive and prescriptive capabilities, massive compute power and in-memory processing would be needed. The next move landed OpsVeda on the doorstep of the Startup Focus Program in 2012, where collaboration between the two groups helped OpsVeda team to deliver the solution on the SAP HANA platform.
Today the OpsVeda platform enables Real Time Visibility in a ‘Manage by Exceptions’ paradigm, for a number of large Enterprise customers. The solution uniquely simplifies the life of the enterprise user by eliminating a number of transactional and BI reports, while giving them actionable visibility into what needs attention, in real time.
In the summer of 2014, OpsVeda got interest from one of its most recent customers, a $3.5 billion dollar apparel and footwear manufacturer. One of OpsVeda’s existing customers, Levi Strauss, had presented a live demonstration of the software solution in an earlier SAP ASUG Industry event, during which the customer’s interest had been piqued. Formal engagement between the customer and OpsVeda followed, with a POC completed in under three weeks, a solution licensed in mid-August, and the solution live by October.
Gary Primeau, VP of Business Development, put into context why the customer was eager to see the OpsVeda solution implemented in such a short period of time, “the industry really struggles with accessing the right information quickly enough”. Apparel, Footwear and Retail customers face extreme time sensitivity trying to get shipments out of the plant and to the stores & customers, while also ensuring that there are not credit holds, cancellations, or trade shipment information that could adversely affect cost or rapport with customers. It is these supply-, vendor-, and customer-related exceptions which put strain on the supply chain that OpsVeda seeks to reduce or mitigate altogether.
OpsVeda addresses this gap by providing the customer with visibility into the supply chain in real time through live dashboards on what is actually occurring within the supply chain. The end users, be it someone on the plant floor, someone managing customer orders or vendor supply, or a business executive, are able to view what particular style or size is selling well and use this information to base shipment and inventory prioritization. OpsVeda uses historical data and current data from open transactions to provide insight into what exceptions need attention, how demand will look like over the next weeks, as well as data from other sources like weather and slowdowns in trade hubs, aligning this information with the supply and in-transit containers that hold the most revenue dollars or highest priority customer needs.
Once a customer is able to understand this, they have reached a supply chain state of stability most sought in the industry, able now to maximize revenue through supply prioritization, better inventory mix, and a reduction in customer charge backs or penalties over time.
What’s more is that a number of industry players that fall within CPG (consumer package goods), apparel and footwear to high tech to pharmaceuticals, could tailor the OpsVeda solution to monitor their own KPIs by uniquely configuring the workbenches to meet their needs. 2015 is the year when OpsVeda gets rolled out across multiple industries.
Interested in learning more about OpsVeda or other startups in the program? Follow us at @SAPstartups or @OpsVeda.
