Steelwedge Software Keeps Products Flowing Efficiently

By Zoe Francis, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Steelwedge's cutting-edge software takes almost limitless data and turns it into useful information that helps companies operate more efficiently.

Hacienda-based Steelwedge Software is an industry leader in cloud sales and operations planning (S&OP) for large manufacturers.

"We help large manufacturers plan their business," Lauren Bossers, director of digital and content marketing, said. "Our software enables them to match their supply with their demand."

While Steelwedge competes against Oracle and SAP, the newer Steelwedge has a distinct advantage because company founder and executive chairman Glenn Margolis had the foresight to offer his software solutions through the emerging cloud-based system that now dominates the market.

"Cloud is less expensive, it's easier to implement and it's easier to use than on-premise software," Bossers said. "Those are three big benefits. It's very user friendly."

Offering software through the cloud also makes it easy to provide customers with automatic upgrades. The software is also easy to expand as a company grows.

"It's scalable, so that means it's only as much or as little as you need," she said. "If you start with five users and all of the sudden you need to scale up to 100 users, we can do that. It's easily scaled up or down for your needs."

In this age of rapid technological advances, a surprising number of companies rely on manual spreadsheets to keep track of inventory. Steelwedge takes that old-fashioned method and brings it solidly into the 21st century with the latest in sales and operation planning software.

"What happens in some big companies is that everybody has a spreadsheet and once a month, they all meet and try to put it together to make sense of it," Bossers noted. "There's no one version of the truth for the entire company to work from."

Steelwedge takes that same spreadsheet information and automates it, enabling the software to then run analytics that help a company manage its product demand and supply.

"There's a tremendous amount of data that every company has to deal with now," she said. "Data is exploding as we are tracking more information on consumer behavior and the way we manufacture, distribute and sell products. In short, supply chain management can be explained as helping a manufacturer get the right product to the right place at the right time at the right price."

Steelwedge Software helps companies make sure they have the right amount of stock on the shelves to meet customer demands.

"GoPro is one of our customers, Bossers said. "So how does GoPro know how many cameras to manufacture and which stores to put their cameras in? We help them get their product into the hands their customer."

One appealing aspect of Steelwedge is that the software has a front-end interface the company refers to as enterprise-enabled Excel.

"Our software looks familiar to the user because Excel is the most commonly used business planning tool," she said. "Enterprise-enabled Excel drives the S&OP process on top of the Excel application, helping to get more users engaged in the process."

Steelwedge then keeps close tabs on how its customers are using the software to maintain its cutting-edge reputation.

"We stay one step ahead to make sure the software analytics are suited to the customer needs and can provide the necessary analysis," Bossers said. "We are geared toward large manufacturers with a lot of complexity in their businesses. We take that complexity and make the planning process more efficient, effective and automated."

Steelwedge Software was recently ranked No. 200 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list of the nation's fastest-growing tech firms. Learn more about the company at steelwedge.com.

Photo: Glen Margolis, Executive Chairman and Founder, Steelwedge Software.

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