INSIGHT's Flagship Software, SAILS 21, First To Embed Supply Chain Vulnerability Analysis

Supply Chain Vulnerability Analysis Becoming Key To Supply Chain Resilience, Corporate Risk Analysis, and Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance

INSIGHT, Inc., top international provider of planning solutions that power supply chain design for the world's foremost companies, announces that INSIGHT is first to market with functionality extensions that enable a sophisticated series of analyses designed to uncover and mitigate vulnerabilities in the supply chain. SAILS 21, the INSIGHT flagship product recognized as the industry reference standard for strategic supply chain planning and design, continues to meet the evolving business needs of corporations from mid-market to the largest global firms.

"INSIGHT's powerful supply chain vulnerability/hardening analysis solution facilitates the identification of vulnerable components of the supply chain, a critical issue for contemporary firms. Equally important, it then identifies the optimal design(s) and associated costs best able to mitigate these risks," said Jeffrey Karrenbauer, president of INSIGHT, Inc. "The attack last weekend on the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia, through which fully 8% of the world's oil supply passes, is a compelling example of why this issue is so pressing. Every CEO/COO/CFO should be demanding a comprehensive supply chain risk audit and a corresponding set of mitigation strategies immediately, not waiting for a successful attack, pandemic, or another natural disaster."

In the December 2005 issue of Supply Chain Manufacturing and Logistics magazine, Beth Enslow of AberdeenGroup forecasts one trend that will impact supply chain management solution spending in 2006 is the application of risk management to supply chain activities.SAILS 21 features an extensively redesigned, easiest-to-use interface in the industry, the most powerful optimization engine, a host of built-in databases, and elaborate scenario generation and analysis capability, all designed to deliver fast results and maximum value to the client in a time of great uncertainty.

Sails Speeds Vulnerability Analysis For Supply Chain Resilience
The supply chain vulnerability/hardening options of SAILS 21 can be used to design long-term strategies as well as respond to short-term disruptions. They include critical location analysis, critical customer analysis, critical raw material analysis, sufficient capacity analysis, and short-term crisis response analysis. INSIGHT provides the full spectrum of training, technical assistance, professional services, and strategic design expertise garnered over three decades required to support these important analyses.

Executives are increasingly aware that corporate risk has been exacerbated by the hallmarks of globalization: extensive supply chains, worldwide competition, regional instability, changing government regulations, shifting trading blocks, and longer lead times. In addition, many contemporary supply chains are "taut" or "brittle," meaning that they are vulnerable to disruptions. Unfortunately, initiatives to reduce supply chain costs and increase responsiveness, such as facility/capacity elimination, "lean" logistics, Just-In-Time (JIT), and so on, have intensified the problem. Indeed, this "rush to budget judgment" may have placed the enterprise itself at risk. Because of this risk, many knowledgeable observers are predicting that supply chain certification may be required as part of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. INSIGHT offers Audit services designed to highlight areas needing improvement.

Coupled with ever more demanding customers, shorter product life cycles, and proliferating product varieties, the strategic planning requirements of the contemporary supply chain executive are daunting and require the most powerful tools just to keep pace. The era when one could establish a supply chain strategy and then review it again in five years has vanished. Leading edge firms, whether mid-market or Fortune 100, know this well and never stop planning. SAILS 21 helps these businesses with continuous improvement in their supply chain strategies.

About INSIGHT, Inc.
INSIGHT software and consulting provide optimization-based supply chain tools and analytical expertise for many of the world's foremost companies. INSIGHT solves critical, complex problems for 40% of Fortune Magazine's top fifty, 70% of Business Week's most profitable corporations, and 70% of the companies judged to have the best supply chains. Clients often select INSIGHT when other solutions have failed and come to rely on Insight to gain and maintain significant competitive advantage. They include Abbott Laboratories, BASF, Cardinal Health, Clorox, ExxonMobil, Goodyear, General Electric, Kellogg, Nestle, PepsiCo, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, and the United States Department of Defense, among many others.

The X-System, a proprietary optimization engine, powers a family of planning and scheduling solutions, from the design of a global supply chain to transportation procurement. In recent years, INSIGHT has also established successful partnerships with third party software providers, such as Optiant with PowerChain Inventory and ILENS with IBID Transport to deliver best-of-breed solutions. Call INSIGHT at (703) 366-3061. On the Web, visit www.INSIGHT-MSS.com.