
Category Archives: press
News: Competitive Insights Talks about the Holy Grail of Future Business
Exploring how supply chains are evolving to a predictive operating model that delivers true advantage
Atlanta, GA, February 2, 2016 – Competitive Insights, LLC, a Software-as-a-Service company providing Integrated Business Planning solutions that offer accurate and specific profit insights, today announced that Richard Sharpe, CEO of Competitive Insights, is featured in DHL Supply Chain’s latest global white paper, “The Predictive Enterprise: Where Data Science Meets Supply Chain”.
The white paper discusses the rich content of supply chain data and how proactive companies are beginning to use a progressive series of analytics on this data to completely transform their enterprises. It explores the tools and strategies necessary to take companies from a descriptive supply chain to a re-imagined predictive enterprise. The paper reveals that investments in new forms of analytics deliver substantial competitive advantage.
Lisa Harrington, President of lharrington group LLC and author of the white paper, said,
“Harnessing the true power of data driven insight is the holy grail of future business. A wealth of this data comes from the supply chain. But, while the information is there, companies are not yet capitalizing on its real value as a source of insight capable of shaping the future of the enterprise.”
Richard Sharpe commented,
“We are very proud to be included in DHL’s white paper. It reflects Competitive Insight’s dedication to helping companies gain the most value from advanced analytics. The value is measured through sustainable increases in profit performance for their enterprise.”
Read the article to understand how most companies are sitting on a goldmine of untapped supply chain data that has the ability to give organizations a competitive edge at DHL Supply Chain.
About Competitive Insights, LLC
Competitive Insights (CI) is defining a new frontier called Integrated Business Planning (IBP). CI’s offerings incorporate patented methodologies and technologies that transform large volumes of disparate transactional data (Big Data) into accurate and specific performance insights. The insights start with providing visibility to product, customer and channel Net Landed Cost To Serve (NLCTS) and true Net Landed Profit (NLP) contributions. CI’s solutions provide actionable information by integrating a variety of functional analytics (Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive and Prescriptive) tailored to each customer’s set of priorities. CI’s solutions empower customers to use IBP information to reduce costs, lower working capital requirements and to increase profit contributions by product customer and channel. In addition, CI’s IBP information can also be used to measure and manage supply chain operating risks that have been prioritized based on their potential impact on operating profits.
News: Competitive Insights Contributes to New Supply Chain Risk Management Standard
Atlanta, GA, July 23, 2014 – Competitive Insights, a leading provider of Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solutions, announces their participation in the development of a new standard to help organizations address operational risks in their supply chains, including risks to tangible and intangible assets. Among an advisory team of global, cross-disciplinary professionals and specialists, Richard Sharpe, CEO of Competitive Insights, and Tami Kitajima, Manager at Competitive Insights, served as Committee Members in the recent publication of ASIS International’s The Supply Chain Risk Management: A Compilation of Best Practices Standard (SCRM).
“I am glad that Competitive Insights supported the development of the ASIS Standard on Supply Chain Risk Management – A Compilation of Best Practices,” said Douglas Schoch, Vice President of Siemens Capital Company LLC. “Competitive Insights’ methodology on how to identify, mitigate and measure supply chain risk is actionable and provides a clear path to managing prioritized risks in order to protect operating profits.”
“The SCRM Standard will help practitioners anticipate, prevent, protect, mitigate, manage, respond, and recover from potentially undesirable and disruptive events, as well as identify opportunities,” stated in ASIS International’s press release. “However, the best strategy for addressing risk events will be determined by the organization’s context of operations, its risk appetite, and results of risk assessments. Adoption of this standard should build on rather than supplant existing specialized risk programs.”
Click here for complete ASIS International’s Press Release and link to Executive Summary
About Competitive Insights
Competitive Insights (CI) provides cloud based Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solutions to customers including some of the nation’s most recognizable brands. CI’s CI.RADAaR™ solution cleans and processes customers’ transactional data from multiple sources to support cross-functional, fact-based decisions. Actionable decisions support the decrease of operating costs, maximization of profits, mitigation of operating risks and minimization of carbon emissions. This information is further used by cross functional teams of supply chain, sales, finance and marketing business users to make and monitor strategic decisions for specific segments of the business. For more information please visit: http://www.ci-advantage.com
News: Competitive Insights Named “Cool Vendor” by Gartner
Vendors selected for the “Cool Vendor” report are innovative, impactful and intriguing
Atlanta, GA, April 22, 2014 – Competitive Insights, a leading provider of Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solutions, announced it has been listed as a Cool Vendor in the “Cool Vendors in Supply Chain Management Applications, 2014” 1 report by Gartner, Inc.
CI is defining a new frontier in IBP solutions. CI’s solutions incorporate patented methodologies and technologies that transform large volumes of disparate transactional data (Big Data) into accurate and specific performance details (Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive and Prescriptive) across the enterprise. CI provides specific fact based details that uncover insights into a wide variety of performance measurements including specific Net Landed Cost To Serve (NLCTS) product and customer cost measurements and their associated true Net Landed Profit (NLP) contributions. In addition, CI’s solutions also allow customers to use the same IBP data to measure and manage prioritized supply chain operating risks.
“Gartner’s recognition of Competitive Insights is no surprise,” said Jim Hardy, Chief Supply Chain Officer of Under Armour. “The actionable performance insights they provide through their cloud based application CI.RADAaR™ is game changing. It will be the basis for how innovative companies compete in the future.”
“We are honored to be included in the Cool Vendors 2014 report by Gartner,” said Richard Sharpe, CEO of Competitive Insights. “We are committed to the advancement of Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solutions for our Customers. Solutions allow our Customers to make informed, fact based decisions based on current and precise performance information.”
For more information, please visit www.ci-advantage.com or contact insights@ci-advantage.com.
About Competitive Insights
Competitive Insights (CI) provides cloud based Integrated Business Planning (IBP) solutions to customers including some of the nation’s most recognizable brands. CI’s CI.RADAaR™ solution cleans and processes customers’ transactional data from multiple sources to support cross-functional, fact-based decisions. Actionable decisions support the decrease of operating costs, maximization of profits, mitigation of operating risks and minimization of carbon emissions. This information is further used by cross functional teams of supply chain, sales, finance and marketing business users to make and monitor strategic decisions for specific segments of the business. For more information please visit: http://www.ci-advantage.com
Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
1 Gartner “Cool Vendors in Supply Chain Management Applications, 2014” by C. Dwight Klappich, Noha Tohamy, Christian Titze, Tim Payne, April 15, 2014.
Media Contact:
Tami Kitajima
tkitajima@ci-advantage.com
Phone: 770.922.4400 x306
Press Release: New Distribution Facility
For Immediate Release
Easton-Bell Sports secures 813,126-sf build-to-suit lease in Rantoul, IL
Avison Young and Supply Chain Alliance provide strategic services for sports equipment manufacturer
Chicago, IL (August 20, 2012) — Michael McKiernan, Avison Young Principal and Managing Director of the company’s Chicago office, announced that it has secured a long-term lease for Easton-Bell Sports, Inc. in a new state-of-the-art 813,126-square-foot (sf) distribution, assembly and shared-services center in Rantoul, IL.
The facility is being constructed as a build-to-suit property for Easton-Bell Sports by developer The Janko Group and general contractor Peak Construction. The long-term lease agreement completed a year-long site-selection and facility-planning process that culminated with a groundbreaking ceremony this past week.
Brendan Kelly and Suzanne Serino, Principals of Avison Young and members of the company’s supply-chain practice, represented Easton-Bell Sports in multiple facets of the transaction.
“Easton-Bell Sports has been a great corporate citizen in Rantoul for more than three decades,” comments Kelly in Chicago. “The company completed a comprehensive search nationwide and ultimately chose Rantoul for Easton-Bell Sports’ new facility due to the company’s dedicated local workforce and strong support from the Village of Rantoul and State of Illinois.”
Easton-Bell Sports is a leading designer, developer and marketer of innovative sports equipment and accessories under the Easton, Bell, Riddell, Giro and Blackburn brands. The company is based in Van Nuys, CA.
“After nearly two years of hard work, we were able to break ground this past week on this important facility,” states Lewis Hornsby, Vice-President, Supply Chain and Fulfillment, Easton-Bell Sports. “The project wouldn’t have been possible without the great support provided by the members of the Avison Young team. Their services proved invaluable in helping us achieve success with this complex development.”
Easton-Bell Sports currently operates multiple manufacturing and distribution facilities in Rantoul. The new center will consolidate these facilities into a single, 813,126-sf structure with advanced technology and design capable of producing shorter lead times for customer orders, the highest quality order shipments, and long-term cost savings that can be re-invested in the business.
To execute this strategic plan, Easton-Bell Sports retained the services of the Supply Chain Alliance, a consortium of companies aligned to provide businesses with turnkey solutions to real estate and related supply-chain issues. In addition to Avison Young, the alliance includes Heitman Technologies (which is responsible for architecture and facility planning); Numina Group (process improvement); and Competitive Insights (strategic supply-chain consulting.)
“Avison Young would like to show our appreciation and acknowledge Easton-Bell Sports for its commitment to use our company’s holistic open-architecture model,” says McKiernan. “This best-in-class, best-practices approach is unlike any approach in the marketplace, and is a differentiator for Avison Young and Easton-Bell, and consistent with industry thought leader CoreNet’s 2020 vision of future best practices.”
The new 813,126-sf facility for Easton-Bell Sports will be located on an approximately 72-acre land site at 1001 Innovative Drive within Village Industrial Park. The 400-acre park is located at the northwest intersection of Highway 136 and Interstate 57.
Easton-Bell Sports’ shared services center has been designed to meet LEED certification standards. The facility will include approximately 33,000 sf of office space and 780,000 sf of light-assembly and distribution-center space. The distribution space will feature 36-foot-clear ceiling heights, 50-by-60-foot bay spacing, and land that can accommodate future growth of up to 428,000 sf of building expansion.
As participants in the Supply Chain Alliance:
- Avison Young serves as the integrator of supply chain and real estate services (tenant representation brokerage, economic incentives, construction management, foreign-trade feasibility, improvement and strategic financial modeling for the executive team)
- Heitman Technologies provides corporate facility planning; building modeling, including the interior office and process equipment on the plant floor; electronic construction-bidding platform and architectural services;
- Numina Group’s process-improvement engineers provide consulting, design and implementation of the process equipment and software (i.e. racking, conveyors, pick modules etc.);
- Competitive Insights provides both supply chain Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and professional analytical services, including distribution network modeling, to support cross-functional, fact-based decisions that support the reduction of operating costs.
Competitive Insights, headquartered in Atlanta, was founded in 1998. The firm provides both supply chain Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and professional analytical services to enterprise customers including some of the nation’s most recognizable brands. CI’s proprietary mix of software and services collects and processes customers’ transactional data from multiple sources to support cross-functional, fact-based decisions that support the reduction of operating costs, maximizing profits, and mitigating operating risks.
Easton-Bell Sports, Inc. is a leading designer, developer and marketer of branded sports equipment, protective products and related accessories. The company markets and licenses products under such well-known brands as Easton, Bell, Giro, Riddell and Blackburn. Its products incorporate leading technology and designs and are used by professional athletes and enthusiasts alike. Headquartered in Van Nuys, California, the company has 32 facilities worldwide.
For further information/comment/photos:
- Sherry Quan, National Director of Communications & Media Relations, Avison Young: (604) 647-5098; cell: (604) 726-0959
- Michael McKiernan, Principal and Managing Director, Chicago, Avison Young: (847) 849-1911
- Brendan Kelly, Principal, Avison Young: (847) 849-1913
- Suzanne Serino, Principal, Avison Young: (847) 849-1903


