Datasheet

Release Notes - New Features included in Release 2.4.0
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2. e-TROPOS Executive Summary
In today's increasingly competitive business world, investment in product development must be
seen to deliver real and tangible benefits quickly. It is against this background that our
development of the TROPOS Product Portfolio has continued unabated with the next major
TROPOS Release 2.4.0 shipping from May 2002. The focus continues to be on business
functionality and technology that allows our customers and SSI to differentiate ourselves from the
competition through the implementation of “no compromise” business solutions.
TROPOS 2.4.0 is clearly targeted at helping you automate your business processes - speeding up
your supply-chain and removing inefficiencies, promoting collaborative working - both within your
organisation and with your trading partners, and gaining unparalleled visibility of, and access to,
the information that enables you to make the best management decisions.
A range of new and enhanced business functionality for our target markets is provided across all
TROPOS modules. This includes product and process attributes for the dimension based industries
(mills, metals, carpets and textiles) and enhanced C&E reporting and bulk management for the
drinks industry. Integration with additional partner products for Export Documentation and the
provision of Forecasting and Inventory Optimisation decision support are also included.
In addition to business functionality, TROPOS 2.4.0 provides a new generation of software
configuration tools that allow you to create custom solutions (User Interfaces and system and shop
floor interfaces) based on the 'openness' of the TROPOS technical architecture. Your TROPOS
solution can truly reflect the nuances and uniqueness of your required business processes and
organisation at the same time as you continue to gain the advantage of being part of the growing
community of companies using the TROPOS package.
Below, I highlight just some of the main capabilities provided in TROPOS 2.4.0 together with the
potential benefits you could be expected to gain from using them.
Automating Business Processes with TROPOS 'Active'
TROPOS Active provides you the opportunity to optimise your business processes whilst removing
mundane administrative steps. It enables more timely and reliable communication, provides
proactive alerting, warning and escalation across your business, and speeds up supply chain
velocity thus reducing costs across the business. Information no longer remains stuck in one place,
inaccessible to those in other parts of the business or supply chain who really need it.
The TROPOS Active engine allows you to define key business events via processes, events, and
rules, and configure automated formatted responses to these. So, for example, the arrival of a sales
order could trigger an email alert to a planner, the confirmation of a delivery date might
automatically result in a mail being sent to the customer, or an alert coming in to the system from
the shopfloor might prompt the planner to reschedule production. TROPOS Active can link to
workflow, or use messaging protocols such as XML to automate processes and system interfaces
that previously relied on manual inputs. Best of all, this kind of process automation is straight
forward, configuration can be done without the need for any database-level coding, dramatically
easing the cost of implementation.
Product and Process Attributes for the 'Dimension Based' Industries
Designed for those industries where product and process definition is dependent on a range of
common attributes or characteristics, the new TROPOS Attributes functionality provides capability