QAD

QAD provides Enterprise Resource Planning software to manufacturing companies around the world. QAD sells its products and services to companies in six main industries: automotive, consumer products, high technology, food and beverage, industrial equipment and life sciences. As of November 2010, QAD software was in use at 5,555 manufacturing sites in more than 90 countries.[1] QAD's main product suite is called QAD Enterprise Applications (prior to 2007 the main suite name was MFG/PRO) and uses year designations to denote versions. For example, QAD EA 2011.0 for the first version of the 2011, and QAD EA 2011.1 for the second. For the full year ended January 31, 2012, total revenue was $247.0 million

History
QAD (which stands for Queen Ann's Drive) was originally formed in 1979 by Pam Lopker, who remains QAD's President and Chairman today. QAD initially developed proprietary software applications for manufacturing companies in southern California. In 1984, QAD launched its flagship product MFG/PRO. MFG/PRO was built using the Progress Software Corporation's Fourth Generation Language (4GL) and relational database. MFG/PRO was one of the first software applications built for manufacturers following the principles of the American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS). MFG/PRO was also one of the first applications to support closed loop Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II), as well as operating in the newly emerging open systems arena. QAD software supports Lean Manufacturing principles and inter-operates with other systems via open standards. A product called Supply Visualization was first hosted in multi-tenant configuration for QAD customers and those customers' suppliers making QAD an early player in providing SaaS software for manufacturing. In 2006, QAD launched its next generation user interface called .NET UI. In 2007, QAD renamed its core product suite from MFG/PRO toQADEnterpriseApplications. With the launch of QAD Enterprise Applications 2007, QAD pioneered hybrid deployment, with the ability to deploy the application On Premise, On Appliance or On Demand (SaaS).

In 2008, QAD launched a significant enhancement to its core suite with the release of the Enterprise Edition of QAD Enterprise Applications. In 2010, QAD launched QAD Enterprise Applications 2010.1 (QAD 2010.1) which is designed to meet the unique needs of global manufactured product companies, this software release helps todays companies operate at peak efficiency for accelerated business recovery and growth. In 2010, per the initiative and request of CEO Karl Lopker and Chairman Pam Lopker (who together own over 60% of the company), QAD received a board recommendation and shareholder approval to form two share classes of QAD stock. The reverse split that accompanied the creation of the two share classes, QADA 1/20 vote per share, and QADB, 1 vote per share, reduced the outstanding sharecount of the company by 50%. Where before QADI had over 33 million shares outstanding, QADA has about 13.2 million shares outstanding and QADB has 3.3 million shares.

QAD in various industries

QAD in Automotive QAD solutions are in use at most of the market-leading automotive parts companies throughout the world. Our customers include OEMs, part suppliers and aftermarket providers. QAD Enterprise Applications allow quick implementations, and provide cost-effective support for changing business demands. QADs Automotive Edition provides suppliers and sub-suppliers globally with the right solution to balance demand and supply while reducing inventory, meeting stringent quality standards and demanding delivery schedules.

QAD in Life Sciences Over 400 life sciences manufacturing sites in more than 40 countries around the world have deployed QAD Enterprise Applications. Companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals enjoy the simplicity, reliability and performance that QAD delivers. QAD developed the Life Sciences Edition to meet the needs of its worldwide customers in a variety of segments from medical devices to pharmaceuticals. QADs commitment to life sciences ensures medical device, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology manufacturers are able to work towards becoming effective enterprises, while meeting stringent regulatory demands.

QADs solution supports flexible business process configuration and multiple business entities and can be deployed in multiple languages. Deployment options including on demand support the needs of global life science companies. QADs solution supports critical quality requirements, including regulatory compliance, CAPA, and Device History/Electronic Batch Record requirements as well as providing a full range of Current Good Manufacturing.

QAD in Configured Products The need to be agile in delivering complex products is growing in many markets, and manufacturers have a challenge in addressing customer demand. Customers want mass customization. This customer demand conflicts with the need for companies to keep inventory low. It is nearly impossible to predict demand at the final product level of detail, and doing so may result in a needless buildup of never-used finished goods inventory. A configurator helps in this entire process. By allowing companies to forecast and manufacture at the modular level, it can reduce inventory and lead times. By allowing customers to define the exact product they want, it can improve customer satisfaction, decrease costs and reduce delivery times. QAD Configurator helps to control rework and eliminate errors by simplifying the manufacturers product technology and ensuring that requirements are consistent through the entire cycle from quote to delivery. Configured products company characteristics:

Produces a large number of end-products out of a relatively small number of standardized components

Production is based on the assembly of variable items rather than fabrication from scratch The manufacturing strategy is "make/assemble-to-order", rather than "make-to-stock" Considers order lead times, sales costs and quote errors too high

Configured products manufacturers can reduce rework, lead times and sales costs by guiding the sales and manufacturing processes with the use of QAD Configurator.

QAD in Discrete Products QAD Enterprise Applications is a full-featured software solution that enhances customers' ability to become effective enterprises by addressing many business challenges of a global discrete manufacturing company. QAD helps companies address the challenges of managing product complexity, coping with volatility in raw material pricing and ensuring plant effectiveness to meet demanding customer delivery schedules. QADs solution supports lean principles across both manufacturing operations and the supply chain to drive cost reductions, increase margins and improve customer satisfaction. QAD Enterprise Applications embrace mixed modes of manufacturing in a single environment and supports outsourced operations and off-shoring, where required.

QAD in Consumer Products QAD Enterprise Applications solution for consumer products manufacturers helps balance everincreasing numbers of new products and line extensions, demanding consumers, and customers and regulators in a complex and volatile supply chain. QADs solutions enable companies to optimize inventory, collaborate with suppliers and run a more efficient manufacturing environment. QADs solutions improve supply chain efficiency while helping manage costs, improve margins and more effectively collaborate with customers. QADs solutions support such key initiatives as sustainability, regulatory export and import, customer centric supply chains, and improved quality and regulatory compliance. The QAD consumer products offering supports global eCommerce requirements in a single environment. With comprehensive training and partner support for major global retailers, QAD supports every major country.

QAD in Food and Beverage QAD provides solutions for food and beverage companies, including global leaders in alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, baking, daily fresh production, and full process producers. QADs goal is to support food and beverage manufacturers in achieving their market goals in brand development, demand management and new product introduction, while embracing food security and quality requirements. QAD Enterprise Applications solution for food and beverage manufacturers helps companies

QAD Business Intelligence Software Solutions QAD Business Intelligence software (QAD BI) unifies data from multiple sources across the enterprise and provides a complete solution that enables key enterprise decision makers to access, analyze, and share critical information. QAD BI provides a complete business intelligence ERP solution consisting of three major components: QAD BI Data Warehouse Designer, QAD Modules and the QAD BI Portal to support Analytics, through Dashboards and reporting.

QAD BI Data Warehouse Designer. Allows data consolidation, optimization, multi-currency consolidation, continuous support for database maintenance tasks and impact analysis and a single repository for any needed transformation logic.

QAD BI Modules. Integrated with QAD apps out of the box. Theyre organized to make the data easy to access without complex database queries and programming resources. Support for pre-defined OLAP cubes for various areas of analysis is available.

QAD BI Portal. A framework to design, deploy and use dashboards, reports and visualizations. The modular, component based approach makes it easy to create and re-use dashboard components and deploy the dashboards to the appropriate individuals in a secure manner, putting information at the fingertips of the decision maker in a timely manner. The QAD BI Portal can be accessed through a web browser or through a native application for the Apple iPad.

QAD Business Process

Common Business Model Overview Manufacturing has a lot of common requirements, regardless of the product or industry. But each industry has unique requirements and specific needs that set it apart from other industries. QAD recognizes these differences and provides features, modules best practices and expertise to help you succeed in your industry.

QAD Enterprise Applications by Process The efficiency of a companys business processes plays a strong role in how well the business will perform.QAD strives to help its customers become effective enterprises, by enabling their processes to operate at peak efficiency and align perfectly with their strategic goals.

Measure performance to improve: QAD provides a complete set of effective enterprise scorecards by industry and process

Simplify user training: QAD process maps link directly to the software so users get a clear picture of the entire process

Achieve faster ROI: Process maps help users visualize the flow of information so implementation and go-live are faster

Comply with regulatory requirements: Documenting processes can help achieve ISO, SOX, FDA or other regulatory certifications

End-to- End Processes Key End-to-End Processes The best way to achieve operational efficiency is to look at an entire process, rather than each department optimizing its own productivity. QAD provides tools for you to examine and manage your end-to-end processes effectively.