Western Digital's SageTree Launches SageQuest Software

Western Digital Corp announced that its SageTree Inc subsidiary has launched SageQuest, its first software product. SageQuest, a Web-enabled, enterprise wide packaged analytic application suite, combines advanced analytics and data warehousing technologies to Supply Chain Intelligence, delivering insight into business decisions that directly affect a company's profitability. SageTree delivers both software and professional services.

SageQuest provides visibility of products and components throughout the entire supply chain and product lifecycle -- from suppliers' suppliers to customers' customers. The software is designed to enhance manufacturing companies' ability to create efficient flows of new, cost-effective products by applying Supply Chain Intelligence to their supply, operations, logistics, demand and customer support processes.

SageQuest is highly configurable, providing management with detailed information about processes and costs. It captures and analyzes massive amounts of data from a variety of data sources, allowing management at all levels and business functions to interact with tailored analysis on issues most important to them.

"There's a difference between management and analysis," said Philip Russom, director, data warehousing and business intelligence, Hurwitz Group. "For some time, a variety of applications -- ranging from enterprise resource planning (ERP) to manufacturer resource planning (MRP) to shop floor management -- have been available for managing processes in manufacturing and the supply chain. SageTree is the first software vendor to complement these applications by providing analytic applications for Supply Chain Intelligence, which enables strategic decision making by collecting detailed information from every stage of the product lifecycle."

SageQuest is a modular tool. Its foundation is an integrated repository of operational data gathered from all of a company's key transactional systems and extended enterprise. Business intelligence is delivered in the form of as many as 150 industry-specific Key Performance Indicators (KPI) -- metrics used to measure performance -- addressing specific business areas such as procurement, production planning, production analysis, product quality, logistics and customer service.

Equipped with the information SageQuest provides, management can find answers to a variety of questions, including: which SKUs are in production by plant, product line and component part; the stability of generation-to-generation schedules; and the visibility of inventory coverage across the supply chain, from suppliers and production lines to finished goods and consignment/customer quantities.

As a packaged application, SageQuest is faster, simpler and more costeffective to install than built-from-scratch supply chain systems. Depending on the number of data sources, SageQuest takes as little as three months to install and implement.

SageTree chief operating officer Jerry Hill said, "SageQuest software is a powerful management tool. It synthesizes mass data into information usable for decision-making in a great variety of business uses, detailed down to the individual product, shipment or production lot. SageQuest provides visibility throughout the enterprise for suppliers and customers, and has the capability of proactively alerting users to changes in supply or demand."

Hill says SageQuest is superior to in-house data warehousing applications, 70 percent of which fail to deliver desired results because companies lack the expertise to develop comprehensive systems, or because the cost and time required to implement them -- as long as several years -- are excessive.

Using a standard interface, SageQuest can integrate SAP, Oracle Apps, Baan, JD Edwards and other ERP data sources; i2 and Manugistics, among other supply chain management (SCM) data sources; and a full range of customer relationship management (CRM) data sources including Clarify and Siebel Systems. SageQuest operates in the Microsoft Windows NT and Unix environments and supports NCR Teradata and Oracle databases, as well as virtually any other commonly used database. The first implementation of SageQuest technology is at Western Digital on NCR's Teradata database.

Other features of SageQuest include built-in alerts that can notify selected persons by pager, e-mail or other communications devices; security down to the report level by means of passwords; and drill-down capabilities to permit closer inspection of information.

About SageTree

SageTree is a software company providing packaged analytic applications for Supply Chain Intelligence. The Company offers SageQuest, a suite of Web-based, enterprise-wide packaged analytic applications for the manufacturing industry. SageQuest is the first product to fully integrate Product Lifecycle Intelligence into Supply Chain Intelligence, a supply chain discipline that analyzes products and components at every stage of the product lifecycle. SageTree enables companies to make strategic business decisions that directly affect their profitability. For more information, visit www.sagetree.com or call 800-824-9373.

About Western Digital

One of the data storage industry's longtime leaders, Western Digital Corporation has leveraged its core strengths in becoming a leading Internet solutions company. Western Digital is providing services and products to manage, store and communicate both digital content and network intelligence. The Company remains an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of hard drives for desktop computers and home entertainment applications. Through its Connex subsidiary, Western Digital delivers enterprise-class storage functionality for the department and mid-sized business markets, including storage management software, network attached storage and storage area networks.

Western Digital was founded in 1970. The Company's storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers under the Western Digital brand name. Its home page can be found at www.westerndigital.com.

Contact Steve Shattuck, Public Relations, 949-932-5178, steve.shattuck@wdc.com of Western Digital Corporation.