Bain & Company Establishes Partnership with Kinaxis to Enable Clients to Use Their Supply Chain as a Strategic, Competitive Weapon

Leading supply chain management cloud provider will help Bain clients better anticipate operational risks and speed of decision-making across their global supply chain networks, ultimately enhancing their business performance

OTTAWA, Feb. 9, 2017 /CNW/ - Kinaxis® (TSX:KXS), provider of RapidResponse®, delivering cloud-based SCM and S&OP applications, today announced an alliance with Bain & Company, one of the world's leading management consulting firms. Bain's supply chain management consulting services empowers companies to use their supply chain strategically, and this partnership extends the value they bring to their clients by leveraging the power of RapidResponse during their supply chain diagnostics engagement.

"Global organizations are embracing the need for a breakthrough approach to solve their supply chain challenges, and they are turning to Kinaxis and our global partners to help lead them," said John Sicard, chief executive officer, Kinaxis. "Our strategic partnership will enable Bain to perform much deeper and faster analysis of customer cases through RapidResponse analytics and what-if simulations, allowing Bain to give their clients more informed, strategic guidance about the future of their business."

"Based on our work with companies around the world, we have found the most successful supply chains have two things in common – speed and agility.  This requires an organization to adopt a strategy that breaks down functional siloes and brings together its supply chain network and operations to share valuable data that enables more informed, faster decisions and delivers cost savings," said Joshua Hinkel, a partner in Bain's Supply Chain Practice. "Our approach is to provide a holistic, end-to-end assessment of our clients' supply chain to help guide their large-scale reinvention and to embed within these companies the tools and capabilities needed to adapt to the evolving market and changing customer needs.  RapidResponse will be key in helping us improve operational and financial performance for our clients."

An optimized supply chain creates opportunities for companies to accelerate revenue growth, boost customer satisfaction and advocacy, unlock savings and cash flow, and minimize risk.  Yet, many organizations struggle to successfully transform their supply chain to realize these benefits.  Bain has tackled some of the toughest supply chain strategy challenges with a differentiated approach that achieves an average of 17x realized return on client investments.  Key to the firm's distinct point of view is an emphasis on the overall business strategy and a customer-centric supply chain vision that focuses on the organization's most important needs. 

Bain takes an end-to-end view of the entire supply chain ecosystem to eliminate silos and align key stakeholders. This creates visibility into key synergies and constraints across the organization and paves the way for breakthrough improvements. Bain's supply chain toolkit is highly tailored to each client's needs and, coupled with the firm's proprietary approaches to co-creation and change management, ensures organizations have the in-house expertise required to proceed from strategy to implementation and adapt to changing customer needs over the long term.

This approach aligns well with Kinaxis RapidResponse, which provides the unique ability to enable customers to plan concurrently. With concurrent planning, organizations balance demand and supply across the global supply chain network, resulting in a comprehensive view, greatly reduced decision latency and improved performance for the business.

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About Kinaxis Inc.
Offering the industry's only concurrent planning solution, Kinaxis is helping organizations around the world revolutionize their supply chain planning. Kinaxis RapidResponse, our cloud-based supply chain management software, connects your data, processes and people into a single harmonious environment. With a consolidated view of the entire supply chain, you can plan expected performance, monitor progress and respond to disconnects when reality hits. RapidResponse lets you know sooner and act faster, leading to reduced decision latency, and improved operational and financial performance. We can prove it. From implementation to expansion, we're here to help our customers with every step of their supply chain journey. 

About Bain & Company
Bain & Company is the management consulting firm that the world's business leaders come to when they want results. Bain advises clients on strategy, operations, technology, organization, private equity and mergers and acquisition, developing practical insights that clients act on and transferring skills that make change stick.  The firm aligns its incentives with clients by linking its fees to their results.  Bain clients have outperformed the stock market 4 to 1. Founded in 1973, Bain has 53 offices in 34 countries, and its deep expertise and client roster cross every industry and economic sector. For more information visit: www.bain.com. Follow us on Twitter @BainAlerts.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements include statements as to Kinaxis' growth opportunities and the potential benefits of, and demand for, Kinaxis' products and services. These statements are subject to certain assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including our view of the relative position of Kinaxis' products and services compared to competitive offerings in the industry. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such statements. Kinaxis' actual results, performance, achievements and developments may differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such statements. Risk factors that may cause the actual results, performance, achievements or developments of Kinaxis to differ materially from the results, performance, achievements or developments expressed or implied by such statements can be found in the public documents filed by Kinaxis with Canadian securities regulatory authorities. Kinaxis assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by law.

SOURCE Kinaxis Inc.

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