Partnership to manage supply chain
In separate announcements last week, business collaboration firms EC Outlook and Ariba unveiled enhancements to existing services, designed to simplify and streamline supply chain management processes.
EC Outlook has partnered with consultancy Conchango to provide firms with end-to-end supply chain management systems. They will offer software and consultancy services to retailers and manufacturers to help them streamline and automate supply chain processes with trading partners.
EC Outlook and Ariba believe their initiatives could encourage more companies to implement supply chain technology, although recent research suggests companies are wary of investing in such systems. Research company Rhetorik questioned IT managers from over 300 UK companies this summer, and found that although 97 percent of their companies had corporate Web sites, only 17 percent of these had supply chain and e-procurement systems.
EC Outlook provides a software-based service run on its Smart Document Interchange Server, an e-business platform that allows companies to connect with each other, regardless of the size or sophistication of existing systems, said the company.
It is important to clarify the potential returns and requirements of integrating automated supply chain processes, said Conchango's joint managing director, Richard Thwaite. The process can be a fairly complex one, Thwaite said. He argued that most companies have concentrated on improving their sales systems in the past, rather than automating purchasing systems, and that supply chain investment "requires a bigger leap of faith".
In a separate move, Ariba last week unveiled a new version of its Enterprise Sourcing procurement application to help buyers manage the entire sourcing process, from selecting suppliers to negotiating contracts. It also lets managers extract data from diverse systems and analyse it together.
Ariba said Enterprise Sourcing offers companies the tools to more easily capture key supplier information and locate suitable suppliers. Suppliers can use an online messaging board and bid-wizard to understand and meet buyers' requirements. The system also allows buyers to assess suppliers under different criteria, by giving each one a score in fields such as geographic location, volume pricing and responsiveness.