B2B Suppliers - B2B Portal News | MarketPlace | Directory | Products | Trade

Tracking the condition and status of a company's assets just got easier with the new upgrade from RedPrairie Corp., an optimization company. The E2e Supply Chain Execution suite is now integrated with asset management capabilities of the company's standalone Mobile Resource Management solutuion.

"Integrated visibility and control over the movement of inventory and assets across today’s complex global supply networks can be slow, costly, and very challenging. In the past, inventory and the assets used to ship them were tracked in two separate systems, which made closed-loop tracking of assets very difficult. With the new release, customers can manage this combined movement through a single process, driving greater efficiency, improved visibility and stronger control over supply chain operations," said Tom Kozenski, vice president product strategy

The system supports the use of RFID, 2-D barcodes and other AIDC technologies to track inventory and assets within the distribution center, as well as outside of it, such as in trailer yards, in-transit, at customer sites, or even within a retailer’s store network. Both serialized and non-serialized assets can be tracked at each location.

The enhanced system also allows the ability to track asset movement to and from suppliers and repair depots.

Source-industryweek.com

Do the terms -- value added, superior customer value, or value chain -- make you want to throw something since you have heard the terms so much? Let's face it, you have been trying to improve revenue and profitability by creating superior value for your customers, improving effectiveness and efficiency and improving supplier relationships for years. You have spent countless hours getting managers trained in lean and six sigma processes, implementing enterprise and customer relationship management systems, and executing initiatives to improve innovation, capture voice of the customer data and integrate information systems. You have spent millions of dollars in cash, time and effort. Yet, the pressure from global competitors seems to be increasing rather than declining and you often find yourself still being beat up on price. What in the world is going on here? The problem is movement.

You probably thought that "moving value" was about how you can move value through the supply chain, managing its creation and delivery. But, it also means that value perceptions are moving throughout the supply chain; the target is constantly in flux. We will deal with both aspects of value movement in this article and leave you with five tips on how you might adapt your approach to managing them.

Value management begins with understanding that value is in the eye of the "customer" and not inherent in any product, service, or system. The "customer" is the next person in a work cell, the next process in the factory, the next business unit to whom you deliver, the immediate paying customer be it another business unit or an external firm and the subsequent downstream organizations and consumers through to the final end-user. In a true relationship mindset, world-class companies often think of their suppliers also as customers; how can I better service my suppliers and suppliers' suppliers? As such, every link in the "value stream" within your "four walls" and outside constitutes a supplier-customer relationship. Each decision maker is willing to make certain sacrifices in terms of monetary and non-monetary costs to obtain desired benefits. The more positive is that tradeoff between benefits and sacrifices, the more value both parties receive, driving customer satisfaction, commitment and recommendations to others.

A significant amount of research states that all customers value functional benefits, relational benefits, service benefits, and brand reputation (quality, consistency) -- and they evaluate each distinctly. Customers also evaluate both the monetary and non-monetary sacrifices (e.g., difficulty of doing business with a vendor, retailer, supplier) that they must make to obtain those benefits. As a result, we should exert effort on those activities that either improve the opportunity for an immediate or downstream customer to experience an improved, very specific, desired benefit and/or experience less of a sacrifice to obtain those benefits. Moving value means constantly improving the value perceptions immediate and downstream customers perceive they are getting. In exchange, customers "pay" suppliers more in terms of price, volume, share of business, and share of mind, improving the value that suppliers receive from customers all the way back through the supply chain.

Moving value recognizes the fact that most of what and how customers make value judgments is out of the control of marketers/suppliers/brand managers. Customers constantly are bombarded with buying-related information. As customers, regardless of definition, go about living their lives, they are constantly refining their interpretations about the value of specific products, services, and relationships. Since brand managers/suppliers have little influence on this valuing process, they are forced to be constantly vigilant to the changes in what specific customers value and why. It is nothing short of an entirely different way of looking at customers and supply chain relationships.

So your task is two-fold, to continuously improve the value equation at every stage of the value stream by improving benefits and reducing sacrifices while also recognizing that the target you are shooting at is constantly changing.

I have five tips to help you think about influencing and recognizing value movement throughout the supply chain.

1. Operate under the assumption that your competition knows at least 90% of what you know -- if not 10% more than you know. Dig deeper. Pat Summit, head coach of the six-time national champion Lady Vols women's basketball team at the University of Tennessee, simply outworks her competition. The team puts in more hours refining processes and skills and studying the competition and customers than do their competitors.
2. Assume that the most critical aspects of desired value propositions are changing 10% faster than your current nightmare. In the consumer electronics world of LG and Sony, constant change means rapidly increasing technological capabilities and customer expectations within a world of stomach-wrenching, pricing cascades. Vigilance for opportunities to influence changes in value perceptions anywhere along the supply chain and for changes to which they must respond is essential merely for survival. Make one wrong strategic move based on an inaccurate or incomplete evaluation of value movement, and a firm could be playing catch-up for years as witnessed by Dell's operations in China.
3. Focus on quality metrics but ignore emotional bonding through superior brand management at your own peril. Samsung has significantly improved its ability to increase value creation throughout its supply chain, both for business customers and consumers. However, it has yet to create the powerful emotion bonds that solidify customer relationships and facilitate higher margins that its tougher competitors have. Quality alone is never enough.
4. Develop relationships that enable significant and frequent information sharing through joint processes that involve multiple supply chain partners. Ikea has long been known for its ability to move value both up and down its supply chain by integrating demand and supply processes and designing supply chains that make it easier, more affordable, and in many cases, more enjoyable for customers to acquire the benefits they want. They not only execute superior supply chain management, they also win advertising awards for the creativity and effectiveness of their marketing communications. They have a laser-focus on specific target markets, know how to own their position within those markets, and stay at the forefront of changing value expectations -- some of which they drive themselves.
5. Learn by thinking out of the box. Don't benchmark and hire only from within your industry. Hire top talent from outside. Invest in processes that stimulate new ways of recognizing and approaching problems and opportunities. Eastman Chemical Co., for example, has hired a number of branding, product development, and advertising managers from consumer goods industries in order to stimulate out-of-the-box thinking about value-change possibilities.

Value must be experienced at each and every step of the supply chain within and outside of your organization. Your targets are moving too quickly in today's global business environment. You must constantly move the value bar higher at every link you can influence and keep up with changes that you cannot influence but to which you must respond -- all ahead of the competition.

Daniel J. Flint, Ph.D., is the Proffitt's, Inc. Professor of Marketing and director of the marketing Ph.D. program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has an engineering degree from Annapolis, an MSA from Central Michigan University, and a Ph.D. in marketing and logistics from the University of Tennessee. Flint's expertise is in customer value management, specifically helping firms gain deeper insights to their customers' changing value perceptions, and logistics innovation.

Source-industryweek.com

CEVA Logistics (Thailand) Co is now handling all automotive logistics for Tri Petch Isuzu Sales Co under a new three-year outsourcing contract.

Tri Petch is responsible for the sales and distribution of Isuzu pickup trucks and heavy-duty trucks via a network of more than 300 dealers. CEVA will use its carrier fleet and IT systems to manage the distribution of Isuzu vehicles throughout the country.

"Since we are not professionals in logistics and it is not our core business, we decided to select a specialist global logistics company to handle our logistics operations," said Panadda Chennavasin, vice-president of Tri Petch.

As well, Tri Petch wants its supply chain to operate to global best-practice levels and to significantly improve sales operations to support the dealer network.

"We hope our operating costs will improve from efficient logistics performance, which will be assessed once a year," she said.

CEVA will manage Tri Petch's vehicle supply chain from Isuzu's plants through to final delivery to dealers. This includes transport of vehicles from plants in Samut Prakan and Chachoengsao to two motor pools, where vehicles are inspected, accessories installed and the vehicles made ready for final delivery to dealers.

A CEVA executive said the company recently began an operational process improvement and re-engineering programme to increase the quality of logistics operations to world-class standards.

The programme involve the establishment of a shared-user vehicle logistics network to be used by other automotive manufacturing and sales companies. This will improve overall efficiency of the supply chain and provide a highly cost-effective operation for Tri Petch and for CEVA's new customers.

CEVA will use more than 100 car carriers for transport, along with a management and operational team of more than 400 staff.

"This is one of the largest automotive logistics contracts in the Thai market," said Winfried Kiesbueye, CEVA's managing director. "Our key aim is to improve the efficiency of Tri Petch's vehicle handling operation by implementing CEVA's best-practice lean processes and increasing overall control."

Source-bangkokpost.com

ForeignTRADEX, (http://www.ForeignTradeExchange.com) a US-European industrial trade portal and division of US-based Industrial Leaders Group (ILG), announced today it will provide open RFQs for members and users of its international industrial directories. According to Maria Santos, spokeswoman for the company, the trade leads provided through the site include offers to buy and sell all kinds of industrial tools, parts, machining services and other manufacturing solutions.

Santos said the RFQ's are mostly from engineers, manufacturing managers, technical professionals and other industrial buyers primarily based in but not limited to the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Germany, France, Finland, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia and other countries in Europe. Qualified U.S., European and Australian buyers registered on the site are able to submit RFQ's at no charge to multiple manufacturers and suppliers capable of meeting their requirements.

Suppliers of industrial products and contract manufacturing services can include their company on ForeignTRADEX at http://www.WorldwideIndustrialMarketplace.com/freelisting.html and qualify to receive instant RFQ's from buyers that contact them directly through the site. According to Santos, manufacturers can also sign up to access additional RFQ's provided by on-line partners of ForeignTRADEX serving the American and European industrial marketplaces.

The types of open RFQ's from buyers available through the site directly and indirectly, include offers to buy a broad variety of industrial products and manufacturing services such as cold forming, electronics, woodworking, textiles, fluid & gas flow control, hardware & fasteners, mechanical power transmission, molding, machining, grinding, tubing, extrusions, wire forming, casting, assembly, raw materials, metalworking, stamping, forging, die making and allied products and services.

"ForeignTRADEX offers a wide range of opportunities for qualified buyers and suppliers in the manufacturing community to connect, network and develop mutually fruitful trading partnerships with one another," says Santos. She added, "Manufacturers, engineers, plant maintenance mechanics, production managers, buying agents and other industrial suppliers and sourcing professionals all over the globe are welcome to participate."
Source-pr.com

Businesses familiar with the benefits of recycling (http://www.ecointernational.com/) can glean even more from ECO International, LLC's acquisition of inventory (http://auctiondrop.com/) retailer AuctionDrop™, effective June 16th 2008.

The acquisition allows AuctionDrop™ -- a leading online retailer for the liquidation of wholesale surplus and salvage inventory (http://auctiondrop.com/) and assets -- to grow and efficiently serve its customers with the necessary resources and technology. Customers receive the benefit of enhanced services, including expanded geographic coverage and additional services, including end-of-life recycling, to both the retailers and manufacturers.

ECO International, LLC, a world-wide electronics asset recovery and recycling company, will also be able to provide its clients who already recognize the benefit of recycling (http://www.ecointernational.com/) with even more innovative and expanded approaches for the disposition of e-Waste.

AuctionDrop™ is a leading online retailer for the liquidation of wholesale surplus and salvage inventory and assets. The Company's business-to-consumer model sources wholesale, surplus and excess inventory from big box national retailers, high-end luxury retailers and manufacturers selling merchandise through its own website portal (auctiondrop.com) as well as other online channels such as eBay. Operations include all aspects of the reverse supply chain from supplier pickup-up, merchandise auction listing, packing and shipping to tracking, and collections while providing superior customer service.

The AuctionDrop™ value proposition provides simplicity, consistency, and reliability for manufacturers and retailers to maximize yields on the disposition of excess inventories, customer returns, and damaged overstock goods. This is achieved by reducing the internal costs for the manufacturer or retailer while yielding the maximum value of the product by selling it directly to consumers and increasing the benefits of recycling.

Market performance: AuctionDrop™ consistently ranks among the top EBay sellers based on volume sold while maintaining a remarkable 98.2% positive buyer "feedback" rating for cumulative transactions to-date. Awards received; Є Always on Top 100 Є Silicon Valley Business Journal Fast 50 (Ranked #3) Є Deloitte & Touchй Technology Fast Rising Stars (Ranked #12).

Auction Drop was advised on this transaction by America's Growth Capital.

About ECO International: ECO services various electronics recycling market segments from local municipalities and state recycling programs to original equipment manufactures (OEM's), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Retailer (B2R) and direct to consumer (B2C) programs helping increase electronics asset utilization and assure recycling regulatory compliance during technology life cycles. ECO is a privately held company with sister companies serving high technology electronic manufacturing, research and development, international electronic component distribution, with annual revenues in excess of $700 million.

Corporate vision includes investing in new technology, organic growth, strategic acquisitions, and third party partnerships to achieve our goals and objectives as a market leader.

Source-ecointernational.com

Summit Business Media today
announced that Andrew L. Goodenough has been named President and CEO.  The CEO title
was previously held by William F. Reilly.  Reilly, one of the most successful
investors in B2B media, will continue to serve as Chairman, in a non-executive
capacity, and remains a major investor in Summit.  Goodenough, 52, was named
President of Summit in September 2007.

"Going into the formation of Summit in November 2006, my plan was to drive
the initial growth of the business for several years as CEO, and then step
back to the Chairman role," Reilly said.  "I am delighted to be able to report
that Summit, in less than two years, is off to a great start and has taken its
place as a major B2B media company with more than 26 magazine titles, 150
reference books and electronic products and 100 live events.  We've built a
best-in-class management team led by Andy Goodenough, and I'm pleased to be
able to step back to that Chairman role sooner than expected and turn over the
day-to-day executive reins to Andy and his team."

"We are very pleased with Summit's success to date and Andy's role in
leading us to this point," said Jim TenBroek, Managing Director at Wind Point
Partners, Summit's largest investor.  "We also have the utmost respect for
Bill Reilly as a gifted manager and trusted friend in initiating this
transition.  We look forward to continue working with him as Chairman and
investor.  Moving forward, Andy Goodenough and his strong management team are
well positioned to take advantage of opportunities as they continue to
implement Summit's growth strategy."

Summit Business Media was formed in November 2006 through Wind Point
Partners' acquisition of Highline Media and Pfingsten Publishing in
partnership with Reilly and management of Highline Media.

Goodenough has been a senior B2B executive and entrepreneur for more than
30 years.  He was President of USB Corporation and Publisher of U.S. Banker
before its sale to Thomson Media in 1993, and then served as the President of
Thomson's Banking Publishing/Conferences Group.  The group published and
hosted more than 80 products and events including American Banker, U.S.
Banker, Bank Technology News, National Mortgage News, Credit Union Journal and
many others.  Goodenough later created the business plan for a new financial
services information company in 2002, secured equity funding from Spire
Capital in January 2003 and in October of that year, launched Highline Media
and acquired The National Underwriter Company, now a core asset in Summit's
operations.  Highline Media was acquired as part of the formation of Summit in
November 2006.

Goodenough is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and holds an MBA
degree in finance and marketing from New York University.

About Summit Business Media

Summit Business Media was formed through Wind Point Partners' acquisition
of Highline Media and Pfingsten Publishing in November 2006.  The leading B2B
media and information company for the insurance, investment and professional
services markets, Summit publishes the insurance titles National Underwriter
Property/Casualty and Life/Health weeklies, Life Insurance Selling, Agent
Sales Journal, American Agent & Broker, Claims, Tech Decisions and Florida
Underwriter, and financial titles Wealth Manager, Research, Futures and
Mortgage Originator. In July 2007 the Company acquired Wicks Business
Information, and added Investment Advisor, Credit Union Times, Inside Counsel
and Treasury & Risk magazines, continuing to expand its footprint in the
financial industry as well as adding the legal and accounting markets, as part
of its growth into the professional services marketplace.  In July 2008, the
company acquired WiesnerMedia's Financial Group of B2B media and marketing
services, including Senior Market Advisor, Boomer Market Advisor, Benefits
Selling and Bank Advisor magazines, as well as ProducersWEB.com and the
Advisors Data Source.  In the Reference arena, the company publishes TaxFacts
and Fire, Casualty and Surety Bulletins, and, through its Highline Data unit,
financial and market information on insurers, agents and company benefit
plans.  Summit also sponsors the international Investment Conferences on
global mining investment, a dozen conference events affiliated with its
magazine brands, and via its Executive Enterprises unit, nearly 100
professional education seminars annually.

Summit is also one of the leading organizers of consumer art expositions
and providers of business-to-business information to the art market.
Source-earthtimes.org

Businesses familiar with the benefits of recycling can glean even more from ECO International, LLC's acquisition of inventory retailer AuctionDrop(TM), effective June 16th 2008.

Business to business e-commerce is on the rise! Worldwide B2B e-commerce revenues are estimated to reach around US$ 2 trillion in 2004. This is a significant leap from last year's US$ 1.4 trillion. However, according to a recent survey, although, more than 70% of companies have already used Internet as a purchasing channel, a mere ten percent of their overall spending is directed via the Internet! Contrary to popular believe, this means, B2B e-commerce has still large potential to grow Internet has the capacity of changing the conventional way of doing business.

Today, you can not only buy and sell your products and services on the Internet, you can, virtually, shift all your business processes to online solutions as well. If you take advantages of new Internet based technologies, the outcome would be tremendously beneficial to your business. How to do this without spending a fortune and not putting a huge pressure on scarce corporate resources? The possible answer could be B2B exchanges! A B2B exchange is an online marketplace, where buyers, sellers and intermediaries form communities, exchange views, offer products and services, and conduct business transactions By becoming a member of a B2B exchange you can benefit in both cost-saving and revenue increase - two primary requirements of productivity increase.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business3t)LNew sales channel By becoming a member of a B2B exchange, you open a low cost, highly functional and easy-to-use sales channel for your company.

You expose your company to a new targeted audience that otherwise would have been untapped. Prospective customers can buy products and services from you, using various venues and features of the B2B exchange, where you are a member. business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business

Marketplace: All B2B exchanges include a marketplace, where suppliers can post sales offer of their products and services. Buyers, looking for specific products, can easily find best suppliers that suit them from the marketplace. A populated marketplace can easily become a good sales channel for a supplier.

Electronic catalog: As a member of the B2B exchange, you are allowed to add all your products or services to the consolidated online repository of the exchange. Adding your products to the repository helps to create online standardize electronic version of your product specification - if you don't have that before - and use the same catalog with other electronic sales systems - even with other B2B exchanges using XML interface.forum. You can publish sales offer of your entire catalog to the marketplace, eliminating a need for other web presence.

You can add products or services to the repository one by one or you can use XML interface to upload your whole electronic catalog Web Store: Some B2B exchanges allow you to convert or integrate your website to their exchange. This helps you to handle sales conveniently from your website and the marketplace of the exchange seamlessly. You can make a web store from scratch with the help of integrated website builder of the B2B exchange as well.

Auctions: One of the great features of many B2B exchange is their auction systems. As we all know from the immense success of Ebay, auctioning is a great way of selling products online. Some exchanges boast reverse auction system, where suppliers bid for a deal posted by a buyer.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business As a supplier, you can participate in those tenders without any extra cost involved.

Low customer acquisition costforum. Your mere presence in the B2B exchange might bring you new customers! Since the buyers come to the exchange themselves; your cost of getting customers through this channel is relatively low in comparison to other traditional channels. You can even increase your visibility by advertising in the key places of the exchange, where your prospective buyers frequently visit. Being highly targeted, these ads produce incredible results.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business9 Improve customer service business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil Ability to have constant interaction through the B2B exchange allows you to serve your customers better. You can track the whole ordering process from payment to delivery and bring greater efficiency in customer service.

The integrated functions of an exchange such as sales management, internal messaging service, lead management, etc. also help you managing customers service process effectively.business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business When needed, you can instantly update your catalog and inform customers about changes.

Whether you are launching a new product or having a web seminar, through the B2B exchange you can share the information more efficiently. Some B2B Exchanges use sophisticated knowledge management systems to create, capture, reprocess and reutilize information intended for specific group of audience. These contents or information can be displayed on demand or in time to a member - when needed. Business processes management

One of the primary objectives of using B2B exchanges for you should be their ability to handle, run and administer various business processes. These solutions assist you to streamline your business, reduce overhead costs and reduce documentary errors. business forum,trade forum,business opportunity,Business China,Business India,Brazil business

Using technologies in a bid to streamline business processes like supply chain is nothing new. Companies have been using various solutions to support product development, customer service, procurement and other integral processes for many years. Before the Internet era, many companies have invested enormous amount of money in infrastructure building to automate supply chain process. Today, thanks to the Internet, even small companies have opportunity to use highly sophisticated supply chain solutions for a small cost. Many B2B exchanges, such as Rusbiz.com, allow small companies to use supply chain management solution for a small fee. The major benefits of using supply chain solutions include.

When you use the Internet to sell your old golf clubs, you've got two security challenges: making sure that the person you're selling to is trustworthy, and making sure that others don't try to steal your data while you're doing the transaction.

Now imagine that instead of a person selling golf clubs, you're Boeing, and you want to use the Internet to share the plans to a top-secret warplane with one of your business partners.

That's the challenge faced every day by Exostar, the online B2B community that serves the aerospace and defense industries. For more than a decade, Exostar has been linking aerospace companies like Lockheed Martin, BAE, and Rolls Royce with government agencies, allowing them to securely transact purchases and do collaborative projects.

Exostar's collaborative environment provides the infrastructure that allows aerospace companies to work together over the Web, but the question of certifying an individual's identity -- ensuring that they are who they say they are, and that they have the rights to access specific applications and capabilities in the community or on a member company's systems -- has been a tricky one.

Next week, however, Exostar will launch a new capability, the Federated Identity Service, that does the process of "credentialing" on behalf of Exostar's members, ensuring that individuals that attempt to use the systems of the community or its members are who they say they are -- and are authorized to use the systems they are trying to access.

The FIS service will essentially replace many of the security processes that most companies outside the community must do on a bilateral basis with their trading partners. For example, Exostar will verify the location and the identity of an individual who attempts to log on, and ensure that their connection is secure. Exostar's systems will also ensure that the individual has access rights to the applications they are using, as defined by contracts and access privileges defined by its member companies.

Using PKI technology, Exostar also encrypts the communications between the individual and the member company, and dates and timestamps all communications and transactions to ensure that they are authentic and to provide an audit trail for assessors and legal authorities.

With FIS, Exostar resolves many of the security issues faced by supply chains that want to do business online. Back in the heyday of Internet fever, many industries and organizations attempted to build "B2B exchanges" and online communities, using the successful eBay as a model. In the end, however, few succeeded, partly because eBay's trust model was insufficient to secure high-dollar business transactions and collaboration.

"The key for a community like this is to define who you are," says Vijay Takanti, vice president and security program director at Exostar, which serves more than 40,000 companies worldwide. "There has to be a standard for certifying your identity and to verify that I have a contract with you. If you can't do that, all the other capabilities of the community are useless."

In essence, Exostar's PKI certificates allow users to come and go into authorized systems of their trading partners, much as a passport allows a person to be authenticated and tracked in the physical world. The system is significantly cheaper than bilateral exchanges of certificates or multifactor authentication schemes such as smart cards.

"We're linking over 40,000 members, so we can achieve economies of scale that no one company could achieve with its partners," Takanti says. And because Exostar's member are outsourcing the authentication process, they can reduce or eliminate their investment in in-house remote access or "guest access" technologies, such as network access control (NAC), which some companies are attempting to use with their suppliers and trading partners.

There's only one problem with the Exostar service: you have to be a member to use it. That means FIS can only help companies in the aerospace and defense industries, although similar communities are operating in industries such as pharmaceuticals and financial services, Takanti observes.

"For a community of interest, where there's agreement on standards for authentication and credentialing, this model makes great sense. I think we may see it applied in other industries," Takanti says.

Source: darkreading.com

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Envision your supply chain enabled with the speed of Google®, the agility of TiVo®, and the collective wisdom of Wikipedia®. Global supply chains require speed and innovation, the proven processes and methodologies of the past, and the best tools and talent of today. Faced with an increasingly complex business environment and rapid macroeconomic changes, global supply chain managers require a new approach to take on dynamic business challenges.

As a result, i2 Technologies, Inc., (NASDAQ:ITWO) the supply chain results company, is embracing, and further defining, the concept of Supply Chain Management 2.0 (SCM 2.0) to deliver supply chain expertise and results at the speed of business. Built on a comprehensive combination of expertise, process innovation, tools and services to achieve results across business functions, i2 approaches SCM 2.0 with Total Supply Chain Management.

Why SCM 2.0?

As the business environment becomes more complex and macroeconomic changes occur more rapidly and dramatically, the supply chain has become the fulcrum for business success or failure, requiring greater flexibility than ever before. This convergence of intense market pressures and manufacturing and distribution challenges is driving the industry to seek a new approach to increasingly dynamic business problems. The single most critical variable in this new paradigm is speed; increased speed of product and service innovation, speed to market, speed to issue resolution and speed to adapt to changing market conditions. Variability is nothing new, but the speed and volume in which it occurs today has amplified exponentially as a result of the extended supply chain.

Powering SCM 2.0 with Total Supply Chain Management

i2’s holistic approach to SCM 2.0 has several core elements as its foundation. These include:

• Total Supply Chain Management solutions operating in a fast plan-do-check-act (PDCA) paradigm
• Process playbooks that incorporate alternate plays to combat competition and react to unexpected business situations
• Libraries of workflows that can be installed on-demand to institutionalize the process playbooks
• A supply chain wisdom network of experienced executives and first-principle experts to coach and call the plays needed to win
• Delivery flexibility so that solutions can be delivered and operated by supply chain practitioners as a managed service or in the traditional software deployment model

“SCM 2.0 delivers results as your business changes. The business environment is dynamic, and with that, the supply chain must be as well,” said i2 Interim Chief Executive Officer Pallab Chatterjee. “SCM 2.0 refers to the change in how end users must leverage supply chain solutions. Businesses are seeking adaptability, flexibility and supply chain results – fast. Built on PDCA principles derived from Total Quality Management, i2 is defining Total Supply Chain Management as its approach to SCM 2.0. Total Supply Chain Management delivers solutions to make your plans happen in the face of global sourcing, short product lifecycles, rapid price commoditization, and inflated logistics costs, while adapting to supply chain adjustments in accordance with market conditions. With this shift, the amount of value that could be extracted from supply chain operations is staggering.”

SCM 2.0 Highlighted at i2 Planet 2008

i2 executives will discuss SCM 2.0 and the direction of the supply chain industry at i2 Planet 2008 in Phoenix April 30 – May 2. Also during the event, i2 customers across all industries and geographies will present success stories and case studies during general session, targeted industry sessions and more than 40 breakout presentations. Learn more and register at www.planet.i2.com.

About i2

Throughout its 20-year history of innovation and value delivery, i2 has dedicated itself to building successful customer partnerships. As a full-service supply chain company, i2 is uniquely positioned to help its clients achieve world-class business results through a combination of consulting, technology, and managed services. i2 solutions are pervasive in a wide cross section of industries; 20 of the AMR Research Top 25 Global Supply Chains belong to i2 customers. Learn more at www.i2.com.

i2 Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including forward-looking statements regarding i2’s solutions, a customer's ability to implement or integrate those solutions successfully and in a timely fashion, receive expected functionality and performance, or achieve benefits attributable to i2 solutions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those projected. For a discussion of factors which could impact actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, please refer to i2's recent filings with the SEC, particularly the Annual Report on Form 10-K filed March 17, 2008.

(Source: businesswire.com)

APICS The Association for Operations Management announced recently that registration is now open for the 2008 APICS International Conference & Expo. This year’s conference, which will be held September 14-16 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Missouri, offers professionals the latest solutions to some of the industry’s hottest issues, including new topic areas on Global and Green Supply Chain Management.

Confirmed keynote speakers include John Replogle, CEO of Burt’s Bees and Blake Mycoskie, CEO of Tom's Shoes. The APICS International Conference & Expo will use Burt’s Bees’ and Tom’s Shoes’ experience as a springboard to highlight Burt’s Bees model of earth friendly, sustainable and cost effective operations management and Tom’s Shoes model of global business with an altruistic core. Replogle, Mycoskie and a host of other speakers and presenters, will share their experiences, opportunities and rewards of utilizing green manufacturing and sustainability to increase productivity and enhance their bottom lines.

"The educational program for the 2008 conference was developed in direct response to our members’ needs,” said Abe Eshkenazi, chief executive officer of the 43,000 member, Chicago-based organization. “The topic areas and learning tracks are directly relevant to the challenges and issues they face every day."

The conference is expected to attract more than 3,000 participants, many from the upper echelon of the supply chain and operations management profession, and will focus on providing real-life solutions to operations management issues most important to attendees. This year’s conference also offers eight specific "Learning Paths," integrated programs of educational workshops, case studies, and plant tours designed to advance professionals understanding of core operations management topics. In addition to topic areas centered on the Global Supply Chain and Sustainable/Green Practices, sessions will focus on Principles of Operations Management, Enterprise Systems, Lean Manufacturing, Demand Management and Forecasting, Inventory/Distribution/AutoID/ Warehousing and Professional Advancement.

Utilizing the knowledge of a vast network of APICS members and independent experts has contributed to the dynamic educational and networking opportunities provided at the APICS 2008 conference.

To learn more about the 2008 APICS International Conference & Expo or to register online, please visit www.apicsconference.org.

About APICS The Association for Operations Management
APICS The Association for Operations Management is the global leader and premier source of the body of knowledge in operations management, including production, inventory, supply chain, materials management, purchasing, and logistics. Since 1957, individuals and companies have relied on APICS for its superior training, internationally recognized certifications, comprehensive resources, and worldwide network of accomplished industry professionals. For additional information visit www.apics.org.

SOURCE: APICS The Association for Operations Management