Software synchronizes supply chain processes.
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Press Release Summary:
Retail Solution Suite includes Multi-Channel Store Operations that provides real-time inventory management to manage stock-outs, inventory turns, and logistics costs. Item Synchronization component automates processes for submission to GS1 GlobalRegistry. Software provides secure connectivity to global data synchronization network and manages translation of data formats and communications transport protocols.
Original Press Release:
Sterling Commerce Accelerates Retail Business Performance
NEW YORK, Jan. 16 -- At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Convention in New York City, Sterling Commerce, the leader in multi-enterprise collaboration, announced a new Retail Solution Suite that helps retailers synchronize their supply chain processes to meet their customers' increasingly demanding expectations for a seamless multi-channel experience. Sterling Commerce is the first company to offer retailers an infrastructure and applications footprint that addresses the collaborative processes required to manage today's complex supply chain from source to sale. With Sterling Commerce solutions, retailers can accelerate their business performance by improving the customer experience, reducing stock-outs, speeding time-to- market, and improving supply chain performance.
Nikki Baird from Forrester Research, in the research note "How the Web is Changing In-Store Experiences", Oct. 5, 2005, says, "Consumers are now firmly established as multi-channel creatures, especially when it comes to shopping -- and they are demanding the same benefits of the Web in stores: more information about products and fulfillment, more fulfillment options, and most important, control over the shopping experience."
The Sterling Commerce Retail Solution Suite combines its business-to- business (B2B) communications solutions with Yantra supply chain execution applications to enable retailers to manage the retail value chain from source to sale. Two of the solutions within the suite are being introduced at NRF and demonstrate the company's commitment to the retail community:
o Sterling Commerce Multi-Channel Store Operations, a packaged composite
application that provides real-time inventory management within the
store to reduce stock-outs, improve inventory turns, and reduce
logistics costs. [See related release, "Sterling Commerce Store
Operations Solution Enables Retailers to Maximize the Value from their
Physical Stores."]
o Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization, which provides data validation
and cleansing capabilities to enable retailers and their partners to
meet mandates for global data synchronization. [See section below,
"Sterling Commerce Delivers Global Data Synchronization Solution."]
Sterling Commerce is a leader in providing high-value solutions to the retail industry. The company has been serving the retail industry since 1979, and has more than 1,200 retail customers, including eight of the top 10 specialty retailers and all of the top 10 general merchandise retailers. By taking a business process-centric approach to managing suppliers and distributors, all the way through to optimizing the sale -- whether it's at the store, online or through a partner -- Sterling Commerce is the only solution provider to offer solutions that:
o Integrate, automate and manage the value chain from source to sale,
o Operate under a single architecture,
o Work with existing systems, such as ERP and CRM applications,
o Offer multiple deployment options, including software, hosted, and
outsourced solutions, and
o Provide partner on-boarding and management services.
The Sterling Commerce retail infrastructure and applications footprint leverages new development, existing product strengths, and a unified solution architecture. Sterling Commerce retail infrastructure solutions capitalize on the company's 30-year leadership in B2B communication to enable companies to optimize their supply network through translation and transformation of data, and electronic data interchange (EDI) and value-added network (VAN) services. Sterling Commerce Yantra retail applications for multi-channel order management, networked warehouse management, and supply chain visibility are designed to help retailers manage their complex, networked supply chains and improve supply chain performance. All of these solutions are based on an adaptive business process foundation named Multi-Enterprise Services Oriented Architecture (MESA). MESA enables continuous process and business innovation by allowing retailers to quickly and cost effectively adapt Sterling Commerce solutions to meet the changing needs of today's complex, global, multi-channel business processes.
"Sterling Commerce is taking a holistic approach to addressing the primary challenges facing today's retailers," said Eric Meerschaert, vice president of marketing at Sterling Commerce. "To succeed in today's multi-channel, complex retail environment, companies need to move beyond synchronizing their internal operations to driving a unified customer experience from the customer back through the suppliers, and this requires the multi-enterprise collaboration that only Sterling Commerce can deliver."
Sterling Commerce Delivers Global Data Synchronization Solution
Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization is a new solution to address global data synchronization, a mandate to synchronize item data across today's multi- channel supply chains. Problems in item synchronization can create breakdowns in the supply chain that erode retailer/partner trust, increase costs, and negatively affect the customer experience. Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization is a packaged application that automates the specific processes for submission to the industry's standard registry for information on products, the GS1 GlobalRegistry. It exceeds the GS1 GlobalRegistry's requirements by validating hundreds of additional data points, including industry-specific content. Retailers, for example, need to know the weight of a case with the individual components in it -- a level of detail provided only by the Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization solution.
"The power of the Sterling Commerce solution is that it enables us to meet our customers' mandates for global data synchronization and gain operational and business process benefits," said Gregg Mangialardi, RFID Project Lead at Robert Bosch Tool Corporation, the North American brand of the largest power tool and accessory manufacturer in the world. Bosch is a beta site for Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization. "At the highest level, this implementation will enable us to deliver what we promise, and that is an important customer service objective. It will enable us to improve customer associate networking, reduce re-work and shipping costs, and improve workflow and internal controls. This work also lays the foundation for implementing RFID, which will increase our return on this investment."
Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization manages the complete data synchronization process. It provides secure connectivity to the global data synchronization network, manages the translation of data formats and communications transport protocols, while also providing detection, notification and workflow capabilities to optimize these processes. Through the industry's deepest data validation and cleansing capabilities, Sterling Commerce Item Synchronization ensures high levels of data accuracy. In addition, because the solution is built on Sterling Commerce Gentran Integration Suite, it allows users to customize their data synchronization processes to accommodate unique internal processes without any coding.
About Sterling Commerce
Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), has more than 30 years of leadership and expertise in extending processes beyond the edge of the enterprise to enable visible business with suppliers, customers, partners and employees. With more than 29,000 customers worldwide, the company is one of the world's largest providers of multi-enterprise collaboration solutions. Sterling Commerce builds collaborative, multi-enterprise communities for customers in the retail, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications industries. For detailed, up-to- date information about Sterling Commerce and its solutions, visit www.sterlingcommerce.com/ .
Source: Sterling Commerce
CONTACT:
Emily Hall of Sterling Commerce,
+1-614-790-8607
Web site: www.sterlingcommerce.com/
