Supplier Implementation 2.0 adds tools for complex bills of materials, updated analytics and reporting
Pittsburgh, PA September 17, 2003 FreeMarkets, a provider of global supply management (GSM) solutions, this week released Supplier Implementation 2.0, the latest version of its integrated offering designed to help companies across industries adopt suppliers for new and existing products and services and drive potential savings and efficiencies to the bottom line more quickly.
Building on the features contained in previous versions, Supplier Implementation Solution 2.0 provides companies with an expanded set of tools they can use to create, manage and track supplier implementation projects, according to the solution provider.
"In today's global economy, bringing new suppliers on board is an increasingly complex task that varies greatly by industry," said Jay Odell, FreeMarkets' director of product management. "Manufacturing companies, for example, must manage large bills of material. And non-manufacturing companies need to manage an increasing number of global suppliers across multiple geographies."
These challenges, Odell continued, often create bottlenecks that prevent companies from capturing the full value of savings opportunities that shifting to new suppliers can present. FreeMarkets said that its Supplier Implementation Solution is designed to help companies overcome these obstacles by providing them with software and services they can use to automate key implementation activities and drive greater results.
New features added to version 2.0 include tools to create an interactive view of highly complex bills of material and manage projects around them; capabilities to analyze project data and simplify task management and process creation, including GANTT charting and calendar controls; and upgraded reporting features to manage project execution against costs.
FreeMarkets also offers a range of service solutions designed to provide customers with additional support, including developing project and commodity specific implementation strategies and plans, and providing implementation expertise; project management for supplier implementation projects; content management for loading and organizing part-specific data and project related documents into the supplier implementation software and for creating hierarchies and relationships to effectively manage this information; and on-site supplier management, with on-the-ground support in low-cost countries to monitor implementation activities on the supplier side.
A hosted offering, Supplier Implementation Solution requires no investments in special hardware or software. The solution currently is generally available.
