Mitsui Using Integration Solution for Trade-Logistics Messaging Service Infrastructure

Trading company taps Sterling Commerce solution for information exchange with shippers, freight forwarders and carriers

Trading company taps Sterling Commerce solution for information exchange with shippers, freight forwarders and carriers

Columbus, OH — September 2, 2004 — Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co. has tapped an integration solution from Sterling Commerce as the foundation for the firm's trade logistics messaging service aimed at maximizing supply chain effectiveness among shippers, carriers, freight forwarders and customs house brokers (CHBs).

Headquartered in Tokyo, Mitsui is one of the world's most diversified trading companies. With total trade transactions of $112 billion in 2003, the company maintains a global network of 183 offices in 80 countries, and it has 723 subsidiaries and associated companies worldwide.

Mitsui is deploying Sterling's Gentran Integration Suite as the core technology supporting its Trade-Logistics Messaging Service (TLMS), a system designed to monitor and manage electronic transactions. Gentran Integration Suite provides business and data integration capabilities to increase the overall accuracy, efficiency and effectiveness with which these transactions are executed beyond the company's four walls.

"Integrating information among shippers, carriers and freight forwarders is a challenging task without the right technology solution in place," said Sam Starr, president and CEO of Sterling Commerce. "By acting as a hub to connect and integrate between different trading partners, Gentran Integration Suite automates and supports activities such as issuing bills of lading and custom clearances."

Yoshibumi Kotsuka, TLMS project manger at Mitsui, noted that the Sterling solution supports not only traditional electronic data interchange (EDI) but also the latest technology and message types such as BPML, XML, EDIINT (AS1, AS2), RosettaNet and ebXML.

"Gentran Integration Suite is a strategic solution that handles internal integration requirements as well as provides B2B integration, allowing TLMS users to collaborate with their trading partners," said Kotsuka. "We were looking for a single platform that could handle both, and we found it with Gentran Integration Suite."

Kotsuka added that Gentran Integration Suite will help TLMS users gain additional cost and productivity benefits such as reducing processing costs by eliminating double data entry and reducing operational costs by having one unified integration platform with one common interface.

The system can also help users extend the company's network to meet the requirements of trading partner communities of all sizes, and also to increase transaction accuracy, effectiveness and efficiency while shortening the lead time in the export and import information exchange process.

"Gentran Integration Suite is a strategic business integration solution used to develop EAI and B2B tools to solve complex business problems, and it supports both systems integration and human interactions as part of a core data exchange system," Kotsuka said. "Gentran Integration Suite truly integrates all of our business processes."
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