Belk Taps Inovis for B2B Connectivity with its Supply Chain

Privately owned department store chain using solution for trading community management, integration and data synchronization

Privately owned department store chain using solution for trading community management, integration and data synchronization

Atlanta — November 11, 2005 — Department store chain Belk has tapped Inovis to provide a complete solution for its business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce needs and named Inovis to be its preferred value-added network (VAN) services provider.

Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk, Inc. is the largest privately owned department store company in the United States, with 281 Belk, Proffitt's and McRae's stores in 15 Southeastern states. Using Inovis' product portfolio, Belk will be looking to manage the flow of critical e-commerce information for its extensive global trading community.

With Inovis as its preferred VAN, the company will migrate to inovisworks.net, Inovis' network. In addition, Belk will continue to synchronize data with Inovis Catalogue and will use the provider's BizManager as a B2B gateway to its trading community.

"Seamless Collaboration"

"We rely on Inovis to ensure seamless and accurate collaboration and integration across our trading community," said Bill Keith, vice president of merchandise support and replenishment at the retail chain.

A QRS customer for more than 10 years, Belk previously used QRS' VAN services to manage the flow of product information across its trading community. Following Inovis' acquisition of QRS in fall 2004, Belk chose to migrate to Inovis' VAN, inovisworks.net, which provides tools for control and increased visibility of transactions and trading partner relationships, according to the solution provider. In addition, inovisworks.net offers a customer portal that serves as the single interface for all Inovis interactions and provides around-the-clock customer support.

Belk will also continue to use Inovis Catalogue to align and synchronize product data for its 281 stores in 15 states. Inovis Catalogue contains more than 100 million unique items and, as a centralized source of information across the retail supply chain process, provides Belk with product catalogue setup and support to reduce time-to-market and drive sales.

Finally, Belk will use BizManager, Inovis' B2B gateway, to help ensure real-time, any-to-any data transformation and secure data exchange. Using BizManager, Belk gains real-time visibility into business activity and performance, while ensuring compliance with industry mandates and trading partner requirements and realizing 100 percent trading partner connectivity, Inovis said.


Additional Articles of Interest

— The focus in the retail sector has shifted from managing the movement of goods to managing information about goods. Read more in "Ramping Up the Retail Supply Chain," in the February/March 2005 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

— SAS audits can help ensure that your supply base doesn't trip up your Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Read about SAS audits in "Supplier Compliance: The Responsibility Lies with You," the Final Thoughts column the October/November 2005 issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive.

— When propane company Blue Rhino says it's serious about automating inventory procurement and ordering processes, that's not just a lot of hot air. Read "Taking Business Process Automation by the Horns," a Best Practices article in the October/November 2005 issue of Supply and Demand Chain Executive.


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