New Data Fusion product to give insight into risks and opportunities across the supply network, according to provider
San Antonio, TX — May 10, 2005 — Business performance management solution provider Open Ratings introduced this week at the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) conference a solution called Data Fusion for on-demand access to a master data set that also has performance data.
Open Ratings said the access to the performance data gives insight into risks and opportunities across the supply network.
With more than 80 percent of the cost of goods sold (COGS) tied up in the supply network, Open Ratings said it believes there is a need for better corporate-wide understanding to drive the management of global, multi-tiered operations. For example, insight is required to monitor supplier dependency, negotiate volume discounts, audit minority supplier programs and even eliminate duplicate payments. This task can be difficult if not impossible it supplier data is obsolete, held in silos within the organization, inaccurate or incomplete, according to Open Ratings.
"Procurement is rapidly transforming from a cost-reduction only focus to become a center for value creation for the enterprise," commented Tim Minahan, senior vice president, supply chain research at Aberdeen Group. "Accelerating this role requires companies to understand the risks and opportunities inherent in their spend and supply base."
Open Ratings' said Data Fusion has three important features, which are that Data Fusion automates the correlation of thousands of records, consolidating, cross-referencing and enriching the information; it adds to supplier information with the aggregated experiences of its Global 2000 customers, including quality, reliability, responsiveness and assurance of supply; and a perpetual license that delivers synchronized and updated information.
