Dallas — March 14, 2003 — Supply chain solution provider i2 Technologies this week introduced its Supply Chain Operating Services (SCOS), a common infrastructure, built on Web services standards, designed to unify multiple disparate systems across businesses and span both integration services with real time enterprise application integration (EAI) and bulk data management and distributed execution.
Developed to simplify solution implementation, use and maintenance by offering out-of-the-box industry solution templates, the SCOS is debuting in i2 Six, which is being publicly launched by i2 in late March.
The architecture is built on EAI and "extract, transform and load" (ETL) technology with integration components from partners IBM, Informatica and webMethods. i2 said that customers using i2 Six can leverage the new architecture to solve problems surrounding the integration of core business processes with existing supply chain, enterprise resource planning and legacy applications for total supply chain optimization.
"i2's SCOS architecture and infrastructure represents a compelling step forward in the [supply chain management] applications space," said Bill Brandel, research director for supply chain management with technology consultancy Aberdeen Group. "With Supply Chain Operating Services, i2 leverages Web services standards to deliver modular application functions that provide connectivity, visibility and ultimately optimization to supply chains. By adhering to the business process network framework, i2 Six provides a differentiated and sound platform for extended supply chain activities."
i2 argued that in order to meet the demands of today's global economy, businesses are looking to operate more efficiently as an independent organization as well as with suppliers, distributors, retailers and other external parties. Most enterprises operate on multiple heterogeneous systems that run various aspects of their business, and integrating these systems is often challenging.
However, i2 asserted, by using the open standards architecture found within SCOS, enterprises could design and integrate their business process workflows internal to the organization, as well as integrate with technology applications external to the company.
"In a business environment that is constantly changing, open standards architectures enable businesses to deploy best of breed technologies without being locked into a single vendor," argues Pallab Chatterjee, president of i2 Solutions Operations. "This architecture enables the adoption of open standards and compliance, and i2 is fanatically committed to embracing open industry standards."
