Cary, NC December 6, 2002 Supply chain visibility specialist BridgePoint is partnering with tech consultancy The Information Management Group (IMG) to create an integrated offering intended to give SAP users greater access to in-transit order and product information from the external supply chain.
The agreement enables IMG to expand its systems implementation and integration service offering to include in-transit order and product information from the external supply chain. This enhanced service will facilitate the incorporation of transportation data from carriers operating between global suppliers and regional manufacturing or distribution centers to provide a real-time picture of order and product statuses, the two companies said.
"Having accurate information about goods in-transit improves your ability to manage product delivery cycles, avoid bottlenecks and accelerate inventory turnover," said John O'Neill, CEO at IMG America. "BridgePoint's ability to collect up-to-date status information for events that occur external to enterprise systems like SAP and integrate this information to make it available for further planning has proven to dramatically increase the overall value of the supply chain management initiatives of our clients. Our partnership makes it possible for companies who already have SAP installed to achieve this heightened level of supply chain control."
BridgePoint said its solutions can connect systems and partners from around the world using the preferred method of each source, which the provider asserted can increase the willingness of partners to cooperate in network creation, improve the level of data quality and eliminate the need for numerous custom integrations to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that can be both expensive and time consuming.
IMG will, in turn, be a resource to BridgePoint for managing local trading partner enablement, solution support throughout Europe and implementation expertise globally. IMG will also help develop the integration between SAP systems and BridgePoint's core data management, alerts, exceptions and analytical reporting tools.
"The knowledge and expertise IMG provides is a tremendous asset to us as customers increasingly want to link our quality supply chain data with their ERP systems," said Peter Sola, vice president of commercial services at BridgePoint. "Using this data to create plans, manage relationships and allocate product dramatically increases the ability of the customer to reduce inventory, improve customer service and avoid excess financing costs."
Working together, BridgePoint and IMG will offer services that include connectivity, data management, analytics, alerting and exception management tools. The two companies will use a joint team to provide BridgePoint's multimode, in-transit visibility integrated with SAP's enterprise functionality using IMG's implementation methodology.
