Santa Clara, CA May 31, 2002 Computer hardware-maker Sun Microsystems and consulting firm Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGE&Y) are partnering to offer a suite of joint supply chain offerings, including solutions for e-fulfillment, e-sourcing and e-collaboration.
The partners said that, through their global solutions alliance, they will have the ability to deliver additional solutions that address customer requirements across the supply chain management spectrum.
CGE&Y and Sun have a 12-year working relationship and have worked on numerous joint customer accounts. Under the newly announced partnership, CGE&Y will offer its supply chain implementation experience, while Sun will provide an infrastructure platform for the solutions. The two will target customers in manufacturing, consumer products, retail and distribution.
"This important agreement combines CGE&Y's pre-eminent global supply chain capability with Sun's powerful platform," said Greg Cudahy, CGE&Y's newly appointed global leader for B2B-supply chain. "The adaptive supply chain solutions we offer can help companies to prosper in today's volatile business environment through the acceleration of profit improvement."
"Sun and CGE&Y's Global Solutions Alliance represents a commitment of resources from both organizations to help ensure a seamless customer experience and ultimate customer satisfaction," said Darlene Yaplee, vice president of global system integrators at Sun Microsystems. "The strong relationships we're building with systems integration partners like CGE&Y help our customers build flexible architectures that avoid supplier lock-in and help customers maintain their competitive edge."
The joint solutions are designed to be integratable with new and legacy systems, allowing enterprises to connect to their suppliers, customers and trading partners around the world, according to the partners. Jointly developed offerings will be based on Sun's SunTone architecture methodology, as well as CGE&Y's adaptive architecture approach, methodology and established global B2B-supply chain offerings: sourcing and e-procurement, logistics and e-fulfillment, and collaborative B2B solutions.
The CGE&Y/Sun solutions will be based on the Sun Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) platform, and Sun desktop, server and storage systems, and will use Sun technical consulting, training and support services. The two companies assert that building an infrastructure on open standards and technologies preserves the long-term value of supply chain investments and enables customers to incorporate adaptive solutions to meet changing business and technical environments.
The partners will offer the solutions through Sun's iForce Centers and CGE&Y Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASEs) and Advanced Development Centers (ADCs).
