Here's a rundown on each of the new partnerships.
· Chemicals e-marketplace Elemica will establish hub-to-hub connections with Quadrem, an e-marketplace for the mining, minerals and metals industries. The e-markets said the connection should facilitate more efficient commerce between the mining, minerals and metals companies participating in Quadrem and their chemical suppliers participating in Elemica. The connection will allow members of Quadrem to place orders though that e-marketplace that are intended for any number of their chemical suppliers, allowing Elemica to route the orders to the correct supplier based on pre-existing contractual arrangements. Plans call for the connection to be completed by the second quarter of this year.
· Datastream Systems, a provider of asset lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, is teaming with GE Fanuc Automation North America, an affiliate of GE Industrial Systems, to tie the former's software and service capabilities with the latter's e-manufacturing systems. Under the agreement, GE Fanuc will offer Datastream's 7i and iProcure solutions as its exclusive asset management component for GE Fanuc's collaborative manufacturing solutions, marketing the joint solution as CIMPLICITY Enterprise Asset Management. In addition, GE Fanuc obtained the exclusive rights to offer the two Datastream solutions to GE and select industry segments, including automotive original equipment manufacturers, power and energy generation companies and medical facilities.
· Software companies TIBCO and Arzoon are set to jointly market the former's ActiveEnterprise infrastructure solutions with the latter's LIFE family of logistics resource management solutions, with a goal of facilitating rapid implementation and increasing real-time access to logistics information. Arzoon says LIFE allows companies to better manage their logistics and import/export processes to reduce costs and improve customer service, while TIBCO says that ActiveEnterprise enables companies to become real-time businesses by connecting back-end and front-end systems and tying systems to customers, suppliers and partners over the Web. The two companies say that combining their solutions will enable easier and more effective communications and data-sharing for manufacturers, distributors and retailers by increasing and easing connectivity of logistics systems, additional enterprise systems and the systems of numerous trading partners. TIBCO and Arzoon say they are currently working with several joint customers, including Union Pacific Corp.
