SAN DIEGO, CA November 27, 2001 ClearOrbit, a provider of extended enterprise solutions, today announced the launch of the Endeavour Series, a solution for companies implementing Supplier Relationship Management (SRM). Endeavour allows companies to coordinate more closely with their suppliers through solutions based on their existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. By leveraging their current investment in enterprise systems, companies can collaborate with trading partners using a single version of the truth, avoiding the massive costs and integration complexities of alternative approaches.
"We realized that there was much confusion and anxiety among our customers on how to begin an SRM initiative," says Tom Dziersk, CEO of ClearOrbit. "Everyone feels they're behind the curve in implementing supplier collaboration, but getting started typically means an enormous investment in a separate exchange infrastructure resulting in delayed ROI. In today's economic environment, companies cannot wait until the third or fourth year of a project to see ROI. That's what makes our Endeavour product so compelling."
Endeavour builds upon ClearOrbit's philosophy of extending enterprise value by allowing a company's ERP to become the center of a Private Trading Exchange (PTX). Private Trading Exchanges have the potential to drive significant cost savings for manufacturers and their suppliers by eliminating redundant activities currently performed by both parties, driving out inefficiencies and errors.
The first application available within the Endeavour Series is PO Collaborator, a portal to track purchase orders, shipments and payables between a manufacturer and its suppliers. PO Collaborator provides on-line order tracking, acceptance, and vendor compliant label printing based on real-time data within the manufacturer's enterprise system. This closed loop system provides manufacturers complete control over the entire order fulfillment process, eliminating duplicate activities and dispute resolution.
"We believe that any software which does not work directly from the enterprise data model, in real time, is ultimately an interim or throw-away solution," says Dziersk. "Companies have made a massive investment over the past ten years to consolidate to a single version of the truth with the implementation of ERP. All IT investment, whether for initiatives within the company's four walls or for external collaboration, should leverage that data model to provide maximum ROI."
