Newport Beach, CA April 3, 2001 IPNet Solutions Inc. today announced the release of IPNet eBizness Suite 3.4, an open, standards-based solution designed to enable trading partners to securely transact and collaborate in real-time throughout the supply chain. Key features of the 3.4 release include enhanced e-mail server support, improved security options with Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and S/MIME over FTP and enhanced collaborative tools including expanded business rules definitions.
"Securely transmitting documents is key to any company participating in e-commerce," said Shawn Willett, principal analyst, Current Analysis. "Providing industry standard security options is required in today's dynamic marketplace and gives companies important options that are not always available with proprietary systems."
Release 3.4 also contains several enhancements for those trading partners interested in collaboration. "Collaborative enhancements, including changes to business rules definitions and increased visibility for trading partners, have been added to this release, improving the efficiency of both buyers and suppliers," said Ted Smykla, senior vice president of products for IPNet. "By coupling collaboration with eBizness Transact, trading partners can be more effective at meeting supply and demand fluctuations throughout the supply chain."
Changes to the business rules definitions enable companies to define rules that apply to a rolling period instead of an absolute time period. For example, an organization may wish to create an exception threshold of 10 percent for the next one to six weeks and a threshold of 20 percent for the following six to 12 weeks.
The ability of trading partners of all sizes to view information, such as POS (point of sale) data, inventory positions and forecast activity on products that it supplies to a hub company has also been added. With this capability, a retailer can collaborate with suppliers by providing forecasted demand and past sales activity, regardless of the trading partner's size. A trading partner can use a Web browser and login privileges to view data relevant to the products they are supplying.
