Hitachi SAS is a systems integrator to financial services, public sectors, manufacturers and distribution industries in Japan. HAHT Commerce offers applications that integrate and automate order management, product and brand information management, channel management, business intelligence, and customer services between manufacturers, their channel partners and customers.
The joint offering, dubbed DCM Total Solution, will combine HAHT Commerce applications and Hitachi SAS services, supported by technical, sales and marketing resources from both companies.
"In a slower economy, the best way to maximize profits is to analyze the buying trends of customers and quickly adapt to increase the satisfaction of those customers," said Taizo Nauchi, president of Hitachi SAS. "HAHT's applications are perfectly suited for such complex customer-facing business processes, and the demand for this type of application is growing."
Indeed, technology consultancy Yankee Group has predicted that the market for DCM applications will grow from $170 million to more than $1.2 billion by 2004. In addition, the Nomura Research Institute, a Japanese market research firm, has forecast that demand chain management will become a significant e-business strategy for Japanese manufacturers.
The two companies said their joint solution allows manufacturers to reduce the complexity of coordinating and managing customer-facing business processes across multiple channels. Companies using the solution should be able to integrate, analyze and improve business processes between channel partners, distributors and customers, with the promised return on investment coming in increased revenue opportunities and reduced marketing, sales and service costs.
Hitachi SAS and HAHT Commerce have been working together since 1998 to provide the application server platform, HAHTsite, for Hitachi's ERP Front Solution initiative intended to help companies leverage their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for e-business.
Implementation partners for the DCM Total solution will include KPMG Consulting Co., Technos Japan and Keyware Solutions.
