Hosted PIM smoothes trading-partner relationships at International Paper
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 10/1/2005 6:00:00 AM
While the practice of exchanging documents and other information with trading partners electronically is becoming more common, it isn't necessarily getting easier. In fact, many companies find it is getting more difficult as they look to trade information with multiple partners using various communications technologies.
The Commercial Printing & Imaging Papers unit of Stamford, Conn.-based International Paper found the task of sharing product information with outside partners so taxing that it opted to outsource the function. The decision was made easier because International already had a working relationship with its outsourcing partner, Liaison Technologies.
Liaison's long history in the paper industry was key to its relationship with International Paper. Until April 2004, Liaison operated as ForestExpress, an industry trading exchange for paper products manufacturers.
Upon changing its name, Liaison started offering network communication services to companies in the paper industry and beyond. Its value proposition was it could move information between company networks in near-real time as opposed to the batch mode common to traditional EDI networks.
Later, Liaison developed a product information management (PIM) solution—called Enterprise Content Director—that organizes data related to a company's products, making it easier to share that information with customers and suppliers. Liaison manages both its networking services and its PIM solution for customers.
The Liaison-International Paper relationship started with the real-time network communication service before evolving to include PIM functionality.
"Because it's a hosted service, the ramp-up time for Liaison to deliver network communication services is a few weeks rather than the estimated three to six months it takes for in-house projects to address hardware, software, and staffing requirements," says John Balboni, CIO of International Paper.
Those advantages extend to Liaison's PIM solution, Balboni adds. "Liaison has a mature PIM solution with a built-in workflow that meets our requirements," he says. "And because Enterprise Content Director is a managed solution, we have the potential to adapt it to meet future needs."
International Paper's PIM implementation is ongoing. So far, Liaison has loaded International Paper's product database into Enterprise Content Director, which purged the database of extraneous entries and organized it in a manner that makes it easy for users to search for specific items. Liaison also is managing all updates to the database.
All this means International Paper's trading partners, which include product distributors, soon will be able to create their own product catalogs—either in print, on electronic media such as CDs, or online—using accurate, up-to-date information direct from International Paper's detailed product database.
Liaison also ensures that anyone pulling product data from International Paper's database gets it in the form they would like to see it. That means information coming from the database adheres to various industry communication standards, such as the Uniform Code Council's UCCnet standard, which many large retailers require.
"It takes the standards burden off our backs," Balboni says. "Consequently, we'll be able to offer real-time integration to supply chain members, whether their chosen communication format is XML, EDI, or something else. All the business-messaging documents pass through Liaison Enterprise Content Director, which completes the necessary translations. Essentially, it's a hub mechanism with services built around it to enable communication."
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