In Brief

Webplan Corp. has joined up with business intelligence vendor Cognos as a Strategic Technology Partner. Webplan's Manufacturing Insight software offers a "Live Scorecard" that allows a manufacturer to simulate the outcome of decisions and align them with the metrics used to run the business. The vendors will integrate Webplan Manufacturing Insight with Cognos ReportNet, Cognos PowerPlay, and Cognos Metrics Manager.

"Manufacturers need accurate and timely information not only at the financial and corporate levels, but also at the operational level," says Rob Rose, VP of Corporate Strategy and Business Development for Cognos. "Webplan software delivers the real-time planning capabilities that our manufacturing customers need to align day-to-day operational decisions with corporate goals."

Sirius Computer Solutions will become the recommended IBM hardware infrastructure provider to SSA Global customers in the U.S. SSA Global provides core ERP solutions as well as integrated extended solutions, including corporate performance management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, product life-cycle management, and supplier relationship management.

Both SSA Global and Sirius have significant investments in IBM platform and middleware technologies. Sirius has more than 2,500 implementations in the U.S., specific to the IBM family of eServer products, and also is IBM's largest midrange eServer reseller. And as SSA Global customers look to enhance their e-business capabilities, they can expect to certified IBM WebSphere application support.

An extended partnership between Web services infrastructure vendor webMethods and supply chain execution vendor Manhattan Associates is yielding an RFID solution that gives users out-of-box connectivity to Manhattan's warehouse management applications and other back-office apps. The advantage is said to be in webMethods' integration capabilities, which will enable joint customers to integrate data from RFID readers with their ERP applications, partners, and warehouse systems for business process management.

Other webMethods offerings such as Item Synchronization also will help companies derive ROI from their corporate RFID strategies by accessing data about items, cases, and pallets from back-office apps and ensuring product data is synchronized throughout the supply chain.

Says Kareen Renaudin, VP of Industry Solutions, webMethods, "The extended partnership with Manhattan Associates enables joint customers to reduce the time, cost, and effort of implementing RFID technology."

Supply chain management software vendor Viewlocity has completed a going-private transaction backed by Investcorp, a global investment group. As part of the transaction, on Dec. 31, 2003, Viewlocity merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Viesta, an entity created solely for the purposes of the transaction.

Viewlocity is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Viesta, and is no longer publicly traded. It will continue to operate with its existing management team.

Viewlocity has roots in the supply chain event management software space. In 2002, it merged with SynQuest, a vendor with roots in the supply chain planning market. The company moved forward as Viewlocity, and positioned its pairing of execution and planning functionality as a foundation for "adaptive supply chain" solutions. The company says it will leverage its 70-plus supply chain customers and global presence to further penetrate the market for supply chain event management and visibility software and related products.

In a move aimed at retail supply chains, Vizional Technologies, an RFID services and software vendor, announced support in January for Sun Microsystems' RFID infrastructure software, which will be available second quarter 2004.

Two recent additions to Vizional's adaptive supply chain software line are Asset RFID and Inventory RFID. Both packages leverage RFID-tracked items to support a more visible and productive supply chain. Part of the development of these applications has been the inclusion of support for Sun's RFID infrastructure software, which will transmit tag information from reader networks into the Vizional applications. The pairing of Vizional's apps with Sun's hardware and software is said to carry several benefits, including greater visibility of assets and inventory and the ability to react quickly to supply chain disruptions.

"Vizional and Sun continue to complement each other's technology offerings, ultimately benefiting our retail customers," says Vizional CTO Eddie Shek. "Vizional's long-standing expertise in providing RFID-enabled supply chain solutions is well aligned with Sun Microsystems' new RFID infrastructure software and will allow our customers to get the most out of an RFID implementation and have the competitive edge necessary in today's retail environment."