WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (06/14/2000) - In a move to attract wholesale and industrial supply companies, IBM Corp. recently announced a strategic alliance with Stockholm, Sweden International Business Systems to produce a full-service global supply chain management package for enterprise users. Running IBS apps over IBM hardware and middleware frameworks, users will be able to buy an integrated set of SCM, customer relationship management and order fulfillment offerings.
Read Part 1 of Supply Chain Management in Australia.
IBM will provide services, hardware and software, including its AS/400 and Netfinity servers; IBM WebSphere 'Net application server; and e-business Application Framework product, which will sit under the IBS software.
For its part, IBS will provide software and services that let users attach their front office applications to the back-end software, handling functions such as product ordering and availability and pricing. IBS also has business intelligence, sales and service, inventory and warehousing applications available.
The companies claim their target audience will be the midmarket wholesale and industrial supply segments - whose worth will jump to $5 billion in 2003, up from $2 billion today, IBM says. These segments will include chemical, auto parts, machinery and appliance suppliers.
Users will be able to improve their distribution systems, cutting costs significantly, IBS claims. It also will prove helpful to companies that manufacture or distribute across national boundaries and require a standardized business-to-business 'Net infrastructure.
Pricing starts between $70,000 to $100,000 for hardware and software; services will vary depending on the customer. The offering is available now.