Because materials such as chemicals, oils, and petroleum must be shipped in bulk across the ocean, the industry that manages these materials needs to adopt supply-chain management and logistics systems tailored to the shipping industry, "which is highly fragmented and difficult to track due to its size," says Ken Bloom, chief operating officer of Optimum, a privately held Stamford, Conn., company.

In February, Keane started expanding an online cargo-tracking system it had developed for Optimum and Stolt-Nielsen S.A., Optimum's primary investor, into TransLink. The line includes TransArranger, which facilitates the process of booking shipping companies; TransLink, a module within the overall product that's used to track and trace shipments; and TransAlert, which automatically monitors shipments and potential problems.

A fourth component, TransBid, is due for release in June and will act as a reverse-auction E-procurement system that lets carriers and producers locate shipping opportunities through an online marketplace.

TransLink will save the industry up to 35% of total logistics costs, Bloom says, or about "$43 billion per year lost due to inefficiencies in paperwork, operation, and improper management of a supply chain."

Johan Wenman, CIO at Optimum, says he turned to Keane because he needed a large IT organization that could pull off a complex business-to-business E-commerce system. "If I had to do the hiring and training, we wouldn't be where we are today," he says.