InformationWeek

Collecting supply-chain information usually involves extracting data from supply-chain or enterprise resource planning systems, loading it into a database, and using data analysis tools to study the findings. While it's a complex and expensive chore, it's critical for companies trying to mediate their trading activities, says Aberdeen Group analyst Bob Moran.

Tilion's product will capture transaction data from suppliers' and customers' systems, aggregate it, and generate reports based on the Extensible Markup Language standard. The design will be less expensive than current methods and will provide analysis in real time.

The package will have an "intelligence center" that processes the data and aggregates it according to user needs, and a report generator that creates XML-based reports that can be viewed with a browser. Tilion CEO Christopher Stone says the data collection and analysis capabilities will be offered as a service for a subscription fee.

The system requires cooperation from a company's suppliers and customers because the data collectors will reside on their systems. But letting users plug in whichever front-end analysis tools they have to analyze the Tilion-generated reports will be one of the service's strengths, Moran says.