March 26, 2001

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Real-Time Software Drives Covisint's Supply Chain

SupplySolution pulls information from any system and translates it into a universal format

By Steve Konicki   (skonicki@cmp.com)

More on Covisint:

Covisint To Use SupplySolution Infrastructure Software (3/15/01) Covisint Clarifies Board Appointments (1/26/01)

ore than a year after DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors unveiled Covisint LLC, their giant trading exchange, the online marketplace has filled the largest gap in its services lineup.

Covisint has selected a supply-chain software vendor, whose offering the marketplace will use to create a hub where buyers and sellers can do real-time business together, using their existing supply-chain management, customer-relationship management, and enterprise resource planning applications.

In January, Ralph Szygenda, GM's VP and CIO, disclosed Covisint's decision against requiring exchange members to use a particular supply-chain program. He said then that the exchange's focus would be to create a Web infrastructure that ties together existing software used by automakers participating in the effort and their suppliers.

To that end, Covisint will deploy SupplySolution Inc.'s supply-chain infrastructure software, comprised of i-Supply Service, i-GetIt, and Global Infrastructure. Chris Steele, Covisint's supply-chain lead, says the selection of SupplySolution's software is the first of many steps to implement Covisint's best-of-breed supply-chain strategy. SupplySolution and Covisint also say they will jointly develop supply-chain execution applications that may include real-time ordering, planning, and logistics software.

Covisint has been slow in delivering on the promise of bringing E-business efficiency to suppliers, AMR Research analyst Kevin Prouty says, but SupplySolution's products "give it the means by which to do so--and quickly." The software pulls information over the Internet from any system, including legacy applications, and translates it into the format understood by any other Internet-enabled business system, according to the vendor. It also lets suppliers who can't afford an expensive business-to-business infrastructure do real-time business using only a browser.

The selection of SupplySolution is a "major first step forward in Covisint's filling out its supply-chain vision of connecting automakers and suppliers," says Dan Holland, E-business technology director for Delphi Automotive Systems in Troy, Mich. Delphi, one of the world's largest auto suppliers, is in the midst of implementing SAP R/3 4.6 for ERP, supply-chain management, and other functionality, and is evaluating SupplySolution to meet its needs of linking in real-time with its suppliers.

The software would let Delphi quickly move away from traditional fax and phone communication with suppliers who can't afford to put in place the IT infrastructures required for electronic data interchange. It would give each supplier visibility of Delphi's inventory, even if the supplier uses only a Web browser. "We would be able to say to suppliers, 'You manage the shipments of your material into our inventory,'" Holland says.

Under the agreement, Covisint becomes the sole provider of i-Supply to the automotive industry. SupplySolution's customers already include 10 of the largest automotive-industry suppliers and more than 700 smaller ones. Current SupplySolution auto-industry customers will be able to join Covisint immediately, or they can wait until their contract anniversary dates.

SupplySolution's offerings are available now to existing Covisint members on a subscription basis. The vendor wouldn't disclose pricing details.

As Covisint plugs in some of the pieces needed to finish its own puzzle, founding member GM has been busy enhancing the infrastructure it will use to move toward providing mass customization of its cars and trucks. The goal is to offer consumers built-to-order cars on a promised delivery date. GM said last week that it has selected SeeBeyond Technology Corp.'s eBusiness Integration Suite as its global standard for enterprise application integration.

SeeBeyond will be an important addition to GM's BuyPower and GMCanada.com consumer sites, a GM spokesman says. It will let the automaker link hundreds of internal systems to its suppliers, and ultimately to dealers and consumers, so that customers will know when the car they want to custom-order will be available. GM said in January that it would replace its internal configuration engine for the BuyPower and GMCanada.com sites with Chrome Data's PC Carbook product.

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