Press Report

Only if every piece fits in the supply chain, advantages can be realized beyond the boundaries of an enterprise

(computerwelt.at 05.2007) Many companies have introduced ERP-systems for the optimisation of their corporate processes. In order that these investments pay off sustainably the companies are mostly anxious to optimise the cross-company transports as well with these ERP-systems. However, practise shows that ERP-systems have natural limits when it comes to the automation of cross-locational and/or cross-company processes because the level of complexity of such processes is very high. In the field cross-company transport logistics this set of problems exists especially often.

The planning and control of cross-company transport processes belong to those fields in a company which become essentially more efficient through the automation of processes. Therefore, the optimisation in the field supply chain execution (SCE) ranks very high on the agenda of companies, especially of those which operate in transport-intensive sectors.

Only two years ago many companies tried to optimise their transport processes through further developments of their own ERP-systems. These projects were time-consuming and cost-intensive and often the desired success can not even be seen today. The comprehensive and direct connection of all ERP-systems of the involved supply chain partners would be a too complex and rather inefficient task in times of sophisticated Internet-based systems.
Today, these standard software solutions possess a high performance; they function independently of platforms, systems and manufacturers and connect all partners who participate in the supply chain in an uncomplicated manner. The core element of a solution suite such as the logistics-server® by inet-logistics is the integration in the corporate ERP-system which remains the leading system. All relevant data can thus be transferred in both directions for further automatic processing and these data can be integrated seamlessly. In this way it is possible to gain a high degree of flexibility during the configuration and maintenance of logistics networks while spending little time and money. Companies can consequently respond quicker to circumstances and new partners can be integrated via Internet quickly and without effort.