Internet-based SCM Live Allows Firm To Link Their Trading Partners and Customers - While Saving Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars

For more than 14 years, Mia Kania, project manager at Mitsui, had a dream.

That's because for 14 years she'd struggled with the endless paperwork, interminable processes, and difficult to track systems her firm used to receive, process and track orders throughout Mitsui's network of suppliers, customers and trading partners.

Stretching from offices in Japan, Mexico and the U.S., Kania's network was constantly under pressure to balance their three-month supplier lead times with their "just in time" customer delivery expectations. Given this complexity, Kania knew that finding a solution to her problem would be far from simple.

But she also knew there just had to be a better way.

Then, in the fall of 2000, her hopes were raised when Mitsui launched a large-scale implementation of SAP. And though the final scope of the project did not encompass her area, the initial preparations had included a full-scale analysis of its processes and systems. "As I suspected," said Kania, "the consultants who did the study were shocked at how paper-based and labor intensive our systems were." They could not duplicate the business process and suggested a fundamental change in the customer relationship. Unfortunately, this was not an option.

The results of the analysis helped convince management of the need for a fully-automated system. Kania was delighted to learn she was authorized to begin pursuing suitable vendors.

The Initial Search
Kania began by discussing potential solutions with SAP. Their proposed answers proved to be far too costly. "As it was beyond the scope of the original plan," said Kania, "it would have cost literally millions – far more than our budget would allow."

Kania then contacted three of the largest firms in the Supply Chain and Business Process Management industry to determine what they could provide. Although all three presented potentially workable solutions - Kania was eventually dissatisfied with their offerings.

For one thing, almost all of the proposed solutions were once again too expensive – especially with regard to on-going maintenance fees. Kania was further concerned about potential hardware and software requirements for both her and her clients – as well as the vendors' abilities to provide sufficient on-going support.

Kania also came away less than impressed with some of the technology involved in the offerings. "Essentially," said Kania "some of the solutions appeared to be simple, Access-based applications the vendor would develop for us – then retain the rights for themselves."

But perhaps most disappointing of all was the vendors' inability or unwillingness to provide the economically flexible application she truly needed.

"Unfortunately, they simply did not appear to understand our business and its needs," said Kania. "As a result, their solutions appeared to just be minor modifications to their existing applications which would have required significant changes to our business processes. Again this was just not an option since it required a fundamental change in the customer business relationship. The final product would have been a cumbersome, difficult to use system that would have required us to conform to the vendor's requirements."

After reviewing all three proposals, Kania appeared to be no closer to acquiring her dream application. Then she contacted Mitrix.

The Mitrix Solution
The difference between Mitrix and the competition was evident from the start according to Keiichi Furihata, General Manager, Detroit Office, Mitsui & Co. ( U.S.A. ).

"From our first meeting, their representatives were asking many more questions and working to understand our needs," said Mr. Furihata, "When they returned with their first presentation, it was clear they had done their homework."

It was also clear that SCM Live provided the flexibility and configurability Mitsui demanded. " SCM Live is logical, easy to use – and configured to work with our processes," said Mr.Furihata.

Even better, as it is delivered via the Internet, SCM Live was not only accessible by everyone in the business unit – but by all global customers and partners, as well – without anyone having to spend a cent on additional hardware, software or IT resources.

Best of all, of course, SCM Live's instant availability via any desktop with a web browser helped Kania's business unit slash their costs, increase their efficiency– and even boost their sales – almost overnight. In fact, Kania can now literally save whole days in the planning cycle alone thanks to SCM Live's ability to provide instantaneous views of all supply chain activity and immediate execution of recommended Purchase Orders. What previously took several days of information gathering and report generation is now accomplished with a few clicks.

"For example," added Kania "critical delivery orders to our customer's JIT production facility would often take up to 2 business days to process. Those orders are now handled in real-time. In addition, we can now provide our clients with a level of flexibility that was unheard of before. They're so delighted with us that they recently referred to us as their ‘best supplier' – and a model of how things should be done."

Kania's suppliers and customers are not the only ones who are delighted.

"I would easily estimate the cost savings to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Kania "and the time savings on everyday tasks have been staggering."

"What can I say?" added Kania, "Mitrix and SCM Live have been nothing less than my 14-year-old dream come true."

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