Another acquisition took place in early 2004, when TradeBeam, an international global trading solutions provider with over 3,000 customers and users in over 100 countries, acquired SupplySolution. SupplySolution is a Southfield, Michigan-based (US) offers a supply chain execution (SCE) application called i-Supply, which communicates inventory levels and consumption patterns among trading partners. At the time of the acquisition, SupplySolution had in excess of 2,000 paying customers and employed 125 people in offices in the US, Germany, and Australia. TradeBeam acquired SupplySolution to add collaborative inventory management (CIM) capabilities to its GTM product suite.

The acquisition has benefited both companies and their respective customers, given TradeBeam and SupplySolution have similar roadmaps for the management of order, inventory replenishment, compliance, logistics, and payment of the domestic and international movement of goods. Their combined product has helped many common customers avoid deploying multiple point solutions to manage their global supply chains. Effective supply chain management is increasingly vital for global manufacturers' and retailers' success, as enterprises now spend an inordinate amount of time and money managing and directing their suppliers to ensure that critical inventory levels are maintained, and the vital flow of products needed for operation continues. However, the current practice for managing supply chain inventories is still rather reactive and labor intensive, and results in unreliable parts availability, generating typically higher inventory levels or emergency freight. As a result, enterprises are faced with increased inventory carrying costs, higher premium freight charges, decreased customers satisfaction, diminished asset utilization, decreased supplier performance, etc.

To remedy this, TradeBeam offers inventory replenishment products and plans to build and offer other inventory flow management related services over next several months. SupplySolution was a renowned SCE provider, delivering value to manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers through the implementation of the collaborative supply chain application, i-Supply. i-Supply remains one of the most widely used real-time applications for communicating inventory levels and consumption patterns in the automotive industry, in operation at over 2,000 organizations. Under new ownership, i-Supply will be renamed TradeBeam CIM.

The SupplySolution had been highly successful in direct material replenishment applications—a space where many others have failed. Steve Bell, a former general manager of a tier one automotive plant, founded SupplySolution in 1998. The company landed its first pilot customer in July 1999, and in 2001, it contracted some major tier one customers, including Johnson Controls and the largest automotive supplier, Delphi. Since then, it had steadily added other new customers, including the suppliers of its original tier one accounts. All in all, the company landed 35 buyers and 2,000 suppliers in a little more than 3 years since its inception. In 2002, SupplySolution expanded into the life sciences industry, starting with a successful pilot with Stryker Instruments, a manufacturer of specialty surgical and medical products.

This is Part Three of a five-part note.

Part One discussed TradeBeam and GTM.

Part Two presented TradeBeam’s background.

Part Four will detail TradeBeam’s GTM solution blueprints.

Part Five will cover competition, challenges, and make user recommendations.