CPG Industry Offered Collaboration Options

New software options should make it easier for manufacturers of consumer packaged goods to collaborate with suppliers and distributors for product development to solve supply chain issues.

PLM (product life-cycle management) software developers MatrixOne Inc. and Formation Systems Inc. last week announced an agreement to jointly develop collaborative software for product development teams inside and outside an enterprise.

Formations Optiva product development software is used in research and development departments at process manufacturers. Under the terms of the agreement, MatrixOne, of Westford, Mass., will jointly develop and market Optiva Adaplet, which provides users of MatrixOnes PLM software with real-time access to recipe, direct material and R&D data before a product is approved for production.

Geared toward the CPG goods industry, Optiva Adaplet will let new product information be accessed by individuals throughout an organization, from executives and R&D members to procurement professionals and package designers. The software, which will be available next quarter, will provide a collaborative component whereby design teams can communicate outside their firewall with suppliers and vendors, according to officials at MatrixOne and Formation Systems, of Southboro, Mass.

Separately, a trio of software developers and a large broker of food and consumer goods last week launched VeriSync Trade Solutions. The new company provides integrated, Web-based software to help manufacturers with data integrity, promotion and deduction management, category management, and connectivity to UCCnet Inc.s retailer data synchronization services.

Cincinnati-based VeriSync is spearheaded by broker Acosta Inc. and includes software from Integrated Software Systems Inc., MEI Corp. and Sudden Impact Inc. It provides software through an outsourced or an application service provider model.

Tom Horton, vice president of sales at Sunsweet Growers Inc., looks to deploy VeriSyncs TradeLync trade planning and promotions application to replace its system of manually loading Microsoft Excel spreadsheet data into its SAP AG logistics system.

Currently "there is no link between our trading planning and deductions," said Horton, in Atlanta. "TradeLync ties all our financial information into one system. It allows food brokers, sales management and financial people to all be tied into one system."