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Ironside Technologies Inc. and PeopleSoft Inc. are introducing integration software and applications to bring the systems of manufacturers and their partners closer together.
Ironside, a supplier of sell-side business-to-business e-commerce solutions for manufacturers and distributors, last week announced the availability of Ironside Buyer Integrator. The new software enables suppliers to accept data files directly from individual purchasing systems of their trading partners and translate them into the format of their own ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems.
The Oakland, Calif., company has developed ERP adapters for SAP AG, Baan Co., J.D. Edwards & Co., Prism Software Solutions Inc. and JDA Software Group Inc., officials said.
Separately, PeopleSoft will announce this week the availability of PeopleSoft Promotions Management, an Internet-based enterprise solution that integrates supply chain management with customer relationship management across company boundaries to provide consumer products companies with the capabilities to build efficiency and customer loyalty.
The Promotions Management module closes the loop on managing, executing and tracking promotion funds and activities with an analytics piece so that customers can model a promotion to understand its impact before it is implemented, officials said.
PeopleSoft purchased the intellectual property for the Promotions Management module from partner Vista Technology Group Ltd. and developed the Web-designed suite around Vistas business processes.
PeopleSoft, of Pleasanton, Calif., touts a Promotions Management implementation time of no more than six weeks if the customer has a PeopleSoft ERP backbone installed, longer if the company has another ERP system.
The Promotions Management module plugs into five areas of a back-end system: accounts payable, order management, billing, deduction management and general ledger.
Four main applications constitute the module: an administration tool that lets promotional funds be funneled through a top-down or hierarchical method, a maintenance application that creates parameters for a promotion and passes that data on to an order management system, a payments program that processes payments through various methods, and an evaluation and analysis application that lets customers do “what if” scenarios and after-the-fact evaluations.
Ken OBrien has been looking for an integrated promotions management system from PeopleSoft since 1998.
The Promotions Management module “will give us a competitive edge in looking at customer profitability—and the lift that you get” from specific promotions, said OBrien, vice president of Information Services for Eagle Family Foods Inc., in Tarrytown, N.Y.