Leading suppliers choose new eBusiness portal to gain competitive advantage
30 October 2000
Seventeen of the UK's leading consumer goods suppliers are now using Retail Extranet Optimizer (REO), the new e-Business portal from Eqos, to automatically collect data from their retail customers' extranets to improve decision making within the supply chain management arena.
The companies who have signed up for REO, Eqos' unique service, which only went live at the beginning of August, are: Butcher's Pet Care, Crookes Healthcare, Cussons, Dewhirst Toiletries, Elida Faberge, Green Isle Frozen Foods, Golden Wonder, Heinz, Halewood International, HP Bulmer, HP Foods, Nutricia, Pfizer, Interbrew, Sacla, Scottish Courage Brands, and Sun Valley.
REO enables suppliers to easily access the wealth of data available from their retail customers extranets. Manufacturers simply log on once to Eqos.com rather than access the individual systems of their customers who include Sainsbury's, Tesco and Safeway. The ability to consolidate the data from multiple customers in one place and then run exception reports and alerts if trouble looms is one of the greatest benefits of the portal. This means that problem areas such as stock shortages can be highlighted and remedial action taken immediately. Additionally data can be formatted into the supplier's own "house style", including personalized product codes, so there are no "language" barriers.
"Many suppliers are tracking hundreds of different product lines across multiple retail sites on a daily basis. This is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to do in the traditional way as the sheer volume of the information which has to be trawled through means that inevitably some key data is overlooked," explains Chris Foulkes, products and services director, Eqos. "With REO, companies can set up the reports they want, extract the relevant data very quickly and action it in 'real time'.
"In the future everyone will be consolidating data and integrating it into their own systems. REO gets companies started to enable them to gain significant competitive advantage if they then use the information to realign their businesses processes behind the scene."
REO is one of the new packaged, off the shelf solutions, from Eqos, based on its award winning software the Eqos Platform that in turn is built around Microsoft Windows NT Server and accessed via the Eqos.com portal.
The solution has been designed as Best Practice as a result of the considerable work Eqos has undertaken for major suppliers including Nestle, Kraft and Kelloggs, working with retailers such as Sainsbury and Boots The Chemist. REO opens up the world of B2B eCommerce to a much broader audience as being a packaged solution it is cost effective - it is priced on an ASP basis - quick to configure, with a minimal investment in terms of time and people resources.
Notes to Editors:
Eqos Ltd
Eqos delivers the world's most advanced and flexible solutions for collaborative planning and event management over the Internet. By providing the technology platform and the business leadership, Eqos helps its customers achieve rapid, continuous and best-of-breed innovation for sustainable competitive advantage. Headquartered in the UK, with offices in the US, Eqos has alliances with many of the world's leading edge companies, including Microsoft, Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte Consulting.
For further information, please contact:
Linda Laderman or Anne Lomax
Laderman PR
5 Portland Place
London W1B 1PW
Phone +44 (0)20 7436 6676
Fax +44 (0)20 7580 0555
Email annel@ladermanpr.co.uk
