Eqos and Intel to provide retail solutions for supply chain efficiency
3 October 2001
Eqos, which delivers flexible, proven solutions for collaborative planning and event management over the Internet, and Intel, the world's largest chip maker have agreed to work on joint development and marketing of enterprise supply chain solutions in the retail industry.
The collaboration takes advantage of Eqos' leadership in supply chain collaboration, acknowledged by top industry analysts such as Meta Group as being 18-24 months ahead of the major supply chain vendors. Earlier this year, Eqos was chosen by Microsoft as a preferred world-wide collaborative technology provider. "There is no doubt there is global support for our collaborative solutions which enable the true integration of people, processes and data between and within companies," says Mike Quinn, president and co founder, Eqos. "Our solutions are specifically designed to collaboratively track products throughout the entire lifecycle, and address specific pain points in retail within the external areas of the supply chain that can deliver the highest ROI", adds Quinn.
Under the agreement, Eqos and Intel will be developing modular, integrated solutions to significantly advance supply chain efficiency, and that align with the nine process steps of the best-in-class practices which have been developed and approved by the Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standards Association (VICS) to provide industry standard collaborative working.
Stephane Negre, Solution Marketing Manager, Intel EMEA, comments: "The advantage of having this business solution running on Intel® Pentium® III Xeon™ processor based servers is twofold: on the one hand customers acquire flexibility in terms of being able to add to and expand their current platform to suit growing business needs and opportunity. Secondly, the standards-based nature of the platform, allows for fast implementation -- speed of action that ultimately results in competitive advantage and savings in cost and time expenditure."
Since Eqos was founded in 1997, it has grown tremendously by providing leading edge B2B collaborative technology to major corporations such as Sainsbury's, Boots the Chemist and Kingfisher Group, as well a leading food manufacturing suppliers such as Nestle and Kellogg's -
With Collaborator 4.0, the next generation of Eqos' Internet based technology platform launched last month, business analysts will be able to develop collaborative solutions completely without developers, in just eight to 12 weeks.
Intel is bringing to the cooperation its experience not just in the technology sector but as one of the leading contributors to the e-Business environment and fabric of the new economy.
"Retail organizations cannot afford to experiment, to "test" new enterprise applications. The teaming of Eqos and Intel offers retailers a proven solution stack, one fully implemented by some of the world's leading retailers", added Intel's Negre. In order to facilitate the development, testing and tuning of e-Business solutions, Intel set up a worldwide network of test and development centers (Intel® e-Business Solution Centers), equipped with leading-edge technology and with expert advice on hand.
Intel is well known as the company whose microprocessors power the world's leading PCs and servers, and as a leading supplier of wireless and networking technologies for the Internet economy. In fact, 84% of the world's Internet servers are Intel-based, according to International Data Corp .What is less known about Intel is that it is also one of the world's leading B2B e-Commerce companies averaging over $2 billion in revenue per month, and the company is now bringing its expertise in technology and e-Business to the world's leading retailers and consumer goods companies.
Our platform means that information can be tailor-made to suit an individual business by the people who understand the business issues," adds Mike Quinn. "Gaining additional insights from an expert in this field such as Intel will help us to develop richer collaborative solutions that can further reduce out-of-stocks, minimize planning cycle times, increase on-shelf availability and dramatically improve sales and service levels."
Notes to Editors:
Eqos Ltd
Eqos delivers flexible, proven solutions for collaborative planning and event management over the Internet. By providing the technology and the business leadership, Eqos helps its customers achieve a rapid return on investment from integrated, modular solutions designed to significantly advance supply chain efficiency.
Founded in 1997, Eqos is headquartered in the UK with offices in the US.
Intel
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com.
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
