Event Summary
A
refutation of the claim that the ongoing consolidation in the enterprise application
space has of late largely been about pilfering install base, increasing market
share, and saving the costs of "economy of scale"-based product, might be the
recent merger of two players in the business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce
arena, which claim that the rationale for their merger is to provide a more
comprehensive solution for accommodating increasingly global business relationships.
Namely,
on January 15, Global eXchange Services, Inc.
(GXS, www.gxs.com),
the large, privately-held B2B e-commerce software, services, and solutions pioneer,
which operates one of the largest B2B e-commerce networks in the world, managing
one billion annual transactions for more than 100,000 trading partners, announced
that it signed a definitive agreement to acquire HAHT Commerce
(www.haht.com). HAHT Commerce
is based in Raleigh, North Carolina (US) and is a privately-held provider of
demand chain management applications (DCM) that strategically automate,
integrate, and optimize order management, product information management
(PIM), channel management, business intelligence (BI), and customer
services functions between manufacturers, their channel partners, and end customers.
Under
the terms of the agreement, GXS would acquire all the capital stock of HAHT
Commerce through a merger for approximately $30 million (USD) in a combination
of cash and shares of GXS Holdings, which is the parent company
of GXS, headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland (US). The transaction was subject
to the approval of HAHT Commerce's shareholders and other customary conditions,
and the acquisition was completed in February. CIBC World Markets Corporation
acted as exclusive financial advisor to HAHT Commerce with respect to the transaction.
The acquisition was hailed as bringing together two providers of complementary B2B e-commerce solutions that should help retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers of all sizes expand collaboration and expedite time-to-market for new products. GXS believes the addition of HAHT Commerce will enable it to provide businesses of all sizes with the industry's most comprehensive solution for PIM and data synchronization, which should enable retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers to manage product information from concept to consumer. With more than thirty-five years experience, GXS provides supply chain services and software to 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies. With this acquisition, the company hopes to be able to deliver a complete solution suite that would include software to integrate data into and out of back-end systems, management tools to publish and syndicate product information accurately, transaction delivery services to move the information, and community enablement to electronically connect all trading partners in the global retail supply chain.
GXS touts that this combination is all about improving the quality and consistency of product information data flowing throughout the retail community, since nowadays the lack of accurate product item information between buyers and sellers in the community remains a significant and costly problem. By combining its products, services, and staff resources, GXS hopes to establish itself as a "one stop shop" to address this emerging multi-billion dollar opportunity. On the other hand, HAHT Commerce hopes to immediately benefit from GXS' worldwide customer reach and broad transaction management capabilities to rapidly accelerate the adoption of its DCM software solutions.
GXS plans to rapidly integrate the following key components within its potentially all-encompassing data synchronization solution:
- Feature-rich
product information management—The PIM solution of the HAHT Commerce
Suite features a powerful UCCnet-interoperable catalog
capable of aggregating, organizing, structuring, and managing item-related
content. The solution can aggregate data from multiple internal sources including
leading ERP systems, create a scalable data repository (catalog) for centralized
management, and optimize data flow to multiple destinations. UCCnet is a subsidiary
of the Uniform Code Council, a nonprofit organization that
manages a standards-based item registry for companies' product data as a platform
for collaborative commerce.
- Simple
syndication with UCCNet—HAHT Commerce's Quick Connect Package
is a fast and cost-effective entry point for smaller suppliers and manufacturers
seeking to leverage a machine-to-machine extensible markup language
(XML) interface to synchronize items with retail partners through the UCCnet
foundation service.
- Hosted
catalog services and data pools—The GXS Global Product Catalogue
(GPC) provides a multi-community, multi-industry data repository
of more than 65 million line items, comprehensive trading partner profiles,
and synchronization services supporting over 17,000 trading partners.
- Rapid,
worldwide community enablement—From electronic data interchange
(EDI) to AS2 and XML formats, GXS claims the ability to allow on-board businesses
to quickly and easily exchange product information electronically in more
than thirty-six countries with multilingual support.
This
is Part One of a four-part note.
Part
Two will continue the event summary.
Part
Three will discuss the market impact.
Part
Four will cover challenges and make user recommendations.
Expanding Product Applications
In the future, additional applications from HAHT Commerce that will enhance GXS' potentially end-to-end data synchronization solution include order management, business intelligence, customer services, and channel management, but GXS has yet to articulate the detailed product roadmap for these. In order for us to discern the merits of the impending merger, it might be beneficial to analyze the relatively recent developments that the both parties achieved separately, developments that were possibly aimed to facilitate their merger.
To
that end, last fall, GXS announced two key offerings in its Data Synchronization
suite. The first, Data Sync Manager (DSM), is a new software
solution that streamlines the internal, manual steps typically associated with
gathering and distributing product data to trading partners. Deployable as either
a standalone, inside a firewall application, or as part of a hosted solution,
DSM is compliant with UCCnet Foundation Services 2.1.
The
second product, Global Product Catalogue (GPC) also provides full compliance
with UCCnet Foundation Services 2.1 with its latest version that is now commercially
available. Working in partnership with its largest retail clients, GXS has been
and continues to be an active contributor to both UCCnet enhancements and certification
testing for Version 2.2 and beyond. Launched in 1988, today
the GPC is serving as the engine for active data synchronization communities
in a number of major countries. On the other hand, UCCnet's GLOBALregistry
is a global product directory aimed at connecting independent data repositories
to achieve seamless, accurate, consistent data synchronization for multi-industry
supply chain partners. To that end, GXS provides a transparent framework that
allows multiple users to access product information data through any communication
standard and exchange needed information with UCCnet.
Furthermore, last summer, leveraging its natural position as a transaction delivery provider to expand into facilitating collaborative commerce within its customers' supply chains, GXS announced the availability of a new set of services that should give customers visibility, event management, and supply chain collaboration capabilities. The solutions were thus designed to offer proactive alerts, order status tracking, and reporting functionality. Consequently, in addition to providing the connectivity platform for the exchange of business documents, GXS claims the ability to now provide critical information about the status of those documents, thereby maximizing the efficiency of the various applications. The solution benefits include
- functional
acknowledgement (FA) management services, which facilitate tracking,
reporting, and event notification and supposedly increase operational efficiency
by providing visibility and analysis of critical transaction information;
- intelligent
collaboration and event management, which should help achieve a streamlined
management of supply chain processes through improved inventory planning,
lowered transportation costs, and increased internal productivity;
- aggregated
supply chain data and shared visibility spanning multiple trading partners,
back-office systems, and various data formats; and
- entire
order life cycle management, which should expedite document turnaround and
allow for self-service status inquiries and the ability to manage by exception.
The
above products' delivery came after the prior acquisition of the business of
Celarix, Inc., a privately held multi-modal supply chain visibility,
collaboration, and event management provider headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
(US). The former Celarix' logistics provider, integration, and data quality
management service aim at helping Global 2000 organizations to quickly connect
to logistics trading partners and retrieve, use and share timely and accurate
shipment status information throughout the supply chain. The solutions have
allowed GXS to expand its value-added services to its core vertical markets,
particularly in the retail, hi-tech, and automotive industries. Meanwhile, former
Celarix' customers including, Agilent Technologies, Lowe's
Companies, Sharp Electronics, and ShopKo Stores,
have also become part of the GXS customer base.
AS2 Trading Connectivity Options
As
for its trading connectivity core competency, recently in January, GXS announced
that it has more than 1000 companies that are experiencing the benefits of real-time
communications with their trading partners by using various solution offerings
from its comprehensive AS2 portfolio. Companies ranging from the largest retailers
to the smallest suppliers can choose from hosted, traditional onsite software
or a hybrid AS2 option to address their specific AS2 needs. Clients using these
services include Pepsi Bottling Company, Swisher International,
National Fruit Products, Inc., Koss Audio & Video Electronics,
Bormioli Rocco Glass Company, Van Mar, Inc.,
and Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc. The GXS AS2 portfolio includes
both services and software as follows:
- AS2
Mailbox Service enables clients to connect to GXS using the AS2 protocol
and obtain the improved productivity resulting from this faster, more efficient
connectivity option.
- AS2
Outsourcing Service offers proactive, event-driven document exchange
via the Internet with 24x7 server availability for synchronous communication
in a hosted environment, which should enable clients to comply with their
trading partners' requests for AS2 communications without investing in the
hardware, software or expertise they would otherwise need.
- AS2
Software Suite
includes the Enterprise System AS2 add-on module for users
of GXS' supply chain integration platform, as well as the AS2 Comm
Link software for small to medium-sized businesses. The suite comes
pre-configured for both a variety of EDI translator packages and operating
systems and for trading partners, including Wal-Mart, Wells
Fargo, Procter & Gamble, UCCnet GLOBALregistry,
and many others.
This
portfolio was the result of the mid-2003 announcement of the launch of a suite
of AS2 Comm Link software solutions for suppliers of all sizes, which has complemented
the existing above-mentioned GXS AS2 offerings including AS2 Outsourcing and
AS2 Enterprise Systems software. The AS2 standard combines the traditional benefits
of EDI to smaller companies, while reducing the cost of on-line transactions
for larger enterprises. Whether using AS2 via the Internet or the GXS network,
the AS2 Comm Link enables suppliers to connect quickly and easily with their
trading partners in a real-time environment, by leveraging GXS' expertise in
internet-based transactions, security, scalability, and reliability. AS2 has
been widely adopted by the retail industry to take cost out of the supply chain,
while other industries are also considering the use of AS2 to exchange EDI or
XML e-commerce messages over the Internet or via the transaction services network.
As
indicated above, GXS offers pre-configured AS2 Trading Partners
designed for companies that want to trade with other companies and organizations
including Wal-Mart, Food Lion, Wells Fargo, Proctor & Gamble,
U.S. Army/Air Force (AAFES), and others. For
ease of customer use, the pre-configured Trading Partners have been formatted
with all of the technical information of their trading partners to get users
up and running easily and quickly. While, unlike in the case of radio frequency
identification (RFID), huge retailers have not yet issued a mandate or
a deadline for using AS2; however, many manufacturers are expected to adopt
AS2 primarily to satisfy their largest customers with cost savings being an
extra bonus. Frequently used EDI documents, such as purchase orders
(PO), acknowledgements, advance shipping notices (ASNs), and invoices, are seen
as the target for the first phase of AS2 implementation.
Interchange Services for Smaller Enterprises
At
about the same time, in an attempt to appeal to smaller enterprises, GXS added
automatic monitoring and integration capabilities to its Interchange
Services transaction service to make electronic trading more flexible
and less complex for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The
Interchange Services division, in addition to allowing businesses to exchange
business documents electronically by supporting electronic trade through various
standards, such as XML, EDI, and other industry-specific standards, also includes
audit trails, user-controlled access, and local language support twenty-four
hours a day to ensure business documents are protected in a secure environment.
The
new Trading Partner Client desktop software uses Web Services
technology to automate the exchange of data between back-office applications
and trading partners' systems via Interchange Services, and comes equipped with
a QuickBooks plug-in. The software picks up purchase orders,
invoices and other data from a company's back office system, sends them to its
trading partners in their preferred formats—EDI or XML. In the same way, the
software scans and picks up business documents from trading partners and delivers
them in the receiver's preferred format, directly to a specified directory,
or integrates them into a back-office application. A company can set up monitoring
to take place from every ten seconds to once a month. By using Web Services,
Trading Partner Client accelerates the electronic trading set-up time by providing
access to more detailed information on trading partners, such as data preferences
and standards compared to what could be made by available using alternative
technologies. The software is available free of charge for Interchange Services
subscribers.
This
concludes Part One of a four-part note.
Part
Two will continue the event summary.
Part
Three will discuss the market impact.
Part
Four will cover challenges and make user recommendations.