Event Summary
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 and manages
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
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.
This
is Part Two of a four-part note.
Part
One began the event summary.
Part
Three will discuss the market impact.
Part
Four will cover challenges and make user recommendations.
HAHT Commerce
On
its hand, HAHT Commerce at the end of 2003 announced that its product information
management (PIM) solution goes well beyond basic, short-term fix for compliance
with data synchronization via the UCCnet GLOBALregistry service.
Namely, like its future parent GXS, HAHT has long realized that data synchronization
would be a relatively simple task if the data was normalized, complete, and
error-free. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, given product information
is not created by a single department within the company and is usually not
overseen by any single group. It is this lack of process within a manufacturer's
business and around managing product information that facilitates errors.
To
that end, HAHT Commerce claims to have raised the bar by providing more advanced
PIM processes with the introduction of Version 7.5 of its HAHT
Commerce Suite of applications and through its many updates to the
PIM component of the suite. HAHT PIM is a strategic solution
designed to meet current and evolving standards for collaborative trading. It
empowers manufacturers to manage product information and optimize product data
synchronization from product launch through to sunset via the automation of
internal and external business processes with trading partners. It supports
product item data synchronization with UCCnet services, industry exchanges,
as well as directly with trading partners in a point-to-point fashion. Here
is a summary of new features found in version 7.5:
- Compliance
Manager—Uses data validation rules to ensure compliance with trading partners
and industry standards;
- UCCnet
2.2 Certification—Supports the UCCnet GLOBALregistry service for data exchange
with global partners and industry vertical markets;
- Visual
Workflow Editor—Allows workflow administrators to model business process workflows
according to specific business needs and conditions. It enables support across
the entire suite for quotes, orders and requests for quote (RFQs);
- Proxy
Delegation—Allows approvers to sign a proxy while they are unavailable thus
facilitating the continued handling of workflow tasks on their behalf;
- Personalized
Workgroup Templates—Allows administrators to create different data views for
various group functions which enables business users to focus on their area
of expertise;
- Parallel
Workflow—Speeds approval process by splitting work across multiple users;
- Audit
Trail Support—Administrators can view changes made by each step of approval
process; and
- Business
Intelligence Enhancements—New reports and data analysis functionality highlights
potential problems. At the discretion of the manufacturer reports can be generated
to show average days to market by product, a summary of trading partner actions,
and a retailer responsiveness scorecard for data synchronization, to name
a few.
Vertically Focused DCM Application Suites
Prior
to that, early in 2003, HAHT announced general availability of three new vertically-focused
DCM application suites for chemical, consumer products, and discrete manufacturers.
The HAHT Consumer Products Suite, HAHT Chemicals Suite,
and HAHT Discrete Manufacturing Suite are all built on HAHT's
new core technology, Commerce Suite 7.1, and provide specific
functionality for each respective industry. They are also touted to offer a
modular architecture, rapid implementation, out-of-the-box ERP integration,
easy customization and support for global deployments.
While manufacturers in different industries share some common needs, they determine their demand chain initiatives according to the operational priorities of their industries. For example, consumer product manufacturers are more concerned with managing and sharing branded product information, while a typical commodity chemicals company is more interested in increasing market share via segmentation and customer service levels, and meanwhile, discrete manufacturers are focused more on their channel partners than the other two. The following is a list of industry-specific functionality and their potential benefits found in the suites:
1)
HAHT Consumer Products Suite
- Ability
to define multiple packaging configurations for each product manages complex
packaging relationships
- "New
Product Introduction (NPI)" workflow process decreases time to launch
- Workgroup-level
security, edit controls, and validation rules for product information
- UCCnet
Global Registry support for item synchronization and market groups simplifies
maintenance
- Electronic-to-paper
print controls streamline hard-copy product data sheets and catalog creation
- Personalized
"Favorites" portal clip allows for easy access to frequently ordered or accessed
product data
- Dynamic
querying capabilities serve to provide extended product data
- Improved
reporting controls for business intelligence enhance data analysis
2)
HAHT Chemicals Suite
- Quote
Management shortens the length of time it takes to reach a price agreement
with Global customers during negotiations
- Auto-replenishment
based on collaboration, events, and order history reduces errors and enhances
customer service
- FaxPO
functionality automatically converts faxed purchase orders directly into an
ERP system, reducing errors and processing costs
- Support
for Chemical Industry Data Exchange (CIDX) 3.0 Chem eStandards
increases integration options
- Enhanced
Business Intelligence helps increase market share through analysis of sales
channels and customer segmentation
3)
HAHT Discrete Manufacturing Suite
- Catalog
customization for channel partners via dynamic templates and partner-defined
fields
- Co-branded
site functionality lets channel partners customize manufacturer's content
- Channel-defined
product bundles support collaboration
- Optimized
shipping-point models tied to individual channel partners provide cost savings
- Line-item
order history search
- Personalized
context-sensitive e-mail alerts save channel partner time when completing
transactions
Like
in GXS' acquisition of Celarix, many of the above capabilities
are the result of HAHT's 2002 acquisition of channel management vendor iMediation
and content exchange vendor arcadiaOne, which was purchased
by iMediation immediately prior to HAHT's play. The acquired companies' customers
included the dominant consumer products leaders Hasbro, L'Oral,
Philips, and Virgin. This strategic acquisition
has benefited HAHT by extending the product and brand information management
and channel management components of its product portfolio, by increasing its
European presence, and by increasing the size of its customer base, specifically
in the consumer products industries.
This
concludes Part Two of a four-part note.
Part
One began the Event Summary.
Part
Three will discuss the market impact.
Part
Four will cover challenges and make user recommendations.