ICI Paints Optimizes B2B Integration with webMethods Fabric
November 03 2005 - 8:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
Industry Leader Able to Reduce Costs, Improve Responsiveness to
Customer Demands on a Global Basis Using Comprehensive Integration
Backbone FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- webMethods Inc.
(NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization
software company, today announced that ICI Paints, one of the
international businesses of the ICI Group, has successfully
employed the webMethods Enterprise Services Platform, a key
component of webMethods Fabric(TM), as the foundation for their
next- generation B2B integration infrastructure. As a result, ICI
Paints anticipates improving the service levels and responsiveness
offered to its largest customers while reducing transactional
costs. The deployment also extends ICI Paints' commitment to
webMethods Fabric, which was initially used for integrating their
customer relationship management operations with their external
supply chain. "One of the pillars of ICI's strategy is a strong
technology and innovation platform," said Anne Sharp, IT Director,
OTC at ICI Paints. "In that respect, it made eminent sense for us
to further our deployment of webMethods so that it could serve as
the foundation of a solid and resilient B2B integration
infrastructure. Through this process, we've been able to automate
the exchange of orders, acknowledgement of receipts, and delivery
of advanced shipping notices and invoices with four key customers
who generate several hundred orders every day. This enables us to
process orders faster and more efficiently, which ultimately
benefits our customers." ICI Paints is one of the international
businesses of the ICI group, a $9.7 Billion global conglomerate of
businesses that develop and market paints, foods, fragrances, and
personal care products. ICI Paints produces and distributes some of
the world's top paints and decorative products brands, such as
Dulux, Cuprinol and Polycell. Due to the market's highly
competitive nature, it is crucial that ICI Paints extend its
ability to quickly respond to new customer requirements. Until
recently, these efforts were constrained by ICI Paints' continuing
reliance on traditional B2B exchange mechanisms, which typically
meant that communications were undertaken using EDI (Electronic
Data Interchange) over expensive VANs (Value Added Networks). For
other customers, orders were processed manually via telephone and
fax. By standardizing on the webMethods Enterprise Services
Platform as the integration backbone supporting these operations,
ICI Paints has been able to significantly reduce the EDI VAN costs
typically borne by its customers. As a best-in-class solution, it
offers comprehensive support for the exchange of all major file
types, including TRADACOM, EDIFACT, XML and flat files, across a
number of communication protocols, such as EDIINT /AS2 and FTP.
Ultimately, this approach allows ICI Paints to use fewer resources
to accept and process orders from these customers with this system
even being used to exchange documents with ICI Paints' own Stores
group, technically considered as another "virtual" customer. Added
Sharp, "The key benefits of us using webMethods has been its
flexibility and versatility, which has enabled us to quickly
respond to our customers' desire to find a replacement
communication mechanism for the VANs but also to re-use significant
portions of the integration code as we have integrated one customer
after the other. At the same time, whilst being flexible,
webMethods Fabric has also proven to satisfy our most stringent
security requirements around B2B communication. Furthermore,
webMethods has proven to be a supplier who is genuinely interested
in our success and has worked with us to ensure this." Martyn Eley,
webMethods' senior vice president and General Manager, EMEA said,
"Our success with ICI Paints has already led ICI Paints to
contemplate a number of additional projects that can be undertaken
using webMethods Fabric. This is enabled by the essential
flexibility and completeness that is inherent in the product suite.
By doing so, ICI Paints is able to more readily respond to changes
in its business while continuing to lower long-term integration
costs." About webMethods Fabric webMethods Fabric is a complete
business integration platform that binds information technology
into the fabric of the business and provides greater process
visibility and control. This frees organizations from the
constraints of technology, enabling faster deployment of new
business solutions and continuous process improvement. webMethods
Fabric can transform a business my maximizing business process
productivity. About webMethods, Inc. webMethods (NASDAQ:WEBM)
provides business integration software to integrate, assemble and
optimize available IT assets to drive business process
productivity. webMethods delivers an innovative, enterprise-class
business integration platform that incorporates proven integration
technology with next generation capabilities into one interoperable
set of tools that delivers a unique combination of efficiency,
agility and control. webMethods combines industry leadership with a
zealous commitment to customers to deliver tangible business value
to more than 1,330 global customers. webMethods is headquartered in
Fairfax, Va., with offices throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia
Pacific and Japan. More information about the company can be found
at http://www.webmethods.com/. The webMethods name and logo are
registered trademarks, and webMethods Fabric is a trademark, of
webMethods, Inc. in the United States of America and certain other
countries. All other marks mentioned are trademarks or service
marks of their respective companies. DATASOURCE: webMethods, Inc.
CONTACT: John Conley of webMethods, +1-703-460-5996, or Web site:
http://www.webmethods.com/
Copyright
Webmethods (NASDAQ:WEBM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2024 to Aug 2024
Webmethods (NASDAQ:WEBM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2023 to Aug 2024