WEBM Webmediabrands (MM)

Leading Online Retailer Leveraging Real-Time Access to Purchase Order and Inventory Information to Enhance Supply Chain Operations. FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- webMethods, Inc. (NASDAQ:WEBM), a leading business integration and optimization software company, today announced that http://www.quixtar-inc.com/ (Quixtar Inc.), a subsidiary of Alticor Inc., recently implemented components of the webMethods Fabric(TM) product suite to improve supply chain agility and performance. Quixtar is the industry's 20th largest online retailer and the overall leader within the health and beauty category, according to Internet Retailer "Top 500 Guide" rankings. Quixtar is leveraging webMethods technology to enable Web services-based interoperability between various enterprise systems, which has allowed the company to seamlessly update or replace a number of legacy systems as it fully transitions to real-time operations of its supply chain. As a result of these efforts, Quixtar is seeing significant improvements in supply chain performance, including an improvement in inventory turns and replenishment rates. "By minimizing our reliance on legacy systems, we improved the timeliness and accuracy of our supply chain while reducing the resource requirements that these aging systems imposed on our IT department," said Tina Abdoo, Integration Center Manager, Quixtar. "webMethods offered us a real-time, scalable platform to which we could seamlessly transition our supply chain operations. Due to its widespread support for Web services, it's proven to be a very extensible platform and enables us to address ancillary requirements such as adding new vendors or products and easily deploying additional functionality." While Quixtar's legacy purchasing and catalog systems were critical to its operations, they were also limited by inadequate integration. Specifically, these systems were costly to maintain, difficult to update, and due to their failure to fully integrate with the company's other enterprise systems, lacked the speed and agility that Quixtar desired. As a result, the decision was made to shift the company's procurement and planning operations from its mainframe environment to its JD Edwards platform while also adding real-time integration of its existing merchandising, forecasting and planning applications as well. This necessitated a new integration architecture. Leveraging the webMethods platform, Quixtar was able to quickly integrate all of these systems into a more holistic and seamless supply chain in which batch transfers were replaced with real-time integration. At the same time, webMethods was also used to create a number of customized application interfaces, which provided users with role-based access to a variety of applications as well as a more comprehensive view of their operations. Since implementing webMethods, planners and fulfillment teams have benefited from enhanced access to up-to-date order information, including purchase order status, receipts and inventory levels. On the business end, this has enabled the company to more accurately forecast purchasing and inventory, as well as build more accurate product plans. Additionally, this system has streamlined procurement, enhanced vendor communications and increased performance analysis. These enhancements have also measurably improved Quixtar's ability to respond to emerging opportunities. For example, products may now be setup and orders placed to suppliers on the same day. This allows Quixtar to more quickly capitalize on key buying trends. "The existing legacy purchasing system was not optimal and did not provide the flexibility to quickly setup products and purchase orders," said Rick Townshend, Quixtar's Finance & Product Systems Manager. "By eliminating our reliance on this legacy system, we significantly improved the timeliness and accuracy of our ordering information, and reduce the resource requirements that the aging system imposed on the IT staff." As well as reducing the resources required to setup new products, the IT team received significant benefits from the re-use of Web services across implementations. Using the webMethods platform to create a more consolidated supply chain infrastructure also allowed Quixtar to reduce application redundancy as well as its reliance on more costly mainframe systems, which further enhanced the productivity and efficiency of its IT operations. "End-to-end operational visibility and process adaptability are both critical components of best-in-class supply chain performance," said Deborah Rosen, executive vide president, worldwide marketing, webMethods, Inc. "Through the real-time integration that we offer as well as the enhanced agility enabled by our widespread support for Web services, we're helping to make this objective a reality for Quixtar." About Quixtar Quixtar Inc., a subsidiary of Alticor Inc. based near Grand Rapids, Mich., is a business opportunity company that offers entrepreneurs the ability to have a web-based business of their own. Through Quixtar's Independent Business Ownership Plan, individuals in the U.S. and Canada are rewarded for product sales resulting from their business-building efforts. Since 1999, Independent Business Owners powered by http://www.quixtar.com/ (Quixtar) have generated more than $5.7 billion in sales, earning in excess of $1.7 billion in bonuses and other incentives. Their efforts have made Quixtar the number one retailer in the online Health & Beauty category based on sales, according to Internet Retailer's "Top 500 Guide." 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 approximately 1,400 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 of, and webMethods Fabric is a trademark of, webMethods, Inc. 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, Web site: http://www.webmethods.com/ http://www.quixtar-inc.com/

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