Implementing a successful supply chain can be one of the most difficult challenges facing a company, mainly because of the integration issues that occur when outsourced supply chain systems are separated from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. This separation can create a void in the information exchange — information that's vital for organizations to optimize stockholding and drive incremental sales or customer retention.

Resolving Integration Issues

One company that believes it has solved many of the integration issues surrounding supply chain management is U.K.-based Amethyst Group. Originally formed by trading giants Itochu Corporation and Inchcape Group, Amethyst specialises in the transformation and automation of client supply chains on a fully managed service basis.

Amethyst offers a range of supply chain solutions, including customer data management (CDM), e-fulfilment, logistics, supply chain management, and warehousing. All of Amethyst's services can function standalone or in combination with other supply chain-related services to create a fully outsourced operation. The company counts among its clients names such as Mazda, Kia, Novartis, Wabco Automotive, Saracen Cycles, and Arbiter Group.

Increasing iSeries Legacy System Lifespans

But Amethyst needed to think about the future. Gavin Hunter, Group Head of IT for Amethyst, takes up the story. "Although most of our customers use our existing iSeries systems, it became increasingly apparent to us that a need was arising to develop applications that had the flexibility and the power to run equally as well on other operating platforms. In addition we also wanted to be able to offer our customers rapid customisation, in particular for our CDM solution given the dynamic nature of this activity."

Amethyst decided Windows NT should be the first expansion platform. With the need to upgrade its CDM capability on NT and the need to link this solution to other supply chain applications on the iSeries, Amethyst realized that it needed a cross-platform development tool that would help it avoid possible integration issues. Because integration costs can run two to 10 times the cost of the software, Amethyst realized it was important that any new development tool have the necessary drivers to integrate with solutions on non-iSeries systems to preserve the ability to gather data from all possible sources within an organization.

After some consideration and review of different products, Amethyst chose Magic eDeveloper for the iSeries, because it offered not just flexible integration, but because it let Amethyst develop and customise applications faster than ever before.

Magic INCITEs

Amethyst began using Magic eDeveloper in 1998. One of the first projects using the product developed a CDM suite of applications called INCITE that, using existing customer infrastructure and data feeds, captures relevant information from all sources to obtain a complete view of any organization's customer base. Once this information is collated, INCITE provides a range of services from basic prospect and sales tracking to data matching, profiling, and segmentation — an essential component for any successful direct marketing campaign. One of the first customers to whom Amethyst sold INCITE was Mazda Motors UK, which used INCITE to profile its target audience with impressive results.

"Because Magic gives us full access to all IBM iSeries data, and data on NT servers, programs and system facilities, we're able to customise existing applications in minimal time," Hunter recalls. "The key to resolving many of the integration issues that surround supply chain management is Magic's ability to insert business logic into existing back-end systems, which can shorten the time scales for complex integration projects considerably. With the latest version of Magic eDeveloper for the iSeries we're now also able to deploy applications as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) to integrate seamlessly into WebSphere, further increasing our applications' Web capabilities."

Amethyst attributes its success in a competitive market over the past few years to its ability to offer modular systems that can be easily integrated and customized to suit individual organizations' needs at a fraction of the cost of the customers' development of custom solutions. In the future Amethyst remains committed to Magic tools for its CDM application, which along with its systems, provides its customers with a comprehensive solution to outsourcing supply chain management.

David Leichner is vice president of worldwide marketing for Magic Software Enterprises. He has more than 15 years experience in the area of application development and integration.