Sterling Commerce Delivers Industry's First Integrated On-Demand Yard and Transportation Management Solution

Integrated Solutions Provide Rapid ROI, Complete Visibility and Greater Control of Companies' Transportation Operations


CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - September 22, 2009) - At the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) conference, Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc company, today announced Sterling Yard Management, an on-demand application that manages all the activities associated with a company's yard -- providing visibility into trailers from arrival through departure -- so companies have a total picture of their inventory. Sterling Yard Management is fully integrated with the Sterling Transportation Management System (TMS), providing a clear view of product movement from warehouse to delivery.

"While managing the yard used to be an afterthought, the need for greater inventory visibility and improved management of yard assets has brought a renewed focus on the need for yard management applications," said Cory Wiegert, vice president, Applications Product Line, at Sterling Commerce. "By providing the industry's first fully integrated on-demand yard and transportation management solution, we are delivering the industry's most complete multi-channel order fulfillment solution. Companies can now manage orders through final delivery, allowing them to meet deadlines and streamline inefficiencies."

Delivered as a Software as a Service-based (SaaS) application, Sterling Yard Management enables a broader range of companies to benefit from better yard management by offering a shorter implementation time and lower initial start-up costs compared to traditional on-premise applications. Its dynamic graphical view of the yard allows users to drill down into trailer details and contents while using a "click and drag" "move tasks" function between dock doors, weighbridges, washers and parking slots. It also offers highly flexible rules that allow automatic creation of move tasks, such as guided put-away and divert-to-dock tasks when an appointment is due.

Using Sterling Yard Management, companies can optimize their trailer pools to:

--  Improve on-time departure by assigning trailers to shipments thereby
    ensuring alignment of trailer demand to supply
--  Maximize trailer utilization by easily switching carriers based on
    available trailers and automatically communicating to the new carrier with
    a shipment pickup request
--  Achieve faster yard turnaround and reduce detention charges by
    enabling carriers to drop trailers and leave with an empty trailer
    

Integration between Sterling Yard Management and Sterling TMS allows companies to coordinate trailer and dock appointments, manage trailer inventory in conjunction with order fulfillment requirements and manage carrier detention charges. Working in concert across applications, the yard is now visible to the rest of the organization.

Sterling Commerce customer Church & Dwight, which manufactures a variety of personal care, household and specialty products under the Arm & Hammer brand name and other well-known trademarks, is using Sterling TMS to manage its more than 150,000 annual shipments throughout North America.

"Sterling TMS has enabled us to improve our shipment visibility and our overall operational efficiencies," said Chad Whyte, director, Corporate Transportation, at Church & Dwight. "We see a natural fit between transportation and yard management operations. Together, they can help companies achieve a deeper view of their fulfillment operations, minimize lost orders and better optimize trailer pools."

Sterling Yard Management is part of the Sterling Selling and Fulfillment Suite, a unique set of applications for managing the entire process of inquiry to cash that removes the barriers to successful customer and supplier interactions by providing a single end-to-end view of multi-channel selling and fulfillment operations.

About Sterling Commerce

Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE: T) company, helps companies optimize and transform their Business Collaboration Network to accelerate revenues and reduce costs. Sterling Commerce provides more than 30,000 customers worldwide applications and integration solutions to connect, communicate and collaborate inside and outside their enterprise. More information can be found at www.sterlingcommerce.com.

Contact Information: For more information, contact: Julie Redard Sterling Commerce (978) 513-6386 julie_redard@stercomm.com Jamie Leicht Fleishman-Hillard (619) 237-7711 jamiemarie.leicht@fleishman.com