Elemica Showcases Supply Chain Operating Network at Annual North America Supply Chain Conference

EXTON, PA--(Marketwired - Jul 1, 2013) - Elemica, the leading Supply Chain Operating Network provider for the process industries, recently showcased their entirely new QuickLink Network platform at their annual North American Supply Chain Conference titled inSIGHT 2013. The event garnered rave reviews from industry executives and analysts in the audience. Other presentations covered supply chain complexities in an age of uncertainty, market driven value chains, analytics, and B2B connectivity. Over one hundred Elemica customers and other process industry professionals attended the conference and left with a clear view into supply chain networks built for the future. These networks are designed from the outside-in, with new processes that will best sense and respond to customer demand, while also delivering the insights needed to efficiently operate in a complex and volatile global market.

"Attendees at our inSIGHT 2013 conference were blown away by all the actionable information they gathered from industry leaders and analysts," said Ed Rusch, Director of Corporate Marketing at Elemica. "Knowledge shared on the latest supply chain trends, the benefits of B2B social collaboration, and how to drive better supply chain performance proved extremely valuable."

Summaries of presentations include:

• Supply Chain 2.0: Managing Supply Chain Complexity in an Age of Uncertainty - Dr. Martin Christopher, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield University - Conventional supply chain design is in need of an overhaul because it focuses on forecasts, assumes relative stability, is based on lean thinking, and emphasizes cost reduction. Supply Chain 2.0 should be demand driven, agile, and responsive. One of the biggest barriers to change for Supply Chain 2.0 is complexity -- multiple suppliers, outsourcing, proliferating SKUs, etc. The solution is to eliminate the complexity that customers will not pay for and closely align supply chain processes with value propositions.
• A Market Driven Supply Chain - Lora Cecere, Founder & CEO, Supply Chain Insights - The chemical industry needs to focus on reducing inventories, increasing revenues, and managing growing complexities. To survive, companies must forecast demand better, look at alternative sourcing and materials to meet corporate social responsibility guidelines, elicit true collaboration, connect the extended supply chain for better end-to-end orchestration, and focus on outside-in supply chains.
• Growing Lean: The New Paradigm - Joel Nickelsen, Senior Advisor, Applied Value - Cost and capital efficiency is the foundation for long-term profitability. Lean growth is multi-dimensional across the entire enterprise. To grow lean, companies should outsource as much as they can for non-core activities, minimize complexity, focus on profitable products only, and emphasize speed, which is an asset with greater value than money.

Two Elemica customers, Syngenta and Afton Chemical, presented case studies on B2B networks and global logistics respectively. Wayne Boss, Director of Sourcing Services at Elemica, discussed the added value of network powered sourcing, and Cindi Hane, Vice President of Product Management at Elemica, discussed solutions to significantly reduce detention, the largest unplanned expense in transportation. Arun Samuga, Vice President of Research and Development at Elemica, rounded out the discussions with details on why Elemica decided to build an entirely new trading partner network, open it up, and incorporate a powerful B2B social collaboration layer within the user interface. Additional solution benefits on the new QuickLink Network platform include: 1) Partner Discovery, enabling companies to easily find suppliers, buyers, and logistics providers with whom they can connect with across the network, and 2) Campaign Management, providing mass on-boarding capabilities to rapidly scale the benefits of automation across a critical mass of trading partners.

"People attending our North American inSIGHT 2013 conference are now better equipped to grow their businesses by gaining real control over their global supply chains, utilizing data to predict trends, and embracing social collaboration," added Mr. Rusch. "If you missed it, you have a second chance to participate. Be on the lookout for our next inSIGHT event later this year in Frankfurt, Germany."

About Elemica

Elemica's Supply Chain Operating Network is designed to give clients greater control over their global supply chains. Capturing transaction data, across all trading partners, and translating it into actionable information is key to driving value out of the supply chain. By combining powerful SmartLink business process applications with a robust QuickLink Network, Elemica solutions improve operational efficiency, lower costs, and decrease working capital. Founded in 2000, Elemica today processes nearly $200B in annual transactions across more than 5,000 process industry trading partners. Elemica's global operations are headquartered outside Philadelphia and include offices in Amsterdam, Atlanta, Frankfurt, London, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo. Clients include BASF, BP, Continental, The Dow Chemical Company, DuPont, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, LANXESS, Michelin, Rhodia, Shell, Sumitomo Chemical, and Yokohama. For more information, visit www.elemica.com.