Ultriva Extends Leadership in Cloud-Based Collaborative Supply Chain Market With Significant Upgrade

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultriva, a leader in collaborative supply chain solutions, announced today an enhanced version of its cloud-based software that further accelerates productivity and performance for manufacturing firms around the globe. Based on direct feedback from customers, Ultriva software now includes a 'Collaborative RFQ' (Request for Quote) module that incorporates innovative social media concepts, an 'Inventory Optimization Tool' that helps organizations to improve the operational and financial performance of their supply chains and a 'Collaborative Planning' module that combines historical consumption and replenishment data with forward-looking demand data to calculate future inventory positions. The new version further aligns Ultriva with its mission of empowering global manufacturers to achieve maximum inventory velocity through demand-responsive supply chains.

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Current supply chain management systems are good at planning but lack the tools necessary to quickly and cost effectively react to the constant stream of changes in customer demand, supply and pricing that are so common in today's global markets. The inability of these systems to support true collaboration and execution between manufacturers and their supply chain partners results in supplier whiplashing, poor delivery performance and lost revenue. 

Ultriva's cloud-based collaborative supply chain solutions are designed to solve these challenges by creating a demand responsive network that extends from manufacturer's customers, through their plants and out to their supply chain partners. In addition, Ultriva's unique closed-loop event-driven architecture enables manufacturers to deploy the technology to the most constrained loop in an enterprise value chain and then work up or down the chain to achieve optimal performance.

Key new features in Ultriva's cloud-based supply chain solutions include:

• Collaborative RFQ module dramatically streamlines legacy RFQ processes by leveraging the cloud to enhance communication, data sharing, bid responses and vendor selection. The end-result is a highly agile and responsive RFQ process that frees-up buyers' time and strengthens strategic sourcing activities.   
• Patent-pending Inventory Optimization Tool simulates past, present and future state inventory performance, enables what-if scenarios and quantifies inventory improvement opportunities to facilitate rapid and sustainable inventory reduction.
• Collaborative Planning module combines past material consumption and replenishment history with current replenishment loop-sizing and forward-looking material forecasts, to identify and quantify when resizing actions will need to be taken to improve inventory performance.     

"These new features are in line with our mission of providing greater transparency and collaboration between manufacturers and their supply chain partners," said Narayan Laksham, Ultriva founder and CEO. "Ultriva's customers have experienced an average 35% increase in inventory velocity along with across-the-board improvements in employee productivity and supply chain decision making. We will continue to work closely with our customers to deliver even greater value through ultra-responsive, demand-driven supply chains."

"The Ultriva cloud-based platform has a low barrier to entry and allows for an incredibly high level of standardization across all of our suppliers, which made it the obvious solution for CareFusion," said Scott Harvey, vice president of Operations at CareFusion in Minneapolis, MN. "As a medical device company working in a highly regulated industry, it is imperative that we maintain a high level of transparency and accountability—something that Ultriva's solutions provide for us and our suppliers."

About Ultriva
Ultriva solutions are helping manage the supply chains and improve the inventory velocity of leading industrial manufacturing, healthcare, aerospace and logistics firms including ATK, CareFusion, Emerson, McKesson, Ingersoll Rand, Regal Beloit and Thermo Fisher. Ultriva's 98% customer retention rate over the last decade and year-over-year growth has propelled it into 150 manufacturing plants in over 20 countries worldwide. Ultriva's cloud-based supply chain solutions are being used to transact over $2 billion of material spend on an annual basis and have contributed to over $400 million in inventory savings for its customers.

For more information, visit www.ultriva.com, call us at: (408) 248-9803, or email us at [email protected].

SOURCE Ultriva