RedPrairie introduces new supply chain cloud unit

Supply chain technology services provider RedPrairie has kicked off a new business unit focused on delivering supply chain services in the cloud.

Entitled RedPrairie On-Demand Supply Chain, company officials said this new unit will support advanced technology for warehouse management (WMS) and transportation management (TMS) in a single- and multi-tenant model. They added that this moves follows acquisitions of on-demand WMS provider SmartTurn in 2010 and TMS provider Shippers Commonwealth in 2011.

By definition cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network such as the Internet.

“We made a move to operate our [cloud-based] TMS and WMS units under a single umbrella with RedPrairie On-Demand Supply Chain,” said Ken Webster, RedPrairie, vice president & general manager, On-Demand Solutions, at the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) Annual Conference in Philadelphia. “The idea behind it is a technology effort, with the WMS being a single-instance, multi-tenant solution and bringing our TMS into that technology area as well.”

RedPrairie’s first phase of multi-tenant TMS will occur by the end of 2011.

The plan to establish this new unit has been intact since RedPrairie completed its acquisition of Shippers Commonwealth.

In terms of how this unit will benefit shippers, Webster explained that now within RedPrairie, as a company it can now service companies with smaller operations to very large operations—and in between—with various combinations of services available in its product roadmap.

“For many years, we were one of the first companies to recognize the importance of having WMS and TMS talking to each other, and we have done it for a long time with the on-premise offerings we have had,” said Jim Le Tart, RedPrairie director of marketing. “Now we have that capability on the on-demand side in being able to supply that to our customers.”

Webster added that as a competitive advantage, no other supply chain technology provider has an affordable subscription fee-based bundled WMS and TMS like this for companies of varying sizes, adding that the combination of both is a key differentiator, which RedPrairie plans to expand upon.