IBS: Overview

Online Partnerships Drive Huge e-Commerce Growth
Manufacturing companies selling into global marketplaces depend on their IT systems for efficient distribution of products from the factory to the customer. The fact is global e-Business increases the pressure on companies to match customer demand with factory output. But manufacturers are looking further, deploying enterprise-wide systems to manage all aspects of manufacturing.

International Business Systems (IBS), a respected Swedish supplier of distribution and logistics software, has integrated the service, sales, stock replenishment and warehousing requirements of leading manufacturing customers with its ASW* software suite. Using ASW, manufacturers can ensure that their distributors and retailers throughout the supply chain carry the optimum balance of stock. They reduce inventory costs where possible while at the same time ensuring that retail outlets do not run out of products.

The Internet has added to the challenge, says Staffan Ahlberg, CEO of IBS Group. "We are facing a momentous expansion of e-Commerce between businesses. Internet transactions between businesses are forecast to increase by some 100 percent annually over the next four years. Very few companies have Web sites that are fully integrated with their business systems."

IBS executives recognized that the challenge applied as much to itself as to its global manufacturing customer base. With more than 2,400 employees and a network of subsidiaries and business partners in 32 countries, IBS needed a way to tie together a highly distributed and mobile workforce. After all, how could the company help its customers best move goods from factory to retail outlets, if IBS itself couldn't present consistent information or services?