Sockeye Supply Chain (formerly Sockeye Solutions), a leading supply chain software company, has announced a new inbound supply chain application, dynamic replenishment. Sockeye’s new dynamic replenishment module was developed by Sockeye, and validated by its work with Hewlett-Packard in powering the world’s ninth largest supply chain. The company also announced its new name, Sockeye Supply Chain, which better reflects the company’s strategic direction.

“Sockeye’s dynamic replenishment application enables a leading edge process that was developed and honed through our work with HP,” said Brian Nickerson, CEO of Sockeye Supply Chain. “Our inbound supply chain collaboration feature set is tested and proven, and differentiates our inbound supply chain capabilities from other offerings in the marketplace because of its ability to monitor both the supplying and the consuming sites and produces alert notification if inventory levels will not be met. With the new feature, HP can quickly propagate demand changes throughout the network, and identify and resolve critical supply issues before they have a negative impact on finished goods marketing commitments. This has allowed HP to reduce inventory levels and provide better service.”

Sockeye’s new dynamic replenishment module addresses a number of industry shortcomings found in other SCM solutions. The application allows for the co- management of inventory levels by the supplier and the manufacturer to work together to dynamically address any inventory level discrepancies in real- time. Sockeye works in multi-tier, multi-system, multi-enterprise and multi- language corporate scenarios with a highly flexible architecture, making it a powerful solution for the most complex supply chain needs. Its inbound collaboration feature set is focused on providing the visibility and decision- support to manage the replenishment of parts inventory from suppliers to manufacturers and has multiple replenishment methods based on the supplier/buyer relationship.

Sockeye’s applications are built and deployed on the Collaborative Application Framework (CAF) business solutions platform, allowing Sockeye to deliver applications that address unique customer requirements. The benefits of the Sockeye approach are that it takes companies less time to build and deploy new applications, and takes less time to modify these applications as the business requirements change. Customers are able to solve problems fast, at a lower cost, and can quickly adapt to change.

The following modules can be combined and configured to support a wide range of customized requirements and solve real-world problems with supply chain collaboration:

Inventory Visibility & Monitoring
Near real-time projection of inventory can be maintained for any location in the network. Any time a supply or demand event is received projected inventory is automatically recalculated and compared to minimum and maximum inventory targets. Exception alerts are generated when problems occur. Users can simulate changes to supply and demand to view the potential impact on projected inventory. Daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly periods are supported as well as telescoping horizons.

Purchase Order Negotiation
Supports on-line negotiation of discrete and blanket purchase orders between buyers and suppliers, user-configurable negotiation process and allowable actions. All negotiation steps are logged. Process supported with exception alerts.

Forecast Commit Process
Buyer provides long range forecast for parts and supplier makes commitments against the forecast. The process supported with simulation capabilities, system-recommended commitments and exception alerts.

Supplier Managed Replenishment
Supplier monitors inventory at manufacturing site and is responsible for maintaining projected parts inventory between minimum and maximum inventory targets. Buyer is responsible for maintaining demand projections (consumption plans) and inventory targets. Supplier is responsible for making firm shipment commitments. Process supported with simulation capabilities, system recommended shipments, commitment change process and exception alerts.

Dynamic Replenishment
Agent-based automated replenishment. Projected parts inventory is monitored at both supplying and consuming sites. A projected inventory problem will trigger an agent to automatically generate a new shipment plan to resolve the problem. If the agent is unable to resolve the problem within a user defined set of policies and constraints, alerts will be triggered to buyers or suppliers (depending on problem) for manual intervention.

ASN & GRN Tracking
Advance Ship Notices (ASN) and Goods Receipt Notices (GRN) can be imported into the system or entered manually on-line. Exception alerts for late shipments, overdue intransits and ASN/GRN mismatches.

Returns Management
Supports a Return Material Authorization (RMA) process between buyers and suppliers. Return notices can be entered online and will automatically cause projected inventories to be updated. Suppliers specify a fix plan and a schedule of shipments back to the buyer. Process supported with exception alerts.

About Sockeye Supply Chain
Sockeye Supply Chain’s software enables companies to improve the speed and efficiency of their multi-tier supply chain through inventory reduction, increased profitability and reduced risk. Designed specifically to address customers’ unique supply chain needs and challenges, Sockeye’s flexible and adaptive technology enables customers to deploy collaborative business processes with ease while delivering maximum supply chain velocity, improved visibility and reduced risk. For more information, email info@sockeyesupplychain.com or visit the Web site at http://www.sockeyesupplychain.com/.