Haht Touts Demand Chain Management

Executives at Haht Commerce believe that the concept of demand chain management is more than just spin.

The company, which released Commerce Suite 7.0 software two weeks ago, takes the position that demand-chain management is the most critical subset of the sell-side e-commerce software market.

Demand chain management is about "getting the right products in the right place at the right time" for companies to create and market goods and services, said Rowland Archer, co-founder and CTO of Haht, based here.

Archer said companies must look at every step of their business processes,from creating an order to fulfilling it and settling terms,and automate as many as possible. The new software enables just that, he said.

For example, giving customers the ability to check the status of an outstanding order and getting order-management applications to update ERP systems on the fly are a couple of ways to squeeze time and cost out of the demand chain, Archer said.

In addition to handling order-management functions, version 7.0 centralizes catalog search features, analyzes user transactional and behavioral data, verifies payment terms, and stores and tracks invoices.

Half of Haht's deals engage partners in selling the company's products. In nearly 80 percent of accounts, partners are involved in product implementation, Archer said. An alliance with KPMG is the furthest along, he said. Haht also is pursuing deals with Big Five players and midmarket solution providers such as Clarkston, Durham, N.C.

"We do joint proposals and joint bids, and even the projects themselves [are typically handled by both KPMG and Haht staff]," said Ali Abidi, a manager at KPMG who has been involved in three of the four Haht engagements undertaken by KPMG to date.

Yet Abidi said he would like his company's relationship with Haht to mimic other vendor partnerships established by KPMG where there are clear delineations between sales and service.

"We have been very successful with vendors when we [handle] all the services and the vendor provides the software and the support," he said.

In related news, Haht said earlier this month that it closed a $17 million round of funding led by Granite Ventures.

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