WorldChain Software Tailors Supply Volume

Rather than relying on manufacturers' forecasts, WorldChain's supply chain execution software tracks customer sales to dictate the amount of product to push downstream.

WorldChain's software suite includes a network platform with a series of applications that sit on top of it and are typically sold one at a time to customers. The company has completed more than a dozen live implementations in its nearly three years of operation, said David Tompkins, vice president of marketing at the Fremont-based ISV.

Separate applications designed for use with WorldChain 3.0, which was released in June, handle demand coordination, network inventory and logistics, including returns. The vendor makes products available on a licensed or hosted basis.

In some cases, the same customer,more often than not a Silicon Valley high-tech vendor,is using WorldChain products in multiple deployments, Tompkins said.

"We coordinate and synchronize activities across an extended supply chain, such as fulfillment of an order or checking of inventory," he said. "We're focused on the coordination of all the partners in a network, rather than those [departments confined to a four-walled facility."

The software lets members of a supply chain,from manufacturer to distributor to plant to warehouse,access the same inventory and shipment data, and then work together to meet preset performance criteria.

WorldChain is focused on areas that haven't been automated, such as reverse logistics, said Mark Hebert, executive vice president of alliances at Sierra Atlantic, a solution provider and WorldChain partner also based here. "There is a huge amount [of inefficiency that can be squeezed out" by automating and streamlining processes associated with product returns, Hebert said.

Using WorldChain's technology, Sierra Atlantic helped storage vendor Network Appliance close gaps in its supplier network. Until the WorldChain solution was developed, Network Appliance couldn't keep track of returned items or their repair status.

"There is a lot of cost associated with [putting items back into inventory," Hebert said. "It's fairly valuable equipment that can be resold or repurposed" once fixed, he said.

Tompkins said some WorldChain partners resell its products, while others focus on post-sale implementation opportunities. WorldChain projects are typically a joint effort between the vendor and partners rather than a outsourcing deal, he said, citing Bristlecone, EDS, KPMG and others as partners in addition to Sierra Atlantic.

Padman Ramankutty, CEO of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Bristlecone, said WorldChain's competitors include Servigistics and Yantra. Bristlecone is completing its first WorldChain implementation now.

WorldChain "has to keep moving the development and the product enhancements ahead of the bigger players because that's where the competition comes from," Ramankutty said. Bristlecone, which focuses on building supply chain solutions, counts Nike and Pennzoil among its customers.

Ramankutty and Tompkins agreed that customers' expectations around software deployments have changed dramatically.

"They recognize that it's a buyer's market, and they expect significantly lower billing rates," Tompkins said. "They want to have one prime contractor."

WorldChain rewards loyalty through incremental commission bumps for additional engagements.

Tompkins said partners can expect a commission of about 25 percent of the deal's total value on their first WorldChain project, with commissions on second and third projects ranging from 40 percent to 50 percent. "Once we move onto a second client, or a second project with the first client, then we are seeing much more widespread training in terms of learning our solution," he said.

Photography by Carl Wiens for CRN.