ReadiMinds Web Services Targets OEM Market

ReadiMinds, a Web services software company, offers one of the most unique Web services solutions in the market. ReadiMinds' WebServices Applications Suite provides a rich library of Web services that comprise multi-enterprise applications.

ReadiMinds is primarily used by OEM companies to coordinate processes across customers and suppliers. Out of the box, ReadiMinds arrives with a complex Collaborative Forecasting application, which is designed to manage demand-side forecasting requests made by OEM companies to customers. Many OEMs handle forecasting today by relying on e-mail, fax and phone but often underestimate customer demands. Poor visibility on the supply side creates delays in the manufacturing process, so OEMs often miss the time frame for demand fulfillment. On the other hand, manufacturing sometimes outpaces demand, so OEMs end up writing off unwanted inventory.

ReadiMinds' Collaborative Forecasting component provides a realtime environment to accurately predict inventories based on information from customers, OEMs and suppliers. Essentially, ReadiMinds creates a virtual enterprise across multiple companies, allowing all parties to arrive at a single forecast in realtime. The forecast is used to initiate the manufacturing process for an OEM based on real inventory numbers from suppliers. Customers also are notified immediately of manufacturing and inventory decisions.

ReadiMinds uses the ebXML standard to communicate with external systems and other ReadiMinds servers. At the application stack, ReadiMinds orchestrations are generated using BPEL. This allows the included ReadiStudio tool to create composite programs using external components linked through BPEL code. In a multi-enterprise setup, ReadiMinds also uses ebXML for its Trading Partner Manager tool. By relying on a single trading standard, developers and business analysts from different companies can communicate more effectively. The tool automatically handles all partner agreements between systems. Trading Partner Manager provides a document exchange feature that defines all the rules for each partner agreement. This feature is open-ended, so rules are configurable, and exceptions are used to trigger any variable violated in these agreements.

The software arrives with an executive dashboard for business analysts and salespeople. Because ReadiMinds processes are based on rules triggered by events, users across multiple companies do not have to manually track any agreement or intermediate decision made by the software. Alerts and messages provide a simple mechanism allowing users from different companies to view the entire process as if it existed as a single entity.

ReadiStudio is a wizard-driven environment that can generate simple skeleton Bean classes for Enterprise JavaBeans. Beyond the simple interfaces created by the wizards, ReadiMinds recommends developers and solution providers use Borland's Java development solutions to develop more complex code. Since most of the EJB code necessary to communicate with the application server is generated by ReadiStudio, testing can be concentrated on business logic rather than server operations. Thus, the primary focus is on integrating ReadiMinds with in-house systems. Because ReadiMinds uses the same architecture across all its tools, any Web service components developed within ReadiStudio becomes reusable. In ReadiOrchestra, for instance, users attach Web service components to external BPM code. ReadiOrchestra also handles exceptions between each component layer.

ReadiMinds arrives with four user interfaces (UIs) designed to communicate with ReadiOrchestra. Using a decoupled component architecture, UI clients can quickly change without affecting other layers in a ReadiMinds server. When server-side changes affects a UI, that UI quickly adapts without having to interrupt any process. ReadiMinds arrives with service components for a mobile UI. These components can be incorporated into any phase in a process, allowing managers to work remotely.

ReadiMinds offers four global partner programs with a minimum 40 percent average reseller margin. ReadiMinds is currently seeking U.S.-based systems integrators with experience delivering ERP and SCM systems. Technical support is based on partner level. The company also provides access to alliance managers and joint account development. ReadiMinds starts at $100,000.