Three into one set to provide good supply chain support

Finmatica Mercia in Birmingham, formerly Mercia Software prior to its acquisition by Italian e-procurement software developer Finmatica in June, is getting its act together to offer manufacturers and distribution firms rather more than its former demand chain software suite. Parent company Finmatica, which had majored in the Italian banking and finance sector, had already acquired French manufacturing advanced planning and scheduling (APS) software company Ortems shortly after the latter had exited from the UK market in a bid to grow a supply chain business. Now with Ortems APS, Mercia’s DRP and Finmatica’s e-procurement and e-sourcing all notionally under one roof, it’s looking more of a compelling story. Gareth Brentnall, Finmatica Mercia’s global business development manager, says that although for the time being each of the former businesses retains its own identity in its country of origin, technology transfer and integration are well underway, the latter harnessing Ortems’ adapters and configuration software. Recent weeks have seen teams exchanged and a strategy emerging for the suite, which Brentnall says will rely on separate databases but a single data model, covering virtually all supply chain functionality except network planning and dynamic optimisation – the expensive end. It absolutely will include supply chain event management (SCEM) and fulfilment (SCF) functionality, and the whole will be web-enabled to support industry’s gradual move to collaborative operations. It will also include Mercia’s business intelligence analytics and Ortems KPI-based (key performance indicators) business ‘dashboard’ management system interface. This is an interesting development. If this gang of three gets it right, and Mercia’s own track record in the distribution end of supply chain systems is very good, we’ll get the whole spread of supply chain support systems that really matter to most manufacturers from one company. And importantly, the firm can and does do its own consultancy and implementations – successfully, as Case New Holland, GM and many others in the consumer packaged goods, healthcare and automotive sectors will attest.