Siemens uses SAP and Commerce One Solutions to streamline its supply chain and reduce cycle times for direct goods

Siemens AG, a leading global electronics and engineering company, is using solutions from SAP AG and Commerce One, the Business Internet Company, to streamline manufacturing supply chain activities with key suppliers. Siemens uses the Commerce One Collaborative Platform and SAP's mySAP Supply Chain Management solution to enable trading partner collaboration for reduced cycle times and increased order accuracy.

Building on its success using Commerce One solutions to power its buyside e-marketplace, click2procure, Siemens Procurement and Logistics Services, LLC (SPLS) is expanding its procurement and supply chain services to other Siemens divisions and third-party customers in the U.S., Canada and Germany.

Siemens Power Generation Group is using SAP e-business solutions in conjunction with the Commerce One Collaborative Platform, a key component of the Commerce One 5.0 suite. Siemens Power Generation Group is saving up to 40 percent in process costs as a result of more effective collaboration between its procurement, logistics, and accounts payable divisions and its supply base. Siemens Procurement & Logistics Services, LLC (SPLS), www.spls.siemens.com, a leading global procurement provider, offers a solution for the entire order-to-pay process of direct goods with a Web-enabled Purchase Order Transaction Service, allowing Siemens' buyers to place a purchase order in their SAP system and transmit it via the Internet to a supplier, who can then update Siemens' SAP system in "real-time" with acknowledgments, advance shipment notices and invoices. An additional self-service capability allows suppliers to check the status of their invoices in "real time" and to retrieve technical documents.

"The direct material solution has ensured a higher level of order accuracy and resulted in significant savings in the process cycles required for fax, e-mail or postal exchange of documents," said Dr. Ruediger Reitzig, director of direct material e-procurement solutions for SPLS. "We have reduced the cost of direct materials purchases, as well as purchasing process time from approximately three days to real-time. We can even process emergency orders for our customers within 24 hours, thereby improving customer satisfaction significantly."

"With 5.0, Commerce One has found an innovative solution to the challenge of inter-enterprise integration, enabling companies to dynamically connect and re-connect with each other in a cost-effective fashion," said Hasso Plattner, co-chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of SAP AG. "As partners, we share this vision. By leveraging the B2B integration functionality in the Commerce One Collaborative Platform, we've been able to help customers such as Siemens embrace a simpler and more cost-effective model for business process integration."

"Siemens' results are a terrific example of the power of the Commerce One Collaborative Platform combined with SAP's deep supply chain solutions," said Mark Hoffman, chairman and CEO of Commerce One. "We continue to work with SAP to find new ways to deliver solutions that help our customers cut time and expense from their collaboration with trading partners."