Summer 2008

RedPrairie Corporation, the supply-chain management specialist that nowadays describes itself as a 'consumer driven optimisation company', has nailed its flag to the mast of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) with a new platform for handling cross-application business processes. It has given the system the catchy name E2E.

The company says it creates a common point of integration for all RedPrairie and third-party applications. Chief executive Mike Mayoras says it enables users to manage 'previously disjointed processes' such as new product launches, product recalls and store promotions.

The system provides a shared platform for collecting, managing, communicating and acting on information and events that flow from the store shelf through manufacturing.

It includes a 'process modeller' for building and customising business processes using a graphical user interface; a process monitor for dynamically tracking business activities and processes; a service repository for easy access to RedPrairie services and registration of other enterprise services; and a service bus for orchestrating and brokering transactions between systems.