Single-Platform Architecture & Advanced Features Will Simplify EDI Management

ATLANTA (October 17, 2007) --- SEEBURGER Inc. today announced an agreement to supply its B2B Gateway and associated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) services to Consolidated Metco Inc. (ConMet), a leading manufacturer of components for the commercial vehicle industry.  SEEBURGER technology will replace ConMet’s complex multi-box legacy EDI system with a single-platform solution that will consolidate all B2B processes and protocols on one server, improve integration with the company’s SAP R/3 system, reduce manual EDI processing tasks, and cut overall EDI costs.

The adoption followed a two-week consulting engagement during which SEEBURGER personnel analyzed ConMet’s existing EDI infrastructure and developed a comprehensive solution design demonstrating how the SEEBURGER platform could simplify and strengthen the company’s B2B integration practices.

The first ConMet plant is expected to go live with the new system in November, followed by a plant-by-plant rollout to be completed in 2008.  When fully deployed, the SEEBURGER gateway will process nearly 2,000 daily forecast, production sequencing, shipping and acknowledgement messages between the plants and the Tier 1 heavy truck manufacturers with which ConMet does business. 

Over the longer term, ConMet plans to explore the option to add smaller non-EDI enabled customers as well as suppliers and banks to the EDI stream, utilizing SEEBURGER capabilities such as any-to-any mapping, a Hub & Spoke system, and an online portal that automates partner communications via Web forms. 

“Our current EDI system is written in COBOL, highly manual-intensive, and dependent on multiple PCs to communicate with the mailboxes from each plant.  We clearly needed to migrate to a new platform,” said Jill Wait-Molyneux, ConMet IT Manager.  “SEEBURGER stood out because of its longtime partnership with SAP, robust B2B functionality, long list of successful deployments, and expertise in preparing a roadmap for upgrading our EDI environment.” 

SEEBURGER is providing initial consulting services to migrate ConMet’s in-house-developed EDI system to the SEEBURGER platform, including transitioning the integration from the company’s COBOL-based applications to SAP’s ABAP programming language, standardizing business processes to eliminate the need to write custom scripts for each trading scenario, and training ConMet’s EDI technicians to use SEEBURGER’s graphical mapping and workflow development tools.  The project will be expedited by the availability of pre-built automotive-specific message formats and workflows developed over SEEBURGER’s two decades of EDI experience. 

In addition to simplifying the EDI infrastructure, ConMet expects the new system to automate many processes that currently require manual intervention, speed onboarding of new trading partners, and reduce the time required to implement change requests from existing trading partners.  These benefits will be achieved in part through a transition from ConMet’s existing script-based system to SEEBURGER’s event-based architecture and drag-and-drop designers.
ConMet is a subsidiary of AMSTED Industries, one of the world's largest transportation component manufacturers for the rail, heavy-duty vehicle, automotive, construction/building and general industrial markets.
“Migrating from an older B2B/EDI system is always a challenge, and ConMet has a particularly complex legacy environment that was developed internally over a period of 20 years.  That means they are facing substantial change,” said Scott Lewin, President and CEO, Seeburger Inc.  “Our B2B Gateway will equip them with a proven solution that minimizes maintenance, supports all global EDI standards and communication protocols, and lowers the total cost of ownership.”  

The SEEBURGER B2B Gateway is a comprehensive and cost-effective business integration platform that is designed to cut administrative costs and accelerate business processes by automating trading relationships throughout the supply chain.  It is the only middleware solution capable of integrating 100% of an organization’s trading partners --- including smaller customers and suppliers that still do business on paper --- on a single platform that has been developed in-house by SEEBURGER to ensure compatibility, provide a common work environment, and simplify maintenance across the extended supply chain. 

SEEBURGER is a leading provider of global business integration solutions designed to optimize transactions throughout the extended enterprise by automating trading relationships with all partners regardless of their size and technical resources.  Launched in 1986 to provide integration solutions to the automotive industry in Germany, the company today is ranked among the top business-to-business gateway providers by industry analysts, and serves more than 7,000 customers in 50 countries and more than 15 industries through its flagship B2B Gateway and related products and services.  SEEBURGER has global offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, including a U.S. office that opened in 1998. 

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