SEEBURGER Will Provide EDI Data Translation, Monitoring and Connectivity Services

 

ATLANTA (September 9, 2005) --- SEEBURGER Inc. announced today that Whirlpool

Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home

appliances, will use SEEBURGER technology to provide a standardized business

integration solution for thousands of trade customers that use Electronic Data

Interchange (EDI) to automate business transactions. SEEBURGER adapters

embedded in the SAP NetWeaver® technology stack will eliminate the need for

multiple solutions, and also support Whirlpool's global use of the mySAP Business

Suite as well as the company's initiatives to implement the NetWeaver platform.

 

The use of SEEBURGER adapters for data translation and communications will

simplify Whirlpool's network architecture, both by allowing the company to move

away from non-SAP-compliant solutions and by eliminating the need to use trade

customer integration solutions from different vendors. In addition, AS2 connectivity

services provided by SEEBURGER will aid Whirlpool's efforts to migrate more

suppliers and customers to the AS2 standard in order to reduce costs and maximize

its investment in global data synchronization through the UCCnet data pool service.

 

Whirlpool is currently using SAP NetWeaver's master data management (MDM)

capabilities to synchronize product item information with UCCnet, the SAP Exchange

Infrastructure (SAP XI) to provide integration broker services, and the SEEBURGER

AS2 adapter to meet UCCnet's requirement for Internet-based AS2 document

exchange. That data synchronization effort will help Whirlpool comply with its trade

customers' demands for uniform product information, while also lowering supply

chain costs by reducing invoice and product shipment errors.

One of Whirlpool's trade customers recently migrated to the SEEBURGER-based AS2

service with UCCnet connectivity. That customer's system will be used to

demonstrate the benefits of AS2 and UCCnet to other trade customers.

 

"We have more than 5,000 trade customers in the U.S. but fewer than 20 are using

AS2 capabilities today, with the vast majority of our business coming in on EDI over

a value-added network," said Thomas Ehrman, director of Global Enablement

Services for Whirlpool Corporation's Global Information Systems. "By using

SEEBURGER to help move more trade customers to the AS2 communication

platform, we expect to see significant cost reductions with VAN elimination while also

bringing more suppliers and customers into the UCCnet and AS2 fold."

 

Whirlpool Corporation's transition to SEEBURGER's connectivity solution set is part of

the first phase of its SAP NetWeaver and SAP XI implementation. The company is

using SEEBURGER's SAP consulting services to deploy the adapters, link to UCCnet,

and configure the message formats required for each trade customer. Whirlpool is

scheduled to activate SEEBURGER's EDI Translation adapters later this year.

 

"This implementation is significant because it reflects two major IT trends for

consumer packaged goods companies today. The first is the move to consolidate on

a single global platform - in this case the mySAP Business Suite and related

applications - to reduce costs and enable the service-oriented architecture required

to efficiently link business processes. The second is the push for global data

synchronization through UCCnet and other trading pools," said Scott Lewin,

President, SEEBURGER US. "SEEBURGER's tight integration with SAP and 20-year

history of providing reliable electronic communication among trade customers

support Whirlpool's efforts in both arenas."

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 top industry analysts, and serves more than 6,500 customers in 35 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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