Kewill and Inovis announce partnership to deliver Global Data Synchronisation across Europe

Kewill Systems Plc, a leading provider of supply chain execution software and services, announced today a partnership with Inovis and its UK affiliate Harbinger Commerce Ltd, leading providers of fully integrated business-to-business solutions and services for e-business and data synchronisation. Kewill will resell and support the Inovis Catalogue service, for Global Data Synchronisation (GDS) in the UK and across Europe. The partnership will extend Kewills supply chain offerings in its focus market of retail with the ability to provide a GDS solution.

With large retailers driving advanced supply chain initiatives like RFID and Vendor Managed Inventory which rely on data integrity to deliver the business benefit, the issue of data accuracy and accessibility has become paramount. Furthermore, the retail industry is becoming more global, which has led to the formation of a variety of data standards, means of communication and synchronisation requirements making it increasingly complex to ensure data accuracy.

We see the partnership with Inovis as a significant step in providing a leading GDS solution to UK and European retailers through a UK based provider. GDS is becoming critical to enabling a more efficient supply chain through ensuring accurate and up-to-date product information across all levels of the supply chain. It is essential for businesses who wish to realise the true benefit of the retail industry initiatives, to implement this as part of their IT and Supply Chain strategies, said Paul Nichols, CEO of Kewill Systems Plc.

Sean Feeney, CEO of Inovis stated, The retail industry has been the leader in adopting a GDS enabled supply chain and Inovis is at the forefront in delivering these solutions in North America. This partnership with Kewill will enable Inovis to extend the provision of this service to the UK and Europe through the local market leader Kewill.

Inovis Catalogue is the North American retail industry's leading product data synchronisation application. With over 100 million unique items, Inovis Catalogue enables more than 4,700 marketers, manufacturers, suppliers and retailers to share the latest product information with 550 total product attributes including price, style, colour and size. Inovis Catalogue offers a complete solution for item set-up and synchronisation, and supports the latest EAN.UCC System global standards initiatives. Inovis is a UCC-certified Solution Partner for UCCnet services. By automating business processes such as item set-up and maintenance and product marketing content management, Inovis Catalogue helps customers achieve increased revenue and greater productivity.

"Our UK and European retail expertise, proven solutions and world-class support services will enable any retailer to seamlessly communicate product related information with its trading partners and maintain the high standard of information accuracy that is essential to gaining competitive edge," said Jacquie Boast, COO of Kewill Solutions Europe.