Zethcon Corporation and Blue Sky Logistics Form Product Partnership

Zethcon Corporation and Austin, Texas-based Blue Sky Logistics today announced a product partnership whereby Zethcon, a leading provider of advanced warehouse management and logistics technology, will fully integrate and market Blue Sky's Insight product as part of it's own suite of supply-chain technology offerings. Insight, an integrated suite of web applications that leverages existing software, such as warehouse management systems, to provide a real-time, consistent view of supply-chain information, will provide Zethcon customers additional visibility and analytical abilities in a web-based environment, capitalizing on the unique functionality and real-time information provided by Zethcon's supply-chain offerings, particularly it's flagship WMS product, Synapse. Insight will reduce operating costs by improving communication, allowing secure access to real-time information, and automating and streamlining core processes.

Insight consists of three interrelated products. Customer Insight is targeted for the stores or customers of the distributor. It will provide access to order statuses and history, real-time inventory and product information, supplier communications such as recall notices and promotions, and correspondence from the distribution center. Customer Insight will allow distributors to easily and securely make information available to customers and stores, while tracking their usage patterns and preferences to assist in achieving higher levels of satisfaction.

Facility Insight is aimed at the employees of the distributor. It will allow the distributor to monitor the efficiency of the facility via key performance indicators, easily communicate with suppliers, customers, or stores, and track inventory inside and outside the warehouse. By using Facility Insight the distributor will always have a real-time, configurable view of all the information needed to keep the supply chain running optimally, and will be able to quickly respond to events that might otherwise lead to costly problems.

Supplier Insight is designed to be used by the suppliers of the distributor. It allows the supplier to easily respond to requests from the distributor, view aggregate statistical information about the demand and history for its products, track inventory levels in the distribution center, and send timely information to the distributor and the stores. Supplier Insight will also track supplier activity to help the distributor improve the relationship with the suppliers.

As a whole, Insight extends the capabilities of the distributor by providing 24-hour access, resulting in more effective and efficient communication within the organization. Insight's advanced security model allows the distributor to maintain control of the information their users can access while allowing the users to manage access within their own operation. In addition, Insight is fully internationalized, opening even more possibilities for expanding the scope of the distribution operation.

"After reviewing Insight's powerful functionality and assessing it's impressive potential impact on our customers' operations, we came to the conclusion that partnering with Blue Sky was a win-win in every respect," said Chris Oechsel, President and CEO of Zethcon. "Our customers will see immediate returns in terms of supply-chain visibility, customer satisfaction and cost containment, and the fact that our data-rich systems are now fully integrated with Insight means that these benefits can be realized with a minimum of hassle and cost."

Blue Sky President & CEO Randy Marble commented: "Partnering with Zethcon fits perfectly into our strategy of combining the Business Intelligence and Visibility abilities of Insight with a world-class WMS application to provide visibility into the key performance indicators of a distribution operation. Providing this functionality to the Synapse application will extract even greater costs from operations than before. Our Insight product spans multiple applications, aggregating data and brings it to the operations in an easy to use form that makes sense. Insight allows proactive management techniques, thus averting congestion, labor slowdowns, late deliveries, inventory shortages and many other potentially costly situations. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial arrangement with Zethcon."