NEWS
Blueprint for the Connected Enterprise
Kimberly-Clark Eastern Europe (K-CEE) partners with OmPrompt to expedite Eastern European growth plans.
Eastern Europe represents a developing consumer market and in 2007, leading global health and hygiene company Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), with operations in 150 countries, were already marketing their range of trusted brands to the region’s shopping class. Plans to accelerate growth in this burgeoning economy relied in no small part on supply chain efficiency.
OmPrompt, providers of intelligent supply-chain connectivity solutions, had already been working with Kimberly-Clark Europe for more than two years when they were introduced the company’s operations in Eastern Europe. “We were confident that OmPrompt could meet the challenge for speed, efficiency and economy in automating communications with the extended supply chain in Russia. OmPrompt had already given us more efficient e-relationships with all of our logistics service providers, allowing us to focus our IT resources on customer-facing issues,” said Peter Surtees, Director of Consumer Logistics, Kimberly-Clark Europe.
Invited to Moscow, OmPrompt conducted a study of K-CEE’s supply chain process, which culminated in the Blueprint for the Connected Enterprise. Brian Bolam, President and Founder, OmPrompt: “This was the blueprint that ensured the process automation and connectivity solutions developed underpinned K-CEE’s supply chain planning.”
Initial plans were for Russia and the first processes designated for automation were non-EDI customer orders, carrier management and warehouse slot management. Bolam: “OmPrompt use advanced Web 2.0 technology to send and receive messages in any format - data, document, image or voice - using any protocol, effectively turning a non-EDI order into EDI order automatically.”
OmPrompt’s Carrier Connect extends the power of an existing transport management system (TMS) or slot booking system, automating messaging between the TMS, carrier or sub-contractor and the slot booking solution allowing logistics management to easily designate and group bays from a browser portal. Managed from the cloud, all OmPrompt solutions are implemented without disruption or increased overhead for customers.
Since 2007, OmPrompt has kept pace with K-CEE’s changing business requirements, adding significant functionality to the core solutions and allowing the company to adapt to market dynamics. K-CEE have managed to grow cost effectively in Russia, serving hundreds of customers, tens of carriers and ten warehouses and distribution centres, all utilising OmPrompt’s on demand services. Since the global economic downturn, the area has returned to strong growth and K-CEE now seeks to secure the same economies in the Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
Commenting on the impending rollout, Vasiliy Nikitenko, K-CEE’s Logistics Manager said, “The benefits we have secured from process automation using OmPrompt’s on demand services - including productivity gains, improved data accuracy and visibility - have greatly assisted the supply chain team in Eastern Europe. They have responded to demands our year on year growth has placed on the supply chain. We are delighted to work with OmPrompt; we find their services to be highly flexible and responsive to our business requirements. Additional services have been identified to automate other supply chain processes and we will work with OmPrompt to roll these out to support our future growth.”
About OmPrompt
OmPrompt, an award-winning business-to-business connectivity platform, enables all members of a supply chain community to exchange business transactions in whatever format suits their individual needs. Customers simply send what they have and receive what they need. OmPrompt provides the necessary infrastructure, message transformation and delivery services to achieve 100% inter-connectivity amongst trading communities, efficiently automating the exchange of transactional data between respective information systems and processes. For more information visit www.omprompt.com
For more information contact:
+44 (0) 1235 436000
About Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Kimberly-Clark (K-C) and its well-known global brands are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 150 countries. Every day, 1.3 billion people - nearly a quarter of the world's population - trust K-C brands and the solutions they provide to enhance their health, hygiene and well-being. With brands such as Huggies, Kleenex, Pull-Ups, Kotex, Scott and Depend, Kimberly-Clark holds the No. 1 or No. 2 share positions in more than 80 countries. K-C started its operations in Russia in 1996 and opened its first plant for personal hygiene in the Moscow region in 2010.
To keep up with the latest K-C news and to learn more about the company's 138-year history of innovation, visit www.kimberly-clark.com and www.kimberly-clark.ru
