August 8, 2005

AMI Semiconductor has outsourced its B2B eCommerce transactions to GXS Managed Services, in an effort to reduce its costs.

The outsourced solution will replace AMI’s antiquated internal B2B infrastructure, freeing up the chip supplier to focus on core business objectives and reduce strain on IT resources.

The B2B solution from GXS promises to enhance inventory reporting, purchase orders, order changes and delivery schedules between AMIS and its myriad trading partners, which hail from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

"To effectively compete in today's semiconductor manufacturing industry, we knew we needed an outsourcing solution that would provide us with tremendous cost savings by boosting the efficiency of our complex supply chain and allowing us to redirect our IT resources to internal projects," said Roland Smith, AMI director, supply chain, in a statement.

"Given its ability to support a wide range of global data standards and its assortment of B2B program capabilities, GXS was a natural choice for us.

We are confident that GXS Managed Services will streamline our overall supply chain, strengthen our partner relationships and provide greater order management capabilities."

Analysts agree that outsourcing is an effective means of boosting business.

"Managed services providers can help organizations lower the cost to serve customers and suppliers, and ensure they can meet the changing requirements of their trading partner community,” according to a Yankee Group report.

"This is because they are a faster and more cost-effective option for deploying B2B e-commerce to a wide trading partner base due to their expertise, experience, existing network and shared infrastructure.”

As a part of its Trading Grid platform, GXS will provide AMI with a global B2B program, including data translation, transaction management, systems administration and supplier performance reporting capabilities. In addition, GXS will provide B2B program management, trading community management and customer support.

Source: ECN Mag.com