May 2001 - Leading e-commerce solution provider Strategix is linking up with electrical distributor Eldis, in a landmark project set to automate totally the company's supply chain and offer it huge cost savings.

Over the next six months, Strategix will supply Eldis with its modular, industrial- strength supply chain software and integrate it with Eldis' award-winning intelligent stock management system EARS.

By exploiting the power of leading distribution software Strategix, Eldis plans to realise total automation of its end-to-end order processing and dramatically reduce the cost associated with manual operations. It will also be able to offer customers the chance to buy online for the first time and aims to double the turnover of its stock management division in two years, without additional resources.

This is a groundbreaking project that Eldis IT Manager, Simon Homer, believes will remove the human element from the supply chain. He says: "For the first time customers will be able to focus on managing suppliers rather than the components they supply."

In winning the contract Strategix beat off competition from Navision and the XKO Group. Simon Homer says that in the end the decision to take on Strategix came down to its flexibility and scalability, since Eldis expects vigorous growth in the coming months, and its ability to integrate with EARS, a product of enormous strategic importance to the business.

EARS is a pioneering replenishment system that Eldis has developed in-house. It uses load cell technology to monitor and measure component quantities, and with it Eldis has already achieved real-time automation of its stock management.

Simon Homer says taking on Strategix has had additional benefits to his business. He explains: "Strategix also offers us an automated solution to our currently very complicated supplier rebate structure, one which will allow us to reduce the costs associated with manual rebate processing and reclaim money from suppliers."

Both parties are excited by the possibilities of integrating the two systems together, since collectively Strategix and Eldis are offering distributors a new, automated supply chain model t hat could revolutionise the distribution industry.

Peter Lusty of Strategix says: "Strategix is the market-leading supply chain system for electronic component distributors, and EARS is a superb, complementary product for that sector. Many of our customers, and indeed those of Eldis, would benefit hugely from implementing the two systems together. And this possibility has become a reality now that we have worked with Eldis to develop the interface between the two systems."