Introduction
The company is a cutting-edge, New Economy Supply Chain Management and Logistics company.

The company chose Rose International, to develop an online, real time, electronic, logistics management system, utilizing leading edge e-commerce/e-business technologies. Through the use of Internet technologies, customers can access enterprise server applications and data from any workstations with Internet access.

The Problem
Traditional inventory management systems have a number of problems inherent in the technology architecture. Manufacturers have a ton of SKUs to deal with, as well as numerous supply chain members to coordinate with.

Typical problems arising are:

• Excess Inventory;
• Excessive Carrying Cost associated with the inventory;
• Poor Accounting;
• Stock Outs impeding the manufacturing process; and
• Heavy labor burden to manage the inventory status.

The Rose Solution
Rose built the native Web inventory management system for the customer. The system follows a part through the entire manufacturing supply chain. A proprietary integrated wireless bar code scanning system identifies parts and part movement through the process. Supply chain members are able to see real-time information simultaneously, making the decision-making process uniform and timely throughout the chain.

The Inventory Management system enterprise platform includes the Microsoft BackOffice suite of server applications, including Microsoft Windows NT Server, Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft Transaction Server and Microsoft Internet Information Server 4.0. Microsoft Visual Studio development tools are integrated into the system enterprise platform to provide speedy development of this secure, scalable e-business application. The system has multi-user and multi-level security access built in, as well, utilizing 128-bit encryption and SSL technology. Integration of wireless barcode scanners is another vital, leading edge element in the solution. This feature enables upstream and downstream data collection and re-distribution.

The system, also, takes advantage of one of the newest standards in software development, Component-Based Development (CBD). CBD allows applications to be constructed from individual software components, each with its own well-defined interfaces and behavior that can be used and reused across multiple layers of the application. The benefits of this approach include increased productivity, improved quality and an open system design. The "open design" allows easier maintenance of core application functions by being able to modify an individual component without impact to other areas of the application. As customers' needs change and evolve, the use of CBD will allow for quick deployment of new features and enhancements to the system.