RockySoft Enhances Supply Chain Offering

Version 3.0 of RockySoft's inventory management suite now includes a customer-service module and a graphical user interface. In addition, RockySoft released Active Inventory Manager, which gives companies a view into their supply chain. The AIM module consolidates data from suppliers', distributors' and other partners' ERP and manufacturing systems.

AIM's 3-D reporting capability lets users examine different physical or logical views of their inventory through a Web browser. The software can be configured to kick off alerts to the appropriate people within the company when certain inventory thresholds are crossed.

RockySoft's hosted offering sets it apart from other supply chain software developers. For one thing, the price of subscribing to the application is lower than what a company would pay to build its own supply chain system in-house. A small company might pay RockySoft $1,600 per month for unlimited usage, and no software is needed at any participant site in the supply chain.

When the company was founded in 1999, "hosted seemed to be the right way to go," said Bob Vinton, CEO of the company, based here. As a result, RockySoft attracts business from smaller companies that cannot afford to build their own supply chain management system, he said.

What's more, the hosted approach increases RockySoft's dependence on the channel, Vinton said.

One partner, Managed Business Solutions, also in Fort Collins, is a systems integration firm specializing in the manufacturing, high-tech, financial and health-care industries, said Richard Mainwaring, vice president of support services. MBS provides round-the-clock support for its clients' business applications and engineering software, he said.

MBS' services "span within manufacturers' environments their supply chain applications, their order fulfillment [mechanisms and their financial and procurement applications," Mainwaring said. "We also support the field-based applications."

MBS typically comes on the scene after RockySoft has made the sale, Mainwaring said. "If we identify clients that would have a need for a RockySoft tool, then we would get them in touch with the right people [at the vendor," he said.

"It's a good marriage," Mainwaring said of RockySoft and MBS. "We provide the integration services and IT support for [RockySoft's environment," freeing RockySoft to focus on enhancing its products, he added.

Vinton said that working with the channel is a new endeavor for his company, and he would like to see RockySoft's channel sales grow by 25 percent in 2002.

RockySoft partners are interested in working on the implementation process with the client, Vinton said. "That's great for us. And as our channel [program expands, we would like to have our partners help with the data extraction [from ERP systems," he added.

Partners, he said, will find working with RockySoft's products "very straightforward." No local software installation is called for, he said.

In addition to MBS, RockySoft's channel partners include Advanced Technologies and Services, BRL, CompuWare and Luminant Worldwide.