Tibco gets the biscuits

By Mark Young

Arnott's Biscuits, makers of popular Australian biscuits such as Tim Tams and Shapes, has chosen Tibco to improve its distribution and supply processes by integrating its supply chain partners with its internal applications.

Tibco's ActiveEnterprise and ActiveExchange solutions will provide Arnott's with real-time integration of its supply chain by linking its trading partners with Arnott's internal inventory, order entry and warehouse control applications, which are hosted on the company's IBM AS/400 iServer.

The project will be extended to accommodate electronic data interchange (EDI) with the company's major customers.

Arnott's e-commerce manager, Paul Williams, said that the e-business initiative would accelerate the company's ability to respond to changing market conditions and optimise their supply chain information flow.

"Arnott's is in the business of making quality biscuits," he said. "However, we are also increasingly in the business of providing quality service to our customers and our trading partners. The Tibco solution will give us near real-time visibility of supply chain events and allow us to respond effectively to changing market signals." Mr Williams said the depth of local support was one of the major reasons they chose Tibco's solution.

"We talked to some of Tibco's other corporate customers and their excellent track record in Australia was central to our decision to go with them," he said. "The issues we needed to address included rigorous technical requirements, as well as ease of use and management of the IT environment, and completeness and flexibility of the solution for accommodating future initiatives."