Elemica & JFE Systems Partner To Support Japan Market

Elemica, the industry-leading business process network for the external supply chain, announces their agreement with JFE Systems to sell and support Elemica's solutions throughout the Japanese market. Under the new agreement, JFE Systems will sell, support, and deploy Elemica's Connected Solutions that facilitate communications with all trading partners, integrate enterprise applications for seamless data exchange, and streamline transactions in areas such as order management, procurement, business planning, and logistics/transportation.

"I recognize Elemica is one of the largest and most successful Business to Business (B2B) exchange networks in the world," said Osami Taniri, director, JFE Systems. "JFE Systems has been providing e-Commerce & Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions and supporting JAPAN EDI Standardization for years. Today, we are very pleased to offer Elemica's services. I am strongly confident that our collaboration contributes to efficiency and expansion of B2B exchanges in the Japanese chemical industry."

"The demand for products made from plastics, chemicals, and specialty chemicals is growing in the Japanese market, therefore chemical manufacturers are looking for ways to meet these demands yet lower supply chain costs to remain competitive," said Mike McGuigan, CEO of Elemica. "By partnering with JFE Systems, we are able to expand our opportunities in Japan making commercial services available in the Japanese language, and we are able to provide the sales and support that the Japanese market wants."

JFE Systems is a System Integrator specializing in planning, design, development, operation and maintenance of computer systems. The company has expertise in business systems integration services, supply chain management, EDI system integrations, XML/B2B system integrations and has been supporting Japanese EDI standardization for years, especially within the chemical industry.

As an enabler of inter-company commerce, the Elemica Network enables buyers and sellers of chemicals, to leverage their ERP system investment. Designed to streamline procurement and order fulfillment processes and remove uncertainty in the supply chain planning process, the Elemica Network delivers sustainable cost savings. Through a single enterprise connection to Elemica, companies can increase demand visibility and collaborate effectively with partners. This enables efficient inventory management at customer and distributor locations, optimum product delivery schedules, improved production planning, and lower costs throughout the supply chain.

"JFE Systems is a locally recognized and trusted systems integrator that will allow us to address many of our clients' present and future needs," said Marianne Rehn, VP Asia- Pacific, Elemica International Inc. "This partnership should help us build a leadership position in selling and implementing high quality business process networks that facilitate B2B commerce and integration in Japan."

About Elemica
Elemica was founded by 22 leaders of the global chemical industry to deliver best-in-class order management and supply chain applications and services that powerfully impact bottom-line cost savings. With one connection to the Elemica Network, clients drive operational excellence by automating the execution of key trading partner business processes resulting in improved efficiencies, superior service, and greater profitability.

By providing optimal connectivity between all trading partners of the network, Elemica offers the world's leading platform for driving service optimization and excellence throughout the value chain. From order entry to invoice processing for logistics, planning, and purchasing, the Elemica network enables a high degree of automation in real-time data exchange, which improves productivity, decreases errors, and increases the ease of doing business.

Elemica has connected more than 1500 companies across multiple industries and processes over $50B in annual spend. Clients include Air Products, Dow, BP, Rohm & Haas, Shell Chemicals, BASF, and Lanxess. For more information, visit www.elemica.com .

About JFE Systems, Inc.
JFE Systems, Inc. provides information system planning, design, development, operation, maintenance, and outsourcing in various industries, including communications, financial services and manufacturing. For more information, visit www.jfe-systems.com .

SOURCE: Elemica