Protean Technology Deployment Strategy

For the industrial enterprise, we offer supply chain technology strategy development. Every company's supply chain operations environment is unique. There are legacy, custom -developed enterprise applications in varying levels of maturity, scope and functionality. There may be in-process, recently completed or mature implementations of SCP, ERP, TMS or WMS packages, each from one or more of a vast array of technology solutions providers. The architecture of each supply chain varies based on the business model of the enterprise, the markets into which it is selling and the supplier community from which it procures materials. Finally, there are a large number of vendors offering a wide array of conflicting and confusing claims about the function, performance and price of new solutions. Protean can sort through the complexity of this environment and determine the right strategy for future investment in supply chain technology.

For the transportation service provider, we offer operating and customer management technology strategy development. Carriers exist in an increasingly complex and competitive world. Emerging technologies threaten to disrupt the competitive environment with break-through capabilities. Shippers are implementing new information systems in complex and diverse environments, and they are demanding integration with the carriers' systems in near real time. Protean brings a product orientation to this situation. We see transportation and logistics services in terms of their market segments, customer value proposition, procurement rationale and selling strategy. We can integrate this perspective with our view of the process and technology requirements of service delivery to produce a comprehensive, effective technology strategy.

For the facility-based third party we develop a technology strategy that balances the three critical components of facility operations - suppliers on the inbound side, customers on the outbound side and operational realities in the middle. Success in this multi-constituent world requires messaging management and operational control processes that we understand. For the asset independent third party we offer this same multi-constituent perspective with an increased emphasis on the rich diversity of relationships that must be managed.

These third party service providers have a more complex business model because they not only have technology-intensive processes that interact with customers for service delivery, but they also have processes that interact with other service providers for services procurement. For these third parties, we offer a special blend of the offerings described above - supply chain technology strategy for services acquisition and customer management technology strategy for services delivery.