Datalliance Celebrates 10 Years of Delivering VMI via ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS)

CINCINNATI--Datalliance, the leading independent provider of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and other e-commerce services, today announced the 10-year anniversary of providing their Vendor Managed Inventory service via the ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model. Datalliance VMI was launched in 1999.

Carl Hall, Datalliance CEO & President, stated, "Early on we saw the value of delivering our VMI solution via the Internet using what the industry now calls the Software as a Service model. Not only did this approach provide our customers with cost savings and operational efficiencies, but it significantly streamlined our solution delivery, maintenance, and support processes. Today, with the confirmed value and general acceptance of SaaS across all industries, both Datalliance and our customers are realizing the benefits that we anticipated when we committed to this strategy.”

Back in 2006, AMR Research recognized the potential of SaaS in a report on VMI in the Heavy Equipment industry. “Our research on 2006 automotive and heavy equipment technology spending indicates that just 10% of companies purchase turnkey SaaS. But anecdotal evidence from companies like SKF suggests that SaaS is such an efficient mechanism for collaborative commerce that we may be witnessing the dissolution of the last of the major technical impediments to wider adoption of VMI best practices.” (1)

This year, in their 2009 Global Enterprise Application Market Sizing Report, AMR stated the following regarding the growth and market acceptance of SaaS in supply chain management: “Supply management technology buyers have a strong preference for SaaS deployments instead of the more traditional, on-premise offerings. Software as a service grew 19% last year, and should represent a significant share of the 2009 market growth because the products are not traditionally capitalized, easier and faster to deploy, cost less money, and provide value in as little as three to four weeks. Expectations for 2009 are that subscription deployment will grow by 22%, while traditional licensed software will slow down to a mere 4% to 5%.” (2)

About Datalliance

Datalliance is a leading provider of collaborative commerce services, and the world’s largest independent VMI service provider. Delivered via the Internet using the ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) model, Datalliance solutions make it easy for suppliers and their customers to establish sales and inventory management relationships that fully align business objectives, improve collaboration, and streamline supply chain operations. Datalliance manages billions of dollars in orders, millions of SKUs, and thousands of locations for leading Fortune 1000 companies in a number of industries. For more information about Datalliance, visit www.datalliance.com.

(1) AMR Research, Vendor Managed Inventory: Truck Parts Supplier SKF Peels Out With SaaS, Nov. 30, 2006

(2) AMR Research, The Global Enterprise Application Market Sizing Report,2008-2013, July 2009