Microsoft Corp. and Infosys Technologies have forged a marketing alliance to promote software and services that enable improved supply-chain visibility for manufacturers. The partners are addressing the areas of performance management, analytics, collaboration and event-based exception management. Their arrangement includes the offering of specialized modules, which provide data and intelligence for the performance of after-sales service, procurement, inventory and demand-management functions. The modules contain pre-built intellectual property and accelerators in the form of process frameworks, data models, analytical tools, best-in-class performance metrics and key performance indicator (KPI) scorecards tailored for specific supply-chain roles. Also included are proprietary connectors developed by Infosys and Microsoft to help facilitate integration of the modules with existing business systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply-chain execution applications. The tools are built on core Microsoft technologies, such as BizTalk Server 2006, SQL Server 2008 and Office SharePoint Server 2007. The Infosys Service Performance Workbench and Infosys Procurement Workbench are available immediately, with others to follow. At the same time, the companies have jointly launched an online supply-chain center of excellence, a Web-based portal through which manufacturers and trading partners can receive updates on Microsoft and Infosys software, discuss supply-chain issues and perspectives, and access productivity tools. Microsoft Corp
