Seoul, South Korea — LG Electronics said it has selected systems software developer GXS’ trading-grid technology to consolidate and centralize its interactions with more than 200 global trading partners.
The company said the new system is expected to reduce complexity in its supply-chain operations by centralizing its geographically-dispersed enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in Europe, the United States, South America and Asia-Pacific at its headquarters in Seoul, and to centralize its business-to-business (B to B) e-commerce functions onto a unified global platform.
The company said the change will help LG optimize its systems management and get products to retailers’ shelves quicker with more efficiency.
“As a leader in the highly competitive consumer electronics sector, LG’s success depends upon its ability to coordinate supply-chain activities and share real-time information with a network of contract manufacturers, third-party logistics providers and consumer electronics retailers around the world,” according to an LG statement.
GXS Trading Grid is a global B to B e-commerce and integration platform that supports the creation and adoption of on-demand supply chain management solutions. It supports a range of e-commerce standards including EDI, XML, KEDIFACT, RosettaNet and AS2.
Trading Grid is said to help customers automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative processes, and enabling the highest levels of B to B integration and collaboration.
GXS said that by moving all B to B transactions onto a single vendor, LG’s IT organization now benefits from having centralized operations in Korea to support its trading partners in more than 70 countries.
“Since 2001, GXS has consistently provided LG Electronics with reliable and effective B to B integration services,” stated SunYoung (Sarah) Oh, LG Electronics Information Strategy Team assistant manager. “As we’ve grown as a company in the last 50 years, so has the complexity of our supply chain.
“Reducing that complexity was as important to our company as ensuring global integration capabilities and increasing real-time visibility into our trading partner network. GXS is the only B to B integration vendor we have found that can easily support all three of these initiatives.”
Prior to consolidating with GXS, LG Electronics used multiple B to B e-commerce providers that were managed independently by local B to B centers distributed around the world. The use of multiple vendors led to duplicate processes and inconsistent capabilities, complicating LG’s efforts to manage its trading partner network. Furthermore, the company was slow to respond to trading partner needs and incurred higher costs because of duplicate traffic and an inability to leverage its total transaction volume to reduce its overall B to B e-commerce costs.
“Through its move to consolidate its ERP systems and B to B networks, LG is standing as an example of how a truly global company can operate efficiently and effectively,” stated Raymond Teh, GXS Asia Pacific VP. “Many companies operate in geographic silos when it comes to their trading partner networks, and, as a result, they have no idea of the scope of their networks and cannot gain real-time visibility into activities.”
