Some Suppliers Get Extra Time

Computerworld - Not all trading partners of retailers involved in the data synchronization effort will be forced to start using UCCnet's product data registry this year. Suppliers of perishable goods are being given until late next year to make the switch, and some IT managers said they need the extra time.
"We have a proliferation of computer systems, and right now they are not able to work together in a way that could meet these requirements," said Marco Carrillo, manager of business and technology at Chiquita Brands International in Cincinnati.
Carrillo said he's thankful not to be on the front line for the UCCnet implementation, giving Chiquita time to complete a full review of its systems and business processes. "We can also learn from the others who went first," he said.
Martha Uhlhorn, executive vice president of e-commerce at Sara Lee Bakery Group in St. Louis, said the baked goods part of its business - which accounts for 75% of sales - is nowhere near ready from an IT perspective. "I couldn't do it today if they put a gun to my head," she said.
While Sara Lee was able to prepare its smaller warehouse division to support the UCCnet proposal, Uhlhorn said the baked-goods unit will require a completely different fix. That operation uses a set of homegrown applications instead of Sara Lee's SAP-based enterprise resource planning system.
"Nowhere in my legacy systems do I have all of that [UCCnet-required] information in one spot," Uhlhorn said. Her long-term plan is to send baked-goods product data "in bits and pieces" to the Transora online exchange, which will pool the data, pass the information on to UCCnet and send it back to Sara Lee as a single file.
But first, Uhlhorn said, Sara Lee needs to set up a system that can store all the data. A budget and schedule for that project have yet to be determined, she added.

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