November 2000

UK third-party logistics specialist Lane Group plans to act as an application service provider for high-end supply-chain software under a global logistics sourcing and supply initiative launched in December. It is targeting medium-tier businesses across a range of industries, with particular emphasis on retailers sourcing high-volume, multiple-SKU products such as FMCG and garments.

The new service, which has been branded supplylane.com, will offer managed logistics on a multimodal, pan-European and worldwide basis; and it will support this with a pay-as-you-go Web-based supply-chain integration service built round a product called i-vision. This is a re-packaged version of an American supply-chain suite from Massachusetts-based QRS, which originated in the early 1990s and is used by many leading US companies including JC Penney, Disney, SAKS and Federated Department Stores. Lane is believed to have invested a seven-figure sum in the system, and will be the first user in the world to re-sell it to customers it on an outsourced ASP basis. Although the software service will be available by itself, group managing director Rebecca Jenkins told e.logistics Magazine she expects most users to opt for Lane's logistics backup as well. She says the group has taken a strategic decision to expand internationally, working with selected partners. Supplylane.com is the focus of this drive, and is based in the same Cheltenham office as International Supply Lane, a 50 per cent-owned initiative launched in 1998. But ISL focuses on European full-load operations, whereas supplylane will take a worldwide perspective. Supplylane.com is headed by managing director Maurice Gibbons, who has been with Lane Group several years and has experience in retail procurement, and it is supported by commercial manager David Pollock, who worked with container operator Sea-Land, which helped QRS develop the track and trace components of the i-vision system. A seminar to explain the system to potential users is planned for January.