November 2002

A dynamic billing solution called PkCost has been added to the MA Fulfill supply-chain solution from Manhattan Associates. It is aimed particularly at third-party logistics providers, and captures data from supply chain execution systems to help them track activities for individual clients and invoice each of them correctly. The functions it handles include inventory, storage, fulfilment and transport.

It provides variable billing rates according to client and activity, taking account of factors such as product, order attributes, market focus, number of customers and customer locations. Special handling activities can be charged out as an extra cost, and there are four different methods of charging for storage.

PkCost uses XML-based communication to capture information from the various stages of the supply chain execution process - which means customers can access billing information both at the distribution centre and remotely.

In addition to targeting third-party logistics providers, Manhattan is aiming the system at sectors such as retail, food and automotive, where the ability of PkCost to single out costings for a wide variety of functions is seen as attractive.