Supplier Central.

Supplier Central, is an 'integrated set of business-to- business applications that enables companies to work over the Internet with their suppliers as if they were part of a single organisation. Focused on the strategic processes of the supply chain - product planning, design-to-cost, and partner interaction - the suite enables Web-based collaboration that allows companies and their suppliers to work together throughout the product design cycle to control the factors that drive product cost and cycle time.

Suppliers interact with Supplier Central through a standard Web browser. Supplier Central allows a company's buyers to give selected suppliers immediate, secure access to the Processes and relevant information needed to accomplish any assigned tasks in the cycle from product concept to Production readiness. For example, the tasks of design, manufacturing and testing Bid Manager provides buyers with a simple means of creating and managing requests to suppliers, automatically giving them access to all the information they need to respond. For any request, buyers can tailor information delivered to each supplier as required by that supplier's role or relationship.

Profile Manager provides self-service registration and profile maintenance for each authorised supplier. Each supplier's information profile can be maintained and updated in real-time by its authorised representatives. When a supplier adds a new manufacturing capability to its profile, a process is initiated through which a company can qualify the supplier's suitability for additional projects. Any new manufacturing capabilities in its supplier base are quickly added to a company's design and sourcing alternatives.