News | March 20, 2000

IBM Solutions Center Exhibit Hall Does Good First-Day Business

Source: IBM

By Michael Lear-Olimpi, Managing Editor, Logistics Online

Business in the Solutions Center exhibit area was brisk Monday morning on the first full day of the IBM Global Supply Chain Management Executive Conference at the MGM Grand Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas.

And that made the 100 of so exhibitors, plus IBM and possible customers of the vendors pretty happy.

Traffic was strong and interest high in the Solution Center exhibit area on Monday around lunch time.

"It's been very busy," Jim Martin of i2 Technologies said. "I think it's been like, in part, based on the announced partnership with IBM."

i2 is one of several companies with which IBM special announced partnerships at a press conference Monday. The collaborations are designed to deliver electronic-commerce and supply-chain optimization solutions to mid-market companies.

Venkatesh Narayan of i2, right, tells Daehem Kim of Yuhan-Kimberly about the company's supply-chain software applications at i2's booth.

"It's been very busy, very good," said Scott Deutsch, vice president of marketing for Prophet 21. "We were awed. The people here know what they're talking about. They have specific issue they want to discuss. It's a very educated crowd."

For vendors showing their products, an educated show clientele is great news, because these prospects are more likely to buy a software package for distribution, procurement, shipping and other supply-chain functions than people at larger conferences who may not understand how all the products can be used.

Michael Mohrman is coordinator of IBM Supply Chain Ambassadors, a group of supply-chain solutions experts who answer questions for conference attendees.

"We're trying to get them connected to the right person," Mohrman said of his union of 23 experts and 21 support staff working the exhibit hall at the MGM Grand Hotel and Conference Center at the southern tip of the Las Vegas Strip. "The challenge is that it's day one, and they don't all know who we are yet."

But Charles Copenhaver, a business-development specialist for Atlanta-based warehouse-management system (WMS) developer Manhattan Associates, knew who the ambassadors were, and scheduled a meeting with Paul St. Germain of IBM over lunch in the Solutions Center cafeteria.

Paul St. Germain of IBM, a Supply Chain Ambassador technical advisor, gives Manhattan Associates' Charles Copenhaver some advice over lunch in the Solution Center.

"With been very pleased with the traffic, and with the quality of information provided," Copenhaver said. "People have been interested in our product, they know about it and have asked about how it can provide them with solutions. The flow of traffic has been steady and very smooth."

IBM spokeswoman Julie Brennan said that about 3,100 supply-chain market were attending the event, which features keynote addresses through Wednesday, plus nearly 100 elective sessions will be featured.

It is the second supply-chain executive conference IBM has staged for the mid-market—companies averaging about $28 million in annual revenues.

Big Blue is focusing attention on this market, which relies on effective supply-chain strategies that include technology solutions. The U.S. mid-market constitutes about 71,800 companies operating in 364,774, according to IBM. Growth in the mid-market sector is estimated at 42 percent for this year, which IBM said should generate $4.5 billion in additional income for the companies.