March 8th 2006

Comtec Enable Web Connect

Comtec and EvoConnect - Facilitating Supply Chain and Managed Service Provision in the Telecoms Sector Comtec is the UK's leading provider of outsourced supply chain and managed services to the telecoms sector. Its business has rapidly expanded since the sector's downturn in 2000/01 which appears ironic until one realises that since that time Comtec's customers - carriers such as BT and Telewest and system vendors such as Alcatel and Marconi - have placed great emphasis on reducing costs throughout their supply chains. This is where Comtec's unique proposition, supported by several years of significant investment in D360 and now EvoConnect, comes into play. By managing the end-to-end supply chain of network infrastructure products, including product sourcing from around the world, procurement, vendor management, logistics, asset management fulfilment, RMA processes etc. Comtec is able to dramatically reduce its customers' costs and improve their operational efficiencies. However the flow and accessibility of information is as critical as that of product and D360 has proven itself as a highly stable and flexible platform upon which to manage this. Now EvoConnect is enabling Comtec to provide its customers with even more efficiency savings and operational effectiveness. Earlier generation E-Commerce systems have tended to lock customers into rigid and limited-functionality solutions. Modifications to provide additional features were time-consuming and expensive to execute; indeed some modifications were not even possible! Hence some of Comtec's customers were initially somewhat cynical about how Comtec would be able to E-enable its service offerings for them. They were therefore pleasantly surprised when EvoConnect was first demonstrated to them. One particular customer was even more impressed when the functionality they requested was turned around in less than 7 working days! "The real beauty of EvoConnect is that it allows us to provide our customers with web-based remote access to virtually any field or functionality of D360", comments John Buck, Deputy Managing Director of Comtec. "We have not experienced that level of flexibility and speed of implementation before particularly when each solution is wholly bespoke to a customer's requirements. Great credit for this goes to the development teams both at Evolve in Australia and Zafire in the UK." Comtec is currently working on 3 major supply chain projects based around EvoConnect and believes that all of its major customers will follow the same route in the future.