ClearOrbit Rolls Up More Supply Chain IT Processes

ClearOrbit (Austin, TX), which has been a player in biopharm- or healthcare-related supply chain processes, is extending its reach with a series of partnerships announced recently with other IT companies involved in supply chain, warehousing and transportation. Some of the fuel for these efforts undoubtedly comes from its parent, TAKE Solutions, Inc. (Chennai, India; US HQ in Princeton, NJ), which acquired ClearOrbit in 2007 but only now is rebranding it as TAKE Supply Chain.

According to TAKE Supply Chain president, John Reece, “We chose this time to implement a global re-branding so we could represent a single, collective voice to customers and partners around the world. Combining the strength of TAKE Solutions’ global brand identity with our enhanced product portfolio positions us for continued rapid growth across the supply chain applications market.”

TAKE provides IT systems for clinical trials case management and safety surveillance, and for FDA submissions. Branded IT products include PharmaReady submissions management, and SafetyBase Interchange, for pharmacovigilance surveillance and reporting.

ClearOrbit will now become the supply chain business unit within TAKE. ClearOrbit has offered a number of products to life sciences and other manufacturers since its founding (under another name) in 1994. It emphasizes real-time supply-chain execution solutions, speeding up and providing better visibility within extended supply chains. Currently, its offerings include:

• Demand Driven Supply Network — Supplier collaboration and supply network gateway applications
• Demand Driven Distribution and Fulfillment — Enterprise returns, warehouse management, asset tracking and maintenance and channel management applications
• Enterprise Mobility and Auto-ID — Mobile data collection applications for both SAP and Oracle
• Global Trade Management — Trade compliance and cross-border supply chain automation applications.

The company also emphasizes its close ties to Oracle and SAP, two of the leading business-software vendors; meanwhile, its parent’s participation in the Microsoft BioIT alliance signals a relationship there that would round out nearly all of the leading business IT vendors.

More alliances

This spring, ClearOrbit announced a series of alliances or partnerships that serve to extend and deepen its supply chain capabilities These include:

• A partnership with Foxfire, a leading provider of hardware, software and professionals services for warehouse management systems at manufacturers and distributors, mostly in North and South America.
• A partnership with PSI Software, which manages data for customs compliance and global trade management, mostly for North American manufacturers.
• A partnership with EntComm, a software developer of trade collaboration tools for manufacturers, freight forwarders and other supply chain players to manage procurement, order management and fulfillment, vendor-managed inventory (VMI) and consignment.

Most recently, TAKE Supply Chain won a project at Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals (Warrendale, PA) to install its Gemini for OPM (Oracle Process Manufacturing) and obtained a nearly 50% increase in warehouse efficiency. According to Christine Sheehy, Three Rivers Pharmaceuticals SVP of operations, “With TAKE Supply Chain, we’ve been able to make warehouse pick and pack significantly more proficient and to eliminate redundancies and inefficiencies within our processes. Gemini not only delivered on our performance expectations, but also streamlined implementation and training so we could realize immediate benefit and return on our investment.” Three Rivers is a specialty drug firm that distributes to more than 45 countries worldwide. PC