HP, PwC Launch Rapid Supply-Chain Collaboration Hub

Compiled ByDeborah Austin Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and PwC Consulting -- a business of professional services organization PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York -- have allied to deliver rapidly deployable collaborative value-chain solutions to joint clients in manufacturing. The first proposed solution -- the Rapid Supply Chain Collaboration Hub, now available to clients -- will target those in aerospace, automotive, high-tech and consumer-packaged-goods sectors. The solution combines HP's hardware products and Internet infrastructure services capabilities with PwC's consulting and systems integration abilities. The software components, tailored to each client's needs, will stem from both companies' existing relationships with supply-chain software providers. In pilot deployments within Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, Calif., the Rapid Supply Chain Collaboration Hub helped improve inventory turns from 11 to 24, reducing purchase order cycle time by 50%.