According to AMR Research ( www.amrresearch.com), there are $5 trillion of inventory buffers that exist between enterprises on a global basis. Obviously, industry could use a better way to monitor and manage inventory both in transit and at rest.

That's where Vizional Technologies (www.vizional.com) comes into the picture, explains Chuck Chase, senior vice president of customer solutions for the software provider. The company provides networked inventory management that provides a single-view visibility solution. Key to Vizional's solution is a private trading exchange that acts as a supplier replenishment router, cutting unnecessary inventory from the supply chain. Potential end users of the system are logistics services providers as well as retail, consumer goods and high tech suppliers.

Chase went on to explain in a press conference with Modern Materials Handling that such visibility allows companies to synchronize inventory across a number of facilities by proactively managing key inventory thresholds. The software does this by communicating and aligning trading communities by complementing established systems such as enterprise resource planning, order management and warehouse management.

"Networked inventory management is totally distributed order fulfillment," says Chase. The end result, he adds, is reduced inventory across the supply chain not just at a single location.