If you're a growing mid-size company with a product to sell and the need for a distribution network, do you have the time, resources, and expertise to build it?

A new full-service logistics outsourcing company, OneSource4All, brings together the construction, logistics, and information management expertise of three industry leaders.

Combined, MARC Global Services (www.marcgd.com), a systems integrator of supply chain execution solutions; Clark Construction Group (www.clarkus.com), one of the largest general contractors in the U.S., and USCO Logistics (www.usco.com), a provider of integrated third-party logistics solutions, offers one-stop shopping to develop and build a facility, and manage inventory and orders.

Some 40 suppliers to Unilever (www.unilever.com) Home and Personal Care North America were tightly integrated into the company's internal supply chain.

"We expect to see a payback of only six months through application of McHugh's Digita-Logistix execution-based supply chain management system," reported Nicholas Willcox, director of IT Supply Chain for Unilever.

Willcox said a lack of supplier visibility was extremely costly for Unilever.

A standard XML interface to SAP's enterprise resource planning system and partnerships with Kewill (www.kewill.com) and Viewlocity (www.viewlocity.com) are major features of Catalyst Complete, an expansion of Catalyst International's (www.catalyst.com) WMS.

Catalyst adds powerful new bolt-on capabilities for use within the warehouse. These include: A yard management system for managing inventory on trailers; a simulation tool for evaluating physical changes to the warehouse and pointing out possible bottlenecks; and a re-slotting capability to transfer product within the warehouse in response to changing customer demand.

Digital Freight, Inc. (www.digitalfreight.com), a provider of Web-based logistics management tools, announced a strategic alliance with MercuryGate International, Inc. (www.mercurygate.com), a provider of Web-based end-to-end transportation management solutions.

The alliance will provide an interface between the companies' complementary software solutions to allow users to leverage relevant data across both products.

Provia Software (www.provia.com) announced the signing of a partnership agreement that will link Celarix, Inc. (www.celarix.com), a provider of collaborative logistics solutions, with Provia's execution and fulfillment collaboration suites.

The partnership will provide clients with a solution that delivers real-time, end-to-end visibility to orders and inventory, enabling action and reaction during the order fulfillment process.

The partnership will extend visibility to inbound shipments and order information for Provia customers from the company's ViaView collaboration and visibility product.

Emerging strategies like make-to-order manufacturing, third party logistics, and contract manufacturing are putting greater pressures than ever on manufacturers and logistics providers.

"Today's leading companies are using logistics as a competitive weapon," says Mike Allocco, vice president of sales and marketing, for CAPS Logistics (www.caps.com).

"Our customers are finding that by making intelligent, thoughtful decisions in transportation and the distribution of products, they are able to weather the storm of today's economic tide."

DiamondWare (www.dw.com) software, comprising five offerings of application software, permits customers of Diamond Phoenix Corp. (www.diamondphoenix.com) to interface to warehouse management systems or hosts. The software accepts manual orders and interfaces with handheld devices.

Scalable order fulfillment systems software, on a Windows NT/2000 platform, manages multiple order fulfillment technologies. The software permits higher throughput, and all applications run off the DiamondWare platform.

Lucent Technologies (www.lucent.com) has gained real time visibility into the status of inventory and orders throughout their worldwide pipeline with TradeStream, an Internet-based order execution platform from Optum (www.optum.com).

Lucent is now able to pass order and inventory information between trading partners, notifying suppliers and customers through alerts when things do or don't happen.