WAUKESHA, Wis. -- RedPrairie Corp., a consumer-driven optimization company, said it plans to expand into two new U.S. data centers to support continued growth in its software-as-a-service capabilities. RedPrairie is partnering with Town & Country, Mo.-based SAVVIS Inc., a provider of IT infrastructure services for business applications, to support RedPrairie's hosting services business, which has grown to more than 6,000 hosted sites across the retail, hospitality, petroleum and distribution industries.
RedPrairie was on the vanguard of the software-as-a-service ([image-nocss] SaaS) market, it said, and hosted its first on-demand customer in February 2000.
It currently hosts customers from two data centers, one in Atlanta and one in London, and both centers will continue to support customers now hosted there. The company will now host customers from two new SAVVIS data centers in Atlanta and the Washington, D.C., area opening in September and October, respectively.
The hosting option enables companies to deploy RedPrairie applications more quickly, with lower up-front capital expense and reduced IT personnel needs to support the application, said the company. The hosted model places tier-one capabilities within the reach of smaller retailers and offers an alternative, cost-effective solution for larger companies, it added.
RedPrairie's hosted offerings are available with modular subscription pricing, so customers only pay for the parts of the applications necessary for their operations. Services offered with hosting include disaster recovery, maintenance, IT administration and integration services.
Companies can also migrate from a hosted or SaaS agreement to a traditional license down the road, if that model better meets future needs. Additionally, RedPrairie offers an easy migration path from release to release, with RedPrairie staff managing upgrades rather than a customer's internal IT staff.
RedPrairie also recently announced a green initiative to provide the technology, solutions and strategies to create more environmentally sustainable supply chains. The company is initiating programs and providing education for companies to reduce the environmental impact of their supply chains.
The company said it is the first supply-chain technology provider to be accepted as an affiliate member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership, which was established to promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improve the efficiency of ground freight transportation. RedPrairie, with its E2e solutions, will help its clients achieve their fuel and energy conservation goals.
RedPrairie is offering an educational whitepaper, Greenlighting Efficiency: 7 Easy Steps to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Today's Supply Chains, available free to anyone interested in creating a more green and efficient supply chain. To obtain a copy, visit www.redprairie.com.
The seven points to reduce the environmental impact of supply chains include:
Optimize routing and consolidation. Improve fleet management. Increase global transport efficiency. Create system generated tasks and communications. Take full advantage of improved packaging strategies. Use energy conservation strategies in the warehouse. Improve labor management.Wakesha, Wis.-based RedPrairie's E2e solutions synchronize people and products throughout the customer buying cycle to ensure goods reach the right place at the right time. At the point of sale, this means consumers have access to desired products and that the store is staffed with the right people to help them make their purchases. In the production cycle, it means suppliers and manufacturers time and synchronize shipments and production based on demand signals from the retailer. And in the back room of the store, it means having the least amount of inventory, solving the last yard problem of the retail supply chain.
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