IHS and ERAI Join Forces to Combat Counterfeit, High Risk and Substandard Parts

IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS), a leading global source of critical information and insight, today announced an agreement with ERAI, Inc. to be its exclusive worldwide partner for delivering products and services designed to mitigate the risks associated with counterfeit, substandard and high-risk parts found throughout global supply chains. IHS has an exclusive agreement to sell ERAI products and services, while the two companies will jointly combine complimentary content, tools and expertise in order to further enhance their advanced supply chain and design capabilities.

The exclusive relationship with ERAI gives IHS access to the most complete, authoritative and up-to-date reporting and investigation services, information and risk mitigation solutions to electronics professionals worldwide. IHS will become the primary means by which these industry-leading offerings from ERAI will be offered to original component manufacturers (OCMs), original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), franchised distributors, contract manufacturers (CMs), government agencies and associations serving the industry. It also positions IHS as the leader in delivering electronics value chain risk mitigation and supply chain enablement capabilities to businesses and governments around the world.

“This partnership is an excellent complement to the existing IHS Design and Supply Chain business, and further builds our position as a key information provider in the electronics, manufacturing and supply chain markets,” said IHS Vice President of Product Lifecycle Don Lesem. “Combined with the IHS electronic components and industry standards information, as well as our technology value chain research and advisory services, customers will now have access to a full suite of robust information services targeted specifically at counterfeit and high risk parts within the multi-tier, global electronics value chain.”

Together, ERAI and IHS will offer solutions in a manner that can more seamlessly address counterfeit part and supply chain risks in the following business workflows:
• Qualify and Approve: Establish the robust infrastructure to mitigate risk through qualified and approved designs, suppliers and parts.
• Manage and Avoid: Change management and updates to processes, tools and information to avoid counterfeit parts and susceptibility to other risks such as obsolete components.
• Validate and Detect: Comprehensive information to support the validation, sampling and testing of components for manufacturing authenticity as well as the eventual quarantine of suspected counterfeit or inferior grade parts.
• Report and Resolve: Capabilities to notify stakeholders, report occurrences and resolve incidents of counterfeits or problematic parts and suppliers after they have been identified.
• Redesign and Resupply: Offerings to enable inventory replenishment and design or redesign of products or assemblies with sources of inventory or alternate parts, suppliers or designs.

“Since we formed in 1995, ERAI has remained steadfast in our commitment to serve as the industry’s leading source for enhanced critical data and risk mitigation tools that allow ERAI subscribers to reduce losses by having the tools to make more informed business decisions.”, said ERAI President Mark Snider. “This exclusive agreement with IHS allows us to make good on this commitment by entrenching ERAI products and services into the larger global footprint of channels, customers and offerings it has to offer OEMs, while allowing us to infuse greater focus of ERAI resources on our solutions tailored to the independent distribution channels.”

“ERAI is a very significant partner for IHS,” Lesem added. “It increases the breadth and depth of our existing offerings, and allows us to develop new products and services to better support our customers’ critical decision-making needs for one of the world’s most serious and growing supply chain threats.”

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About IHS (www.ihs.com)
IHS (NYSE: IHS) is a leading source of information and insight in pivotal areas that shape today’s business landscape: energy, economics, geopolitical risk, sustainability and supply chain management. Businesses and governments around the globe rely on the comprehensive content, expert independent analysis and flexible delivery methods of IHS to make high-impact decisions and develop strategies with speed and confidence. IHS has been in business since 1959 and became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 2005. Headquartered in Englewood, Colorado, USA, IHS employs more than 4,400 people in more than 30 countries around the world.

About ERAI (www.erai.com)
ERAI is a privately held global information services organization that monitors, investigates and reports issues that are affecting the global supply chain of electronics. Since 1995, ERAI has been the industry leader for in-depth information on counterfeit, substandard and high-risk parts. The company gives its members access to the industry's most comprehensive list of known problem parts, and enables business relationship integrity between buyer and supplier so they can come together to report and resolve serious inventory problems in the supply chain. Access to this critical information allows its members the ability to better mitigate risks in procurement process on both off the shelf and end of life or obsolete parts. 

IHS is a registered trademark of IHS Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2011 IHS Inc. All rights reserved.