Two Sussex firms have joined forces in the fight against cancer.

Varian Medical Systems, part of the world's leading manufacturer of cancer therapy systems, turned to Dataline, a Brighton-based software company, to help it maintain its supply chain.

More than 4,000 Varian linear accelerator and simulator systems are in service around the globe, treating an estimated 100,000 cancer patients every day.

The equipment is used to pinpoint cancers which are then removed with radiotherapy.

Arthur Kay, international marketing director, said the treatment had a double benefit by being more accurate so surrounding healthy tissue was not damaged and the amount of radiotherapy could be reduced so unpleasant side effects were also reduced.

The highly complex machines, many of which are assembled at Varian's state-of-the-art Crawley base, are made from thousands of components sourced from hundreds of UK and foreign suppliers.

Maintaining an inventory system and getting all the components to the assembly line on time was never simple so Varian asked Dataline to design and implement a system to simplify the ordering process.

Dataline's solution was a highly specialised private web site, called an extranet, available only to Varian and its suppliers.

Whenever component levels fall below a certain figure the requirements are automatically uploaded to the web site which automatically emails the relevant suppliers.

The suppliers then, at the click of a button, visit the site to view their new orders and to download or print them. When a supplier has decided on the delivery schedule, it returns to the web site and submits these against the component items on order.

Once a submission is made, the web site again automatically sends an email, this time to Varian, informing the company of order acknowledgement and delivery dates. This information is then downloaded into Varian's internal IT systems.

The system has given Varian a number of benefits including reducing administration and the shortening ordering lead-time.

The system is now paperless and any order's status can be viewed by both Varian and the supplier at any time. Error-checking capability means the number of erroneous orders has been massively reduced.