USTR
Cary, thanks for the DD. Nicely done. Thought you might enjoy the following article in support of your theories regarding USTR:
tscn.com
7/23/99 - Upstarts and Start-Ups -- E-Commerce Industries taps office-supply biz
Jul. 23, 1999 (Computer Reseller News - CMP via COMTEX) -- Fairfax, Va. - The colleague MCI WorldCom vice chairman John Sidgmore once deemed "most indispensable" now has a company of her own.
Paula Jagemann, who formerly ran investor relations at MCI WorldCom, today is chief executive of E-Commerce Industries Inc. ECI2, a start-up that has teamed with office-products wholesaler United Stationers to create Internet Office Solutions and Services, a.k.a. IOS2.
Starting in October, IOS2 plans to sell bundled Internet commerce services to independent stationers and office-supply retailers looking to establish a presence outside of their "onland" stores, said Jagemann. IOS2 created the commerce bundle around Microsoft Corp.'s SQL Server and SiteServer and made some proprietary tweaks to SQL Server to customize it for office-products suppliers' use, she said.
"[Office supplies is] a $200 billion market in the U.S. alone," said Jagemann. "Plus, there are many thousands of products and no one dominant player, so when you buy 20 products [online], there are probably 13 or 14 manufacturers in your basket. You need someone who can take the products and distribute them."
In addition to working with United, IOS2 plans to forge alliances with other suppliers, Jagemann said.
Others are tapping this lucrative market. Last summer, when ECI2 evolved from onlineofficesupplies.com, officedepot.com was its only office-supply competition. Today, in addition to giants such as OfficeMax, Staples and Office Depot, all of which have invested heavily in developing an online presence, an Internet search yielded 1,793 sites selling office supplies.
IOS2's edge may come in performance. Online-officesupplies.com, whose customers will be rolled over to IOS2, was designed to support 100,000 simultaneous transactions, said Jagemann.
In addition, aggregated purchasing may pass savings onto customers, she said. "When we generate a preponderance of transactions, that gives us leverage to go to Visa and say, 'We do X amount of transactions, and we want a better rate,' " said Jagemann.
ECI2 is tapping industry heavyweights to steer it through Internet waters. Sidgmore will serve as chairman of ECI2. He is joined by Sky Dayton, chief executive of Earthlink; Mory Ejabat, chief executive of Ascend Communications Inc.; and Dan Rosen, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Research division.
Company: E-Commerce Industries Inc.
Location: Fairfax, Va.
Focus: Bundled Net commerce services
Launched: 1999
Channel: Web resellers
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By: Amy Rogers
Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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And.....from S&P:
USTR offers a range of electronic order entry and business management systems to dealers. The company maintains EDI systems that link it to selected resellers and such resellers to the ultimate end-user. In addition, the company's electronic order entry systems allow the reseller to seamlessly forward its customers' orders to the company, resulting in the delivery of pre-sold products to the reseller or directly to its customers. Management estimates that approximately 80% of the the orders received in 1998 were filed electronically.
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