Thanks SB. Here is another snippet:
Millipore Corp. is also moving in the direction of E-business
immersion. The Bedford, Mass., company manufactures the type of highly
specialized and technical products that don't leap to mind when you
think E-commerce. The company makes purification products, ranging from
simple lab filters to $2 million water-treatment systems, and about 60%
of its business is outside the United States.
Last week, Millipore officially launched its Web commerce site for
one segment of its business, the research laboratory market. It's
starting its E-business there for a very simple reason: that's what its
customers wanted. But if the momentum of online product research,
purchasing, and negotiating price quotes (for higher-ticket items) by
the laboratory market builds in the way Millipore expects, it's
prepared to deploy E-business capabilities elsewhere in the company.
"It's ready to scale up," says Tom Anderson, Millipore's director of
corporate communications, who has headed the company's Internet efforts
for the past two years. "All of our functions, divisions, and
geographies have been involved in the strategy from the beginning. We
had to be aware of all of our divisions' needs, but we wanted to focus
on certain areas first."
Millipore has had an electronic product catalog, built on an Oracle
database with software from the Stibo Group, for several years. But
it's now ready for commerce with Open Market's OM-Commerce application
and integrated with Millipore's Oracle ERP system so that customers get
real-time inventory availability and pricing information on the Web
site. Millipore uses Lotus' Domino server to manage and distribute the
large volume of technical information that's available online along
with the catalog.
Millipore's site is also linked to sites run by the General Services
Administration and the National Institutes of Health, extending
commerce capabilities to larger research communities. In keeping with
its global emphasis, Millipore's catalog is available in eight European
languages, with Japanese to be added early next year.
By: Clinton Wilder
Copyright 1999 CMP Media Inc.
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