Ariba B2B Commerce Platform Powers Partsbase.com, First
Operational B2B Marketplace for Aviation, Aerospace Industries
Currently Conducting Online Auctions for Over $20 Million in Aviation Parts...
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) today announced that Partsbase (Nasdaq: PRTS) has successfully created the first operational business-to-business (B2B) marketplace serving the $187 billion U.S. aviation, aerospace and defense industries. Partsbase is driving the first transactions through its Partsbase.com marketplace by conducting "live" online auctions, powered by the Ariba B2B Commerce Platform.
Partsbase.com today offers the largest, most comprehensive functional marketplaces for buyers and suppliers in the
aviation, aerospace and defense industries. It serves over 13,000 members globally, including numerous major aviation
and aerospace companies such as Honeywell. Partsbase.com addresses all segments of the industry, from aviation
parts and equipment to aircraft sales and employment opportunities. By providing consolidated ordering and real-time liquidation mechanisms for new, used and overhauled aviation parts, Partsbase.com is streamlining the commerce process, increasing competition and driving down the costs of buying, selling and trading for marketplace participants.
According to a 1999 Goldman Sachs study, the total U.S. Aerospace/Defense market is estimated at $187 billion for
the year 2000. This figure is expected to reach approximately $219 billion by 2004, with nearly 35% -- or $77 billion dollars -- of those sales conducted over the Internet.
"Partsbase was the first to fulfill the need for a B2B marketplace to streamline commerce in the huge, highly
fragmented aviation and aerospace industry," said John Baumstark, senior vice president of net markets at Ariba.
"With the creation of Partsbase.com, they have succeeded in bringing thousands of buyers and hundreds of suppliers
of all sizes together online. Using the comprehensive capabilities of the Ariba B2B Marketplace solution and Ariba
B2B Commerce platform, Partsbase is making it easier for these buyers and suppliers to exchange information,
negotiate the best deals, and generate new business."
Using the Ariba B2B Commerce platform, the world's pre-eminent open platform for B2B e-Commerce, Partsbase is
facilitating real-time collaboration and dynamic trade in its aviation marketplace. Currently, Partsbase.com supports
over 250 auctions of all types, including English, Dutch, Japanese and sealed bid. These dynamic trading mechanisms
enable both buyers and sellers to optimize prices for goods and services, and also to trade commodity items.
Partsbase.com offers marketplace participants auction opportunities on more than two dozen categories of vital
products and services, including avionics, computers, electronics, aircraft engines, helicopter equipment, fuel cells and
landing gear.
Honeywell currently is conducting a one-week auction on the Partbase.com site to sell over $9 million of aviation
parts, including aircraft parts, engine parts and framework parts. Previously, Honeywell used traditional methods --
phone, fax, EDI -- to find buyers for their parts inventory, and the sales process often took months.
The flexibility and scalability of the Ariba B2B Commerce platform supports the high volume, multi-buyer/multi-seller
transaction requirements of the Partsbase marketplace, and enables marketplace participants to realize greater
economies of scale than those attainable through legacy business systems. Partsbase.com plans to extend its
marketplace through the Ariba B2B Commerce Platform by providing additional procurement and transaction
capabilities and access to a variety of hosted Ariba B2B Commerce Services that may include electronic payments
and logistics.
About Partsbase.com
PartsBase.com is an online provider of Internet business-to-business e-commerce services for the aerospace industry.
The global Partsbase.com marketplace enables over 13,000 members in more than 115 countries to buy and sell new,
used and overhauled aviation parts, perform auctions, look for a job or employee, and sell aircraft in an efficient,
competitive, and cost-effective manner. The Partsbase marketplace utilizes a database of approximately 1,200
suppliers and over 40 million line items of inventory, constituting one of the largest independent databases of inventory
and information in the aerospace industry. Current marketplace members include Boeing, Honeywell, Federal
Express, Pratt & Whitney, Northrup Grumman Aviation and United Parcel Service. For further information, visit
www.partsbase.com.
About Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the global leader in B2B eCommerce solutions. Through the Ariba B2B Commerce platform -- an open,
end-to-end infrastructure of interoperable software solutions and hosted Web-based commerce services -- the
company enables efficient online trade, integration and collaboration between B2B marketplaces, buyers, suppliers
and commerce service providers. The global reach and best-of-breed functionality of the Ariba B2B Commerce
platform creates Internet-driven economies of scale and process efficiencies for leading companies around the world,
including more than 20 of the Fortune 100. Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 650-930-6200 or at
www.ariba.com.
NOTE: Ariba and the Ariba logo are registered trademarks of Ariba, Inc. All other products or company names
mentioned are used for identification purposes only, and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT: Information in this release may involve expectations, beliefs, plans, intentions or
strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking
statements included in this release are based upon information available to Ariba as of the date of the release, and the
company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. The statements in this release are not
guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Numerous
factors could cause or contribute to such differences. Some of the factors and risks associated with Ariba's business
are discussed in its registration statement on Form S-1 declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission
("SEC") on June 22, 1999, and in the other reports filed by it from time to time with the SEC. |
