Ventro Shutters Its Flagship Chemdex Exchange
By Joe Bousquin, Senior Writer
12/6/00 7:36 PM ET
thestreet.com
The sharing of information, and the shift away from simple transactions in B2B, has been a major focal point here, as companies start to talk about wringing more efficiency out of their supply chains, rather than just cutting the cost of buying goods. This has led some companies to launch private marketplaces, where they can deal and communicate exclusively with their suppliers and customers.
"We're beginning to see companies wanting control over their supply chain, so we're starting to see more of a focus on the concept of private marketplaces," said James Shuder, senior director of procurement solutions at iPlanet, a joint initiative of Sun Microsystems (SUNW:Nasdaq) and Netscape that makes B2B software. "Companies are thinking less of open exchanges, and more of limiting them to their own suppliers."
That's an opportunity for EXLN - tailor-made, private systems, just as the Kasumi success story posted over at the Yahoo! board:
search.ft.com
ASIAN ITC: National supermarket seems to defy tough times
Financial Times, Dec 6, 2000
The next stage is much more ambitious and will ultimately see eXcelon bring more than 1,000 trading partners into the network. The aim is to create a system that allows Kasumi and its suppliers to exchange all kinds of information ranging from inventory documents and store maps to sales records and purchase orders. XML will be used as the common "language" to let different applications talk to each other.
Kasumi is using eXcelon's B2B Integration Server product for this part of the project. As its name suggests, the integration server links Kasumi's back office infrastructure into its suppliers and partners, irrespective of the hardware or software they use.
The eXcelon product incorporates XML data translation tools covering more than 70 data types - so suppliers who like to use spreadsheets, for example, can fill their PC-based spreadsheet directly with Kasumi's data. The integration server becomes the hub around which all information flows in Kasumi's extended supply chain. |
