Card companies create alliances and new services
By Mark A. Brunelli -- Purchasing, 11/4/1999 2:00:00 AM
Electronic procurement is picking up steam, and procurement card companies have been busy forming alliances with e-commerce service providers and finding ways to bring more purchasing information to desktops of their customers.
Example: MasterCard International Incorporated announced last month that it had expanded its e-commerce alliances to include Commerce One. The two companies plan to cooperatively market a complete purchasing solution for businesses and state and local governments.
The planned arrangement calls for the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card to be an online payment service for Commerce One's BuySite and MarketSite services. The two parties hope customers will be attracted to the card's functionality, which includes global merchant acceptance, control features, and line-item detail reporting on every transaction.
"This is another one of our marketing alliances with a set of premier e-commerce providers," says Steve Abrams, MasterCard's senior vice president for global corporate products. "They have a tremendous suite of products."
Commerce One Plans to support the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card's line item data within the BuySite and MarketSite products upon the identification of an end user. Line Item, or level three data, is used for tracking enterprisewide spending, cardholder reconciliation, and general ledger accounting integration.
The two companies plan to conduct a presentation about purchasing card integration as part of an upcoming Commerce One "Commerce Café," a series of free Web seminars dedicated to providing the latest information on business-to-business e-commerce solutions.
In September, American Express announced that it had expanded its portfolio of electronic commerce alliances. Clarus, Extensity, Sun-Netscape Alliance, and Trilogy have agreed to integrate the American Express Corporate Purchasing Card into their systems.
The new additions bring to a total of ten the number of technology companies that American Express currently is working with to provide full interoperability to help its corporate customers streamline their online purchasing processes. Other companies currently working with American Express include Ariba, Commerce One, Concur Technologies, Intelisys, Remedy, and tradex Technologies.
"Companies that are implementing an electronic purchasing system to improve ordering efficiency are turning to American Express to help fill the remaining gaps in their purchasing process," says Brigitte Baumann, American Express' senior vice president and general manager, Corporate Services Interactive.
American Express says it has developed a standard set of interoperability features that the e-purchasing solution providers have agreed to incorporate with their solutions. The features facilitate the process of placing the order, fulfillment, reconciliation, data management, and program maintenance.
The company says their single network results in enhanced levels of data capture because they have a direct relationship with both buyers and sellers. For example, American Express captures a unique order number and line-item detail in the supplier transaction at the point of sale. The company says this is essential to matching order information from the e-purchasing system to the accounting information provided by the Purchasing Card.
visa u.s.a. is currently in the process of enabling their procurement cards to process a new global commodity code standard that classifies more than 8,000 products and services around the world. The un/spsc codes are the result of a merger of the United Nations' Common Coding System (unccs) and Dun and Bradstreet's Standard Products and Services Codes (spsc), and they are designed to facilitate electronic commerce.
When used in conjunction with a universal business identifier, such as the Dun and Bradstreet D-U-N-S Number which identifies more than 50 million businesses worldwide, the card will be able to help manage suppliers. When appended to a company's file of suppliers, the un/spsc and the D&B D-U-N-S Number can help firms identify their interrelated suppliers and gauge opportunities for consolidating or leveraging suppliers.
Scott Wimbush, spokesman for visa u.s.a., says that one of visa's main electronic commerce allies, s.a.p. ag, has endorsed the codes and will incorporate them into their purchasing system. He added that Ariba, visa's other major e-commerce ally, is currently considering following suit.
"The code identifies the nature of the business of a particular supplier," says Marcy Verdin, vice president of purchasing cards at visa u.s.a. "Behind the scenes the code is the glue that sort of holds the products together."
Purchasing squeezes more value from p-cards
08/15/2007AmEx, Visa partner with e-commerce providers
05/19/1999
Now Playing: 