Suppliers host e-catalogs

By By Steve Rothenberg, president and CEO, eHub Software Inc. -- Purchasing, 12/22/2000

Catalog, catalog, catalog. Hail the king of e-commerce! The way companies communicate with suppliers and provide to buyers their suppliers' catalogs and associated value-added features, such as product configuration, parametric search, cross selling and recommendations, defines core technology, core competence and business potential.

Until now, purchasing management has been accomplished entirely using centralized catalogs, hosted either at the buying company's site or by third-party market makers. But such centralized catalogs leave out the value-added features mentioned above and don't provide real-time pricing and availability. As well, they incur substantial maintenance costs for catalog hosts. According to the Gartner Group (December 1998), "One large client indicated they will spend $1.2 million for initial catalog normalization and $600,000 a year in upkeep." Centralized catalogs require time-consuming cooperation and a certain level of advanced technical support from all suppliers involved. There is no centralized catalog in the world that can cover the diversified needs of all customers.

Best way to resolve these issues is to let catalogs sit where they belong-at suppliers' Web sites! The way to do it: proxy server technology using distributed catalogs, seamlessly integrating supplier Web sites with purchasing management systems installed behind buyers' firewalls.

To buyers, this technology enables them to shop directly at supplier Web sites and have access to all their value-added features like real-time pricing and availability while supporting existing contractual arrangements regarding pricing, payment and delivery. To suppliers, the technology connects them to buyers without relying on technical support and cooperation from outside companies.

Serving midsize and small enterprises eHub Software Inc. offers distributed-catalog-based purchasing workflow management.