Mike DeVoney, MRO portfolio manager, Pantellos, likens the company's MRO Maverick Spend Pack electronic catalog to "fishing in a stocked pond." With the catalog, users make spot buys for MRO items from suppliers with whom Pantellos has negotiated agreements.

Pantellos is a supply chain services company for the utility industry. It is based in The Woodlands, Texas.

With MRO Maverick Spend Pack, users may purchase such common MRO items as electrical supplies; general industrial supplies; safety supplies; pipe, valves and fittings; bearings and power transmission products and fasteners from such suppliers as Graybar Electric, Applied Industrial Technologies, MSC Industrial Supply, Ferguson Enterprises, Fastenal, Newark and Fisher Scientific. All 1.3 million SKUs contained in the catalog are available for delivery within 24 to 48 hours.

Pantellos selected the suppliers based on breadth of product line, e-commerce capability and logistics and distribution network. Prices are generally 15%-20% off list.

DeVoney says that MRO Maverick Spend Pack is as easy to use as an 800 number and a purchasing card. A parametric search engine provides users with capability to compare items and prices across suppliers.

Perhaps most important, MRO Maverick Spend Pack provides purchasing operations with detailed spend data on items bought each month.

About half of the 36 members of Pantellos use the MRO Maverick Spend Pack. In 2003, more than 400,000 transactions passed through the system. There are no transaction fees. Buyers pay a monthly access, which covers system maintenance and upgrades. Suppliers pay a fee to Pantellos for managing catalog content.