SHAW'S SUPERMARKETS, East Bridgewater, Mass., has agreed to partner with the Vista Technology Group, St. Charles, Ill., and its eCommerce division, eVista, in the implementation of UCCnet's product offerings. The beta test of eVistaB2B is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2000. Shaw's is a member of UCCnet, Lawrenceville, N.J., and is participating in the effort to develop business-to-business (B2B) transactions that will increase productivity in its own environment, while linking simultaneously with its manufacturers and brokers. UCCnet is a foundation for consumer packaged goods industry standards-based electronic commerce. The eVistaB2B system includes the installation of Vista's Transaction Agent at the retailer's location, along with applications that will allow Shaw's personnel to have full control over the B2B transactions emanating from the manufacturer. Using eVistaB2B will enable Shaw's buyers and category managers to automatically pull data from a trading partner's system, without having to perform this activity on a one-to-one basis for each trading partner. The first phase of the implementation process of eVistaB2B will include the capability to exchange item information across the Internet, along with organizational hierarchies of UCCnet trading partners. The following phases will include transmitting pricing, promotions, payments, deductions, purchase orders and invoices. Said Greg Weismantel, president and chief executive officer of Vista, "It is a strong verification of our company's strategy to provide a distributed database solution to trading partners, which allows them to be the source of record of their own data, utilizing their own current systems."
ugh Transora. As the central hub, Transora will provide linkages to other Internet marketplaces that connect suppliers, customers and service vendors to consumer product manufacturers. These linkages will cover all areas of the inbound supply chain, including direct materials such as food ingredients, chemicals and packaging, to indirect materials such as equipment, office supplies and office services. Initial service offerings for raw materials replenishment will be developed over the next few months. "These alliances will accelerate adoption of Internet marketplace services among industry companies and bring the economic benefits of the Internet to the industry more quickly," said Judy Sprieser, chief executive officer of Transora. "We expect to quickly engage in similar arrangements with leading e-marketplaces in other service areas of importance to our participants." Transora will work with Novopoint and Foodtrader.com to develop joint pilot programs for transactions between marketplaces, also known as "E2E," coordinate regarding standards, and identify other appropriate synergy opportunities. The nature of the alliances are non-commercial at this stage, but the process of collaboration is intended to establish the basis for future commercial relationships.
MARKETORDER, Seattle, a shared ordering solution provider for high velocity inventory supply chains, is partnering with Bsquare Corp., Bellevue, Wash., to demonstrate that end-to-end supply chain solutions can easily be accessed from the point where ordering decisions are made. "Both Microsoft and Bsquare provide innovative solutions for serious business applications like ours," said Larry Andrews, MarketOrder's vice president of marketing. "We selected Microsoft Windows CE 3.0 operating system on which to build our seamless order entry application that runs on rugged handheld PCs. We then powered our application by utilizing Bsquare's Mobile Enterprise Solutions Architecture, which streamlines program functionality and gets us to market quicker." MarketOrder Access, the company's newest product and an integral part of the Shared Ordering Network, connects retailers with an unlimited number of their wholesalers, manufacturers and direct store delivery suppliers, and delivers a complete end-to-end order management solution. Using MarketOrder Access, retailers can place all orders using a single handheld device and receive immediate feedback on the accuracy of orders as well as any new product introductions and seasonal or special promotions. Today, retail grocers order approximately 60% to 80% of their shelf inventory over private ordering network systems from a primary supplier. The remaining 20% to 40% is ordered by fax or telephone to their supplemental suppliers. Streamlining order management systems has become top priority with many retailers. MarketOrder Access replaces the current disparate systems with a single communication system.
