Business Editors
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2000
Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses in Intelisys-Powered Communities to
Gain Access to Aggregated Discounts and Comprehensive Inventory of
Products
Intelisys Electronic Commerce Inc., a leader in global business-to-business electronic commerce, today announced that Office Depot (NYSE: ODP), the world's largest seller of office supplies, has become a premier supplier to Intelisys' purchasing communities. Businesses in Intelisys-powered communities will now have a direct link to the largest supplier of a wide array of office products and the aggregated discounts that only the largest of buyers had previously enjoyed.
Office Depot will make its comprehensive catalog with a full complement of items from basic supplies to computers and peripherals available to all Intelisys purchasing communities. Buyers can revolutionize the purchasing process, slashing administrative costs, collapsing delivery times from weeks to days and cutting the time it takes to execute a purchase order to a few clicks of their mouse. These purchasing communities include:
- Intuit's QuickBooks Purchasing Service -- Expected to be
functional later this spring, this online community includes
over two million small business customers who purchase more
than $500 billion a year of goods and services.
- Chase.com - A horizontal and vertical purchasing community
serving Chase Manhattan Bank's 350,000 business customers,
which is part of a broader business portal that Chase has been
developing.
- Autolink.com - A vertical automotive purchasing community
serving 300,000 automotive dealers and aftermarket repair
facilities.
- First Union Corp. - An e-marketplace for First Union Corp.'s
700,000 small and mid-sized business customers, that is
expected to be functional in the third quarter of 2000.
- Commonfund - A purchasing community sponsored by the leading
financial manager for educational institutions nationwide, to
be available this fall to colleges and universities around the
country, who spend more than $100 billion annually on supplies
and services.
"Intelisys' use of open standards allows us to directly link our electronic catalog to the communities, and maintain the information in it ourselves," said Monica Luechtefeld, Senior Vice President of E-Commerce at Office Depot. "Furthermore, this channel allows us to build upon our existing business-to-business efforts and sell our products to a significant new universe of buyers immediately. We can leverage our brand name and market-leading position into immediate new sales, maximizing our business-to-business opportunity."
Pat Cowan, Vice President of Supplier Acquisition at Intelisys said: "We are committed to creating communities that meet buyers' every need. Office Depot has a tremendous reputation for delivering quality products at reasonable cost in a customer friendly manner. And, by bringing buyers and suppliers into one pool, Intelisys helps everyone share costs, multiply their ability to reach new customers and dramatically reduce their administrative burden."
Intelisys' powerful IEC-PortalTM technology enables suppliers to leverage existing cataloging infrastructure to sell products and services to a buying organization using any open standards-based procurement application. Since Intelisys connects buyers and suppliers directly, Office Depot simply links its existing online catalog, eliminating the necessity of aggregating product content on a third party site. They maintain control over the look and feel of the catalog and keep product data current for corporate buyers to easily search, compare and purchase the items they need.
Intelisys' patented Supplier Management Content(TM) solutions allow suppliers of all sizes and varieties to become Internet-enabled. Suppliers well versed in Internet-based e-commerce like Office Depot, can integrate their existing e-commerce catalog into the system quickly and easily. Those without existing online catalogs can use a third party catalog builder or a simple browser-based e-commerce tool kit to create a new one. Using the Supplier Managed Content(TM) solutions, suppliers can automate the entire process from requisition to payment.
About Office Depot
Office Depot currently operates 829 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 30 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and seven regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company owns and operates 26 office supply stores in France and six stores in Japan; has mail order and delivery operations in 13 countries outside of the United States and Canada; and under joint venture and licensing agreements, has 86 additional stores operating under the Office Depot name in six foreign countries. The Company also operates an award-winning U.S. Internet business Web site at www.officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, and it operates global Web sites at www.vikingop.com, and www.viking-direct.co.uk and www.viking.de. Office Depot's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ODP and is included in the S&P 500 Index.
About Intelisys Electronic Commerce
Headquartered in New York City, Intelisys Electronic Commerce, Inc. (www.Intelisys.com) provides a powerful B2B e-commerce solution that brings together Global 2000 and public sector enterprise buyers and e-marketplace sponsors with all their small and medium-size business customers. Within this unique framework each may act both as buyer and supplier, to deliver the true promise of B2B Internet commerce. Intelisys' suite of products, based on open standards and supplier managed content, provides the easiest and fastest way to use the Internet to dramatically reduce the high cost of procuring goods and services and to develop new revenue streams for e-marketplace sponsors.
Intelisys is applying its Internet procurement expertise and hallmark ease-of-use to meet the e-commerce needs of both buyers and suppliers. Formed in 1996, Intelisys' clients include Autolink.com, The Chase Manhattan Bank, Commonfund, First Union Corporation, The Ford Motor Company, Intuit, Hasbro, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, San Diego State University, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Telstra, Texas Instruments, the State Government of South Australia, and Western Geophysical (a division of Baker Hughes).
No comments:
Post a Comment