Prophet 21 develops e-market to streamline exchanges

By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 6/1/2000

Prophet 21, Inc. is building a digital marketplace to ease distributor-manufacturer exchanges of product data and help them join with MRO portals and corporate procurement networks.

Called TradingPartnerConnectT, the service is slated to open in September. The software vendor says TPCx, a new division of Prophet 21, will complement rather than compete with e-marketplaces like MRO.com.

The idea is to tightly integrate distributors and their suppliers to make transactions easier and cut costs on both sides. TPCx will in effect insert itself between distributors, manufacturers and the e-marketplaces end users buy from, which Prophet 21 officials claim will make the exchanges run more smoothly.

John Seaner, Prophet 21's chief marketing officer, says a key component will be rationalizing parts numbers so that both manufacturers and distributors can understand their own parts language.

Preserving a distributor's item codes is the leading reason why TPCx can perform full electronic transactions and eliminate manual order taking, the company says.

TPCx will also use existing EDI-to-XML messaging software to integrate into business management systems. Distributors will be able to issue requests for quotes, take part in reverse auctions, do online negotiations and more.

"It's a collaboration with [distributors and suppliers] that many e-markets can't do," he says. "It's being able to communicate so both sides know what they're doing."

Other features of the service include enabling product searches by keyword, attributes and parametrics; real time pricing and availability; dynamic trade capabilities; and data mining, analysis, and reporting.

Several recognized regional and national distributors signed up in a beta test program this spring, including Industrial Distribution Group, DXP Enterprises, Oliver H. Van Horn, and Duncan Equipment.

Seaner says the service will help overcome obstacles like pricing issues, bandwidth issues and incompatible databases that prevent many distributors and suppliers from joining closed supply chain networks used by many global 1,000 companies.