Shelton, Conn. —SupplyFORCE selected Eclipse, Inc., to automate order processing for its growing national accounts program.

The enterprise software provider announced late in March that supplyFORCE chose Eclipse's Distribution Management System as its e-commerce software platform.

The move should help supplyFORCE streamline procurement for its Global 2000 customers and develop its national accounts program, which is serviced by more than 300 independent distributors with more than 4,500 stocking locations. At least one-tenth of those distributors use Eclipse software.

While all supplyFORCE members already process orders electronically, Eclipse officials say their software will fully automate transactions and eliminate the need for customer service personnel to re-key data, for example.

"We're basically the engine in the middle," said Michael Honig, vice president of business development for Eclipse. "We're automating the entire process. The minute the order comes in, the automated flow of the system will handle the entire order."

"We needed to move fast, and partner with an enterprise software provider that understood our business and could provide a highly scalable technology foundation," said John Ludlam, senior vice president of operations for supplyFORCE. "Eclipse's integrate d e-commerce technology, and deep understanding of the distribution marketplace, will enable supplyFORCE to implement a complete, end-to-end e-procurement solution."

A first phase that began in April involves automating accounting functions among supplyFORCE distributors and end users. The Eclipse system receives a customer order, parses it out to a customer's preferred distributor, and after shipment the distributor bills supplyFORCE.

The next step will involve connecting distributors and their preferred suppliers to share real-time data such as immediate order status, Eclipse officials say.

Jay Walther, strategic alliance manager at Eclipse, says a key is providing real-time transaction data for trading partners and end users.

"National accounts will [continue to] send orders by EDI, fax, or through one of the portals, such as Ariba or MRO.com," Walther said. "We're handling all of that process for them. The pricing, whatever the national accounts set up, is what we'll do."

The announcement comes on the heels of a difficult transition period for supplyFORCE, which Affiliated Distributors created late in 1999. The company went through two rounds of extensive layoffs last winter and made several top-level executive changes. L ast November supplyFORCE abandoned trying to build an Internet marketplace for small end users and decided to focus again on larger accounts and its integrated supply customers.

Still, supplyFORCE executives and members say the firm continues to win national contracts — which had nearly doubled to 77 at the end of last year — and its revenue run rate recently reached $440 million.

Honig said that after all the e-commerce hype, Eclipse's deal with supplyFORCE demonstrates the practical need for distributors to fully automate transactions in their computer systems.

"There's now a lot of printing out and retyping [of orders] into distributors' legacy systems," he said. "As these real world examples happen, it will become obvious [to] people with legacy systems that, to play, they will have to integrate their system s to a real-time structure."