Editorial
Contacts:
Lutchansky Communications
408/938-9050
robin@Lcomm.com
AGENTICS,
INC. ANNOUNCES SUPPLYCHANNEL, A MAJOR LEAP FORWARD IN SELF-SERVICE PURCHASING
TECHNOLOGY
First
And Only Solution To Provide Real-Time Virtual Product Catalog;
Patent Pending Technology Solves The Huge Content Management Problem
of Self-Service Purchasing
NEW
YORK -December 7, 1998 - AGENTics, Inc. today announced SupplyChannel
, the first and only self-service purchasing solution in
the marketplace that provides a Virtual-Catalog of vendor product
information gathered in real-time from a number of disparate, on-line
catalogs. Empowering employees to make purchasing decisions directly
from their desktop while full management control at all stages of
the transaction is maintained, SupplyChannel is the
most cost-effective and convenient solution for both suppliers and
buyers.
"SupplyChannel
is a unique powerful on-line purchasing solution that is poised
to affect the way organizations are doing business over the net,"
said Brian Caffrey, a management consultant with over 20 years of
experience in the purchasing and materials management field, a board
member of the National Association of Purchasing Managers (NAPM)-New
York and a nationally recognized authority on the application of
Information Technology to corporate procurement. "I expect
both buyers and suppliers to rally around this powerful technology.
As the first truly practical application to effortlessly link buyers
and sellers, SupplyChannel is going to get a lot of
attention."
Traditionally,
corporate purchasing consists of pushing paper forms around the
organization, creating unnecessary costs and delays. Experts estimate
that it costs $150 or more to process every paper-based purchase
order, regardless of whether it's for a $10,000 computer or $10
worth of pencils. AGENTics solution, SupplyChannel,
can slash this cost to as little as $25 by streamlining the process
with a web-based enterprise-wide purchasing system that directly
links employees with suppliers, creating a self service purchasing
environment.
SupplyChannel
however, goes one step beyond the currently available self-service
purchasing solutions due to its industry-unique Virtual Catalog
technology. Other solutions depend upon catalog aggregation which
requires the collecting and exporting of vendor product data into
a common database format that can be accessed by the organizations'
employees. Not only is the data static, but from the moment the
database is created, it is out of date. This method is also very
costly, usually requiring the hiring of a special content aggregator
as well as specialized IT personnel for maintenance purposes.
SupplyChannel
breaks through this administrative barrier by providing the industry's
only unified view, navigation and seamless access to product information
residing in disparate on-line catalogs without aggregating the catalogs.
Remote on-line catalogs are not exported, imported or duplicated.
In fact, suppliers are not even required to provide any special
or dedicated interface to their catalogs. Instead, the Virtual Catalog
retrieves relevant product information from the relevant supplier
on-line catalogs - in real time.
In
each purchasing session, end-users describe and identify their product
requirements using a powerful product identification wizard. Then,
the cutting edge Virtual Catalog architecture allows product information
to be retrieved at a phenomenal speed from the suppliers' original
on-line catalogs. Advanced Natural Language Processing techniques
are used in order to provide unmatched accuracy and relevancy of
the retrieved product information. Overall, the process effectiveness
is exceptional, allowing requisitioners to focus on the products
they want to buy rather than on the 'sourcing' process itself.
SupplyChannel
is seamless to use as employees experience a unified view of product
information, no-matter what its format is in the target on-line
catalog. In addition, the technicalities of 'where' and 'how' the
product information is gathered are hidden in order to make SupplyChannel
as easy to use as possible. This is the most cost-effective and
convenient solution for both suppliers and buyers. Buyers are relieved
from the tremendous effort of aggregating numerous heterogeneous
catalogs onto their site. In addition, maintenance costs are minimal
since both sides are relieved from the burden of managing duplicated
aggregated databases which require a dedicated team to manage.
"We
are excited by the huge market opportunities available for our buy-side
power solution," said Oren Horvitz, president and CEO of AGENTics.
"Until recently, the E-Commerce solutions for self-service
procurement were either costly and non-flexible or simply non buyer-oriented.
Now, with SupplyChannel, buyers can exercise unmatched
purchasing power in a cost-effective manner."
About
AGENTics
AGENTics
innovative Virtual-Catalog technology presents a breakthrough in
corporate purchasing of MRO products. Enabling self-service purchasing
throughout an organization, AGENTics technology allows an organization
to capture efficiencies and volume discounts across the board, adding
dollar-for-dollar profits to the bottom line. This gives an order
of magnitude improvement to the way today's companies do business
with their suppliers. Headquartered in San Jose, California, AGENTics
is located at 2350 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, California
95054. AGENTics also has offices in Boston, Massachusetts and Herzelia,
Israel. AGENTics can be contacted toll free in the United States
at (877) 431-0101, at (+972) 3 751 5099 in Israel or at http://www.agentics.com.
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