[From iSource Business, December 2000] The iSource Top 100 Summit, January 8 - 11 at the Hotel Embarcadero in San Francisco, will bring together the pioneers of e-procurement and the people at ground zero tasked with leading their companies into the New Economy. That would be you. Attend the Summit and go home with the information your company needs to get a move on. It's that simple.
iSource and iSourceOnline.com are the first and only print and Net-based resources dedicated to providing e-procurement news and information to CEOs and executives, business owners and purchasing and supply chain professionals. As part of our commitment to being the best at what we do, we've put together a dream team of the Top 100 companies that have pioneered e-procurement technologies and are changing the way business buys.
The Top 100 were selected by an advisory panel composed of the editors at iSource, writers, purchasing professionals and technology pros well-versed in e-procurement.
Companies were selected based on the following criteria:
Summit Search and Rescue Making the Climb Easier
As the name of the conference implies, we have high hopes of helping you make wise and informed decisions about the direction to take in implementing or expanding your e-procurement initiative. In less than two years e-procurement has outgrown the task of streamlining transactions between buyers and suppliers and now encompasses the entire process of managing the supply chain as part of a greater vision of end-to-end e-commerce.
This is a lot to absorb, particularly as anything with an e- in front of it is an invitation to embark on "the vision thing." Yet we all have to live and work in the here-and-now. Too much information (or TMI, if you want to be cool), particularly of the useless sort, is enough to short circuit the painstaking analysis companies usually apply to decision making. Too little of it, however, makes for bad decisions. Think of the iSource Summit as a live search engine where information is organized by relevancy and importance with links to tools and other resources you can use.
Loyal readers know we're solutions oriented. We concentrate a lot of attention on people and companies that are building B2B Internet technologies and actually investing the time, money and sweat-equity to implement them. To this end, all of the Summit's speakers and presenters are members of our Top 100. They're a terribly eager bunch and by the time they're through with you the world will seem a different place.
Over the course of two to four days, depending on the conference package you choose, the Summit will focus a lot of attention on "verticals." Vertical e-markets facilitate online purchasing within particular industries. For example, one of our Top 100, PurchasePro, headquartered in Las Vegas, serves the hospitality industry. Ventro, which will be represented at the Summit and is one of the seven revolutionary companies we profiled in the September 2000 issue, operates vertical exchanges in the life sciences industry. Commerx's vertical e-markets target chemicals, plastics and raw materials.
Then there are the vertical enablers that provide the technologies that power B2B e-procurement: companies such as eBreviate, Commerce One, and Corporate Express. If you're at the beginning stages of developing an e-procurement initiative you need to know about these companies. They provide customized platforms for proprietary systems, power e-markets, such as auctions and exchanges or offer third-party access through hosted solutions. In other words, they're everywhere you're going to be.
Representatives of these and other companies will host conference seminars on a wide range of topics:
Time to Register
There's a story about a Russian woman who finally immigrates to the United States. When asked what she'd like to do first, she says, "I want to go to a supermarket." They take her to the biggest supermarket in the area and let her wander on her own to discover the great plenty of her new country. An hour later they come upon the woman huddled on the floor among towering shelves of canned goods. "What's wrong?" they ask. "So many choices!" she wails. "I don't know where to start!" Done in by the burden of decision the woman goes back to Moscow where there's only one kind of bread at the state store and it's either on the shelf or it's not.
The Internet is a different country, and the Information Age poses the same risk of paralysis in the face of technological plenty. So many choices! Relax. Choice is good when you know where to start and the Summit is the absolute right place to begin. We're blocking the confusion by offering you an opportunity to advance your knowledge, take advantage of hands-on training and organize your choices using the best available information.
Go to www.isourcesummit.com. You'll find complete details, an eBrochure with the Summit schedule and an online registration form with pricing and instructions for reserving your spot. You can also register calling Benita Muggeo toll free at 866-222-3722 or 205-380-1112.
iSource and iSourceOnline.com are the first and only print and Net-based resources dedicated to providing e-procurement news and information to CEOs and executives, business owners and purchasing and supply chain professionals. As part of our commitment to being the best at what we do, we've put together a dream team of the Top 100 companies that have pioneered e-procurement technologies and are changing the way business buys.
The Top 100 were selected by an advisory panel composed of the editors at iSource, writers, purchasing professionals and technology pros well-versed in e-procurement.
Companies were selected based on the following criteria:
- A pioneering role in e-procurement:
Where was the company when B2B was born? What was the future it saw that others didn't? How did it make this vision a reality? - Technological innovation
What cool thing did the company invent or improve? Did it have a practical application that made the innovation useful? Did it create a standard others have followed? - Continued innovation
Does the company refuse to rest on its laurels? Is it eager to maintain its leadership role? Is it continuing to develop proprietary technologies, or to reach out and incorporate innovations it can use to make its product or service even better? - Solid market positioning
Does the company know its customers? Is it responsive to what they want? Is it striving to meet their needs? Does it know where it's going? - Industry transformation
What has the company done to change purchasing and supply chain management? Is it introducing companies to new sources or new markets? Is its technology saving buyers time and money? Is it easing the way for suppliers to participate? - Product and/or service attributes
Is the technology worth the implementation? Can a company's customers expect reasonable time to market? Is it following through as promised? Can customers measure performance? Do they see an immediate difference or have a reasonable expectation of hitting their numbers on time? Are users satisfied with their online experience? - Adaptability
Does the company's technology integrate with existing systems? Is it able to update or change its technology as the need arises? Can it accommodate the different needs of its customers?
Summit Search and Rescue Making the Climb Easier
As the name of the conference implies, we have high hopes of helping you make wise and informed decisions about the direction to take in implementing or expanding your e-procurement initiative. In less than two years e-procurement has outgrown the task of streamlining transactions between buyers and suppliers and now encompasses the entire process of managing the supply chain as part of a greater vision of end-to-end e-commerce.
This is a lot to absorb, particularly as anything with an e- in front of it is an invitation to embark on "the vision thing." Yet we all have to live and work in the here-and-now. Too much information (or TMI, if you want to be cool), particularly of the useless sort, is enough to short circuit the painstaking analysis companies usually apply to decision making. Too little of it, however, makes for bad decisions. Think of the iSource Summit as a live search engine where information is organized by relevancy and importance with links to tools and other resources you can use.
Loyal readers know we're solutions oriented. We concentrate a lot of attention on people and companies that are building B2B Internet technologies and actually investing the time, money and sweat-equity to implement them. To this end, all of the Summit's speakers and presenters are members of our Top 100. They're a terribly eager bunch and by the time they're through with you the world will seem a different place.
Over the course of two to four days, depending on the conference package you choose, the Summit will focus a lot of attention on "verticals." Vertical e-markets facilitate online purchasing within particular industries. For example, one of our Top 100, PurchasePro, headquartered in Las Vegas, serves the hospitality industry. Ventro, which will be represented at the Summit and is one of the seven revolutionary companies we profiled in the September 2000 issue, operates vertical exchanges in the life sciences industry. Commerx's vertical e-markets target chemicals, plastics and raw materials.
Then there are the vertical enablers that provide the technologies that power B2B e-procurement: companies such as eBreviate, Commerce One, and Corporate Express. If you're at the beginning stages of developing an e-procurement initiative you need to know about these companies. They provide customized platforms for proprietary systems, power e-markets, such as auctions and exchanges or offer third-party access through hosted solutions. In other words, they're everywhere you're going to be.
Representatives of these and other companies will host conference seminars on a wide range of topics:
- Materials management
- Global sourcing
- Emerging markets
- Global cost management
- Process management/hardware capabilities
- Supply chain
- Contract administration
- Acquisition
- Transactional software
- Auctions (RFPs and RFQs)
- Training and free software downloads
Time to Register
There's a story about a Russian woman who finally immigrates to the United States. When asked what she'd like to do first, she says, "I want to go to a supermarket." They take her to the biggest supermarket in the area and let her wander on her own to discover the great plenty of her new country. An hour later they come upon the woman huddled on the floor among towering shelves of canned goods. "What's wrong?" they ask. "So many choices!" she wails. "I don't know where to start!" Done in by the burden of decision the woman goes back to Moscow where there's only one kind of bread at the state store and it's either on the shelf or it's not.
The Internet is a different country, and the Information Age poses the same risk of paralysis in the face of technological plenty. So many choices! Relax. Choice is good when you know where to start and the Summit is the absolute right place to begin. We're blocking the confusion by offering you an opportunity to advance your knowledge, take advantage of hands-on training and organize your choices using the best available information.
Go to www.isourcesummit.com. You'll find complete details, an eBrochure with the Summit schedule and an online registration form with pricing and instructions for reserving your spot. You can also register calling Benita Muggeo toll free at 866-222-3722 or 205-380-1112.
