Atlanta April 24, 2002 Paper and pulp industry e-marketplace ForestExpress is teaming with Sterling Commerce to expand the market's B2B integration capabilities.
Using the STERLING Bridge Service technology, ForestExpress said it can now offer B2B integration services for any message type using any message format, including electronic data interchange (EDI) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
Integrating just once to ForestExpress enables companies to connect to customers, suppliers and service providers more easily, the e-marketplace said. Instead of managing multiple connections to support each trading partner or business activity, companies utilizing ForestExpress can leverage a single connection to an industry specific network connecting all of their trading partners and business providers.
ForestExpress trading partners can use the STERLING Bridge Service as part of the ForestExpress network. This service will allow forest products companies to share information and complete transactions electronically via ForestExpress with established EDI B2B trading communities.
This announcement comes in the wake of a recent survey, conducted by management consulting firm NerveWire, which found that companies that were the most tightly integrated with their trading partners said their initiatives generated on average 40 percent increases in revenue, 30 percent reductions in cost and 35 percent increases in customer retention rates.
"By connecting seamlessly with our clients' internal business processes, we can help them to lower costs, streamline operations and increase their trading partners' ability to communicate electronically," said Keith Russell, CEO of ForestExpress.
ForestExpress investors include Boise Cascade, Georgia-Pacific, International Paper, MeadWestvaco, Weyerhaeuser and Willamette Industries.
