Bechtel Embraces e-Sourcing

Lake Success, NY  January 2, 2002  Engineering and construction giant Bechtel Corp. has begun using e-sourcing tools from MaterialNet to meet the company's global sourcing requirements.

San Francisco-based Bechtel, with 2000 revenue of $14.3 billion, has licensed MaterialNet's Custom Procurement Management System (CPMS), which includes a module for conducting online auctions.

"As a global engineering and construction company, we have highly complex sourcing requirements and needed an e-sourcing solution that could help us streamline and simplify the process," said Jack Futcher, Bechtel senior vice president and manager of procurement. "After a thorough examination of our options, we found that MaterialNet has what we were looking for."

After completing a successful pilot program last June, Bechtel began using CPMS for a range of materials, services and equipment purchases in connection with its contracted construction and engineering work. Bechtel already has implemented the e-sourcing tool in the United States, the United Kingdom and India.

The engineering company's license gives it access to CPMS for an unlimited number of users and for an unlimited number of events. MaterialNet says this type of license structure eliminates the need to pay per user or per event, eliminating the economic disincentive for widespread adoption of CPMS to handle all of a company's sourcing needs.

Bechtel maintains a minority warrant interest in MaterialNet.