Managing Many

Dayton, OH and Pittsburgh  November 29, 2001  So many suppliers, so little management. In a move to address such a dilemma, SMARTworks.com Inc. and printCafe today announced an alliance that will create a print procurement solution for Fortune 1000 print buyers wishing to manage multiple print and fulfillment suppliers.

The two companies plan to integrate printCafe's Web-based services for custom print procurement with SMARTworks.com's technology for inventory management, fulfillment and catalog-based procurement to offer a platform specifically designed for corporate print procurement organizations wishing to manage many suppliers through one seamless solution.

printCafe's and SMARTworks.com's technologies both allow corporate print buyers to specify marketing and promotional materials, accept bids from multiple suppliers, manage production, store and track inventory at multiple warehouses, and distribute a wide variety of printed materials.

The combined solution will be designed to accommodate corporations' diverse print projects, including business forms and labels, stationery, quick print projects, secure documents, and ad specialties, among other commercially printed materials.

Joe Morgan, president and CEO of SMARTworks.com, said the offering is the first of its kind to the Fortune 1000 print market. "Management of the corporate print-buying process is complex because companies buy a wide variety of materials purchased by multiple internal departments from many, many suppliers. Our combined solutions address the complexity with an approach that allows buyers to manage the entire process much more simply and effectively."