PITTSBURGH, PA. March 13, 2001 FreeMarkets today announced it has joined the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) Project. A cross-industry initiative designed to accelerate and broaden B2B integration and e-commerce, the UDDI project seeks to create the basic infrastructure for dynamic, automated integration of all e-commerce transactions and Web services.
"The rapid rate at which B2B e-commerce solutions are being adopted on a global basis has created a critical demand for common standards that make it easy for companies to describe, find and use Web-based services," said William Blair, senior vice president and CTO at FreeMarkets.
As a UDDI advisor, FreeMarkets will participate in the development of such standards by collaborating with other business and technology leaders to create a platform-independent, open framework for describing services, discovering businesses and integrating business services using the Internet. This framework will not only allow businesses to provide information on their products and services, but to integrate their systems and processes with those of their customers and partners by placing them in an open, universally accessible registry.
Announced in September 2000, the UDDI Business Registry allows companies to publish information on their offerings, indicate their preferred means of conducting e-commerce transactions, and establish or enhance the efficiency of relationships with other B2B companies in the registry through advanced search capabilities.
"As the leading B2B Global Marketplace, FreeMarkets understands how crucial it is for buyers, suppliers, customers and partners to be able to interact online in real-time," Mr. Blair added. "That's why we are supporting UDDI and committing ourselves to the development of standards that will make it easier for businesses to communicate and seamlessly integrate a vast array of e-business technologies and solutions via the Internet."
FreeMarkets joins more than 220 other industry leaders in supporting the UDDI project, including: American Express Co., Accenture, Ariba Inc., Boeing, Cargill Inc., Commerce One Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Ford Motor Co., Fujitsu Ltd., Hewlett Packard, i2 Technologies, IBM Corp., Intel, Internet Capital Group, Iomega, Loudcloud Inc., Microsoft Corp., Nortel Networks Corp., NTT Communications Corp., SAP AG, Sun Microsystems Inc., TIBCO Software Inc., Ventro Corp., Versata Inc., VeriSign, and VerticalNet Inc.
"As a founding member of the UDDI project, we are very pleased to welcome FreeMarkets to the community of advisors," said Chris Kurt, group program manager for UDDI and Web Services at Microsoft Corp. "FreeMarkets brings substantial e-sourcing experience and leadership to the UDDI community, and we look forward to working with it and the rest of UDDI's members to lay the foundation for the future of e-commerce."
