January 18, 2001 -- In medieval times, a snickelway was a narrow footpath in a medieval city where merchants went to set up tables and villagers came to shop. The times have changed (a good thing for those of us fond of electricity and lifespans that average more than 30 years), but e-commerce solutions provider Snickelways is carrying on the medieval tradition in a totally twenty-first-century way. The company recently announced the launch of TECTO (www.tecto.com), an online marketplace serving the $64 billion construction, architecture and interior design industries of Brazil.
According to company chairman, co-founder and chief solutions officer Paul Cimino, Snickelways was engaged to develop a B2B and B2C e-marketplace that facilitates commerce and the exchange of information across multiple levels of a fragmented industry. TECTO allows industry professionals to conduct transactions for goods and services with suppliers, other professionals and consumers.
The e-marketplace is built upon Snickelways' innovative 5 C's concept of the fully integrated e-marketplace, combining commerce, content, collaboration and communication in a customer-centric solution framework.
Serving industries that are directly responsible for 15 percent of Brazil's gross national product, TECTO features a two million SKU, industry-wide products and services catalog drawn from all participating business to business suppliers; virtual showrooms, with a customized look and feel, which allow each participating supplier to offer its own catalog of merchandise including price and customer control to industry, retail or consumer buyers; an automated request for quotation and bid reply mechanism for construction materials and services; a project manager tool enabling construction project managers to exchange information in real time with their service providers and suppliers; and a content and promotions editorial engine that will result in tens of thousands of articles being connected to both the catalog and personalization engine.
The scale and multiple business objectives of the TECTO project really allowed us to tap into our experience developing solutions for industries made up of multiple manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, said Cimino. With our five years of building solutions for clients, TECTO reflects the sophistication that experienced strategy, technology and design can produce.
We selected Snickelways based on their proven ability to create e-commerce environments that deliver comprehensive capabilities and a highly positive user experience, said TECTO president and chief executive officer Ronaldo Gomes Ferreira Filho.