THE WOODLANDS, Texas, January 3, 2001 - The new year brings a new era of supply chain management to the utility and energy services industries. Pantellos, an online independent marketplace, opened shop on January 1st, 2001. Commercial transactions through the marketplace have commenced and twelve new suppliers have signed membership agreements.
Pantellos is set up to help buyers and suppliers to solve their supply chain challenges found in the utilities industry. "Utilities spend more than $130 billion annually in the United States to plan, construct, repair and operate their plants and distribution systems. Built by the industry, for the industry, Pantellos is positioned to offer solutions and services that assist members in managing these activities and realizing substantial operational and financial business improvements," said Graham Collins, president and CEO of Pantellos.
Pantellos was founded seven months ago, when 21 utility companies in North America came together to explore the viability of an online trading community. The founders recognized the tremendous potential of a digital marketplace in tackling the supply chain challenges presented by such market forces as industry deregulation. As a fully independent enterprise, Pantellos is now positioned to serve the interests of the industry by developing and managing an open, neutral and dynamic marketplace. Initial offerings include: collaborative agreements; supply chain management features such as asset optimization and project collaboration; auctions and transaction or exchange services such as buying, selling, and content management. Pantellos plans to build out a full suite of marketplace capabilities such as logistics and fulfillment, demand planning, financial solutions and trading community services.
To kick off full marketplace operations, Cinergy, a diversified energy company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Brenton Safety, a San Francisco-based supplier of health, safety and environmental products, completed the first integrated, commercial transactions in the Pantellos marketplace on December 28, 2000.
"At its simplest, Pantellos provides us a much more cost effective and efficient way to conduct purchases with our suppliers. We also see significant opportunities for savings and improvements throughout the industry. Working with Pantellos is not about aggregation and price transparency, it is about making better decisions and improving our competitiveness," said Craig Weida, Cinergy's vice president of purchasing.
Katrina Guiney, Marketing Manager of Brenton Safety, commented "Becoming a member of Pantellos was a strategic move for Brenton, it increases our visibility and market reach. We are already seeing this in our first transaction with Cinergy, a new customer for us through our involvement in the Marketplace." As the marketplace launches, twelve new suppliers have signed membership agreements, and more are in the works. All members in the Pantellos marketplace sign the same membership agreements and are subject to the same marketplace rules.
