POET Software, specialists in supply-side B2B eCommerce, and ec-Content, an e-catalog content solution provider for B2B e-marketplaces and e-procurement, recently announced a strategic partnership that will combine ec-Contents e-catalog libraries, and their management and maintenance services, with POETs supplier self-service e-catalog application to provide a comprehensive catalog solution for e-marketplaces. In addition. POET and ec-Content will integrate their products and engage in joint sales and marketing activities.
ec-Content provides comprehensive content libraries with richly attributed supplier content describing over five million products, and supplements those libraries with ongoing management and maintenance to keep them current. POET eCatalog Suite-Service Provider Edition (eCS-SP) provides tools to help suppliers manage and customize their product and pricing data into eCatalogs tailored to the needs of each buyer. By utilizing the combination of these two offerings, e-marketplaces will be able to gain instant liquidity, provide customized content and grow their content base.
E-Marketplaces that license the combined solution will leverage ec-Contents content libraries to populate their supplier product database. POET eCS-SP will then enable suppliers to layer their buyers custom pricing and product selection on top of ec-Contents product descriptions via a browser.
The foundation of any e-marketplace is the content through which buyers and sellers transact business, said Trey Simonton, ec-Contents executive vice president of business development. ec-Content efficiently manages and adds value to detailed product and price information for millions of individual items from thousands of suppliers and manufacturers in the office products, building supplies and automotive industries. POET eCS-SP can load the multiple content libraries provided by ec-Content and allow customers to generate custom e-catalogs. ec-Content will also use POET eCS-SP to create custom, user-defined attributes that support various ec-Content libraries, in order to simplify the installation and configuration process for e-marketplaces.
eMarketplace success will be determined by their ability to build relationships between buyers and suppliers, which ultimately revolves around the suppliers e-catalog content, said Mike Hogan, vice president of strategy for POET Software. ec-Content jumpstarts the content solution by creating and maintaining e-catalog libraries, and POET eCS-SP enables suppliers to extend and customize this content for each buyer, further strengthening the buyer-supplier relationship. E-catalog content libraries and self-service e-catalog solutions like these complement each other like chocolate and peanut butter.
