NEC Corporation Launches Suplicity

NEC Corporation announced the creation of Suplicity, an independent, global business-to-business company. Focusing on the supplier organization, Suplicity will bring together thousands of companies -- of all sizes, worldwide -- to engage, manage and execute bringing companies into the world of eBusiness. Suplicity, based in Littleton, Mass., begins operations today.

The Suplicity solutions provide key value propositions for both the supplier community and the eMarket community. Suplicity provides the concept of "Connect Once: Reach Many" for both the eMarkets and suppliers. Suppliers connect once and reach many eMarkets. eMarkets connect once and reach many suppliers.

Supplier benefits include a cost-effective and immediate solution for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) suppliers. Suplicity provides hosted subscription-based services to these companies eliminating infrastructure requirements and isolating suppliers from unique protocol requirements of multiple trading partners. eMarket benefits include ease of adding new and smaller suppliers to the eMarket and automation of many tasks performed manually today.

"Connectivity and infrastructure are the first hurdles to enabling your enterprise as an eBusiness. Business process is the strategic win," said David Wiedmer, president and CEO of Suplicity. "Our Business process approach provides automation of many business tasks performed manually today between eMarkets and suppliers. These processes include online receipt of purchase orders, receipt notification and non-repudiation, catalog maintenance, online status checking, invoice management, exception notification, centralized management, auditing, and reporting. Suplicity cost-effectively and immediately enables even the smallest suppliers with complete eBusiness processes with its trading partners."

Suppliers are the integral life-blood of all eMarkets. Suplicity's solutions provide an immediate ROI for these supplier companies, mirroring what eProcurement systems provide the Buying communities. Sellers are faced with joining multiple eMarketplaces within each industry segment, and analyst projections predict exponential growth of eMarketplaces over the next several years. The Aberdeen Group estimates between 500 and 600 eMarkets exist today growing at a rate of 30 to 40 each month. The Suplicity solution enables suppliers to conduct business with multiple trading exchanges without building unique infrastructure for each eMarket.

The Suplicity solution is based on emerging eBusiness standards. The system employs use of Oracle, the webLogic application server, with services implemented as EJB components. It features XML, the next generation Internet technology, to support an open and flexible architecture. The solution uses a variety of emerging industry standards for channel integration, including XML, RosettaNet, xCBL, cXML and OBI.

"NEC is pleased to launch Suplicity, which has a strong, viable business model to enable eBusiness process to companies of all sizes by providing support for industry standards, procurement solution neutrality, and efficiency that will make this venture a success" said Hiroshi Oka, general manager of Internet Software Development Division for NEC Corporation.

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation is a provider of Internet solutions, dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its customers in the key computer, network and electron device fields through its three market-focused in-house companies: NEC Solutions, NEC Networks and NEC Electron Devices. NEC Corporation, with its in-house companies, employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and saw net sales of 4,991 billion Yen (approx. US$48 billion) in fiscal year 1999-2000.