Tempe, AZ October 21, 2002 Members of online chemical exchange ChemConnect can now exchange data through the e-marketplace's connection to a network operated by Global eXchange Services, offering the potential to reduce transaction costs with partners outside the chemical industry.
ChemConnect is a dot-com survivor, having maintained its e-marketplace even as many of its fellow online exchanges ran out of funding or succumbed to acquisition. The company currently boasts some 7,500 members in multiple industries.
Global eXchange Services, once a unit of General Electric, operates one of the largest B2B e-commerce networks in the world and claims its more than 100,000 trading partners conduct 1 billion annual transactions worth $1 trillion.
The two companies said the link between ChemConnect and GXS enables ChemConnect members to exchange electronic business documents with customers and suppliers in multiple industries, eliminating the need to establish one-to-one connections with trading partners outside of the chemical industry.
Instead, ChemConnect members may access these business partners using their single connection through the ChemConnect hub to the GXS network, where all data translation and transaction routing is performed automatically through GXS's EC Service Center.
The connection enables ChemConnect members using the XML-based Chem eStandards data format to send and receive documents with businesses that use electronic data interchange (EDI), proprietary data formats or other versions of XML.
"This hub-to-hub connection is already transmitting documents back and forth, and it clearly complements and extends our capabilities," said John Robinson, ChemConnect CEO. Robinson said the new link would allow the exchange's members to automate a large number of relatively low-value transactions that result in considerable administrative time.
ChemConnect member Occidental Chemical Corp. (OxyChem) is already using the new service to exchange production documents with its trading partners.
"We immediately identified a half-dozen trading partners with whom we had not previously been exchanging business documents electronically," said Stacy Palmatary, vice president of e-business for OxyChem. "ChemConnect and GXS worked with us and our customers to map the document specifications we needed, and it is now working seamlessly."
Palmatary added that OxyChem is now using its ChemConnect channel to reach out to downstream customers and is seeking new opportunities to automate its business processes beyond direct material sales and purchases.
