BURLINGTON,
Mass., August 14, 2000-Emptoris, Inc., the leading provider
of strategic B2B e-commerce solutions for net market makers and
Global 2000 companies, today announced that it has entered into
a strategic relationship with Open Ratings, the global standard
for supplier performance ratings. Under the terms of the agreement,
Open Ratings' supplier performance ratings will be made accessible
to net markets that have incorporated Emptoris' ePASS into their
technology infrastructure. ePASS is a web-based strategic sourcing
solution that enables buyers and suppliers to make the best online
trading decisions by allowing them to manage and optimize the
online Request for Quotes (RFQ) and decision support process.
"The combination of Emptoris technology and the Open Ratings
service provides net markets with a comprehensive B2B e-procurement
solution," said Stan Smith, CEO, president and founder of
Open Ratings. "Unlike the B2C sector, companies doing business
over the Web require an e-commerce system that takes into consideration
a wide range of decision factors, including supplier ratings.
By integrating our vendor ratings and patent-pending technology
into ePASS, Emptoris is enabling buyers to easily factor supplier
performance into the RFQ process so that the final purchasing
decision reflects the real world needs of the buyer."
Net markets powered by Emptoris' ePASS technology provide procurement
professionals with an online solution in which transactions are
not driven purely by price, but also by a set of business rules
and constraints established by the buyer. These rules and constraints
can be used to factor in the different variables that go into
the purchasing decision, such as product quality, delivery deadlines,
existing buyer/supplier contracts and supplier performance ratings.
The Emptoris/Open Ratings partnership will provide ePASS users
with a trusted, unbiased source of supplier ratings, allowing
them to consider a supplier's reputation based on feedback obtained
from companies that have done business with the particular supplier.
"As more and more net markets are launched, it is becoming
clearer to the industry that price is not the only factor in the
decision making process," said Avner Schneur, president and CEO
of Emptoris. "ePASS enables e-markets to offer buyers the opportunity
to optimize the RFQ process by providing a means to truly define
the business rules and constraints that are most important to
them. Our partnership with Open Ratings arms our buyers with another
piece of crucial information, a supplier's reputation."
About Open Ratings
Open Ratings is the global standard for supplier performance ratings
across all business-to-business eMarketplaces. Open Ratings offers
a sophisticated, unbiased supplier performance ratings service
that is designed to help businesses make informed and confident
online transaction decisions. Based in Boston, Mass., Open Ratings
was founded in May 1999 by Pattie Maes, MIT Media Lab e-commerce
expert, Giorgos Zacharia, co-founder of the MIT Media Lab's Agent-mediated
Electronic Commerce (AmEC) Initiative, and Stan Smith, former
vice president and general manager of Agile Software. Open Ratings'
investors include Ampersand Ventures, Atlas Venture and Dun &
Bradstreet. More information about Open Ratings can be found at www.openratings.com.
About Emptoris, Inc.
Emptoris, Inc. is the leader in strategic B2B e-commerce solutions
for net markets and Global 2000 companies. By implementing Emptoris'
advanced, web-based procurement solutions, e-markets can increase
transaction volume by meeting the complex strategic sourcing needs
of buying and selling professionals and empower them to make the
best online trading decisions. Emptoris' real world procurement
platform, ePASS, extends beyond single item simplistic transactions
to enable strategic sourcing of direct materials and services
over the Internet. ePASS' customizable business rules, intelligent
workflow and advanced decision support technology allow Emptoris'
partners and customers to rapidly deploy industry specific e-marketplace
solutions, build collaborative buyer-seller relationships and
quickly optimize multifaceted purchasing decisions.
Emptoris is a privately held company and is an Internet Capital
Group (Nasdaq: ICGE) Partner Company. The Company is headquartered
in Burlington, Massachusetts.
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