Verticalnet Polishes Hosting Service

Verticalnet Inc., with its storied B2B past, is honing its hosted supply management offering.

The company announced its Impact Sourcing offering that provides users with access to its entire XE Suite of supply management software as an on-demand service coupled with bundled support and pay-as-you-go pricing.

Impact Sourcing is designed to let users focus on a specific category segment, when needed, rather than implement an entire suite of software for specific functionality, said Nathanael Lentz, Verticalnets president and CEO.

"Impact Sourcing provides access to our full suite, but in a narrow slice," said Lentz, in Malvern, Pa. "[Users] can get access to negotiation management and auctions just for that slice of category. [A category manager] is, for example, someone focused on an indirect category like packaging, corrugated metal or transportation."

According to Lentz, companies dont source for all their products all the time, in every category they cover. Rather, they source on an as-needed basis. Impact Sourcing gives customers, particularly midmarket companies, the option to purchase software capabilities that enable sourcing events, along with associated support services, on demand.

The XE Suites supply management modules consist of Program Manager, Spend Manager, Negotiation Manager, Procurement Manager, Contract Manager and Performance Manager.

Bob Currey, general manager of sourcing innovation and supplier management for Delta Airlines Inc., in Atlanta, is using a number of modules from Verticalnets hosted XE Suite.

"Were buying everything from HR [human resources] benefits to media buys, advertising agencies [and] sponsorships to the more traditional manufacturing side. When you look at figuring out how to go to market, track suppliers and keep track of spending, the existing suite of [Verticalnet] tools does a very good job at that," said Currey.

Verticalnet, which made a name for itself during the booming 1990s as a business-to-business electronic marketplace provider, began focusing on collaborative supply chain and spend management capabilities around 2002, after selling off its 59 B2B e-marketplaces.

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