The e-business world is not always kind to suppliers and even less so to those in the small and midsize range. SPS Commerce is hoping to make it a little bit kinder.
The St. Paul, Minn., company late last month announced enhancements to its hosted Catalog Service designed to make it easier for large buyers to tie into smaller suppliers.
Online catalogs normally have been aimed at linking large buyers with large suppliers, leaving smaller suppliers using the phone or fax machines, said company officials.
The Catalog Service is part of the companys SPSCommerce.net program. Enhancements include browser-based tools to create customized synchronization agents that pull new supplier product content into their back-end ERP systems and enable smaller suppliers to update product, pricing and shipping specs. Large companies acting as hubs pay a one-time setup fee of $10,000.