Need2Buy Inc. has taken the expertise it garnered running its own public e-marketplace and turned it into an option that enables electronics manufacturers to set up Web-based private trading networks.
The Westlake Village, Calif., company, which opened its namesake online marketplace for the electronics industry in 1999, last week announced its Private Trading Network, which offers manufacturers a system to collaborate with partners and suppliers without installing software on those third-party companies systems.
As a hosted service, the PTN solution is available to companies that have not implemented a traditional business-to-business infrastructure such as electronic data interchange technology or Extensible Markup Language-based applications.
The private network, available now, offers a range of supply chain applications that enable design collaboration, sourcing, procurement and order management processes.
Contract electronics manufacturer LeeMah Electronics Inc. has signed on for a six-week beta test of PTN.
Derek Hawksley, purchasing manager and program manager for Need2Buy collaboration at San Francisco-based LeeMah, had a very specific objective in seeking a private trading network solution: Find a company that is not directly sponsored by distributors of electronic parts.
“We were looking for a true independent, and thats what we conceived Need2Buy to be,” Hawksley said.
In terms of functionality, Hawksley is looking to facilitate component research, sourcing of alternative materials and a means for obtaining the best pricing for components. He also said he expects to be able to cross-match his customers known manufacturing part numbers, which will aid in the control of excess inventory, as well as help move products from one program to another or one location to another based on need.
Need2Buy has been busy of late. Last week the company announced that Nima Bakhtiatry joined as president. No stranger to Need2Buy, Bakhtiatry comes from Adexa Inc., a Los Angeles-based company that Need2Buy allied with last month to provide hosted supply chain solutions for midsize electronics manufacturers.
The two companies are working together to develop and market Need2Buys hosted sourcing, inventory management and design collaboration capabilities, combined with Adexas order promising, collaborative demand and supply planning, production planning, and product life cycle management offerings.
Some of the combined applications from Adexa and Need2Buy, under development now, will be part of the PTN solution, officials said.
In a similar move, Need2Buy partnered with Efinity Inc., of Aliso Viejo, Calif., last month to incorporate Efinitys Supply-Web Information Management modules as the basis of a new order management engine that will be integrated into the PTN offering.
With the combined solution, manufacturers will be able to directly source components and then collaborate with suppliers to send and respond to purchase orders, change-order requests, advance ship notices and invoices.
