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Responding to the tough economic climate and slower growth in IT spending, Viacore Inc. and eConnections Inc. are each rolling out pay-as-you-go, hosted supply chain management offerings.
Viacore earlier this month made its Partner Integration Networks service available for a monthly fee, nixing its upfront software licensing and implementation fees.
The Irvine, Calif., companys software connects buyers and suppliers—primarily manufacturers—in private marketplace settings. Under the new pricing model, fees will be assessed monthly. With this model, Viacore will take responsibility for integrating partners into the Partner Integration Network.
Each privately branded marketplace will include three components. An Infrastructure Management component provides disaster recovery, data storage, data archiving and infrastructure monitoring. A Data/Process Management component handles the routing of documents and processes between trading partners. And a Community Enablement module includes business-to-business software provisioning, data validation, testing, training and project coordination for partner integration and activation.
Separately, eConnections earlier this month announced a suite of hosted supply chain services that enable electronics companies to manage their supply chains without making significant upfront investments in technology. eConnections namesake suite consists of four Web-based modules: Quote Manager, Demand Manager, Supply Manager and Inventory Manager.
eConnections, of Pasadena, Calif., already has about 1,500 suppliers that are connected to its infrastructure. Pricing for eConnections modules range from $20,000 to $60,000 monthly.
Viacore is not the first company to provide hosted private trading exchange services. eScout Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., for example, has close to 20,000 member companies and hosts private B2B exchanges through its Hosted Private Exchange Solution.