PeopleSoft Inc and Commerce One got together yesterday with Guess? Inc to announce an on-line, business to business trading exchange for the fashion industry. The companies said the exchange will enable textile and clothing buyers and sellers to automate procurement and lower costs. Using PeopleSoft’s eProcurement integrated with the PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management suite, and Commerce One MarketSite, the B2B e-commerce portal will be the first clothing company to create a vertical portal for its industry, the companies said. The exchange will also enable Guess to streamline its internal procurement processes and reduce its supply chain costs.
The news comes the same day that ERP giant SAP AG, announced its first foray into the on-line exchange market space with a deal to link global chemical and pharmaceutical companies (see separate story) to buy and sell over the internet. And rival Oracle Corp announced a similar deal with Ford in November to link that company and its suppliers and partners in an on-line trading community.
Based on the Commerce One MarketSite portal, the Guess Exchange, at www.apparelbuy.com, will enable clothing suppliers and manufacturers to place their product catalogues on-line which in turn will reduce procurement costs by aggregating purchasing across the enterprise.
To use the service, employees must have a copy of PeopleSoft’s eProcurement software at their desktop. When a user goes to purchase goods, the PeopleSoft application connects him or her to Commerce One MarketSite, an business-to-business marketplace portal providing e-commerce services and real-time access to the community of suppliers.
The portal will roll out in three phases to address the needs of suppliers, trade customers, and the fashion market at large, the companies said. The first phase will make an online catalog for indirect purchasing available to internal Guess employees, licensees that manufacture Guess-branded accessories, and suppliers via PeopleSoft eProcurement and Commerce One MarketSite. The second phase will enable electronic trading with the textile industry for components such as buttons and zippers. The third phase will allow open trading among buyers and suppliers in the textile and apparel industries.
Participants will be able to conduct transactions ranging from volume purchasing to clothing manufacturing using an automated bid-quote process and online auctions. The first phase will launch in the first quarter of 2000. The second and third phases will launch in the third quarter and fourth quarters of 2000, respectively. á
