GE Information Services (Geis) put a stake in the ground this month with its acquisition of privately-held message brokering outfit RMS Electronic Commerce Systems, signalling an intent to migrate its proprietary EDI value-added network (VAN) users over to IP-based systems. Ownership of the RMS OmniTrans data transformation engine, which allows data of different formats to flow between business applications and across trading partner systems, means Geis can start to migrate away from a costly batch-oriented, document-based EDI exchange infrastructure and move towards systems based on cost-effective IP-based networking.
GE Information Services is one of General Electric Company’s 12 business units with European headquarters in Paris, France. A core competency is managing global electronic trading communities. Currently, Geis hosts more than 100,000 trading partners across its global electronic trading VANs. According to PFA Research, 83% of electronic data interchange (EDI) users in the UK are connected to Geis-owned EDI VANs. These include 78 of the Times Top 100 companies. Overall around 12,000 organizations in the UK use Geis.
Geis says it offers global networked solutions: EDI and messaging services, internet, intranet and extranet services, and a range of professional services needed to build and support trading communities. It has operations in more than 40 countries around the world. The company employs more than 2,000 people worldwide, 800 of whom are based outside the United States. Revenues for 1997 were $700m, 40% of which derived outside the US. Figures for 1998 have not yet been made available. However, the parent group of General Electric reported revenues for the entire group up 11% to $100.5bn for 1998. Revenues for Geis represented 0.77% of the group’s total for 1997 and if this is repeated for 1998 then Geis would have produced a revenue touching $780m for 1998.
Its Global Network is said to enable businesses to expand markets and reach customers and trading partners around the world. Geis Messaging Services is a global service that enables business partners to share, store and retrieve information from anywhere in the world. It supports email, bulletin boards and database management services.
GE TradeWeb is a forms-based, entry-level EDI service, which enables businesses or trade associations to electronically exchange business documents with their trading partners using a personal computer, standard internet browser and modem. This service allows small businesses access to the benefits of EDI without incurring the expense of an EDI infrastructure. Organizations using GE TradeWeb include the Independent Dairy Consortium, Ericsson Radio Systems, Chrysler Corporation, Nationwide Insurance and GE’s own Power Systems division.
Increasingly, electronic supply chains are being made up of a combination of traditional EDI, web-enabled EDI and extranet technologies. Companies such as Geis with experience in providing trading community support should be well placed as electronic commerce strategies evolve from pure EDI-based electronic commerce to extranet-based applications. However, these same companies have a reputation for moving slowly. The acquisition of RMS Electronic Commerce Systems by GEIS may well change that as competitors move to keep pace.
