Chemunity - Pragmatic Procurement of Chemicals

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	ChemUnity introduces new product, the Sourcing Portal; well-received by current users Arnhem, The Netherlands - July, 2001 - ChemUnity was founded in 1999 as a marketplace for full truckload quantities of a few dozen commodity chemicals, growing to it's current size with multiple inquiries daily from over 500 screened and registered users. While the Commodity Market continues to expand, ChemUnity has detected a new opportunity: to provide a tool specifically for industrial buyers of chemicals to organize their sourcing activities. This newly developed tool, called the "Sourcing Portal" allows industrial buyers to maintain their personal product database, to which they can link the appropriate, approved suppliers. From here, they can send out RFQs (requests-for-quotes), negotiate, and confirm purchase orders. In many ways the Sourcing Portal replaces analog communication media such as fax and phone. By keeping all the data in a single database, the user can generate clever single screen overviews, ultimately leading to better purchase decisions. The system also reduces routine work, allowing more time for important activities like face-to-face visits with strategic suppliers. The Sourcing Portal does not require high upfront investments nor long implementation trajectories. ChemUnity charges subscribers a fixed monthly fee (a few hundred Euros for the basic single-user version) and doesn't charge any additional transaction fees or other volume-related commissions. Suppliers can connect by web-browser free of charge, and can in a later stage also decide to integrate into their back-end system for which ChemUnity uses Esperanto's XML-based application. Integration is not included in the above-mentioned fee. The enthusiasm for this new tool has been overwhelming: ever since it was announced two months ago subscribers have signed up at a rate of more than 10 new buyers per week, far more than even the most optimistic forecasts. (This is without counting the numerous new suppliers introduced by the participating buyers). For more information, see the sourcing portal for buyers or contact Herman Rijks or Maarten Heybroek, at +31 26 844 6000.