If you've been thinking...........
'I need my electronic component B2B web site to drive more
revenue, to cut transaction costs, and to recapture customers that want to
transact business over .......... 'THE INTERNET'



...then think fetch Solutions 24/7 "e-Catalog"





fetch Solutions is a joint venture combining proven software and systems from i-MARK with electronics components industry expertise from veteran component and distribution professionals.

We can create a state-of-the-art web-presence for your company in weeks to months, creating the platform you need to enhance your brand image and generate leads, quotes, and sales online and propel your business into the internet age.


Our software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model means low upfront costs with fees that scale with performance allowing you to readily afford to create an impressive internet presence.


To learn more, please contact Tim Cronin at the address below to discuss your further interest in this Internet Added Sales and Revenue Program.


Thank You!





--
tim cronin
fetch Solutions
774.238.1282
txcronin@gmail.com


fetch blog: http://fetchecatalog.blogspot.com/
demonstration e-catalog website ("click electronics"): http://fetch-eval.smartcats.com/smartcat/sc_app/default.asp

Distribution Industry in 10 years++++fetch Solutions

Electronic Business: How do you think the distribution industry is going to look 10 years from now?

Vallee: It'll probably not be what we think it's going to be, but based on what I see today here's what I would say: truly global—design anywhere, build anywhere, follow-the-sun kinds of design efforts; highly consolidated because of the scale and scope that will be required to actually be able to operate globally; the Web will be integrated in just about everything we do; and more and more of our profits will come from the services we provide as opposed to the [products] we sell. I think that in all industries, not just in technology, the world is moving toward solutions. It's just a function of time constraints and cost constraints that are driving customers to solutions. In order for us to provide solutions, we are going to have to have more and more services to complement the products that we sell, be they hardware or software. Ten years from now I think that will be a very important part of the distribution industry.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2008/08/27/44396/avnet-ceo-roy-vallee-10-years-at-the-top.htm

fetch Solutions will "Deliver the Goods"

If you've been thinking...........
'I need my electronic component B2B web site to drive more
revenue, to cut transaction costs, and to recapture customers that want to
transact business over .......... 'THE INTERNET'

...then think fetch Solutions 24/7 "e-Catalog"

SMALL is BIG in e-Commerce

Why “SMALL” is BIG in E-commerce
By Kevin Lynn on Thu (7/17/08) in Featured Stories, Marketing | 0 Comments

I thought I was on a roll at a recent Solid Cactus Boot Camp. I was holding a seminar, extolling the virtues of the “new marketing,” encouraging the attendees to spend less time and money on advertising and more effort on public relations where the advertising is free. Sadly, one person in the audience rained on my parade. She sells aftermarket parts for an auto maker and she was scared because the car manufacturer was initiating its own big push in e-commerce. She assumed the car maker, with its budgets and billions and warehouses full of parts would soon roll right over her. She asked, when the sleeping giants awaken and discover the Internet, how can small companies possibly compete against “the big boys”?

Let me sum up my answer in two words: WITH EASE!

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MRO's quest is to "Keep Transaction Costs Low"

Purchasing takes a new look at distribution

As MRO purchasing responsibilities grow and change, so too does the role of the industrial distributor. Buyers now ask those suppliers for even more help with keeping costs down.
By Susan Avery -- Purchasing, 6/12/2008

Industrial distributors see it too: The MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) buy is more strategic, and purchasing has new expectations for suppliers.(FS#00117)

fetch says - "fetch Solutions can provide the MRO distribution Industry with the "e-Catalog" and the "Virtual Sales Division" today that will between 29% to 39% less in transaction costs for increased sales and a significant bottom line profit in the 10-12% range. Let fetch build your MRO sales division for you starting today. the virtual division will be transacting B2B for the month of September".

"When procurement partners with distributors, it expects them to reach out, engage their suppliers and ensure they are providing technical support and expertise," says Dale P. Flanders, director of global MRO procurement for Accenture in Albany, N.Y.

This view matches the results from Purchasing reader surveys conducted earlier this year as well as the view in corporate offices and plant sites all over the country, distributors say. Companies recognize the impact purchasing—even MRO purchasing—has on the bottom line, and, with prices rising and competition intensifying, resourceful buyers are turning to suppliers for help managing costs and generating revenue.

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fetch Solutions will "Deliver the Goods"

Is your Sales Model Ready for the Recession??
fetch says -- "This Summer will mark one of the biggest economic shifts in US History. For most industries the seismic activity will knock companies off their foundation". (fs00116)-- ww #3 7-11

Below please find a list of economic factors that will provide the fuel for the tough economic times. The major factors are:
* The Sluggish economy here and in Europe
* Rising Unemployment
* $4+ gasoline -- $5+ for the truck fleets that provide logistics
* The cost of jet fuel
* Layoffs in the financial and banking industries
* Home mortgage crisis
* Sky-rocketing food prices

"fetch Solutions" application software has developed over the last 10 years the knowledge and the technology tools to assist our friends in the components industry to not only get through these dire economic times, but to transform your company to make added sales and significant revenue of the rest of 2008 and 2009.

READ ARTICLE

Saturday, July 12, 2008
fetch Solutions will "Deliver the Goods"
(fetch says - "fetch Solutions will provide all of the application software and the technology resources to assist Small-Medium Business's(SMBs) to develop a new e-Business sales division. fetch will supply the technology, for only a small hook-up fee, and a commitment from your company will permit us to build-out your "Virtual Sales Division". (fs#00116)

This article was published on Saturday 7/11 at woodstock wire.

by: Tim Cronin
fetch Solutions

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fetch says "SMBs can rely upon fetch Solutions to deliver the goods!

The results of these trends are making it nearly impossible for SMBs to deliver goods effectively without making strategic technology investments in their supply chains. Still, no matter how strong the justification for modernizing your supply chain and WMS system, there are always going to be reasons for resisting and ignoring change until it is too late. Here are some reasons I've heard:

We need a new system, but cannot afford a long and expensive implementation cycle
--fetch Solutions will deliver all the technology for the SMBs supply-chains. The goods will be delivered and fully operational

within 60 days of agreement. The up front cost to the SMB will be just a token set-up fee. The majority of the expense to the SMBs will be a "pay-as-you-go commission program!

We do not necessarily need a complex system today, but we want a system that will grow with us
We want a system with fast employee adoption, and many systems appear too complex
We want a vendor that can share industry best practices
We want a vendor that will be there in the future. We don't want to be restricted to vendors running/developing the system out of their garage

Is Your Business RationalizingAway Updated Technology?

Facing Reality: Is Your Business Rationalizing Away Updated Technology Infrastructure?

A WMS system can provide the cornerstone for a company's supply chain, delivering inventory visibility, on time and complete orders, reduced inventory costs and employee efficiency.

By Chris Goldsmith, Director of Product Strategy, HighJump Software
July 7, 2008 -- In a business environment that is constantly changing and growing increasingly complex, small to medium businesses (SMBs) know that to remain viable, they must adopt new technology. However, there is often a disconnect between acceptance and adoption. Is your SMB effectively leveraging technology to address the reality of your competitive environment, or are you rationalizing reasons not to adopt?

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eBusiness -- "Small Business Necessity"

Tags: Business, circumstances, springboard

"fetch Solutions will provide the expertise and the technology tools to transition your business to the Internet"

(fetch says - "fetch Solutions will provide all of the application software and the technology resources to assist Mid-Size Companies to develop a new eBusiness game plan. fetch will supply for only a hook-up fee and a commitment from the company to build out their "Virtual Sales Platform. The commission to fetch will be a "pay-as-you-go" program"

by: Rick Hendershot

The rapid growth of the internet commerce in recent years presents established small businesses with a serious dilemma. On the one hand, they can stick with the business model that has worked for them for the last number of years. On the other hand, they can make the shift to serious eBusiness.

Choosing to stand pat is usually much easier in the short term. But in the longer term this almost certainly means they will be left behind by technology, and lose many of their most important clients to more aggressive competitors.

But shifting to eBusiness may involve committing substantial resources to developing a new game plan. That usually means refining product lines to make them easier to sell online, upgrading computer systems and websites, and training personnel at all levels to be more web savvy. It also means developing or hiring staff to handle the administration of new marketing, sales, and delivery systems, and working with outside consultants and service providers to handle the technical aspects of the new program that cannot be handled by your own people.

Is adopting an eBusiness Solution worth the effort?

Are the short term difficulties involved in making the transition to eBusiness worth the effort?

In virtually all cases, Yes.


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Product & Service Category Results

Product & Service Category Results

The Cost of Going

The cost of going global for China’s high-tech companies

Chinese technology companies are competing successfully on their home turf. Global markets may be another story, at least in the short run.

Distributor looks overseas for better market

Distributor looks overseas for better marketsAvnet looks outside the North American market with new venture
7/3/2008 9:48:00 AM By: Vawn Himmelsbach

So business might be slowing here in North America, but it isn't in other parts of the world. And this may cause some disties to focus their efforts elsewhere. Avnet, for example, has some aggressive international expansion plans – and that may be where the money's at right now.

The IT market in Asia is growing – and growing faster than any other market. So Avnet plans to concentrate its efforts there over the next 12 to 18 months. Case in point: in May, it announced the acquisition of Ontrack Solutions, a Mumbai-based systems integrator with expertise in security, networking, virtualization and storage solutions. The deal is expected to close by the middle of this month and will open the door for Avnet to build what it calls a “value-added solutions distribution business” throughout India.

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Supply-Chain Perfect Storm

READ ARTICLE

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Harnessing Technology in the Channel

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Harnessing Technology in the Channel

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Is your Sales Model Ready for the Recession?

(f00114)Is your sales model ready for the recession?

fetch says -- "This Summer will mark one of the biggest economic shifts in US History. For some industries the seismic activity will knock most companies off their foundation".

Below please find a list of economic factors that will provide the fuel for the tough economic times." the major factors are:
* The Sluggish economy
* Rising Unemployment
* $4+ gasoline $5+ for the truck fleets providing logistics
* Layoffs in the financial and banking industries
* Home mortgage crisis
* Sky-rocketing food prices

"fetch Solutions" has the knowledge and the technology to assist our friends in the components industry to not only get through these dire economic times, but to transform your company to make added sales and significant revenue of the rest of 2008 and 2009. Please contact fetch Solutions at:

TXCronin
774.238.1282
txcronin@gmail.com

Please call ASAP to discuss what your options will be!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The slow pace of economy has come. Business facing downturn, the more luxurious an item the harder it will be hit. Has this economy slowdown impacted your sales?

READ ARTICLE

Outsourcing in China

VIEW ARTICLE

Tough Economic Times are Ahead

READ ARTICLE

The Summer of 2008 Will Be One To Remembar

READ ARTICLE

Meeting the Challange of the 21st Century Supply-Chain

21st CENTURY SUPPLY CHAIN

fetch Solutions "e-Catalog" provides Supply-Chain Partners:

The fetch Solutions "e-Catalog" provides your Customers and Supply-Chain Partners (C&SCP*) with the following Tools (f00110)

All current product and technical information resides in a user friendly Internet self-service center. C&SCP will find the correct part number with help from the "e-Catalog".Data is entered and retrieved in consistent format due to customer interface.

C&SCP can find information without having to call customer service. It is available as a self-serve 24/7 anytime day or night.

C&SCP can identify components for special needs or applications. These needs include energy efficiency and a choice of RoHS parts are identified.

C&SCP can place orders efficiently on a self-serve. The catalog interface force complete and accurate part numbers, can use either credit cards or purchase orders to order the products.

Pricing is based off standard/list prices with quantity discounts. The distributor/manufacturer determine the pricing algorithm.

* C&SCP include existing and new customers, franchised distributors,contract manufacturers, traditional customers, traditional customer service and sales agents, and your manufacturers representatives.

Distributors Help Fuel Eco-Friendly Designs

Distributors Help Fuel Eco-Friendly Designs (f00109)

Electronic Business June 2008

By Diane Trommer

Soaring energy costs and growing concern over the environmental impact of electronic devices have put electronics manufacturers in the hot seat as consumers demand high-tech devices that are not only better, faster and cheaper, but also greener. As the burden of fulfilling this demand cascades through the supply chain, it ultimately stops at the design engineer. In support of OEM customers’ efforts to capitalize on the opportunity to turn sustainability into a competitive advantage, authorized distributors are turning up the heat on their environmentally conscious solutions.

READ ARTICLE

http://www.inddist.com/article/CA6571026.html?rssid=264
Sales and Marketing Strategies for Era 3: How to leverage value to win—and keep—profitable customers (f00108)
By Jeff Thull, Prime Resource Group -- Industrial Distribution, 6/17/2008 10:27:00 AM
Is your salesforce stuck in the wrong era? It sounds like a strange question, but if they find themselves forced to compete on price to sell value-added products or services—or even if they’re trying to sell solutions to problems that customers know they have—the answer is probably yes. Business and the sales profession at large have evolved tremendously in the past 50 years. The problem is, the many sales organizations haven’t kept pace with the evolution.

How to Leverage Value to Win & Keep Profitable Customers

Sales and Marketing Strategies for Era 3: How to leverage value to win—and keep—profitable customers (f00108)
By Jeff Thull, Prime Resource Group -- Industrial Distribution, 6/17/2008 10:27:00 AM
Is your salesforce stuck in the wrong era? It sounds like a strange question, but if they find themselves forced to compete on price to sell value-added products or services—or even if they’re trying to sell solutions to problems that customers know they have—the answer is probably yes. Business and the sales profession at large have evolved tremendously in the past 50 years. The problem is, the many sales organizations haven’t kept pace with the evolution.

Supply-Chain to Drive Growth & Control Costa

Companies to Use Supply Chain to Drive Growth and Control Costs(f00107)

Looking to supply chains to improve customer satisfaction

Compiled By Adrienne Selko
June 23, 2008 -- Nearly three-quarters of the 265 manufacturing executives surveyed in Archstone Consulting's Manufacturing Executive Agenda for 2008 felt that the current market pressures, including sharply rising commodity prices, a sluggish economy, and foreign competition, may be triggering significant transformational changes within manufacturing organizations.

Companies to Use Supply Chain to Drive Growth and Control Costs
Looking to supply chains to improve customer satisfaction

Compiled By Adrienne Selko
June 23, 2008 -- Nearly three-quarters of the 265 manufacturing executives surveyed in Archstone Consulting's Manufacturing Executive Agenda for 2008 felt that the current market pressures, including sharply rising commodity prices, a sluggish economy, and foreign competition, may be triggering significant transformational changes within manufacturing organizations.

Should B2B marketers change their strategies during a recession? Does a recession always mean marketers have to work even harder to find ways to do more with less? Can a recession create opportunity for smart marketers to grow and thrive? These are some of the topics I recently explored on a panel at the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle.
Are we in a recession?

First off, let me explain I do not think we're in a recession in the US — yet. A recession requires two quarters of negative growth in GDP, and Q4 last year saw 0.6% growth while preliminary numbers for Q1 this year were 0.9% growth (Bureau of Economic Statistics).

So we may not yet be in a recession, but times are growing increasingly difficult for consumers. The subprime mess is real, exorbitant energy and food costs are cutting into discretionary spending, and the weakening dollar is importing inflation to our economy. According to How I Spent My Stimulus, the $152 billion stimulus package is going primarily to reduce consumer debt or to pay for higher gas and food costs, i.e. it is not going to stimulate incremental spending.

What this means is that we are in the worst possible non-recession. Prior downturns avoided becoming a (global) recession because of the resilient American consumer. This time, it looks like we won't have that saving grace — meaning things may still get worse before they get better.

Enterprise "Mashup" Services

Here come ‘enterprise mashup services’IBM’s Bob Zureck picked up on my recent ‘Mashups as a Service’ (MaaS) musings and suggests another way to put it — Enterprise Mashup Services, or EMS. I like it.

Within the EMS sphere, Zureck writes, "companies will combine information from enterprise search engines, web services, messaging systems, business intelligence engines and data integration solutions and combine that information from external services from their partners and emerging external data sources to deliver the information up to the glass."



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What is "SaaS" (Software-as-a Service)???

Below please find an explaination of SaaS vs. Traditional Software! The file is brought to you by SandHill Group.

AUDIO FILE

Who is SandHill.com? Click below...


www.sandhill.com

From Outsourcing to Worldsourcing

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fetch fridgets

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csp e-Marketing stuff

High-tech Manufacturing Industry embrases "SaaS"

Home : Technology & Innovation : High-tech Manufacturing Industries Embrace SaaS Applications
High-tech Manufacturing Industries Embrace SaaS Applications
SaaS will grow from $3 billion today to $30 billion by 2013, says Deutsch Bank.

By Doug Timmel, Director of Manufacturing Industry Solutions, Bluewolf
May 23, 2008 -- The market figures paint a compelling picture. The number of Software as a Service (SaaS) providers, and the capabilities of SaaS applications, continues to grow at an explosive pace. A 2006 Deutsche Bank analyst report states the industry will grow from $3 billion today to $30 billon in annual revenue by the year 2013, representing a ten-fold increase within the next five years. And, while it's true that this is a small portion of the overall software industry, recent trends indicate this number may be conservative.

The SaaS distribution model, in which applications are hosted by a service provider and made available to customers over the Web, offers many benefits: fast deployment, lower infrastructure and installation cost, lower administration costs, automatic updates and global accessibility. And, the high tech manufacturing industry is jumping on board with SaaS, for all the same reasons.

Many discrete applications lend themselves well to this on-demand model. For example, Salesforce.com for sales force automation and SuccessFactors for human resource management are both notable for their fast growth and success. This is due to the ease of use, lower cost, and ability to implement quickly.

Many vendors successfully started with traditional on-premise software, such as Big Machines for product configuration and complex quoting, Steelwedge or Right 90 for product demand forecasting, and Xactly for compensation management. These applications are frequently integrated with material and pricing master data in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. Today, these companies have developed on-demand versions of their solutions. And, new on-demand applications are appearing monthly, including offerings in lean manufacturing, marketing and purchasing.

ERP applications, which previously had not been considered for an on-demand model, are now meeting with great success in small to medium businesses. After three years of code development, SAP recently launched "SAP Business by Design," an ERP suite containing many of the modules inherent in the company's traditional on-premise application. A new, rapidly growing ERP offering is Workday, started by the original founders of PeopleSoft.

High-tech manufacturers have embraced the SaaS approach, as application providers have developed offerings specific to their industry. Design-to-Win, which is a crucial part of the sales and marketing development process, is now inherent in Salesforce.com. And with 50 percent or more of revenue coming from partner sales channels in the high-tech arena, the capability now exists to view and monitor partner activity and design-to-win success rates. As high-tech industries have vast quantities of parts (stock-keeping units, or SKUs) with complex pricing, high-tech firms can easily and quickly do complex product configurations and quotes. This process incorporates workflow for approvals, which give further discipline within the pricing process and assures better Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) compliance.

Another example where SaaS applications have aided the high-tech manufacturing industry is the acceptance of demand forecasting tools. These have proven to greatly improve forecast accuracy, down to the SKU level, for complex material inventories. The payback using these applications for inventory reduction is a very fast ROI.

As these applications become more robust and all encompassing, integration and seamless data exchange is crucial. A community of SaaS system implementation companies has grown with the pace in the industry itself. While some only offer configuration of the base application, the more innovative and established companies offer a range of process consulting, program management, configuration, integration training and adoption services. Engaging this level of experience and expertise makes startup fast and inexpensive compared to traditional approaches.

In short, there may be no application today within the high-tech manufacturing industry that cannot be cost-effectively, and quickly, adapted to on-demand solutions. Some of the most recognized companies producing semi-conductors, software, networking devices, hardware and electronic components have seen the obvious benefits of implementing SaaS solutions. These companies, known for leadership in innovation, will continue to lead best practices that offer the best return on investment.

fetch Solutions "PaaS" e-Catalog

Come take a look at the fetch Solutions e-Catalog demo called click electronics. fetch is offering their PaaS (Platform as a Service)to the electronics components industry.


CLICK ELECTRONICS

Mouser Electronics Blog

Mouser Electronics product Bloghttp://blog.supplyframe.com/blog/http://blog.supplyframe.com/blog/




http://blog.supplyframe.com/blog/

digikey Teaching Modules

http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;181709925;24345128;k?http://dkc1.digikey.com/us/en/PTM/Modules.html


TEACHING MODULES

Capturing Sourcing Savings

From Potential to Actual: Capturing Sourcing Savings

By Randy Watson and Suman Sarkar -- Purchasing, 4/1/2008 12:23:00 PM
The power of strategic sourcing cannot be denied. For some companies, reducing costs on goods and services purchased a mere 10 percent has proven to be equivalent to a 25 percent increase in revenue in terms of influencing overall profits. But as powerful a tool as sourcing has proven to be, much of its anticipated benefits are being left on the table in many cases. While companies are sourcing their spend in an effective manner and developing strategic relationships with their supply base, not all of the anticipated savings agreed to in contracts are flowing down to the bottom line, which puts the credibility of the entire procurement organization at stake.

READ MORE


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Small Business Tech Uncertenty moves to the Mid-Tier

Small business tech uncertainty moves to mid-sized companies



http://www.echannelline.com/usa/story.cfm?item=23290

Mid-Tier Uncertainty

Overview of the Electronic Components Marketplace

The electronic components market remains quite fragmented. The barriers to entry are being raised all the time and increasingly there are fewer distributors who can compete in the high customer service distribution space.

Customers are looking for the following:
* A breadth and depth of product
* Superior Logistics
* High Quality, reliable Product Data and Information

They also want access to:
* A Wide Selection of leading suppliers and technologies from a company that can
* A company that can guarantee its product integrity
* provide the most accurate, updated product information available 24/7
* Offer same or next day delivery

"fetch Solutions allows our partnering distributors to be able to meet these exacting requirements"

EMS Global Sales up double Digit Rate

Double Digit rate for the EMS

EMS Global

Going Global or Perish Article

 

Going Global

The reasons for U.S. companies' international expansion have changed, shifting them from cost-reduction strategies to ones seeking top-line growth. EE Times' Going Global Special Report explores how many small and medium-sized electronics companies are falling short on the international front. The online Going Global Special Report includes links to a qualitative report prepared by KWR International Inc., plus an interview with the report's author, links to KWR International survey data, and more. I hope you find it both informative and useful.

ARTICLE

EETimes SpecialReports

EETimes Report

Overview of the Electronic Components Marketplace

 The electronic components market remains quite fragmented the barriers to entry are being raised all the time and increasingly there are fewer distributors who can compete in the high service distribution space. Customers are looking for a breadth and depth of product, superior logistics and high quality, reliable product data and information. They also want access to a wide selection of leading suppliers and technologies from a company that can guarantee its product integrity; provide the most accurate, updated product information available and offer same or next day delivery.  fetch Solutions allows our partnering distributors to be able to meet these exacting requirements.

eXalt Solutions inks an agreement with Salesforce.com

By Steven Burke, ChannelWeb
5:22 PM EDT Mon. Apr. 28, 2008

Exalt Solutions has inked an agreement to put its multivendor solution configuration tool on Software as a Service (SaaS) high flyer Saleforce.com's AppExchange.

Leslie Swanson, the president of Cambridge, Mass. based Exalt, which is partially owned by ChannelWeb parent Everything Channel, a United Business Media company, said the tight integration with Salesforce.com's CRM and PRM offerings will provide a big boost in sales productivity for companies using both products.

The tight integration should improve sales forcecasts given that sales managers will have a more complete picture of opportunities with information like revenue per quote and proposal and product mix per quote and proposal, she said.

"This allows any AppExchange user working with Salesforce.com to seamlessly go from an opportunity in Salesforce.com directly into Exalt to configure and quote a multivendor solution," she said. "It blends Salesforce.com's strong CRM capabilities with Exalt's very unique solution selling capabilities. Any Salesforce.com user can now dramatically increase their attach rate when building a solution by using Exalt."

"We have many joint customers," added Swanson. "This allows those companies to seamlessly integrate both solutions. Exalt combined with Salesforce is an ideal solution for managing both direct sales and channel sales organizations."

The Salesforce.com pact follows agreements with solution provider behemoth CDW and specialty distributor Westcon aimed at helping them speed up what has up until now been a time consusming and byzantine process for doing multivendor sales quotes. Many sales reps still use a mish mash of vendor configurators and then dump the output into an Excel spreadsheet.

Salesforce.com's AppExchange is aimed at providing instant access to hundreds of SAAS applications that can integrate seamlessly with Salesforce.com.

eXalt Solution Sales Platform Now Available on Salesforce.com's AppExchange

CAMBRIDGE -- eXalt Solutions today announced the availability of eXalt's Solution Sales Platform on salesforce.com's AppExchange. eXalt's integration with Salesforce allows suppliers to more quickly and accurately configure, price and quote complete technical solutions, ensuring compatibility of products and pricing. Now sales professionals can leverage customer information stored in Salesforce in the quoting process to ensure accurate pricing and discounts and seamlessly and easily save quotes and proposals within Salesforce. eXalt for AppExchange is now available for preview at

More

Software as a Service//Big Company Friendly

SaaS Article

Auction-style site aims to thwart grey market

Semicentral.com aims to offer an applicable service to the electronics supply chain for the trade of excess inventory and looks to its users to ensure against counterfeit product.

By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- Electronic Business, 5/5/2008

Looking to counter the grey market’s counterfeit component issues, an online electronics supply chain service is aiming to bring together chip manufactures, OEMs, CEMs, and franchise distribution in an auction-style community.

Catalog Distributors are Thriving

Top 75 Electronics Distributors: Catalog distributors are thriving

Catalog distributors have found success focusing on new product introductions and small production runs.

By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 5/8/2008

Many electronics distributors are concerned what impact the economic slowdown will have on their businesses in 2008. However, while catalog distributors may not be completely recession-proof, they are less affected by the cyclical ups and downs of the economy. -  More

premier farnell V Annual Report 2008

Premier Farnell’s dynamic web-based 2008 Annual Report underpins the company’s strategy to use web technology to progress the company forward
05-05 - Source: Premier Farnell
The online report shows the success of the company’s strategy to move to a web-based business and touts some of the latest Internet technology by offering video interviews with the company’s CEO and CFO, explanation of the company’s strategy and a host of other relevant investor information.  Annual Report 2008

Midsize Enterprise Focus on Virtualization, Saas,Security

By Scott Campbell, ChannelWeb
2:01 PM EDT Fri. May. 02, 2008

Midsize and large businesses are still interested in the latest technology, but the demand for more efficient solutions with quicker return on investment has never been greater.

Next week, hundreds of IT purchasers will attend Everything Channel's Midsize Enterprise Summit in Orlando, Fla., to identify solutions that can help them through lean economic times.

MORE

Top 50 EMS

A list of the Top 50 EMS (electronic manufacturing Services) companies

Top 50 EMS

Catalog distributors are thriving

Top 75 Electronics Distributors: Catalog distributors are thriving

Catalog distributors have found success focusing on new product introductions and small production runs.

By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 5/8/2008

Many electronics distributors are concerned what impact the economic slowdown will have on their businesses in 2008. However, while catalog distributors may not be completely recession-proof, they are less affected by the cyclical ups and downs of the economy.

Distributors Go Global

TOP STORIES

Electronics distributors see robust growth in Asia Distributors say China, Europe and even Russia will help drive their global sales More

Top 75 Distributors North America

• Top 75 Electronics Distributors 2007 North American Rankings
  05/08/2008
  Top 75 Electronics Distributors 2007 North American Rankings More

Distributors' supply chain role grows

Top 75 Electronics Distributors: Distributors' supply chain role grows

Suppliers are relying on distributors more than ever to service North American OEMs and electronics manufacturing services providers. Distributors look for similar growth in Asia.

By James Carbone -- Purchasing, 5/8/2008

North American sales growth of the Top 75 electronics distributors increased 15% to $28.1 billion in 2007, due in large part to strong growth in computer products and connectors. In fact, 35 of the Top 75 distributors had sales gains of 10% or more.

Small Distributors have big revebue growth

• Top 75 Electronics Distributors: Small distributors have big revenue growth
  05/08/2008
  While distributor giants Arrow and Avnet are the leaders in sales in most products, smaller distributors enjoyed higher growth rates in 2007. URS Electronics in Portland, Ore., had the highest growth rate as it increased sales 34.9% to $9.5 million. Electro Enterprises in Oklahoma City, Okla. was close behind as it grew its revenue 34% to $40 million. More

Top 75 - 2007

Independent Distributors push for Quality

Independent Distributors "Quality Issue"

Saturday, April 26, 2008 Update: Internet exchange offers hope, challenge for OEMs By Jennifer Baljko Shah and Mark Hachman EBN (05/05/2000 4:57 PM EST) The High-Tech Exchange, an e-commerce initiative launched earlier this week by a dozen industry players, is likely to be one of many online trading hubs that connect component suppliers, distributors, and OEMs, supply-chain management experts said. But just how these exchanges will work, and which will create enough buzz and substance to be the dominant site, remains to be seen, they added. "These are brand-new business models," said Jim Forquer, a director at the consulting firm Pittiglio Rabin Todd and McGrath. While there have been many announcements about these marketplaces in all industries, "the number of transactions per press release is pretty low," he said. "We have to take note that this is something very new and still being developed." Despite the potential for infighting within the e-commerce space, PC makers and OEMs in other industry segments share the same goal: to implement common Web-based supply-chain management practices across different companies, and to increase supply and demand visibility. At the same time, supply-chain managers and purchasers will face the unenviable task of figuring how the dynamics of this emerging model will affect their existing practices. They will also have to determine how these exchanges will affect component pricing strategies, information-sharing processes, and strategic relationships with preferred suppliers. "There are lots of questions," said Mike Doyle, chairman and chief executive of the National Initiative for Supply Chain Integration. "One of the serious problems in any exchange is that there needs to be a clarification of what types of items are running through the exchange. Another major issue is if a few companies own the highway and are charging a toll to use it, how can they ensure competitors that they can't see sensitive and important information such as pricing." The e-marketplace phenomenon that is sweeping through various industries has even piqued the curiosity of the Federal Trade Commission. In an effort to understand how e-marketplaces and online exchanges work and affect competition, the government agency will hold a public workshop on June 29. Taking the first stab at a multiparty open exchange in the PC sector, AMD, Compaq, Gateway, Hitachi, HP, Infineon, NEC, Quantum, Samsung, SCI Systems, Solectron, and Western Digital said they will be the 12 initial founding members of an independent company that will operate High-Tech Exchange (www.ehitex.com). Eight additional founding members are expected to be added to the roster. "Suppliers, customers, and competitors, in many cases, were able to come together at lightning speed to put together a very exciting opportunity and probably one of the most meaningful events in the industry in many years," said Matt Massengill, president and chief executive of Western Digital Corp., during a news conference. "This is a great opportunity for us to truly get the kinds of efficiencies out of the supply chain that we need to have." Initially, the High-Tech Exchange, slated to be up and running within 90 days, will offer auctions, catalog management, and value-added services such as a news ticker. Down the road, demand forecasting, inventory visibility, capacity utilization, online supply commits, reverse logistics, trading agents, and collaborative product-design- service capabilities are likely to be added. Reducing redundancies and getting partners to speak a common language are other areas the exchange hopes to tackle. "It helps everyone in the supply chain do things more efficiently," said Phil Fok, director of corporate operations at Solectron Corp., Milpitas, Calif. "For example, orders are usually e-mailed or faxed, and someone has to receive and review them, then fax or e-mail them back. E-commerce done correctly can eliminate redundant entry stuff. You get improved performance." Leveraging existing technology is one way to achieve that, according to Curt Francis, vice president of corporate development at Quantum Corp. in San Jose. "Internet-based commerce has been a substantial force in a number of areas, in autos and steel. Why would it not happen here?" he said. One of the most challenging hurdles the new group faces is getting everyone to speak the same language. Though many companies have joined standards boards like RosettaNet -- a consortium developing e-business process standards that will allow supply-chain partners to more effectively interact via the Internet -- putting the right technology in place could be a bear of a job, according to Fadi Chehade, chief executive of ViaCore Inc. and former head of RosettaNet. "Building RosettaNet-ready PIPs isn't simple," he said. "If you thought EDI was hard, this is harder. "What concerns me is that you can't announce something that is meaningful that will be available in a matter of days [as the Internet Exchange will be]. That worries me because it's not simple stuff," Chehade said. "Can you integrate companies' systems simply? The answer is no." E-commerce Competition While the High-Tech Exchange has some heavy-hitters on its roster, other big names, such as IBM Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Intel Corp., and the major distribution players, are not on the list. Though it's still too early to speculate whether some of them will join at a later date, the possibility of having competing exchanges is already emerging. Later this month, Big Blue is expected to announce that it will form a separate exchange with at least nine other companies, said Jerry Latta, IBM's global general manager for aerospace and electronics in Southbury, Conn. "We started down this path several weeks ago," Latta said. "There's room for all kinds of exchanges in the industry. They can take on all different forms, shapes, and characteristics." Latta declined to discuss what companies will be founding members, what technology will be used to connect the players, or other details about how the exchange will operate. A formal announcement outlining their strategy is expected to be released by the end of the month. Dell, which has optimized the PC industry's shift toward a build-to-order sales strategy, has forged its own independent supply-chain model. A spokesman for the Round Rock, Texas, company characterized Dell's supply-chain management model as "quite advanced," but declined to give specifics beyond acknowledging that several of the processes are patented. He stopped short of saying that Dell might risk exposing or sharing these processes should it decide to participate in the exchange. "We're aware of [the exchange], but it's not clear what it is, or what its benefit to Dell would be," the spokesman said. "Dell is generally regarded as a leader in supply-chain management. We have developed our own Internet-based tools for supply-chain management and in the management of finished goods." Intel, the world's leading chip maker and a key enabler of Dell's direct-sales efforts, declined to comment whether it was considering joining the supply-chain program. Internally, Intel has been setting up e-commerce initiatives to manage its customer and supply base. "We have ongoing technical innovations in software and services and continue to be vigilant in regard to these things," a spokesman said. Where Distributors Fit In Top-tier distributors Arrow Electronics Inc. and Avnet Inc., which have been aggressive in pursing e-commerce efforts, could not be reached for comment. Both Arrow and Avnet are investors in eConnections, a Web-based supply-chain management company that may offer some of the services being offered by the High-Tech Exchange. But Rob Rodin, chief executive of eConnections, declined to comment on last week's announcement, saying that there are "unanswered questions" about the group's plans. Others in the channel see the OEM-led exchange as complementary to their models. "Here are the largest computer OEMs telling people that they can't support their supply chains through a direct model," said Ron Pugh, vice president of sales at Wyle Systems, the computer-products unit of VEBA Electronics LLC. "So they're pooling their resources to, effectively, create a distributor." The volume of computer products and components sold through the indirect channel practically assures that Wyle and other distributors will be major suppliers to this and similar exchanges, Pugh said. Another approach is to create a separate exchange that may eventually plug into the broader OEM entity. ProcurePoint.com, Walpole, Mass., is trying to do just that. ProcurePoint, a software company, is creating tools that will enable franchised distributors to connect with small and midsize contract electronics manufacturers, said chairman Timothy X. Cronin. Other companies, particularly dot-coms that have been beating the online procurement drum for the last several months-NECX.com and PartMiner, for example-also said the model lends credibility to their offerings and will help drive the transition to an online procurement environment. "We welcome the validation from big-name buyers like HP and Compaq," said William Barron, chief marketing officer at PartMiner Inc., New York. "We appreciate that they will be a catalyst to bring about change." What's At Stake Despite all the noise about which companies are doing what, those that are successful with the e-marketplace model have much to gain. Nearly $3 trillion in transactions will be conducted electronically by 2004 in the United States, and e-marketplace transactions will represent about $850 billion of that amount, according to The Yankee Group, Boston. And AMR Research Inc., Boston, estimates that the cost reductions generated from Internet commerce on sales, general, and administrative line items could exceed $50 billion by 2004.

An e-marketplace for buyers and sellers of electronic components began its launch process recently. ProcurePoint.com management describes the site as a secure, Web-based marketplace designed for professional purchasers buying for multiple, future deliveries. They say the site will be launched in several phases over the next few months, and that it targets small and midsize contract electronic manufacturers who purchase electronic components from franchised distributors. "Buyers like the fact that we use only authorized distributors and preserve the manufacturers warranty, unlike distressed inventory sold by auction-based exchanges," says Timothy X. Cronin, ProcurePoint's chairman of the board.

The news for high-tech and industrial manufacturers is SaaS solutions are now available for applications that are complex, or requiring integration with master data. As SaaS becomes more established, with the success of applications such as Salesforce.com, the usability of the on-demand model is being extended into applications that offer manufacturers robust end-to-end solutions. These include applications for complex product configurations and quoting, demand forecasting, inventory control and lean manufacturing, human resource management and compensation planning.

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Historically, these applications were only available as traditional on-premise software, but now software vendors are introducing the same applications in on-demand environments. The suppliers find the applications are easier to maintain and upgrade, faster and easier to install, and offers their customers more flexibility. These solutions can be integrated to ERP systems to the extent needed, and concerns on ERP integration or data exchange, is no longer an issue.

Furthermore, a number of companies are introducing ERP in on-demand models. Notable among these is Workday, started up by the founders of Peoplesoft. In a short time, on-demand ERP has been successful in the mid level market, with pilots being conducted by numerous Fortune 150 firms. SAP has also recognized this trend and has introduced on-demand ERP for mid-level markets.

The advantages for high tech and industrial manufacturers can be significant. There is no investment in software, hardware, or network support. Upgrades are automatic and free, with no costly patches and associated downtime. Traditional on-premise software maintenance fees are frequently equal, or greater than, the annual license costs of on-demand applications.

On-demand applications are noted for their responsiveness to changing user needs, and ease of set-up and configuration. An important note for capital intensive high tech and industrial manufacturers is the fact that SaaS applications can be treated as a maintenance expense, not requiring capital outlays. Furthermore, SaaS implementations can occur very rapidly, reducing up-front costs.

The success of a range of SaaS applications working well together can benefit from capable consulting and implementation companies who build seamless integration between the applications. This is much less difficult in an on-demand environment, as many of the vendors are cooperating to make sure their offering integrates well with others. SaaS applications can provide the robust, complete solutions that high tech and industrial manufacturers are seeking -- extending from the back office to the front office and into the customers-facing applications.


About the Author
Douglas Timmel (DougT@Bluewolf.com) has over 30 years in a manufacturing environment having experience in ERP and CRM implementations. He currently works for Bluewolf (www.bluewolf.com), a leading consulting firm specializing in software-as-a-service implementation and integration solutions. Bluewolf is based in New York and San Francisco with regional offices throughout the U.S. and Europe.

BusinessWeek on SaaS

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

BusinessWeek on SaaS

Someone forwarded the recent BusinessWeek article on SaaS Myths found here. I wanted to include it below as a time capule of the market adoption of SaaS - something for us to look back on in a few years and laugh at the market FUD that is being generated to combat the SaaS wave that is pushing through the market.

A few other notes on the space that support the viewpoint for SaaS growth:

1) OnDemand market is currently 6B and growing at a 32% CAGR. The combined market cap of the ondemand vendors that are public is over 17B.

2) It is a fragmented market...the top 10 vendors still are less than 50% of the market. And these are big players like Cisco/WebEx, Microsoft, Salesforce, Citrix and Omniture.

3) This is a broad trend:
HR - Authoria, Taleo, SuccessFactors, Salary.com, HireRight
Finance/Accounting - Netsuite, DealerTrack, Concur, Intacct
Marketing - DemandTec, Vocus, RightNow, Omniture, ConstantContact
CRM - SalesForce, Aria, Genius, Entellium,
Content/Collaboration - Arena, WebEx, Citrix
Supply Chain - Ariba, TradeBeam, ClickCommerce
Just to name a few categories that are working...


Software-as-a-Service Myths [text from BusinessWeek article]

A consultant explains why this new breed of Web-based software has staying powerFor years, organizations of all sizes have suffered the hassles and unexpected costs that accompany deploying and maintaining a variety of traditional software applications that, ironically, were intended to make them more productive. Now a new breed of Web-based services are pushing legacy applications aside and finally giving users the business benefits they've been seeking. This new form of software-as-a-service, or SaaS, has been spearheaded by Salesforce.com's (CRM) customer relationship management and salesforce automation applications, and NetSuite's "net-native" enterprise resource planning applications. These companies have recognized the inherent inefficiencies of the traditional software market, including the tremendous time, effort, and cost that organizations -- especially large-scale midsize businesses -- have to expend to install applications and keep them up and running. Despite the success of these companies, many people are still skeptical about the long-term success of SaaS. Others are concerned that recent Salesforce.com outages represent a fundamental fault line in the SaaS landscape. As someone who has consulted with a variety of SaaS users and vendors and manages a rapidly growing directory of SaaS players, which can be seen at saas-showplace.com, here's my response to some of the most common myths associated with SaaS.

Myth #1: SaaS is still relatively new and untested.Salesforce.com has been in business over five years, has more than 399,000 subscribers at 20,500 companies worldwide, and is growing at about 80% a year. NetSuite has been in business eight years, and company officials say it has thousands of customers globally using its online applications. The oldest and biggest SaaS purveyor? ADP (ADP) -- the world's largest payroll application outfit -- has been in business for nearly 60 years, generated $8.5 billion in revenues last year, and served about 590,000 clients worldwide.

Myth #2: SaaS is just another version of the failed application service provider, or ASP, and hosting models of the past, and will suffer the same fate as its predecessors.While SaaS isn't a new idea, the economic climate and rapid advancements in application development tools have combined to make today's SaaS providers more successful than their predecessors. The ASPs and hosting companies of the dot-com era failed for two reasons. First, they did not fundamentally change the architecture of their software applications, but simply resold legacy applications to organizations that didn't want to house them on their own systems. The up-front and ongoing costs of hosting legacy applications proved to be too much for the ASPs to withstand. The second reason the ASPs and hosting companies failed: Only a small segment of the market was willing to outsource their application needs to relatively untested outfits because most companies during the dot-com era felt that their IT operations and business applications were a strategic asset. Times have changed. Today's economic and competitive pressures make nearly any form of outsourcing fair game. Many companies now consider various IT functions and business applications commodities and not core competencies. This has made SaaS, essentially an outsourced application management business, more attractive today than ASPs and hosting services of the past.

Myth #3: SaaS only relieves companies of the up-front costs of traditional software licenses.SaaS not only alleviates the costs of traditional perpetual licensing fees but also eliminates the need for additional IT infrastructure investments to support new applications. A variety of enabling technologies, such as service-oriented architecture and Web services, permit SaaS to be more easily provisioned and metered based on actual usage levels. This means companies no longer have to pay for excess capacity. The bottom line? Lower total cost of ownership and quicker time-to-value.

Myth #4: SaaS is only for small- and midsize businesses and will not be accepted by large-scale organizations.Companies of all sizes are taking advantage of SaaS. The scalability of the new generation of SaaS solutions enables users to test the reliability and performance of on-demand applications in limited deployments, and expand their adoption incrementally. Many SaaS vendors have emulated Salesforce.com's market penetration strategy of appealing to individual users with free trials or low-cost single-user subscription fees with the intent of permeating the market, and then winning business unit and enterprise-level adoption in major corporations. Today, Salesforce.com counts a growing number of Global 2000 and other brand-name companies as its customers, including AOL (TWX), Avery Dennison (AVY), Nokia (NOK), Perkin-Elmer (PKI) and SunTrust (STI). Myth #5: SaaS only applies to applications such as customer relationship management and salesforce automation.While SaaS certainly makes sense for many front-office functions and team-oriented collaboration purposes, SaaS solutions are emerging to address nearly every business application need. These range from accounting and financial applications to supply chain and channel management solutions. For example, Aramark (RMK), Dow Chemical (DOW) , HP (HPQ), Honeywell (HON), Hyatt Hotels, Roche, and Wachovia (WB) rely on Taleo's (TLEO) SaaS talent management solution. On-demand supply chain management vendor Click Commerce (CKCM) boasts Arrow Electronics (ARW), Delta, Tyco (TYC) and Volvo (VOLVY) as customers. Myth #6: SaaS will only have a minor impact on the software industry and will fade over time.A third of the respondents to THINKstrategies' recent survey said they are already using SaaS, and another third said they are planning to adopt SaaS in 2006. Other research firms have generated even higher ratios. As SaaS gains mainstream acceptance, it is becoming an important disruptive force in the software industry. And as long as the quality and reliability of SaaS solutions continues to improve, the appeal of SaaS isn't going to go away. In response to these numbers and other industry trends, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates stated in an internal memo that became public last fall: "This coming 'services wave' will be very disruptive....Services designed to scale to tens or hundreds of millions will dramatically change the nature and cost of solutions deliverable to enterprises or small businesses."

Myth #7: It will be easy for the established software vendors to offer SaaS and dominate this market.Nearly every established software vendor is being forced to determine how to revamp their legacy application business models to join the SaaS movement. This isn't a small challenge. Legacy software companies have to re-architect their applications to make them work on the Web. They also have to redesign their sales and financial models to accommodate the pay-as-you-go SaaS fee structures. And they have to rebuild their corporate cultures to make them more service-oriented rather than product-centric. It could be argued that Siebel was acquired by Oracle (ORCL) last year because it wasn't up to the task of fighting off Salesforce.com. Now Oracle, Microsoft (MSFT), and SAP (SAP) must respond to the SaaS movement while trying to avoid cannibalizing their existing software business in the process.

Myth #8: SaaS is only for corporate users.Anyone who uses McAfee (MFE) or Symantec (SYMC) antivirus software to protect their home PCs likely uses their subscription and 'live update' features, which represent another example of SaaS. Microsoft's new "Live" version of its popular Office productivity applications is aimed at small and midsize businesses and the home user. And don't look now, but online gaming and video-on-demand also can be considered forms of SaaS.

SaaS, Web Services Top Software Priorities For Businesses

A new research report also shows signs of SaaS's maturity, with fewer businesses reporting they adopted SaaS for the first time last year.

By Mary Hayes Weier
InformationWeek
April 23, 2008 04:41 PM

Business and IT managers have ranked software-as-a-service and Web services as the most important trends in the software industry for the third year in a row, according to an annual survey by McKinsey & Co. and Sand Hill Group, to be presented next week at the Interop/Software 2008 conference in Las Vegas.

In a survey of 857 managers, 23% ranked SaaS as the most important item for their businesses in 2008, up slightly from 21% last year, but down from 30% in 2006. One in four respondents ranked Web services/SOA as the most important, up from 18% in 2007 and 24% in 2006. Trailing those issues were open source software, offshore outsourcing, and software industry consolidation.

Yet SaaS continues to appeal to small businesses. Among companies with between 1,000 and 25,000 employees, an average of 11% of software budgets were spent on SaaS, with 70% or more of budgets going to traditional software licenses and maintenance. In contrast, respondents with fewer than 100 employees spent 26% of their budgets on SaaS, while those with 100-1,000 employees spent 17%. Among companies with under $1 billion in annual revenues, 46% had purchased at least one SaaS application.

The McKinsey's research also revealed some maturation of SaaS among small businesses. Thirty-six percent of small and midsize businesses all respondents had adopted are using multiple SaaS applications, and eight out of ten of those had bought multiple SaaS applications. Only 12% of respondents said they had adopted their first SaaS application in 2007 the last year, compared with one-third of respondents who adopted their first SaaS app in 2007 2006 who had adopted their first SaaS app the previous year.

"Peak adoption happened in 2006, and now it's a question of deeper penetration of SaaS," said Junaid Mohiuddin, a software consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Yet not all of those SaaS purchases were software served up through a service.

McKinsey and Sand Hill took a broad view of SaaS in their research, including such things as online storage and security services. Respondents ranked online storage, in fact, as their most commonly used SaaS application, followed by online backup, security services, system and network management, customer-relationship management, and collaboration software, respectively.

The No. 1 ranked criteria for vendor selection of SaaS was deployment speed and ease of integration, followed by the vendor's track record in SaaS, and costs.

Click Electronics demonstrates a fully functional 24/7 BUSINESS™ e-Catalog. 24/7 Business™ provides Guided Selling and Order Management Solutions Delivered as a Hosted Service for the Sales-Chain Partners at your web site.

Engineers and Buyers visit your website everyday. For them, your website is their first choice for information about your company's franchised products. For you, they're your highest quality leads. Giving them access to 24/7 BUSINESS™ gives buyers everything they need to find the right product and place an order or RFQ.

24/7 BUSINESS™ Product Selector / Configurator enables engineers and designers to easily search and select the right product for their requirements. Users intuitively drill-down, quickly refine their search and gain immediate access to all the technical information they need to easily make specifying / buying decisions.

	Filtered parametric search by product attributes - A valuable tool for knowledgeable customers who can choose or input values to find the products that best meet their needs.
	Side-by-side comparison - Eases the task of comparing similar products.
	Cross-sell / Up-sell - Allows you to suggest add-ons or accessories to include in the purchase or RFQ.
	Keyword / Part number search - Allows your customers to find the exact products they are looking for.
	Competitor part number interchange - Enables your competitor's customers to cross-reference to your part number from your competitor's part numbers.
	RFQ / shopping cart - Offer your customers and prospects a method for receiving quotations and placing orders.
	Customize Part Request - Allow your customers the ability to request customization to your standard products within the range of your product's limits.
	CAD viewing / downloading - Give your customers the ability to view, pan, zoom, download and print 2-D and 3-D CAD files. 24/7 BUSINESS™ lead manager prioritizes sales inquiries based on your rules and delivers straight to your sales force to ensure they are pursuing high-quality sales opportunities.

i-MARK's 24/7 BUSINESS™ is a high-value Enhanced Product Catalog and Lead System that positions your company as a leader on the Internet and tells you exactly what electronic component Buyers want to purchase, all at a cost comparable to a website and delivered in just 60-90 days.

AT&T First Service Provider to Deliver Intercompany Cisco TelePresence for Businesses Around the World

AT&T First Service Provider to Deliver Intercompany Cisco TelePresence for Businesses Around the World

Fully Managed AT&T Telepresence Solution Enables New Way to Collaborate and Drive Business Productivity SAN ANTONIO, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced global plans to deliver the industry's first, fully managed Cisco TelePresence solution that allows companies to connect to their customers, suppliers and partners worldwide.

Building a Sustainable Supply Chain in an Instant Gratification World Over of third of SaaS users report a return on investment within six months and 65% see ROI within a year. By David Fox, CEO, Agistix

April 21, 2008 -- Supply chain managers working in an ever more globalized, "I want it now" world too often opt for quick fixes over sustainable solutions to make operations more efficient. Rather than looking to trim costs here and there, their first order of business ought to be increasing visibility into company-wide supply chain expenses in order to find out where money is going, and adopt more lasting improvements. And because the typical company's supply chain covers multiple countries, carriers and modes of transportation, this task really requires a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to create a central repository for the total supply chain costs. The solution should be easily updated in real time. SaaS is not the only approach, high or low-tech, to making supply chains more efficient, but it is a far superior one. Many companies, for example, have opted to trim costs by reducing the number of carriers with whom they work: a seemingly logical solution that can actually make the supply chain less nimble. Others have shifted manufacturing operations overseas to save money on materials, failing to measure how those upfront savings may be largely offset by higher transportation costs, import duties, taxes and carrying costs. And some still record many of their supply chain costs on paper, never integrating them into a central database. The folly of all these approaches points to the mistakes that are inevitably made when the logistics team looks at one piece of the supply chain in isolation. As a solution that shows the big picture, SaaS is far more comprehensive than any other approach, and promises more lasting benefits. "Despite heightened attention in recent years," a study from the Aberdeen Group concluded, "many companies still do not have timely visibility into the critical processes involved in global supply chain management." That study found that a small minority of companies that had managed to reduce their freight costs did so by using software to better analyze how they were spending their money. SaaS offers a way for companies to easily store and integrate a lot of data from disparate sources in a single place, so they can access it when they need to expand their carrier networks, or make other adjustment to their shipping practices. With a SaaS system, a company can create an optimized, global transportation plan, and then transform it into an enforceable, company-wide policy against which all shipping decisions can be executed. Using the SaaS approach, suppliers around the globe and around the clock can log onto your system with a secure ID and password. The system automatically identifies the appropriate carrier and service level for a specific shipment, then notifies the carrier and generates an email and a tracking number confirming the transaction. SaaS provides a significant improvement over Transportation Management Systems, or TMS, an older approach to managing supply chain logistics which produces routing guides and optimized operating plans but is largely paper-based and very difficult to enforce. The automation provided by SaaS solutions makes it easier to follow consistently, over time. SaaS can automate logistics activities across all carriers, and help you refine and update your practices in real time, rather than the two to three weeks it might take to implement a change with older enterprise software solutions. If a new corporate policy is adopted banning expensive late night priority shipments, this change can quickly be incorporated into the software. If a company decides to add new carriers or drop some existing ones, the software can be updated as soon as the change is made, and enforced around the world. Because SaaS solutions are paid for by subscription, they enable companies to make a limited commitment rather than investing in complex and pricey enterprise solutions. And, because maintenance and upgrades are integral to SaaS, return on investment is faster. According to the Aberdeen Group, 35% of SaaS users report a return on investment within six months and 65% see ROI within a year. Maxim Integrated Products, a global maker of integrated circuits, was one of many manufacturing companies that found itself struggling to maintain consistency in vendor quality and pricing when it decided to adopt a SaaS shipping and freight management solution. The company has more than 8,000 employees in the U.S., the Philippines and Thailand, and found that diverse geographic locations made it challenging to control shipping and distribution. Maxim's goal was to establish centralized decision making and reduce overall shipping costs, while enforcing strict parameters on shipping methods and vendor selection. Upon switching to SaaS, it started to get results almost instantly. By the end of the first full quarter of implementing the SaaS solution, it had cut its shipping costs by more than 20%. Manufacturers of all sizes striving to remain competitive in a global environment can now take advantage of these same logistics processes, to automate their shipping processing, identify the best rates from dozens of carriers, and enforce regulations to prevent costly abuses, such as those pesky unauthorized, late-night priority shipments. Technology that can assemble such vast volumes of shipping data and offer companies the means to change their practices in real time is the key to maintaining a flexible and efficient supply chain that supports manufacturers and their customers over the long term. For companies serious about running that proverbial tight ship, this software really is a must-have. Today's supply chains are so complex that supply chain managers who can't get the data they need easily, or analyze it meaningfully, will find it nearly impossible to consistently deliver measurable gains. It's really quite simple: You can't improve something that you can't measure or benchmark in the first place.