Accenture and TradeAccess Form Global Alliance to Introduce Negotiation Solutions for B2B eCommerce
Cambridge, MA - JUNE 21, 2000 - Accenture, a leading global management and technology consulting firm, and TradeAccess, Inc., the leading vendor of B2B e-commerce negotiation technology, today announced the formation of a global strategic alliance designed to help clients substantially reduce the process costs associated with Web-enabled commerce. Under the terms of this alliance, TradeAccess’s EcommBuilderT negotiation capability will be available as a complement to the comprehensive business solutions the firm provides to enterprises, governments, and educational institutions worldwide. The alliance enables Accenture to leverage TradeAccess’s proprietary negotiation platform to meet its clients’ critical requirements for negotiating and managing global commercial relationships online.
To date, many B2B e-commerce technologies have lacked automated contract negotiation components and have supported only the buying and selling of commodities, in the form of auctions, shopping carts, and "matching" technology. TradeAccess’s EcommBuilder can handle business processes involved in negotiating commercial relationships, including purchase orders, sample quantities, order/contract volumes, sales terms, RFP (request for proposal), MPA (master purchase agreement), BOM (bill of materials), delivery scheduling, domestic and international payment methods, order tracking, transaction reporting, shipping and delivery terms, and international terms of trade. The new solution from TradeAccess can enhance commercial relationships by managing rules and processes on three levels: the business rules of both the buying and selling enterprises; the rules of the marketplace entity, whether public or private; and the accepted commercial rules of domestic and international trade with which all enterprises and marketplaces must comply. By combining TradeAccess’s breakthrough negotiation system with Accenture’s premier services, global reach and established client network, the two organizations plan to establish the worldwide standard for online negotiation processes. Direct goods commerce, which requires negotiation, represents an estimated 80 percent of all global commerce, according to Robertson Stephens.
"Our clients are demanding more sophisticated negotiation capabilities for Web-enabled commerce, and the solution TradeAccess has developed meets these needs head-on," said Steve Zujkowski, partner, Accenture. "Our relationship with TradeAccess reinforces our ability to deliver immediately the most innovative e-commerce solutions to our clients globally." Zujkowski also noted that Accenture plans to introduce TradeAccess to several technology providers to facilitate adoption and integration of the EcommBuilder capability into existing solutions.
TradeAccess today also separately announced a Notice of Allowance from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a soon to issue patent, the first of a series of patents applied for by TradeAccess relating to the company’s unique invention of the first negotiation system for global B2B e-commerce
TradeAccess’s proprietary negotiation platform will allow Accenture’s clients to benefit from:
Iterative, negotiated buying and selling involving multiple terms and multiple instances; Synchronous, secure transaction execution of all related information, such as purchase orders, sales terms, and payment vehicles, and automatic generation of documentation for every transaction; Support for international payment methods and delivery terms to accommodate global relationships; Real-time management of multiple, customized and tiered business relationships with customers, suppliers and distribution channels; and, Industry-standard XML interfaces for integration with other applications.
"We are committed to accelerating global adoption of our negotiation technology for B2B e-commerce," said TradeAccess CEO Jeff Conklin. "Our alliance with Accenture is a significant step forward in delivering solutions that require negotiation technology today. An important aspect of our alliance with Accenture is their agreement to facilitate widespread adoption of TradeAccess technology as the standard benchmark for online negotiation. Working together we will provide other technology companies with a compelling opportunity to bring this solution to market as fast as customers require, while ensuring information and process integrity required for mission-critical e-commerce."
About TradeAccess
TradeAccess Inc. is pioneering B2B e-commerce negotiation technology, with a patent-pending negotiation system aimed at the transformation of online commerce. This breakthrough technology is immediately applicable to B2B e-commerce in direct materials, high-value services, and other strategic business relationships. The company’s EcommBuilderT is the first multi-variate, iterative negotiation platform that powers next-generation B2B marketplaces, both public and private, by supporting the fundamental requirements of ongoing, complex commercial relationships. Founded in 1998, TradeAccess is privately held and venture-capital backed, with financing from Cross Atlantic Technology Fund, LP (XATF), 3i Corporation and private investors. Trade Access is based in Cambridge, MA.
TradeAccess is a registered trademark and EcommBuilder is a trademark of TradeAccess, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respectiv owners.
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