Western and its procurement software vendor, Intelisys Electronic Commerce LLC, will host about 175 suppliers near Western's Houston headquarters this week to begin training and conversion. Western hopes to have those suppliers selling online within 60 days, then extend the capability to an additional 200 vendors later this year.

The company's goal is to cut processing costs to less than $10 per transaction and pay for the system in six months, says David Durham, manager of purchasing. Western will use Intelisys' IEC-Enterprise purchasing application, which it has been testing with four suppliers for the past six months.

Philips will deploy the Operating Resource Management System from Ariba Technologies Inc. The Dutch electronics maker will integrate the intranet application with several enterprise resource planning systems. Philips wouldn't disclose any more details.