InformationWeek

April 26, 1999

Easier Web Procurement

Digital Buyer targets production supplies

By Clinton Wilder

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Electronic Buyers' News CEMs adopt Digital Market

igital Market Inc. this week will launch an enhanced version of its Java-based Web procurement application that incorporates functions from Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, and Hyperion Solutions software.

Digital Buyer 5.0, available later this quarter, offers performance and scalability enhancements by using Oracle's Application Server, workflow-management options based on HP's ChangeEngine, and supply-chain and return-on-investment analysis capabilities based on Hyperion's Essbase OLAP Server. Prices start at $250,000.

Electronics companies, including Kimball Electronics Group in Jasper, Ind., and Diversified Systems Group Inc. in Indianapolis, are using Digital Buyer to source and buy components online from manufacturers and distributors.

Other Web-based procurement software, such as products from Ariba Technologies Inc., focuses on purchasing supplies not used in production. But Digital Buyer automates the purchase of materials and components used in products.

Digital Market has turned to more-established software players to beef up its offering. The HP-powered Digital Buyer Workflow function includes modules for automating contract management, routing suppliers' alternative part suggestions, and updating supplier catalogs.

Hyperion's Essbase is used for an add-on module, Digital Buyer Reporting and Analysis, which will be available this summer for about $85,000. Users will be able to analyze sourcing cycle times and cost-effectiveness by product, supplier, price, or region.

"Early adopters say the No. 1 benefit of online procurement," says Tim Minahan, an analyst with Aberdeen Group, is "better management of information that they can leverage to get better contracts or redirect expenditures."