InformationWeek

Last week, EDS's E-business subsidiary, E.solutions, introduced Myportal.com, a service--initially for the automotive, food service, and high-tech manufacturing industries--to help make relationships between businesses and suppliers more efficient. Through Myportal.com, E.solutions will provide business design, application selection, and integration and configuration services for companies looking to create E-business portals to share with their suppliers, according to Martin Hofmann, an E.solutions director.

Myportal.com will play an important role in enhancing the technology GroceryWorks.com Inc. already has in place to create an online horizontal marketplace, says Gary Fernandes, president and CEO of the Dallas company. With E.solutions' help, GroceryWorks.com plans to launch by September a revised version of its Web site, featuring improved virtual supply-chain technology that will enable the online grocer to personalize the experience for both suppliers and shoppers.

"We're focused on fulfillment and are still building up our infrastructure, improving upon logistics, routing, and warehouse-management applications," says Fernandes, who spent 30 years at EDS, most recently as vice chairman, before moving to GroceryWorks.com. "It's foolish for our customers to buy at Internet speed and be delivered to at FedEx speed."