Covisint To Host Private Portal For Delphi

Giant automotive exchange Covisint LLC will host a portal that essentially amounts to a private exchange for one of the nation's largest auto suppliers, $26.5 billion Delphi Automotive Systems Corp. The portal will let Delphi conduct business privately with its more than 5,000 suppliers.

Delphi's quasi-private exchange, or supplier portal, is the first disclosed by Covisint, and Delphi becomes the first major supplier to reveal its plans to use Covisint for a broad range of activities with its own suppliers. Covisint, which recently handled $3 billion in private procurement for DaimlerChrysler AG, has areas that are open to all members for auctions and other activities. The exchange has planned, since its formation early last year by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, and General Motors, to create secure, quasi-private exchanges, or portals, for automakers and suppliers that take advantage of Covisint's Internet-based infrastructure and use its software applications.

A key promise of Covisint is that such private portals will be secure and the contents will be accessible only by those members who were invited to enter. Members with a private portal on Covisint can use its infrastructure to collaboratively design new car models and parts, procure raw materials and parts, and in the future arrange for logistics, financing, and other services.

Richard Radecki, E-business director for Delphi, in Troy, Mich., says the Covisint portal will let the supplier complete its transition from ownership by GM to operating as a separate company. Delphi was spun off from GM in 1999.