Seven major U.S. and European retailers with sales totalling
$160 billion per year have signed up for an Internet-based procurement
service offered by QCS.net Corp. and IBM.
Supply chain solutions supplier QCS.net and IBM are jointly
responsible for the global deployment of the supply chain intranets for
the seven retailers.
These enterprise-wide implementations of the
QCS.net Service are all at various stages of progression, said a
spokesman for the partnership. When completed they will electronically
tie the retailers to all their suppliers worldwide.
“These firms represent a cross section of the retail disciplines,
ranging from hypermarkets, superstores and department stores to home
improvement and garment specialty outlets,” said Marcel van Heesewijk, CEO of QCS.net. He did not name any clients specifically.
“These retailers have business relationships with over 20,000 suppliers, and we intend to
focus our rollouts on these suppliers for inclusion into the QCS.net
Service as well. Based on the firms’ individual estimates, we believe a
total savings of more than $10 billion annually can be realized in costs
associated in procurement related activities, assuming their full
implementation of the QCS.net Service.”
John Buckles, QCS.net Corp.’s VP of Strategic Alliances, added that
the service was “a must, not a luxury.”
“Retailers are telling us
that their sourcing/buying teams are strapped for time, very often caught
up in endless meetings and dialogs because they are chasing after
missing information, validating questionable responses, and having to
reconstruct negotiations with suppliers,” he said. “They see that the seamless link
and flow of information between them and all of their suppliers created
by the QCS.net Service can impact their bottom line today, not months
from now.”
IBM said it was expecting other major retailers to come online with the
service during 1999.