Royal Bank, Partners Create E-Procurement Marketplace

[Toronto, CANADA] Royal Bank of Canada has joined IBM and Fluor
Corporation in the creation of a global electronic procurement market
that will allow businesses to purchase supplies and capital goods
over the Internet.

Electronic marketplaces act as Internet-based trading hubs allowing
buyers and sellers to identify and locate products, request
proposals, issue purchase orders and track spending behavior.

Royal Bank will acquire an equity stake in the new venture, to be
known as TradeMC, and has been chosen the company’s preferred global
provider of Internet-based financial services.

As part of the agreement, Royal Bank is committed to contributing
internal procurement spending to the marketplace.

TradeMC will serve the business-to-business segment, providing
complete end-to-end procurement solutions through online
collaboration.

The marketplace will focus on indirect supplies and capital goods —
like office equipment and mobile phone services — as well as
strategically sourced capital goods in the oil and gas, utilities,
pharmaceuticals, mining, manufacturing and consumer products
industries.

The combined spend of TradeMC members, plus the streamlined and more
targeted ordering processes are expected to result in reduced
procurement costs.

“TradeMC represents a significant step in the evolution of Royal
Bank’s B2B eBusiness services,” said Royal Banks Tom Wolf, senior
vice-president, eBusiness.

“Liquidity is the key to success in an e-marketplace and TradeMC’s
ability to attract blue chip companies with large spends represents a
unique competitive advantage over other marketplaces.”

Royal Bank will be leveraging its existing investment with

Mediagrif Interactive Technologies focused on building
industry-focused vertical marketplaces.

The bank recently made some significant enhancements to its own Web
site (see
Royal Bank Selects Cyberplex for Site, September 13, 2000.