Construction industry e-commerce company Cephren Inc. launched its Cephren MarketNet
site for buying and selling construction materials and equipment.
The first of several MarketNet products, the bidding service facilitates
e-commerce transactions between contractors and construction materials
distributors in a virtual online trading community.
Cephren said that MarketNet is currently limited to a select group of charter
customers who are conducting transactions online and assisting the company in
enhancing the operation. This charter group represents more than $1.5 billion
in
potential purchases annually and includes Mass Electric Construction Co., E-J
Electric Co., J. A. Penney Co., Liberty-Wesco, Fischbach & Moore LLC,
DualStar Technologies, Forest Electric (EMCOR), Midwest Mechanical of New
Jersey, and Watsco.
“Launching MarketNet’s bidding service is a major step toward our goal of
becoming the standard in Web-based procurement for the construction
industry,” said Timothy S. Perini, vice president of business development and
marketing at Cephren.
“Our charter e-commerce customers can get better
pricing from vendors and eliminate time-consuming paperwork while suppliers
and distributors can increase the number of bids they respond to, thereby
adding to their revenues and expanding market reach.”
MarketNet saves time by allowing multiple RFQs to be sent out at once,
electronically, rather than one-by-one over the fax machine.
Cephren also operates integrated, online collaboration and e-commerce
services called ProjectNet and PrintNet.
