Graybar Selects Edifecs to Speed
Ramp-Up of B2B Trading Partner Network
Leading electrical and communications/data
products distributor moves from pilot
to full deployment utilizing Edifecs
CommerceDesk proven enablement solution
BELLEVUE, WA (September 5,
2001) -- Edifecs, the proven
provider of solutions for rapidly
deploying and managing today's
trading partner networks, today announced
that Graybar, a Fortune 500 distributor
of electrical and communications/data
products, has selected Edifecs CommerceDesk
community enablement solution to help
manage their business-to-business
(B2B) trading partner network.
CommerceDesk will enable Graybar
to build an information and testing
community with our key partners, helping
us to ramp up EDI transactions much
faster than we've been able
to do in the past, said Deb
Weis, Director of E-Business with
Graybar. The ability to provide
a self-testing environment ensures
that ramping of EDI trading partners
is not hampered by typical resource
constraints within Graybar or within
the organizations of our trading partners.
CommerceDesk is a powerful solution
to the most significant bottleneck
currently holding back B2B e-commerce:
the manual, repetitive trading partner
enablement (ramp-up and management)
process employed by most companies
today. This solution will help Graybar
rapidly define, deploy, and manage
their business trading relationships,
and rapidly scale and extend those
relationships to thousands of partners
across their entire trading partner
network.
CommerceDesk will help Graybar significantly
capitalize upon their return on investment.
Using their custom-branded CommerceDesk
community Graybar will significantly
reduce the time and cost of working
with each partner to implement e-Business
processes, such as invoices and purchase
orders, helping them ramp-up more
partners, faster, to gain the full
value from their existing EDI infrastructure.
Graybar has recently completed an
initial pilot deployment of CommerceDesk,
engaging 50 suppliers in a series
of B2B ramp-up and enablement programs.
Graybar is now moving toward full
production deployment, with an initial
goal of engaging an additional 150
suppliers. CommerceDesk provides Graybar
with a centralized Web-based community
for partner, ramp program, and community
management, plus B2B standards repositories,
schema editing and authoring, partner
recruitment, surveys, and online validation
and partner certification.
Edifecs is thrilled to see
deployment of the CommerceDesk solution
within Graybar's trading partner
community, said Sunny Singh,
CEO of Edifecs. We're
confident that CommerceDesk will deliver
a solid return on investment by helping
Graybar get more partners online and
certified. This deployment serves
as an excellent proof point of the
value of CommerceDesk to enterprises.
About Edifecs CommerceDesk
The CommerceDesk solution streamlines,
standardizes, and accelerates the
individual steps of the enablement
process – defining, deploying,
and managing, business trading relationships,
and rapidly scaling and extending
those relationships to thousands of
partners across an entire trading
partner network.
CommerceDesk provides a self-service,
collaborative environment with an
intuitive Web-based interface for
managing the entire enablement process.
Designed for both business and technical
users in trading partner communities
of all sizes, CommerceDesk helps companies
realize cost and time savings of up
to 70%. CommerceDesk includes powerful
partner, community, and ramp program
management, reporting and applications
for surveying, certification, and
forms via secure Web browser access.
CommerceDesk is based on Sun Java®
and runs on Sun Solaris® and Microsoft
Windows® NT/2000 operating systems.
For more information on Edifecs CommerceDesk
call +1.425.895.3020, email info@edifecs.com,
or visit www.edifecs.com.
About Graybar
Graybar, a Fortune 500 service provider,
is engaged internationally in the
wholesale distribution of electrical
and communications /data equipment
and integrated supply services, primarily
to contractors, industrial plants,
telephone companies, power utilities
and commercial users. Graybar is one
of the largest employee-owned companies
in the United States with more than
10,500 employees and 292 stocking
locations throughout the United States
and Canada and locations in Mexico,
Puerto Rico and Singapore. The company
has been in business for 131 years.
Annual sales in 2000 exceeded $5.2
billion. Corporate headquarters is
in St. Louis, Missouri.
Graybar carries top brand-name products
from more than 4,500 manufacturers.
Suppliers include Square D, General
Electric Lighting, Avaya Communication,
Lucent Technologies, General Cable,
Panduit, Thomas & Betts, Hubbell,
Comdial, Cooper Lighting, Crouse-Hinds,
Hoffman, Leviton, Bussmann, Superior
Essex, Panasonic, Lithonia, Allen
Tel and Belden.
About Edifecs
Edifecs (www.edifecs.com) is the proven
provider of solutions for rapidly
deploying and managing today's
trading partner networks. The Edifecs
solution suite encompasses the CommerceDesk™
and SpecBuilder™ product families,
and a Services group with demonstrated
expertise in B2B standards---all designed
to reduce cost and time-to-market
for companies building complex trading
partner networks.
Founded in 1996, Edifecs serves an
installed base of more than 1,000
customers and partners with numerous
B2B providers such as GE Global eXchange
Services and Peregrine Systems. Edifecs
is a technology partner for more than
30 industry consortia including RosettaNet,
ebXML, UN/CEFACT, CompTIA, and OBI.
Based in Bellevue, Washington, Edifecs
is privately held, with investment
from GE Global eXchange Services.
More information can be found at www.edifecs.com
or call Kevin Briody at 425-895-3064.
CommerceDesk is a trademark of Edifecs.
All other company and product names
are the property of their respective
owners.
# # #
Contact:
Kevin Briody
Edifecs
425-895-3064
pr@edifecs.com
