Blackwell's Signs Up To UKprocure SystemseMarketplace

Posted on Nov 17, 2004

Blackwell’s, the UK’s leading business, professional and academic bookstore, has signed-up to UKprocure Systems eMarketplace to make its entire book catalogue of 2.8 million titles available to the largest public sector eCommerce community. The move enables public sector organisations to source and purchase books via an integrated eCommerce solution, whilst reducing error rates and the associated costs to virtually zero. This will help public sector organisations to achieve both process-driven and unit cost savings when purchasing books from Blackwell’s. It will also deliver measurable business benefits to Blackwell’s, enabling the company to consolidate and build its customer base, as well as dramatically reducing the cost of accounts and goods handling. Centralised distribution of products will go hand with local and personalised account management from any one of a dozen Blackwell’s Business Services centres in the UK.

Eoin MacDonald, Procurement Systems Manager at Heriot-Watt University said: “As the first University in the UK to sign-up to the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace we are delighted that we are now able to trade electronically with Blackwell’s via the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace. Blackwell’s is a major supplier of academic books to the University and already does business with around 40% of our requisitioning departments. Blackwell’s support of our eCommerce initiatives and the ability to trade electronically with them via the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace will deliver big benefits to both parties. It will help us achieve measurable process cost reductions and it will enable Blackwell’s to grow the business it does with us.”

Online trading via the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace will help public sector organisations reduce the cost of transactions, whilst rationalising the procurement process and spending. By negotiating preferred supplier arrangements with Blackwell’s based on electronic trading via the eMarketplace, public sector organisations can also reduce unit costs through quantity buying.

The UKprocure Systems eMarketplace enables multiple buyer and supplier organisations to engage in fully electronic trade through one single link. Public sector buying organisations will be able to ‘punch-out’ to Blackwell’s transactional website via a single connection to the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace, to obtain access to organisation-specific book and price lists. UKprocure Systems eMarketplace enables public sector purchasers to place orders with Blackwell’s and track order status and receipt of goods ordered. Blackwell’s now plans to utilise UKprocure Systems eMarketplace eInvoicing module, which will enable the company to issue automated invoices from its back-end order management system via the eMarketplace.

Richard Gisborne, Head of Corporate Sales at Blackwell’s said: “Online trading via the eMarketplace will deliver significant efficiency savings to our business. Our objective is to encourage our customers to trade with us via one online channel, so buyers are trading remotely and we can distribute our books remotely. The critical mass of buyer organisations delivered by the UKprocure Systems eMarketplace will help us achieve this objective. We want to move to a situation where all administration, storage and book handling is handled centrally in Oxford. This will give the staff in our sixty stores the ability to focus on more customer-facing activities as well as enabling us to dramatically cut the cost of goods handling and storage.”

Shish Lal, CEO, UKprocure Systems said: “There is a groundswell of support amongst public sector organisations to move towards controlled purchasing via eProcurement. Public sector organisations are increasingly looking for suppliers that can trade electronically with them. By adding a compelling online business case to its existing customer service initiatives, Blackwell’s is able to both support its existing customers and attract new business. Through its single connection to the eMarketplace, Blackwell’s can immediately achieve fully integrated eCommerce with over fifty buying organisations. The UKprocure Systems eMarketplace provides the biggest eCommerce community in the public sector, making it the most cost-effective and benefit-driven route to eProcurement.”

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About UK Procure

UKprocure Systems (www.ukprocure.com) is the leading supplier of end-to-end procurement solutions to the UK public sector, with an emphasis on healthcare, local government and education. UKprocure Systems provides managed services and hosted solutions that support the full procurement process, from sourcing and managing to ordering and invoicing. Its industry-leading eSourcing and eMarketplace solutions, which are based on the robust Oracle platform, are reinforced by UKprocure Systems consultancy services and unrivalled knowledge of the public sector supplier base and business processes. UKprocure Systems enables its customers to achieve dramatic cost savings through the transformation of the procurement process, savings that can be re-deployed to improve front line service delivery. At the same time, UKprocure Systems innovative solutions help public sector organisations meet Government targets for Modernisation, Best Value and Collaboration.

For more information please contact:
Tara Williams
UKprocure Systems
T: 020 7936 9489
M: 07976 906673
E: tara.williams@ukprocure.com

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