Internet sites and business issues relevant to Canadian processors and moldmakers (July 01, 2001)
By Cindy Macdonald
Consolidation beginsIn the heyday of plastics industry Internet start-ups, a mere year or so ago, many of the larger resin companies threw their support behind multiple projects, hedging their bets to...
Consolidation begins
In the heyday of plastics industry Internet start-ups, a mere year or so ago, many of the larger resin companies threw their support behind multiple projects, hedging their bets to see which format and which idea would win the battle for users. The casualties of this battle are now appearing.
ElastomerSolutions.com (1) has partnered with Elemica (2), a neutral chemicals network for contract buying and selling of chemicals, and Envera (3), a network for chemical and petrochemical B2B supply chain transactions has merged with ChemConnect (4), operator of the World Chemical Exchange.
ElastomerSolutions.com, Envera and Elemica were/are consortium-based exchanges; ChemConnect is not.
The scorecard, according to AMR Research (5), now reads: Elemica and Omnexus (6), a resin and machinery marketplace, remain the only two consortium-based chemical/resin exchanges in the field. The merger with Envera gives ChemConnect a full suite of e-commerce capabilities, from trading through to settlement and fulfillment, and puts pressure on Elemica and ChemConnect’s rival CheMatch (7) to improve their offerings.
Omnexus is finally ready for Canadians
Still on the subject of trading exchanges, Omnexus (8) has improved its offerings. At Plast-Ex in May, Michael Thaler, global director, marketing and branding, was promising that within 90 days Canadians would have transactional capability. (It was news to me that Canadians didn’t have that ability already, but then, I don’t by resins.) The other good news for Canadians is that the site is multi-lingual, including French.
Based on feedback from users, Omnexus has recently upgraded its functionality. Among the enhancements are: the ability to enter all order information on a single screen; the option to create order templates to simplify re-ordering; the ability to re-use previous orders; and the ability to track where each item is within the order process.
The result is a much simpler and faster process for repeat orders, says Thaler, especially when ordering from multiple suppliers.
As I expected, Thaler said Omnexus users still tend to be medium and large companies. “For the smaller guys, the adoption rate just isn’t there yet.”
Think globally, act locally
Dow Chemical has found there’s usually a high level of interest in the company’s activities in the communities where Dow operates, so it has developed locally relevant content on its main corporate Web site (9). In the section entitled Our Locations, users can find information about community and educational outreach activities and plant tours.
9. www.dow.com; www.dowcanada.com
What’s hot in electronics?
A report on the growth and opportunities in the consumer electronics market is available on-line from the Consumer Electronics Association (10). Digital America 2001 offers data on sales volumes, market developments and customer satisfaction.
10. www.ce.org/digitalamerica CPL