Chemical giant Eastman invests in Saqqara for e-catalogues

Eastman Chemical Company has chosen e Suite from Saqqara Systems to drive its global e-catalogue initiative. It has also taken a stake in Saqqara Systems, for an undisclosed amount, as part of its policy of partnering and investing in companies that further its corporate and business strategies.

Saqqara provides product content software and services for business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce and is represented in SA by e-business solutions company commerceSWITCH.

Originally part of the Eastman Kodak Company, Eastman Chemical Company is independent and publicly traded, with fiscal year 2000 sales that totalled $5.3 billion. It is the world`s largest supplier of polyester plastics for packaging and a leading supplier of coatings, raw materials, specialty and basic chemicals and plastics, with thousands of customers in the paints, film, foods, electronic devices and packaging materials manufacturing arena.

Eastman`s main objective is to use Saqqara Commerce Suite to transform product information into differentiating e-commerce catalogues to help it increase its international trading partner base, increase sales and lower costs.

Eastman chose Saqqara based on its own appreciation of the value of electronic catalogues, having maintained an internally developed solution for over two years. It sought a new solution partly because this system became too costly due to expanding language requirements. Saqqara`s proven technology and experience in managing and deploying product-differentiating catalogues that meet the language needs of international buyers were key factors in the decision.

"We view our Saqqara partnership and the creation and maintenance of comprehensive, easily searchable product information on the Web as crucial to our success in meeting global market demands," says Dave Holden, manager of e-commerce applications and services at Eastman.

Eastman will implement the ProductServer, PIXServer and AnalysisServer components of Saqqara Commerce Suite to create and maintain differentiating product content, generate and distribute e-commerce enabled catalogues from that content, and analyse channel-browsing behaviours. The Saqqara system will be rolled out following a five-month implementation.

Among the challenges facing Commerce Suite implementers are Eastman`s chemicals and plastics extensive parts information requirements. Some products have as many as 50 attributes. These attributes tend to be highly technical in nature, describing various detailed characteristics of a product such as flame ratings and thermal indices. In addition, most of the products have critical relative information such as material safety datasheets (MSDSs), product guides and lists of applications for each product. The MSDSs are stored in Eastman`s SAP R/3 ERP system and need to be accessed dynamically from the Web site.

The Commerce Suite multi-language option will extend Eastman`s international reach through the deployment of language-specific catalogues that increase sales by providing global customers with product details that are easy to find and compare. Saqqara`s patented Step Search parametric technology will further assist buyers in making informed purchasing decisions through online feature-to-feature product comparisons over the Internet.

"Eastman has always been a leading product and business process innovator," says David Spenhoff, vice president of marketing, Saqqara Systems. "Now the company is carrying that same spirit of innovation over into its international e-commerce initiatives."

CommerceSWITCH MD Philip de Bruin says Eastman`s selection of Saqqara as an e-commerce partner validates Saqqara`s and commerceSWITCH`s vision that successful B2B e-commerce involves targeted delivery of product differentiating content to buyers in a format and language that meets their information needs. "If they can`t find or understand your product, how can they buy it?" asks De Bruin.