B
to B, Jan 22, 2001
(Copyright (c) 2001, Crain Communications, Inc.)
Dell Computer Corp., legendary
for its internet-based supply chain, has for the first
time tapped a public e-marketplace to further fine-tune
its b-to-b buying.
The computer maker last
week signed a three-year deal with New York-based e-market
PartMiner Inc. to help it source hard-to-find parts.
Dell also made an undisclosed equity investment in PartMiner,
estimated by analysts at more than $10 million.
For PartMiner CEO Dan Nissanoff,
the deal is yet another feather in his cap.
Last year, his company
was involved in one of the first high-profile deals
between an independent Net market-maker and a large
industry consortia, signing on to help e2open.com's
members with their procurement efforts. E2open is backed
by IBM Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Nortel Networks Corp., Toshiba
Corp. and others.
Nissanoff called the Dell
deal a ``major endorsement'' of his company's changed
business strategy, implemented over the past year, that
moved it away from transaction fees and toward value-added
services.
For Austin-based Dell,
the partnership could also yield great benefits, observers
said.
``It makes a lot of sense
for Dell to do this,'' said William Brandel, Aberdeen
Group Inc. analyst. ``Dell, while they have a vaunted
e-commerce system, is still
working out a lot of internal kinks. If you let your
customers configure their own products, you're going
to create a lot of unplanned demand. You need to be
able to source components if you want to get the products
out the door in a reasonable time frame.''
Dell will take advantage
of PartMiner's 12 million catalog listings, turning
to PartMiner's market-making services for parts when
its primary suppliers are unable to provide components
essential for production, Dell said.
Growing exchange
Not only will Dell buy
products through PartMiner, it will also place its own
excess inventory into the PartMiner Free Trade Zone
e-marketplace, said Bill Barron, PartMiner's chief marketing
officer.
``The exchange gets bigger
ever day,'' Barron said. ``It allows us to even out
those imbalances across lots of [buyers and suppliers].''
Given its sophisticated
supply chain, Dell probably does less spot sourcing
than most PC makers, Barron figured, about 5% versus
10% to 15% for many companies. But given Dell's size,
``the opportunity to quote on that business is just
huge, not to mention the cachet and buzz factor'' the
deal affords the upstart PartMiner, he said.
|
