August 31, 2005
Private sourcing portals become option of choice for leading retailers
San Diego
August 31 2005
After extensive evaluation, PETCO is beginning to roll out a new sourcing portal to its vendor community. The PETCO Sourcing Portal is based on Siennax's Sourcing Portal platform, which includes deployment services. With the introduction of the sourcing portal, PETCO vendors worldwide have one online location to upload their product catalogues, and for merchandisers to conduct vendor and product evaluations; request additional information; compare offerings; negotiate; and make product selections. PETCO's selection of Siennax's platform is an important milestone in Siennax's international growth strategy of operating business-critical applications for large global customers.
PETCO started using the Siennax Sourcing Portal offerings in August 2004 to improve communication with its international vendor base, effectively bridging time zones and language barriers. During a year-long evaluation, Siennax's sourcing portal performed successfully against such rigorous evaluation criteria as improving the process of data gathering and quality, sharing information internally, comparing offers, gathering feedback from buyers and vendors, and feeding the merchandise management systems. The vendors involved have experienced cost savings on samples, travel and communication improvements with PETCO buyers.
Key functionalities of the Sourcing Portal are the customized online catalogues containing the products offered by existing and prospective vendors around which the communication between merchandisers, product developers and vendors are centered. Requests for quotations can be completed easily and more efficiently. The uniform method for storing data on products and vendors makes it easier for comparisons, thus greatly speeding up the selection process. It also guarantees that all product data, including shipment and certification data, is 100 percet correct and complete for further use in PETCO's supply chain management applications.
“We operate in a highly competitive marketplace,” says Bill Lechtner, Vice President, General Merchandise Manager of PETCO, “In such a rapidly changing environment, it is critical that we identify and deliver new products to market faster than our competitors, and the Siennax Sourcing Portal is proving to be an effective tool to help us accelerate our time to market.”
“We are proud that PETCO has chosen us as the partner of choice to operate its sourcing portal,” says Herb Prooy, CEO of Siennax. “For us, this is proof that PETCO and our other leading retail customers believe that our technology is meeting today's requirements to improve their key business processes by implementing private sourcing portals.”
About PETCO
PETCO is a leading specialty retailer of premium pet food and supplies, with a commitment to quality animal care and education. PETCO operates more than 750 community stores in 49 states and the District of Columbia , as well as a leading destination for online pet food and supplies at www.petco.com. The PETCO Foundation, PETCO's non-profit organization, has raised more than million since inception in 1999. More than 2,700 non-profit grassroots animal welfare organizations from around the nation have received support from the Foundation. Through the PETCO Foundation, PETCO endeavors to be a community leader in promoting the welfare of companion animals, as well as the importance of the human-animal bond.
About Siennax
Siennax is a private company established in 1998 with Headquarters in the Amstelveen , the Netherlands with offices in Frankfurt , Germany and San Diego , US . Siennax combines Internet technology and expertise to innovate existing business processes by pooling knowledge on four specific processes within organisations, namely; training, sourcing, eCommerce and application management. Siennax is Europe 's only Application Services Provider that complies with the Trust Services standards. This furnishes clients and other interested parties with an independent guarantee that Siennax' systems are suitably secure and available whenever required. Trust Services is a set of principles and criteria pertaining to security, availability, processing integrity, online privacy and confidentiality, with which Siennax has to comply and which are internationally recognised as the standard for procedures and security measures.
SIENNAX Contact:
Herb Prooy
T: +31.20.5478000
E: herb.prooy@siennax.com