Infobank champions Enterprise economy

Software reseller Infobank Electronic Commerce Systems has launched an electronic ordering server, designed to provide a complete online purchasing service.

The announcement follows Computacenter?s decision last month to port its proprietary ordering network to the Net.

The Enterprise Purchase Server (EPS) is designed to provide a tailored, intranet-based network with a customised browser. The system will have preset links to major suppliers and customers, allowing all procurement and purchase orders to pass electronically.

Based on Microsoft Commerce Server, EPS will also allow businesses to offer html shop fronts to their customers, and provide dynamically updated lists. It runs on a private intranet.

Graham Sadd, director of Infobank ECS, claimed one of EPS? main advantages is that it reduces procurement costs, an issue many customers are concerned about.

He said: ?The customers we are talking to do not want e-commerce, they want smooth business-to-business communications and they want to lower the costs of procurement.

?Processing purchase orders can be vastly reduced by the use of the Enterprise Purchase Server.?

Infobank hopes to have between 20 and 30 customers running EPS by the end of the year. It expects to be working with a number of blue-chip companies, including Reuters, Lloyds of London, ABN Amro, Brittania Building Society, Kodak and Clifford Chance.