IBM and NetVendor in Marketing E.MBRACE
NetVendor (Atlanta) will soon be offering its E.MBRACE Internet commerce solution bundled with IBM hardware and software. The new deal with IBM aims to provide complete e-commerce and supply-chain management solutions for customers in the industrial, electronics and automotive markets. For the four-year-old company, the agreement means a huge competitive advantage in its market.
“We just added about 21,000 feet on the street,” says Michael Doane, NetVendor’s VP of business development. “Plus, it lends credibility to us as a company. As a sort of dot.com start-up, this really gives up a lot of visibility in the marketplace.”
The latest agreement is part of IBM’s PartnerWorld for Developers initiative to form alliances with leading software providers. IBM’s PartnerWorld for Development is a comprehensive marketing and consulting program for IBM business partners. It is designed to help companies connect with customers, sales channels, development tools, services and solutions, offering international marketing and sales support. Some features of the program include special promotion, lead generation, discounts and financing.
NetVendor’s E.MBRACE builds a private Internet-based trading partner community between a supplier and its customers which can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It automates the sales chain by allowing distributors to connect with Internet trade exchange and enabling customers to quickly find the products they need online. E.MBRACE also lets resellers take advantage of NetVendor’s SurplusBIN.com, an e-commerce portal, to provide industry-specific marketplaces for trading surplus inventory. As part of the agreement with IBM, NetVendor will market and sell E.MBRACE through IBM and NetVendor joint channel partners. Doane says the nature of NetVendor’s product and customer base were what drew IBM’s interest in the partnership.
“Based on our value proposition and the vertical nature of our business, IBM quickly became very interested and we were able to reach the highest level of agreement. And we were really excited about that,” Doane explains.
IBM and NetVendor e-business consultants and distribution business partners will help customers build, integrate and deploy solutions that meet their specific business requirements. The first value-added distributor to deliver this solution through IBM’s Business Partner Connections will be KeyLink Systems, which is offering its solution providers training and technical support for customers who plan to implement the initiative.
“We really try to work with companies that have industry-specific solutions, that have a targeted product and that really know their target market well,” says Matt Reaves, director, software and solutions marketing for KeyLink. “A company like NetVendor we’re very comfortable partnering with.”
IBM and NetVendor developers are currently working to make the E.MBRACE solution compatible with AS/400. The AS/400 team will be providing engineers and OS/400 support, and NetVendor will be providing the application and enterprise management services. Doane says the ability to run NetVendor’s application on an AS/400 is an important part of the agreement.
“I consider it to be huge,” he adds. “A good portion of the 400 user group is in the distribution sector, and that’s where our core customer base is.”
Related Information:
NetVendor, Inc. (new window)E.MBRACE Product Overview (new window)