Joint Venture Offers Online Transportation Service

Compiled ByDoug Bartholomew SAPMarkets Inc., the online exchange unit of software giant SAP AG, is offering its customers the ability to contract and manage their transportation services through Downers Grove, Ill.-based NTE Inc., an online logistics provider. The logistics service will be available to companies using private and public exchanges running on MarketSet, a system offered jointly by SAPMarkets and Commerce One Inc. The new offering automates the communication and process flows between a shipper and an exchange. The system eliminates the need for companies to manually contact transportation providers. Customers can use the preconfigured interface to tender freight, receive and confirm quotes, track and trace freight, and generate statistical reports. "With this partnership, companies that benefit from SAPMarkets' solutions now can easily gain supply-chain efficiencies and real-time transportation execution capabilities, eliminating manual and fragmented processes," says Jim Davidson, president and CEO of NTE, which has been operating its transportation e-marketplace since 1995. Adds Mayur Shah, president of SAPMarkets in Palo Alto, Calif., "Our relationship with NTE ensures that indirect and direct goods procured through an exchange get delivered on time and in a cost-effective manner."