GAITHERSBURG, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 29, 2002--
Electronic Commerce Council of Canada recommends catalogue service's new features to its grocery, pharmaceutical and foodservice
industry members
GE Global eXchange Services (NYSE:GE), a leader in business-to-business Internet commerce, today announced that it has enhanced its Global Product Catalogue(sm) service.
New features added to the service, which manages bar coded product information for more than 60 million line items, will enable retail trading communities in the U.S., Canada and Australia to exchange product information more quickly and easily - leading to reduced costs, improved process accuracy and shortened cycle times.
GE Global eXchange Services' (GXS) Global Product Catalogue service enables retailers and suppliers to access and maintain accurate information within a single GXS-hosted database using the Internet or private networks.
The service is able to "synchronize" more than 550 distinct attributes for each product line item (such as size, color, expiration date, flavor, packaging material, lead time, price, market area, or shelf location) between retailers and suppliers, so that retailers can make decisions based upon the most current and accurate product data.
More than 2,400 companies currently use the GXS service. Prior to the availability of data synchronization services such as Global Product Catalogue, coded product information was updated and maintained between retailers and suppliers in a labor-intensive and error-prone manner. Enhancements to the GXS service include:
-- Real-time retailer searches of catalogue data over the Internet using eXtensible markup language (XML)
-- Catalogue data and online report download using a Web browser -- The ability for retailers to search for a single product brandacross multiple vendors who might manufacture that brand
-- Support for hundreds of new multi-industry product attributes for grocery, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceutical, foodservice, electronics, hard goods and other industry sectors.
According to James Smith, vice president of operations for the e-Commerce Council of Canada (ECCC), "Our ECCnet members have responded quite favorably to the recent enhancements to GXS's Global Product Catalog, especially Web browser report access and the addition of hundreds of new product attributes. These new product attributes allow companies in the grocery, foodservice and packaged goods industries to more fully support the expanding variety of products they now offer their customers."
The ECCC is a non-profit standards organization working within three Canadian industry sectors - retail grocery, retail pharmacy and foodservice. GXS's Global Product Catalogue provides the technology infrastructure for the organization's ECCnet community, which enables Canadian retailers and vendors to access product data for thousands of items.
"GXS's Global Product Catalogue brings a uniquely powerful set of data alignment capabilities to retailers and suppliers, especially when combined with our 100,000 trading partner network, integration software and community management services," said Steven Scala, GXS's vice president of marketing. "Our expertise in product data management encompasses such diverse industries as apparel, grocery, consumer package goods, greeting cards, electronics, pharmaceuticals, fragrances and sports equipment."
GXS's Global Product Catalogue service provides data synchronization between retailers and suppliers within and between three distinct global trading communities: the U.S. retail community, the ECCnet community (Canada) and the EANnet community (Australia). Additional information about Global Product Catalogue can be found at www.gxs.com/gxs/products/product/gpce or www.gpcatalogue.com.
About ECCC
The Electronic Commerce Council of Canada (ECCC) is a non-profit business-led association established to promote and maintain global standards for the identification of goods, services, locations and related e-commerce communication such as bar code issuance and maintenance.
As a participating member of the worldwide EAN/UCC system, ECCC represents Canada in the continuing development of the global language of trade. ECCC Network Services provides enabling tools for e-commerce advancement including ECCnet, an online, standardized product registry for synchronized data exchange, Image & Data Capture Services and Bar Code Scan Certificates. More information can be found at www.eccc.org.
About GE Global eXchange Services
GE Global eXchange Services (GXS) operates one of the largest B2B e-commerce networks in the world, with more than 100,000 trading partners. The network's 1 billion annual transactions account for $1 trillion in goods and services.
With more than 35 years experience, GXS provides supply chain services and software to 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies. GXS is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md. Call (800) 560-4347 or visit our Web site at www.gxs.com.
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CONTACT:
GE Global eXchange Services, Gaithersburg
Jim Fowler, 301/340-5875