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By Peg Brickley, LocalBusiness.com

Apr 19, 2000 04:43 PM ET

YARDLEY, Pa., April 18 (LocalBusiness.com) -- Prophet 21 Inc. rolled out a new Web marketplace venture today in what company officials called "the next logical step" in advancing the company's e-commerce software and advisory business.

Called Trading Partner Connect, the new Web site operates higher up the supply chain than much of its competition, Charles L. Boyle, chief executive of Prophet 21 claimed.

In recent years, dozens of Web marketplaces have thrown open their doors, offering to cut transaction costs for buyers and sellers in all kinds of industries, from petroleum shipping to paper goods.

"Most of the digital marketplaces right now are focused on the end user, the person who is procuring the goods," Boyle said. "Plenty of people are doing a good job in that space and we will link to them, not compete with them."

In many of the existing supply chain operations, there is great variation in how much of the business transaction is actually handled online, past the introductions.

Trading Partner Connect's purpose is not to round up a bunch of consumers and march them into the distributor, Boyle explained.

The new Web site tackles the business process itself, making sure, for example, that orders coming in to the distributor are streamlined to move from the distributor to its supplier and back, machine-to-machine, with minimal human effort and no technological hitches.

The 2,000 distributors that are already clients of Prophet 21's existing lines - e-commerce software and advisory services will be Trading Partner Connect's prime clients, according to Boyle.

It's designed for any durable goods distributors and their suppliers," the CEO said. "We have a nice chunk of that market already wrapped up, but we want to open it up beyond that."

While 70 percent of durable goods makers already have some kind of e-commerce operation in place, he added, those Web functions will become outmoded and need improvements. Trading Partner Connect will tap into the e-commerce hubs of existing businesses, as well as vertical marketplaces.

In many cases, Prophet 21 helped construct existing Web-based business sites, becoming familiar with the client's back-end office functions, as well as its Internet architecture.

Prophet 21's clients transact $35 billion worth of business each year. If Trading Partner Connect can collect a percentage of that business for easing the transactions, the new venture stands to generate considerable revenue, Boyle said.,

A beta version launches this summer, with 50 chosen clients.

Prophet 21 has the cash to fund the new Web site, Boyle said, but is in talks with investment bankers about a possible follow-on offering.

Peg Brickley covers Philadelphia for LocalBusiness.com. E-mail her with story ideas or comments.

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