e2open Gives Open Access To Customers

But by 2002, the backlash against Internet marketplaces had grown so sharp that E2open chose to disappear into its work. Instead of issuing press releases, the company has been building up a private network of 12 hub customers, such as IBM and Seagate, and their ecosystem of nearly 2,500 trading partners and 25,000 worldwide users. Now the Redwood Shores, Calif., company, which connects trading partners through its supply chain software-as-service, has chosen to show itself. The reason: E2open B2B Client, a free downloadable software that enables small suppliers from anywhere around the globe to connect easily to their major customers. E2open hopes the new software will entice ISV partners to build applications for its service, thereby adding to the network effect.

"We made this open source, so anyone can use it," said Lorenzo Martinelli, E2open's executive vice president. "We will publish the specifications around this, and we will pay ISVs that embed it a reseller commission of about 20 percent. Our goal is to give away the client and the specs so that the plumbing work goes away. Then, people can spend money on the process layer."

E2open provides that process layer: Its hosted network supports business-to-business integration and delivers a full range of supply-chain applications fine-tuned for the electronics industry. These include order fulfillment, demand management, design collaboration and logistics. The new client software gives smaller suppliers access to these same sophisticated capabilities.