BCA Introduces an End-to-end E-commerce Solution for the Distribution Industry.

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 1999--

Butler & Curless Associates, Inc. (BCA) announced the release of ec21, electronic commerce for the 21st Century(c), an enterprise solution for business-to-business e-commerce that seamlessly integrates a web-based order management system with business processes required by today's enterprises to conduct business transactions electronically via the Internet or EDI.

"ec21 is an end-to-end solution that lets distributors manage the entire sales and fulfillment process electronically," said BCA co-founder John Butler. "Some businesses think that putting an electronic catalog on a website is state of the art e-business. They still have to involve staff in processing those orders. ec21 starts with an electronic catalog and integrates it into a host system to process orders electronically, directly from the Web."

ec21 allows distributors to leverage e-commerce by creating a dynamic mall showcasing multiple vendors or a single storefront to effectively and inexpensively service existing customers and expand their markets to attract new ones. With it, they can reach customers around the corner and across the globe 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days per year.

ec21 processes order management transactions in real-time, with multiple pricing structures and languages. Built-in tools let distributors pinpoint location, availability and timing of customer orders. When a customer orders an item, he instantly gets pricing and product availability information along with a committed ship date -- all with the highest degree of security while still at his browser.

Customers can check their accounts payable balance, order status and order history whenever they choose and look up product specifications and availability, pricing and more at their convenience. In addition, they can search for specific attributes and get a customized view of a distributor's catalog that shows pricing information specific to their account.

ec21 can be expanded to include other business processes required by individual enterprises to support their business requirements.

Butler & Curless Associates supports ec21 with services ranging from website design and graphics to hardware and hosting, depending on client need.

Butler & Curless Associates, Inc., was founded in 1985 and is composed of three product/service divisions: software, hardware and networking. The software division develops, markets and supports electronic commerce software. BCA's hardware division is an IBM Business Partner and a value-added reseller of IBM AS/400 products and services. Through its network division, BCA is a Managing Industry Remarketer for AT&T Global Network Services.

BCA's World Wide Web address is http://www.bcafreedom.com.