BuyerZone.com Announces Strategic Alliance With America Online.Business/Technology Editors CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2000 BuyerZone.com to Deliver Expert Advice and Intelligent eCommerce Tools to Millions of Small Businesses through Several AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Brands BuyerZone.com, the premier online marketplace for small to mid-sized businesses, today announced an agreement with America Online See AOL. , Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, to provide decision and purchasing management solutions across several AOL brands. Under the agreement, AOL will offer small businesses access to BuyerZone.com's comprehensive marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies and business services through a co-branded site available across AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe and Netscape Netcenter. In addition, BuyerZone.com will incorporate and distribute a co-branded version of AOL's Instant Messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or software (AIM) on www.buyerzone.com. Small business users of these AOL brands will have access to BuyerZone.com's intelligent decision-making tools, which include industry-leading comparison shopping tools, multi-vendor catalog, buying guides, product and industry news, user-generated product ratings, and price quotation and online purchasing capabilities. BuyerZone.com will build a web-based buying directory for AOL to provide a link to these services. "Together, America Online and BuyerZone.com can help deliver the tools to help small businesses succeed," noted Brenda Chin Hsu, chief executive officer of BuyerZone.com. "By integrating BuyerZone.com's best-of-breed eCommerce tools and expert advice with AOL's small business areas, BuyerZone.com is one click closer to our small business customers." "With BuyerZone.com, we can make it even easier for small businesses to buy the products and services they need," said Jim Martin, senior vice president and general manager of Netcenter. "BuyerZone.com's easy-to-use services are a great match with our goal of offering more convenient ways to handle the things that are important in our registered users' everyday lives." Since the launch of its Web site in 1997, BuyerZone.com has influenced the buying decisions of over 2 million small and mid-sized business customers, and in the past twelve months, the company has assisted the purchase of more than $2.5 billion in goods and services In economics, economic output is divided into physical goods and intangible services. Consumption of goods and services is assumed to produce utility (unless the "good" is a "bad"). It is often used when referring to a Goods and Services Tax. . Today, BuyerZone.com represents the Internet's largest and most dynamic, independent business-to-business marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies, and business services, connecting millions of buyers with the industry's broadest and highest-quality supplier network. About BuyerZone.com BuyerZone.com is a premier online purchasing hub for small to mid-sized companies. The company delivers a guided buying experience that empowers customers to easily evaluate and quickly make the right purchases for all their business needs. As the Internet's largest business-to-business marketplace, BuyerZone.com's vast network of 8,100 suppliers provide customers with access to the broadest range of technologies, office equipment, supplies, and business services across the widest range of price points. BuyerZone.com is accessible for free at www.buyerzone.com and through leading small business portals on the Internet. Company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. BuyerZone.com Fact Sheet Founded 1992 Ownership Privately held. Raised $6.5 million in venture capital funding from BancBoston Ventures, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, OneLiberty Ventures and Women's Growth Capital Fund. Mission To provide small and mid-sized companies with the ultimate online buying experience that empowers them to efficiently make the right purchases for all their business needs. Overview BuyerZone.com is the premier Internet purchasing hub for small to mid-sized companies. We provide customers with access to the Web's largest and most dynamic business-to-business marketplace for technology, office equipment, supplies and business services, connecting millions of buyers with the industry's broadest and highest-quality supplier network. BuyerZone.com's vast network of suppliers provides customers with the freedom to choose between multiple vendors, product models and price points -- covering more than 175 types of critical business purchases and over 70% of a company's typical expenditures. BuyerZone.com offers customers the most comprehensive set of research, decision-making and online purchasing tools to give business shoppers vendor-neutral guidance, as well as a personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. , company-wide purchasing management system that includes an integrated platform for online and offline purchases. Business shoppers access these tools for free at www.buyerzone.com, as well as a growing network of the most popular Internet portals and business sites. In the past 12 months, BuyerZone.com has assisted the purchase of over $2.5 billion of goods and services. Key Features BuyerZone.com provides the most comprehensive set of online purchasing management tools available to small and mid-sized businesses today, including: -- QuoteZone, a customized quoting service for high-end, high-volume and complex purchases that can be responded to by suppliers either through online or direct communication depending on buyer preference. -- MyZone, a unique purchasing management application, that organizes and automates daily purchasing activities for an entire company in one centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. place. Customers can create company-wide shopping lists and standing orders, approve purchases by company employees and be alerted to supplier inventory, price point and promotional offers. -- SuperCart, a universal shopping cart that allows buyers to place online orders securely with multiple suppliers at once, without clicking between individual supplier Internet sites. BuyerZone.com also offers a complete set of decision-support tools that provide customers with the ultimate one-stop shopping experience, including the following areas of purchasing expertise: Independent Guidance -- Insightful, vendor-neutral buyer's guides culled from over seven years of customer research -- Handy glossaries on technical terms and abbreviations -- Resource center on useful publications, software and Web site links Comparison Shopping -- Guided product selection tools for best-fit purchasing solutions -- Apples-to-apples comparisons of thousands of products and services -- Comprehensive, searchable databases Refers to databases on the Web that are searchable by typing in a query. The term is quite redundant because all databases are searchable. In fact, that is one of their major features. containing nearly 150,000 technical specifications, features and pricing information Inside Scoop -- Timely news on money-saving offers, new products and buying trends -- Ask Mie-Yun, BuyerZone.com's purchasing expert -- Savings ideas and tips for companies in certain stages and circumstances Community -- Buyer ratings on specific products and services -- Online discussion forums -- Buyer polls for valuable benchmarking Key Affiliates And Alliances Potential reach of more than 75 million visitors through the most popular Internet portals and business sites: -- BusinessWeek Online -- Comcast -- inc.com -- Microsoft -- Quickbooks.com -- Quicken.com -- Southwestern Bell's SMARTpages -- Yahoo! Audience of over 2 million small and mid-sized businesses via purchasing advice columns in BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur, Inc. Magazine and a national syndicate of more than three dozen business journals including Boston Business Journal, Crain's Cleveland, Puget Sound Puget Sound (py  `jĕt), arm of the Pacific Ocean, NW Wash., connected with the Pacific by Juan de Fuca Strait, entered through the Admiralty Inlet and extending in two arms c. Business Journal and Washington Business Journal, and special
appearances for national and local broadcast television and radio
programs.
Buyers -- More than 1.5 million businesses from a wide range of industries, including business services, technology, manufacturing, health care -- 40% are business owners, CEOs or senior managers -- 66% are organizations with less than 100 employees -- Represent annual purchasing power Purchasing Power 1. The value of a currency expressed in terms of the amount of goods or services that one unit of money can buy. Purchasing power is important because, all else being equal, inflation decreases the amount of goods or services you'd be able to purchase. 2. of more than $2.5 billion in goods and services Suppliers BuyerZone.com provides customers with access to the largest and most dynamic online business-to-business marketplace with over 175 product and service categories. BuyerZone.com allows businesses to buy items on-line from top retailers such as CDW CDW - data warehouse , Egghead, Hello Direct, MicroWarehouse, NECX, OfficeMax, OnSale, Outpost, PC Zone, Quill quill: see pen. and Solutions4Sure. Businesses can also obtain quotes and buy from more than 8,100 local dealers, agents and offices for top companies such as ADP (1) (Automatic Data Processing) Synonymous with data processing (DP), electronic data processing (EDP) and information processing. (2) (Automatic Data Processing, Inc., Roseland, NJ, www.adp. , American Express American Express (NYSE: AXP), sometimes known as "AmEx" or "Amex", is a diversified global financial services company, headquartered in New York City. The company is best known for its credit card, charge card and traveler's cheque businesses. , Ascom, Canon, Ceridian, Compaq, Executive Software, Fidelity, Herman Miller Herman Miller may refer to:
 This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . , Postalia, Symantec, Toshiba and Xerox. Market Size There are currently over 10.5 million businesses with fewer than 100 employees that purchase over $800 billion in products and services annually. IDC estimates that over 45% of small businesses have Internet access See how to access the Internet. . Overall, Forrester Research Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Corporate facts
Technology Platform -- Supports all Web browsers The following is a list of web browsers. Historical Historically important browsers In order of release:
Netscape 3.0 and above) -- Java-based object-oriented architecture -- Proprietary dynamic matching engine, which associates products, buyers, and suppliers with one another -- Powered by Oracle8i, ATG Dynamo A family of e-commerce and CRM applications from Art Technology Group, Inc., Cambridge, MA (www.atg.com). Part of ATG's core marketing Adaptive Scenario Engine, Dynamo comprises a comprehensive set of Java-based products that enable an organization to deploy a fully-integrated customer application server, and Apache Web server See Apache. running on Sun Solaris -- Secure online transactions through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet. Developed by Netscape, SSL is widely used to do two things: to validate the identity of a Web site and to create an encrypted connection for sending credit card and other personal data. up to 128-bit encryption, with VeriSign ID digital certificates Management Team BuyerZone.com has assembled the industry's most experienced management team with nearly 100 years of combined leadership in purchasing, eCommerce, retail, financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , office technology, information services See Information Systems. and Internet businesses. |
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