Number One ~ October 2009

Californian wine from BuyYourWine ~ News and Gadgets ~ Sodexo’s click & buy

Hi Society

Real-Time Analytics

Speed and flexiblity is crucial for Hi’s webshop

Comprehensive Reporting Tool for Marketers

Leveling the Playing FieldColumn by James M. Dorsey

Business Integration Platform Content Syndication Platform e-Commerce Platform

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very flexible extension of your organization. We offer you more for less. For more information:

sales@tiekinetix.com or visit our website: www.tiekinetix.com.

About TIE Kinetix: TIE Kinetix enables you to stretch the limits of electronic business collaboration. By giving you the power to connect applications and processes with your supply chain partners, TIE Kinetix improves your operational exchange and communi-cations. Simply put, TIE Kinetix is the only connection your organization needs when doing business with thousands of trading partners from around the world.

www.tiekinetix.com

Now you can!

business integration platform

Speed

Which is why speed is the theme of this first issue of TIE Magazine. Everything in e-business revolves around speed. In the food sector, for example, it means fast order processing, invoicing and report-

ing. In fact, fresh food depends entirely on speed: ordered today, delivered today and consumed today. Read the lead article in this issue about Sodexo that successfully rolled out our Business Integration Platform.

When a new Blackberry model is launched, it must be possible to order it online immediately. For a large part the success of award winning web shop Hi.nl is based on our eCommerce Platform. Read the story on page 14.

And whoever masters the reseller channel is the winner. We’re talk-ing Content Syndication on page 12 and 13. After all, no one can afford to waste days, let alone weeks, on updating the content of reseller websites. Speed from content syndication to the electric Tesla Roadster. I hope you enjoy reading it!

iscritical

Jan Sundelin, CEO TIE

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P3

INTROCONTENT

COLOPHON

Being faster than your

competitor and reaching your

target group quicker is the

difference between winning

and losing. Real time is king

and speed is critical.

P07 Column James Dorsey

P09 Column Brian Tervo

P12 Comprehensive Reporting Tool for Marketeers

P17 News

P18 Gadgets

Sodexo

Publication TIE Kinetix BV, Hoofddorp, Netherlands ~ www.tiekinetix.com Editor & Management Cees Steijger | Steijger.communications BV Art Direction & Design Remco Baars, Sandra Hellingman | beet-vormgeving.nl Coverphoto Marcel R. Bakker | HiRez Images Printing Van Schaik Offset BV, Oudewater Cooperation from Marcel R. Bakker, Wim Sonius | Sonius Crea-tive Imaging, Gerritjan Huinink, James Dorsey, Brian Tervo, Ronald Oeges.

© 2009 TIE Kinetix BV, P.O. Box 3053, 2130 KB Hoofd-dorp, Netherlands. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without permission of the publisher.

14

10

4

Hi Society

Old wine New business

XXxx

SodexoThe challenge The challenge was to find a solution for the purchasing process in which changes to the product range could be made efficiently, orders could be placed uniformly at 1,350 locations and thousands of invoices could be sent electronically every week.

The solution The solution was to implement the TIE Verification Manager, a software tool that is part of the TIE Kinetix Business Integration Platform. The TIE Verification Manager functions as a middleware application that integrates with the existing SAP materials management environment. The web-based front portal provides product range managers and purchasers with an overview, a checking capability and measurement points in the automated exchange of article information between Sodexo and its suppliers. The result Product range management was inte-grated into the purchasing platform; the catalogue is always up-to-date for all users; process management has been optimised and the administration has been radically simplified at all locations; effective matching of order and invoice has been achieved and invoice loss has been kept to a minimum.

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P5

BUSINESS INTEGRATIONText Cees Steijger ~ Photography Marcel R. Bakker

More Flexibility, less administrative pressure

Purchasing using Click & Buy

CliCk & Buy The Click & Buy purchas-ing project – focusing on streamlining the uniform purchasing and ordering process - started some time ago at the headquarters of the Sodexo Group in Paris. The aim of the Click & Buy project is to reduce the

In the Netherlands, Sodexo operates from 1,350 locations and every day about 6,500 employees provide more

than half a million people with food & fa-cilities management services, remote sites services and party catering & events. In the Netherlands, Sodexo serves companies, (government) institutions, polytechnics, universities and the (health)care sector.

The trend is towards growth. The so-called, out-of-home market in particular has increased enormously in recent years, mostly as a result of a growing awareness on the part of the public that take-away food can also be healthy. Sodexo adds to this items such as biological products and, in general terms, sustainability (including fair trade). And this combination is bearing fruit: the group’s worldwide turnover is approaching €14 billion.

In the Netherlands, Sodexo works closely with Deli XL, which supplies Sodexo with everything it needs to serve guests, clients, residents and patients with something tasty. From fresh ingredients to freshly prepared products. Deli XL has a complex distribu-tion network with specialised regional branches – the so-called “fresh centres”. Each of the 1,350 Sodexo locations does its own purchasing using Click & Buy. Click & Buy is based on the centrally facilitated SAP Supply Chain Relation Management module, SAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management). Deli XL is the main sup-plier, covering about 80% of Sodexo’s total purchasing in the Netherlands.

With more than 355,000 employees representing 132 different nationalities, Sodexo operates from 30,600 locations in 80 countries. The Sodexo Group, of which Sodexo Nederland has been a part since 1995, is the biggest independent Food & Facilities Management organisation in the world.

material management system that incor-porates all the products of all of the suppli-ers of Sodexo Nederland. “The advantage of being web-based is that it’s flexible and accessible. Once the location manager has logged in, he gets full access to his catalogue. Assignments and authorisations ensure that the location manager sees only what is intended for him and can then place his orders. After delivery, the goods are processed while, following automatic checking and matching with the purchas-ing order by the TIE Business Integra-tion Software, the electronic invoices are immediately processed in a SAP system at our head office in Capelle aan den IJssel. So no paper invoices are sent to the locations. This makes management information much better and reduces administrative pressure on the location manager.”

Daily Changes However, Arno admits that the approach has a disadvantage. He is referring to the daily changes involved in the various products, of which there are about 8,000 to 10,000 in the catalogue. These changes are of many sorts, such as new packaging, prices and weights, new

load on catering locations, optimise the purchasing process and, at the same time, have better manage-ment information available, and to have all reports from all over the world within reach in the future. Arno Cok, Supply Chain Cata-logue Manager Benelux, is co-responsible for imple-menting the Click & Buy programme in the Neth-erlands. We spoke with him at the head office of Sodexo in Capelle aan den IJssel. “The Click & Buy programme was first car-ried out as a pilot project in Belgium and Spain in order to gain experience prior to a large-scale rollout,” says Arno Cok. “It was the turn of the Netherlands next.”

According to Arno, there are many advantages in the new approach to purchasing, which is web-based at the locations. The system is based on a SAP

“In the Netherlands,

we are a considerable step further

than the rest of the

world”Arno Cok

brands, etc. “With the Click & Buy approach, we should use a so-called Request for Quotations, in which you send the database to the supplier in Excel format requesting him to feed back any changes so that we can update our system. However, with an approach like that, you are totally de-pendent on the supplier being prepared to check all records. There are all kind of risks, of which corrupting the file is not the least serious one. We saw a lot more advantages in

BUSINESS INTEGRATION

an automated approach that could save us a lot of work and would also provide the maximum data reliability. Moreover, we were convinced that Click & Buy would only be interesting if it also enabled elec-tronic messaging. We regarded it as extra profit if orders could be sent to the supplier automatically and the invoice could be processed electronically. For this reason, we started looking around and invited parties to come up with a solution.”

VerifiCation Manager This is how Sodexo came to TIE Kinetix. The two companies were not unknown to each other. For example, the TIE Business Inte-gration Platform had been implemented at Sodexo to answer the huge Sodexo organi-

considerable savings, especially in terms of time. For example, the accuracy of the catalogue data means that invoice loss has been drastically reduced. In the case of an average of 30,000 invoices per month, and based on 20 minutes spent dealing with every lost invoice, every percent improve-ment makes a difference of no less than 100 hours per month. An additional advantage is that incoming invoices are automatically made available to SAP by the TIE software. So none of these invoices have to be entered manually. This also saves several minutes’ work per invoice – in fact no less than 1,500 hours per month based on a minimum of 3 minutes’ handling time for a paper invoice. So this results in sizeable savings annually. “In the Netherlands, we are a considerable step further than the rest of Sodexo in the

world on this point,” says Arno. “Sodexo has now decided to bring

the Benelux countries under a single management with the aim of combining strengths. Supply Chain Management was one of the first departments to be affected in this way. Which resulted in centralizing Catalogue Management in the Netherlands.”

The TIE Business Integration Platform will now be rolled out in Belgium too. “In Belgium, we’ve found that the situ-ation is different to that of the Nether-lands,” says Arno. “They don’t work with one big supplier as is the case in the Neth-erlands but with a Top 25. This resulted in a lot of differences which meant that the catalogue no longer satisfied the improved Dutch standards. They were still using Requests for Quotation and that has now been replaced with our EDI approach.”

interest Arno Cok sits on the Sodexo Click & Buy User Committee and recently presented his experiences with the TIE Verification Manager in the Netherlands to a meeting of his fellow Supply Chain Cata-logue managers. There is increasing interest in the Dutch approach from other coun-tries. Especially as Supply Chain Manage-ment in the Netherlands is also function-ally responsible for the purchasing process in Sweden, Finland and Germany, it is expected that the TIE Verification Manager will also be introduced in these countries. “After all, it’s a good solution and it makes things easier,” says Arno Cok.

In the Sodexo company restaurants you will always be certain to make awholesome, healthy choice.

sation’s messaging needs. “TIE offered the TIE Verification Manager that had been successfully deployed at Intratuin, for example,” says Arno. “We studied this case thoroughly and quickly became convinced that with a little customisa-tion this tool would be the ideal solution for Sodexo.”

The TIE Verification Manager was implemented in 2007. But how does it work in Sodexo’s daily practice? “In fact we work with two files,” says Arno. “One file is our catalogue containing about 10,000 info-records and the other is the supplier’s file. The catalogue provided by the supplier is sent in his own format. The TIE platform takes this format and ensures that the Verification Manager can work with it and that the two sources can be matched in the Verification Manager. In fact the Verification Manager can handle various product descriptions. The supplier’s description is compared with the description in the Sodexo catalogue. If differences are identified by the Verification Manager (e.g. a different unit price or a different weight) Supply Chain Management receives a notification. Once

We saw a lot more

advantages in an

automated approachthat could save us a

lot of work”

it is approved, the spe-cific datum is allowed and sent to our own database. This approach saves us a considerable amount of time because it is largely automated. Moreover, the chance of errors is slight, which means that the data in the catalogue are always clean.”

saVings Apart from the fact that the data in the catalogue are now always up to date, the introduc-tion of the TIE Verifica-tion Manager also brings

COLUMNBy James M. Dorsey

Amarketing director for multinational Siemens AG, Adrian Honey’s responsi-bility is to ensure that vendors across the

globe understand his company’s core values and

tion processes. “Success for business nowadays is related to the level of the sophistication of management,” says Luis Maia Carneiro, coordinator of Net-Challenge, a European Union and Chinese funded effort to create trans-national standards as well as the software to implement those standards for collabor-ative business networks that would enable small and medium-sized enterprises. Net-Challenge hopes to change the paradigm, initially in the textile, footwear and machine tool industry with a horizontal rather than a hub approach built on TIE’s Kinetix Platform for business networks. In doing so, Net-Challenge would create a more level playing field on a peer-to-peer basis, particularly in Europe where the vast majority of companies are small and medium-sized enterprises

Greater efficiencies and a more level playing field notwith-standing, standardization of business integration may have a

less than anticipated effect on the prof-itability of smaller companies and pricing for consumers. That is where some experts say governments have a role. William Wang, an information management specialist at New Zea-land’s Kelburn Parade Victoria Universi-ty of Wellington, compares cross border business integration to free trade agree-ments (FTAs). “While many countries nowadays sign FTAs, consumers do not usually feel a reduction in their cost of living. Put in other words: breaking down boundaries, brings opportunities to some and takes away benefits from others,” Mr. Wang says.

That understanding may be the most advanced in Europe, which so far has invested the most in efforts to standardize business integration and facilitate integration of processes between companies. Chinese participation in Net-Challenge highlights Europe’s grasp of globalization where production of components in low cost economies needs to be tied in to the high-tech producer of sophisticated products. Says Mr. Carneiro: “You need to communicate with the real world.”

competitive edge. That’s no mean task. Siemens works with some 2,000 independent vendors selling competing products, including those of Siemens, in 85 countries and a multitude of languages. Siemens’ complex product range and multi-layered vendor network that includes sophisticated large resellers as well as less mature small and medium-sized partners doesn’t make things any easier.

Mr. Honey’s dilemma is hardly unique. Most multi-nationals operating across continents and covering much of the world’s geography face the same issues. So do government officials and company executives seeking to establish com-mon standards for business integration across borders that demarcate often vastly different legal and fiscal regimes as well as cultural, linguistic, protocol and infrastructural differences. The complexity and difficulty of integration is evident even in markets that vary far less from one another than those in Eu-rope and Asia. “Even between Canada and the US, issues exist in privacy and national security,” says Patrick Hung, a professor at Canada’s University of Ontario Institute of Technology.

For Dennis Gaughan, vice president of AMR Research Inc., Mr. Honey’s successful tackling of the problem constitutes a notable case study. In research published in July, Mr. Gaughan analyses how Mr. Honey worked with The Netherlands-based syndicated content provider Tie Holding NV, an AMR client, to begin to get a grip on the problem and to demonstrate the benefits of business integration not only to Siemens but also to its partners in terms of reduced processing costs and greater market penetration.

“We’re seeing a shift towards looking from end to end. Big companies feel the pain first. They typically have the most complexity and biggest challenge. Smaller and medium-sized companies take a more cooperative approach towards tackling the problem,” Mr. Gaughan says.

The global market for business-to-business business inte-gration remains a niche market. Experts estimate the market at no more than $1 billion. A small group of vendors, including TIE, are benefitting from an inclination on the part of corpora-tions to outsource the management of their business integra-

James M. Dorsey was a foreign correspon-dent for more than 30 years for The Wall Street Journal and other publications. Today Mr. Dorsey is a columnist, media entrepre-neur and international affairs consultant to strategic communications, security and water companies as well as investment funds.

Leveling thePlaying Field

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P7

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© Copyright 2009 Epicor Software Corporation. Epicor and the Epicor logo are registeredtrademarks of Epicor Software Corporation. All rights reserved.

By Brian Tervo

My experiences with TIE started back in 1997 as a software support engi-neer and over the past twelve years,

have personally watched the business trans-form from a niche B2B integration software

driven economy fed by multi-dimensional channel out-lets that includes consumer touch points inside of your reseller/distributor partners, affiliate websites, portable devices, social networks, advertising, media, PR and the list goes on. Kinetix in a very simple way insures that all of your key content assets are dynamically up-to-date and relevant to the multitudes of consumers seeking this information regardless of the technology it is displayed on. Kinetix places emphasis on getting your key mes-sages where they need to be, when they need to be there and immediately accessible to the consumer in the easiest method possible sustaining a vital business momentum at all consumer orientation points.

Once the information has been disseminated, Kinetix helps businesses measure and understand key message performance against stated goals, but this is only part of the entire picture. Consumers engaged with your messag-

es now require a very safe and easy way to order the product, no mat-ter where they purchase it from. Buyers expect their transactions to be secure, automated, and infor-mative as the fulfillment process occurs. This process needs to be seamless from the ordering point at the retail site all the way back to the product being delivered to a store, business or home. Customer ser-vice has been elevated to the level where manufacturers must provide this experience directly from their corporate sites and extend this to any and all sites that represent their

brands. Kinetix provides a framework that give resellers and distributors a virtual extension of your own ordering system, without needing to spend any time, money and effort to integrate these complex processes. Orders flow in electronically without any human intervention directly through retailers preserving the value of the reseller net-work with the brand equity and fulfillment power of the

company to a global, multi-dimensional SaaS platform provider. Philosophically we are still true to our roots and continue to help our customers solve business challenges with innovative software solutions, but with all the latest technologies converging with our new Kinetix platform, it is a real exciting time to be part of this company.

TIE Kinetix at the 50,000 foot level is all about energy. Modeled after Newton’s third law of motion, and most prominently featured by the Newton’s cradle in our logo, TIE Kinetix is about the conservation of energy and momentum throughout the business process. In busi-ness terms, “Corporate Energy”, or CE for short, is the “lifeblood” of every business and represents the targeted force your company exerts against the market. This energy is characterized by a unique mix of products; services and messaging that make up the fundaments of your brand and image. In the real world, there are all kinds of forces; some naturally occurring (internal) and others deliberate (external), that act upon the processes to promote, sell and service your products in the market. No business is exempt from these forces. The larger your brand, the more difficulties you will have trying to promote and defend its image in the light of its creator. Smaller brands will simply cease to exist unless they can truly harness the virtualized shelf spaces that appear and disappear quicker than ever or are overtaken by the sheer volume and force of incumbents. Add in a dash of unprecedented global connectivity and businesses are quickly discovering that the information/content describing their brands is almost more important than the products and services they actually represent.

Most every major brand at one point or another has spent literally millions of dollars to promote a product via a campaign that went no further than their own web or physical store properties. The problem is that the consumer of today is seeking information from numer-ous other sources that are not under your explicit control. Brand owners need a real plan to contend with a content

manufacturer.

Brian TervoPresident & CEO

Brian Tervo serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of TIE Commerce Inc. where he is responsible for driving com-pany vision, growth and profitability.

Kinetix equalsCorporate Energy

COLUMN

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P9

P10 ~ 1/2009 ~ TIE

Text Cees Steijger ~ Photography Marcel R. BakkereCOMMERCE

Societyquickly. And the MamboFive Commerce Suite product is without equal. It’s exactly what we need.”

Peter explains that experience has shown that you have to take a critical look at functionality when building a webshop. Naturally, everything should work well but everything surrounding this functional-ity is even more important. How quickly can you change something? How flexible do you remain once the website has been implemented? “Experience shows that you can’t predict what your website will look like after 18 months. Developments are too fast for this. And if you want to stay ahead of the competition, you’ll have to continue to react to these developments. The people behind MamboFive Suite have the speed and drive to innovate – qualities that are more important in our business than the structure of a large IT company.”

“We are a premium brand in a very com-petitive market. We aren’t a prize-fighter and yet we manage to achieve rising sales. We can do that only by improving our web-site permanently, furthering its accessibility and focusing on service and interaction. Our association with other websites is also constantly increasing.” MSN and Hyves are good examples of websites that Hi.nl works with in order to promote interaction. Hi

experience. Up-to-date content is a must in this respect, as too is interaction with the customer. “Our Hi Bewaarbox (Storage Box) is a result of our dialogue with the target group. It’s a unique storage service for text messages. This dialogue also resulted in Hi WaarZitWie (WhereAreWho) that enables you to locate friends in real time on your mobile phone.” And recently Hi launched its ‘Pokkie Foetsie’ – the Hi Telephone Book. With this, you don’t

“The people behind

Mambo-Five suite have the

speed and drive to

innovate.”accesses content and products from third parties, aggre-gates it and re-transfers the complete proposition to other websites. This allows Hi to ensure that the best experience is provided without overheads becoming too high. With Hi Society, Hi is also adding emotion to the brand, thereby promoting customer loyalty. It’s all about retention, explains Van der Schaar. About retaining customers. You do that by providing the customer with a constantly richer

More than a decade ago, KPN launched a brand aimed at young people, called Hi. From its incep-

tion, the new company has focused on young adults (18-24), and everyone who feels young at heart, with a series of excep-tional campaigns. With its new Hi Society concept, KPN’s youth brand is searching for interaction with its customers. Hi wants to acquire the loyalty of its target group by means of a constant dialogue, interactive gadgets and an old-fashioned club feeling. The website www.hi.nl has become the online platform for this. The website runs on the MamboFive Commerce Suite, the TIE Kinetix eCommerce Platform.

TEAM In KPN’s huge office building in The Hague, we spoke to Peter van der Schaar, Hi.nl’s channel manager. Peter is part of a small team of only four people – re-markably few for one of the biggest mobile brands in the Netherlands with a webshop that attracts a million unique visitors a month. “There are big advantages to the fact that the organisation is small,” says Peter. “It makes lines of communication and the decision-making process pleasantly short.” Is that also the reason why Hi opted for TIE Kinetix? “Absolutely! We can connect with the people behind MamboFive very

Dutch online webshop Hi.nl focuses on young adults with its mobile telephones and high-level service.

immediately lose all of the numbers of all of your social contacts if you happen to lose your phone.

REACT QUICKLY And so Hi is continuing to develop as a strong, energetic brand for young people where they feel at home and to which they feel loyalty. It’s both handy and innovative. “We’re not bringing about a revolution but evolv-ing, in dialogue with our customers. Thanks to the MamboFive Commerce Suite, we can continue to react quickly to changes, tailor campaigns effectively to new trends and stay constantly on the move. After all, we have to make it easy for the customer, without complicated is-sues. We have to keep it simple,” concludes Peter van der Schaar.

Characteristics - "Hi" is a mo-bile telephone network in the Netherlandsspecifically aimed at young adults, offering mobile speech, data, andmessaging, which is very much geared to its target group by the way it

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P11

Hi SocietyCharacteristics - “Hi” is a mobile telephone network in the Netherlands specifically aimed at young adults, offer-ing mobile speech, data, and messaging, which is very much geared to its target group by the way it communicates. Target group - Young people in the age of 18-24, and anyone who “is older but feels younger”.Forecast - Offering services and ap-plications that strengthen social contacts between young people.

P12 ~ 1/2009 ~ TIE

Text Cees Steijger ~ Illustration iStockPhoto

Comprehensive Reporting Tool for Marketers

Real-Time Analytics for online sales channels

Marketers need to be able to immediately measure and assess these online campaigns in order to adjust their e-commerce strategies to support sales,

drive revenue and equip the channel with the right content to succeed.

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P13

CONTENT SYNDICATION

These analytic tools would be as if a manufacturer had access to ‘Google Analytics’ for each and every one of their partners or resellers. And, the best part is that the manufacturer is the one generating the content on all of the partner sites and can update the messaging at will.”

CritiCal elements These online analytic tools are crucial to marketers because timely, complete, accurate and objective profes-sional content are critical elements to online buyers as well as retailers and resell-ers. With one out of every three shopping carts result-ing in abandonment, there is enormous opportunity to improve the availability and quality of online information.

right Content Online marketers need to be able to immediately measure and as-sess these online campaigns in order to adjust their e-com-merce strategies to support sales, drive revenue and equip the channel with the right content to succeed.

“This gives a much

deeper under-

standing of how

the channel

is perform-ing”

As a leader in content syndication, with more than two decades of experience in electronic com-

merce, TIE Kinetix recognizes that the measurement and analysis of any e-commerce campaign is a major concern for brand managers and marketers. With the TIE Kinetix Content Syndication Platform (CSP) solution, marketing executives can now analyze and manage the effectiveness of their online e-commerce programs with instant market research data.

realtime The TIE Kinetix CSP analytics solution tracks online channel activities, reports performance in real-time and al-lows marketing managers to tweak reseller programs and collateral on the fly. These tools also allow marketers to observe online trends taking place across the chan-nel and manage them effectively. A few of the metrics that can be tracked include geography, language, time on the site, click path and file downloads within a number of unique marketing campaigns.

greater Control These robust analytic tools are a fundamental part of the TIE Kinetix CSP solution. With TIE Kinetix CSP technology, manufactures can maintain up to the minute pricing, product features, and reviews across all their online partners—ultimately providing brand managers and marketers with the ability to have greater control and consistency of their content and branding across multiple websites and channel partners.

“TIE Kinetix analytic tools give mar-keting professionals in-depth knowledge of their campaigns. Not only can they observe the activities of their resellers and qualify them, they now can also observe the audience on those reseller websites,” says Jan Sundelin, CEO of TIE. “This gives a much deeper understand-ing of how the channel is performing.

CNETTIE Kinetix has a strategic alli-ance with CNET Content Solu-tions, to resell the TIE Content Syndication Platform worldwide. CNET Content Solutions, one of the world’s leading independent sources of product informa-tion, is now able to offer and promote the TIE Kinetix CSP to the many consumer electronic vendors it powers. Timely, com-plete, accurate and objective content are critical elements to online buyers, retailers and re-sellers. The partnership between CNET Content Solutions and TIE will ensure that customers are getting the information that they need and demand to make online buying decisions. Says Sean Murphy, Vice-President of CNET Content Solutions. “Our

customers get the high quality content they expect from CNET Content Solutions, and with the TIE Kinetix CSP we provide them with real-time control over rich product information across their supply chain, as well as real-time analytics and reporting.”

SiemensSiemens Enterprise Communica-tions selected the TIE Kinetix Content Syndication Platform as a key part of their worldwide indirect partner program. The TIE Kinetix CSP enables Siemens to manage and distribute their marketing and sales informa-tion real-time to their worldwide indirect sales channel. “At Sie-mens, we understand that giving

our partners the best tools possible, not only ensures their success, it ensures our success,” says Adrian Honey, Director of Global Channel Marketing at Siemens Enterprise Communica-tions. “Working with TIE, we are able to provide our partners with real-time access to accurate information about our products and services. With ready-brand-ed, targeted campaigns that are available at the click of a mouse, partners can provide information regarding Siemens solutions, quickly, easily and without the need for specialist marketing.”

MicrosoftMicrosoft UK Limited, part of the Microsoft Corporation and responsible for all Microsoft

activities in the United Kingdom, uses the TIE Kinetix Content Syndiction Platform to commu-nicate with its partners via an Online Channel Communication Platform. It enables Microsoft to support all of its Direct Market-ing Resellers (DMR) and other partners with high-quality digital content in real time. Microsoft can steer and manage the content, such as banners, video clips and tools, in a controlled environment from a single cen-tral environment. “TIE Kinetix CSP helps us to deliver our latest technology and market-ing information directly and more efficiently to our partners, who in turn can deliver a richer experience to end customers”, says Clare Barclay, Director of Partner Strategy & Programmes, Microsoft UK.

XXxxBuyYourWine factsEstablished - Cyber-entrepreneur Hans Voorn launched BuyYourWine inFebruary 2006.Market share - With a range of 2000 different wines BuyYourWine is among the largest wine websites in the Netherlands.Forecast - The range will ultimately cover 5000 different wines making BuyYourWine the largest wine website of Europe.

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P15

eCOMMERCEText Cees Steijger ~ Photography Gerritjan Huinink

Old winenew business

What makes BuyYourWine so unique?

the grape variety, the local soil, the vinification, etc.” says Monique Greven.

BuyYourWine, which is based from TIE Mambo-Five Commerce Suite, has been very well received by the market and the range of wines is growing steadily, as well as the number of customers. With such a wide range of different wines, logistics poses a major challenge, of course. “That’s our greatest con-cern,” says Monique. “The shop has to run problem-free so that we can devote all our attention to logistics, marketing, sales and trace-ability.” “And if the back office works perfectly, as in our case, we have the time to devote personal

up-to-date, BuyYourWine works closely with just about all of the major import-ers. “Out-of-date information is the kiss of death for the business,” says Monique. “Speed and being able to take quick advantage of trends make the difference between winning and losing. From now on we’ll be using XML to access informa-tion from importers where possible. And the great thing about TIE Mambo Five’s Commerce Suite is that it’s child’s play to add to and change the range, the prices or special offers.”

CALIFORNIAN WINE It’s clear that both of these passionate entrepreneurs are having a lot of fun with BuyYourWine. The business has been set up thoroughly, both from a technical and an oenological point of view. So the only question that remains is what wine they recommend. “Bernardus!” shout Majo and Monique practically in chorus. It’s a fine choice. This great Chardonnay comes from the sunny hills behind Carmel Valley Village in California where the Bernardus Winery of famous Dutchman Ben Pon has been located since 1989. Here the successful Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen importer, racing driver and inventor of the legend-ary flower-power VW minibus has been producing wines that rival the best of Bordeaux. “And they can be delivered within a week,” says Marjo proudly. I’m looking forward to it already.

“Speed makes the difference between winning

and losing”

We are talking to Majo Diepman and Monique Greven who have been the proud owners of the successful wine webshop BuyYourWine.nl since

last September. The two entrepreneurs recently took over the company from cyber-entrepreneur Hans Voorn.

Standing out on Majo’s CV is a solid record of service at IBM where she held various managerial posts. Monique carried out computerisation projects for leading companies,

attention to the customer,” adds Majo. “That’s what makes us unique.” That and, of course, the exceptional wines that can be ordered from BuyYourWine because although wines are available from all of the popular wine-growing areas, the customer can also purchase lesser known wines and wines from less well-known areas through BuyYourWine.

UP TO DATE In order to ensure that the product offering is not just broad but always

including ABN AMRO, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Vodafone before working in the property business. So both online entrepreneurs knew the pressures involved in positioning and building a successful company. And they had no lack of ambition. Although three years ago entrepreneur, online mar-keting expert and wine connoisseur Hans Voom proudly announced that the range would consist of 1,000 wines, Majo and Monique are raising the bar a bit higher.

LEADING “We are going much further,” says Majo in her trendy office in the woods of Soest, just south of Amsterdam, where she is expanding BuyYourWine with her partner Monique. “We now have 2,000 wines in our range but we’re aiming at a range of 5,000 different wines in order to strengthen our leading position in the Netherlands and finally to become the biggest online wine shop in Europe,” says Majo determinedly. “With us you must be able to shop easily and also get detailed in-formation about the wines, like the colour, bouquet and taste, the region, the chateau,

We give the customer personal attention. We can do that because the back office of BuyYourWine is perfectly organised. ICT meets wine.

WECARE4 is the cartridge specialist and a supplier of a large range of hardcopy supplies, ink and toner cartridges and computer supplies.

An unparalleled choice of supplies:

Commitment makes all the differenceWe have been successful since 1998 thanks to a customer-oriented, committed approach and many distribution points. Our approach is characterised by a high quality, broad range, a high level of service, speed and simplicity.

the cartridge specialist WECARE4 offers choice from a broad range of cartridges, with many remanufactured variants, including our own brand WECARE, alongside original branded cartridges.With more than 15 years of experience, we are a specialist offering high levels of knowledge and quality. We know our customers’ requirements and whatis happening in the market.

Buying a brand-name printer means you have to alsobuy the same brand of cartridges. Only having 1 choiceis no choice at all, however. weCare offers an alternative:high-quality cartridges that contribute to a cleanerenvironment and give significant benefits in terms of the quantity of prints and/or price. Since July 2009, weCare has introduced a new packaging, which has a great impact on the shop shelf. Both consumers and retailers can now quickly and efficiently choose the right cartridge.

Good can always be betterWECARE4 can provide absolutely everything you needfor your PC. Alongside cartridges, we offer a complete range of computer supplies by all leading brands.We invest in smart ICT and e-commerce developments. This allows us to provide you with tools that makethings as convenient as possible for you, such as on-lineidentification and ordering for your printer park andthe accompanying supplies. Our focus is on linkingyour requirements to our opportunities. Because goodcan always be better.

We are ready to help youWe have arranged our organisation in such a way that we are able to cater for the needs of all of our customer groups. Whether you are a retailer, distributor, (collection) partner or consumer. As a customer of WECARE4, you can rest assured that you are always dealing with a specialist.

WECARE4Tel: +31 (0)76 543 16 60Fax: +31 (0)76 543 16 70info@wecare4.comwww.wecare4.com

TIE ~ 1/2009 ~ P17

NEWS

TIE Holding has appointed Emile van de Klok to the position of Managing Director of TIE International. Be-fore joining TIE, he was product marketing manager with Human Inference, a software vendor for data quality and Master Data Management for Customer Data solutions. He will be leading the strengthening of the reseller channel for the TIE Kinetix Content Syndication Platform (CSP) in EMEA (outside the Benelux and France).

TIE Holding has appointed Stuart Drysdale to the newly created position of Managing Director of TIE Asia-Pacific and Japan. Stuart, a former MD & President of a lead-ing global company, brings the experience to build TIE’s business in Asia, initially in Sydney and then in Hong Kong in order to develop the Greater China market of Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and PR China.

Reducing costs with SmartStart

EU Net-Challenge improves SMEs’competitive position

Stuart Drysdale leads expansion in Asia-Pacific and Japan

Emile van de Klok builds business in EMEA

The Net-Challenge project aims to enable European SMEs to form “non-hierarchical networks” which will help improve their competitive position. Methodologies and soft-ware applications will be developed to facilitate ebusiness connections in peer-to-peer (P2P) environments as opposed to the classical hub-spoke model. Net-Challenge aims to achieve P2P network effects for SMEs similar to web 2.0, social networking, Skype-like solutions etc. that have transformed the in-teraction between citizens. From a business perspective, user require-ments and insight are key to Net-

Challenge. “SMEs are the lifeblood of Europe and represent 99% of companies in Europe” says Luis Carneiro, Net-Challenge Coordina-tor and Head of the Manufacturing Systems Unit of INESC-Porto RTD center. “To compete sustainably on the global market, SMEs will have to adopt new business models and establish business networks that are able to deliver complex prod-ucts with reduced costs and fast delivery time.” Mr Jan Sundelin, TIE CEO, says “Innovation is important to Europe and vital to TIE in order to ensure that its products are future-proof.

TIE Holding N.V. is engaged in a European Union project to develop visionary collaborative business environments for small and medium enterprises.

TIE Holding N.V. has launched a new, innovative product for the EDI market under the name Business Integration SmartStart. This will enable the 1,500+ customers that TIE has worldwide to achieve savings immediately.

Business Integration SmartStart will further strengthen TIE’s leading position in the market for business integra-tion. With Business Integration SmartStart, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and message transport through FreeConnect will be merged into a single product. The solution features state-of-the-art technology, an inte-grated support function, a very user-friendly interface with an easy-to-use dashboard and a community model called “Free Connect” with which TIE users can commu-nicate with each other for free. With Business Integration SmartStart, TIE provides a combination of completely new technology and free message traffic between TIE customers. There is also a special module for the AS2 protocol available. This protocol enables free communi-cation with all business contacts, irrespective of whether they are TIE customers or not. In various industries, the big ‘hubs’are already connected, such as the Do-It-Your-self industry, Food and Retail, enabling big savings on message traffic for customers.

P18 ~ 1/2009 ~ TIE

GADGETS

A little powerhouse

Bestseller

TIP: Profits aren’t everything

A smart Android

Fourth dimension

If you too dislike your living room being cluttered with bulky multimedia equipment, Fujitsu has the perfect answer. The Fujitsu Esprimo Q1500 is an entertainment unit that fits every interior. This little powerhouse offers all of the advantages of a full PC and more: Intel® mobile technology, HDMI, Blu-Ray and Windows® 7, with 4GB RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. It weighs only 1.7 kg and is quiet and energy efficient.

Not wanting to be left behind, LG Electronics recently launched its own Android smartphone. The Android has a 3 inch touch-screen hiding a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. And, of course, there’s a 5 megapixel camera and a host of Android applica-tions. The phone is called the GW620 and will be available on the European market in the last quarter of this year.

Until now, you either have a 4-door or a sportscar. The Pan-amera from Porsche provides plenty of seating for four people with luggage and has the superb dynamic look of a Porsche at the same time. Panamera: the fourth dimension from Porsche.

The literary sensation of the summer was, without a doubt, Ben Mezrich’s staggering book ‘Accidental Billionaires: Sex, Money, Betrayal and the Found-ing of Facebook. The book simply streaked up the bestseller list and America lapped up the sensation. Of course it reads like a boy’s own adventure story, and it’s a bit over-the-top at times, but what does that matter? After all, Facebook has 200 million active readers!

BusinessWeek has dubbed author George Cloutier the “Turnaround Ace.” Upon reading his advice for small and medium-sized business owners in ‘ Profits aren’t every-thing, they are the only thing ‘, you might think he’s a madman. His no-nonsense advice may be hard to hear at times, but it’s a gift to the millions of busi-ness owners who face financial mediocrity or failure and need some serious tough love to pull themselves back into solvency.

Hot on the heels of its revolutionary electric Roadster, Tesla has now launched the Roadster Sport, a car that’s even faster and more efficient than the ‘ordinary’ Roadster. The Sport can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (0-60 mph) in 3.7 seconds – slightly faster than its brother and just as fast as a Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano! Although its top speed is less, the Sport still manages to wring 200 km/h out of its battery pack. A lot of fun for two and thoroughly sustainable.

The green toy

Communication for the open minded

Siemens Enterprise Communications: www.siemens.com/open

Speed up decision making by placing our unified communications solutions at the heart of your business. They integrate seamlessly with your processes and applications to make collaborating simpleand more productive. Open Communications from Siemens EnterpriseCommunications. Optimise processes and profits – pronto.

Whooosh!

Content Syndication Platform Business Integration Platform e-Commerce Platform

reseller’s website?

Can you controlbranded content on your

TIE Kinetix Content Syndication: Content Distribution Throughout the ChannelYou will now be able to assist your channel partners by updating and controlling any reseller's or

distributor’s web site with the latest content updates, marketing campaigns and product information.

Consistent and controlled branded content throughout your channel! Real time! For more information:

sales@tiekinetix.com or visit our website: www.ContentSyndicationPlatform.com

About TIE Kinetix: TIE Kinetix enables you to stretch the limits of electronic business collaboration. By giving you the power to connect applications and processes with your supply chain partners, TIE Kinetix improves your operational exchange and communi-cations. Simply put, TIE Kinetix is the only connection your organization needs when doing business with thousands of trading partners from around the world.

www.ContentSyndicationPlatform.com

Now you can!