ISSA throws its hat in the ring, hoping its offer of affordable e-commerce functions will entice its members to sign on.

SSA 2000 in Atlanta seemed the perfect time and venue for the unveiling of ISSA's most recent endeavor - the launching of an industry portal designed specifically for its members. The portal is the result of an alliance with Networld Exchange, and its intent is to offer ISSA members a variety of services, including e-commerce capability - something many business owners had until now ruled out as too costly.

E-commerce portals seem to be springing up all over the place, and as Sanitary Maintenance reported in last month's "Tech Central" article, "One Stop Shops," (October 2000) many have surfaced that service the jan/san industry. This, though, doesn't seem to worry ISSA board members, who feel its position as the industry's leading association make it the natural answer to the industry's needs, even in a sea of would-be competitors.

Board Supports Move The exhaustive decision-making process leading up to this launch began more than a year ago and included rigorous brainstorming sessions, rounds of meetings and interviews with prospective business partners. Networld Exchange, a known provider of business-to-business e-commerce services in the foodservice/hospitality industry, was chosen by the ISSA Board of Directors based on its abilities, track record and cost.

Last July, ISSA board members met with Arthur Andersen, a consulting firm that helped devise a list of initiatives that would best serve the association's members.

"We sat down and brainstormed and determined what the issues would be that affected our members," says Linda Silverman, immediate past president of ISSA and vice president of Maintex Inc., in City of Industry, Calif. "We came up with nine or 10 issues that would potentially impact our association, then we looked at all the issues independently and determined that you can only do justice to so many things, so we chose four issues." Silverman says the issues were finalized by a board vote. The issues chosen are business-to-business communications (the initiative from which the alliance was formed); technology other than business-to-business relationships; international issues and how to grow these markets; and ISSA's trade show strategy.

"We wanted something that would bring value to our members," she adds. Once the four issues were chosen,

four committees were formed to identify plans and ideas on how to achieve each particular issue. The alliance with Networld Exchange is probably the most significant result of those planning sessions, but Silverman is quick to point out that e-commerce functions are not the only thing the Networld Exchange alliance has to offer.

"When you say business. to business, the first thing you think of is transactions, but this strategy drives us much deeper and has many more things to offer," Silverman says.

"We wanted a suitable and cost-effective solution for our members that allows them to build b-to-b capabilities with their customers," says John Garfinkel, executive director of ISSA. He says there were some key criteria that had to be met before ISSA signed on with any provider, and Networld Exchange met those. Critical Factors

"Our first criteria is we wanted a sellcentric b-to-b marketplace rather than an auction and buyer market," he explains. ISSA also wanted a focus on private marketplaces, with one-on-one content, to support the business relationships that are already established and to allow customers to continue working with their distributors, only more efficiently, Garfinkel says. He believes once a buyerseller relationship is established, the chances of a customer shopping around, as is typical of auction sites, is low.

"These are ongoing buyer and seller relationships and there's a huge difference between b-to-b and b-to-c," he says.

ISSA's two sites, ISSA.com and jansan.com, serve members and end users respectively. Garfinkel says that although companies and individuals will not be prevented from "shopping," that only 10 to 15 percent of the market is expected to be driven by buyers' shopping. The remainder will likely represent ongoing business relationships between the customer and the same supplier.

"In the business world, once you find someone reliable you don't want to shop around every time you order. It's just not efficient," Garfinkel says.

Steve Swigart, now the president of ISSA and chair of the committee that came up with the plan, says, "We wanted to find an affordable alliance partner that would allow our membership to have electronic commerce at an affordable price." Spartan Chemical Co. in Maumee, Ohio, of which Swigart is the president, has signed up for the service, too.

The portal is best-described as a pyramid of initiatives, Silverman says. The base of the pyramid includes actual transactions, the integration of the system into current business models and special considerations individualized for each user, including security. The middle portion concentrates on business promotion, which includes focused advertising to a certain market, and the top of the pyramid offers the ability to get into the "back" of the system allowing simplified management, reporting and analysis.

Scott Anderson, vice president of sales for Networld Exchange in Bonsall, Calif., says the service will directly benefit the association's members by helping them cut costs.

"E-commerce can help people in two general areas," he says. "First, there's expenses, where you're reducing the cost of taking the order. Secondly, you have access to new customers, new products and it frees up salespeople's time to sell to new customers."

Anderson claims businesses will likely experience a sales increase of 12 to 30 percent with the system, and a five to 28 percent reduction in expenses. He says subscribers also have the advantage of speed to the market and they eliminate infrastructure and labor costs.

The service's cost is based on company size and the functions needed, and Silverman says it's a cost-effective way to dive into e-commerce. "It would cost a tremendous amount of money to do this yourself," she says.

"There are companies spending millions of dollars to do this. When you compare prices, there's no way I could have done it on my own." Silverman says the cost of doing this herself would be about 50 to 70 percent higher than what she is paying with Networld Exchange.

Garfinkel says although the price of Networld's services vary based on the size of the company and the number of customers signed up, there's a pretty basic formula.

"With Networld's costs, a company can just drop a zero off the end of what cost you would probably expect to enable b-to-b commerce over the Internet with integration into your back end data systems," he says. According to Garfinkel, many companies are spending anywhere from $200,000 to $2 million to integrate the appropriate software and get themselves up and running.

"Plus, the ongoing costs will be less than maintaining their own system because Networld Exchange takes care of it," Garfinkel says.

Silverman, whose company was one of the first to sign up for the service, says it will definitely benefit distributors whose customers want 24-hour-a-day ordering ability. "They can go online and place that order at one in the morning," she says. Silverman also believes customers are clamoring for this ability. "I have a number of distributors who want to buy from me on the Internet in an economical fashion," she says. Silverman says this will allow her to provide that service to customers.

She also says this is a long-term commitment for her company. Maintex is looking at earning back the system's cost in three years.

Interest Appears High ISSA 2000 provided the opportunity for Networld Exchange to demonstrate the system and answer questions. Silverman says there was considerable interest at the show, but instead of signing up there, many executives went home to talk it over with others before making any decisions.

The exact number of subscribers was not available at press time. News of its availability is fresh, so it's difficult to tell whether the service will take off, but interest seems strong.

Garfinkel says there is no minimum membership number needed but there is a goal: to have every ISSA member included. He says the websites will be up and running approximately 60 days after a contract is finalized.

Garfinkel did stress, too, that if members seek b-to-b capabilities elsewhere, they are still entitled to have a free link on ISSA's site. He says that was another factor in choosing Networld Exchange.

What about the other portals springing up? Garfinkel says that if there is a company out with the business plan of becoming the dominant b-to-b industry portal for the cleaning industry then yes, they will be viewed as a competitor. On the other hand, he says that other providers of b-to-b commerce solutions are welcome. ISSA believes, though, that for its own services as a portal, Networld offered the best solution for ISSA and its members that are struggling to find a suitable and costefficient Internet commerce capability.

As far as Anderson is concerned, competitive portals are not a threat. "ISSA is the dominant jan/san portal," he says. "There's content, community, and we provide the third part, which is commerce. We're just an extension of them," he says.

"I think there are two major drivers here," says Garfinkel. "We needed to do this for our own survival as an association." He continues: "We also wanted a program to enable all our

members to get into the b-to-b age, and the cost is significantly less to go with Networld Exchange if you're an ISSA member." According to Garfinkel, it's 40 percent less than if you went with Networld Exchange and were not a member.