Online Paper Procurement — A Changing Landscape
Paperhub contends that printers will benefit from the product pricing, availability and ordering environment that it will provide. Paperhub will also offer a variety of online tools for grade price comparisons, project management and metric conversions.
Forestexpress.com
Forestexpress is another relative newcomer to the online electronic marketplace. Currently slated to launch in the first quarter, Forest- express is a forest products consortium that includes International Paper, Weyerhaeuser, Georgia-Pacific, Mead, Boise Cascade and Willamette.
Its initial areas of focus will be building materials, printing and writing papers, recovered fiber and timber—with additional areas of e-commerce to be added later. The business-to-business marketplace will be open to all firms that want to participate.
Forestexpress will function as an independent company with its own management, and is currently under the guidance of a board drawn from the ranks of its partners.
Printeralliance.com
Printeralliance is a group of independent printers who have joined together in order to leverage their collective buying power to obtain savings. Printeralliance offers rebates to printers on everything from health care to paper.
The collective purchasing power of its members allows Printer-alliance to obtain substantial rebates from suppliers. Members have a choice on how much participation they wish to have in the rebate program. Printers can choose to "bundle" the programs into the best savings package for their companies.
Clickpaper.com
Also entering the paper fray is Clickpaper.com, backed by Enron Industrial Markets. Enron has provided risk management products and financing for the pulp, paper and wood products industry since 1997.
Clickpaper.com provides a transactional platform to buy and sell physical and financial pulp, paper and wood products—commission-free and in real-time. It also provides news, resources and information directly related to the industry.
"Clickpaper.com will become the preferred, Web-based system for principal-based transactions in this industry," remarks Jeffrey McMahon, president and CEO of Enron Industrial Markets. "Utilizing the proven business model created with EnronOnline, Clickpaper.com offers customers in the pulp and paper industry a unique set of benefits, including competitive pricing and price transparency, which we believe will provide liquidity to this market."
