Bethlehem Steel Combats Business Integration Complexities; Forges Relationship with Commercequest
Needing Guaranteed Delivery and Absolute Integrity for High-Volume Message Transfer, Bethlehem Steel Turns to enableNet Data Integrator
Bethlehem Steel Corporation
For Immediate Release
TAMPA, Fla. (Nov. 27, 2000) -- CommerceQuest Inc. today announced that Bethlehem Steel Corporation (NYSE: BS) has selected its enableNet Data Integrator to handle the company's enterprise application integration (EAI) complexities and to ensure secure message delivery within the company and among its trading partners.
CommerceQuest is a leader in business integration, delivering trusted enterprise and e-Business solutions to Global 2000 companies and Net Market Makers. Bethlehem Steel is the nation's second-largest fully integrated steel company. It was recently recognized by InformationWeek for its adoption and extensive use of advanced technologies and by BtoB magazine as one of the top business-to-business web sites in the nation.
"Bethlehem has a proven commitment to building our business with the best in information technology," said Thomas Conarty, Jr., Bethlehem Steel's senior vice president and chief procurement and information officer. "Our selection of the enableNet Data Integrator was based on our company's need for assured message delivery and wide-ranging support of disparate applications, platforms and networks."
Bethlehem Steel plans to employ the enableNet Data Integrator in concert with its Ariba-based e-Procurement platform. In addition, the company plans to leverage CommerceQuest technologies to optimize connectivity between different facilities within the company and enable seamless information exchange among supply chain partners and subsidiaries.
"We're extremely pleased to be selected by Bethlehem Steel to address its integration challenges, and we look forward to seizing the opportunity to assist the company in increasing the efficiency and reliability of its supply chain," said Colin Osborne, chairman of CommerceQuest.
Osborne continued, "In order to meet the demands of today's economy while keeping an eye on tomorrow's, an optimal integration solution must have the capability to handle a company's high-volume internal message delivery and provide the scalability to externalize with minimal transition effort."
The enableNet Data Integrator addresses these concerns and provides any-to-any data transfer - any data shared across any network, platform or application - within a secure and manageable environment. This type of connectivity will maximize Bethlehem Steel's ability to share information within its company, and with outside companies and e-Marketplaces such as MetalSite and OneBuild.
CommerceQuest's technology is already being used within the metals industry. Last month, the company's premier B2B integration solution, enableNet Managed Service, was chosen by MetalSite, the steel industry's largest web-based trading exchange, to facilitate message delivery and provide any-to-any connectivity among the community's customers and supply chain partners. According to MetalSite's vice president of technology, Jeryl Schreiner, the company enlisted the help of CommerceQuest "to facilitate greater transaction efficiencies for the entire metals supply chain within the industry's first truly technology-neutral exchange environment."
About Bethlehem Steel Corporation
Bethlehem Steel Corporation is the nation's second largest fully integrated steel company with revenues of about $4 billion and shipments of nine million tons of steel products. Bethlehem's 14,700 employees work primarily in three major divisions - Burns Harbor, Ind.; Sparrows Point, Md. (with plate mills in Coatesville and Conshohocken, Pa.); and Pennsylvania Steel Technologies, Steelton, Pa. The corporation is a leading supplier to the North American automotive industry and construction industries, and is the largest supplier of plate products on the continent. Bethlehem's web site is www.bethsteel.com.
About CommerceQuest
CommerceQuest Inc. is pioneering end-to-end business integration that delivers improvements in business flexibility, effectiveness and efficiency. The company is a leading provider of integration solutions for the Global 2000, consortia and Net Market Makers. Its enableNetTM offerings seamlessly, rapidly and reliably integrate business processes and applications across geographically and technologically diverse boundaries. The growing list of customers employing CommerceQuest's enterprise and e-business integration solutions includes Anheuser Busch, GTE, IBM, Ericsson, SIAC, and leading Net Market Makers including ICGCommerce, Commerx and e-Chemicals.
CommerceQuest is a privately held company headquartered in Tampa, Fla., with branch offices across the United States and operations in Australia, Europe, and South Africa. Founded in 1992, the company is an infrastructure services provider within Internet Capital Group's (Nasdaq:ICGE) collaborative network of Partner Companies. For more information, please contact CommerceQuest in the United States at 1-813-639-6300 or visit www.CommerceQuest.com.