Furthermore Clic2 is in continuous discussions with individual dealers, dealer groups, wholesalers and manufacturers to ensure that the current product implementations meet with the real-world market need but also that common future requirements are incorporated into the basic product offering and where possible bespoke requirements are incorporated into individual client implementations.

Clic2's eProcurement application offers you and your major customers the benefits of eProcurement functionality, for a fraction of the investment required for traditional systems. This enables you to offer a value-added service to your major clients, which once set-up, forms a strong tie between you and your customers internal processes and systems, reinforcing an ongoing working relationship. eProcurement has traditionally been the preserve of a handful of visionary corporations and involved spending many millions of pounds on dedicated systems, but rarely did these users see a return on their investment. It was agreed at The Lisbon Conference, that all Governments would buy online by 2005. All FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies now buy online and this trend is moving downwards to smaller corporate companies and larger SMEs. Companies that cannot supply online within the next two years will find it increasingly difficult to retain their current business and also to win new accounts of any note.

Yet many major companies still strive to improve the efficiency of their procurement processes, if not on their entire procurement spend, at least on their horizontal category procurement (MRO, stationery, business equipment and IT). Traditionally, traders and resellers launched Internet webstores offering a single product range and pricing structure to both their customers and prospects. This lack of differentiation has resulted in many established customers using these webstores to browse for products and then pick up the telephone to enquire about better pricing, thereby defeating the object of the webstore as a channel to market. Today, there is a marked shift by larger resellers to offer their corporate and medium sized clients a more dedicated solution.

Clic2's eProcurement application has all of the features and benefits of the eCommerce solution, plus the following:

• Where the eCommerce application views each user as a separate account, the eProcurement application can consolidate multiple users into one account. This means that the system can handle an infinite number of users, departments, cost centres and locations within a single company
• With the eCommerce application there is no need for a user to logon in order to view the catalogues. In the eProcurement application all users must logon so that the system recognises both them as an individual and their company.
• The eProcurement application site is set up differently for each company, so that the user sees a site that matches their own company image, with their logo, corporate colour etc.
• The ranges displayed are the ones that you agree with the customer and you display contracted prices for each company.
• The customer has the facility to set up their own users so that they can add or remove authorised purchasers to the system.
• Each new user can be assigned to a cost centre, have a monthly budget and single order limit and can be set up so that their orders are authorised prior to being sent to you.
• The range displayed to each user can be varied, so that for example, the catering department cannot buy PCs, whilst the PC department cannot buy beverages.
• Each user has access to online reports showing their own:
  • Product usage
  • Financial summary
  • Orders with individual line detail
• Authorisers and managers can see the same reports for their own activity and as a summary of all of those below them in the hierarchy. Reports are displayed by user and by cost centre.