Former paper industry exchange seeks new customers
Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 8/1/2004 12:00:00 AM
While most technology suppliers now see the dot-com craze as little more than a bad memory, Liaison Technologies views it as the launchpad for what it expects to be an extremely lucrative business.
Previously known as ForestExpress, Liaison was formed in 2000 as a trading exchange for paper products manufacturers. It built an XML messaging network and a product information management (PIM) application that made it easier for industry giants like International Paper and Weyerhaeuser to exchange critical information and conduct e-commerce with customers and suppliers.
"ForestExpress could have continued to be a profitable endeavor," says Liaison CEO Bob Renner, "but we don't think it could have grown into the size company that we can be by going into other markets."
Since changing its name this past April, Liaison has been actively seeking customers outside the paper industry. Its initial target markets are distribution companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Renner says these sectors have glaring needs to exchange data in near-real time, which is the strength of Liaison's solutions.
"The core of our infrastructure is similar to an EDI network, but we don't move things in batches," Renner explains. "In an EDI environment it can take up to 20 minutes to move a message; we have customers moving messages in less than 20 seconds."
Those response times are especially appealing to pharmaceutical manufacturers, Renner contends, because they can speed up the numerous processes for getting regulatory approvals that must be obtained before a new drug can go to market.
Renner contends Liaison's PIM solution would appeal to any company that has a need to share or display product data inside or outside of the enterprise. "People give us information about their products in any form they want, and we digitize it and apply business rules to clean up the data and make it available to a variety of systems," he says. "It can go to an ERP system for use as a product master list, or it can be loaded onto an e-commerce Web site."
In keeping with its history as a technology pioneer, Liaison only offers its PIM solution as a hosted service. "Certain pieces of software are better delivered in a hosted way," Renner declares. "We are convinced PIM is one of those."
