BayanTrade kicks off to great start

Top B2B (business-to-business) company BayanTrade.com, a partnership among six of the largest conglomerates in the country, kicked off to a good start yesterday, with the joint venture partners demonstrating how savings can be realized by doing business online. The company successfully bid out several contracts yesterday.

Among those present to witness the future of B2B transactions were the board of directors of BayanTrade, namely: Manuel Pangilinan of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT); Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala of Ayala Corp.; Eugenio Lopez III of Benpres Holdings; Lance Gokongwei of JG Summit Holdings; John Ramon Aboitiz of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, and Joselito Campos of United Laboratories.

BayanTrade expects to bid out products and services worth around P300 million until the end of this year, making it the biggest B2B marketplace in the country. In the near future, it plans to participate in the Global Trading Web where over 25 marketplaces are linked by CommerceOne. This means that buyers can source from any company anywhere in the world while suppliers will have a chance to showcase their products.

During yesterday’s launch, Meralco placed an order for copper wires with the starting price at P13.8 million. It was a reverse auction in which suppliers were invited to give the lowest price to get the contract. Thirty nine bids were received over a two-hour period with the winning bid at P11.8 million, resulting in a 14.5- percent savings for Meralco, according to Jesus Francisco, Meralco executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Also yesterday, Aboitiz Equity conducted an actual online purchase (www.bayantrade.com has 28 product categories).

In his speech, BayanTrade chairman Eugenio Lopez III said: "BayanTrade puts us where local business has never gone before – in a position to create a trading community that can interact with the rest of the world on an equal level. With this B2B marketplace, "buy-and-trade’ will just be a mouse-click away."

BayanTrade will initially undertake electronic procurement, e-catalogues and online auctions. The cycle will be completed with e-payments and e-logistics. It will also set up a content factory and offer hosted applications for the business community.

The idea to create BayanTrade.com came four months ago when PLDT, Ayala Corp., Benpres, JG Summit, Aboitiz, and Unilab decided to work together to take advantage of the efficiencies and savings offered by the new economy.

"It was not just a faddish response inspired by out-of-the-world expectations typical of a dotcom venture. It was a move the six of us took with very specific and measurable results in mind. We wanted to put our e-procurement plans together, thus ensuring this venture a better chance of success," Lopez said.

The company has already held two supplier summits, the first in August, which netted 100 percent sign-up commitment from all 16 suppliers who participated. "We received further commitments from our second wave of suppliers," he said.