Singapore (13 Nov 2000) - Ecquaria Limited, a leading regional e-Commerce software product and applications developer and provider for e-Businesses, today announced that Globalb2b2c.com(a wholly owned subsidiary of the WRP Group of Companies), has implemented the Ecquaria Product Suite to launch an e-Marketplace for the Protective Goods Industry.

Globalb2b2c.com is a one-stop Protective Solutions e-Marketplace that caters to specific market segments from medical, food, cleanroom, dental and industrial sectors. It provides a platform for the entire value chain (B2B2C – consisting of manufacturers, distributors, resellers/retailers and end consumers) within the protective industry market to facilitate online trading. With the Ecquaria Product Suite, Globalb2b2c.com is able to provide the following core services:

A B2B e-Marketplace – Facilitating online transactions between sellers and buyers and serving as a B2B trading and application service provider.

A B2C e-Marketplace – Facilitating online transactions between sellers and heavy consumers, acting as an online storefront and direct marketing channel to generate brand awareness, product selection and most importantly, create consumer demand.

Application Service Provider (ASP) – Serving Globalb2b2c.com’s customers by enabling online sales and services by providing hosting services for e-storefront and other value-added services.

Globalb2b2c.com e-Marketplace will revolutionize the way business is conducted by enabling multiple organisations to work interactively in a virtual community to increase profitability, achieve greater operational efficiency and excellence, and enable seamless trading and application services to business partners.

The Globalb2b2c.com e-Marketplace currently has 4 main participants, namely WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, Brosch Direct Ltd, Sterilgamma (M) Sdn Bhd, and SSN Gloves (M) Sdn Bhd. It has been live since July 2000 and a total of RM$81 million has been transacted online since.

“With Ecquaria as our technology partner, we are assured that our e-business solution is futureproof and can continue to evolve rapidly. We started with a business to business model and moved quickly to incorporate a business to consumer model to enable a complete e-value chain. Most e-commerce software vendors provide either a B2B or a B2C stand alone application, whereas the Ecquaria Product Suite provided us with a solid platform to implement a complete B2B2C e-Marketplace for the entire vertical industry value chain.” Mr Daniel Wong, Chief Cyber Officer, Globalb2b2c.com.

“The management team of Globalb2b2c.com, collectively with more than 80 years of combined industry experience, knows the global protective industry market and understands the needs of providers and consumers of this industry. We are pleased to work closely with them to help expand their e-Marketplace and ensure the scalability and sustainability of their e-business. We believe that the Ecquaria Value Chain Solution will enable more and more vertical industry e-Marketplaces to provide a single platform for integrating manufacturers, distributors, resellers and consumers,” said Dr Foong Wai Keong, President & CEO, Ecquaria Limited.

Globalb2b2c.com uses Ecquaria ChannelBeans™ and MerchantBeans™ from the Ecquaria Product Suite. They selected Ecquaria ChannelBeans™ to enable the marketing, selling and distribution processes between manufacturers and theirdistributors/resellers/retailers and Ecquaria MerchantBeans™ to enable distributors/resellers/retailers to sell to end-consumers.

For example, one of their e-Marketplace participants, WRP, one of the world’s leading manufacturing and distributors producing premium quality gloves for the medical, dental, food and critical environment industries, leverages on Globalb2b2c.com to allow their distributors to view the latest information on products and send purchase orders at any time and anywhere in the world. In the past WRP’s distributors were kept informed of new products and price changes via paper catalogues, and consequently there was a time lag between updating prices and disseminating the information to distributors. In addition, WRP incurred significant printing and distribution costs.

Today WRP can update their new offerings through Globalb2b2c.com using a web-based content manager easily and at a lower cost. Similarly, the WRP’s Customer Service Representatives can directly deal with customer requests and process incoming sales orders from their web browsers without requiring any special IT knowledge.

WRP’s distributors and resellers for example Brosch Direct, also sell direct to end-consumers using Globalb2b2.com. As a result, Globalb2b2c.com by implementing Ecquaria ChannelBeans™ and Ecquaria MerchantBeans™, has helped customers like WRP streamline the entire demand chain processes, and most importantly enabled them to reduce cost of sales, increase customer satisfaction and enhance customer loyalty.

About Ecquaria Limited

Ecquaria develops, provides and implements the Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ to enable organisations worldwide to rapidly develop and deliver services on demand. Whatever business you are in, Ecquaria has the platform and expertise to help you transform into a Service-Oriented Organisation. For more information, please e-mail us at info@ecquaria.com or visit our web site at www.ecquaria.com.

The The Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™ includes:
Ecquaria Service-Oriented Platform™: Empowers your Web Services platform.
Ecquaria TradeBeans™: Empowers your B2B e-marketplace and online procurement.
Ecquaria ChannelBeans™: Empowers your B2B online marketing, sales and distribution.
Ecquaria AuctionBeans™: Empowers your B2B online auction site.
Ecquaria MerchantBeans™: Empowers your B2C online storefront and shopping mall.

Ecquaria has regional offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and supported by a network of channel alliances in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

ecBeans, ChannelBeans, MerchantBeans, TradeBeans and AuctionBeans are trademarks of Ecquaria Limited. All other product or company names herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

About Globalb2b2c.com

Globalb2b2c.com is a one-stop Protective Solutions e-marketplace which provides a complete spectrum of protective solutions to meet the varied needs of customers in their respective market segments, including the healthcare, food and catering, technology, scientific and industrial sectors. ‘Protective solutions’ is a generic term describing products that provide contamination protection to the human body, food or equipment. It also facilitates the entire purchasing process of product sourcing, transactions and communications between distributors, resellers and heavy consumers.

With its comprehensive suite of solutions and services to drive business to business to consumer (B2B2C) commerce, the e-marketplace will facilitate the trading of a complete range of protective solutions to meet the needs of customers with specific focus in their individual market segments. The company delivers its comprehensive services via three channels, namely a B2B e-marketplace, a B2C direct marketing channel, and as an applications service provider (ASP).

For all public relations and corporate communication matters, please contact our PR department at pr@ecquaria.com.