Aspen Technology acquires e-Chemicals
26 Jan 2001
Aspen Technology has acquired the assets of e-Chemicals, one of the pioneers of Internet-based trading for the chemicals industry.
With the purchase of e-Chemicals, AspenTech is now able to provide its customers in the chemical and other process industries with an off-the-shelf solution that enables them to make an immediate start in creating private trading networks with their most important business partners.
The e-Chemicals technology is made up of two discrete elements: a buy-side eProcurement solution for direct materials purchasing, and a sell-side private marketplace solution for selling products to customers on-line.
The buy-side offering allows customers to set-up a privately branded eProcurement marketplace using machine-to-machine connections or web interfaces to automate the way they purchase goods from their suppliers. The buy-side solution includes catalogue content specific to the process industries and is a first step for companies that want to implement an e-business strategy but who have not yet begun using the Internet to reduce costs and increase operational efficiency.
The sell-side offering provides process manufacturers with a secure, privately branded on-line marketplace, which is integrated with theirenterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Their customers will be able to access their marketplace using a web browser interface to purchase chemical products at list price or at contractually agreed upon prices. They will alsohave the ability to track the status of their orders.
Additional features specific to the chemical industry include support for material safety data sheets (MSDS) and certificates of analysis (COA).
BP is the latest of a number of major companies using the solution in their day-to-day chemical operations, and has licensed the sell-side solution for its butanediol plant in Lima, Ohio, where the marketplace site is expected to be actively used by BP's customers to place and track orders.
AspenTech expects the acquisition to be non dilutive to its Fiscal 2001 earnings and accretive in Fiscal 2002.
