Hubwoo Brings the Power of B2B Community to the Masses

PARIS, May 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Hubwoo (Euronext: HBW.NX), a leading collaborative business network provider, today announced availability of the next generation of intelligent commerce on The Business Network, including new solutions for contract compliant procurement, mass supplier enablement, and community tools for sellers.

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Connecting Companies
The Business Network by Hubwoo delivers a step change in value to procurement, accounts payable and sales processes. Hubwoo enables companies, to find, connect, and collaborate with each other for more productive B2B commerce. As opposed to the buy-side focus of other networks in the industry, Hubwoo is equally focused on buyer and seller value. The Business Network today is a cloud-based hub that electronically connects over one million businesses around the globe.

Today's solution announcement adds community capabilities to the network similar to those that business professionals already enjoy every day in their personal lives.

"When professionals go home at night, they don't think twice about clicking to buy what they need on Amazon.com, checking payment statuses in their online banking, or about exploring what's new with their connections on Facebook," said Greg Mark, Hubwoo CEO. "Hubwoo now brings those same familiar capabilities in a business context."

Easy Buy for SAP ERP customers
SAP MM customers can now enable compliant requisitioning to all employees by simply adding a skin on top of their existing ERP investment, without requiring a separate eProcurement solution either on-premise or in the cloud.  Easy Buy is a presentation layer that offers an intuitive, consumer-like buying interface, and reduces number of process clicks from thirty-two down to just four. The intuitive UI makes it easier for requisitioners to find compliant goods and services, resulting in increased adoption and contract compliant procurement.

Easy Buy reduces systems complexity and TCO compared to the alternate choice of buying and implementing a separate eProcurement solution. It eliminates the need to manage additional database(s) and hardware, the need to synchronize user, organizational, and accounting master data, and the need to build workflow rules in an additional system.

Easy Buy works inherently with the cloud-based catalog and transactional capabilities of The Business Network by Hubwoo.

Mass Supplier Enablement
For procurement and accounts payable functions Hubwoo is announcing technology automation and a frictionless business model to scale its core competency of electronic enablement of suppliers even more.

Process Automation: Hubwoo now facilitates even faster supplier nomination, automated matching against the million businesses on the network, and online management and status control across suppliers of all sizes.  Supplier onboarding "on the fly" enables purchase order transactions to automatically check the network for supplier matches and electronically onboard new suppliers.

Removing Commercial Friction: Over the past 13 years of operating a network, Hubwoo has found that supplier fee contracts are the #1 obstacle to rapid supplier enablement. Hubwoo's new commercial model does not charge a tax or a toll to suppliers like the other major networks in our industry do.  With no commercial contracts required, joining The Business Network is made simple for suppliers so buyers can gain more spend under management rapidly.

Once suppliers are connected they are able to conduct the full spectrum of source-to-pay transaction processes with their customers on the network.  In addition, suppliers have access to invoice and payment status information directly on The Business Network which reduces inquiries to accounts payable driving resource efficiencies on both sides.

Through Hubwoo's Supplier Master Synchronization capability buyers can now also choose to have suppliers update select supplier master information directly on the network, freeing up buyers from this time consuming task and increasing data accuracy.

Seller Community Tools
Hubwoo brings intelligent marketing to sellers of all sizes.  Over one million businesses now have business profiles on The Business Network, much like professionals have online profiles on LinkedIn.  The enhancements to business profiles now include a unique combination of quantitative, qualitative and third party data on businesses which enable spot buy and sourcing professionals to make quick and informed decisions.

Business profile data includes company overview and contact information that can be self-administered or augmented free of charge with data from Hubwoo's partnership with Dun & Bradstreet. Quantitative data includes activity statistics on the network such as number of active connections, transaction volume, and catalog metrics.

Qualitative data includes new community ratings and recommendations on businesses.

For sellers it is easy to market yourself over a coffee break.

1. Register: Create a free company profile.
2. Enhance:  Update business data, business categories, and certifications – also for free.  The more complete a business profile is, the higher it appears in search results.  Companies can also promote followers to their profile on The Business Network through a social media icon.
3. Differentiate: Market your company directly where commerce happens.  Sellers can optionally subscribe to context sensitive advertising as well as manage public catalogs for easy spot-buy discovery.

"Hubwoo offers a comprehensive set of cloud-based and network-driven products and services designed to drive value across procurement and account payable departments," said Andrew Bartolini, Chief Research Officer of Ardent Partners. "Core to its strategy and customer value proposition is its Business Network which has grown to become one of the world's largest business networks and a key differentiator in the market."

About Hubwoo (www.hubwoo.com)

Hubwoo delivers a step change in value to procurement, accounts payable and sales processes, increasing spend compliance and invoice automation. Powered by the world's busiest open and collaborative business network, Hubwoo connects companies to enable more productive B2B commerce. Through The Business Network, Hubwoo is equally focused on buyer and seller value, helping companies buy, sell and pay smarter. The Business Network drives value for organizations by connecting them to over one million active businesses around the globe. Significant customers include BASF, Honeywell, Shell, Evonik, EDF, Nokia, Monsanto, Nationwide, Michelin, Henkel, Statoil, CONSOL Energy, EcoPetrol, Campbell's, Burton's Foods, and The Dow Chemical Company.  Hubwoo's global partnerships include Microsoft, IBM, and Dun&Bradstreet.

Hubwoo has major operations in Paris, Houston, Chicago, Bonn, London, Manila, and Leuven. Listed in Compartment C on the Euronext Paris Eurolist.

ISIN: FR0004052561, Euronext: HBW, Reuters: HBWO.PA, Bloomberg: HBW:FP

SOURCE Hubwoo