Rolls-Royce Sets a First in Defense e-commerce

Rolls-Royce has become the first company to trade with the U.K. Ministry of Defense on a new e-business system. The company took an order for submarine mechanical spares using a new interconnection, which links the Ministry's Defence Electronic Commerce Service (DECS) and the Exostar trading portal, allowing seamless transactions between suppliers and the Ministry. David Price, managing director - Naval Marine for Rolls-Royce said: "Rolls-Royce has actively supported the creation of this platform, the first web exchange link to DECS, and we are delighted to be the first company to transact on it. This marks another step in our overall objective to reduce procurement costs, increase design collaboration and work more effectively with customers, partners and suppliers. "It is also part of our effort to enable the Ministry's Defense Logistics Organization reach its goal of a 20 per cent reduction in procurement costs by 2004." Rolls-Royce joined the Exostar exchange in June last year. Existing members are BAE SYSTEMS, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Technology provider CommerceOne also has a stake. Employees at Rolls-Royce in the UK were trained how to use the DECS/Exostar link via a "webinar" by a tutor in the US.