The cornerstone of newtron's sourcing & procurement solution is SRM. Because buyers and sellers use the same application regardless of their application areas, prospects, and access level the whole sourcing & procurement process can be mapped out from planning to negotiation to delivery. Integrated evaluation and statistics functions provide detailed analysis and evaluations. The individual user is able to control these features by him/herself.

In addition to comprehensive supplier management, the following selected features ensure the successful implementation of the newtron SRM solution:

Sourcing      top

Using newtron's Nomenclature and the newtron Business Index you will be able to look for potential suppliers even in the planning phase. Product Nomenclature is available for product-related supplier searches. Information found on the suppliers/bidders can be cross-referenced against the Business Index and serve as the basis for a preliminary decision.

Request for Information      top

The RFI module allows you to draft questionnaires or concrete prenegotiation documents and to send them to the suppliers chosen in advance over the system. Easy-to-use evaluation tools will help you to analyze the results; the knowledge you gain in this step can then be retained and used in integrated supplier management. This way you can hone down the number of suppliers and move on to the negotiation tools easily and efficiently.

Request for Quotation      top

Using the RFQ module you can create structured request-for-quotation documents and invite many kinds of suppliers to bid on your project:

	Regular suppliers
	Suppliers on your watch list
	New suppliers identified using Nomenclature's product classification, approved by the integrated supplier evaluation function.

You can decide whether you want suppliers to complete the whole detailed estimate or whether you want them to be able to complete the portions of your choice only. You can also choose whether to process and evaluate the bids online or offline (after the Excel sheet is downloaded). Using the extensive analytical instruments you can award the contract quickly or select a group to participate in a bidding run-off.

Online negotiation (Reverse Auction)      top

Online negotiation (Reverse Auction) ties in directly with completed quotation requests: You choose a qualified supplier, draft structured documents for the final phase of negotiation, and rapidly bring negotiations to a close. To achieve optimal negotiation results you can use multiple auction parameters to adapt the competitive environment and transparency level to the supplier as you see fit. There are graphical real-time evaluations to portray the state of negotiations at any time you wish.

Engineering      top

You can use newtron as a platform for communication and information sharing to discuss new products or product improvements with your suppliers. Thanks to the integrated CAD viewer you can quickly and smoothly visualize and share your documents, CAD drawings, and standardized formulae for drawn components, and parts/prototypes to be produced all without the supplier having to install any additional software.

Evaluations and analysis      top

All negotiations can be evaluated using uniform analytical instruments; the evaluation scenarios can also be adapted to suit the current business situation. You may subject qualitative criteria to a utility analysis or combine them with quantitative criteria and run a TCO (Total cost of ownership) analysis. For example, you can map payment terms (Cash value determination) or k.o. criteria. Statistics can be generated effortlessly as well. All evaluation results and statistics can be exported to Excel and then used for further analysis outside the platform.

Nomenclature      top

Nomenclature is a hierarchically structured (like a tree) list of product groups. More than 55,000 product groups are currently mapped in the newtron portal. newtron.CompoNET includes more than 48,000 product groups, newtron.Automotive more than 36.000, and newtron.MRO more than 2.500.
Successive Nomenclature depth (up to nine levels) enlarges the specification for each product group. More than 33,000 registered suppliers have independently classified themselves into the product groups in accordance with their product portfolios; as in the newtron Business Index, we have ensured high data quality throughout.
Based on the supplier's product group classification buyers are shown the relevant suppliers for their chosen product group(s). Using integrated supplier management they can review questionable companies before inviting them to take part in planned activities (RFI, RFQ, Reverse Auction, etc.). Naturally, buyers can also invite suppliers from outside the chosen product group to participate.

The concrete requirements of the procuring company are described using additional parameters, such as:

	Product name (designator for desired product)
	Description (text describing the desired product)
	Appendices (digital documents [also drawings]; any file format is possible)

newtron's Nomenclature is constantly being improved, both structurally and in terms of content expansion. This is due primarily to client suggestions but also to our expansion into new industries and markets.

In addition, newtron allows its customers to use their own, customized (private) Nomenclature, based on the company standard or affiliated with some other standard.

Integration (A2A - Application to Application-Server)      top

The A2A Server is the standard interface between the SRM solution and the applications our clients use in their operating environments. It is an integration server using many kinds of protocols and formats that can be expanded constantly because of its modular, layer-oriented construction. It is 100% Java-based and is compliant with the adopted standards. Using the available adapters, processes like information requests, confirmation, framework agreements, and orders can be rapidly integrated into various target systems (Baan, J.D. Edwards, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, etc.). Our service team will be happy to configure the system to work with other applications at your request.

WebEDI      top

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has long been a standard part of doing business. And with good reason: From the supermarket barcode scanner to purchasing capital goods, EDI rationalizes and accelerates the process–without anyone having to lift a finger.

However, because of the high price of integration software as well as the complexity of the heterogeneous standards small to mid-sized companies are often not in the position to maintain traditional EDI links with direct data transfer between the procuring company and the supplier.

This is where newtron's WebEDI comes in. As opposed to classic EDI, WebEDI uses the Internet as a data transfer protocol. Only the procuring company and the supplier are electronically linked to newtron in this process. All orders are sent to newtron. The supplier will be informed about them by e-mail; further processing takes place using the web interface including the processing of remittance notices, invoices, credit items, etc.

Implementing WebEDI requires little investment in hardware and software and very little EDI knowledge is needed. This allows small companies to link to large corporations' EDI networks and thereby gain a foothold in the extensive e-market.

Logistics      top

newtron customers are increasingly on the look-out for opportunities to integrate newtron products and services into their internal procedures. For this reason, newtron was expanded to use "e-Schenker," making the online services of Schenker, Inc. available to newtron customers.