Cleveland-based KeyCorp has become the first bank to complete an entirely electronic ordering, invoicing and payment transaction using the Ariba Marketplace, Network Edition e-commerce platform.
The transaction, carried out through the bank's online B2B marketplace KeyProcure, involved cutting tools manufacturer Controx buying office supplies from stationery supplier Corporate Express.
Every part of the transaction from ordering and initial processing to payment was automated, the company claims. Until now, B2B e-commerce transactions in a Web marketplace have involved some manual processes, such as invoice processing by the buyer or payment processing by the seller.
The marketplace was piloted March to October this year and has since been handling a number of routine orders for office supplies from its middle-market corporate clients. Initial product categories to be sold through KeyProcure are office supplies, computers and software with the company planning to offer the payment processing capabilities to other marketplace participants over the next few months.
In an unrelated announcement, KeyCorp says it will use 724 Solutions' LiveClips and alerts services to offer customers single sign-on access to all of their Web-based accounts and favorite information in one consolidated view.
The bank says its move into the aggregation marketplace stems from its own research which indicates that consumers are looking to their financial institution to provide these services. KeyCorp says it will begin offering aggregation and notification services to customers in the first quarter of 2001.