Launched in 2001, beX provides companies and their trading partners with their own private real-time exchange anywhere in the world to facilitate effective transaction process management. beX now has over 34,000 trading partners across Europe and processes over 5 million transactions per annum with a value of over €8 billion. Through Simplex's Working Capital Finance Hub (WCF Hub), beX customers will be able to access reduced-cost working capital finance with no additional connectivity requirements.

"The beX service allows our customers to fast track their invoicing and remove the problems associated with manual handling of orders and invoices. Value-added services such as working capital finance are an obvious benefit to our growing customer base and Simplex's WCF Hub has the necessary component modules to deliver this service" says Peter Little, Chairman, Burns.

"For some time now Simplex has been busy adding modules to our ASP-based Payments Administration System (PAYS). The partnership between Simplex and the Burns Business eXchange is extremely well suited; Burns already facilitates rapid, effective transaction process management and Simplex adds real value to this with its WCF Hub. In addition to providing preferred loan rates to Burns customers, the Simplex WCF Hub provides borrowers with the option of choosing from a global or regional bank, providing service levels appropriate to the supplier's business," says David Reeve, CEO of Simplex.

Simplex's WCF Hub addresses the needs of suppliers to large-scale purchasers who often cannot gain access to cost-effective working capital finance. This adverse situation is based on perceived risk due to the lack of visibility of their transaction details. Simplex's WCF Hub solves this problem through its combination of messaging and authorisation modules, enabling financial institutions to offer reduced-rate loans to suppliers. Utilising Simplex's WCF Hub, the beX community are automatically provided with working capital as soon as qualifying invoices are received by the system, providing extended payment terms to purchasers, while providing improved funding rates to suppliers.

"Leveraging Simplex's proven track record in Straight-Through-Processing, suppliers are also able to receive these funds immediately, rather than go through the time-consuming and paperwork intensive process associated with traditional products such as individual invoice discounting," says Michael Dugard, Director of Corporate Sales of Simplex.