DSM, in cooperation with BASF, DOW and Solvay has begun trading in chemical products in Europe and the United States through Elemica, an independent web-based marketplace. The first transactions involved the sale of several hundred tonnes of neopentyl glycol and glycerol. Elemica is now the world's biggest electronic marketplace for the chemical industry. It allows companies to place orders, fill orders and carry out other transactions via the Information Superhighway. For some time now, DSM has been making use of digital marketplaces, such as ChemConnect, the ChemUnity.com platform, ElastomerSolutions and Omnexus. Similarly, DSM buys and sells power via APX, an Internet-based marketplace for electricity.

The Real Economy

Says Feike Sijbesma, whose responsibilities as a member of DSM's Managing Board include e-business, 'The launch of Elemica is important for the further development of DSM's e-business activities. This year, some parts of the DSM group are already generating over 10 percent of their sales through e-business.' Continues Sijbesma, 'We're convinced that e-business offers great added value, even though a number of dot.com companies have developed not as fast or as successfully as anticipated a year ago.' Sijbesma stresses that DSM is not active in the so-called New Economy, but in what DSM calls the Real Economy, which combines the New Economy and the Old Economy

e-business

In a very short time, DSM has successfully introduced solutions for placing orders online, for VMI (Vendor Managed Inventory = online inventory management at the customer's site), as well as for Internet-based technical support and other forms of cooperation with customers. In the coming years, DSM expects to conduct much of its e-business via web-based marketplaces, which enable the chemicals giant to link up its computer systems with those of customers and suppliers.

Remarks Jaco Fok, DSM's Programme Manager for e-business, 'For some time now, we at DSM have been putting in orders via so-called point-to-point contacts. In this respect, Elemica will greatly enhance efficiency. More generally speaking, it's excellent that opportunities to do business electronically are expanding so rapidly within DSM. e-business-to-business developments are rapidly gaining in speed.'