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November 18, 1999 9:47 AM, EST

Ford Mot Co. and Oracle Corp. will attempt to set up a $300 billion online automotive supply chain, which the companies said would be the world’s largest business-to business electronic network.

The effort will initially “facilitate Ford’s $80 billion in annual purchasing transactions with its 30,000 suppliers and its $300 billion extended supply chain,” Oracle said in a Nov. 4 press release.

“The new online automotive marketplace is expected to dramatically reduce Ford’s purchasing costs and increase its operating efficiencies through an integrated supply chain system,” Oracle said. “Further, it will extend Ford’s core business into a virtual e-business enterprise allowing direct connections of the supply chain to the consumer to reduce Ford’s time to market.”

Oracle will provide the software, implementation and support as well as host and manage the system, called AutoXchange.

For the full story, see the Nov. 15 print edition of Transport Topics. .