Results

Kommarket system is now operated in 18 countries by local Kompass publishers and was translated into 15 languages including Japanese and Russian. System will be also localized to Arabic languages.
More than 1000 professional users send enquiries regularly. For these companies the system is serving their critical needs.
We are working on the new version of the system with major improvements.
System is available as an integrated service of the portal www.kompass.com
or directly on www.kommarket.com. System is hosted in Prague.

Technologies

3 tier Java 5 application
JSP / Servlets
Hibernate
Application server: JBOSS
OS: Linux - Gentoo distribution
Database: PostgreSQL
Client side: web browser
Mail server: Postfix
Kompass RFQ
Summary

Kompass RFQ is an international B2B online marketplace. In some countries it is marketed used also under the name Kommarket. The Kompass RFQ is a dedicated service developed specifically for procurement departments. Via the 54,000 product and service keywords available to search by, buyers can within seconds pinpoint potential suppliers worldwide and send them requests to quote. The system is powered by the global Kompass database of over 1.9 million companies in over 70 countries.
System is used by the Kompass group – the leading worldwide provider of privately collected business information that can be used for multiple purposes such as sales, marketing, procurement and research. Due to the organization of the Kompass franchise network it is able to provide locally collected data on over 70 countries worldwide.
System was implemented for KOMPASS International Neuenschwander SA.
EEA delivered 1st version in autumn 2004, 2nd version on September 2005, 3rd version integrated to the portal www.kompass.com in February 2006. EEA provides customer with ongoing support and continuous development of the system.

Challenge

The vision of the system was following:
“Kompass wants to build additional online services on the top of their unique B2B database. Kompass has one of the most comprehensive databases of information about companies worldwide. They built unique system of classification allowing finding the producer of any requested product quickly and effectively. This classification can help purchasers to find the right suppliers. It is necessary to build international multilingual web system, which will be provided to the Kompass franchises as ASP solution.  System will run from 1 central location. In each country there will be representative called Local admin (usually from Kompass franchisee). Local admin will manage relation to clients and other country-related issues. “
Kompass required solution built on open source components.

Solution

EEA in cooperation with Kompass Czech Republic collected requirements and specified the Architecture and Design of the system.
System may run in any language based on characters, supported by UTF-8 (Unicode).
Multilingual support consists of following items:

  • User interface: User may select language of user interface from available languages
  • Multilingual enquiries:  User can create Enquiry (Request for quotation) in different languages allowing to communicate with each bidder in native language.
  • Localization tool supporting localization of user interface to different languages

EEA implemented 3-tier JAVA system based on open-source components.
Kompass RFQ interface has been designed to satisfy the specific needs of sourcing and procurement departments. User can contact potential suppliers in a few easy steps:

  • Select required products
  • Indicate source countries
  • Enter additional enquiry details (quantities, deadline, specs. etc.) – in the languages according to the target country
  • Select companies from the list of relevant producers provided by Kompass central database
  • Send enquiry to the selected companies
  • Monitor offers, organize auction if necessary

System provides Kompass with powerful administration tools, and statistical reports that are automatically exported to other systems. System generates valuable marketing information for local publishers.