A buyer sending a purchase order can go to directly to the seller's sales order system, so the transaction is instantaneous. We are in the process of mapping out our content now. Standard content includes energy news, financial information, rig counts and oil and gas production numbers. Special content addresses the entire value chain of the industry. Anybody in the industry who needs information to do the job would get it there.
Examples are best products, catalog contents, petroleum laws around the world and human resources.
We provide content and knowledge that helps energy professionals in their daily work life. The community element is an online discussion forum that provides the interactive exchange of ideas on a variety of topics among individuals in the industry. The idea has been germinating in my mind since 1995, but it began taking shape in October 1998 when I met our chief technology officer, Jay Williams, at a conference on interactive energy. I'd been wrestling with this questions of how one could transact industrial equipment over the Internet. That's how we got started.