The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

DuPont Provides Custom Portals for Auto Body Shops

    PORTSMOUTH, N.H.--Nov. 26, 2001--

    Bowstreet Business Web Factory and Portal Automator Option helps
    DuPont Performance Coatings strengthen customer relationships
    and cut costs

    DuPont Performance Coatings (DPC), a strategic business unit of DuPont, is launching custom B2B portals for its auto body shop customers and distributors. Using the Bowstreet(TM) Business Web Factory and Portal Automator Option, DuPont automates the offering of personalized content, data and services to North America's 60,000 auto body shops and 4,000 distributors. The new portal is helping DPC better serve customers while lowering costs and increasing efficiencies.
    The portals, at www.performancecoatings.dupont.com, were built to provide auto body shops with instant access to:

-- Marketing tools and promotions;
-- Online training registration and schedules;
-- Product information, including Material Safety Data Sheets that shops must carry by law;
-- Technical manuals and regulatory compliance charts;
-- Business development tools, including industry performance benchmarking;
-- Classified ads and employment services, and;
-- Industry and customizable personal interest information, such as news, weather and stock updates.

    The portals also provide paint distributors with online ordering and marketing materials to help them solidify relationships with their customers.
    "DuPont Performance Coatings wants to help our customers build their businesses, not just sell them product," said Catherine Marchand, DPC e-business manager. "Bowstreet's Business Web Factory and Portal Automator was the solution we found that could scale to our needs and realize our vision for mass-customization without becoming a programming nightmare. With Bowstreet, we can treat each shop individually, providing them with customized information, data and services based precisely on who they are."
    The portal will also provide DPC with significant time and cost savings. Online paint ordering, an option just becoming available, will relieve DPC customer service agents from keying phone, fax and e-mail orders into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Online marketing materials will reduce the cost of printing, managing, distributing and disposing of paper. Online training registration will save distributors from clerical work. Online Materials Safety Data Sheets will provide customers with instantaneous access to up-to-the-minute information, while saving DPC from having to fax them to shops. Intangible but even more critical benefits include stronger customer relationships and increased loyalty.

    Web services enable mass-customization

    The Bowstreet Business Web Factory provides companies with the ability to provide customized experiences based on web services, the plug-and-play application components that BEA Systems, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and Sun Microsystems are embracing as the next-generation Internet paradigm. Bowstreet mixes, matches, deploys and infinitely customizes web services for business managers to control their online customer relationships.
    The Business Web Factory runs on Sun Microsystems' industry-leading enterprise servers and relies on the iPlanet(TM) Directory Server for critical customer profile information. In addition to using Bowstreet's product to automate and customize information for individual shops, DPC chose Comergent Technologies for its sell-side software that enables distributors to access, in real-time, the latest product, pricing, availability, account and order information.
    Computer Sciences Corporation , one of the world's leading consulting and information technology (IT) services firms, acted as the lead consultant in developing DPC's online portal and order management system. CSC hosts the site and provides the full lifecycle of e-services to DPC, including strategy, architecture and development. CSC is DuPont's primary partner in a precedent-setting 1997 IT outsourcing agreement. In addition to providing e-business services, CSC has overall responsibility for the DuPont Company's global information systems and technology infrastructure, as well as selected applications and software services.

    About DuPont Performance Coatings

    DuPont Performance Coatings, consisting of DuPont Finishes, Standox, Spies Hecker, Nason and DuPont Industrial Coatings brands, is a strategic business unit of DuPont Corporation and the leading supplier of automotive finishes worldwide.
    DuPont is a science company, delivering science-based solutions that make a difference in people's lives in food and nutrition; health care; apparel; home and construction; electronics; and transportation. Founded in 1802, the company operates in 70 countries and has 93,000 employees.
    For more information on DuPont Performance Coatings, visit www.performancecoatings.dupont.com.

    About Bowstreet

    Bowstreet, the web services platform company, is pioneering the generation of applications for the Internet. The Bowstreet(TM) Business Web Factory is a web services development and assembly platform that automates the creation and maintenance of complex web applications on demand. The Business Web Factory enables Fortune 500 enterprises to form dynamic, distributed networks that leverage the strengths of the entire value chain while providing rich, streamlined web experiences for their employees, partners and customers. More information can be found at www.bowstreet.com or by calling 603-559-1900.

    Bowstreet is a trademark of Bowstreet, Inc.

    The DuPont Oval logo, DuPont(TM), The miracles of science(TM) and all products denoted with (TM) or (R) are trademarks or registered trademarks of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.

    Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo and iPlanet are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

    All other company names and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies or owners.