Companies streamline Buyers.gov

Frictionless Commerce Inc., a provider of electronic purchasing software, and CyberSystem Technologies Inc., an e-mall developer, announced Wednesday that they will team to offer end-to-end e-procurement solutions to government agencies.

The companies' first joint program will be a pilot for the General Services Administration's online procurement site, Buyers.gov. They will power the "Quick Quote" section of the site, providing buyers with advanced decision support and the back-end integration to manage the entire purchasing process.

"We were both selected individually to be a part of this project for Buyers.gov," said Eric Levin, vice president of marketing at Frictionless Commerce. "However, it became clear that our technologies complemented each other well. It made sense for us to work together to provide Buyers.gov with a fully automated end-to-end procurement system."

Cambridge, Mass.-based Frictionless Commerce enables government buyers to select products from electronic catalogs and through auctions and reverse auctions. Once the buyer selects a product, Hunt Valley, Md.-based CyberSystem Technologies takes over and seamlessly coordinates the transaction, fulfillment, order processing and tracking of the purchase.

"This offering is the first of many "best value' e-procurement solutions that we will jointly provide to government agencies," said George Dreyer, president and chief executive officer of CyberSystem Technologies, in a release.

CyberSystem's other federal customers include the National Institutes of Health and NASA. Frictionless has also provided procurement software to the Army's Communications-Electronics Command.

Frictionless and CyberSystem are the only companies actively working on the Quick Quote feature. Other technology enablers working for Buyers.gov include:

* ACS Federal

* CIS Global, a small, woman-owned business

* Electronic Data Systems Corp.

* FreeMarkets Inc.

* KPMG LLC.

* Mobshop Inc.

* Oracle Corp.

* Spectrum International, which has a relationship with CyberSystems.