Fasturn Acquires IBERC, Adds Strategic Partnerships - Brief Article

Bobbin, Feb, 2001 by Kathleen DesMarteau

Accenture Alliance to Target Private Label Arena

Fasturn Inc., a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of business-to-business (B2B) apparel sourcing solutions, has acquired a quota management and consulting firm and entered into several new partnerships that promise to increase its role in the private label marketplace.

The company's October 2000 acquisition of Washington, DC-based IBERC brings IBERC's Quota Management Service[TM] and consulting services under the Easturn umbrella. IBERC continues to serve its existing customer base, which includes some of the industry's largest apparel firms, with real-time data on quotas and duties. Fasturn is incorporating IBERC's services into its online offerings.

In other news, Fasturn has announced strategic partnerships with Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting), Retek Inc. and First Union Corp. The Accenture and Retek partnerships are geared to strengthen Fasturn's position in serving the private label apparel market, which has been expanding steadily in the wake of price pressure, tighter profit margins and increased levels of imports, noted Marilyn Tam, president of Fastum. "The pressure [on retailers] to do private label ... is higher and higher," Tam told Bobbin.

In addition to helping Fasturn develop new B2B features for its site, Accenture has selected Fasturn as its preferred private label sourcing solution provider. This designation is expected to give Fasturn more exposure to tier-one retailers, such as Kmart, Sears, JCPenney and Nordstrom, Tam said.

The Retek partnership enables Fasturn to offer Retek's online tools for real-time design collaboration. Fasturn has licensed the Retek Retail Server in an applications service provider (ASP) mode, and will be primarily reselling the Retail Server Design service to its members.

Fasturn's partnership with First Union will enable customers to make large-scale, cross-border financial transactions without leaving the Internet. (B2B exchanges generally provide electronic invoices, but require buyers to print out these invoices and manually route or re-key the information into separate systems.) Fasturn's network captures the data necessary to populate a purchase order -- including product specifications, quantities, shipment specifications and authorizations for letters of credit -- which can be conveyed to third-party organizations such as First Union, which will then issue letters of credit.