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by   | Abstract: | A brief history of a shared network. |
Five major aerospace and defense manufacturers — BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Rolls Royce — launched Exostar in 2000, at the peak of the dot-com bubble. At that time, recalls Exostar Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development Peter Scott, the organization's emphasis was on enabling business-to-business electronic commerce transactions, not on supporting complex, collaborative business processes, such as those that make up the Boeing 787 supply chain. "At that time, the thought was that everyone needed an e-commerce business strategy," Scott recalls. "Our idea was to share the risk and cost of setting up e-commerce infrastructure among several partners." To that end, Exostar initially focused on building a secure network that partners could use to support purchase orders, invoices, and other transactions. The approach has attracted many aerospace and defense OEMs and their suppliers. Last year, Exostar's manufacturing customers and their suppliers accounted for 10 million transactions and $35 billion worth of goods and services. [Click to continue] |