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Oracle Supply Chain Exchange, Oracle Transportation Exchange and Oracle Product Development Exchange are Oracle's first move into the supply chain functionality for the marketplace.

According to Jeremy Burton, senior VP of worldwide marketing the functionality will propel Oracle beyond the ability to provide software to post catalogues and carry out spot buys and auctions, which has been a large part of its core b2b platform Oracle Exchange Marketplace and E-business Suite solutions until now.

Supply Chain Exchange will enable companies to publish their internal supply chain plans onto the marketplace, for their suppliers to view, make changes and respond to. According to Burton, this may help encourage suppliers to take advantage of marketplaces, because with visibility they will be able to access information about the supply chain and make better decisions on how to control their inventory. He said: “Until now the real value proposition [for suppliers] was to join a marketplace so that [buyers] could get 10% off what they can pay [suppliers]. The problem is that suppliers don't know how much they can afford to sell.”

Product Development Exchange provides information management, document management and project collaboration techniques to manage the development of products to provide more visibility of the process to senior management. Transportation Exchange allows companies to analyse and plan their logistics and transport processes within the marketplace, to allow the efficient delivery of goods. All products can be integrated.

Since the launch of Oracle Exchange, it has attracted big names like KLM in the Aeroxchange, Sainsbury's in the GlobalNetXchange and Barclays B2B.com. However, it has held off integrating supply chain functionality unlike other exchanges based on i2, with its inherent supply chain management capabilities or Ariba, with lower level collaborative functions brought in by acquisition.

Oracle also unveiled its Exchange Partner Initiative (OEPI), which will provide value-added services such as financial management, integration and business services to marketplaces using preferred partners.

The initiative, which currently has 30 members will enable services such as escrow, security and trust services, catalog management, integration technology, end-customer support, systems integration, business incubation and business planning.

Members include ABN AMRO, Mercator, Requisite Technology, TIBCO Software, Vignette, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Autonomy.

Product Development Exchange and Supply Chain Exchange are available immediately, Transportation Exchange will be available in the Spring. Oracle claims to have existing customers that have signed up but no testbed platforms.