By implementing Four51, we were able to streamline order processing for our internal customer.

- Manager of Shared Services at $3B value-added distributor

About Four51 and Smart Catalog Technology

Four51 is an on-demand Smart Catalog Technology company that allows a distributed business to connect its go-to-market and supply communities using a technology that delivers empowered employees, systematic compliance and complete process transparency. Four51 attacks the gap between ERP and Procurement Systems.

Is this a Real Problem?

What gap? Based on high cost and poor usability, it is impossible to deploy ERP and Procurement Systems to the remote desktop: branches, field reps, partners, VARs, dealer networks, retail outlets, franchisees, etc. Procurement systems address the science of direct goods sourcing, while ERP systems integrate detailed transactional data across the enterprise. The "regular person" who has a job to do each and every day is left standing in the gap. The result: maverick spending.

Four51 is the only way to cost-effectively deploy a user-friendly shopping experience to your distributed user community.

Who Benefits?

Complex, distributed businesses need to connect a vast ecosystem of end-users (desk-tops or mobile) on a single platform. Moreover, on that same platform, these users must be connected to a company's Indirect Goods Supply-Chain and Fulfillment Services in order to perform efficiently. Four51 allows any distributed business to connect, order, comply, fulfill, and receive goods and services through a SaaS application that requires no capital expenditure and does not rely on internal Corporate IT for support. Compliance with procurement contracts, data security, and corporate purchasing rules is automated and standard. Maverick spending is eliminated at the system level.   

Access to compliant Supply Catalogs and Integration to ERP and Procurement Systems is also standard. Usage is controlled and can be implemented for 1% to 100% of the Corporate Ecosystem depending on need and timetable. Four51 can be configured to support your company's specific policies and workflow.

Consider how specific departments and functions can leverage Smart Catalog Technology to drive bottom-line results:

• Sales Management needs to enable the Sales  Force to order and receive current materials more  efficiently to boost productivity and  ensure consistent delivery of the latest messages  
• Marketing  needs to deliver current messaging and campaign materials faster and more efficiently
• Marketing needs  to control the brand in highly distributed, multi-tiered go-to-market models
• Distributed  Operations needs to manage the distribution of the supplies and  materials necessary to equip remote locations
• Procurement  needs to ensure compliance with corporate spend contracts and to  eliminate maverick spending  
• Accounting  needs to eliminate the waste inherent in data entry errors  and lack of process control
• IT needs to enable mass adoption of on-demand technology that does  not create new remote end-user support burdens
• IT  needs to leverage existing  investments in ERP and Procurement systems
• Finance  needs to enable consolidated reporting in parts of the business often labeled  "impossible to track"
• Finance needs to increase the amount of spend under  management to boost operating margins
• Senior  Management needs to ensure that "more is done with less" in an era of  cost-cutting and restructuring
• Users  need to perform the daily tactical tasks required to move the business forward while complying with corporate policy
• Audit needs  to ensure compliance with existing security and reporting standards  
• Legal  needs to make sure that the data  used throughout its distributed communities remains the property of  the company
• The Company needs Smart Catalog Technology to implement an effective multi-vendor strategy