The Timken Company (Canton, Ohio) is setting up a storefront for its European Service Center through e-commerce provider Endorsia.com. Timken currently operates a storefront for its North American distributors via PTPlace.com.

What is now Endorsia was originally designed and built by SKF (Gothenberg, Sweden) to serve as its internal system linking the company with its European supply and distribution network. As the market for e-commerce services heated up, SKF made some changes to the software and rolled it out as Endorsia.com, selling storefront capabilities to other European manufacturers.

Earlier this year, SKF spun off Endorsia (as Endorsia.com International AB) to a consortium equally owned by SKF, INA, Timken, Rockwell Automation and the Sandvik Group. At the same time, that same group took ownership of PTPlace.com. PTPlace.com's history is similar to Endorsia in that it was originally designed as the in-house e-commerce system for Rockwell Automation. Between Endorsia.com and PTPlace.com, the consortium offers and operates storefronts oriented toward European and North American markets, respectively.

Dan Muller, Timken's VP of Distribution Management, said, "Endorsia.com allows distributors to purchase online some of the leading premium brands of industrial products sold today. All of the companies with a presence on Endorsia control their own independent product offerings while benefiting from increased site traffic and shared development costs."

Each company's storefronts on Endorsia and PTPlace are separate and distinct, not only from each other, but also from existing systems. While this requires duplication of effort and presents logistical problems, many analysts believe it is the best short-term solution. Since industrial e-commerce is still in its infancy, they contend the best approach right now for many companies is to spread their effort, experience and exposure across all equally viable platforms.