Here's an interesting idea. When I first heard about this, I wondered if someone was trying to resurrect the old VerticalNet control equipment marketplace. But no, this is a tight community formed around one company's products.
Arena Solutions, provider of on-demand product lifecycle management software for mid-sized manufacturers, has launched the Arena Supplier Marketplace. This is an online directory of product design firms, contract manufacturers, component suppliers and fabricators trained and certified on Arena PLM. The Supplier Marketplace directory will be accessible to all users of Arena PLM from within the application, as well as the company's website, allowing companies to find, connect with and engage in new supply chain partnerships. At the time of the launch, nearly 100 suppliers have signed up as Charter Members of the Arena Supplier Marketplace. This marketplace is said to be cost free to the supplier.
A couple of caveats. First, on-demand means that Arena hosts the product information on its servers. Second, given appropriate security measures, one company's product designs can be opened to designated third parties. For example, if a machine designer wishes to outsource some components, it can allow designated bidders access into that part of the design database. Chief Technology Officer and company co-founder Eric Larkin calls this the democratization of product lifecycle management. This system also insures a "single point of truth" for design so that all parties are working from the latest information. In an era of global collaboration where it is impossible to get everyone into the same conference room, this is a valuable resource.
A key enabler is the on-demand model. But I would expect to see other companies trying out some community marketplace ideas.
8:11:29 AM 
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