Product Line

RFQ4.com is the first proxy exchange for the $200 billion higher education market. Leveraging the power of eMarkets (online B2B marketplaces for goods and services), RFQ4’s proxy exchange delivers decision-critical information and superior procurement services to higher education purchasing departments across the United States. By partnering with RFQ4, colleges and universities gain exposure to hundreds of thousands of potential suppliers – with no up-front costs or changes to their process.

As a complement to their traditional three Request for Quote (“RFQ”) process, the university purchasing department simply submits a fourth RFQ to the Company, hence the name RFQ4. With each RFQ received, RFQ4 “mines” every relevant eMarket to access an enormous number of potential suppliers quickly and efficiently. With access to a much more extensive base of potential suppliers, college and universities are able to procure better products and services more cost effectively than through their traditional process.

In the face of mounting pressure to reduce operating costs, RFQ4 enables college and university purchasing departments to streamline the procurement processes while simultaneously obtaining the lowest prices and best terms for the goods and services they need.

RFQ4 will generate revenues from transactions, consulting, advertising and sponsorships.
Technology Proprietary Rights

RFQ4 is developing a proprietary web-platform that will enable the Company to “mine” existing and future eMarkets. By mining eMarkets, RFQ4 will be able to obtain the best prices and terms for any product or service our partners require. RFQ4 has built a team consisting of members with 50 years of experience in the higher education market, 30 years of experience in logistics and operations, 20 years of experience in building large-scale e-commerce systems, and 10 years of experience building Internet businesses. The Company’s Directors and Board of Advisors add an additional 140 years of senior level experience in technology, marketing, operations, and higher education experience.

Market Opportunities

After initially establishing its platform in the $200 billion higher education market, the Company will seek to deploy the RFQ4 proxy exchange model into other vertical markets, creating huge additional market opportunities. According to Forrester Research, Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce volume will grow from $43 billion in 1998 to $1.3 trillion in 2003. RFQ4 is well positioned to benefit from the acceptance of the Internet in daily business operations and from the rapidly increasing volume of transactions that businesses are performing over the Internet. With over 25,000 eMarkets forecasted to launch by the end of 2001 (Gartner Group), RFQ4 will further benefit from the proliferation of eMarkets and scale quickly to provide an ever-increasing value to purchasing departments. Effectively utilizing the thousands of stand-alone eMarkets themselves as the Company’s vendor-base, RFQ4 will have a near infinite number of suppliers from which to source product.

Marketing Sales Distribution

RFQ4 is currently building a dynamic sales and university relations team consisting of specialized purchasing professionals, university financial administrators, sales managers, and others knowledgeable about the university procurement process. This team will be charged with developing partnerships with university purchasing departments across the country. RFQ4 is also expanding its network of higher education trade association partnerships. In addition to its existing strategic relationships with the Association of College Administrative Professionals (ACAP) and the National Association of College Stores (NACS), RFQ4 is aggressively pursuing alliances with several other key organizations.

Competition

RFQ4 competes with stand-alone eMarkets (PurchaseNet, Kawama) and technical procurement solution providers (e.g. PeopleSoft, SAP). The RFQ4 model has several significant competitive advantages over these existing procurement solutions. First, by mining every relevant eMarket, the Company’s procurement solution gives its partners exposure to more potential suppliers than any single eMarket. Second, because there is no software package to learn or technical integration to implement, RFQ4 is much easier to adopt than other solutions. Third, there are no upfront financial or time investments required to begin using RFQ4. Finally, by providing access to every relevant eMarket, the Company provides purchasing departments with one-stop convenience for all of their purchasing needs.