Stories about: Merisel

In an effort to streamline costs, Merisel, a technology products distributor in El Segundo, California, said it is cutting 700 jobs in the U.S. and Canada and closing four warehouses.

When ClubComputer.com started selling computer products on the web in November 1998, it relied on a rather quaint back-end fulfillment system. The startup company e-mailed orders to suppliers, who manually entered the data into their own systems before processing and shipping merchandise to customers. CEO Dennis Tracz knew the system was far from cutting edge for a web-based business, but it seemed to hold up to ClubComputer.com's daily intake of 100 orders. Then last July the company hit it big following a stint as a featured merchant on the CNet Shopper site. Volume went from $200,000 a month to $1 million in 10 days, burying the e-mail ordering system.

Initial reports from major members of the RosettaNet consortium confirm that the group and its IT industry partners have been able to demonstrate their readiness for XML-based supply chain management.