A revolution in office products?

If Peter Frost is right, January will see the end of the traditional approach to buying office supplies.

With the launch of Officentre.com, up to 40 manufacturers will gain a new showcase for their products and consumers will gain a direct link to major resellers that short-circuits established procurement routes. Frost, Officentre's CEO, can see nothing but benefits:

• for the manufacturer, exposure to a wider audience
• for the reseller, opportunities to build loyalty through better customer service
• for the buyer, more information and a faster response, and
• for the buyer's employer, a transparent procurement process that replaces paperwork with electronic records.

Frost, probably best known as the driving force behind the conventional supplier OfficeSmart, set up this new company to be part of what he sees as the coming e-commerce revolution.

He is well aware that FMs don't find back office supply to be a particularly exciting issue, even though the market adds up to a total value of about £6bn. "What FMs do want," he argues, " is the ability to cut the administrative burden, track the process and capture the information needed to control and manage costs."

Moving to internet technology, he says, will achieve this.

Frost already has plans to add more services to Officentre.com. A successful launch could see it subsequently moving into such areas as travel, recruitment and training services, as well as more specific facilities-related areas like maintenance and security.

Elliott Chase