Awards and Alliances
OpenEntry (formerly CatGen) has been recognized by many major IT organizations and development leaders as a cutting edge e-commerce platform for business networks. We also believe fervently in partnering with other organizations especially those that have extensive networks ready to implement e-commerce initiatives.
IBM's Global Innovation Outlook for Africa www.ibm.com/gio - "OpenEntry will engage with IBM and its partners to provide access to its e-commerce catalog platform and e-commerce accounts to enable SMEs in Africa to enter into e-commerce in a commercially meaningful way. OpenEntry will also leverage its channels to reach innovative youth through universities and local business networks in Africa."
World Information Technology and Services Alliance (www.WITSA.org; "members represent 90% of the world IT market") - 2004 Global IT Excellence Award for Digital Opportunity and letter stating "with much excitement WITSA agrees to be listed as an official endorser and supporter of PEOPLink's CatGen electronic commerce platform"
United Nations Development Program evaluation of CatGen in Nepal (http://sdnhq.undp.org/e-comm ) concluded:
"The largest impact of implementing this 'pro-poor' e-commerce approach was on income and employment. Firms using it reported jobs that were directly attributable to the on-line promotion. . .3918 women" and that "a relatively inexperienced group of young IT professionals could, with the proper tools, create employment for themselves while providing e-commerce services to local SMMEs."
International Fair Trade Association (www.IFAT.org) - Membership at the Annual General Meeting in Quito in 1995 voted to adopt OpenEntry/CatGen as the tool of choice for on-line promotion of fair trade goods from 290 Members worldwide as can be seen in the following metamarkets:
- www.OpenEntry.com/ifat - Global IFAT marketplace
- www.OpenEntry.com/cofta - Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa
- www.AsiaFairTradeForum.com - Asia Fair Trade Forum
- www.openentry.com/ftfi - Fair Trade Forum India
eBay - In recognition of pioneering on-line marketing support to developing world artisans, contracts for training and software enhancement to be the preferred listing tool for batch upload of postings to eBay's new artisan marketplace www.ProjectGood.com.
PayPal - "global leader in online payment solutions with 100 million account members in 55 countries" lists OpenEntry (CatGen) as #2 Website Building and Hosting Service (www.paypal.com/en_US/html/SolutionsDirectory/sd_wbh.html
Oracle - donated full suite of software in recognition of the importance of providing even the smallest SME in emerging economies a database based e-commerce solution that enables aggregation into larger metamarkets.
US Council on International Business (www.USCIB.org; "combined annual revenue of USCIB's 300+ members exceeds $3.5 trillion") - letter stating "fully endorse your vision of making CatGen more broadly available, and we will seek to facilitate this through our overseas business networks and partners"
Global Information Infrastructure Commission (www.GIIC.org) - "The CatGen platform is deserving of the support of a consortium of public, private and nongovernmental organizations that concern themselves with bringing the promises of advanced ICT capabilities to all citizens of the world"
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (www.UNESCO.org) - Endorsement citing "relevance and complementarity at promoting quality crafts from developing countries on the global market and the Internet supporting the development of small craft enterprises to master these marketing opportunities without intermediaries"
World Chambers Network (www.WorldChambers.com - 14,000 member chambers representing 10 million businesses in every country) of the International Chambers of Commerce - agreement to partner on a series of local, national, and global metamarkets (see www.OpenEntry.com/wcn)
International Trade Centre (www.INTRACEN.org) (pending) - series of local, national, and global metamarkets ITC is calling UniTrade, based on OpenEntry
