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J&L Industrial Supply Unveils New Endeca-Powered Online Distribution Channel

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 January 2006, 09:00 CST

B2B Product Catalog Search Solution Offers Unprecedented Access, Personalization, Comparison and Real-time Pricing for Metalworking and Industrial Supplies

Endeca, the leading provider of Guided Navigation(R), Search and Analysis solutions, announced today that J&L Industrial Supply, a distribution arm of Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT), has selected the Endeca B2B Catalog Search Solution to power search, navigation and merchandising on its web site: www.jlindustrial.com. The new search solution offers J&L customers cutting edge search and navigation functionality, including integrated search and browsing (Guided Navigation), personalization, real-time custom pricing and product displays, on the fly comparisons, and contextual merchandising.

The Endeca B2B Catalog Search Solution is part of Endeca's recently unveiled Manufacturing & Distribution Search Solutions, a combination of information access applications and services expertise tailored for manufacturing and supplier environments. (http://endeca.com/about_endeca/press_releases/p_050405.html). The new J&L Industrial Supply solution was designed and deployed by Endeca and partner Molecular (www.molecular.com), a leading online business consulting and development firm.

Beyond state-of-the-art searches, the Endeca solution offers a variety of features and functionality to guide customers through the buying experience. For example, using Endeca's standard content adapters and prebuilt APIs, J&L is integrating product catalog data with the company's ERP system to offer personalized views and unique, real-time pricing by customer. Endeca's Guided Navigation creates dynamic site navigation unique to the session and customer, allowing customers to browse products by the most desirable characteristics and attributes. This same approach is combined with the search, creating dynamic filters, which can be used to quickly hone search results by desired product attributes. Lastly, Endeca's dynamic merchandising tools are being used to offer contextual merchandising on the search pages.

"When designing an online channel, you need to accommodate the multitude of ways a customer may look for a product -description, brand, price, availability, etc. Strong search functionality is critical, but even that only covers a percentage of sessions," said Thadd Tucker, eCommerce Manager, J&L Industrial Supply. "Endeca gives us a highly configurable search application that offers a dynamic experience for each and every one of our customers. Our entire catalog is displayed in a way that quickly gets our customers to their desired products."

"By fully leveraging all aspects of their product data, and utilizing Endeca's platform to allow users to find and discover product information, J&L industrial Supply is utilizing the online channel to drive costs out of their supply chain," said Steve Papa, Founder and Chairman of Endeca. "In addition, by increasing conversion rates and improving the customer experience, they are empowering the online channel to be an increasingly important contributor to future revenue."

Endeca Manufacturing & Distribution Search Solutions

The direct result of extensive work with dozens of leading manufacturers, suppliers and business-to-business catalogers, like John Deere, Arrow Electronics, Brady, Cabot Corporation, CDW, IBM, Mouser Electronics, and Sigma Aldrich, Endeca's Manufacturing & Distribution Search Solutions combine proven information retrieval applications with vertical services expertise. The solutions help manufacturers and suppliers boost parts reuse and strategic sourcing initiatives, improve customer service, drive online sales, and reduce costs by making it easier for people to find products, parts and components information. These include Product Data Navigator Solutions, B2B Catalog Search Solutions, and Website Search and Navigation Solutions, all powered by Endeca's next-generation search and Guided Navigation platform.

About Endeca

Endeca's award-winning Guided Navigation, Enterprise Search, and Analysis solutions help organizations integrate, discover, and navigate enterprise data to solve business problems associated with information overload. Endeca's customers include a wide range of enterprises, including retailers (Barnes & Noble, The Home Depot, Wal-Mart); financial services (Bank of America, MFS Investment Management, Putnam Investments); manufacturing and distribution (IBM, Arrow Electronics, and John Deere); media and publishing (World Book, The Guardian and IHS) and government (the Library of Congress, NASA, and the National Cancer Institute). Endeca is a private company headquartered in Cambridge, MA. More information: www.endeca.com or info@endeca.com.

About J&L

J&L Industrial Supply is the largest metalcutting and finishing specialty distributor in the United States. The company combines the selection and availability of a catalog distributor, the technical expertise and services of a cutting tool and abrasive specialist, the powerful capabilities of the Kennametal family of companies and the products and services of the most progressive metalworking manufacturers. This powerful combination brings customers unmatched competitive advantage by lowering costs while increasing manufacturing productivity. Visit us at www.jlindustrial.com

Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) is a leading global supplier of tooling, engineered components and advanced materials consumed in production processes. The company improves customers' competitiveness by providing superior economic returns through the delivery of application knowledge and advanced technology to master the toughest of materials application demands. Companies producing everything from airframes to coal, from medical implants to oil wells and from turbochargers to motorcycle parts recognize Kennametal for extraordinary contributions to their value chains. Customers buy over $2.3 billion annually of Kennametal products and services -- delivered by our 14,000 talented employees in over 60 countries -- with almost 50 percent of these revenues coming from outside the United States. Visit us at www.kennametal.com

Endeca, Endeca InFront, Endeca Navigation Engine and Guided Navigation are registered trademarks, and Endeca ProFind and Endeca Latitude are trademarks of Endeca Technologies, Inc. All other product and service names mentioned herein are or may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies or organizations.

Source: Business Wire

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