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A Program and a Web Site, eMercadoNM Links a Database of 70,000 New Mexico Businesses With Big Corporate and Governmental Customers Who Might Need Their Services

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Mike Tumolillo MTUMOLILLO@ABQTRIB.COM / 823-3636

What Stan Blitz does as owner of S and A Printing shouldn't be a mystery, but to many of his potential customers -- such as other businesses in the state -- it still is.

"In the state of New Mexico, you're not aware of the service a lot of companies can offer," he says. "Most of the time in the state of New Mexico ... people outsource."

It's a communication challenge that could spell millions in lost economic development for New Mexico as work gets fulfilled by those outside the state.

It's a problem that eMercadoNM -- a program and Web site (www. emercadonm.com) -- could solve. Blitz is using its services, and the city of Albuquerque recently announced an intention to partner with it.

"It's a wonderful vehicle for connecting businesses, government agencies throughout the state of New Mexico," Blitz says. "You get to the decision-maker more rapidly through eMercado."

Using a database of more than 70,000 New Mexico businesses, the site -- run by the Hispano Chamber of Commerce with support from the Legislature, the Governor's Office and Sandia National Laboratories - - matches the capabilities of the state's small businesses with the big corporate and governmental customers that need them.

"It's brought another tool that wasn't previously available to help procurement professionals connect with the local market," said Adam Roberts, executive director of eMercadoNM. "It's not necessarily that procurement professionals have not wanted to do the right thing. They have. There just hasn't been a mechanism in place for them to do it efficiently."

What eMercadoNM offers is an in-depth description of a company's capabilities that goes well beyond the brevity you might find in the Yellow Pages. It can match needs to the company able to meet them.

Take the example provided by Peter Weber, flight chief with the 377th Contracting Squadron at Kirtland Air Force Base.

Weber gets orders for recycling containers, cameras, information technology services, even eye surgery stretchers. Using eMercadoNM, he can find New Mexico suppliers.

"It helps," he said. "We find out about these small businesses that are here locally."

The Web site's partnership with Kirtland Air Force Base has lined up $110,000 in work for New Mexico businesses since June, Roberts with eMercadoNM said.

He said the site -- launched in 2004 -- is poised for more growth. Besides the city, other partners down the road could include the state's General Services Department, the New Mexico Department of Veteran Services, Public Service Company of New Mexico and the University of New Mexico.

Fred Mondragn, the city's economic development director, said eMercadoNM offers a great way to help small businesses.

"We're hoping eMercado will become a preferred source of identifying small businesses, not just for the city, but also for other large buying entities as well," he said.

But Roberts said attracting large buyers to the site is challenging when their main motivation is finding the least expensive products and services, which can often come from out of state.

To overcome that bias, Roberts said eMercadoNM had to show buyers how buying locally -- even at greater cost -- made more sense.

The tool to show them is eMercadoNM's economic impact calculator.

"It takes any type of contract, whether it be for printing services or construction projects or for services rendered, and it puts that into the perspective of economic development criteria," he said. "The economic impact calculator helps to level the playing field for small business."

With a few clicks of the online tool, buyers using eMercadoNM can see how spending their money locally can increase the state's tax base, boost employment rolls and transform investments into more economic development dollars.

"When you only look at low cost," Roberts said, "you are missing out on a tremendous benefit for the state."

As part of researching eMercadoNM's structure, Roberts studied a now-defunct Web site at www.chicagolandbusinesslink .com.

The site proposed to do for Chicago what eMercadoNM proposes to do for New Mexico: hook up local businesses with corporate and government opportunities.

Corporations and government agencies "loved the idea," said Hedy Ratner, who oversaw the site as co-president of the Women's Business Development Center in Chicago.

But the lack of enough commitments from large buyers, low usage and disappearing funding worked against the site's success, she said.

Then there were cultural barriers. Large buyers, she said, were used to doing business in a way that didn't include the Web site.

"You have to change the culture to get people to use it," she said. "I still think it's a good idea."

Roberts said the Hispano Chamber of Commerce intends to support eMercadoNM until it becomes self-sufficient. That could happen by the end of 2008 through fees -- most shouldered by large buyers -- and advertising space.

The site launched with the help of $500,000 from the state in 2004. A $250,000 grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration is helping with operational costs for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. Roberts said another $250,000 is being requested from the state Legislature through a relationship with New Mexico Tech. More money may come from the governor.

Source: Albuquerque Journal

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