BRADENTON, Fla., September 18, 2001 - HandySource, one of the premier bid and purchase portals for the multi-housing industry, announces that it has launched its Price Shopper service as part of the www.handysource.com Web site.

Price Shopper allows customers to obtain product specific price comparisons from three large suppliers, Wilmar, Century Supply and Maintenance Warehouse. Whether it is for one product or several, the feature matches the customer-entered product number (SKU) with identical products from the two additional suppliers. A comparison chart list is then generated to show the final prices, product names and SKU numbers for each of the suppliers.

Once the customer gets their cross-reference and price comparison, they have the option of issuing an electronic purchase order to the single supplier who provides the lowest grand total, or the service will "cherry-pick" their selected products issuing purchase orders to suppliers who offer the lowest price per item. By choosing the latter, customers can save an estimated six to 11 percent on their maintenance supply purchases.

If the customer receives special prices from their suppliers, they can enter those contracted prices into their customer "Want List," which allows the prices to be reported in the price comparison list. The Want List, typically products that are ordered on a frequent basis, is saved to check prices at anytime without typing the same items over and over again.

Once the customer selects the products they want to purchase, the Price Shopper service, using the HandySource Purchase Order System, automatically creates supplier specific purchase orders. For example, if the customer selects the cherry-pick option, rather than the single supplier option, it is possible that the Price Shopper system will produce three separate purchase orders, which are then e-mailed or faxed directly to each suppliers' order desk for processing.

While the Price Shopper can provide comparison pricing for three suppliers at one time, the service also allows the customer to purchase from a single preferred supplier if they so choose.

HandySource is a business-to-business e-commerce bid and purchase portal for the multi-family and commercial industries. The company was formed in 1999 as a sister-company to HandyTrac Systems, Inc., a leading supplier of computerized key control systems to the multi-housing industry. The company's corporate office is located in Bradenton, Fla. It also has regional support / training centers in Atlanta and Dallas with an additional four centers (Chicago, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington) planned throughout the United States.