Procurement services firm signed 55 contracts, experienced 175 percent growth in services backlog
Philadelphia — March 11, 2005 — ICG Commerce, a procurement services provider, today announced that it signed 55 contracts during 2004 and achieved consistent double-digit quarter-over-quarter growth. The company attributes the momentum to its approach to procurement as the most effective model for driving bottom-line savings and process efficiencies.
Among the new contracts signed in 2004 were eight agreements for comprehensive procurement management or outsourcing services, including those with new customers Avaya, Cooper Cameron Corp., Greif Inc., Universal Packaging Corp., and Vought Aircraft Industries Inc.
In addition, extensions were signed with a number of long-term customers such as Crown, Cork & Seal, Delta Air Lines, Indalex and Nordstrom.
Due to the number of multi-year customer relationships secured in 2004, the value of ICG Commerce's services backlog (the value of all remaining contracted revenue) grew in excess of 175 percent throughout the year. Key market factors contributing to the company's growth included continued demand for overall cost reduction across industries and an increasing focus on core competencies.
"Over the past few years, corporations in the U.S. and Europe began, in earnest, outsourcing major but non-core business processes, such as procurement, finance and accounting and human resource management, said Michael Zisman, former vice president, corporate strategy at IBM and current ICG Commerce and Internet Capital Group board member. "This allows companies to focus on their core-competencies and benefit from the focus, expertise and cost effectiveness of others."
ICG Commerce believes that impacting results more directly than external market forces was the company's model, which focuses on driving results through comprehensive procurement transformation. The company's approach marries purchasing category expertise and process and operations specialists with a technology platform to build and execute programs.
ICG Commerce also made several infrastructure and organizational enhancements over the course of the year, including the unveiling of a Procurement Center of Excellence at the company's new headquarters outside Philadelphia. The company said that dozens of customers, prospects and industry experts have visited the center over the past six months to learn best practices and gain an inside look at ICG Commerce's team.
