Cost-savings strategy includes both Ariba and FreeMarkets solutions
Sunnyvale, CA — July 22, 2004 — Pittsburgh-based supermarket retailer Giant Eagle Inc. said today that it has expanded its spend management strategy and is moving forward by investing in the combined solutions from Ariba and the former FreeMarkets after the recent merger on July 1 of the two companies.
Giant Eagle is committed to remaining an industry leader by implementing technologies that ensure its ability to deliver high-quality products at competitive prices in its 224 locations in four states.
Giant Eagle said it is working with Ariba to identify cost savings opportunities within the company's supply chain that can be re-invested into the customer value equation. As a result, Giant Eagle is launching a significant spend visibility initiative focused on tracking $500 million in annual purchasing cost that is currently aggregated across nearly every division within the company. Giant Eagle will use the Ariba solutions to identify costs savings opportunities on indirect materials, and the company will begin branching out to other category specific areas of spend within its organization.
Giant Eagle had been a long-time FreeMarkets sourcing customer, and the company now selected a hosted version of Ariba Analysis with enrichment and classification of spend data capabilities in order to obtain greater spend visibility within its organization.
Additionally, Giant Eagle chose to partner with the Ariba Solutions Delivery (ASD) team to gain increased visibility to define category specific strategies for managing spend through the entire spend management lifecycle.
"Giant Eagle is focused on streamlining supply chain costs to continually deliver better value to our customers," said Giant Eagle Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Russ Ross. "After many years of success with FreeMarkets' sourcing technology and services to automate our sourcing process, we added Ariba's solution for spend analysis to provide us with greater transparency into our expense transactions and enhance our leadership in this area. We are pleased that these solutions are now offered by a single provider with whom we can work to accelerate our bottom line results."
