Philadelphia — December 13, 2006 — ICG Commerce, a procurement services provider, today announced that it has extended its Buying Center services for Microsoft entities in India. ICG Commerce's Hyderabad Buying Center is an extension of the company's North American buying center operations for Microsoft and supports the software leader's growing research and development operations.
ICG Commerce has provided Buying Center services to support IT hardware purchases for Microsoft's North American operations since 2004, helping the company recognize cost savings and gain greater control of their spend. The Hyderabad Buying Center broadens ICG Commerce's relationship with Microsoft, assisting the company to streamline procurement processes for its Indian operations. India is a central location for Microsoft's rapidly growing development services and IT hardware spend is an area of strategic focus in the company's ongoing efforts to standardize the procurement process and optimize costs.
"As our operations in India continue to expand, it is imperative to put standard procurement processes in place across all of our development labs and business entities," said Vikas Lashkari, Microsoft India's Procurement head. "After seeing firsthand how the buying center has helped Microsoft in North America increase visibility and control over their hardware spend, we know that ICG Commerce has the right level of experience and company and industry knowledge to help us successfully adopt the model in India."
Buying Center services based out of ICG Commerce's Hyderabad delivery center will provide Microsoft with leading transaction procurement processes to help end users quickly and effectively procure the goods and services they need to maintain and grow their businesses. Buying Center services include purchase-to-pay transactional support, competitive bidding, reporting and ongoing spend analysis.
"Microsoft understands the importance of providing services to their internal employees that let them do their jobs more efficiently and effectively," said Carl Guarino, CEO, ICG Commerce. "We look forward to continuing to support them by providing a high level of customer service along with increased control and continued savings to help their procurement team maximize the value of their external spend."
