Following is a selection of recent press releases that have come into the iSource Business newsroom. These press releases are, for the most part, presented as received. Datelines have been edited for consistency, and trademark and similar notations, as well as "forward looking statement" and similar notices, have been removed.
R.R. Donnelley Further Invests in Logistics Business; Acquisition Will Expand Logistics Presence in Southeast
Chicago March 6, 2003 R.R. Donnelley announced today that it has acquired Momentum Logistics, Inc. (MLI) a Florida-based provider of package distribution services in the Southeastern United States, for approximately $17 million. MLI's revenues were approximately $60 million in 2002.
"This investment strengthens our logistics capabilities and supports R.R. Donnelley's strategy to grow high-return businesses," said William L. Davis, chairman, president and chief executive officer of R.R. Donnelley. "We continue to expand our suite of services to create additional value for our customers."
MLI operates sortation facilities and a dedicated fleet of vehicles to provide business-to-business and business-to-consumer package distribution services. In the business-to-consumer segment, MLI leverages the United States Postal Service (USPS) for last mile delivery to the home. By reaching over 1,000 local post offices each day, MLI has established itself as the premier delivery service provider in the Southeast.
The acquisition gives R.R. Donnelley Logistics direct access to hundreds of local entry points in the USPS network in the Southeast. The investment improves capabilities and enables further growth in package logistics, and improves the efficiency and control of print shipments for R.R. Donnelley's print customers.
"R.R. Donnelley Logistics is positioned well for profitable growth in 2003," said John Campanelli, president of R.R. Donnelley Logistics. "This acquisition and the York, PA SuperCenter opening later this year, together enhance our capabilities and improve the service offering we'll deliver to print and package customers."
As part of the R.R. Donnelley Logistics national network, current MLI customers will see improved nationwide delivery service, as well as additional offerings that are economical, reliable and easy to use. These offerings include more predictable delivery schedules to local post offices across the country and end-to-end package tracking, offered in conjunction with the USPS.
R.R. Donnelley prepares, produces and delivers integrated communications across multiple channels for content owners such as publishers, merchandisers, and telecommunications companies as well as capital markets and diversified financial services companies. As a single source supplying services up and down the communications value chain, the company excels in digital photography, content management, printing, online services, and print and package logistics. With these integrated services, R.R. Donnelley provides effective solutions for its customers' targeted communications and delivery needs. Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., R.R. Donnelley serves a global customer market and has 30,000 employees in more than 200 locations in North America, South America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific Basin.
Back to Top
IBM and E2open Deliver Integrated, Collaborative e-business on Demand Solutions to Help Synchronize Multi-Enterprise Supply Chains
New Strategic Alliance to Target High Tech Manufacturing and Electronics Industries
White Plains, NY, and Redwood City, CA March 6, 2003 IBM and E2open today announced they are offering a new joint solution for high technology and electronics manufacturers that integrates multi-company business processes with customers, suppliers and partners.
The first of its kind in the industry, the joint IBM and E2open solution delivers extended enterprise management capabilities, with offerings purchased as consumed -- or on demand -- which can result in up to a 20 percent reduction in inventory stock and a 40 percent decrease in operational costs, as well as up to a 20 percent faster time to market for new products.
Customers today demand integration at both the application level -- the tight coordination of a variety of data, transaction and physical process and activity schedules of a number of points in a given supply chain or group of supply chains -- and at the infrastructure level supporting e-business on demand. e-business on demand solutions enable real-time collaboration at both levels, allowing each trading partner to converse in its own native format, while preserving their existing internal business processes and IT environment and saving significant technology costs. The joint solution combines E2open's applications and network infrastructure and IBM's e-business middleware, hardware and services to support buy-side and sell-side process integration and rapidly create collaborative and integrated trading communities. The solution addresses the supply chain needs of industrial sector companies, with an initial focus on high-tech and electronics industries.
"Companies have been waiting for a fully-operational, cost-effective solution that they can get up and running today to solve their most pressing business problems," said Lorenzo Martinelli, executive vice president, E2open. "With IBM's global e-business on demand capabilities marshaled in conjunction with our extended enterprise management software, we are changing the economics of industry process integration from a solution affordable only by industry leaders to a solution for companies of all sizes and budgets."
Traditional approaches for implementing extended enterprise management solutions, also known as private trading exchanges (PTX), have required significant upfront investments and long implementation cycles. They have also faced significant resistance from trading partners due to their proprietary and company-specific nature. The IBM and E2open solution provides the scalability required for large global deployments while giving companies a rapid entry point into inter-company process integration by lowering the upfront investment risk, delivering value faster and by leveraging existing IT investments.
Under the newly inked strategic alliance, the joint solution is optimized for IBM eServer pSeries and xSeries hardware and makes use of IBM's DB2 database software for data management and IBM Tivoli* Software's Secureway platform for security and authentication. As an option, trading partners can access the E2open application software using a low-cost, Web services-based integration toolkit built on IBM WebSphere-based middleware. IBM Global Services -- Business Consulting Services (BCS) will provide consulting and integration services for the offering. Additionally, IBM and E2open are in the process of planning enablement offerings to integrate and optimize IBM Lotus Software technologies with E2open technologies.
"Our customers have been asking for an easy and affordable way to solve complex cross-company integration issues," said Lorene Steffes, general manager, global electronics industry, IBM. "Combining E2open's process integration software with IBM's proven e-business on demand capabilities allows us to offer a single source, on-demand private trading exchange solution that will meet the quicker return on investment and time-to-value requirements of our customers."
The strategic alliance with E2open is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program. Under this initiative, IBM has signed agreements with recognized software leaders. These alliances target industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and solution segments including enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and business intelligence. The goal is to provide developers with access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's marketing, sales, and solutions resources. And as part of the agreement developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services in offerings to customers.
About IBM PartnerWorld for Developers
PartnerWorld for Developers is the developer resource for IBM Business Partners. It is a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld, or call 1-800-627-8363 in North America, 1-770-835-9902 outside North America.
About IBM
IBM is a global leader in the development and implementation of e-business solutions in strategic areas such as supply chain management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, business intelligence, product design and management and e-commerce. For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/e-business/supplychain.
About E2open's applications and network infrastructure software
The E2open Integration Network combines collaborative applications and integration platform infrastructure software to deliver multi-enterprise process management capabilities on demand in supply chain, channel management, sourcing, product lifecycle management and other edge-of-enterprise process areas. To accomplish real-time process integration across enterprises, E2open's software is designed with an open, standards-based Service Oriented Architecture to support complex process choreographies and real-time data synchronization. This provides visibility across enterprises and changes the economics of trading partner on-boarding while allowing companies to leverage and extend existing infrastructure investments. The entire solution provides a secure, reliable and flexible single-source solution to support rapid time to value, multi-enterprise process integration. Currently, companies such as Hitachi, Panasonic, Seagate and Solectron are using the E2open solution.
About E2open
E2open was founded in 2000 to simplify and fundamentally change the economics of cross-company industry process integration. The E2open Integration Network is the first solution to fully address the need for many-to-many integration across companies. E2open products and services are currently used by over 600 companies worldwide, with a concentration on firms involved in the manufacture and consumption of a variety of electronic and consumer products. A privately-held company, E2open founders and strategic members include Crosspoint Venture Partners LLC, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and leading electronics companies including Acer, Hitachi, IBM, LG Electronics, Lucent Technologies, Matsushita Electronic (Panasonic), Nortel Networks, Seagate Technology, Solectron, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electronic, Omron, Ricoh, Sanyo, and Sharp. E2open maintains locations in Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. Visit E2open at http://www.e2open.com .
Back to Top
Recruitsoft Expands European Presence with New Office In UK; New Office Provides UK Customers with Enhanced Local Support
San Francisco and Crowthrone Berkshire, UK March 6, 2003 Recruitsoft, the leading provider of staffing management services and solutions for large organizations, today announced that it has expanded its global presence in Europe and established its United Kingdom headquarters in Crowthrone, Berkshire.
In addition, Recruitsoft European Director of Business Development Henry de Jong has appointed Account Executive Stuart Smith to lead sales operations across the region.
Recruitsoft Vice President of International Sales & Global Alliances Benoit Leclerc said, "We recognize that the United Kingdom represents an important market for enterprise staffing management as organizations are increasingly demanding that more sophisticated staffing technologies and processes be delivered over the Internet for long-term efficiencies." He added, "This office opening serves as an opportunity to increase our industry leading global market share and to enhance our support for our customers in the region. We continue to focus on developing and enhancing the enterprise staffing management solutions that meet the needs of our global customers and those of the industry at large by capitalizing on the self service model to deliver higher quality processes, reduce costs and enhance productivity for the entire organization through enhanced hire quality."
Recruitsoft is headquartered in San Francisco and has multiple offices across North America, Europe and Asia. This expansion also follows the company's recent announcement that it achieved profitability according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for the fourth quarter of 2002, posting quarterly earnings for the first time in its three-year history. Launched in September 1999, Recruitsoft began cash flow positive operations in the fourth quarter of 2001. Privately held Recruitsoft has steadily grown its revenues while investing in its technical and business infrastructure, including the industry's largest group of R&D professionals, currently comprised of 180 employees.
Newly appointed Recruitsoft Account Executive Stuart Smith, brings more than a 15 years of sales, consulting and business development experience, largely focused on providing services in the areas of human capital, software and staffing for multiple vertical industries such the technology, retail, public services, pharmaceutical and more. Prior to joining Recruitsoft, Smith served as a senior business consultant at Personic, Inc. Smith also worked as an account manager at Mastech, a leading onshore and offshore provider of IT consulting services.
De Jong said, "We are thrilled to have Stuart join the Recruitsoft team. His knowledge and experience in the European market and backgrounds in the human resources and software industries will help us to provide our solutions to leading UK-based organizations as we continue to gain worldwide momentum."
About Recruitsoft
Recruitsoft delivers services and technology to manage enterprise staffing, from internal mobility to external hiring. Recruitsoft solutions optimize the flow of talent throughout large organizations such as Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Serono, DSM, SUEZ, Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW), Fortis, Starbucks Corporation, PepsiAmericas, P&G, Thomson, Agilent Technologies, The Gillette Company, Deloitte & Touche, Bombardier, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group, among many others. Recruitsoft's comprehensive services methodology and toolkits deliver ACE Staffing Best Practices supported by the Recruitsoft Enterprise Staffing Solution, which includes a fully configurable, workflow-enabled suite of software applications.
Recruitsoft solutions support every aspect of the staffing supply chain, from requisition management, sourcing, resume management, searching and pre-screening to retention and career preference portals, enabling true e-headhunting, optimal staffing and mobility management. Recruitsoft Enterprise Staffing Solution helps large organizations to: find highly qualified candidates faster; better assign people to jobs; increase return on human assets; optimize the use of staffing resources; shorten the overall time to contribution; increase retention of the best and brightest contributors; manage the internal talent pool, enterprise-wide; and importantly, improve overall performance from the hired workforce, resulting in increased productivity. Recruitsoft has received a number of accolades, recently including the industry's leading staffing solution according to the HR.com and Talent Market Group's 2003 Buyers Guide.
Back to Top
Kennametal Selects BillingZone to Electronically Enable Its Accounts Payable Process
BillingZone Simplifies the Invoice Payment Process for Fortune 1000 Industrial Tooling Company
Pittsburgh March 5, 2003 BillingZone today announced that Kennametal, one of the world's largest industrial tooling companies and among the Fortune 1000, has selected BillingZone's apConnect solution to receive, review and pay its invoices. BillingZone, an operating company of eONE Global, offers industry-leading solutions to accounts payable organizations to help them transform their invoice receipt and payment processes from manual and paper intensive to fully electronic and automated.
BillingZone's apConnect solution offers Kennametal the opportunity to transform the invoice-to-pay cycle by providing the company with the ability to automate the receipt of nearly 200,000 invoices annually, route and adjust those invoices on-line with full integration of the invoice data into Kennametal's SAP system, and deliver electronic payment and remittance information back to its vendors. With BillingZone's apConnect, Kennametal will be able to transform its accounts payable department into a paperless environment, which will drive processing cost savings.
"Kennametal is always looking for ways to lower operating costs and improve relationships with its vendors. The apConnect service will not only help Kennametal meet its A/P business objectives, but will build on the relationships that we have formed with our vendors by simplifying the invoicing and payment process," said Dean R. Hoffman, manager customer and vendor support services of Kennametal Inc. "The BillingZone service will help us electronically enable our vendors and manage the electronic payment process while lowering our overall processing costs. We particularly like the clear plan and flexible options to vendor adoption offered by BillingZone's Vendor Invoicing and Payment (VIP) Program."
"Already a recognized leader in supply-chain management, Kennametal is seeking the same level of efficiencies from its financial value chain," said Eric Smith, president and chief executive officer of BillingZone, LP. By combining the automation of electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) with sophisticated imaging and data capture services, our apConnect service provides Kennametal with a clear path to transform 100% of their invoice and payment volume. We are proud to add Kennametal to the growing list of apConnect customers we serve."
About Kennametal Inc.
Kennametal Inc. aspires to be the premier tooling solutions supplier in the world with operational excellence throughout the value chain and best-in-class manufacturing and technology. Kennametal strives to deliver superior shareowner value through top-tier financial performance. The company provides customers a broad range of technologically advanced tools, tooling systems and engineering services aimed at improving customers' manufacturing competitiveness. With about 14,500 employees worldwide, the company's annual sales approximate $1.8 billion, with a third coming from sales outside the United States. Kennametal is a five- time winner of the GM "Supplier of the Year" award and is represented in more than 60 countries. Kennametal operations in Europe are headquartered in Furth, Germany. Kennametal Asia Pacific operations are headquartered in Singapore.
About BillingZone, LP
BillingZone's apConnect and arConnect services help buyers and their vendors to streamline the complexity of invoicing and payment transactions; realize cost savings through the elimination of paper and manual practices; and enhance trading partner communications. BillingZone takes a consultative approach in working with buyers and their vendors to effectively manage the entire invoice-to-cash process. Procter & Gamble, Xerox, Diebold, and BASF are just some of the companies recognizing significant benefits through their use of BillingZone's electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) solutions. Please contact BillingZone at (412) 705-3000 or via e-mail at [email protected] . Additional information is available on the company's web site at www.billingzone.com. BillingZone is an operating company of eONE Global, LP (www.eoneglobal.com), a leader in the emerging payment technologies and systems spanning the business-to-business, government and mobile marketplaces, and majority-owned by First Data Corp.
About eONE Global, LP
eONE Global is a worldwide provider of technologically advanced transaction processing systems, software and professional services. Through its operating companies in the government, mobile and enterprise marketplaces, eONE Global provides the people, products, services, and technologies to help businesses stay competitive and governments stay connected. Owned by the world's largest payments processor, First Data Corp. (NYSE:FDC), along with iFormation Group, eONE Global maintains a leadership role within all of its operating companies to ensure industry leading products and financial strength. eONE Global operating companies include govONE Solutions, GovConnect, Taxware, Encorus Technologies and BillingZone. To learn more about eONE Global's emerging payment technologies at work, please visit www.eoneglobal.com .
Back to Top
Vigilance SCEM Platform Chosen by QRS for Its Insight Solution
Sunnyvale, CA March 5, 2003 Vigilance, Inc. and QRS Corporation have entered into a partnership to deliver supply chain exception management and supply chain performance measurement solutions to the retail industry. As a part of the partnership, QRS has incorporated Vigilance's exception management and performance measurement technologies into its QRS Insight product, which is currently available.
"Partnering with Vigilance has allowed us to rapidly develop a market leading solution for our customers," said Liz Fetter, president and CEO of QRS. "QRS Insight, using Vigilance's technology, lets our customers manage their operations in real-time and detect and resolve critical supply chain issues to minimize blind spots across the supply chain to optimize business performance. QRS Insight is the newest addition to the QRS suite of collaborative commerce solutions and fills an important and unmet need throughout the entire retail value chain."
The QRS and Vigilance product teams have developed a close working relationship to ensure that customers of the QRS Insight product will benefit from the deep expertise of both companies and that future enhancements to Vigilance's core product offerings will be rapidly incorporated into QRS Insight.
"The Vigilance-QRS partnership provides an optimal solution for retail companies, as it brings together Vigilance's customer-proven technology platform with QRS' deep retail domain knowledge," said Rocky Gunderson, president and CEO of Vigilance.
"This is the best of both worlds for customers, as they are able to work with a leading industry solutions provider who intimately understands their business, while also taking advantage of Vigilance's market-leading supply chain performance management platform."
QRS Insight is available for evaluation and purchase from QRS.
About QRS
With headquarters in Richmond, California, QRS has been building solutions that automate the way companies connect, transact, collaborate and differentiate since 1988.
QRS delivers collaborative commerce software and services that enable retail companies to bring products to market quickly and profitably. With a full suite of commerce solutions for the entire global trading community, only QRS combines the benefits of total electronic communication with the retail industry's leading source of product information for accurate partner transactions between companies of any size or technology infrastructure. QRS allows companies to see and manage processes across the supply chain so that problems can be detected and resolved, and offers services that provide insight to the store floor so that companies can enhance the customer experience and improve store operations. More than 8,000* customers from over 20 vertical markets -- including Sears, Roebuck and Co., The Kroger Company, Selfridges plc and Jones Apparel Group -- use QRS to meet customer needs, compress cycle times, reduce costs and improve sales margins. Learn more about QRS at http://www.qrs.com.
* Based on total, unique QRS corporate customers that purchased or licensed QRS products and services between January and December 2002.
About Vigilance
Vigilance is a leading provider of business process management software solutions. With more than 40 customers and successful deployments at companies like Hewlett-Packard, Netflix, Avnet, BP/Castrol, Seagate and Dresser, Vigilance is the only business process management solution provider that offers companies a way to impact bottom-line results by responding immediately to events in real-time. The company was established in 1998 and is located in Sunnyvale, CA. For case studies, a complete customer list and detailed product information please go to http://www.vigilance.com.
Back to Top
Retek Introduces Integrated Store Operations Solution
Solution Delivers Flexible Applications on an Open Technology Platform to Support Improved Customer Service While Reducing Operating Costs
Minneapolis March 5, 2003 Retek Inc. announced today the availability of Retek Integrated Store Operations solution (ISO). ISO is a 100 percent Java based solution that delivers store level applications, leveraging a common technology infrastructure. ISO is designed to streamline store operations and support increased customer service levels, while dramatically reducing the total cost of technology ownership. In a recent deployment of ISO, the cost of maintaining various IT operations in the store was quickly cut in half.
The ISO solution is a group of in-store operations applications that use and share common business logic, configuration utilities and technology infrastructure. The solution has three unique characteristics:
-- Its applications support a wide range of store functions, including POS (point-of-sale), labor management, cash management and inventory management, all delivered through an extremely flexible and leading-edge technology platform.
-- It is faster to deploy and easy to use, reducing training time and implementation expense.
-- The applications are proven to simplify store operations by improving customer service and decreasing costs.
Applications leveraging the ISO platform currently include: Retek Point-of-Sale, Retek Labor Management, Retek Cash Management and Retek Store Inventory Management, enabling retailers to select applications to match their business requirements. By delivering the entire solution using a single, Java-based technology platform and established industry standards, retailers are provided with an extremely flexible solution, which easily integrates with legacy applications while preserving an upgrade path.
Peter Baskin, vice president of store strategy with Retek stated, "Flexible deployment of technology at the store is a focus area for many retailers for two primary reasons. In a difficult trading environment, retailers are seeking solutions that can cut operating costs or improve customer service. Retek Integrated Store Operations delivers both, and is validated through successful deployment in the market."
About Retek Inc.
Retek Inc. is the leading provider of mission-critical software and services to the retail industry. Retek solutions integrate collaborative software with patented predictive technologies, consulting services, and the best practices of customers and partners to help retailers create, manage and fulfill consumer demand. Leading global retailers including Tesco, Best Buy, Gap Inc., Sainsbury's, Eckerd Corp. and Selfridges use Retek solutions. Visit Retek on the web at Retek at www.retek.com.
Back to Top
- R.R. Donnelley Further Invests in Logistics Business; Acquisition Will Expand Logistics Presence in Southeast
- IBM and E2open Deliver Integrated, Collaborative e-business on Demand Solutions to Help Synchronize Multi-Enterprise Supply Chains
- Recruitsoft Expands European Presence with New Office In UK; New Office Provides UK Customers with Enhanced Local Support
- Kennametal Selects BillingZone to Electronically Enable Its Accounts Payable Process
- Vigilance SCEM Platform Chosen by QRS for Its Insight Solution
- Retek Introduces Integrated Store Operations Solution
R.R. Donnelley Further Invests in Logistics Business; Acquisition Will Expand Logistics Presence in Southeast
Chicago March 6, 2003 R.R. Donnelley announced today that it has acquired Momentum Logistics, Inc. (MLI) a Florida-based provider of package distribution services in the Southeastern United States, for approximately $17 million. MLI's revenues were approximately $60 million in 2002.
"This investment strengthens our logistics capabilities and supports R.R. Donnelley's strategy to grow high-return businesses," said William L. Davis, chairman, president and chief executive officer of R.R. Donnelley. "We continue to expand our suite of services to create additional value for our customers."
MLI operates sortation facilities and a dedicated fleet of vehicles to provide business-to-business and business-to-consumer package distribution services. In the business-to-consumer segment, MLI leverages the United States Postal Service (USPS) for last mile delivery to the home. By reaching over 1,000 local post offices each day, MLI has established itself as the premier delivery service provider in the Southeast.
The acquisition gives R.R. Donnelley Logistics direct access to hundreds of local entry points in the USPS network in the Southeast. The investment improves capabilities and enables further growth in package logistics, and improves the efficiency and control of print shipments for R.R. Donnelley's print customers.
"R.R. Donnelley Logistics is positioned well for profitable growth in 2003," said John Campanelli, president of R.R. Donnelley Logistics. "This acquisition and the York, PA SuperCenter opening later this year, together enhance our capabilities and improve the service offering we'll deliver to print and package customers."
As part of the R.R. Donnelley Logistics national network, current MLI customers will see improved nationwide delivery service, as well as additional offerings that are economical, reliable and easy to use. These offerings include more predictable delivery schedules to local post offices across the country and end-to-end package tracking, offered in conjunction with the USPS.
R.R. Donnelley prepares, produces and delivers integrated communications across multiple channels for content owners such as publishers, merchandisers, and telecommunications companies as well as capital markets and diversified financial services companies. As a single source supplying services up and down the communications value chain, the company excels in digital photography, content management, printing, online services, and print and package logistics. With these integrated services, R.R. Donnelley provides effective solutions for its customers' targeted communications and delivery needs. Headquartered in Chicago, Ill., R.R. Donnelley serves a global customer market and has 30,000 employees in more than 200 locations in North America, South America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific Basin.
Back to Top
IBM and E2open Deliver Integrated, Collaborative e-business on Demand Solutions to Help Synchronize Multi-Enterprise Supply Chains
New Strategic Alliance to Target High Tech Manufacturing and Electronics Industries
White Plains, NY, and Redwood City, CA March 6, 2003 IBM and E2open today announced they are offering a new joint solution for high technology and electronics manufacturers that integrates multi-company business processes with customers, suppliers and partners.
The first of its kind in the industry, the joint IBM and E2open solution delivers extended enterprise management capabilities, with offerings purchased as consumed -- or on demand -- which can result in up to a 20 percent reduction in inventory stock and a 40 percent decrease in operational costs, as well as up to a 20 percent faster time to market for new products.
Customers today demand integration at both the application level -- the tight coordination of a variety of data, transaction and physical process and activity schedules of a number of points in a given supply chain or group of supply chains -- and at the infrastructure level supporting e-business on demand. e-business on demand solutions enable real-time collaboration at both levels, allowing each trading partner to converse in its own native format, while preserving their existing internal business processes and IT environment and saving significant technology costs. The joint solution combines E2open's applications and network infrastructure and IBM's e-business middleware, hardware and services to support buy-side and sell-side process integration and rapidly create collaborative and integrated trading communities. The solution addresses the supply chain needs of industrial sector companies, with an initial focus on high-tech and electronics industries.
"Companies have been waiting for a fully-operational, cost-effective solution that they can get up and running today to solve their most pressing business problems," said Lorenzo Martinelli, executive vice president, E2open. "With IBM's global e-business on demand capabilities marshaled in conjunction with our extended enterprise management software, we are changing the economics of industry process integration from a solution affordable only by industry leaders to a solution for companies of all sizes and budgets."
Traditional approaches for implementing extended enterprise management solutions, also known as private trading exchanges (PTX), have required significant upfront investments and long implementation cycles. They have also faced significant resistance from trading partners due to their proprietary and company-specific nature. The IBM and E2open solution provides the scalability required for large global deployments while giving companies a rapid entry point into inter-company process integration by lowering the upfront investment risk, delivering value faster and by leveraging existing IT investments.
Under the newly inked strategic alliance, the joint solution is optimized for IBM eServer pSeries and xSeries hardware and makes use of IBM's DB2 database software for data management and IBM Tivoli* Software's Secureway platform for security and authentication. As an option, trading partners can access the E2open application software using a low-cost, Web services-based integration toolkit built on IBM WebSphere-based middleware. IBM Global Services -- Business Consulting Services (BCS) will provide consulting and integration services for the offering. Additionally, IBM and E2open are in the process of planning enablement offerings to integrate and optimize IBM Lotus Software technologies with E2open technologies.
"Our customers have been asking for an easy and affordable way to solve complex cross-company integration issues," said Lorene Steffes, general manager, global electronics industry, IBM. "Combining E2open's process integration software with IBM's proven e-business on demand capabilities allows us to offer a single source, on-demand private trading exchange solution that will meet the quicker return on investment and time-to-value requirements of our customers."
The strategic alliance with E2open is another example of IBM's commitment to go-to-market with leading independent software vendors (ISVs) through the PartnerWorld for Developers program. Under this initiative, IBM has signed agreements with recognized software leaders. These alliances target industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and solution segments including enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management and business intelligence. The goal is to provide developers with access to new customers and revenue opportunities through IBM's marketing, sales, and solutions resources. And as part of the agreement developers commit to lead with IBM's middleware, server platforms, and services in offerings to customers.
About IBM PartnerWorld for Developers
PartnerWorld for Developers is the developer resource for IBM Business Partners. It is a worldwide program designed to help software developers reach broader markets, lower their costs of doing business, and take their products to market faster. For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/partnerworld, or call 1-800-627-8363 in North America, 1-770-835-9902 outside North America.
About IBM
IBM is a global leader in the development and implementation of e-business solutions in strategic areas such as supply chain management, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, business intelligence, product design and management and e-commerce. For more information, please visit www.ibm.com/e-business/supplychain.
About E2open's applications and network infrastructure software
The E2open Integration Network combines collaborative applications and integration platform infrastructure software to deliver multi-enterprise process management capabilities on demand in supply chain, channel management, sourcing, product lifecycle management and other edge-of-enterprise process areas. To accomplish real-time process integration across enterprises, E2open's software is designed with an open, standards-based Service Oriented Architecture to support complex process choreographies and real-time data synchronization. This provides visibility across enterprises and changes the economics of trading partner on-boarding while allowing companies to leverage and extend existing infrastructure investments. The entire solution provides a secure, reliable and flexible single-source solution to support rapid time to value, multi-enterprise process integration. Currently, companies such as Hitachi, Panasonic, Seagate and Solectron are using the E2open solution.
About E2open
E2open was founded in 2000 to simplify and fundamentally change the economics of cross-company industry process integration. The E2open Integration Network is the first solution to fully address the need for many-to-many integration across companies. E2open products and services are currently used by over 600 companies worldwide, with a concentration on firms involved in the manufacture and consumption of a variety of electronic and consumer products. A privately-held company, E2open founders and strategic members include Crosspoint Venture Partners LLC, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and leading electronics companies including Acer, Hitachi, IBM, LG Electronics, Lucent Technologies, Matsushita Electronic (Panasonic), Nortel Networks, Seagate Technology, Solectron, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electronic, Omron, Ricoh, Sanyo, and Sharp. E2open maintains locations in Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. Visit E2open at http://www.e2open.com .
Back to Top
Recruitsoft Expands European Presence with New Office In UK; New Office Provides UK Customers with Enhanced Local Support
San Francisco and Crowthrone Berkshire, UK March 6, 2003 Recruitsoft, the leading provider of staffing management services and solutions for large organizations, today announced that it has expanded its global presence in Europe and established its United Kingdom headquarters in Crowthrone, Berkshire.
In addition, Recruitsoft European Director of Business Development Henry de Jong has appointed Account Executive Stuart Smith to lead sales operations across the region.
Recruitsoft Vice President of International Sales & Global Alliances Benoit Leclerc said, "We recognize that the United Kingdom represents an important market for enterprise staffing management as organizations are increasingly demanding that more sophisticated staffing technologies and processes be delivered over the Internet for long-term efficiencies." He added, "This office opening serves as an opportunity to increase our industry leading global market share and to enhance our support for our customers in the region. We continue to focus on developing and enhancing the enterprise staffing management solutions that meet the needs of our global customers and those of the industry at large by capitalizing on the self service model to deliver higher quality processes, reduce costs and enhance productivity for the entire organization through enhanced hire quality."
Recruitsoft is headquartered in San Francisco and has multiple offices across North America, Europe and Asia. This expansion also follows the company's recent announcement that it achieved profitability according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for the fourth quarter of 2002, posting quarterly earnings for the first time in its three-year history. Launched in September 1999, Recruitsoft began cash flow positive operations in the fourth quarter of 2001. Privately held Recruitsoft has steadily grown its revenues while investing in its technical and business infrastructure, including the industry's largest group of R&D professionals, currently comprised of 180 employees.
Newly appointed Recruitsoft Account Executive Stuart Smith, brings more than a 15 years of sales, consulting and business development experience, largely focused on providing services in the areas of human capital, software and staffing for multiple vertical industries such the technology, retail, public services, pharmaceutical and more. Prior to joining Recruitsoft, Smith served as a senior business consultant at Personic, Inc. Smith also worked as an account manager at Mastech, a leading onshore and offshore provider of IT consulting services.
De Jong said, "We are thrilled to have Stuart join the Recruitsoft team. His knowledge and experience in the European market and backgrounds in the human resources and software industries will help us to provide our solutions to leading UK-based organizations as we continue to gain worldwide momentum."
About Recruitsoft
Recruitsoft delivers services and technology to manage enterprise staffing, from internal mobility to external hiring. Recruitsoft solutions optimize the flow of talent throughout large organizations such as Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Serono, DSM, SUEZ, Dow Chemical (NYSE:DOW), Fortis, Starbucks Corporation, PepsiAmericas, P&G, Thomson, Agilent Technologies, The Gillette Company, Deloitte & Touche, Bombardier, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and UnitedHealth Group, among many others. Recruitsoft's comprehensive services methodology and toolkits deliver ACE Staffing Best Practices supported by the Recruitsoft Enterprise Staffing Solution, which includes a fully configurable, workflow-enabled suite of software applications.
Recruitsoft solutions support every aspect of the staffing supply chain, from requisition management, sourcing, resume management, searching and pre-screening to retention and career preference portals, enabling true e-headhunting, optimal staffing and mobility management. Recruitsoft Enterprise Staffing Solution helps large organizations to: find highly qualified candidates faster; better assign people to jobs; increase return on human assets; optimize the use of staffing resources; shorten the overall time to contribution; increase retention of the best and brightest contributors; manage the internal talent pool, enterprise-wide; and importantly, improve overall performance from the hired workforce, resulting in increased productivity. Recruitsoft has received a number of accolades, recently including the industry's leading staffing solution according to the HR.com and Talent Market Group's 2003 Buyers Guide.
Back to Top
Kennametal Selects BillingZone to Electronically Enable Its Accounts Payable Process
BillingZone Simplifies the Invoice Payment Process for Fortune 1000 Industrial Tooling Company
Pittsburgh March 5, 2003 BillingZone today announced that Kennametal, one of the world's largest industrial tooling companies and among the Fortune 1000, has selected BillingZone's apConnect solution to receive, review and pay its invoices. BillingZone, an operating company of eONE Global, offers industry-leading solutions to accounts payable organizations to help them transform their invoice receipt and payment processes from manual and paper intensive to fully electronic and automated.
BillingZone's apConnect solution offers Kennametal the opportunity to transform the invoice-to-pay cycle by providing the company with the ability to automate the receipt of nearly 200,000 invoices annually, route and adjust those invoices on-line with full integration of the invoice data into Kennametal's SAP system, and deliver electronic payment and remittance information back to its vendors. With BillingZone's apConnect, Kennametal will be able to transform its accounts payable department into a paperless environment, which will drive processing cost savings.
"Kennametal is always looking for ways to lower operating costs and improve relationships with its vendors. The apConnect service will not only help Kennametal meet its A/P business objectives, but will build on the relationships that we have formed with our vendors by simplifying the invoicing and payment process," said Dean R. Hoffman, manager customer and vendor support services of Kennametal Inc. "The BillingZone service will help us electronically enable our vendors and manage the electronic payment process while lowering our overall processing costs. We particularly like the clear plan and flexible options to vendor adoption offered by BillingZone's Vendor Invoicing and Payment (VIP) Program."
"Already a recognized leader in supply-chain management, Kennametal is seeking the same level of efficiencies from its financial value chain," said Eric Smith, president and chief executive officer of BillingZone, LP. By combining the automation of electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) with sophisticated imaging and data capture services, our apConnect service provides Kennametal with a clear path to transform 100% of their invoice and payment volume. We are proud to add Kennametal to the growing list of apConnect customers we serve."
About Kennametal Inc.
Kennametal Inc. aspires to be the premier tooling solutions supplier in the world with operational excellence throughout the value chain and best-in-class manufacturing and technology. Kennametal strives to deliver superior shareowner value through top-tier financial performance. The company provides customers a broad range of technologically advanced tools, tooling systems and engineering services aimed at improving customers' manufacturing competitiveness. With about 14,500 employees worldwide, the company's annual sales approximate $1.8 billion, with a third coming from sales outside the United States. Kennametal is a five- time winner of the GM "Supplier of the Year" award and is represented in more than 60 countries. Kennametal operations in Europe are headquartered in Furth, Germany. Kennametal Asia Pacific operations are headquartered in Singapore.
About BillingZone, LP
BillingZone's apConnect and arConnect services help buyers and their vendors to streamline the complexity of invoicing and payment transactions; realize cost savings through the elimination of paper and manual practices; and enhance trading partner communications. BillingZone takes a consultative approach in working with buyers and their vendors to effectively manage the entire invoice-to-cash process. Procter & Gamble, Xerox, Diebold, and BASF are just some of the companies recognizing significant benefits through their use of BillingZone's electronic invoice presentment and payment (EIPP) solutions. Please contact BillingZone at (412) 705-3000 or via e-mail at [email protected] . Additional information is available on the company's web site at www.billingzone.com. BillingZone is an operating company of eONE Global, LP (www.eoneglobal.com), a leader in the emerging payment technologies and systems spanning the business-to-business, government and mobile marketplaces, and majority-owned by First Data Corp.
About eONE Global, LP
eONE Global is a worldwide provider of technologically advanced transaction processing systems, software and professional services. Through its operating companies in the government, mobile and enterprise marketplaces, eONE Global provides the people, products, services, and technologies to help businesses stay competitive and governments stay connected. Owned by the world's largest payments processor, First Data Corp. (NYSE:FDC), along with iFormation Group, eONE Global maintains a leadership role within all of its operating companies to ensure industry leading products and financial strength. eONE Global operating companies include govONE Solutions, GovConnect, Taxware, Encorus Technologies and BillingZone. To learn more about eONE Global's emerging payment technologies at work, please visit www.eoneglobal.com .
Back to Top
Vigilance SCEM Platform Chosen by QRS for Its Insight Solution
Sunnyvale, CA March 5, 2003 Vigilance, Inc. and QRS Corporation have entered into a partnership to deliver supply chain exception management and supply chain performance measurement solutions to the retail industry. As a part of the partnership, QRS has incorporated Vigilance's exception management and performance measurement technologies into its QRS Insight product, which is currently available.
"Partnering with Vigilance has allowed us to rapidly develop a market leading solution for our customers," said Liz Fetter, president and CEO of QRS. "QRS Insight, using Vigilance's technology, lets our customers manage their operations in real-time and detect and resolve critical supply chain issues to minimize blind spots across the supply chain to optimize business performance. QRS Insight is the newest addition to the QRS suite of collaborative commerce solutions and fills an important and unmet need throughout the entire retail value chain."
The QRS and Vigilance product teams have developed a close working relationship to ensure that customers of the QRS Insight product will benefit from the deep expertise of both companies and that future enhancements to Vigilance's core product offerings will be rapidly incorporated into QRS Insight.
"The Vigilance-QRS partnership provides an optimal solution for retail companies, as it brings together Vigilance's customer-proven technology platform with QRS' deep retail domain knowledge," said Rocky Gunderson, president and CEO of Vigilance.
"This is the best of both worlds for customers, as they are able to work with a leading industry solutions provider who intimately understands their business, while also taking advantage of Vigilance's market-leading supply chain performance management platform."
QRS Insight is available for evaluation and purchase from QRS.
About QRS
With headquarters in Richmond, California, QRS has been building solutions that automate the way companies connect, transact, collaborate and differentiate since 1988.
QRS delivers collaborative commerce software and services that enable retail companies to bring products to market quickly and profitably. With a full suite of commerce solutions for the entire global trading community, only QRS combines the benefits of total electronic communication with the retail industry's leading source of product information for accurate partner transactions between companies of any size or technology infrastructure. QRS allows companies to see and manage processes across the supply chain so that problems can be detected and resolved, and offers services that provide insight to the store floor so that companies can enhance the customer experience and improve store operations. More than 8,000* customers from over 20 vertical markets -- including Sears, Roebuck and Co., The Kroger Company, Selfridges plc and Jones Apparel Group -- use QRS to meet customer needs, compress cycle times, reduce costs and improve sales margins. Learn more about QRS at http://www.qrs.com.
* Based on total, unique QRS corporate customers that purchased or licensed QRS products and services between January and December 2002.
About Vigilance
Vigilance is a leading provider of business process management software solutions. With more than 40 customers and successful deployments at companies like Hewlett-Packard, Netflix, Avnet, BP/Castrol, Seagate and Dresser, Vigilance is the only business process management solution provider that offers companies a way to impact bottom-line results by responding immediately to events in real-time. The company was established in 1998 and is located in Sunnyvale, CA. For case studies, a complete customer list and detailed product information please go to http://www.vigilance.com.
Back to Top
Retek Introduces Integrated Store Operations Solution
Solution Delivers Flexible Applications on an Open Technology Platform to Support Improved Customer Service While Reducing Operating Costs
Minneapolis March 5, 2003 Retek Inc. announced today the availability of Retek Integrated Store Operations solution (ISO). ISO is a 100 percent Java based solution that delivers store level applications, leveraging a common technology infrastructure. ISO is designed to streamline store operations and support increased customer service levels, while dramatically reducing the total cost of technology ownership. In a recent deployment of ISO, the cost of maintaining various IT operations in the store was quickly cut in half.
The ISO solution is a group of in-store operations applications that use and share common business logic, configuration utilities and technology infrastructure. The solution has three unique characteristics:
-- Its applications support a wide range of store functions, including POS (point-of-sale), labor management, cash management and inventory management, all delivered through an extremely flexible and leading-edge technology platform.
-- It is faster to deploy and easy to use, reducing training time and implementation expense.
-- The applications are proven to simplify store operations by improving customer service and decreasing costs.
Applications leveraging the ISO platform currently include: Retek Point-of-Sale, Retek Labor Management, Retek Cash Management and Retek Store Inventory Management, enabling retailers to select applications to match their business requirements. By delivering the entire solution using a single, Java-based technology platform and established industry standards, retailers are provided with an extremely flexible solution, which easily integrates with legacy applications while preserving an upgrade path.
Peter Baskin, vice president of store strategy with Retek stated, "Flexible deployment of technology at the store is a focus area for many retailers for two primary reasons. In a difficult trading environment, retailers are seeking solutions that can cut operating costs or improve customer service. Retek Integrated Store Operations delivers both, and is validated through successful deployment in the market."
About Retek Inc.
Retek Inc. is the leading provider of mission-critical software and services to the retail industry. Retek solutions integrate collaborative software with patented predictive technologies, consulting services, and the best practices of customers and partners to help retailers create, manage and fulfill consumer demand. Leading global retailers including Tesco, Best Buy, Gap Inc., Sainsbury's, Eckerd Corp. and Selfridges use Retek solutions. Visit Retek on the web at Retek at www.retek.com.
Back to Top
