Orlando, FL April 9, 2002 e-Procurement pioneer Commerce One today rolled out new spend analysis and post-design document collaboration capabilities in its strategic sourcing application, adding functionality contributed by partners Analytics Inc. and Digital Paper.
Announced at Commerce One's eLink2002 conference here, the new functionality will allow C1's enterprise customers to identify savings opportunities and deliver complex technical content to trading partners across global supply chains, said the solution provider, which also touted customers' return on investment (ROI) and new customer wins at the conference today.
"Spend analysis and document collaboration are core to strategic sourcing, helping customers achieve measurable return on investment," said Scott Wilkerson, senior director of product marketing at Commerce One. "The alliances with both Analytics Inc. and Digital Paper bring these critical capabilities into Commerce One 5.0, giving customers the ability to identify multi-dimensional spend analysis data and communicate changes to complex engineering product specifications more easily and efficiently."
Commerce One Source, the provider's sourcing solution, will incorporate Analytics Inc.'s spend analysis service, which extracts and aggregates enterprise spend data from various backend and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The sourcing software uses this information to produce spend analysis and reporting, which C1 said will allow organizations to identify savings opportunities by assessing contract performance to develop a more effective sourcing strategy.
"Spend analysis provides critical insight into an organization's spending patterns and can help companies save money quickly and easily, usually delivering measurable ROI," said Harris Usdan, executive vice president of Analytics Inc.
Digital Paper brings post-design document collaboration capabilities to the Commerce One solution's request and negotiation component. Digital Paper said its technology enables organizations to exchange and share large volumes of technical and engineering content associated with complex direct materials in a secure, Web-based environment. In addition, organizations can communicate and track changes to complex documents, as well as synchronize content with business partners across the global supply chain, according to the solution provider.
"Engineering documents are integral to the request and negotiation process when sourcing complex goods," said Anthony Cook, chief marketing officer of Digital Paper. "Time and money are often lost dealing with these documents during the sourcing process and supplier interaction. Our technology will help Commerce One customers speed procurement cycles and reduce costs."
Speaking at the conference, Commerce One Chairman and CEO Mark Hoffman said that the provider was looking to create a "real-time enterprise" as a way to drive competitive advantage. "The bottom line is to help companies continue to attack ROI and seek competitive advantage," said Hoffman.
Also today Commerce One touted the cost savings that it says its customers have achieved using the C1 solution. For example, the provider reported that Eastman Chemical, the multi-national chemicals and plastics manufacturer, uses the Commerce One Buy e-procurement platform to support the purchasing of $500 million worth of goods and services annually. Commerce One's Collaborative Platform enables Eastman to integrate the e-procurement solution with each of its logistics providers through a single point of entry for all trading partners.
"Commerce One was the only complete best-of-breed solution that could meet all of our unique demands," said Eddie Page, manager for eMRO at Eastman. "We have reduced our cost of materials by five to 15 percent, shortened order cycle times from two weeks to 24 hours, lowered administrative costs and improved inventory practices to realize an overall return of 126 percent in under 10 months."
Other Commerce One customers reporting a return on their investments included aerospace and defense contractor BAE SYSTEMS, which says that it has conducted more than 80 auctions saving nearly $15 million. In addition, 475 purchasing transactions totaling $85,000 are conducted monthly on the corporate e-procurement system that connects to Exostar, the aerospace and defense e-marketplace powered by Commerce One.
Meanwhile, ITT Industries, the engineering and manufacturing company, reports that it has streamlined operations and centralized its supply chain, with an average of 5 percent in savings on its e-commerce spend using C1's solution; and South Africa-based petrochemical good producer Sasol said it will save nearly $10 million over five years in maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) purchases while reducing average cost per purchase by 40 percent and shortening order-cycle times from 28 days to 10 days using Commerce One solutions.
Finally, Commerce One announced a raft of new customers at eLink2002, including:
· Dienekis Construction, a commercial construction company based in Greece, which has purchased Commerce One Buy and Commerce One Source to streamline its source-to-pay process;
· SupplyNet, a New Zealand e-marketplace is already using the Commerce One Collaborative Platform to link buyers and suppliers in New Zealand with global markets and that has selected Commerce One Source to enable public and private sector customers to manage requests for proposals and negotiations between buyers and suppliers;
· Trimera Media Utama, the e-commerce enabler for the Indonesian public sector, Gujarat State Fuel Management Company (GSFMC), a fuel management solution provider in India, and the China Ministry of Railway, all of which have selected Commerce One Buy as their e-procurement platform; and,
· Medicforma, a supplier of transaction services to the healthcare industry, which has chosen the Commerce One Collaborative Platform to unite hospitals, manufacturers, suppliers and healthcare service providers in a collaborative environment to integrate e-commerce activities with business processes.
"These companies understand the value of easing friction between trading partners to reduce total supply chain costs," said Hoffman, and CEO of Commerce One.
