February 13, 2001 - Atlanta-based B2B e-commerce company Clarus has partnered with Augusta, Georgia-based e2Procure Solutions Group, a Web-based e-procurement platform serving the K-12 education market.
Under the agreement, Clarus is providing e2Procure Solutions Group, formerly e-schoolz.com, with its packaged software solutions and service offerings including Clarus eMarket, Clarus Auctions and Clarus Content. e2Procure will initially target its procurement services for school districts in the southeastern region of the United States, collectively representing a $335 billion spend. Clarus and its strategic service partner Deloitte & Touche teamed with e2Procure deploying its online marketplace in five days, immediately delivering savings for school districts in Georgia's Columbia and Richmond Counties.
Clarus has truly advanced our cause to be the premier provider of cost-efficient and effective Internet-based procurement and payment solutions for public school districts and their suppliers, said Shankar Balan, founder, president and CEO of e2Procure Solutions Group. Using the rapidly deployable suite of Clarus products, we were able to quickly get our marketplace transactional, assuring our ability to service our customers in the education market delivering them immediate cost savings.
Clarus is proud to provide the procurement and sourcing technology for a business that will eventually help our nation's schools conserve resources and automate the outdated processes that have plagued their supply chain to date, said Steve Jeffery, president and CEO of Clarus. With the help of Clarus eMarket, Auctions and Content offerings, e2Procure Solutions has developed a digital solution that greatly impacts and strengthens the purchasing power of those participating in the K-12 education market.
Clarus eMarket, software used to create digital marketplaces for B2B Internet buying and selling, will power e2Procure Solutions' InstaBuy, which allows online procurement from pre-negotiated terms. InstaBuy also enables online vendor payment via the e2Procure MasterCard Purchasing Card.
Existing procurement processes can be incredibly costly, schools can pay up to $225 to process a purchase order for items as simple as chalkboards, said Balan. The e2Procure marketplace will streamline the entire procurement cycle from the RFQ to purchase to payment reducing the cost per order to $25 or less.
