Frictionless Sourcing

CAMBRIDGE, MA.  February- 5, 2001 -- Frictionless Commerce Monday announced the release of a strategic sourcing suite targeted to Global 2500 companies and government agencies, as well as a cadre of blue-chip customers for the suite, including John Hancock Financial Services, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and Hasbro.

Frictionless Commerce said that it conducted extensive market research among purchasing executives, industry experts, CIOs and CEOs across the Global 2500 companies to uncover the most painful aspects of corporate purchasing for both direct and indirect materials. The company said that it is addressing those "pain-points" with its upcoming Frictionless Sourcing software.

"We see solid value in the strategic sourcing software that Frictionless is bringing to market," said Roy Anderson, corporate purchasing director for John Hancock Financial Services. "After evaluating purchasing solutions, we believe Frictionless is delivering applications that allow us to address our most important area: our strategic spend. Frictionless is giving us solutions we need to get real hard dollar savings."

"Frictionless Commerce understands the savings opportunities inherent in automating strategic sourcing," said Albert Pang, e-commerce software research manager at IDC. "Frictionless Sourcing will clearly impact total cost and deliver the tools that companies need to make strategic sourcing more automated and collaborative. By utilizing Frictionless Sourcing, contract buyers and end-users can automatically collaborate in a way that successful sourcing demands."

Frictionless Commerce argues that, unlike competing solutions, its sourcing software unifies the sourcing process, integrating expenditure analysis, market data, strategy development and negotiations, as well as vendor terms and performance information.

Frictionless Sourcing includes customizable templates that address specific categories of spend. Also, Frictionless Sourcing allows buyers to evaluate goods and services on multiple dimensions, from quantity to delivery to service plans, and instantly score intricate supplier proposals.

"We have been impressed by the scope of Frictionless' strategic sourcing software and their holistic approach to automating what are very complex processes," said Mead McGuire, director for strategic procurement at Hasbro. "Frictionless Sourcing offers us the collaboration, automation and advanced functionality to bring serious value and ease-of-use to the process."

"Sourcing is in many ways the last un-automated area in the enterprise and it stands to benefit tremendously through automation," said Kent Godfrey, Chairman and CEO of Frictionless Commerce. "It is staggering that although more than 70 percent of the cost reduction opportunities in purchasing occur in the sourcing process, no solutions have ever been developed to help companies in this area. Organizations need software solutions that address these enormous costs. Companies that do not invest in sourcing automation will be left behind."