CombineNet Finds that Greater Than 70% of its Customers Use CombineNet Advanced Sourcing Product to Complement SAP®, Ariba®, Oracle®

PITTSBURGH, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CombineNet, Inc., the leading provider of best-in-class online sourcing technology solutions for global supply chains, today announced that a recent analysis of its customer base found that greater than seventy percent use the CombineNet ASAP® advanced sourcing product in the presence of either SAP®, Ariba® or Oracle® sourcing solutions. The remainder use CombineNet to replace other vendor offerings or desktop tools, mainly spreadsheets.

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"The most often-cited reason customers select CombineNet is to get more spend under management through an e-sourcing platform, by supporting larger, more complex spends or those that can benefit from sourcing optimization," said Rich Wilson, Chief Executive Officer of CombineNet. "Analysts and other sourcing surveys repeatedly find that even among industry leaders, only 30 to 35 percent of spend is handled through general sourcing applications. CombineNet ASAP offers an advanced, rapid-results e-sourcing solution proven by our Global 2000 customers to improve spend management and deliver substantial, additional cost savings."

"Since implementing CombineNet ASAP as an advanced sourcing solution, we have gained capabilities helping us to more than double the amount of spend e-sourced. With its flexible features such as Expressive Bidding that drives e-collaboration with suppliers and its sourcing optimization power for improved scenario analysis, CombineNet has been a valuable addition to our global strategic sourcing process," said Jacob Gorm Larsen, Global E-Sourcing Manager at A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.

CombineNet ASAP delivers robust and flexible e-sourcing functionality and sourcing optimization power complements offerings from SAP, Ariba and Oracle without disruption. CombineNet ASAP specifically adds benefits in three main areas:

• Ease in Handling Larger-Scale, More Complex Events – CombineNet ASAP enables rapid, easy launch and management of online sourcing events in multiple formats (RFIs, RFPs, and next generation E-Auctions), across all spend types and sizes. On the higher end, e-sourcing events having more than 1,000 items per event represent 20% of events conducted in CombineNet ASAP.
• Expressive Bidding® -- A concept introduced in the early 2000's by CombineNet, the product allows for the collection and analysis of both price and non-price information from suppliers, increasing the benefits of buyer-supplier collaboration and savings.  Such information may include capacity, sustainable sourcing practices, packaged or bundled bids, conditional offers, alternative proposals at the item level, and whatever else the buyer wishes to collect and assess.
• Industry-leading Sourcing Optimization – Now with 21 U.S. patents for optimization methodologies, CombineNet translates that intelligence to user-friendly features for creating and analyzing any desired number of "what-if" scenarios to determine optimal supplier award decisions based on a customer's individual business rules. CombineNet ASAP's optimization engine is designed for speed, with 94% of sourcing scenarios processed in less than 10 seconds.

CombineNet ASAP is a cloud-based, software-as-a-service product allowing for quick training and rollout. Full return on investment is typically realized following the first e-sourcing event conducted in CombineNet, as found through recent customer analysis. Further, customers can integrate CombineNet ASAP more closely with existing procurement suite applications through the use of data import and export utilities, and the product offers an API framework for developing automated custom integration with enterprise applications.

CombineNet will present more about its advanced sourcing solution as a complement to SAP, Ariba and Oracle in a live webcast on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM EST. The event will also feature Aberdeen Group and highlights of their recent strategic sourcing benchmark report, which looks at advanced sourcing practices.

To attend the June 27 webcast presentation, please register at: http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=481638&s=1&k=0EC8C27E43ECEC6E0E28DFF268C6ACFD&partnerref=copr

Or visit our website for more solution information at: http://www.combinenet.com/solutions/erpprocurementsuites.aspx

SAP® is a registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. Ariba® is a registered trademark of Ariba, Inc. Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle.

About CombineNet
CombineNet, Inc. delivers award-winning best-in-class e-sourcing software solutions through its products CombineNet ASAP® for advanced e-sourcing, CombineNet Spend Analysis, and CombineNet Contract Management. Using these Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based sourcing products, CombineNet customers can rapidly adopt proven solutions for increasing spend under management and improving enterprise spend insights. Now in its twelfth year in business, CombineNet is known for its track record in driving significant bottom-line and productivity savings for its clientele which includes: Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Sears, Johnson & Johnson, A.P. Moller-Maersk, Bayer, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, AstraZeneca, and many more Global 2000 firms.  www.combinenet.com

SOURCE CombineNet, Inc.