CombineNet Launches Strategic Sourcing Solution for the Food and Beverage Manufacturing Industry

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CombineNet, Inc., the leading provider of best-in-class online sourcing technology solutions for global supply chains, announced today its launch of the CombineNet Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution to support the complex e-sourcing needs in manufacturing, packaging, and distribution among food and beverage manufacturers. CombineNet's Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution is based on the company's long-standing experience and proven results in serving the some of the largest food and beverage manufacturing companies in the world.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120117/NE36384LOGO )

CombineNet's advanced sourcing solutions are used by eight of the top 15 global food manufacturers, and five of the world's largest beverage manufacturers to improve their procurement across a wide range of direct and indirect spend categories. Those customers have reported benefits in cost savings and cost optimization of ingredients, procurement productivity, supply chain and logistics efficiencies, supply base optimization, and increased spend under management.

The CombineNet Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution offering includes:

• Subscription access to the CombineNet ASAP® advanced e-sourcing product for supporting eRFI, eRFP, and e-auction needs, and backed by 21 U.S. patents.
• Rapid start-up tools for key food and beverage spend categories. Those tools include RFP, RFI, and pre-configured sourcing event templates for important food and beverage categories across a variety of direct and indirect spends.
• A Food and Beverage Best Practices knowledge center for configuring CombineNet ASAP's Expressive Bidding® to engage in a more collaborative and creative online bidding process with suppliers, as well as support for other sourcing event management areas including cost model design, scenario rules creation, and bid analytics and optimization.
• Expert Services and Training to ensure the successful launch, management, and analysis of food and beverage e-sourcing events. Services include event start-up consulting, RFP readiness reviews, coaching, advanced analytics training, and more.

With the CombineNet Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution, these manufacturers can more effectively address critical procurement challenges that they face today:

• Managing complex logistics for domestic ground/truckload transportation procurement as well as for ocean, air, and multi-modal needs.
• Aggregation and consolidation of purchasing power across multiple buying needs, to gain increased savings and operational efficiencies.
• Managing seasonality demands and reducing risk, by revealing and securing supplier and carrier commitments.
• Engaging more collaboratively with suppliers to drive innovations in food and beverage packaging materials and techniques.
• Managing costs in volatile and competitive markets, by collecting and analyzing detailed cost drivers and increasing supplier-buyer creative collaboration through CombineNet's Expressive Bidding approach.
• Ensuring product freshness, quality and sustainability by improved qualification of suppliers and by easily analyzing sourcing scenarios that factor in various business preferences.

"Thanks to our deep experience serving industry-leading global manufacturers of food and beverage products, CombineNet's Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution is designed to provide significant value for strategically sourcing key categories with great flexibility and ease," said Jennifer Sikora, CombineNet vice president of marketing. "These sourcing approaches consider what is important to our customers, including the selection of suppliers to ensure product quality and consistency, securing carriers having the right equipment and experience to move large volumes and handle seasonality, and to continually find the balance between cost reductions and product innovations in the sourcing process."

CombineNet's Food and Beverage Strategic Sourcing Solution is priced by number of users and offers a tremendous value by bundling technology, best practices tools and content, and expert services support in one package.  More information is available at http://www.combinenet.com/solutions/industries/food-beverage-procurement.php.

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: General Mills, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, SAB Miller, Hershey's, Smithfield Foods, Sears, Macy's, Rite Aid, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Wendy's QSCC, UFPC/Yum! Brands, and many more Global 2000 firms.

SOURCE CombineNet, Inc.