CombineNet's New ASAP 4.5 Release Increases Buyer-Supplier Collaboration and Delivers Improved Sourcing Decision Power

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- CombineNet, Inc., the leading provider of advanced sourcing technologies, announced the release of version 4.5 of its Advanced Sourcing Application Platform (ASAP), a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that enables companies to capture more spend under management and drive additional savings across all corporate spend categories.  The new CombineNet ASAP 4.5 release features two major new enhancements:  Expressive Feedback, which increases the collaboration between buyers and suppliers to help reduce the costs of goods and services, and Scenario Analysis Configuration, an industry-first offering that puts more custom analysis power into the hands of sourcing managers and buyers.

"Sourcing and procurement executives are putting more emphasis on managing additional spend under a formal  e-sourcing process, which means their teams require tools that help them capture better information, make better decisions, and achieve better results," said Rich Wilson, President and COO of CombineNet.  "CombineNet supports these initiatives with innovative sourcing capabilities like Expressive Feedback and Scenario Analysis Configuration, helping sourcing teams to collaborate more strategically with suppliers for better information sharing, and for making better sourcing decisions with that information."

More details on CombineNet ASAP 4.5's major new features and enhancements include:

• Expressive Feedback:  Encourages more expressive, collaborative and timely information sharing between buyers and suppliers to improve the results of sourcing events.  Buyers can now employ a range of expressive feedback options, such as Bid Feedback and Supplier Feedback, to guide suppliers during the bidding cycle, enabling them to respond more strategically to meet the goals of the buying organization.  
  • Bid Feedback provides competitive feedback on individual bids for each item in a sourcing event, and can include Target pricing, Lowest price, % from Target, and Rank.
  • Supplier Feedback provides each supplier with personalized feedback on their overall bidding performance, which can include recommended actions to improve their competitive position in the sourcing event.
• Scenario Analysis Configuration: Sourcing managers can now create custom analysis rules to evaluate any combination of item, supplier and bid attributes in the analysis of sourcing award options. Those custom rules are developed using ASAP 4.5's easy wizard-driven configuration to create the necessary "What-if?" scenario models, which then harness the power of CombineNet's industry-leading scenario optimization capabilities.

As a web-based SaaS solution, these new features of CombineNet ASAP 4.5 are immediately available to all the product's users.  

CombineNet will present an overview of the new ASAP 4.5 capabilities in a public webinar on Thursday, February 24.  To register for the webinar, or to learn more about CombineNet ASAP 4.5, please visit: www.combinenet.com/asap-4-5?pr

About CombineNet

CombineNet, Inc. is the advanced sourcing technology company. CombineNet's ASAP product (Advanced Sourcing Application Platform) is an optimization-driven Software as a Service (SaaS) solution that helps customers deliver the absolute best total cost of goods and services based on their unique business needs.  CombineNet ASAP is used to speed, simplify, and centralize the sourcing of any and all spend categories from global suppliers: direct and indirect materials, all modes of transportation, and services. In the past 10 years, CombineNet has delivered more than $6 billion in bottom-line savings for businesses worldwide including General Mills, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, Bayer, Sears, Johnson & Johnson, and many more across all industries.  For more information, visit www.combinenet.com.

SOURCE CombineNet, Inc.