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Strategies & Market Trends : Can you beat 50% per month? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (6943)	2/23/2004 9:02:10 AM
From: Findit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

ICGE up in PM on news of AV news - PHILADELPHIA, Feb 23, 2004 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- ICG Commerce, a leading procurement services provider, today announced it has come to an agreement to provide procurement business process outsourcing (BPO) services to Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV), a leading global provider of communications networks and serv ices for businesses. ICG Commerce will provide Avaya with supplier enablement, transaction processing and content management services to address the company's full range of indirect purchasing commodities. In addition, ICG Commerce will provide in-depth strategic sourcing, category management and contract management for a majority of indirect buying categories. ICG Commerce is a comprehensive procurement services provider committed to helping companies maximize procurement cost savings and achieve other procurement objectives through a full suite of procurement services including Sourcing, Purchase-to-Pay Automation and Outsourcing. The company is considered to be at the forefront of procurement outsourcing, leveraging a comprehensive infrastructure of technology, category experts and process specialists, to manage key activities for over fifty companies. As AMR Research analyst Pierre Mitchell has stated, 'ICG Commerce is the poster child of a burgeoning outsourced procurement industry.' 'Our selection of ICG Commerce factors into our overall procurement strategy to leverage the expertise and resources of a leading procurement services provider to realize gains in cost savings and improve the delivery of procurement services to Avaya,'said Onye Uzoukwu, vice president, Avaya Global Procurement. 'Outsourcing select non-core commodities and processes to ICG Commerce gives us the ability to concentrate on more strategic objectives while still effectively managing Avaya's indirect commodity spending.' As companies seek to focus more on their core competencies as vehicles for top-line growth, outsourcing becomes an attractive means to retain that concentration. According to Aberdeen Group, outsourcing non-core procurement activities or commodities allows companies to avoid the burdens of building and maintaining an advanced procurement infrastructure for categories of spend that are either non-strategic or do not warrant additional resources, while improving savings levels, visibility and control. Such strategic benefits have led nearly 20 percent of large enterprises to outsource at least a portion of their procurement activities already, with that figure expected to more than double over the next three years. 'We believe companies should view outsourcing as a key part of their broader procurement strategy and a cost-effective means of maximizing savings and performance in non-core spend categories,'said Jason Gilroy, vice president of Outsourcing for ICG Commerce. 'Naturally, many of our customers want to focus their time and resources on their most strategic, direct buying categories and activities and thus do not have dedicated experts to support those that are non-core. ICG Commerce can deliver cost-effective resources, expertise and technology to strategically manage these other categories and ensure savings are driven to the bottom line.' 'We view ICG Commerce's established processes and strategies for managing indirect spend as an enhancement to our internal processes,'said Joe Siciliano, Senior Manager of Global Procurement Operations for Avaya. 'The procedures and measurements they have in place to increase compliance and improve supplier performance are expected to play a role in achieving our savings targets.' ICG Commerce currently provides a variety of outsourcing services to meet company specific objectives. Select examples include: provision of an onsite procurement team and fully hosted suite of purchasing tools for a major IT network services firm; management of transactional buying for a Fortune 100 conglomerate; and management of sourcing, purchasing and supplier performance for a major industrial manufacturer. 'Avaya is among the leaders that have already recognized the significant value a procurement outsourcing relationship can bring to a company,'said Edward H. West, chairman and CEO of ICG Commerce. 'We look forward to delivering this value in a measurable way and to a long and successful partnership.' About ICG Commerce, Inc. ICG Commerce ( www.icgcommerce.com ) is the leading Procurement Services Provider delivering total procurement cost savings through an unmatched combination of deep expertise and hosted technology. ICG Commerce provides a comprehensive range of solutions to help companies identify savings through sourcing, realize savings through implementation and purchase-to-pay automation and drive continuous improvements through ongoing category management. ICG Commerce Inc., a privately held company founded in 1992, is a member of Internet Capital Group's (Nasdaq: ICGE) network of partner companies and has been honored as a Forbes Best of the Web: B2B, UPSIDE Magazine Hot 100 and iSource 100 company as well as had its executives recognized among the iSource 'Pros to Know'. About Avaya Avaya Inc. ( avaya.com ) designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results. SOURCE ICG Commerce Genevieve Brill of ICG Commerce, +1-215-649-1494, or gbrill@icgcommerce.com ; or Brittany Morris of Ruder-Finn, +1-312-329-3983, or morrisb@ruderfinn.com avaya.com Copyright (C) 2004 PR Newswire. All rights reserved. © 2004 StockHouse.com \| Disclaimer