Andersen Consulting and B2Emarkets Join Forces to Help Companies Source Goods On the Internet; Strategic 'eSourcing' to Revolutionize Corporate Procurement.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 3, 2000

Andersen Consulting, a leading global management and technology consultancy, and B2Emarkets, Inc., a venture backed business-to-business eCommerce solutions provider, have joined forces to develop an innovative new solution that will enable companies to more effectively manage electronic sourcing on the Internet, the companies announced today. Andersen Consulting is teaming with B2Emarkets to deliver its online strategic sourcing management capabilities, and Andersen Consulting Ventures has a minority equity position in the company.

B2Emarkets enables companies to electronically research, plan and negotiate purchases with suppliers to achieve lower prices through increased leverage. Procurement professionals using the Web-based solution can strategically assess supplier capabilities and market conditions, develop electronic RFQs (Requests for Quote), conduct secure private or open-market negotiations, efficiently analyze competitive bids, and award business based on true market prices. The B2Emarkets product is the first comprehensive solution specifically targeted at the sourcing process.

Andersen Consulting will provide a range of consulting services to B2Emarkets and has licensed intellectual property (IP) to B2Emarkets to aid in developing its Strategic eSourcing Management (SSM) solution. In addition, the two companies have entered into a joint marketing alliance for the launch of the SSM solution, scheduled for the end of the first quarter of this year.

Initially, Rockville, Md.-based B2Emarkets will focus on industries characterized by large purchase volumes and complex supply chains, such as automotive or high tech manufacturing. &uot;Large organizations, particularly those with complex supply chains, can benefit tremendously from electronic negotiations through online sourcing, particularly with the rapid return on investment the solution enables. B2Emarkets makes it possible for these organizations to participate in the emerging Internet exchange economy,&uot; said John Cunningham, a partner with Andersen Consulting's North American Automotive &Industrial Equipment practice. &uot;By streamlining the sourcing process and bringing the power of strategic negotiations right to the desktop, they can operate much more efficiently.&uot;

&uot;Our SSM solution fills a critical void that exists in currently available electronic procurement solutions,&uot; said Orville Bailey, President and CEO of B2Emarkets. &uot;It provides a structured, strategic sourcing process to achieve negotiated contract savings, and is extremely complementary with solutions from other vendors such as Ariba or Commerce One, which automate the ordering process to help ensure compliance once negotiated contracts have been set.&uot;

B2Emarkets' functionality supports and facilitates the use of reverse auctions, such as those employed by FreeMarkets and others, in which suppliers engage in head-to-head Internet-enabled bidding to compete on the basis of lowest price. The SSM solution also enables procurement professionals to conduct strategic, private negotiations in which business or market conditions mandate limiting price visibility amongst potential suppliers. Its RFQ creation and supplier assessment modules can be easily integrated, via the XML (extensible mark-up language) standard, to third-party Internet Trading Exchanges (ITEs) to give corporate users a wide choice in how they select vendors.

The new solution allows procurement professionals to capture and share sourcing intelligence in corporate knowledge bases. Procurement professionals using B2Emarkets to engage in strategic eSourcing and eNegotiations will have access to information on not only their known, preferred suppliers, but will also be able to research new potential sources through established linkages with vertically-focused ITEs.

&uot;Our process seamlessly links to vertical exchanges such as a PlasticsNet or GM's new TradeXchange, as well as web directories like those which aggregate minority and women-owned suppliers,&uot; Bailey said. &uot;This allows users to get pricing or availability information, while leveraging SSM's capability to analyze business and market data, prepare RFQs, qualify sources, analyze bids and award business based on the lowest total cost.&uot;

Andersen Consulting is an $8.3 billion global management and technology consulting organization whose mission is to help its clients create their future. The organization works with clients from a wide range of industries to link people, processes and technologies to strategies. Andersen Consulting has approximately 65,000 people in 46 countries. Its home page address is www.ac.com.

B2Emarkets is a leading provider of strategic sourcing solutions for businesses around the world. The B2Emarkets Strategic eSourcing Management solution is the first strategic application of best practice e-sourcing processes, e-commerce technologies and decision support tools to identify lowest cost trading partners and streamlined supply chain relationships. B2Emarkets is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, visit its web site at www.B2Emarkets.com.