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Caterpillar and i2 Launch Strategic E-Business Alliance; New Initiative Expected to Revolutionize the Heavy Equipment and Engine Industries.


Business Editors & High Tech Writers

PLANET 2000

SAN DIEGO San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2000

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE NYSE

See: New York Stock Exchange
:CAT) and i2 Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ITWO ITWO I2 Technologies (stock abbreviation, AMEX) ) today announced a comprehensive strategic alliance to help transform Caterpillar's supply chain, logistics, planning and customer management business processes.

In one of the company's key strategic initiatives, Caterpillar will create an e-marketplace using the i2 TradeMatrix(TM) platform to link Caterpillar with its supplier and dealer base, to create a high velocity, optimized, build-to-order environment.

The companies announced the alliance today to more than 7000 New Economy decision makers at Planet 2000 San Diego, the world's largest B2B (Business to Business) Refers to one business communicating with or selling to another. See B2B e-commerce, B2C and B2G.

B2B - business to business
 e-business conference.

The goal of the initiative is to drive costs out of Caterpillar's business operations Business operations are those activities involved in the running of a business for the purpose of producing value for the stakeholders. Compare business processes. The outcome of business operations is the harvesting of value from assets  through faster product introduction cycles, more efficient design collaboration with suppliers, improved inventory management, and more cost effective ordering and fulfillment processes.

The two companies will create a private e-marketplace for enhancing collaboration between Caterpillar and its dealers and suppliers. In addition, i2 acquired certain Caterpillar software for component procurement The fancy word for "purchasing." The procurement department within an organization manages all the major purchases.  and sourcing, and intends to integrate it into the i2 TradeMatrix solution. Caterpillar also licensed an extensive suite of i2 software to optimize their internal operations.

Worldwide initiative will yield significant benefits

"This worldwide initiative will support our suppliers, dealers and customers and help us achieve substantial levels of cost and inventory reduction -- while at the same time increasing speed of delivery," said Glen Barton, Caterpillar Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "Installation has begun, and benefits will be immediate. In its first full year of operation, we anticipate a $100 million cost reduction. That number should grow significantly in subsequent years, making an important contribution to Caterpillar's target of taking more than $1 billion out of our cost base in the next few years."

The new initiative could eventually impact all Caterpillar business units as well as the company's suppliers and dealers. Savings are expected to accrue through improved supply chain efficiencies, streamlined global sourcing and procurement, optimized transportation and logistics, and enhanced collaboration with suppliers and dealers. The integrated e-business initiative should eventually link dealers and customers to Caterpillar operations and back through the entire supply chain in an intelligent build-to-order environment. Its goal is to create a fully integrated supply chain that seamlessly links global demand with global supply, and distributes finished products to meet customer-designated configurations and time frames.

i2 acquired certain Caterpillar software assets

In addition, i2 has acquired Caterpillar's proprietary software program for component procurement and sourcing, known as Web Engineering, Cataloging and Procurement (WECAP). i2 intends to integrate these capabilities into i2's TradeMatrix Buy Solution for the purpose of offering them to Caterpillar and other companies as part of a commercially-supported software product. The combined solution could then be rolled out to the more than 180 suppliers currently using WECAP and potentially all 21 Caterpillar business units.

Caterpillar information technology specialists designed the WECAP software program to better leverage the company's broad purchasing efforts across the corporation. Initially designed to buy hardware, office equipment, tooling, maintenance and packaging supplies, the software was expanded to include the engineering arena, allowing Caterpillar and suppliers to share graphics, product and process designs, similar parts lists and tooling drawings.

Lynn McPheeters, Caterpillar vice president and Chief Financial Officer, said, "We're pleased to be partnering with i2, one of the leading global providers of e-business solutions, to make this unique software available more broadly. The combined i2 and Caterpillar solution has the potential to revolutionize rev·o·lu·tion·ize  
tr.v. rev·o·lu·tion·ized, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·ing, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·es
1. To bring about a radical change in: Television has revolutionized news coverage.

2.
 the heavy equipment and engine industries as well as related manufacturing industries manufacturing industries nplindustrias fpl manufactureras

manufacturing industries nplindustries fpl de transformation

 by improving interactions with suppliers."

Strategic partnership builds on long relationship between Caterpillar and i2

Caterpillar's relationship with i2 spans more than 10 years, beginning with a pioneering effort at Caterpillar's Joliet component manufacturing facility to improve factory planning capabilities.

Earlier this year, Caterpillar's Performance Engine Products Division (PEPD) implemented an i2 TradeMatrix Solution to plan and schedule the division's operations, allowing PEPD to achieve manufacturing and supply chain efficiencies. In a presentation delivered at Planet 2000 San Diego, Caterpillar's PEPD Process Improvement Manager Jan Brown Janet (Jan) Corinne Brown (born June 22, 1947 in Nanaimo, British Columbia) is a former Canadian politician of Croatian descent. She was first elected as a Member of Parliament under the Reform Party of Canada ticket in the Alberta riding of Calgary Southeast in the 1993 federal  outlined benefits achieved by the project to date including: a $32 million reduction in product inventory, a 38 percent reduction in assembly cycle time, and an 80 percent reduction in assembly line re-sequencing.

In August 2000, in a precursor to the larger worldwide initiative, Caterpillar's Building Construction Products (BCP BCP Best Current Practice(s)
BCP Business Continuity Planning
BCP Business Continuity Plan
BCP Book of Common Prayer
BCP Banco Comercial Português
BCP Bureau of Consumer Protection (US Federal Trade Commission) 
) Division, made its first configured con·fig·ure  
tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures
To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses:
 Internet sale of construction equipment. This occurred after dealers began offering custom configuring and ordering of Skid Steer Loaders via the deployment of i2 decision support software. At the Cat Virtual Dealer Storefront, customers will be able to configure a product that suits their personal needs, including selecting from a wide array of custom-matched Caterpillar Work Tool Attachments, and making trade-offs between configuration and price. i2 TradeMatrix solutions will enable the factory to then schedule and sequence the build based on mix and complexity of orders received.

Caterpillar and i2 to co-market private e-marketplace

Caterpillar and i2 will work together to jointly co-market the e-marketplace and i2 solution to the heavy equipment industry. A program office and Center of Excellence (COE See common operating environment. ), staffed by employees from both companies, will manage and promote the initiative to manufacturers, dealers and suppliers in the industry.

"This strategic partnership brings together two companies with some of the strongest brand names in their respective industries," said i2 president Greg Brady Greg Brady is the name of:
  • Greg Brady, a character from The Brady Bunch
  • Greg Brady (broadcaster), presenter on WDFN
. "We see this as an important relationship in rapidly deploying the software throughout the heavy equipment industry."

About Caterpillar:

A Fortune 100 company, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. More than 67,000 employees around the world, design, manufacture, market and finance the broadest product line in the industry. The company recorded 1999 sales and revenues of $19.7 billion and has plans in place to achieve $30 billion in sales and revenues by 2006. Celebrating 75 years of making progress possible around the world, Caterpillar's vision is to be the global leader in providing customer value.

About i2:

i2 is creating real value for its global e-business customers through its i2 TradeMatrix Solutions, content and marketplace platform. i2 TradeMatrix allows businesses to create both private and public marketplaces, while improving the efficiencies of all participants. i2 provides a wide variety of collaborative e-business services for both the early stages and the next generation of e-business adoption, with each service supported by decision optimization, transaction management and content management solutions. Founded in 1988, i2's mission is to deliver $75 billion in value to its customers by 2005. i2 is headquartered in Dallas, has more than 5,000 employees, and maintains offices worldwide. Visit i2 at www.i2.com.

i2 and the i2 logo design are registered trademarks of i2 Technologies, Inc. i2 TradeMatrix and TradeMatrix are trademarks of i2 Technologies, Inc.

About PLANET:

PLANET(R)2000 San Diego, is a strategic business-to-business conference bringing together more than 7,000 industry decision makers committed to gaining a competitive advantage in The New Economy. Sponsors include Andersen Consulting See Accenture. , Ariba, Compaq, CSC (Card Security Code) A three- or four-digit number printed on the back of credit cards for security purposes. Called "Card Verification Value" (CVV) by Visa, "Card Validation Code" (CVC) by MasterCard and "Card Identification (CID) by American Express and Discover, , Deloitte Consulting, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, Siebel, Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , PricewaterhouseCoopers, Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA[3]) is an American vendor of computers, computer components, computer software, and information-technology services, founded on 24 February 1982. , i2 TradeMatrix, and i2.

i2 Cautionary Language

This press release may contain forward-looking statements forward-looking statement

A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections.
 that involve risks and uncertainties, including the customer's ability to implement i2 solutions successfully or to achieve benefits attributable to i2 products. For a discussion of factors which could impact i2's financial results and cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, please refer to i2's recent filings with the SEC, particularly the Form 10-K Form 10-K

A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information.


Form 10-K

See 10-K.
 filed March 22, 2000 and Form 10-Q Form 10-Q

See 10-Q.
 filed August 14, 2000.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2000, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Business Wire
Geographic Code:1USA
Date:Oct 10, 2000
Words:1268
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