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Wesupply.com partners with IBM to Deliver On Demand Supply Chain Management Solutions to over 10,000 Customers

30 January 2007

Wesupply.com today announced it has joined IBM's PartnerWorld Industry Networks to develop and deliver solutions that meet customer requirements in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Industrial (Manufacturing), Building & Construction, Automotive, Retail and Distribution industries.

The collaboration will allow both Wesupply.com and IBM to offer leading On Demand SCM products and solutions to customers, hosted on IBM's On Demand infrastructure at IBM facilities. Customers are seeking solutions that can help them better integrate processes and applications and allow them to quickly respond to changing market opportunities - all key elements in transforming to an On Demand business.

Wesupply.com is the emerging Global leader in On Demand Supply Chain Management (SCM) solutions with over 250 clients and over 1000 companies connected to its network in 16 countries throughout Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The company's On Demand solutions provide a collaborative network that can link an organisation to differing systems and technologies across internal divisions, plants, branches, suppliers, logistics providers and customers. Organisations linked to the network gain inventory and process visibility across the extended supply chain and are able to rapidly sense and respond to changes in supply and demand.

In addition Wesupply.com offers a number of configurable Collaborative Modules in the areas of Customer Collaboration, Network Intelligence, Sales and Operations Planning, Forecast Collaboration, Vendor Managed Inventory, Perfect Order Management, Offshore & Contract Manufacturing, Inter-Plant Management, Automatic Branch Replenishment, Process Compliance and many others.

The company has a proven track record in delivering rapid collaborative supply chain projects for specific industries supported by the in-depth expertise of employees world-wide. Over a number of years Wesupply.com has built a portfolio of expertise in specific core disciplines - these Industry sectors include: Automotive, Building, Consumer Packaged Goods, Distribution, Industrial, Packaging, Retail, Food and Beverage.

Wesupply.com and IBM are already working together on a number of successful SCM client projects: Zero Lead Time - Zero Admin - Zero Error: Cummins Generator Technologies (formerly Newage AVK SEG) is a world leader in electrical power generation and distribution equipment serving the power generation, power quality and power protection market segments. Cummins investigated the market for a supply chain solution that would enable the sharing of common, real-time information across its supply network. The challenge for Wesupply.com was to provide the client's customers with short but achievable lead times and to improve communication with suppliers through greater visibility across the supply chain as well as enhance inventory and 'goods received' accuracy. Wesupply.com implemented its proven collaborative value assessment to determine the full scope of issues, project and requirements to be met. There was the use of Wesupply.com's Rapid Integration facility for extended visibility and system-to-system communication throughout the entire supply network. Wesupply.com implemented a range of collaborative

Trading solutions to address specific business process issues including Kanban fulfilment. The resulting benefits were total visibility of the demand and fulfilment process for all supply chain participants. The payback resulted in a 12% improvement in supplier on-time performance and 68% reduction in 'out of stock', 25% improvement in the procure-to-pay process and 20% improvement in distribution/warehousing costs.

This successful project has received two major awards: the Best of British Supply Chain Award for 'outstanding ROI measures and benefits from IT in supply chain' and the AMR Analysts European Innovator's Award.

Customer Integration strategies, low-cost global manufacturing and the need for competitive differentiation are changing how manufacturers, retailers and others need to collaborate with one another. Most organisations have ERP and planning technology in place. On Demand SCM compliments these differing technologies and systems and allows a community to electronically trade and collaborate with one another.

"IBM truly understands both Global Supply Chain collaboration and a diverse range of technologies. Wesupply.com & IBM are ideally suited to assist companies wishing to execute an On Demand SCM initiative," said Brian Marsden, CEO of Wesupply.com.

"PartnerWorld Industry Networks is helping ISVs, like Wesupply.com, to develop customised, industry solutions for customers," said Gabriel Tal, director of ISV & Developer Relations, IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa. "Customers aren't seeking a one-size-fits-all solution -- they want tailored, industry-specific solutions that can help solve their business challenges. Through PartnerWorld Industry Networks, IBM is working closely with Wesupply.com to deliver open and flexible solutions to match our customers' needs."

The IBM PartnerWorld Industry Networks provide ISVs with comprehensive business insight, technical resources, networking opportunities, and marketing and sales support designed to help them reach more customers and close deals faster. Participants in the PartnerWorld Industry Networks can team with IBM to bring on demand solutions to market more easily and to ensure these solutions meet specific industry needs, reflecting how customers buy technology today.

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