CombineNet Launches Strategic Sourcing Solution for Retail

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- CombineNet, Inc., the leading provider of best-in-class online sourcing technology solutions for global supply chains, announced today its launch of the CombineNet Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution to advance the efficiency and effectiveness of procurement in the retail industry. CombineNet's Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution is based on the company's long-standing experience serving retailers for spends not sufficiently addressed by other procurement suites, supply chain applications and ERP systems. 

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CombineNet's advanced sourcing solutions are used by seven of the Top 20 retailers in the U.S. and 17 of the Top 200 retailers in the world to improve the procurement of non-merchandising spends that make up significant volumes and have moderate to high degrees of complexity. Those spends often include store construction, remodels, and maintenance; merchandising displays and furnishings; store facility services; and transportation services.

"Sourcing complexity for non-merchandising spends within the retail industry is driven by numerous retail store locations, large potential pools of regional and national suppliers and transportation carriers, and the number of internal and regional stakeholders involved in setting preferences and influencing decisions – all factors successfully addressed by the CombineNet Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution," stated CombineNet's vice president of marketing Jennifer Sikora.

The CombineNet Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution offering includes:

• Subscription access to the CombineNet ASAP® advanced e-sourcing product for supporting eRFI, eRFP, and e-auction needs, and backed by 21 U.S. patents.
• Rapid start-up tools for key retail spend categories. Those tools include RFP, RFI, and pre-configured e-sourcing event templates for important retail categories across a variety of direct and indirect spends.
• A Retail Best Practices knowledge center for configuring CombineNet ASAP's Expressive Bidding® to engage in a more collaborative and creative online bidding process with suppliers, as well as support for other sourcing event management areas including cost model design, scenario rules creation, and bid analytics and optimization.
• Expert Services and Training to ensure the successful launch, management, and analysis of retail e-sourcing events. Services include sourcing event start-up consulting, RFP readiness reviews, product utilization coaching, advanced analytics training, and more.

With the CombineNet Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution, several of today's most critical retail procurement challenges are addressed:

• Aggregating spends across store locations for greater efficiencies and economies of scale, and without losing location-based preferences.
• Managing the costs, complexities, seasonality, and store network changes affecting transportation services procurement.
• Fulfilling the logistics and distribution needs of growing e-business operations.
• Supporting retailers' focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility, through comprehensive supplier qualification and analysis, as well as reduced-waste initiatives.

"Our retail customers continue to demonstrate the strong cost-saving and business improvement benefits to be gained by strategically sourcing non-merchandising spend categories that support store and supply chain operations," said Ms. Sikora. "The CombineNet Retail Sourcing Solution delivers a very effective combination of technology, best practices event tools, and expert services to help retailers get more spend under management and to cash in on the rewards."

CombineNet's Retail Strategic Sourcing Solution is priced by number of users and offers a tremendous value by bundling technology, best practices tools and content, and expert services support in one package.  More information is available at http://www.combinenet.com/solutions/industries/retail-procurement.php.

About CombineNet 
CombineNet, Inc. delivers award-winning best-in-class e-sourcing software solutions through its products CombineNet ASAP® for advanced e-sourcing, CombineNet Spend Analysis, and CombineNet Contract Management. Using these Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based sourcing products, CombineNet customers can rapidly adopt proven solutions for increasing spend under management and improving enterprise spend insights. Now in its twelfth year in business, CombineNet is known for its track record in driving significant bottom-line and productivity savings for its clientele which includes: Sears, Macy's, Rite Aid, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Reckitt Benckiser, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, SAB Miller, Hershey's, Smithfield Foods, Wendy's QSCC, UFPC/Yum! Brands, and many more Global 2000 firms.

SOURCE CombineNet, Inc.

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