ICG Commerce Helps Indalex Drive Major
Cost Reductions Through Strategic Procurement Initiative
Fully Implemented Solution Facilitates Indirect Material
Purchasing and Unites Fragmented Purchasing Organization
with Supplier Base
PHILADELPHIA - Monday, July 14, 2003 - ICG Commerce,
a leading procurement services provider, today announced
the
successful completion of a nationwide roll out of a strategic
procurement initiative for Indalex Aluminum Solutions
Group,
the largest independent producer of soft alloy aluminum
products in North America. The solution was designed
to help
Indalex, a company that has grown significantly through
a series of mergers and acquisitions made by parent company
Novar plc, centralize its fragmented procurement function
in order to leverage its purchasing power with suppliers,
streamline procurement processes and gain more visibility
and control over company-wide procurement expenditures.
ICG
Commerce has already helped Indalex identify and implement
savings opportunities in ten core purchasing categories
at 14
manufacturing facilities in the United States and is
producing both significant hard dollar cost savings and
operational
efficiencies.
In order to maximize the savings and efficiencies realized
in indirect categories and ensure year over year cost
improvements, Indalex is leveraging ICG Commerce's full
range of procurement services. These services provide
the
company with leading edge technology and support across
the entire procurement process from strategic sourcing
to
purchase-to-pay transaction management and ongoing category
management.
Indalex and ICG Commerce began by thoroughly analyzing
company expenditures to identify savings opportunities.
The two companies leveraged a variety of sourcing strategies
including pre-sourced aggregation-based agreements to
establish preferred supplier relationships for each of
the key categories. In order to ensure that the identified
savings are
actually realized, ICG Commerce has executed a comprehensive
savings implementation process that entailed
connecting both buyers and suppliers through RealExchangeSM.
RealExchange, ICG Commerce's fully hosted purchase-to-pay
platform, provides all Indalex buyers a single point
of
access to preferred supplier catalogs while streamlining
the buying and payment processes and increasing purchasing
compliance, control and visibility. IGC Commerce will
also provide ongoing management of these indirect categories
and supplier relationships to continuously improve upon
savings for Indalex in the future.
RealExchange has been integrated with Indalex's JD Edwards
and Lawson ERP systems, providing one common
purchasing platform across all manufacturing sites. This
integration allows for increased visibility and firm
control over
company expenditures. Additionally, Indalex will soon
be receiving invoices electronically, allowing for full
procurement automation, all the way from "requisition" to "check",
and alleviating the burden and costs associated
with manual processing. Indalex users are currently utilizing
RealExchange to purchase from 28 preferred suppliers
in
categories such as Chemicals, Electrical Supplies, General
Industrial Supplies, Janitorial Supplies, Lumber, Office
Supplies, Packaging, Power Transmissions/Bearings, and
Forms and Labels.
"Having joined Indalex after the
implementation had already begun, I was initially skeptical
that we
would see savings,
"
said Dale Prows, Vice President of Procurement for Indalex, "but
I am very pleased with the results and success of
the program which is in large part due to the dedication
our plants and buyers have shown in adopting the new
system."
Soon, Indalex will take advantage of ICG Commerce's
electronic Vendor Managed Inventory (eVMI) services.
eVMI
allows suppliers to take a more active role in managing
inventory, enabling them to place orders via RealExchange
on
the customer's behalf against a pre-approved purchase
order.
"Having never worked with e-procurement
technology before, I was pleasantly surprised at how
easy it was
to get up
and running on RealExchange and more and more I'm finding
that it saves me a significant amount of time placing
orders," said Indalex Purchasing Manager, Linda
Liguori. "Once you put your rules and parameters
in place, everything
flows very smoothly through the exchange. With the coming
eVMI capability, the responsibility for managing
inventory falls primarily to the supplier, which makes
sense from an administrative standpoint."
"Procurement cost reductions and
efficiencies are particularly significant for companies
who have grown
via merger
and acquisition but continue to manage sourcing and procurement
in a disparate or siloed manner," said Edward H.
West, chairman and CEO for ICG Commerce. "Indalex's
procurement strategy is a perfect example of how utilizing
a
holistic approach to find and fully implement both process
and cost improvement opportunities can have a measurable
impact on company performance. We look forward to expanding
our relationship with Indalex to further identify,
realize and improve upon savings and streamlining results."
About Indalex Aluminum Solutions Group
Indalex Aluminum Solutions Group is North America's only
truly continent-wide extruder of engineered aluminum
components. The company operates 16 extrusion facilities
and three aluminium billet casting operations in the
United
States and Canada, employing approximately 4,000 people.
A customer-focused, Total Quality business, Indalex
Aluminum Solutions Group serves a wide range of customers
in diverse markets including Information Technology,
Consumer Durables, Electrical, Building & Construction,
Transportation and others.
Source : ICG Commerce, Inc.
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