Verticalnet Advanced Sourcing Solution Helps Leading Manufacturer Minimize the Impact of Increasing Costs for Global Ocean Freight Shipping

Leading Chemical and Lubricant Manufacturing Customer Expands a Successful Three-Year Relationship with Verticalnet to Optimize Savings and Effectiveness

Malvern, PA – September 15, 2005 Verticalnet, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERT), a leading provider of supply management solutions, announced today that a major chemical and lubricant manufacturer has expanded its successful three-year relationship with Verticalnet. The large manufacturing customer is leveraging the Verticalnet® Negotiation Manager to accelerate and improve negotiated savings through online auctions and eRFX events. The customer also selected Verticalnet’s Advanced Sourcing solution, which leverages a combination of Verticalnet's sourcing domain specialists as well as sophisticated, market-tested optimization technology allowing the customer to quickly achieve bottom-line cost saving results for ocean freight shipping. A major consideration in the customer’s ultimate selection of Verticalnet was the ability of the Verticalnet Advanced Sourcing solution to handle the complexities of an ocean sourcing initiative for the entire corporation. The powerful combination of Verticalnet’s Negotiation Manager and Advanced Sourcing solution will allow the customer’s worldwide suppliers to bid in a manner that best highlights their capabilities to serve the diverse ocean routes between North America, Asia and Europe. The collaborative sourcing approach offered by Verticalnet makes it possible to build efficient and reliable relationships between the shipper and transporters.

"We are pleased to see our valued software customer extend their relationship with Verticalnet to include such a strategic area of supply management as ocean freight sourcing," said Nathanael V. Lentz, President and CEO of Verticalnet. "The combination of Verticalnet software and our deep category expertise provides a strong foundation for delivering significant ongoing savings in our customer’s strategic categories."

Lentz continued, "As ocean freight capacity and fuel prices continue to experience incredible volatility, it’s absolutely critical that global shippers identify the right transportation providers based on a number of factors, not just cost. We continue to see interest in our supply management and Advanced Sourcing solutions from large global companies that are focused on creating mutually-beneficial relationships in the complex ocean freight sourcing category." Lentz concludes, "We remain optimistic about the opportunities to expand our presence in this marketplace."

Source : Verticalnet

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