Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Consulting and Relationship Management Firm Convergys Using Ketera On Demand Spend Management to Help Cut Procurement Costs

Ketera, the leading On Demand Spend Management provider, today announced that Convergys Corporation (NYSE:CVG), a global leader in relationship management, is the largest Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) company to implement the complete suite of spend management solutions from Ketera. Businesses are always seeking cost savings to increase business value and profitability – and many industry leaders like Convergys are leveraging Ketera’s solution to help automate procurement processes, drive down spend on goods and services, and minimize on-premise infrastructure investments. The Convergys deployment is now live in North America with continued roll-out expected globally.

With 75,000 employees around the globe, Convergys is one of the world’s leading relationship management providers. As part of a strategy to improve operational efficiencies and gain a competitive edge for its services business, Convergys sought a single, standardized company-wide procure-to-pay system with a low-cost technology infrastructure investment.

Convergys Director of Global Procurement Operations Perneet Malhotra says the company is already realizing the benefits of Ketera’s suite of spend management services. “Ketera was the vendor of choice that could help us standardize our procurement best practices on a single web-based platform,” he says.

Convergys currently uses three Ketera solutions – procurement/invoicing, contract management and spend analysis. The procurement solution was rolled out to 1,300 users and 800 suppliers. The contract management solution was rolled out in 14 weeks across North America, India and the Philippines. Convergys has also rolled out Ketera’s spend analysis solution and will have access to Ketera’s on demand procurement and payment tools.

Ketera Chairman and CEO Steve Savignano says that with this deployment, Convergys now adds over 3,000 users - including both buyers and suppliers - to the industry-leading and rapidly growing Ketera community network.

“Convergys is one of the largest Business Process Outsourcers, and its use of Ketera’s technology platform and procurement best practices is helping it sustain market leadership even in a today’s challenging economy,” Savignano says. “Today’s announcement further validates Ketera’s vision for changing the economics of spend management by offering these capabilities in a Software as a Service model and demonstrates how companies of all types and sizes are turning to Ketera to improve their bottom line.”

Ketera’s Software as a Service (SaaS) based spend management suite includes spend analysis, sourcing, contract management, procurement and supplier management solutions to automate and improve operational efficiencies and supply chain efficiency. The system integrates information from a variety of sources, including existing applications and data sources, such as PeopleSoft.

About Ketera

Ketera is the leading provider of On Demand Spend Management solutions. The company's groundbreaking vision and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings are changing the economics of spend management, enabling businesses to control and reduce corporate spending as well as access the world's fastest-growing community of buyers and suppliers. Ketera provides a complete suite of applications, services and community networks for spend analysis, sourcing, contract management, procurement, supplier enablement & content management, supplier performance management, and invoice management.

Since its inception, Ketera has supported enterprise customers of all sizes, industries and geographies, including numerous Fortune 500 companies. In 2007, Ketera surpassed $17 trillion in spend analyzed and more than $3 billion in transactions processed between buyers and suppliers. Many of the world’s leading enterprise companies, including ServiceMaster, American Express, Kennametal, Con-way, and Northrop Grumman Corporation, depend on Ketera Spend Management to deliver real, hard-dollar savings quickly. Ketera’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, Emergence Capital Partners, Foundation Capital, and Integral Capital Partners.

For more information about Ketera and the Ketera Spend Management suite of services, please visit: http://www.ketera.com.

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