GXS Advantage Services to Automate and Expand Participation in Actaris Trading Community
LONDON and GAITHERSBURG, Md.—April 6, 2005 — GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced that Actaris, a leader in the design and manufacture of metering products and systems for the utilities markets, has selected GXS Advantage Services to rapidly deploy a global B2B outsourcing solution for more than 1,000 customers, suppliers and trading partners. GXS Advantage Services is a continuum of offerings that provide comprehensive community, professional and managed B2B outsourcing services supporting global B2B deployments. Actaris now will have the infrastructure to dramatically increase its trading partner community and drive business growth, while simultaneously reducing working capital.
Prior to establishing this business relationship with GXS, Actaris administered an internally supported and managed data exchange program with 80 trading partners, utilizing traditional EDI software systems. This solution did not offer the scalability and reach necessary to support Actaris’ aggressive future growth plans. Additionally, rigorous and time consuming software maintenance needed to support this system diverted Actaris IT resources away from the organization’s core business of delivering meters and systems for the electricity, gas, water and heat markets. Now, leveraging GXS Advantage Services, Actaris expects to ramp and deploy the first 400 customers and suppliers, in more than 40 locations worldwide, during 2005. Actaris also will recommend GXS as its preferred B2B solutions provider to its entire trading community.
“In considering the next phase of our B2B e-commerce strategy, we needed to identify a strategic business partner that would help us reduce working capital, enhance business growth and increase cash flow, not merely act as a software vendor,” said Gustavo Civantos, CIO at Actaris. “After careful evaluation of available solutions, it was clear that GXS would deliver significant value to our organization. With GXS Advantage Services, we have world-class B2B technology, coupled with deep expertise and best practices to help us design, execute and manage a strategy for streamlining and growing our global trading community of suppliers and customers.”
GXS Advantage Services will allow Actaris to establish e-business trading relationships with customers using a variety of different protocols and data formats, including EDI, AS2 and FTP. GXS allows Actaris to enable the automation of B2B transactions with its trading community, while shielding companies from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative efforts and enabling a higher level of process integration and business intelligence. With the resulting flexibility and ability to streamline its trading community, Actaris can realign internal resources to focus on core business priorities.
“For organizations like Actaris, rapid time-to-value and the ability to scale quickly to support trading community growth are critical success factors in effective supply chain management,” said Steve Keifer, vice president of solutions and product marketing at GXS. “With access to a community of more than 30,000 trading partners worldwide through the GXS Trading Grid, Actaris has exponentially increased its ability to reach new trading partners around the world. And, by freeing its internal resources to work on core business objectives, instead of its managing B2B technology infrastructure, Actaris now can concentrate on its core business of delivering metering systems.”
As a key component of the GXS Trading GridSM platform, GXS Advantage Services offer the technical infrastructure to conduct a global B2B program, including data translation, transaction visibility, systems administration, and robust reporting capabilities. In addition, GXS Advantage Services provide customers the B2B expertise to deliver world-class B2B program management, trading community management, and customer support. The GXS Trading Grid enables customers to automate transactions with their trading community while shielding companies from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative efforts and enabling a higher level of process integration and business intelligence.
“Connecting and collaborating with trading partners around the world is becoming increasingly important in the global economy,” said Kosin Huang, senior analyst, Business Applications and Commerce at Yankee Group. “In fact, the next wave of IT investments will come from technologies aimed at integrating and maximizing trading partner relationships. Many companies across the globe are relying on third-party service providers to provide not only superior technology capabilities, but also to provide the expertise to maximize trading community automation.”
About Actaris
Actaris is a world leader in the design and manufacturing of meters and associated systems for the electricity, gas, water and heat markets. Its innovative products and systems integrating the best-in class technologies are specially designed for public or private energy and water suppliers, services companies and industrial organisations. The group is active in more than 30 countries with a strong presence in Europe, Asia and South America. For more information, visit Actaris’ website at www.actaris.com.
About GXS
GXS (Global eXchange Services) is a leading worldwide provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration. Organizations worldwide, including over half of the Fortune 500, leverage the GXS Trading GridSM to achieve the perfect balance of supply and demand. Active in the global standards arena, GXS solutions enable customers both large and small, to connect with global partners, synchronize product information, optimize inventory levels and demand forecasts, and accelerate the execution of supply chains.
Headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS provides sales and support to businesses and their partners worldwide. For more information visit our Web site at www.gxs.com.
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