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EMPTORIS ANNOUNCES ePASS VERSION 3.0 TO POWER ONLINE COLLABORATIVE STRATEGIC SOURCING

New Product Functionality Includes Demand Aggregation, Multi-tier Supplier Collaboration and Enhanced Decision Support

Burlington, Mass., May 21, 2001 - Emptoris, Inc., a leading provider of collaborative strategic sourcing solutions for Global 2000 companies and leading net markets, today announced the availability of ePASS 3.0, the latest version of the company's Web-based collaborative strategic sourcing solution. Combining new supplier relationship management and sourcing collaboration capabilities with Emptoris' industry-leading RFQ workflow and optimization-based decision support functionality, ePASS 3.0 enables end-to-end strategic sourcing and true collaboration across the entire sourcing landscape.

"ePASS 3.0 marks a dramatic expansion of our product offering and introduces the next phase of online purchasing where buyers and suppliers work collaboratively to create business benefits for all parties involved," said Avner Schneur, president and CEO of Emptoris. "Building on Emptoris' patent-pending RFQ management and decision support technology, ePASS 3.0 incorporates new collaborative sourcing capabilities to provide enterprises with an end-to-end solution that covers the entire strategic sourcing process, from spend analysis to supplier allocation and contract management. Enterprises using ePASS 3.0's collaborative sourcing platform will be able to build strong strategic sourcing relationships that will result in bottom line savings for both buyers and suppliers."

By implementing ePASS 3.0, multiple purchasing organizations across an enterprise can efficiently aggregate and disseminate their sourcing needs to their primary suppliers. Using ePASS 3.0's collaborative sourcing capabilities, primary suppliers can interact with other suppliers to quickly respond to the buyers' overall demand. Once all supplier bids are received, buyers can use ePASS 3.0's optimization-based decision support technology to quickly analyze all purchasing scenarios through scientific algorithms to come to the optimal supply base allocation. Combining advanced collaboration, RFQ workflow and decision support capabilities, ePASS 3.0 enables enterprises to streamline the strategic sourcing process, determine the optimal supply base allocation, and forge tighter buyer/supplier networks, allowing buyers to lower the total cost of ownership while enabling suppliers to differentiate themselves through product criteria, historical performance and flexible pricing structures.

"Effective sourcing relies heavily on collaboration within the enterprise and across the supply chain," said Tim Minahan, managing director of supply chain research at the Aberdeen Group, Inc. "Internal collaboration enables a company to understand its requirements and to identify opportunities for demand aggregation. Buyer-supplier collaboration facilitates innovation exchange and mutually beneficial negotiations. Cross-supplier collaboration allows suppliers to jointly bid on an RFQ in order to create a more competitive bid without sacrificing additional profit margins. ePASS 3.0 provides a sourcing collaboration platform that can deliver value across the entire supply chain."

ePASS 3.0 is a powerful collaborative strategic sourcing platform that supports the end-to-end sourcing activities¾including spend analysis, supplier strategy, sourcing event management, negotiation, supply base allocation, contract management and supplier performance monitoring¾ of multi-tier buyer/supplier networks. From start to finish, ePASS 3.0 leverages leading-edge collaboration and optimization-based decision support technology to enable enterprises to consider all purchasing variables, such as business rules and non-price factors, to make the best online sourcing decisions.

"When seeking a complimentary software solution for the strategic sourcing services offered by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's High Growth Practice, we looked for an application that would help our clients to make better and faster online sourcing decisions," said Susan DeVore, vice president in Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's High Growth Practice. "Emptoris' ePASS 3.0 sets the standard for strategic sourcing applications by empowering buyers and suppliers to efficiently work together to create the best purchasing scenarios. The heart of the solution is the combination of ePASS 3.0's collaborative sourcing workbench and optimization-based decision support engine that, in a matter of seconds, can analyze thousands of variables to come up with the optimal supply base allocation. Combining ePASS 3.0 with CGE&Y's strategic sourcing services, we are able to offer our clients a comprehensive, end-to-end sourcing solution."

Through patent-pending technology, ePASS 3.0 employs team-based collaboration tools for planning, scheduling, knowledge sharing, negotiation and decision-making activities. Additionally, Emptoris' advanced application infrastructure and software developer's toolkit (SDK) make ePASS 3.0 scalable across the enterprise and easily customizable to different vertical markets. ePASS 3.0 enables enterprises to rapidly deploy e-sourcing software, build collaborative buyer/supplier relationships and quickly optimize multi-parameter sourcing decisions to achieve the lowest total cost of ownership, resulting in a significant reduction in the sourcing cycle and cost savings that can total up to 30% of an enterprise's purchasing spend.

A New Era in Buyer and Supplier Collaboration
ePASS 3.0 is the first intelligent strategic sourcing solution based on advanced collaboration and optimization techniques. By combining industry leading workflow management, collaboration and decision support capabilities, ePASS 3.0 offers unparalleled flexibility in sourcing request, response and analysis to both buyers and suppliers. New collaborative and decision support features in ePASS 3.0 include:

Multi Tier Sourcing Collaboration
ePASS 3.0's collaborative sourcing features enable collaboration throughout the sourcing process, including collaboration across buyer/buyer, buyer/supplier and supplier/supplier networks. Features include:

• Demand Aggregation allows buyers to automatically aggregate like items across sourcing requests
• Multi-tier Quote Roll Up enables supplier networks to work together to formulate a single bid response by rolling up each supplier's subcomponents into one bid response

Supplier Relationship Management
ePASS 3.0's supplier relationship management capabilities provides buyers with a single location for access to all critical information necessary to identify, qualify and manage suppliers, including suppliers profiles, historical activity and performance scoring. Features include:

• Request For Information workflow and best practice templates
• Supplier Document Management
• Approved Vendor Lists (AVLs)

Enhanced Decision Support
Emptoris' industry-leading optimization-based decision support enables the best sourcing allocation in real-time. New features include:

• Optimization Models (including margin analysis, delivery date, supply base, contract compliance and mixed pricing decision-helpers)
• Award Justification
• ePASS Business Intelligence and Reporting Module

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