May 6, 2009 - London – IBX, the pioneer in the field of e-purchasing services and solutions, today announced it has signed a global agreement with SAP AG in the area of business process outsourcing (BPO), which includes cooperation related to full source-to-pay and contract management applications. Through this agreement, IBX will leverage SAP® applications to underpin it’s service delivery, while at the same time, complementing SAP solutions with purchasing expertise. In addition, IBX’s BPO services have qualified as “Powered by SAP”. SAP and IBX expect a positive business effect by cooperating in marketing and sales.   

Leveraging the “BPO Services Powered by SAP” program, the companies will deliver a go-to-market strategy designed to help customers reduce the total cost of service delivery via deployments of SAP solutions by improving application reliability and performance as well as reduce major risks associated with the outsourcing of business processes. The combination of IBX BPO services with SAP applications will enable customers to further ensure the reliability and maximize the value of their SAP solutions-based environment.

“In addition to being a perfect fit for the IBX Roadmap and closing gaps in our product portfolio, the SAP applications are a good strategic fit for our customers,” said Leif Bohlin, CEO at IBX. “By combining SAP applications with IBX purchasing knowledge and services, we can enhance our offerings to customers. We look forward to a close collaboration with SAP that will further improve our on-demand delivery to customers.”

SAP is the market-leading software vendor for e-purchasing and e-sourcing. IBX complements SAP solutions with procurement-specific expertise and business services, as well as managed services, innovative application modules (IBX Search Engine, IBX Content Platform), and the IBX Global Supplier Network.

SAP solutions have strong integration capabilities towards the existing IBX environment and customers’ ERP systems. This enables existing and potential customers of both SAP and IBX to run best-in-class purchasing software in an on-demand mode via IBX that adds purchasing and roll-out expertise. By leveraging the full potential of their organisation complying with standardized purchasing processes, customers can derive positive business results and clearly measurable savings.

“IBX provides proven purchasing expertise to customers using their services and solutions in more than 90 countries,” said Christian Baader, vice president of BPO for SAP.  “The qualification of their BPO services as ‘Powered by SAP’ is well-deserved and should be a mark of trust for current and future customers of their service delivery. We are pleased to sign this new, global agreement with IBX, through which we are cooperating to deliver additional options to our customers.  Customers will be able to leverage IBX’ professional purchasing services and take advantage of the high ROI these services can deliver.” 

The global agreement with SAP took effect April 1, 2009 and includes cooperation in the areas of go-to-market, solution design and delivery as well as support;
• Full source-to-pay solutions leveraging the SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) application and e-sourcing technology
• New application for contract management
• IBX BPO services are now qualified as “Powered by SAP”