WHITE PLAINS, NY, July 13, 2000 -- The WorldWide Retail Exchange
(WWRE), the world's leading retail e-marketplace, today announced
the selection of its technology partner, the e-business alliance
of IBM (NYSE: IBM), i2 Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITWO) and Ariba,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA).
The WWRE is an independent, member-owned, neutral organization
that will permit participating retailers to conduct a full range
of food, non-food, textile and drug e-commerce transactions with
individual suppliers, independent of one another. With its technology
partner selected, the Exchange will quickly become operational
with first auctions scheduled to occur this summer.
"The Ariba-i2-IBM alliance won this multiyear, multimillion-dollar
contract on the basis of the breadth, scope and depth of the capabilities
it has shown it can bring to bear on our requirements, its proven
ability to implement solutions quickly and by acting as a unified
entity in responding to our issues and needs during the selection
process," said Patrick Steele, head of technology and operations
for the WWRE and Albertson's executive vice president of information
systems and technology. "Demonstrating a clear understanding of
our needs, the Alliance reached beyond its core members to bring
us the valuable additional capabilities of Syncra Systems, viaLink,
QRS and Retek," said Steele.
"The technology platform that the alliance will build and manage
for us will enable current member retailers, others who choose
to join us, and our vendors and suppliers to increase efficiencies
and reduce costs through improved communication and streamlined
processes," said Gerald Storch, head of marketing for the WWRE
and Target Corporation president of financial services and new
business. "Through technology, the Exchange will improve current
relationships and build new ones between retailers and their suppliers
and vendors, creating cost reductions throughout the supply chain
that will ultimately translate into lower prices for consumers."
"The Exchange supports what is happening in our industry today.
We're seeing an increased use of technology across all retail
sectors to reduce waste and increase efficiency in the overall
supply chain," said Storch.
"A central tenet of the WWRE is to leverage standards such as
the CPFR guidelines developed by the Voluntary Interindustry Commerce
Standards (VICS) Association, as well as emerging XML and Internet
standards," said Steele.
2--WorldWide Retail Exchange Selects IBM-i2-Ariba
IBM will provide system integration and host the exchange, which
will be powered by the Ariba¨ B2B Commerce Platform and i2's TradeMatrixª
solutions. Ariba will provide its Ariba Marketplace, Ariba Dynamic
Trade and Ariba Buyer Solutions together with access to commerce
services ranging from logistics services such as total landed
cost calculation to financial services such as e-payments. i2
will also provide components to manage retail collaboration, design
collaboration, supply chain visibility and catalog management
services.
Syncra Systems will provide collaborative planning, forecasting
and replenishment (CPFR) capabilities. The viaLink Company's syncLinkSM
service will provide the electronic pricebook for synchronized
product, price and promotion data. QRS will provide access to
its Keystoneª catalog, as well as network services. Retek will
provide access to its design collaboration solution.
"e-Commerce and the Internet have more to offer retailers than
a new kind of storefront," said Terry Turner, group vice president,
i2. "The Internet can be used to unleash retailers' and suppliers'
hidden assets so they can operate more efficiently, keeping their
costs down while serving their customers better. The WWRE is a
visionary effort by retailers to collaborate for the benefit of
all. We're proud to be part of this effort."
"The selection of our alliance as a preferred technology provider
demonstrates the superiority of our technology and is a vote of
confidence that the alliance has no equal in helping to transform
businesses," said Christian Nivoix, IBM general manager, Distribution
Sector.
"The WWRE has the potential to quickly become one of the largest
B2B marketplaces in the world based on the critical mass of spend
and transaction volumes represented by its extensive global roster
of leaders in the retail industry," said Paul Work, vice president,
industry solutions, Ariba. "The combined resources and market-proven,
best-of-breed solutions of Ariba, IBM and i2 are uniquely capable
of meeting the global requirements of the WWRE with the shortest
possible time-to-liquidity."
About the WorldWide Retail Exchange
The WWRE (www.worldwideretailexchange.org)
is a Web-based business-to-business exchange designed to facilitate
and simplify trading between retailers and more than 100,000 suppliers,
partners and distributors. Consisting of leading retailers from
Asia, Europe and the United States, the WWRE is open to all suppliers
and retailers who wish to use it. Jointly, the member companies
of the Exchange operate nearly 50,000 stores worldwide and have
combined sales of more than $450 billion (U.S.) or 450 billion
Euros.
3ÐWorldWide Retail Exchange Selects IBM-i2-Ariba . . .
Current members of the WorldWide Retail Exchange include: Albertson's
(U.S.), Auchan (France), Best Buy (U.S.), Casino (France), CVS
(U.S.), Dairy Farm International (Hong Kong), Delhaize (Belgium),
El Corte Ingles (Spain), Gap Inc. (U.S.), J.C. Penney (U.S.),
Jusco (Japan), Kingfisher (U.K.), Kmart (U.S.), Marks & Spencer
(U.K.), Rite Aid Corporation (U.S.), Royal Ahold (The Netherlands),
Safeway, Inc. (U.S.), Safeway plc (U.K.), SUPERVALU INC. (U.S.),
Target (U.S.), Tesco (U.K.) and Walgreens (U.S.).
About the IBM/i2/Ariba Alliance
In March, IBM, i2 and Ariba announced a strategic alliance to
create a broad, end-to-end solution for business-to-business e-commerce
and collaboration, leveraging the strengths of each company. The
three companies together created a best-of-breed, full-service
marketplace solution, an integrated supply chain solution and
a set of services to help customers take full advantage of the
benefits of e-commerce. Together, they now power more than 100
e-marketplaces including six of the 10 largest in the world.
IBM is the world's largest information technology provider (hardware,
software and services) with 1999 revenues of more than $87 billion
and is the worldwide leader in e-business solutions. Ariba is
the leading B2B eCommerce platform provider to leading companies
around the world, including more than 20 of the Fortune 100. i2
is the leading global provider of intelligent e-business solutions.
Founded in 1988, i2's mission is to deliver $50 billion in value
to its customers by 2005. i2 is headquartered in Dallas, has approximately
4,800 employees and maintains offices worldwide. More information
about IBM is available at www.ibm.com. Visit i2's Web site at
www.i2.com. Ariba's home page is at www.ariba.com.
More information about Syncra Systems can be found at www.syncrasystems.com.
Information on The viaLink Company (Nasdaq: VLNK) is available
at www.vialink.com. QRS (Nasdaq: QRSI) information can be found
at www.qrs.com. Retek Inc. (Nasdaq: RETK) is on the Web at www.retek.com.
i2 and the i2 logo design are registered trademarks of i2 Technologies,
Inc. TradeMatrix is a trademark of i2 Technologies, Inc. IBM is
a trademark or registered trademark of IBM Corporation. Ariba
is a registered trademark of Ariba, Inc. All other trademarks
are the properties of their respective companies.
4ÐWorldWide Retail Exchange Selects IBM-i2-Ariba . . .
# # #
Information in this release may involve expectations, beliefs,
plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking
statements included in this release are based upon information
available to the parties as of the date of the release, and no
party assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking
statement. The statements in this release are not guarantees of
future performance and actual results could differ materially
from the parties' current expectations. Numerous factors could
cause or contribute to such differences. Some of the factors and
risks associated with the parties' business are discussed in its
registration statement and in the other reports filed by it from
time to time with the SEC. Some of Ariba's factors and risks can
be found on Form S-1 declared effective by the Securities and
Exchange Commission ("SEC") on June 22, 1999. For a discussion
of factors which could impact i2's financial results and cause
actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking
statements, please refer to i2's recent filings with the SEC,
particularly the Form 10-K filed March 22, 2000 and Form 10-Q
filed May 15, 2000.
Media Contacts:
Randy Sands, Shandwick International
(For the WorldWide Retail Exchange)
952-346-6191
rsands@shandwick.com
Teresa McFarland , Shandwick International
(For the WorldWide Retail Exchange )
952-346-6198
tmcfarla@shandwick.com
Jeff Gluck, IBM
914-642-6219
jgluck@us.ibm.com
Ellie Javadi, Ariba
650-930-6738
ejavadi@ariba.com
Sue LaDow, i2
469-357-3027
susan_ladow@i2.com
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