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A.T. Kearney and eBreviate Join
to Create Next-Generation
Transportation Auction Tool in the U.S.
New Online Reverse Auction Tool Will Help Shippers Across Industries
Cut Transportation Costs By 8-10 Percent For Spot Market Transactions
Chicago and Walnut Creek, Calif. (March 6, 2001) Finding
carriers with available equipment to handle last-minute shipments
is a highly ineffective process for many manufacturers, distributors
and retailers in any industry and usually results in significant
premiums over negotiated shipping
rates.
To address this issue, A.T. Kearney, the management consulting subsidiary
of global services leader EDS (NYSE: EDS), and eBreviate, an EDS
company offering market leading eSourcing tools and technologies,
today announced a new online reverse auction tool designed to help
companies
across industries increase efficiency, accessibility, and visibility
when arranging last-minute, unscheduled shipments of goods.
Using Internet negotiation technology developed by eBreviate, the
transportation auction tool automates this previously time intensive
process by allowing a company's core transportation
carriers to bid online for the shipment by competing on price. A.T.
Kearney and eBreviate estimate the reverse auction capability will
reduce transportation costs for last-minute shipments from eight-to-10
percent while substantially improving the carrier's access to available
shipments.
Shippers also are spared the considerable time and expense needed
to match available capacity with available shipments at the last
minute. Depending on a company's logistics team, this time and expense
can be equal to the savings on the shipping itself.
Additionally, A.T. Kearney and eBreviate will utilize this transportation
auction tool for online downward auctions to support the development
of long-term carrier service and pricing programs through the request
for proposal and subsequent negotiation process.
"With this transportation auction tool we can now offer our
clients the ability to quickly and efficiently address the persistent
challenge of unexpected peaks in the distribution of goods across
the United States," said Mike Lipman, A.T. Kearney principal.
"This provides a powerful expansion of our core
carrier sourcing expertise" "This collaboration addresses
the entire transportation sourcing process where the core-carrier
expertise handles 90 percent of a company's transportation load.
However, to handle cycles in demand this tool seamlessly integrates
into core-carrier projects for those inevitable exceptions. We're
pleased to have joined with A.T. Kearney to develop this auction
tool that will handle both spot and long-term contracts," said
Sarah Pfaff, eBreviate executive vice president of sales, marketing
and strategy.
Initially designed for truckload-based shipments, the transportation
auction tool will be expanded to support less-than-truckload, air,
rail and ocean container shipments as well.
About A.T. Kearney
A.T. Kearney is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing management
consulting firms. With a global presence that includes 59 offices
in 35 countries, spanning major and emerging markets, A.T. Kearney
provides strategic, operational, organizational and information
technology consulting and
executive search services to the world's leading companies. A.T.
Kearney is the high-value management consulting subsidiary of global
information technology services leader EDS.
About eBreviate
eBreviate, an EDS company, combines leading-edge technology with
market-driven content and in-field services to deliver the best
eSourcing solutions to global businesses, governments and net markets.
Located in Walnut Creek, California, with regional offices in Plano,
Texas and London,
England, eBreviate enables purchasing organizations to become razor
sharp and rigorous in what they buy, from whom they buy and under
what commercial terms. eBreviate's integrated and automated eSourcing
tools take out time, cost, and inefficiency from the procurement
cycle. This automation brings greater productivity and accountability
to purchasing, while optimizing the way buyers and suppliers qualify,
negotiate, and evaluate their business relationships. eBreviate
can be
found online at www.ebreviate.com.
About EDS
EDS, the leading global services company, provides strategy, implementation
and hosting for clients managing the business and technology complexities
of the digital economy. EDS brings together the world's best technologies
to address critical client business imperatives. It helps clients
eliminate boundaries, collaborate in new ways, establish their customers'
trust and continuously seek improvement. EDS, with its management
consulting subsidiary, A.T. Kearney, serves the world's
leading companies and governments in 55 countries. EDS reported
revenues of $19.2 billion in 2000. The company's stock is traded
on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: EDS) and the London Stock
Exchange. Learn more at www.eds.com.
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