Crossgate Announces 16 Deals during First Quarter

Crossgate Announces 16 Deals during First Quarter

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In 2008, Crossgate
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Innovative new B2B connectivity service adopted by 16 customers during the first three months of collaboration between Crossgate and SAP

Atlanta, Georgia on 25 February 2008

Crossgate, Inc, the global expert for business-to-business (B2B) integration and electronic data interchange (EDI), today announced a strong positive response to its recently announced B2B 360° Services for use with SAP® solutions. Customers around the globe are eager to learn about this new Business Ready Network solution that has the potential to effect profound changes to the landscape of the B2B infrastructure market, and 16 end users are already reaping the benefits.

In today’s global marketplace the speed of B2B transactions is dizzying. More than $1 million in e-commerce transactions takes place every six minutes. More than $1 billion in global trade occurs every hour. Operational efficiency depends on successful communication among all parties involved—suppliers, producers, assemblers, integrators, distributors, wholesalers—as disconnected processes can quickly cause major problems.

With sharply increased outsourcing and ever-expanding global supply networks, business collaboration is critical to keep pace with the speed of change. Recognizing that technology must evolve for businesses to change effectively, Crossgate’s BPO services “Powered by SAP” offer customers immediate electronic access to the global business community through B2B 360° Services. The strategic cooperation between Crossgate and SAP AG has been met with resounding applause.

B2B 360° Services for use with SAP solutions provide customers with easy subscription and rollout to their electronic data interchange (EDI) partners, expert project management, fast migration and implementation, and professional operations and support. The integration-on-demand solution is a plug-and-play service utilizing the SAP NetWeaver® Exchange Infrastructure (SAP NetWeaver XI) component and the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (SAP NetWeaver PI) offering of the SAP NetWeaver platform and is fully compliant with SAP solutions, requiring no additional hardware or software.

Kai Sievers, CIO of mobile and industrial hydraulics technology manufacturer Argo-Hytos, is quick to sing the praises of the new B2B solution. “We needed a solution to integrate EDI with as many as 50 business suppliers and customers,” Sievers says. “This solution works with our SAP solutions, making them fully EDI compatible, and we benefit from our partner’s extensive transaction network, free of risk and investment costs.”

B2B 360° Services allows customers to automate all incoming and outgoing business processes, regardless of the media involved in transmission of the processes (paper, fax, EDI, Web, SMS, e-mail, RFID, GPS). Customers can easily connect to all of their business partners, irrespective of the formats and systems involved.

With B2B 360° Services for use with SAP solutions, customers can connect to over 34,000 available business partners around the world, choosing from 21.6 million available B2B connections. The transaction-based business model is already established in high-tech industries including automotive, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, chemical, process industry, CPG, and global trade.

Automotive electronic component supplier Preh GmbH & Co. KG is one of the early adopters of B2B 360° Services. “With Crossgate we were able to exceed our B2B integration targets,” says Preh’s CIO, Martin Limpert. “Because the service is consumption-based, it can be easily adjusted, and it was important that we find a solution compliant with our SAP solutions. We now get even more built-in value from our SAP software without an investment in separate EDI software.”

B2B 360° Services is particularly useful for customers who:

  • have trading partners with various systems and formats
  • need to lower overall costs and want to use the outsourcing option
  • use different EDI Systems and want to consolidate to one EDI system
  • are looking for B2B connectivity and process integration, an EDI Solution, or an eInvoicing solution
  • are anticipating rapid growth and have insufficient manpower to handle their IT operations on their own

“It is absolutely key for SAP that our customers derive maximum value from our solutions,” explains Gerhard Oswald, member of the executive board with SAP. “We are pleased to include crossgate as a part of our ecosystem offering its BPO services powered by SAP software. crossgate’s service enabled by the SAP NetWeaver XI, connects our customers instantly to a large number of business partners that are already part of the network – without any additional investment. This provides true added value to them.”

Crossgate, Inc.

Crossgate provides electronic data interchange (EDI) and related services as an on-demand Business Ready Network. The heart of the system is the worlds largest B2B transaction network (B.I.P.). More than 34,000 companies already use B.I.P. to exchange documents and data regardless of format and across all media. The new B2B 360° Services for SAP® Solutions, powered by SAP®, gives customers instant access from their SAP® system to all business partners integrated in the platform.

Crossgate is represented in Europe at five sites in Germany, with subsidiary branches in London, Milan, and Paris. For further information, see www.crossgategroup.com.