Welcome to IBX Newsletter!
I'm proud to welcome you to your first issue of the IBX eNewsletter. You are receiving this because you have asked to subscribe to IBX Newsletter or you were a subscriber to the Portum newsletter, and as you may already know Portum is now a part of IBX Group. As a result of the Portum acquisition, IBX can now present an even stronger offer to existing and future customers - a full source-procure-pay program under one roof, with more than 100 experienced eSourcing and eProcurement consultants throughout mainland Europe.

As a part of the merger process between IBX and Portum, we are also proud to present a new Senior Vice President for Market Unit Germany: Thomas Neubauer.

I hope you find this newsletter interesting and I welcome any feedback or comments.

Best regards from Stockholm, Hans Ahlinder, CEO IBX Group

Hans Ahlinder, CEO IBX Group

IBX expands its activities in central Europe by acquiring Portum, the leading German provider of web-based sourcing solutions. The acquisition is in line with IBXlong-term strategy to expand in Europe and adds to IBX strong growth.

By half year 2006, IBX turnover grew by 38 per cent excl Portum, totalling MSEK 116.2 (84.3).

- We grow faster than the market and continue to use our cash flow to invest into enhanced products and capabilities in new markets, said Hans Ahlinder, CEO IBX.

» Click here to find out more about IBX' acquisition of Portum

Since October 1st Thomas Neubauer is the new Senior Vice President of IBX Deutschland GmbH. As a consequence he also takes the position as CEO of Portum AG who was recently acquired by IBX and will be responsible for the development of IBX in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

"IBX has a very exiting, long-term business model and a unique position in the purchasing market", comments Mr. Neubauer on his decision for choosing IBX, "IBX has generated an annual organic growth of more than 30 percent since the start in 2000, and offer state-of-the-art solutions for efficient purchasing and first class services in areas such as spend analysis, procurement roll-out and strategy consulting. IBX is the leading competence centre for purchasing in Europe with over 200 purchasing experts under one roof".

"IBX has a wide customer base featuring global companies such as Lufthansa, Deutsche Post World Net, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, Linde, Tchibo, BWM, Total, IKEA, Ericsson and the Volvo Group. With the acquisition of Portum AG IBX has further strengthened its position on the German market", continues Mr Neubauer.

Mr Neubauer has a wide experience from sales management positions at Carl Edelmann, Voith Turbo and Bertelsmann. His comes directly from the position as director of global sales and member of the management team at SupplyOn AG, where he increased the turnover and positioned SupplyOn as the leading automotive marketplace in Europe.

Peter Lageson, Marketing Director, IBX Group AB

The market for on-demand solutions has really taken off in recent years. The reasons include technological advance as well as the greater knowledge and focus heads of department now have with regard to their IT tools.

Because software is delivered as a service, rather than installed at the customer, the customer benefits from a number of advantages. The customer can get the work started sooner, and at a lower total cost, largely because the initial investment costs and the cost of bringing the system online are lower.

» Click the link to read more about on-demand solutions

IBX, expand its cooperation with Deutsche Lufthansa AG by offering increased support for electronic procurement. Together with the early renewal of a five-year contract, Lufthansa has decided to roll out IBX eProcurement throughout the entire Lufthansa Group.

"IBX's extensive international experience of the entire e-procurement process chain along with access to their global supplier network were key factors in our decision to expand the cooperation," reports Gerold Carl, Director of E-purchasing at Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

» Click here to read more about IBX and Lufthansa

This fall IBX will be present at two of Europe' s hottest e-Procurement events: ProcureCon 2006 in Brussels and Global e-Procurement in Copenhagen.

ProcureCon 2006, November 7-8, Brussels, Belgium

ProcureCon is the leading pan-European procurement event and will once again provide you with a unique opportunity to hear from procurement leaders how they have approached and resolved key challenges, benchmark with your peers and others from cutting edge sectors, get practical, hands on details on specific operational issues, network at the Gala Dinner, cocktail receptions, lunches and coffee breaks, and participate in high level interactive discussions that lead to new insights and knowledge.

For more information, click on this link

Global e-Procurement, November 28, Copenhagen, Denmark

This international one day conference will present the best change management strategies to successfully deploy Global e-Procurement in larger corporations. IBX CEO Hans Ahlinder will be in the chair and present top level speakers that will guide you through the entire process, right from the drawing board to the actual implementation, to successfully integrate your entire supply chain with B2B marketplaces.

For more information, click on this link

Cloetta Fazer has signed a five-year partnership agreement with IBX, By adopting IBX' s e-sourcing solutions, Cloetta Fazer aims to increase the volume and efficiency of sourcing, securing a long-term strong position on an increasingly competitive market.

- IBX's solution plays a major role in the cost reduction program. In particular, our aim is to improve and increase the efficiency of the competitive tendering processes that we employ in sourcing. The user-friendliness and versatility of the system and access to technical support locally were critical as decisive factors,- says Mikael Hellström, Lead Buyer at Cloetta Fazer.

» Click on the link to find out more about the IBX and Cloetta Fazer partnership

Hans Ahlinder CEO IBX.

The goal of any full source-procure-pay initiative must always be to get as much spend as possible on competitive prices using a cost efficient process. In theory it' s simple enough, but why are so many ePurchasing projects failing and not delivering up to the expectations.

And as a CPO, your goal is to bring home the savings; maximizing the effects of your purchasing initiatives. Our experience shows that sponsorship and enforcing purchasing policy are the two key differentiators to eProcurement success. But can you be completely satisfied when you' re only bringing home the small savings?

» Click here to read more about how you can maximize your savings

Traditionally, eProcurement initiatives have been very focused on catalogue ordering. At the same time, large spends within Services have been left in the cold. Now there is a solution to this. With IBX Request, organisations can secure competitive prices on Services that are hard to define in a long term contract.

By a simple process you can created a competitive pressure on areas that were before was left behind, and receive much lower prices than just asking one supplier.

» Click here to read more about how you can maximize your savings

IBX has been nominated for the prestigious Supply & Demand Chain Executive 100, the annual ranking of top supply chain solution and service providers. IBX is acknowledged as one of the leading innovators of supply chain service and technologies.

- We are very pleased to have been selected for the "100" list based on our innovativeness. This proves that our solutions are seen as significant for future supply chain management and that our customers are satisfied with what we deliver, said Hans Ahlinder, CEO at IBX.

» Click here to read the press release about the nomination