Healy Hudson Partners with Syncata to Provide Targeted Supplier Relationship Management Solutions for the Automotive Industry

    WESTBORO, Mass.--Aug. 27, 2001--Healy Hudson, a global provider of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) software, has formed a strategic alliance with business consulting and systems integration firm Syncata.
    The initial focus of the partnership will be to provide targeted supplier relationship management solutions to automakers and their suppliers.
    Based on the companies' combined experience in the automotive sector, the alliance paves the way for Syncata and Healy Hudson to share business relationships and domain expertise to expand their market reach and customer offering. According to Healy Hudson U.S. President Tom Swanson, "Healy Hudson will benefit enormously from Syncata's expansive U.S. market knowledge and leading integration expertise. Our combined industry knowledge, moreover, will enable us to deliver proven solutions that will minimize the risk that our automotive customers face when making critical SRM decisions."
    Syncata has a six-year relationship with American Honda, among other automotive OEMs, during which time the company has twice been cited with Honda's "Premier Partner Award." Healy Hudson's Impact(TM) SRM software, meanwhile, is particularly well-suited for the automotive industry because of its ability to automate sourcing for multicomponent, highly engineered (i.e. "complex") materials. Leveraging this capability, Healy Hudson has helped to streamline SRM processes and reduce purchasing costs for a number of major players in the field, including Continental Tire, Siemens, Schott Glass and DaimlerChrysler.
    The benefits of Internet-based SRM are particularly pronounced among automakers and their suppliers because of their steep purchasing volumes and complex supply-chain structures. GM, for example, spends more than $80 billion annually, while its 30,000 suppliers spend more than $500 billion. It is estimated, meanwhile, that even a 2 percent savings in purchasing costs -- an extremely conservative projection based on Healy Hudson's demonstrated results -- would translate into a $1.6 billion profit increase each for Ford and GM.
    While the auto industry has given rise to a number of public exchanges to reduce costs for commodities, executives from Healy Hudson and Syncata are quick to point out that the alliance will effectively address the needs of a growing number of companies looking to establish more sophisticated, secure "private" exchanges to improve procurement and SRM for their more strategic purchases.
    "The automotive industry is currently in the midst of brutal cost cutting being pushed on all suppliers across the supply chain," said Rakesh Batra, Syncata's supply chain practice area leader with more than 20 years' experience in strategic procurement, manufacturing-planning and supplier integration in manufacturing industries. "To better manage their costs, organizations need to improve their Supplier Relationship Management capabilities beyond primitive and heavy-handed price-cutting demands.
    "The Syncata/Healy Hudson solutions will deliver sustainable cost reductions by enabling continuously improving supplier management capabilities that significantly reduce the total cost of sourcing complex goods and services."

    About Healy Hudson

    Healy Hudson is a global provider of Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) software solutions for sourcing, ordering, monitoring, analytics and supply-chain mapping. Based on the company's flagship products, Impact(TM) Sourcing and Impact(TM) Ordering, Healy Hudson's Impact(TM) SRM software suite enables customers to dramatically lower costs and improve quality and operational flexibility during procurement for even the most complex goods and services.
    Healy Hudson provides procurement and SRM solutions for more than 40 global enterprises, including Continental Tire, DaimlerChrysler, Dresdner Bank, Siemens and Texas Instruments. The company was recently honored as a "Premier e-Procurement Provider for 2001" by iSource Business and as a 2001 E-Gov "Pioneer." Founded in July 1998, Healy Hudson currently employs more than 130 professionals worldwide. U.S. headquarters are located in the Boston area, with international headquarters in Munich and branch offices in Oxford, U.K., and Paris. Visit Healy Hudson on the Web at www.healy-hudson.com

    About Syncata

    Syncata provides business consulting and systems integration services that help companies plan and implement innovative demand and supply-chain solutions. The company helps clients collaborate effectively, plan adaptively and respond rapidly to enhance business performance and realize measurable value. Syncata assists clients in assessing strategic options and guides them through the detailed process of change management and technology implementation involved in delivering a practical solution. Syncata has more than a decade of experience working across various industries including automotive, high-tech manufacturing, financial services and insurance.
    Syncata has extensive industry experience within the automotive trade. The firm recently completed American Honda's Market-Oriented Vehicle Environment (MOVE), a network-based collaborative solution that helps the automotive manufacturer balance dealer vehicle requests against factory supply, dropping the automaker's channel inventory to just 38 days, according to "Automotive News," a weekly trade magazine that charts weekly Domestic and Imported Car and Light-Truck Inventories. The findings put American Honda in the industry's top 2 percent. Visit the company on the Web at http://www.syncata.com.