American Express Markets Success in Procurement by Launching New Purchasing Services for Corporations

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Leveraging its own success in cutting more than $1 billion from its
procurement costs over the past five years, American Express has
developed and begun marketing two new corporate purchasing solutions as
part of its expanding S2Ssm
(Source-to-Settle) product suite.

The company announced the new solutions at the Institute of Supply
Management conference held here this week.

American Express unveiled S2Ssm
Contract Audit & Recoverysm and
S2Ssm Catalog Prosm,
which are designed to help companies optimize performance, drive
savings and increase control and compliance in their supply chains. S2S
Contract Audit & Recovery is an analytic service that provides best
practices to help firms achieve the contract savings they negotiated and
recover any monies lost through non-compliance. S2S CatalogPro is an
online solution that integrates with a firm’s
existing e-procurement software to enhance the product search experience
with business-to-consumer (B2C) features, making it easier for employees
to order from preferred suppliers and secure negotiated rates.

“Companies that have made major investments to
streamline purchasing and move it online are simply not getting full
benefit from their efforts,” said Rion Needs,
SVP/GM of American Express Purchasing Services. “We
developed these new S2S services in response to our customers’
requests for more powerful ways to manage supplier contracts, as well as
lead their employees to approved goods and services.”

Andrew Bartolini, Research Director at Boston-based Aberdeen Group,
noted that companies can generate significant savings through more
discipline in procurement. “Our research1
shows that more than one-third of all corporate purchases are
off-contract, and companies lose 22% of every dollar spent out of
compliance. Systems that directly support compliance policies are a
critical next-step in enterprise efficiency.”

Contract Audit & Recovery

American Express is offering its experience in corporate expense
management to provide companies and their suppliers with in-depth
analyses and recommendations to drive savings and build stronger
partnerships.

Contract Audit & Recovery, offered globally, begins with a rigorous
analysis of contracts, billing data and business processes and controls
to identify pricing that strays from a company’s
preferred supplier deals. The Contract Audit & Recovery team then
develops an action plan and provides support to recover monies owed. The
team also provides advice on best practices to address any future
contract challenges.

American Express offers flexible pricing models for the service,
including contingency based pricing, depending upon the scope of the
engagement.

"Through Contract Audit & Recovery, we were able to identify gaps in our
contracting process, discover the types of pricing discrepancies we may
have had with our suppliers and recover the funds owed. Also, we were
able to leverage best practices by circling back and implementing them
into our processes," says Nedi Telvi, Vice President and Chief
Procurement Officer for Ameriprise Financial, which has remained an S2S
customer even after its spin-off from American Express in 2005.

CatalogPro

Although many firms have implemented online procurement systems,
corporations continue to face roadblocks to realizing full benefits: low
employee adoption, high levels of maverick spend, an increase in the
number of help desk resources required for user-support, limited ability
to direct people to preferred goods, and a dangerous loss of control in
getting accurate prices.

CatalogPro was initially a B2C solution that American Express acquired
and extended to add business-to-business (B2B) functionality and
controls to solve these issues in its own procurement operation.
Ameriprise Financial continues to rely on CatalogPro as a key component
of its e-purchasing solution as well. "With CatalogPro, we were able to
implement a solution that was significantly more intuitive and made the
customer buying experience easier. And we were really able to control
the products we wanted users to buy and the price paid," adds Telvi.

CatalogPro works seamlessly with a company’s
existing eProcurement solution to transform purchasing after a
requisition has been initiated. It offers enhancements that put it on
par with online retail sites, such as guided navigation, advanced search
and order capabilities, and greater product detail. To enhance corporate
efficiency and control, CatalogPro also features automated approval and
100% catalog price compliance. Other functionality enhances purchasing
professionals’ ability to source and manage
their supplier networks more effectively through the use of a product
control dashboard that streamlines updates.

Pricing for the product is flexible and is based on a monthly service
fee.

S2S (Source to Settle) Suite

The S2S solution suite addresses the entire supply chain from sourcing
and ordering to invoicing and settlement. S2S offers solutions to help
companies optimize performance and drive savings.

S2S Contract Audit & Recovery and S2S CatalogPro complement the S2Ssm
eInvoice&Pay solution, which was unveiled in March. S2S
eInvoice&Pay is the first fully integrated Electronic Invoice
Presentment and Payment solution to help companies process 100% of their
invoices from a single online portal managed by American Express.

About American Express

Through its Global Commercial Card group, American Express provides the
Corporate Card, Corporate Purchasing Solutions, S2S solutions and other
expense management services to mid-sized, large and global companies
worldwide. In the US, it is the leading issuer of commercial cards,
serving more than 50% of the Fortune 500 as well as tens of thousands of
mid-sized companies. American Express issues local-currency commercial
cards in 40 countries and International Dollar Cards in an additional
100 countries. More information can be found at .

The American Express Company is a diversified worldwide travel,
financial and network services company founded in 1850. It is a leader
in charge and credit cards, Travelers Cheques, travel and international
banking.

1 The Aberdeen Group’s
“Source-to-Settle Compliance Benchmark Report.”