Nestlé Selects GT Nexus as Central Global Ocean Freight Negotiation and Contracting Platform

On-demand system to centralize and automate the way services are procured and managed across company's vast transportation network

Oakland, CA USA and Hamburg, Germany, March 24, 2009 —

GT Nexus today announced that it has been selected by Nestlé to provide a central online hub to streamline ocean freight procurement negotiation and contracting processes. The platform is already up and running, supporting Nestlé with their 2009 global freight bid.

Headquartered in Vevey Switzerland, Nestlé is the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company with operations in 87 countries on 5 continents. The transportation network that supports the company’s global operations moves more than 300,000 containers per year and requires services from most of the world’s ocean carriers.

“We selected GT Nexus for the purpose of being able to manage the end-to-end ocean freight procurement process in one working environment,” said Brett Whitfield, Head of Ocean Transport at Nestlé. “Our freight profile is complex. With Nestlé products reaching almost every corner of the world, we needed a system that could deal with our complexity. GT Nexus has met these requirements.”

“Nestlé understands that freight spend management is a continuous and integrated process,” said John Urban, President of GT Nexus. “Their selection of GT Nexus was based on our experience with multiple large shipper customers who have the same holistic view of the process. We are looking forward to a long, productive relationship with the Nestlé team.”

The capabilities provided by GT Nexus give Nestlé the ability to easily compare multiple bids in a variety of different ways and then make allocation decisions based on the ideal service-price combinations. The system enforces standardization into the negotiation interactions, which frees users to focus on value-added tasks related to the contracting process.

Once the bid is completed and the carriers are awarded the business, Nestlé will store and manage contracts and rates in a single online rate repository. Spot bids will simply be run from that location as amendments to existing contracts.

The GT Nexus Portal combines software applications, with a network of connected carriers and data management services as an on-demand service over the Web. By tapping an existing, fully operational portal, Nestlé was able to get up and running quickly and avoided the up front risk associated with buying and installing traditional software.

The existing network data connections on GT Nexus provide an “out of the box” capability to collect and normalize electronic invoices and shipment status messages directly from the carriers and audit performance against the contracts. Nestlé will add this capability in the next phase of their roll out. Other capabilities that can be quickly activated on the portal include logistics visibility, standardized data feeds into other systems, and performance analytics.

“This is a major win for our European operations,” added Urban. “Nestlé is one of several large enterprises in Europe that are using the GT Nexus Portal to improve global supply chain performance.”

About GT Nexus

GT Nexus runs the world's only industry-backed, on-demand global trade and logistics control platform. Today, more than 40,000 registered users, from over 15,000 organizations use a range of capabilities on GT Nexus to optimize the global flow of goods and trade information from order point to final payment. Buyers, sellers, banks and logistics providers collaborate and automate hundreds of supply chain processes using GT Nexus as their single, common technology platform, in the cloud. Customers include Nestlé, Xerox, Caterpillar, Procter & Gamble, Weyerhaeuser and The Home Depot. For information, visit www.gtnexus.com.

Contact

Greg Kefer
Director, Corporate Marketing
GT Nexus
Office: +1 510 808 2229
E-mail: keferg@gtnexus.com

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