ATLANTA -- Procuri Inc., a leading provider of Web-based strategic sourcing software solutions, today announced its status as a Silver Alliance partner with SAS Institute, the world's leader in business intelligence software. The partnership allows both software makers to build on established sourcing and service strengths for customers of all sizes across all vertical markets.

"The dirty little secret in industry is that few businesses truly understand how much they spend, on which products, and with which suppliers," said Tim Minahan, vice president of Supply Research & Strategy at Aberdeen Group Inc. "As a result, enterprises are unable to maximize spend leverage and develop fact-based sourcing strategies and award decisions. The combination of SAS' spending analysis capabilities with Procuri's sourcing management technologies offers enterprises the opportunity to identify spending patterns; maximize buying leverage; execute informed sourcing and supply management decisions; and drive continuous improvement in compliance and supplier performance."

The Procuri-SAS partnership will provide procurement professionals with a complete solution that starts with clean supplier and spend data, continues with analytics and business intelligence, and then follows through to sourcing execution. Cleansing, aggregating and analyzing corporate spending data is a vital but often overlooked first step in the sourcing process. This step ensures that users understand how much time and money is being spent, for what and with whom - all of which is critical information for sound sourcing. When clean data flows, buyers streamline planning and multiply the effectiveness of sourcing teams. Solid and accurate information helps buyers identify and prioritize the most beneficial opportunities and sets the stage for rapid ROI and sustained e-sourcing success.

"The SAS Supplier Relationship Management Suite helps our customers reduce enterprise spend across suppliers and commodities through increased visibility into procurement information, understanding of the supply base, and prioritization of suppliers through business rules-based ranking," said Dennie Norman, SAS global strategist for SRM solutions. "We believe the synergies between our analytic and business intelligence software solutions and Procuri's strategic e-sourcing solutions will provide significant business value to our customers."

"With SAS solutions integrated into the sourcing process, Procuri customers are able to take advantage of award-winning functionality for data quality management and spend analysis, while deploying advanced, Web-based sourcing solutions with Procuri TotalSource," said Mark F. Morel, Procuri president and chief executive officer. "The potential for true strategic sourcing has never been better. Companies taking advantage of this partnership will truly empower their organizations to improve bottom line results."

About Procuri

Procuri, the fastest-growing strategic sourcing solutions company, empowers more than 125 customers of all sizes, industries, geographies and spend categories, including Procter & Gamble, Eastman Kodak, ITT Industries, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Rio Tinto and U.S. Steel. With a 100 percent customer retention rate, Procuri's Web-based solutions are significantly driving down costs and cutting cycle times for enterprises sourcing for more than 88 countries. For more information, call 1-877-360-1600 or visit www.procuri.com.

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