We recognize that companies want a single site to improve the entire procurement, payment settlement and reconciliation process, and we are developing WorkWares with that goal in mind," said Douglas G. Hartsema, executive vice president, Wachovia Corporate Financial Services, and head of Wachovia’s Treasury Services Group. "WorkWares will complement and extend our existing offerings in the treasury management arena by adding deeper supply chain-related capabilities."
WorkWares has secured four suppliers, Boise Cascade Office Products, Comark Inc., Lanier Worldwide Inc. and MarkMaster Inc., which offer a wide-range of office supplies, technology products and document management solutions.
"WorkWares suppliers have been chosen for high-quality offerings and their ability to provide technical integration necessary to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction even at large transaction volumes," said Hartsema. "We have negotiated discounts based on the e-marketplace’s aggregated buying power, resulting in prices that often are below what customers could negotiate directly with suppliers."
The initial WorkWares offering will include valuable features to help streamline, monitor and manage the purchasing process. Online activity reporting lets users track orders through approvals, acceptance, backorders and shipping. Reorder templates simplify ordering by keeping the information about frequently purchased items easily accessible and by eliminating the need to enter shipping, payment and accounting data on each visit.
User customization provides controls in the management of purchases, allowing managers to stay informed and on budget, while maintaining personalized profiles and an approval hierarchy. Orders are prioritized for electronic review and authorization, with the system automatically generating e-mail approval notices.
WorkWares virtual marketplace will undergo an evolutionary process based upon customer usage, acceptance and knowledge acquired during the beta phase. The goal is to continue expanding product, service, vendor and financial settlement choices periodically. In the pilot phase, settlement will be handled by credit card.
Wachovia will run the system, manage the product and provide sales support, customer service and monitoring. Clarus Corporation is providing the enabling technology. Clarus and Wachovia have collaborated throughout development to incorporate strict security protocols and encryption methods to the system.
About Clarus Corporation:
Atlanta-based Clarus Corporation (www.claruscorp.com; NASDAQ: CLRS), a leader in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, provides B2B procurement software and trading services that exploit the global marketplace of the Internet to manage corporate purchasing and enable digital marketplaces. ClarusNet™, a fully managed service portal, provides a comprehensive range of critical trading services such as payment settlement, supplier enablement, auctions, integration, and analytics. Designed to provide unprecedented interoperability, ClarusNet enhances the value and speeds delivery of any B2B trading platform including Clarus™ eProcurement and Clarus eMarket™. Microsoft recently honored Clarus as the Microsoft Global eCommerce Solution of the Year. Clarus solutions are being deployed at customer sites including Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., Cinergy, Comcast Corporation, Gjensidige NOR, MasterCard International, MetLife, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Perot Systems and Wachovia.
About Wachovia Corporation:
Wachovia Corporation, (www.wachovia.com; NYSE: WB) with dual headquarters in Atlanta and Winston-Salem, N.C., is a leading financial holding company serving regional, national and international markets. At Sept. 30, 2000, Wachovia had assets of $72 billion. Member companies offer consumer and commercial banking, bankcard, asset and wealth management, capital market and investment banking, brokerage and insurance services. Wachovia Bank, N.A., the principal subsidiary, has nearly 700 offices and 1,400 ATMs in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
WorkWares Connected by Wachovia is a service mark of Wachovia Corporation.
This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions. The accuracy of these statements may be impacted by a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated, including risks related to: the risk that technologies for the delivery of financial or e-commerce services over the Internet will not be developed or be attractive to consumers as anticipated; the risk that Clarus Corporation and Wachovia Corporation will not successfully deploy or operate services based upon Clarus platform; and other risks outlined in the Wachovia’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wachovia Corporation and Clarus Corporation do not undertake any obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as required under applicable law.
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