global Punchout Suite enables suppliers by connecting to buyers across multiple eProcurement systems CHICAGO--April 2, 2002-- CCP global today announced the availability of its global Punchout Suite (gPS), a managed service offering to help suppliers connect with buyers to automate the procurement process. gPS is a managed service component that sits between a buyer's procurement system such as Ariba Buyer and a supplier's storefront. gPS lets suppliers communicate with buyers regardless of which eProcurement system the buyers are using without major customizations to their storefronts. gPS already integrates with the Ariba Buyer platform today to make supplier sites Ariba-ready, and plans to support platforms from other eProcurement providers later this year, like Commerce One. "gPS allows buyers and suppliers to easily communicate with each other and make transactions," said Dennis Ducham, president and CEO of CCP global. "For buyers, it increases the universe of enabled suppliers. For suppliers, it allows them to deliver rich, real-time content to buyers by leveraging their existing storefronts instead of just providing static catalog pages." Currently, 26,000 suppliers are a part of the Ariba Commerce Services Network. One member of the network currently using gPS is CGXmedia, the e-commerce division of Consolidated Graphics, a Houston-based commercial printing services provider whose network of printing companies spans 25 states. "gPS connected our existing storefront to our buyer's Ariba application in one month," said James Cage, Vice President - Information Technology at Consolidated Graphics. "After evaluating CCP global's competitors, we decided that gPS was the most cost-efficient solution for storefront enablement and the quickest to market. CCP global exceeded our expectations, getting our storefront up and running on schedule and within budget." Cage said that CGXmedia and Consolidated Graphics are using the enablement capabilities of gPS to compete for the business of large corporations, including a Fortune 500 customer of Consolidated Graphics that has thousands of employees purchasing business cards, stationery, and letterhead on the Ariba e-commerce platform. Through Consolidated Graphics' partnership with CCP global and its gPS solution, CGXmedia now provides Ariba-enabled, and soon to offer Commerce One-enabled, applications to its customers. "gPS serves as a point of management to facilitate eProcurement transactions," Ducham said. "gPS helps buyers and suppliers to send a wide range of transaction messages from point A to point B more effectively and in a cost-efficient manner." Currently, the gPS system facilitates robust event logging and error notifications to better manage the order transaction between buyers and suppliers. Ducham said there also are plans to later incorporate the ability to handle other message types across all procurement platforms.