GAITHERSBURG, Md. and HONG KONG — June 9, 2009 —GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced that Electrolux, a global leader in household and professional appliances, has implemented the GXS Logistics Network, part of the GXS Logistics Visibility service on GXS Trading Grid, to support electronic integration and collaboration with its U.S.-based transportation carrier network. The company, which has seven factories throughout North America and more than 200 carriers competing for its shipments, needed a method to automate the shipment tender process with its carriers to reduce costs and shipment lead-times. GXS has onboarded transportation carriers representing more than 80 percent of Electrolux’s shipment transactions.

Electrolux sells more than 40 million products, including refrigerators, dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cookers, to customers in 150 markets every year. The United States is one of the company’s largest markets, so providing accurate and timely delivery to its U.S.-based retailers and distributors is vital to the company. Automating and centralizing the tendering process saves the company money and enables it to be more precise in outbound planning and scheduling. The company needed a service provider that could onboard carriers to an electronic trading platform, in this case, GXS Trading Grid, quickly and easily. Electrolux also required direct integration with its Oracle Transportation Management System (TMS). Using GXS’ solution, Electrolux’s carriers are able to send and respond to logistics transactions via electronic data interchange (EDI). GXS Trading Grid then performs the translation of those transactions into Oracle XML and sends them directly to Electrolux’s TMS.

“Prior to coming to GXS, our carrier tender process was executed manually, making it somewhat arduous and disjointed,” said Waldir Lopes, program manager at Electrolux. “GXS combined with our new TMS introduced automation to our tendering process which has not only reduced our costs, but increased the efficiency of our logistics network. It has also improved the quality of the data in the network and enabled us to perform carrier scorecarding. All in all, we have exceeded our goals for this project and are looking forward to the next steps, which include improving logistics visibility and automating additional document types.”

Electrolux chose GXS for this project for a variety of reasons including its large, pre-connected global network of carriers on GXS Trading Grid, its world class customer support, its experience and knowledge in the logistics sector and its supply chain visibility tools. Going forward, Electrolux is seeking to take advantage of additional features of GXS Logistics Visibility to make further improvements in the quality of its logistics data, to gain additional insight into the performance of their carriers and to have real-time views into shipment statuses. GXS is currently adding the remaining Electrolux carriers to the company’s electronic logistics network.

“Electrolux is doing what nearly every hard goods supplier should be doing to optimize and improve the performance of their logistics networks,” said John Anacleto, senior program manager and logistics specialist at GXS. “Electrolux is automating its logistics network from the ground up, thus improving the quality of the data that flows through it and lowering the costs associated with the carrier tendering process. Going forward, this network will be the foundation for greater real-time insights into the performance of Electrolux’s logistics providers, enabling Electrolux to conduct broad analysis and work with each carrier to gain performance improvements where needed.”

GXS’ suite of on-demand GXS Trading Grid visibility solutions provides customers and their global trading partners with an easy-to-use, web-based view into all aspects of the supply chain, including trading partner networks and transactions, order lifecycles, logistics networks and inventory status. GXS’ visibility solutions enable customers to rapidly respond to changing customer demand signals and optimize sales through increased product availability and improved promotional planning. GXS also provides customers with current and complete status information on all in-transit shipments, including dynamic estimated time of arrival data, customs status, order and shipment correlation and supplier performance reports.

About GXS
GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify and enhance business process integration and collaboration among trading partners. Organizations worldwide, including more than 70 percent of the Fortune 500, leverage the on-demand services on GXS Trading Grid® to extend supply chain networks, optimize product launches, automate warehouse receiving, manage electronic payments and gain supply chain visibility. GXS Managed Services, GXS’ B2B outsourcing solution, empowers customers with the expertise, technical infrastructure and program support to conduct B2B e-commerce with trading partners globally.

Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS has an extensive global network and has local offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.  GXS can be found on the Web at www.gxs.com, http://blogs.gxs.com/ and http://twitter.com/gxs.  

All products and services mentioned are trademarks of their respective companies.

Media Contact:
Jane Cheng
GXS
+852 2884-6029
Jane.cheng@gxs.com