LONDON and GAITHERSBURG, Md. — September 16, 2009— GXS, a leading provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced that leading household appliance manufacturer, Indesit, has consolidated its European electronic data interchange (EDI)-based trading network on GXS Trading Grid. The company, which had built up what it describes as “a patchwork quilt” of nationally-based EDI networks, sought to consolidate this patchwork into a single pan-European EDI infrastructure. This infrastructure now includes many retailers in Eastern Europe.

Indesit manufactures approximately 15 million home appliances each year, making it Europe’s second largest manufacturer of household appliances. The company sells products under its main brands of Indesit, Hotpoint-Ariston and Scholtès and is active in almost all European markets. In addition to its commercial offices, Indesit maintains 17 production facilities in Europe and elsewhere. The GXS solution was already successfully in place in the UK market, which boasted the company’s largest and most advanced B2B electronic trading infrastructure. The new consolidated EDI network now is used throughout Europe to send orders, invoices and delivery notes to Indesit’s principal customers including retailers, online stores and catalogue companies. The company estimates the volume of EDI documents sent across GXS Trading Grid to be in excess of 100,000 per year.

“To be competitive and to consolidate its position, a company must be innovative and focus on more advanced solutions,” explained Carlo Cingolani, supply chain information technology manager at Indesit. “To do that, we need to make our business as efficient as possible – hence the decision to consolidate our EDI infrastructure onto GXS Trading Grid. Before that, we had too many local systems in place, leading to duplication of effort and unnecessarily high maintenance costs. We now have completed the consolidation process and this improved efficiency in our business throughout Europe and beyond. Key benefits are improved performance since we are no longer reliant on different solutions, and cost savings in maintenance.”

The Indesit EDI network stretches beyond Western Europe to the former Soviet republics where Indesit was one of the first European enterprises to invest. By focusing on improving productivity and efficiency, Indesit has succeeded in strengthening its presence in Russia and the surrounding regions. It now has ten commercial branches and more than 300 service centers in 150 cities.

“Large companies like Indesit often find they have multiple business units across different countries, each with their own provider,” commented Jon Keating, vice-president of EMEA at GXS Europe. “Each unit is paying a different price for its EDI service and obtaining various service levels. This adds complexity, increases operating costs and reduces service quality. A robust EDI platform is a key component of Indesit’s geographic expansion strategy. Consolidation on GXS Trading Grid enables the company to export operational efficiency and facilitates rapid and agile deployment in new trading regions.”

GXS Trading Grid is a global B2B e-commerce and integration platform that supports the creation and adoption of on-demand supply chain management solutions for companies of any size. As the world’s largest electronic business community, GXS Trading Grid is used by more than 30,000 customers to exchange goods and services, gain visibility into global logistics operations and to synchronize product data. Trading Grid helps customers automate global trading communities by shielding complexity from rapidly changing standards, eliminating manual and duplicative processes and enabling the highest levels of B2B integration and collaboration.

About Indesit
Indesit Company is Europe’s second biggest producer of home appliances by market share. It leads the market in Italy, the UK, Russia, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria and the Ukraine and is one of the top producers in France, Poland, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece. Founded in 1975 by the current chairman Vittorio Merloni and listed on the Milan stock exchange since 1987, the Group posted sales of €3.2 billion in 2008, having turned out 15 million appliances (washing machines, dryers, washer-dryers, dishwashers, fridges, freezers, ovens and hobs). Indesit Company operates through 17 production facilities (Italy, Poland, the UK, Russia, Turkey and China) and 24 commercial branches worldwide and has over 17,000 employees. The Group’s main brands are Indesit, Hotpoint-Ariston and Scholtès.

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