RENO, Nev., July 23, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), founded in 1874, said today that it expects to initially effect 48,000 transactions valued at $13 million annually through its PurchasePro (Nasdaq:PPRO) powered electronic purchasing marketplace, at a savings of 15 to 20 percent in product costs.
With more than 250 departments, 2,000 faculty and staff, 13,000 students, and producing approximately 103,000 purchase transactions valued at $135 million annually, UNR's purchasing department is responsible for procurement levels that are akin to those of a small city. Ray Moran, C.P.M., UNR's director of purchasing, recently implemented PurchasePro's e-commerce application to significantly reduce the university's reliance on the traditional purchasing mechanic of transactions on paper and through a mainframe accounting system.
Mr. Moran said he sees the PurchasePro solution as a vehicle to handle at least 50 percent of UNR's purchasing transactions under $2,000, which can amount to as much as $13 million annually. He said UNR presently is experiencing "increased user adoption, supplier collaboration and revenue potential from the software network."
The PurchasePro solution also provides UNR with an innovative way to communicate its contracted pricing agreements to the hundreds of faculty and staff with buying authority for small-dollar purchases. Moreover, Mr. Moran pointed out, "They do so with the confidence that the result of their transactions will be at the best possible price and a significant cost savings."
Combining the features of PurchasePro's e-commerce software with UNR's internal credit card payment program provides the university with a complete order-to-payment, on-line system.
Mr. Moran said, "PurchasePro provided us a purchasing system that addresses the needs of our purchasing staff and our end users who, in the university environment, must function as buyers of products and services. Additionally, the PurchasePro system provides minute detail on each purchasing transaction, enabling the university to examine transaction information that was absent in our paper-based method of handling small-dollar purchases."
UNR derives a return on investment through the PurchasePro system by using the university's buying power to obtain deep discounts from manufacturers and suppliers and then re-selling products to departments at a slight mark-up. University departments purchase their goods at prices well below what they would pay without the program and are able to operate the system without requiring additional financial support.
Mr. Moran said, "The next step will be to take advantage of PurchasePro's requisitioning, purchase order writing and bidding technology to further enhance the university's purchasing processes. This will provide UNR with a complete, Web-based purchasing solution that increases efficiencies while driving down costs.
"PurchasePro's system enables us to buy effectively from vendors of all sizes that have traditionally been difficult to source from. PurchasePro aggregates suppliers into a common database, enabling the university to source products and level the playing field for companies of all sizes."
With the largest base of small to midsize suppliers in the industry, PurchasePro's global marketplace enables UNR to identify and source from minority owned and disadvantaged vendors, meeting institutional objectives and complying with government regulations.
About PurchasePro
PurchasePro(r), www.purchasepro.com, is a business-to-business e-commerce leader that provides software to enable enterprises of all sizes to gain universal access to the world's largest commerce network. The PurchasePro commerce network comprises more than 155,000 businesses and powers hundreds of private-label marketplaces. PurchasePro provides the following business-to-business e-commerce solutions: e-Procurement for corporate procurement; e-Source for strategic sourcing, v-Distributor for online distributors; and e-MarketMaker for Internet market makers.
This news release may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the "Safe Harbor" created by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent only the views of certain members of management and are based on limited information available to us now, which is subject to change. We have no current plan to update these statements. Actual results may differ substantially from what we say today and no one should assume at a later date that the forward-looking statements provided herein are still valid. They speak only as of today.
For more information about these risks and uncertainties, see the SEC filings of PurchasePro, Inc., including the section titled "Factors That May Affect Results" in its 10-K filing for the period ended December 31, 2000, and its 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2001, which are available from the company on request and on the Internet at the SEC's Website, www.sec.gov.
Note: PurchasePro is a servicemark of PurchasePro.com Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.