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News Release – Supermarket Retailer Giant Eagle Realizes Significant Cost Reduction From Outsourcing Critical IT Function to Innovate E-Commerce PITTSBURGH, PA – Pittsburgh-based supermarket retailer Giant Eagle, Inc. has realized significant savings by outsourcing its EDIINT (Electronic Data Interchange via the Internet) to Innovate E-Commerce Inc., INC500 enterprise solution consultants headquartered in Pittsburgh with offices in Raleigh and Columbus. With 221 supermarkets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland, Giant Eagle had been using traditional EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) to conduct business with its trading partners, including the electronic exchange of critical business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, point-of-sale data and acknowledgements. According to Giant Eagle Manager of Corporate Systems Cliff Gallagher, one of the company's recent IT initiatives was to convert all inbound and outbound EDI transmissions into EDIINT, and to pave the way for all of its 1000-plus suppliers to adapt to an EDIINT standard. Giant Eagle hired Innovate E-Commerce to manage the electronic transactions and the conversions of the EDI/EDIINT transmissions between Giant Eagle and its trading partners. Innovate E-Commerce handles this aspect of its business through its application service provider (ASP) division, Innovate e-Application Services, which specializes in e-commerce and EDI hosting. President/CEO of Innovate E-Commerce Karen Puchalsky explains, "EDIINT, or EDI over the Internet, is widely recognized as a more cost-effective alternative to EDI because costly VAN (Value-Added Network) charges can be eliminated in favor of communication between trading partners over the Internet. It's one of the technologies that has been dramatically improved by the Internet as a communication channel and many more companies will evolve to the EDIINT standard." Giant Eagle Reduces Costs, Anticipates Continued Improvement According to Giant Eagle's Gallagher, "Our senior management team strongly champions innovative technology as a way of taking unnecessary costs out of our operations and reinvesting the savings into an improved customer value equation. "By utilizing Innovate e-Application Services, we were
able to put the EDIINT initiative into place without adding cost. We
have experienced a significant cost reduction by moving to EDIINT, eliminating
VAN expenses and encouraging our supplier partners to standardize to
this format. We expect this cost reduction to continue to improve as
more and more suppliers adapt." The Retailer Has Decreased Turnaround Times And Improved Collaboration With Its Trading Partners In addition to long-term cost savings, a secondary benefit to EDIINT is decreased turnaround time for business transactions and more efficient collaboration. "When we send a purchase order to a vendor, they now receive it immediately and inform us of their ability or inability to provide the necessary product(s) when and where we need them. If we cannot source the product from the vendor contacted, we are able to explore other alternatives in a timelier manner," explains Gallagher. "In addition, we can more effectively collaborate with our vendors, so our supply chain is much tighter, contributing to lower inventory costs, increased turns and fewer situations of out-of-stock merchandise." About Giant Eagle Giant Eagle, Inc., ranked 26 on Forbes magazine's largest private corporations list and recipient of Progressive Grocer's 2002 Retailer of the Year Award and the Best Places to Work in Pennsylvania Award, is one of the nation's largest food retailers and food distributors with more than $5.2 billion in annual sales. Founded in 1931, Giant Eagle, Inc. has grown to be the number one supermarket retailer in the region with 140 corporate and 81 independently owned and operated locations throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, north central West Virginia and Maryland. Giant Eagle's web address is www.gianteagle.com About
Innovate E-Commerce Inc. Innovate E-Commerce
is a firm of enterprise solution consultants offering specialties in
enterprise architecture and gateways, legacy modernization, and e-commerce
and EDI hosting. The firm's customers include state governments and
Fortune 1000 companies, primarily in manufacturing, consumer packaged
goods, hardlines and transportation. The company's solutions empower
their customers with dramatic operational improvements, new market opportunities,
cost savings and return on investment. Founded in 1997, the firm was
named #111 on the INC500 list of America's fastest growing privately
held firms for 2002. For more information,
contact Amber Westwood, Innovate E-Commerce Inc., 160 North Craig Street,
Pittsburgh PA 15213. awestwood@innovateec.com. Innovate E-Commerce’s
web address is www.innovateec.com. |
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