Andersen, Epylon Pair on E-Solution Proposal

By William Welsh, Staff Writer


JULY 20 ? Andersen Consulting announced it has formed a strategic alliance with Epylon Corp. that will allow them to collaborate on a comprehensive electronic procurement solution they will offer to the public sector.


At the same time, AC Ventures, the venture capital unit of Andersen Consulting, has purchased a minority stake in Epylon.


San Francisco-based Epylon brings to the alliance, announced July 19, several key e-procurement tools that include eQuote, which instantly produces a price quote for buyers based on the criteria specified, and a number of tools that integrate standard auditing functions into the overall e-procurement process.


"Providing e-procurement solutions for educational and other public-sector institutions presents a huge market opportunity," said Barry Cater, a partner with AC Ventures. "We are excited by the potential to leverage Epylon's current position into a leadership position in this market."


The Global Government and Higher Education Services Group of Chicago-based Andersen will work with institutional buyers to customize and integrate Epylon's e-business technologies with existing public-sector client infrastructures. Andersen also will train purchasing professionals to use the solution.


In a separate agreement, Epylon has secured the right to power the Andersen Consulting-Epylon eProcurement solution with software manufactured by Ariba Inc., of Mountain View, Calif.


The three companies plan to collaborate on related business development, marketing and product development support activities. Andersen has annual sales of more than $8 billion, and Ariba more than $45 million. Annual sales figures for privately held Epylon, established in 1999, were unavailable.