USi expands Ariba Practice Through Acquisition of CoreHarbor
Acquires Atlanta-based Application Service Provider
Annapolis, MD
(June 10th, 2003)
USi today announced that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire key assets of CoreHarbor, a leading Ariba-focused managed service provider. USi will enhance its Ariba practice by adding CoreHarbor’s industry-leading spend management, procurement, and sourcing capabilities. The transaction, closed on June 9, creates the industry’s most comprehensive managed service provider for Enterprise Spend Management (ESM) solutions. The combined Ariba client base includes well-known companies such as Cookson Electronics, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Network Associates Technology, Inc., PolyOne Corporation, Rohm & Haas Company, Sunoco, Inc., and Sylvan Learning Systems, Inc.
“CoreHarbor is a pioneer in the development of Ariba best practices and this acquisition will add great capability to USi’s Ariba business,” said Andrew Stern, Chairman and CEO, USi. “The experience brought to the table by CoreHarbor will greatly benefit USi’s existing Ariba clients as well as our ERP clients looking to further optimize their financial management processes.”
“We are very pleased to have two committed Ariba partners combine their expertise to build an even stronger and larger Ariba Spend Management practice,” stated Michael Schmitt, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Ariba. “The combination of CoreHarbor’s expertise in Enterprise Spend Management and USi’s leadership in managing Ariba solutions will provide Ariba customers with a best-of-breed approach for optimizing their application performance.”
USi allows organizations to more readily realize the significant cost benefits possible through leverage of the Ariba application by reducing total cost of ownership by 20% or more, optimizing application performance, and allowing companies to strategically employ their IT staffs on mission-critical products that bring true competitive advantage. USi’s current and future clients will realize great benefits from the addition of CoreHarbor’s wide-ranging functional Ariba capabilities, ranging from strong spend management best practices to payment solutions and the availability of complementary catalog management solutions such as Cardonet, Inc. and Vinimaya, Inc.
"I believe that the synergies between USi and CoreHarbor are numerous and our customers will greatly benefit from the combined expertise and customer first culture of both companies," states Jay Chaudhry, CEO, CoreHarbor.
“Sunoco has enjoyed significant financial and operational benefits from its independent engagements with USi and CoreHarbor for outsourced application management and hosting,” said Peter Whatnell, CIO, Sunoco, Inc. “Both companies have consistently demonstrated a real commitment to customer service that leaves me confident that this will serve to benefit USi’s most important constituent – its customers.”
The integration of the two companies’ operations will commence immediately with hosting and management of all Ariba-based applications being consolidated within USi’s existing facilities. CoreHarbor’s current headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia will be retained to support customer service and sales operations. Terms and conditions of the transaction were not released.
