BASF Selects Crossgate B2B 360 Services for SAP

ATLANTA, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- BASF, the world's leading chemical
company, is employing the EDI services provided by Crossgate, the specialist
in B2B integration and cross-company automation, to deal with its incoming
supplier invoices and credit notes, including the use of qualified digital
signatures. As part of the eInvoicing project, Crossgate has agreed to sign
and validate all the EDI data on behalf of BASF's suppliers. When the initial
phase ends, up to a thousand of BASF's business partners will then be
successively linked up to the electronic B2B system. This step is expected to
result in considerable cost-savings for the chemical enterprise while at the
same time accelerating its processes and reducing the amount of errors that
occur.
The chemistry's definitely right in this case! BASF has been supplying
customers from virtually every single industry with high-quality products and
intelligent system-based solutions for over 140 years. Its portfolio covers
chemicals, synthetic products, refined products, pesticides, fine chemicals,
crude oil and natural gas. To be able to maintain its leading role on the
global market in future, the company intends to keep up its profitable growth
strategy. Reductions in costs and the optimization of its corporate processes
will both play a significant role here, and digitizing the process of
exchanging data will take account of both of these aspects.
In Crossgate's transaction-based business model, BASF is not required to
invest in any hardware or software at all as the solution is based on its
existing IT infrastructure. All it is charged is a fee for the documents that
have actually been transmitted via Crossgate's B2B platform. The two companies
are also working together with respect to the roll-out for BASF's suppliers -
the roll-out portal provided by Crossgate is being employed to gather relevant
information about the suppliers, for instance. BASF's business partners are
learning about the new electronic system in direct interaction with the
company's staff. "Our eInvoicing service doesn't just result in cost- and
process-related benefits for BASF. More importantly, the qualified digital
signatures we employ mean that BASF is in a safe position regarding tax
issues," explains Scott Lewin, President, Crossgate, Inc. Once the pilot phase
of the project has been completed in spring 2008, up to a thousand suppliers
are going to be connected up to the B2B system. From that point on,
approximately 47,000 messages a month are expected to be transmitted
electronically.
Crossgate, Inc.
Crossgate provides electronic data interchange (EDI) and related services
as an on-demand Business Ready Network. The heart of the system is the worlds
largest B2B transaction network (B.I.P.). More than 34,000 companies already
use B.I.P. to exchange documents and data regardless of format and across all
media. The new B2B 360 degree Services, powered by SAP(TM), gives customers
instant access from their SAP(R) system to all business partners integrated in
the platform.
Crossgate is represented in Europe at five sites in Germany, with
subsidiary branches in London, Milan, and Paris. For further information, see
www.crossgategroup.com.
Contact:
Crossgate, Inc, Steve Sprague
Steve.sprague@crossgategroup.com, Tel: 404-460-5125, Fax: 404-460-5001
www.crossgategroup.com

SOURCE Crossgate, Inc.

Steve Sprague of Crossgate, Inc., +1-404-460-5125,
Steve.sprague@crossgategroup.com