Verticalnet, Inc. (VERT)
Interview with: Nathanael Lentz, President and CEO
Business News, Financial News, Stocks, Money & Investment Ideas, CEO Interview
and Information on their Strategic Sourcing and Supply Management solutions that enable companies to identify, negotiate, realize, and sustain savings and supply base performance improvement.

Cover Story

CEOCFO Interview Index

CEOCFO Current Issue

Future Features

Analyst Interviews

Corporate Financials

Archived Interviews
 
About CEOCFOinterviews.com

Contact & Ordering

This is a printer friendly page!

Verticalnet navigates the tough technology market by focusing on delivering value to market-leading customers, improving its award winning technology, and building financial stability and flexibility



Technology
Computer Services
(VERT-NASD: SC)

Verticalnet, Inc.




Nathanael Lentz
President and
Chief Executive Officer

Interview conducted by:
Lynn Fosse
Senior Editor

CEOCFOinterviews.com
September 2003

CEO Analysis:
Verticalnet, Inc. (NSDQ: VERT) is a leading provider of Strategic Sourcing and Supply Management solutions that enable companies to identify, negotiate, realize, and sustain savings and supply base performance improvement. Supply Management is more than merely reducing prices - requiring companies to balance price, performance, and risk to achieve the lowest total cost of ownership. Led by its Spend Analysis solution that quickly provides companies with insight into enterprise-wide spending, Verticalnet's full suite of Supply Management solutions enables companies to achieve lower prices, improved contract compliance, better supplier service, and shorter sourcing cycles. As a result, clients recognize significant and sustainable savings in materials costs, inventory levels, and administrative costs - resulting in improved profitability. “In today’s environment, where growth is hard to achieve on the revenue line, people are looking for ways to drive value in their business by finding ways to buy cheaper and better.” Says Mr. Nathanael Lentz, President & CEO of Verticalnet, Inc., “The first thing they need in order to do that is visibility into what they are buying and from whom and to identify a real opportunity for savings. Our application takes data from different systems, and creates a common view of that data and provides and analytic framework and ability to dig into the data and understand where the hidden savings are.  Beyond our Spend Analysis solution, we also offer software and services that help companies select suppliers, manage procurement and contracts, and measure and monitor supplier performance.  All of our solutions are focused on helping our customers drive measurable, sustainable value out of their supplier relationships.” Commenting on the industries that Verticalnet focuses on Mr. Lentz tell us, “We focus on industries where input products are more complex. Most discrete manufacturing and consumer products companies are targets for us. We also are seeing relevance in the healthcare space. Multiple locations and multiple system complexity is something we look for. We go out and try to find companies with divisions that have been growing both organically or through M & A activity, or a combination; that is an obvious target for us.” When asked if the hardest part was getting in the door, Mr. Lentz replied, “In this environment, it is very challenging.  People are just beginning to think about spending from an IT investment standpoint again. But we are finding that our solutions target real and pressing problems for a majority of the large manufacturing companies out there.  Our Spend Diagnostic program helps get companies over the hump, and demonstrates the real, immediate value that we can deliver. Ultimately, this lays the roadmap for companies to make fast decisions.” Addressing investor, Mr. Lentz points out that, “The Verticalnet of today is a company focused on developing leading solutions in a high growth market. The strategic sourcing space is the next area that corporations are looking for to drive value and enable them to become more strategic in terms of how they manage their relationships with suppliers. This sector is predicted to be the highest growth sector in software over the next three to four years. We are extremely well positioned from a product and company standpoint with market-leading customers that include IKEA, Lowe’s, Valvoline, and MasterBrand Cabinets. We have a management team that has taken on the challenges that we faced financially and from a business standpoint, and have achieved a tremendous amount in a short time.”

Verticalnet’s solution facilitates the entire lifecycle of Supply Management, including: Supply Strategy — Enables companies to understand and analyze current spending and develop supply strategies for managing total cost through demand aggregation, rationalization, supplier collaboration, and better negotiation. Supply Selection — Enables companies to quickly and effectively identify, select, and negotiate with the best strategic partners to achieve the best portfolio of suppliers to optimize price, risk, and performance. Supply Execution — Ensures that the strategic partners selected and terms negotiated are implemented and utilized across the global enterprise while eliminating much of the manual and administrative effort from procurement .  It also enables the sharing of planning information with strategic partners to improve the supply chain's efficiency. Supply Performance — Measures, analyzes and improves the performance of, and relationship with, strategic partners and suppliers ensuring continuous improvement and a "closed loop" Supply Management process.

Many point solutions exist to provide components of Supply Management including Reverse Auction, RFX, Contract Management and eProcurement. Verticalnet provides the only solution which facilitates the full lifecycle of Supply Management ensuring continuous improvement within all categories of spend and across the entire global organization. Utilization of Verticalnet's solution provides world class Supply Management capabilities helping companies achieve operational excellence and ensuring the maximum benefits from world-class Supply Management processes.

Left click here below to request an Investor Kit:
Verticalnet, Inc. (VERT-NASD: SC)



Instant Access:
To find out more about: Verticalnet, Inc. (VERT) you may order the complete text of our interview. To view a copy of this highly informative interview, left click here: ViewVERT

disclaimer

Newsflash!

To view Releases highlight & left click on the company name!

Illinois Tool Works Inc. Selects Verticalnet Spend Analysis
$9.5 Billion Diversified Manufacturer to Use Verticalnet Spend Analysis to Gain Spend Visibility and Insight
Across 600 Operating Divisions and $5 Billion in Spend.

Malvern, PA, December 10, 2003 – Verticalnet, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERT), a leading provider of Strategic Sourcing and Supply Management solutions today announced that Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW), a $9.5 billion diversified manufacturer with approximately 600 decentralized business units in 44 countries, has selected the Verticalnet ® Spend Analysis solution to gain visibility and insight into its North American direct and indirect materials spending.

Posted: 12/10/03 - CEOCFOinterviews.com
#######################################

Verticalnet Completes Private Placement Transaction

$1.8 Million Raised from Institutional Investors