CBUY.L Regulatory News (CBUY)

1 Sep 2006 10:00

@UK PLC01 September 2006 Immediate release 1 September 2006 @UK PLC ("@UK") @UK expands customer base to Thames Valley Police @UK PLC (AIM:ATUK), a leading provider of software solutions that facilitateeCommerce and eProcurement in the local government and Health sectors, ispleased to announce that it has widened its customer base across the publicsector buying organisations, by being selected to provide an eProcurement ande-invoicing system to Thames Valley Police (TVP). TVP, whose total spend on goods and services is over £40m p.a., is the largestnon-metropolitan police force in the country. The force covers 2,200 squaremiles of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and serves a population of2.2 million people. The TVP area is policed by around 4,140 police officers, 350Special Constables, 370 volunteers and 2,860 other police staff. The @UK Supplier Management System (SMS) will enhance existing TVP procurementsystems by providing a mechanism to send electronic purchase orders to, andreceive electronic invoices from all their suppliers, no matter what their sizeor existing electronic trading capability. Stage one of the project will be tocreate a link between the @UK supplier network and TVP administrative systems.This builds on @UK's wide base of experience in linking to similar financialsystems in other areas of the public service. Over the next 3 months it isintended that the @UK PLC system will be rolled out to the majority of theforce's 1,500 suppliers. Lyn Duncan, Managing Director of @UK PLC said: "We are delighted to have beenchosen by TVP as their eProcurement provider. Working in partnership with anorganisation that has such a well-deserved reputation for procurement excellenceis an exciting step forward for us. It also widens our organisational experienceinto another area of the public service with tremendous potential foreProcurement. Once we begin to e-enable TVP suppliers, they are instantlyavailable to be used by every other force in the country, one of the bigadvantages of our national supplier network. We look forward with keenanticipation, to working on the TVP project over the coming months." Barbara Hill, Procurement Manager at TVP said: "We believe the @UK PLC systemoffers TVP an ideal infrastructure on which to build our future procurementstrategy. It provides both us and our suppliers with the ability to save time,increase efficiency in processing and eliminate the potential for error rightthrough the supply chain. The @UK PLC e-invoicing capability for all oursuppliers is an especially important part of the process. It establishes anideal mechanism for us to achieve huge efficiencies in our administrativeprocesses. It also affords suppliers the opportunity to reduce their costssignificantly in dealing with us and the ability for both parties to share thosebenefits." For further information please contact: @UK PLC +44 (0) 118 963 7000 Lyn Duncan Managing DirectorJohn Aiken, Finance Director Shore Capital +44 (0) 151 600 3700 Mike Sawbridge Smithfield +44 (0) 20 7360 4900 Sara MusgraveTania Wild Notes to Editors: eCommerce can be defined as the buying and selling of products and services overthe internet. eProcurement is the particular process by which largeorganisations carry out their purchasing using eCommerce. @UK offers a uniquesolution within the field of eCommerce/eProcurement. Using its online network,public sector bodies such as local authorities, schools and hospitals andprivate sector enterprises can buy online from small to medium enterprises(SMEs), as well as larger suppliers. At the same time those suppliers generallyset up a trading website on @UK which can be used to sell online to otherbusinesses and even consumers worldwide. @UK is currently focused strongly onselling this approach to buyers throughout the public sector since this sectoroffers specific opportunities as a result of the UK Government's statedrequirements for eProcurement. Currently, there are over 1,000 public sector bodies spending over £100 billionannually on goods and services with around one million suppliers. These publicsector bodies have now been given specific performance targets in connectionwith eProcurement, and substantial sums have been invested by the Government ineCommerce platforms in both central and local Government. These projects form a core part of the 'Gershon' efficiency drive to save thepublic purse more than £20 billion annually by 2007/08. This drive followed thepublication in July 2004 of Sir Peter Gershon's report, 'Releasing resources tothe front line: Independent Review of Public Sector Efficiency'. In addition,the Government encourages public sector bodies to engage with local companiesand stimulate their adoption of eCommerce. The Directors believe that @UK is ideally positioned to experience significantgrowth as these public sector bodies put in place the necessary online linkswith their suppliers. @UK listed on AIM in December 2005, raising £8 million before expenses at anissue price of 60p. It purchased Coding International, its first acquisitionsince becoming a quoted company, in May 2006. @UK is included in the Softwareand Computer Services Sector (9530). For further information please visitwww.ukplc.net. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange