Ketera and Aptium Global Partner to Give Manufacturers Increased Cost Savings, Buying Power

Santa Clara, Calif. - March 31, 2005 - (HostReview) - Ketera Technologies Inc., (www.ketera.com) the leading provider of on demand spend management solutions, today announced that Aptium Global has joined the Ketera Sourcing Partner Program to offer manufacturing companies in the mid-market more visibility and control of their corporate spend. 

Through the partnership, Aptium Global, a direct material sourcing and global logistics provider targeting small and medium-sized manufacturers, will deploy Ketera's Spend Analysis solution as part of its assessment of customer procurement processes and supplier contracts to identify opportunities for cost savings.  Using this knowledge, Aptium Global will work with customers to help them leverage added buying power and obtain increasingly competitive contract prices and terms with their suppliers.  In addition, Aptium Global customers will have the option to utilize additional Ketera Spend Management offerings including Contract Management to further streamline processes and sustain savings.   

"Our customers look to us as trusted advisors who can reduce their direct materials expenditures by tackling complex sourcing and supply chain issues.  They don't want the headache of tracking this information themselves and maintaining a related technology solution," said Lisa Reisman, managing director, Aptium Global.  "By integrating Ketera's Spend Analysis offering with our own capabilities, we can deliver on our customers' expectations of rapidly identifying savings opportunities."

"We developed the partner program to target the mid-market with on demand spend management services.  The success we have achieved in the three months since its launch indicates there is demand beyond the enterprise level for these types of solutions," said Steve Savignano, CEO, Ketera Technologies.  "Our partnership with Aptium Global offers small and medium-sized businesses tools that were previously unavailable to them such as spend analysis, reverse auctioning and contract management.  We expect to see continued growth in this market as we align with additional industry experts like Aptium Global."

Ketera's Sourcing Partner Program is part of the company's strategy to target the mid-market, following the successful launch of its Express line of procurement services specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. The company expects to have 20 US-based resellers in its program by year end.  Because the implementation time for Ketera's solution is minimal compared to most license software packages, partners can focus on offering customers a wide range of services and the added benefit of working with one partner for all of their non-core, mission-critical process needs. 

In addition to new Ketera Sourcing Partners, the company has had long-standing, strategic partnerships with IBM and American Express.  For more information on the Ketera Sourcing Partner program, please visit www.ketera.com or email: partner-info@ketera.com.

About Aptium Global
Aptium Global, Inc. works with small to medium-sized manufacturers and government agencies to improve supplier quality and save money by reducing sourcing and material costs.  With a primary emphasis on direct material sourcing and global logistics, Aptium Global helps clients develop and deploy global supply management programs.

Aptium Global's international team uses Six Sigma and lean techniques as part of its core offering.  The company deploys a variety of strategic sourcing methodologies to identify purchasing cost reduction opportunities and to create competitive negotiation environments with incumbent and new suppliers, while also delivering a range of implementation, logistics and 4PL capabilities to help customers realize identified savings opportunities without adding headcount or internal cost.  For more information, please visit, www.aptiumglobal.com.  

About Ketera Technologies
Ketera Technologies is the leading provider of on demand spend management solutions, providing companies with the applications and services needed to control and reduce corporate spending at a low cost of ownership.

Ketera Spend Management includes applications for spend analysis, sourcing, procurement and payment and reconciliation.  The Ketera difference is our on demand delivery model, which combines hosted spend management applications with the "heavy lifting" services required for success, including supplier enablement, hardware infrastructure, project resources, system administration and solution upgrades.

Ketera Technologies is an IBM business partner, providing technology for IBM Leveraged Procurement Services, an e-Business On Demand offering.  Located in Mountain View, Calif., Ketera is a private company founded by American Express.  Other investors in the company include Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers and Foundation Capital.  For more information about Ketera Technologies and the Ketera Spend Management suite of services, please visit www.ketera.com.