Avaya and ICG Commerce's Procurement Outsourcing Relationship Named Fi

PHILADELPHIA, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- ICG Commerce, a leading procurement services provider, today announced that its relationship with global communications leader Avaya Inc. , has been named a finalist in the Outsourcing Center's 2005 Outsourcing Excellence Awards. Sponsored in part by Everest Group and Forbes, the annual awards program evaluates nominated buyer and service provider outsourcing relationships and publicly honors the seven most outstanding in the world. This year's judging panel recognized the Avaya/ICG Commerce relationship as a finalist based on its ongoing, dynamic interaction and overall relationship aspects.

The Avaya/ICG Commerce relationship focuses on driving efficiencies and cost savings across a majority of Avaya's indirect buying categories. ICG Commerce provides a comprehensive infrastructure of technology, category experts and process specialists to manage a broad spectrum of procurement processes including strategic sourcing, savings implementation, purchase-to-pay transaction processing, and on-going category management. Through this expansive approach, including the implementation and ongoing management of optimal supplier contracts, ICG Commerce and Avaya drive meaningful and measurable savings on Avaya's purchased goods and services.

"We are very pleased to see that the Outsourcing Center has recognized the value being generated through the Avaya/ICG Commerce outsourcing partnership," said Jason Gilroy, vice president of Procurement Outsourcing for ICG Commerce. "This recognition is indicative of the experience that both companies' have in outsourcing procurement, the operating environment, which ensures ongoing measurement and communication, and the companies' joint commitment to success."

The winners of the Outsourcing Excellence Award will be honored at an "Oscars of Outsourcing" ceremony at the Sourcing Interest Group's spring conference in May, as well as recognized in future issues of Forbes and Outsourcing Journal. For more information about the awards program, please visit http://www.outsourcing-awards.com/ .

About Avaya

Avaya Inc. ( http://www.avaya.com/ ) designs, builds and manages communications networks for more than 1 million businesses worldwide, including 90 percent of the Fortune 500(R). Focused on businesses large to small, Avaya is a world leader in secure and reliable Internet Protocol (IP) telephony systems and communications software applications and services. Driving the convergence of voice and data communications with business applications -- and distinguished by comprehensive worldwide services -- Avaya helps customers leverage existing and new networks to achieve superior business results.

About ICG Commerce, Inc.

ICG Commerce ( http://www.icgcommerce.com/ ) is a leading Procurement Services Provider exclusively focused on helping companies buy more effectively and efficiently in order to reduce costs significantly and continuously. The company offers an unmatched combination of process and category expertise and hosted technology to deliver Sourcing, Purchase-to-Pay Processing and Procurement Outsourcing Services. ICG Commerce Inc., a privately held company founded in 1992, is a member of Internet Capital Group's network of partner companies and has been honored as a Forbes Best of the Web: B2B and Supply and Demand Chain Executive 100 company as well as had its executives recognized among the Supply and Demand Chain Executive "Pros to Know".