ProcServe Announces Enhanced Zanzibar Service Integration Capability

The Department for Work and Pensions is first to benefit from ground breaking development in system connectivity

10th NOVEMBER 2009, LONDON, UK - ProcServe, provider of the Zanzibar collaborative procurement and strategic electronic marketplace for the UK Government, has been able to significantly reduce the costs and time for customers to integrate their ERP and Finance systems with the Zanzibar service. The new functionality means that Zanzibar connects to the Government Secure Internet* (GSi) increasing security and allowing faster data flow between Zanzibar's eMarketplace and its users back office systems.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), an Oracle® E-Business Suite user, is the first organisation in the Public Sector to benefit. DWP was the first to adopt the Zanzibar marketplace and is leading the way in the collaborative buying of goods and services by Public Sector bodies.

David Thorpe, Director of DWP's Shared Services Centre, views this as a significant leap towards helping his organisation sustain the major efficiencies that the Department has been delivering and driving these out to others across the public sector. David said "This makes using collaborative contracts even more seamless to our thousands of users. Effectively Zanzibar fully replicates their personal internet shopping experiences but with all of the protections you would expect to find in an organisation spending billions of pounds of public money a year on goods and services. Not only is it easy for our users but it means that we can get even better control on our goods and services spend in our drive to deliver ever greater value for the taxpayer's pound. Collaboration is at the heart of what we do. This development will help DWP and others to meet the Operational Efficiency Review objectives for collaborative procurement."

Zanzibar is a core element of DWP's Shared Service that is now available to other central government organisations. The Department for Children Schools and Families, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission and Cabinet Office are its earliest customers. Nick Morris, Head of Procurement says being able to offer Zanzibar to their Shared Services customers is key to spreading the benefits to a much wider community. "Zanzibar and its enhanced interaction with our Oracle ERP will be vital to the success of our Shared Services operation. Now it is more straightforward to connect our customers to Zanzibar and the flow of information between Zanzibar at the purchasing front end and our Oracle® back office promises a highly dynamic delivery of transactions and management information."

Veera Johnson, CEO of ProcServe, is delighted with the way her company has been able to cooperate with both Oracle and DWP to bring about these improvements. "ProcServe is a member of the Oracle PartnerNetwork and we are dedicated to making the integration between the ProcServe Trading Platform and the Oracle iProcurement environment as seamless as possible. The out of the box message integration is part of this as are features like Transparent PunchOut where users can search the Zanzibar Marketplace from within their Oracle environment giving customers a consistent user experience for all types of catalogues in Oracle while allowing them to enjoy the benefits of externally hosted catalogues. We enjoy an excellent relationship with Oracle and DWP and I really appreciate the spirit in which our organisations have worked together to bring about what I strongly believe to be a groundbreaking development in eProcurement for the UK public sector."

Media Contact:
Cora Byrne, ProcServe
T: +44(0)7889 996 345
E: mailto:cora.byrne@procserve.com

Notes to Editors

• The Government Secure Intranet (GSi) is the strategic back office network infrastructure that allows the many different government and public service organisations in the UK to communicate securely with each other and certain approved key suppliers, and for the UK to function as a joined up modern state within the European Union.
• The GSi allows its customers to exchange and publish information in a secure environment separated from the public Internet, thus protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of that information.
• There are security policy rules attached to the GSI and the Hub operating inside the GSi negates the need for this so Zanzibar can interact with the client systems more freely, for example, in the receiving of invoices where the client system is also 'passive'. This does away with the need for customisation of the client system to start using Zanzibar. 
• For more information, please visit http://www.buyingsolutions.gov.uk/categories/ICT/Networks/GSi/
   

About ProcServe
ProcServe provides fast, flexible and secure electronic marketplaces and trading connectivity solutions. ProcServe's hosted, custom-branded solutions provide customers with the unique ability to leverage a software-as-a-service solution and maintain their own uniquely branded and configured marketplace. Customers enjoy a faster solution set up, lower cost of maintenance, and a secure environment. ProcServe is part of the Oracle PartnerNetwork. ProcServe also delivers OPEN and xchangewales, which are underpinned by the Zanzibar system on behalf of the UK Public Sector. For more information, please visit www.procserve.com.

About the Oracle PartnerNetwork
Oracle PartnerNetwork is a global business network of more than 20,000 companies who deliver innovative software solutions based on Oracle software. Through access to Oracle's premier products, education, technical services, marketing and sales support, the Oracle PartnerNetwork program provides partners with the resources they need to be successful in today's global economy. Oracle partners are able to offer their customers leading-edge solutions backed by Oracle's position as the world's largest enterprise software company. Partners who are able to demonstrate superior product knowledge, technical expertise and a commitment to doing business with Oracle qualify for the Certified Partner levels. For more information, please visit http://oraclepartnernetwork.oracle.com.