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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SnapShots Benchmarking

Information sharing is one the most effective tools that companies can use to gain insight to topics or issues of general interest.

(TEMPE, Arizona) February 23, 2010 — CAPS Research SnapShots Benchmarking is a program proving to be a simple and straight-forward communications tool. Not only do survey participants share in the results, they can develop their own questions for CAPS Research to release to our benchmarking community. This process allows companies to quickly share information throughout our community of supply management professionals.

Recently published SnapShots reports include the following:

Payment Terms

• Companies reported their typical (or default) payment terms are either 30 days or 45 days. Almost 90 percent of the survey participants also reported they receive discounts for paying early; and 83 percent have electronic Procure-to-Pay solutions that track order information from the date of purchase order release to the date the corresponding invoice is paid.

Social Networking

• Almost one-half of the companies who responded to this survey reported using social networking technology for different business practices such as human resources, sales/marketing, and training.

Reverse Auctions

• About one-half of the survey participants reported they employ reverse auction tools, and all of those companies stated they plan to do so for (at least) the next two years. The other half of the survey participants reported they are not using reverse auction tools and a clear majority do not plan on doing so within the next two years.

Sourcing in China

• About half of the survey participants indicated they have a sourcing/procurement group in China and about 56 percent of those participants reported an increase in number of employees assigned. Almost half of this group of participants reported their China sourcing/procurement group has assumed more authority.

Open and Closed Innovation

• In three years time 36% of the manufacturers expect their innovation strategies to be mostly or strongly open and 46% of non-manufacturers reported their innovation strategies will be mostly or strongly open. This is over a two-times increase from the current percentage for both groups.

You may access the SnapShots benchmarking reports at the CAPS Research web site: http://www.capsresearch.org/Research/Benchmarking/SnapShots.aspx. If you're a first-time visitor to the CAPS Research website you will be prompted to register when you access reports. Otherwise, just enter your previously established login data.

CAPS Research is a nonprofit research organization founded in 1986 to provide leading research to our strategic-minded corporate sponsors and to the public. Our mission is to work in partnership with a global network of executives and academics for the discovery and dissemination of strategic supply management knowledge and best practices. CAPS Research is jointly sponsored by the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, the Institute for Supply Management™, and Global 1000/Fortune 500-size organizations.

Media Contact:
Debbie Maciejewski
Marketing Manager
CAPS Research
Voice: 800-888-6276 extension 3046
Email: dmaciejewski@capsresearch.org

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