ATLANTA — Clarus Corporation announced today that Union Pacific Railroad (UP), the largest railroad in North America, has achieved production deployment with Clarus eProcurement(TM) in 100 days. The first transaction was an office supply order with Boise Cascade, one of the buyer-managed catalogs that Union Pacific has access to under the new system.
In addition to the Boise Cascade catalog, UP’s initial implementation includes catalogs from Comark, Dell, Snap on Tools, Software Plus, GESCO, Better Business World and an internal stock material catalog that is expected to grow to 60,000 items. The system is integrated into separate stock and non-stock material systems. Over the coming months, UP plans to aggressively expand users and add additional supplier catalogs. UP plans to deploy the system to the majority of its 50,000 employees.
“It was our goal to implement a procurement solution that would integrate easily with our other systems and be accessible to the bulk of our employees,” said Tom Holmes, director of e-Supply Chain, Union Pacific Railroad. “We chose Clarus eProcurement for its proven track record of success and expect to see a fast reduction in our procurement costs.”
Union Pacific is one of the founding members of RailMarketplace.com, a consortium of mainline North American railroads formed to leverage supply chain efficiencies that are available through collaborative technologies.
“We are pleased that UP has achieved production deployment in only 100 days,” said Steve Hornyak, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Clarus. “It is further validation of our belief that by implementing Clarus e-commerce solutions, companies are able to attain measurable returns more quickly with a low cost of ownership and risk.”
Clarus has proven success with the rail industry, having assisted the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company (BNSF) with its internal procurement initiatives last year. Clarus and Deloitte & Touche (D&T) Management Solutions teamed for the rapid production deployment at UP. The Clarus technology, designed to be managed by business users — not teams of programmers, and the proven, repeatable supplier enablement methodologies employed by Clarus and D&T, allowed the comprehensive and rapid implementation.