MEDIA RELEASE 21 JUNE 2007

While many NSW government agencies move to e-procurement, Integral Energy is already ahead of the game using online ordering via NetXpress.

As the second largest state-owned energy corporation in NSW, the company has over 90 staff ordering items via an online purchasing system owned by Corporate Express.

Dave Grosvenor, Contracts and Procurement Manager at Integral Energy’s head office at Huntingwood said the majority of Integral Energy’s purchasing is now online.

“In 2002 we decided to utilise the State Contracts Control Board agreement in place with the NSW State Government. There is a shopping basket of items subject to this agreement and Corporate Express were one of two contractors that agreed to provide us with this shopping basket of items, via NetXpress,” Mr Grosvenor said.

“We’re very pleased with NetXpress because it is user-friendly, intuitive and has a vast range of products. It is very popular with staff.

“The prices offered are very competitive. Toner and paper account for 80 percent of our expenditure and that’s where we’ve focused on saving money. We use the Corporate Express generic range of products where we can to harvest the bulk of savings. We’ve saved a considerable amount of money on both toner and paper.

“Since we started using the State Contract Control Board agreement in 2002, we’ve reduced our expenditure from 15 to 20 percent per annum,” he said.

Integral also purchases a small amount of janitorial and cleaning supplies along with catering and coffee supplies using the online purchasing system.

“The whole ordering process is more efficient as staff don’t generally return any goods. This is because NetXpress offers a picture and profile of each product so they know what it is,” Mr Grosvenor said.

“We’re also very pleased with delivery time, which is generally next day and Corporate Express is always happy to correct mistakes. Our customer satisfaction ratings have been consistently above 80 percent.

“We are happy with Corporate Express’ account management model and our regular meetings. The quality of reporting provided during these meetings is very helpful. I would regard Corporate Express’ performance as consistently high and staff are genuinely interested in raising the standard of customer service. I have participated in a number of its workshops to learn about NetXpress, which demonstrates the company’s commitment to improving customer service,” he said.

Corporate Express Account Director David Yiend said NetXpress has over 180,000 users in Australia and New Zealand.

“NetXpress gives users access to thousands of products they can instantly view online with pricing and availability. Customers no longer need to search through paperwork, phone for pricing, prepare orders and wait for delivery confirmation,” Mr Yiend said.

“The intuitive system offers context-sensitive online help and supports all our products in every line of business.

“NetXpress allows users to control access and set authority levels based on secure individual user logins. Integral Energy can restrict product selection and set approvals associated by order, item value or a specified budget.

“Quarterly reporting provides back ‘fill rates’ and they can capture expenditure by cost centre or department and control purchasing to have greater visibility,” he said.

Corporate Express is Australia’s leading supplier of office products and business supplies and is now in its 11th year in Australia and has 50 branches around Australia and New Zealand. For more information about Corporate Express please call 13 26 44 or visit the website at www.ce.com.au


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Released for Corporate Express by Dennis Rutzou Public Relations (www.drpr.com.au). For further information contact Nicola Rutzou or Kim Larochelle on (02) 9413 4244.