Need to make a quick office supplies or equipment purchase? Who ya gonna call? At Jefferson Lab it may well be Corporate Express; and you won't call them, you'll order directly from their web page.

In response to the purchase needs of Jefferson Lab staff, Corporate Express developed their E-Way Internet sales program last year, and are now vying to become an e-commerce leader in the business supplier market.

The company's sales for the 12 months leading up to April 1999 were almost $100 million - compared with sales totaling just $20 million for the 12-month period ending in April 1998. Corporate Express expects its E-Way Internet sales to be between $150 and $200 million for fiscal year 1999.

Chris Goodwin, Corporate Express Corporation, explains the products available on the web to attendees of the recent Business Services Fair.

Corporate Express, founded in 1986, has become a leading supplier of non-production goods and services to mid-sized and large companies around the world. It operates in 500 locations and employs 28,000 people in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Visit the company's Web page at www.CorporateExpress.com for more information about the company or making electronic purchases. Or, go directly to www.eway.com with your user ID and password to submit a purchase order. Its Web page features easy to understand instructions, clear graphics, and a user-friendly ordering system. Customers may browse the product catalog or search for specific items or materials, then easily submit individual or bulk orders.

Corporate Express carries a variety of office supplies, furniture and equipment, as well as computer hardware and software. It offers a line of products made with recycled-content materials and is an approved supplier for Jefferson Lab. As a vendor, Corporate Express participated in the Business Fair hosted by Business Services earlier this year.

The company boasts a new state-of-the-art distribution center just across the North Carolina border, which serves this region. Corporate Express prides itself on its 99 percent next-day order delivery rate.

Account Manager Chris Goodwin said that moving into the electronic age more than tripled local sales. "We're reaching a much larger customer base through our E-Way sales," he explained. "We analyzed our purchase order process - our costs were high. By developing an efficient, electronic purchase order system, we were able to drop the cost of processing each purchase order by $130. That cost was borne by the customer. So, developing E-Way has been a win-win situation. It saves our customers money and it saves us money."

According to Mitch Laney, JLab subcontracting officer, Corporate Express' first year sales at the Lab amounted to 1,390 calls with more than 5,500 items processed, and he anticipates the volume for this year to be nearly double last year's totals. He credits the joint effort and hard work between the Accelerator Division and Business Services for making the business transactions between the Lab and the company work so well.

Goodwin applaudes Bill Brisiel, JLab Stockroom manager, for encouraging the development of electronic ordering at the Lab. "It [electronic ordering] helps people save time and money," Goodwin said. "A purchase order process that used to take four phone calls and two faxes, is now taken care of with one visit to the E-way Web page." Electronic purchasing helps the customer find products faster and makes placing orders faster. It allows managers to maintain purchasing control, gain instant access to purchasing data via the Internet, and protects purchasing data. E-Way is integrated with the Lab's purchasing system and allows managers to instantly.

For more information, call Corporate Express customer service at 1-888-430-2737 or call Goodwin directly at (757)858-7010.

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