Press Release 11 October 2006

Lufthansa expands collaboration with IBX

IBX, the leading European provider of services and solutions for efficient purchasing, is set to expand its cooperation with Deutsche Lufthansa AG by offering increased support for electronic procurement. Together with the early renewal of a five-year contract, Lufthansa has decided to roll out IBX eProcurement throughout the entire Lufthansa Group. This web-based on-demand solution from IBX facilitates electronic purchasing using mySAP SRM (Supplier Relationship Management).

The new purchasing solution from IBX will allow Lufthansa to expand electronic procurement of direct and indirect goods and services. In future, the airline will be able to process up to 90% of its purchasing volume via IBX eProcurement — from order placement right through to billing. The global rollout will affect the entire Lufthansa Group, including subsidiaries.

IBX and Deutsche Lufthansa AG have been working together successfully for many years. Even before the rollout of the new system, almost 6000 Lufthansa employees used purchasing solutions from IBX to process a significant volume of orders.

"IBX's extensive international experience of the entire e-procurement process chain along with access to their global supplier network were key factors in our decision to expand the cooperation," reports Gerold Carl, Director of E-purchasing at Deutsche Lufthansa AG. "But what really won us over was the fact that the innovative solutions from IBX could be seamlessly integrated into our existing SAP environment and strategy using mySAP SRM. The turnkey on-demand solution saves us from having to invest large sums of money in the development and operation of an internal procurement solution. Our partnership with IBX means that we can now focus 100% on optimizing our purchasing processes and reducing our procurement costs."

From the perspective of IBX, the closer cooperation with Deutsche Lufthansa AG will be an interesting reference project for expanding the company's presence in the important German market. Other leading international companies such as Siemens, Deutsche Post, Tchibo, Linde, Total, Ericsson, Volvo, IKEA and Skanska already rely on electronic purchasing solutions from IBX.

"We are proud to be given this opportunity to continue to build upon the work already started with Lufthansa in helping the Group to implement efficient procurement processes," declares Thomas Neubauer, who took up the role of Senior Vice President for IBX Market Unit Germany on October 1. "We will be utilizing enhanced tools and solutions for sourcing, procurement and payment to help Lufthansa unlock all the untapped potential in procurement and further reduce costs involved in purchasing goods and services. Our recent acquisition of the German company Portum AG, the leading German provider of web-based sourcing solutions, has put us in a position to offer all our customers even more comprehensive solutions for electronic tendering and auctions."

For further information, please contact:
Peter Lageson, Marketing Director IBX Group AB, +46 70 37 55 105, e-mail: peter.lageson@ibx.se
Thomas Neubauer, Senior Vice President of IBX Market Unit Germany, Tel: + 49 (0)69 954 118 100; +49 (0)171 333 7813; email: Thomas.Neubauer@ibxeurope.com
Boris Ogursky, spokesperson for network management, IT & purchasing at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Tel: +49 (0)69 6 96-9 60 06; email: boris.ogursky@dlh.de