Use the spending evidence you collected to gain a thorough understanding of the following:

• Analysis of suppliers paid
• Identification of the number of preferred suppliers with established contracts
• Recognition of the ratio of preferred suppliers to non-preferred suppliers
• Analysis of contracted supplier in terms of dollars spent
• Rollback spending on contracts. Determination if contract compliance is taking place by creating contract scorecards
• Analysis of top suppliers as a percentage of total spend (top 5, top 10, top 15…etc.)
• Determine the relationship between top suppliers and contractual suppliers
• Supplier performance
• How often contracts are renegotiated or put out for competitive bid
• Analysis of commodity codes

With a deep understanding of the evidence, action steps should be prepared, including:

• Reduce the supply base and establish a preferred supplier list – review how many suppliers you have in key categories and then start looking at their performance. Based on performance, percentage of total spend, and quality of relationship, it shouldn’t be too difficult to make a short list. Of course, the shorter this list, the better. One of our industrial clients saved $400,000 alone from reducing their welding suppliers from 12 to one.
• Optimize preferred supplier relationships – supplier consolidation should come with a quid pro quo. If a preferred supplier will be getting more (or all) of your business, you should expect (and negotiate) better pricing and terms. By consolidating to one preferred office supply supplier, one of our retail clients was able to negotiate better rates and free shipping on every order.
• Automate routine or manual procurement processes – while streamlining the supplier base, it only makes sense to simplify the procurement process as well. Implement a procurement automation solution that allows requisitioners to browse through catalogs that have the preferred supplier products and pricing built in. These systems also provide incredible visibility into the most granular spending detail. Automation empowers organizations to weave better spend management into the fabric of corporate culture.
• Report results back to management and employees – there’s nothing more motivating than results. Set realistic savings goals and review progress in regularly-scheduled meetings. You’ll be surprised how the morale boost encourages people to save even more. Be sure to share the data with your preferred suppliers. Knowing that you’re monitoring contracts will keep them on their toes.

Although we don’t wear lab coats, analyze DNA, or interrogate suspects, being a Cost Savings Investigator can be just as important. If we collect the right evidence, apply deep analysis to what we’ve found, and make action plans to reduce maverick spending, we can crack the case.

While it’s true uncovering and exposing maverick spending won’t get you an Emmy, it may save your company millions of dollars in the process.

One final note for fans of the show, it looks like Calleigh and Eric may be getting back together.

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian
mschaffner@verian.com

I was watching an old episode last week when a thought occurred to me:  spend analysis is not that different than crime scene investigation. It takes a plan, adherence to procedures, an open mind, and the willingness to see some gruesome things.

Inflated invoices for off-contract purchases are a horrific sight. It’s like discovering a big cockroach in your house: a disgusting sight but worse knowing a hundred others are hiding close by.

For large organizations, even a 5 to 15 percent reduction in maverick purchasing can lead to millions of dollars in savings.

In this two-part post, we’ll play Cost Savings Investigators, rooting out maverick spending with the precision of a modern detective. In part one, we’ll review what spending ‘evidence’ you should collect for analysis. In part two, we’ll show you how to use that evidence to crack the case.

An in-depth spend analysis can uncover some interesting (and frightening) information. To do a proper, detailed spend analysis, you need a snapshot of:

• Number of supplier relationships
• Number of GL codes
• Items purchased by GL code
• Percentage of overall spending by supplier
• Number of invoices processed
• Average amount of supplier payments
• Frequency of checks processed for suppliers

This information will help identify opportunities for managing purchases by commodity, consolidating spend, streamlining payment processing and setting non-financial criteria for supplier evaluation. Examples of improvements may include supplier consolidation and XML connections with high transaction volume partners.

Next, tap into the general ledger and obtain the following:

• Number of general ledger chart of accounts – This will provide a global picture of how the organization tracks spend, different commodities purchased, and what level of spending detail is currently available to the organization.

• General Ledger expenditure amounts – Where is the organization spending the most money? Are these account values firmly established and reliable data points? Are certain suppliers servicing multiple cost centers?  Many organizations find that miscellaneous account codes make up an inordinate percentage of the total spending. Account types such as “9999” often end up being larger percentages than initially anticipated. Therefore, consider a second level of analysis of the general ledger in order to gain a thorough understanding.

To get a true picture of the “crime scene,” you will also want to look within the organization for other types of accessible data, such as p-card information, ERP programs or other legacy systems.

In part two, we will explore what to do with all the evidence you collect.

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian Technologies
mschaffner@verian.com

“Most purchase-to-pay systems are developed to support manufacturing businesses, not financial institutions such as ours,” said Suzanne N. Wallin, Manager of Procurement and Accounts Payable for Axcess Financial. “After searching the industry for a system that was flexible enough to meet our needs, we selected Verian.”

“We are excited to welcome Axcess Financial to the Verian family of customers,” said Tehseen Ali Dahya, president and CEO of Verian Technologies. “We look forward to helping Axcess Financial become more successful in what they do.”

About Verian
Verian helps mid- and large-sized organizations reduce costs and increase efficiency with flexible, easy-to-use solutions that automate the entire purchase-to-pay process including procurement, invoice processing, employee reimbursements and asset management — capturing all spend intelligence in a single database for analysis. Verian was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The company’s clients include First Horizon National, Members First Credit Union, Macy’s, Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Allstate Insurance, PETCO and General Nutrition Centers (GNC).

About Axcess Financial Services, Inc.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, Axcess Financial provides a wide range of convenient, approachable financial products that improve the consumers’ financial situation by meeting their lifestyle and budgetary needs through Check ‘n Go retail outlets and online at www.checkngo.com. For more information, visit www.axcess-financial.com.

As the NFL lockout continues and the hoopla of the NFL Draft has died down, there’s not much football left to talk about except memories.

Surprisingly, the misaligned relationship between purchasing and accounts payable takes me back to the glory days of the Dallas Cowboys.

I couldn’t help but think of a legendary football story after reading one of Spend Matters’ recommendations at the conclusion of their most recent report in the Compass Series of research: “A Foundational Look at P2P Technologies.”

It says that companies pursuing a P2P system should “make collaborative decisions with finance (including accounts payable) to address both the up and downstream components of the P2P lifecycle.”

Following the unceremonious firing of Dallas Cowboys coach and football legend Tom Landry, new owner Jerry Jones hired University of Arkansas head coach Jimmy Johnson. Many doubted the pair, both notorious control freaks with fiery demeanors, could work together and turn around the tarnished silver and blue. 

The Texas mavericks proved everyone wrong by transforming a 1-15 laughing stock into two-time Super Bowl Champs in less than five years. It was one of the greatest worst-to-first stories in modern sports history. Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson were hailed as modern-day heroes for bringing back the luster to “America’s Team.”

Although their working relationship was never great and the two weren’t bosom buddies, they both understood they needed to put their differences aside and make compromises if they wanted to win Championships.

When I look at purchasing and accounts payable, I see a lot of the same dynamics.

The two departments have traditionally never been the best of friends. Unfortunately in many organizations there are still policy, process and organizational issues keeping the two from working in harmony. These two departments often report up to different division managers, are geographically dispersed, and have different mindsets when it comes to vendor relationships.

The Great Recession has forced many organizations to place more scrutiny on the purchase-to-pay cycle. In the review process, they’re uncovering issues that those in purchasing and AP have known about for years, including:

• Late payments by AP result in missed discounts that purchasing negotiated
• Incorrect invoice information causes AP extra work
• Purchasing lacks visibility into purchases that bypass them
• Overlap in purchasing & AP roles causes conflicts
• Inconsistent vendor set-up procedures
• Ad hoc and piecemeal communication around issue resolution

Like Jimmy and Jerry coming together for two NFL Championships, getting AP and purchasing in sync has its own rewards. When the two departments work together, opportunities for hard-dollar and soft-dollar savings can add up to 5% or more of spending! That’s an incredible amount of savings in today’s belt-tightening climate.

To help you get started, we’ve put together a special game plan exclusively for Spend Matters readers.

We’ve compiled a list of 20 Ideas for Getting Purchasing & AP in Sync from “best practice” organizations with strong, productive purchasing and AP relationships. It is organized into three categories of ideas: policy, process and organizational. We think it’s a great baseline to help form your strategy.

Now if only we could get the owners and players to work together and end this lockout. For me, I win either way – I’m a Cleveland Browns fan.

Mark Schaffner
VP Marketing

Verian Technologies

Read more of Mark’s posts here

“Manually tracking the cost and location of Oil Country Tubular Goods (OCTG) within a sprawling network of well sites, warehouses and yards is almost impossible,” said Ganesh Sundaresan, Senior Product Manager for Verian. “Our solution takes the burden off E&P companies by automating cost and location tracking of OCTG. The new release takes our core asset and inventory tracking capability to the next level.” Version 10.5 of Verian’s solution builds on previous versions and includes exclusive features and functionality, including the ability to:

Easily order, track and receive OCTG at warehouses and wells – Engineers and materials managers can create orders or initiate materials transfer requests online and track progress in just a few simple steps. The system integrates seamlessly with accounting systems to reconcile costs and inventory value to the appropriate well or warehouse. This puts the power in the hands of engineers and managers in the field and reduces the workload in accounting.

Track cost and location through an item’s complete life cycle– Materials managers can receive new and fabricated OCTG into inventory and transfer materials in and out of warehouses and well sites with just a few mouse clicks.  Material managers and engineers can also update and track the carrier and shipment information at every step during the materials transfer process. In addition, users can also track the condition code and location of every item through its entire life cycle, with visibility and audit trails of every step along the way.

Execute attribute-based ordering – Engineers in the field can order items with specific attributes such as pipe thread count, width etc. If needed, buyers from other locations can review and make attribute changes prior to placing the order. When goods are received, the assets are setup in the system with attributes pre-populated, facilitating quick and accurate asset transfers

“Before any work started on this release, we drilled down deep into the needs and goals of E&P customers including Cobalt International Energy, Stone Energy and W&T Offshore,” said Tehseen Ali Dahya, President and CEO of Verian. “It was this customer feedback that served as the guideposts for the 10.5 release. Our customers’ success is intrinsically connected to ours and we will continue to incorporate customer feedback into future releases.”

About Verian
Verian helps oil and gas organizations reduce costs and increase efficiency with easy-to-use solutions that automate procurement, materials and asset management, invoice and employee reimbursement processing, and captures all spending in a single database for analysis. Verian was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The company’s clients include W&T Offshore, Stone Energy, Huber Natural Resources, DCOR, Canoro, Blue Tip Energy, Cobalt Energy, Double Eagle. Piedmont Natural Gas and GMX Resources.

Media Contact
Adam Slick
Marketing Communications Manager
Verian
aslick@verian.com
704.971.6992

TV personalities Oprah Winfrey and Suze Orman suggest we should deny ourselves simple pleasures like that daily $4 Starbucks latte in an effort to save money, and we’ve seen this view spill over into the corporate arena as well. More and more organizations are being told they if they tighten controls and reduce corporate “lattes,” they will drop at least 1% from OPEX.

Although it seems like sage advice, Ramit Sethi, author of the New York Times best-seller I will Teach You to be Rich, cautions against fretting over a $4 coffee: “Constantly over-analyzing tiny purchases is exhausting and ineffectual.” He sounds more like the supply chain professional who focuses more on value than per-unit-cost!

You may be surprised that one of his suggested solutions is financial automation — because it enables smarter spend management rather than controlling every little purchase.

I hope corporate America is tuning in to Ramit and tuning out Oprah and Suze. An investment in a robust and flexible purchase-to-pay system can help organizations get away from squeezing nickels and dimes to saving real dollars by using more global, enterprise-wide spend management strategies. Three big keys:

1. Buy at the places where you’ve earned discounts. If your local coffee shop gave you a 20% discount on every cup, would you buy anywhere else? Unfortunately, it’s often because your requisitioners think it’s inconvenient. Sticking with your preferred suppliers is the best way to reduce costs and encourage compliance by making it convenient: create a universal online catalog of your preferred suppliers. Within the catalog, optimize the search capabilities so your requisitioners are first presented the items within a category you want them to buy. Then use the system’s matching capabilities to ensure your suppliers are billing you the agreed-upon price.

2. Use what you have before buying new. Why would you head out to a steakhouse if you have filet mignon in the freezer? Probably because you didn’t know you had it. Some companies are optimizing searches to present users with idle assets and excess inventory before they can procure new goods. Managing and focusing demand in this manner is much more cost effective than skipping a latte.

3. Don’t spend more than you have. I think Oprah and Suze are really just trying to prevent overspending: it’s easy to do, especially when not all spenders can see how much is left in the till. The budgeting capabilities of some procurement systems provide real-time budget information across the enterprise, allowing managers see accurate budget numbers before approving PO requests — all from a computer or smart phone. “Latte” alerts can even be setup that trigger when a budget gets below a certain amount.

The bottom line is that it’s not really what you buy, it’s how you buy it. It’s not the fact that Bob in human resources orders sticky notes, it’s the fact that accounting next door has 100 packs in the closet and Bob goes out and pays 30% more than he has to. Paying attention to small details such as this is how you can really knock costs down!

I have to admit that Oprah does have more money than Ramit, but does that mean we should always listen to her? I’ll let you decide. In the meantime, I’m going to get myself a latte. Don’t worry, I have a loyalty card — and every fifth cup is free!

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian Technologies
mschaffner@verian.com

The other day, the Wall Street Journal ran the headline “U.S. Balks at Pakistani Bills.” As I read the article I thought of you, supply chain professionals, and how I wish one of you could have been there when the U.S. struck its deal with Pakistan for “services” it required for the war on terror.

In 2004, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks and the United Stated wanted to find him immediately. I am sure many of you faced a similar situation. When there is a crisis, people want action. The desire for a clear course of action is intense, and people want to see immediate results.

The United States knew Osama was hiding in the barren and mountainous tribal lands that lay on both sides of the Afghanistan and Pakistan border. We invaded Afghanistan, but dealing with a nuclear-weapon-packing Pakistan was a little more problematic. We decided to procure the services of the Pakistani army as a tangible action to take in our steps to catch Bin Laden.

No “scope of work” for the services was discussed, just a firm commitment that the U.S. would compensate Pakistan for gear, food, water, housing and other expenses associated with their activities. It seemed fair, and my bet is that no one had the patience to discuss either the types of expenses and assets for which we would reimburse them or our performance expectations. That is why I wish you all were there.

According to the article, the United States approved 98.4% of the invoices submitted by this cash-strapped country in 2004. Predictably, the problem with choosing speed-of-action over clarity of expectations did not show itself until two years later. In 2006, the Pakistanis sent a $70 million invoice for radar maintenance. Fortunately, someone in AP asked a really good question: “Why are we paying for Pakistani radar maintenance when there is no enemy air threat related to the war on terror?” Eyebrows raised and the State Department took a closer look. Nothing was disclosed, but they must not have liked what they saw.

The U.S. tried to renegotiate the agreement and amend it to be performance, behavior and operations-based rather than simply requiring Pakistani Army presence. For any of us who have been involved in renegotiating a loose contract into a tight one, you can imagine how well it went. The compromise was predictable, and should have been automated! Rather than agree to specific results, the two governments agreed to a new invoice approval processes that linked expenses to specific military actions. The process has been full of disputes and invoices now take 6-12 months to be paid.

Our Islamabad-based vendor is hurt. It had deployed 145,000 troops to the tribal lands and suffered many casualties supporting US military operations. Now they are being asked to submit a receipt for “every cup of tea!” The Pakistani military says the scrutiny is understandable, but hurts the level of trust and cooperation between the two organizations — sounds like one unhappy vendor. So you can imagine what happened when the new invoice approval process really kicked into high gear. In 2007 and 2008 the United States rejected $3.2 billion of Pakistani invoices. The rejection rate jumped to 44% in 2009. Suspicious invoices are still being discovered and vendor relations have steadily declined.

Senator John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan reminds me of an executive making a visit to a critical but problematic vendor. He does a lot of shaking his head, wondering aloud how it ever got to this point and pleads to “reset” the relationship. This all could have been avoided if supply chain professionals had been there to set the right expectations at the beginning. I think most of us would have chosen clarity of expectations over speed of action. It’s not a popular position, but a prudent one — after all, I doubt taking the time to discuss a clear scope of work would have added much time to the decade it took us to catch Bin Laden.

Besides, the supply chain professional approach would of maintained better vendor relations — which I think is really important when your vendor possess nuclear capabilities. Maybe it’s just me and how I see it. What do you think?

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian Technologies
mschaffner@verian.com

Although Kermit the Frog doesn’t dress like your average CPO, when he laments “It’s not easy being green,” he certainly sounds like one.

Kermit’s famous ode may have been about fitting in, but when today’s CPOs hear the word “green,” they worry about controlling costs. We live in an enviro-centric world that expects companies, especially big ones, to support sustainability. That means paper instead of plastic, recycled raw materials, and keeping an eye on your carbon footprint.

For decades, U.S. companies shied away from green initiatives because they think being green is synonymous with 10 to 15% cost premium. But many corporations are surprised to find that environmentally conscious pop singer Jack Johnson’s catchy “3 R’s” (reduce, reuse, recycle) song actually provides them with a roadmap for reducing costs.

One of our clients, a global shipping corporation, recently developed a Three R strategy that put 60,000 employees in control of conservation and sustainability efforts. It used advanced e-procurement technology as the key tool for providing information that enabled its front-line employees to choose green goods at the time of requisition and save $61.5 million in the process.

Here’s what they did with the Three R’s:

Reuse – Create a marketplace of idle goods?Why buy new when you’ve already bought it? Every office has unused items gathering dust in a closet or warehouse, but how do you share idle inventory with the enterprise? The shipper enabled users to upload excess inventory and idle assets in any of its 35,000 locations to their shared catalogs. The catalogs present “reuse” opportunities ahead of new merchandise. The shipper quickly discovered that when given the opportunity, most requistioners choose to reuse instead of buying new.

Recycle – Make it easy to identify and buy green products?Employees will gladly buy green products if they know how to find them. The shipper’s employees can search through the online marketplace for environmentally preferred products (EPP). For example, a user who enters ‘printer paper’ and ‘EPP’ in the catalog search engine would see all the available paper with one or more EPP indicators. There are a total of ten attributes EPP products can carry, including Energy Star, Bio Preferred, Recycled, Watersense and Chem-Free. As a result, suppliers with cost-competitive EPP products in the shipper’s catalogs saw a 17% spike in demand and the company reduced its impact on the environment.

Reduce – Monitor sustainability efforts?Green efforts are only as good as the results they provide – organizations need a way to track their progress. At the shipping company, off-catalog requests are reviewed by an internal demand management team. Warnings and denials are accompanied with education on how to source in a more cost-effective and sustainable. The shipper also bumps up their utility invoices against local weather reports to identify anomalies in consumption that may be due to equipment that may need repair.

This story proves that employees will go green if you give them the right tools. More importantly, it shows that the Three R’s are just as good for the bottom line as they are for the environment.

If Jack Johnson and Kermit the Frog were to sing a duet today, they might change the lyrics to “It’s profitable being green.”

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian Technologies
mschaffner@verian.com

“Our goal with this year’s ’100′ is to put the spotlight on successful and innovative transformation projects that are delivering bottom-line value to small, medium and large enterprises across the different functions that comprise the supply chain,” said Barry Hochfelder, editor of Supply & Demand Chain Executive. “The projects featured in the ’100′ article can serve as a roadmap for supply chain executives looking for new opportunities to drive improvement in their own operations.”

Verian Technologies made the prestigious list for its groundbreaking purchase-to-pay project for a global shipping company. The size and scope of the project were unprecedented: over 60,000 users generating 2.5 million purchase orders a year from 40,000 different locations.

The Verian purchase-to-pay solution includes advanced procurement technology that supports the shipper’s conservation, sustainability and demand management initiatives. The advanced requisition technology helped reduce the shipper’s off-catalog spend by twenty two percent, amounting to savings of $61.5 million in just nine months.

“This is an honor for Verian to be on the list for the eighth time in ten years,” said Tehseen Ali, CEO and President of Verian. “Especially in this rough economy, we are proud of the cost-savings our solutions are delivering to our customers.”

Final recipients will be featured in the cover story of the June 2011 issue of Supply & Demand Chain Executive, as well as online at www.SDCExec.com/SDCE100.

About Verian
Verian helps mid- and large-sized organizations reduce costs and increase efficiency with intelligent, easy-to-use solutions that automate the entire purchase-to-pay process including procurement, invoice processing, employee reimbursements and asset management — capturing all spend intelligence in a single database for analysis. Verian was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. The company’s clients include Macy’s, Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI), Allstate Insurance, PETCO and General Nutrition Centers (GNC).

About Supply & Demand Chain Executive

Supply & Demand Chain Executive is the executive’s user manual for successful supply and demand chain transformation, utilizing hard-hitting analysis, viewpoints and unbiased case studies to steer executives and supply management professionals through the complicated, yet critical, world of supply and demand chain enablement to gain competitive advantage. On the Web at www.SDCExec.com.

Media Contacts:
Adam C. Slick
Marketing Communications Manager
Verian
704-971-6992
aslick@verian.com
www.verian.com

Stacey Meacham
Managing Editor
Supply & Demand Chain Executive
smeacham@sdcexec.com

A few months ago, my father asked me to help him buy a new television. Now fully retired, he was looking forward to spending his Golden Years in HD. On a sunny Saturday afternoon, we headed out to Best Buy to pick one out.

We made our way to the television display, stacked three high and ten across, glowing like a neon casino sign. Before we could get our bearings, a pair of eager salesmen started reciting a catalog of acronyms like LCD, LED, HDMI, and DVR. My dad’s eyes glazed over as he tried to make sense of what he was hearing. As they continued their sales pitch, I turned to see him slowly making his way for the door. “It’s too confusing,” he protested as I chased after him. “The one I have is fine for now.”

I talk to a lot of AP departments who feel the same way about invoice automation. With well over 100 vendors selling various combinations of invoice automation technology, it’s very difficult to sort through all the hype and choose a solution that truly fits your needs. The problem is that too many AP departments start shopping for invoice automation before they truly understand what they need. Like my dad discovered, you can’t learn and shop at the same time. Before making that trip to invoice automation’s figurative Best Buy, AP departments need to first look internally and answer four basic questions:

What are your functional needs? Although each AP departments is unique, they come in three basic flavors: centralized, decentralized and hybrid. Your AP department’s setup will be a determining factor in what technologies you implement.In a centralized setup, where all invoices are sent to one location, invoice volume will often be high and justify investing in OCR or other data entry technologies. However, if the same company has organized AP in a decentralized or hybrid fashion, having each AP group enter data from scanned invoices will be more cost effective.

What are your financial needs? Invoice volume is a critical factor in selecting the right invoice automation solution. When you look at your total invoice volume, first separate out your high-volume, low dollar vendors. It’s likely that these invoices may be transferred on a different track via e-invoicing through EDI or XML (provided your vendors support such technology). The balance represents your total invoice volume and will dictate how extensive of a solution you need.

What are your technical needs? When it comes to the technical side of things, there are a host of automation technologies like scanning and OCR that you’ll need to consider. Also, for combining with your financial system for payment, you’ll have several integration options to weigh as well.As far as hosting is concerned, the good news is that your IT department can be involved with invoice automation as much — or as little — as they want or need to be.For security, control, compliance or other reasons, some IT department prefer (or are required) to host all applications on their infrastructure, behind the company’s firewall.

For IT departments that do not have the resources to manage another application, invoice automation can be delivered in an on-demand (also called software-as-a-service or SaaS) model where users login to the system from a Web browser.

There is a third option offered by a handful of software providers where their AP application is hosted on a dedicated server. Some IT departments consider this option the “best of both worlds” because they have the security of a safe, hosted environment without the time and costs associated with server maintenance and support.

Are you ready for the culture change? From the sounds of it, you would think AP would welcome the culture change associated with invoice automation. But when you start using words like automation, centralization and digitization, it naturally causes fear and anxiety. The fear of change stands as one of the biggest hurdles invoice automation must overcome. When employees understand that automation is meant to empower rather than eliminate staff, they quickly become automation supporters.

After my father took the time to assess his television needs, he ended up with a beautiful 42″ Sony Bravia HDTV. After enjoying his first “Modern Marvels” in HD, he turned to me and said, “We should have done this sooner.”

When AP departments see that first invoice flow through from receipt to approval in less than in three days, they say the same thing.

Mark Schaffner
VP of Marketing
Verian Technologies
mschaffner@verian.com