Sigma-Aldrich Joins Forces with Ariba to Further its Aggressive E-Commerce Offerings

<%=company1%>, the world's largest provider of chemicals used by researchers and chemists in university, government and commercial laboratories, announced today an agreement with Ariba, Inc.—the leading provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions. As part of the agreement, Sigma-Aldrich will participate as a member of the Ariba Supplier Link (ASL) program and will make its 200,000 products and information available through Ariba Network to Ariba users via "cXML punchout" technology. This allows Ariba e-commerce procurement solution users to directly access Sigma-Aldrich's web site data, make a purchasing decision and return to the Ariba application with the transaction history recorded automatically in the user's purchase requisition.

The agreement also includes a joint collaboration on the continued development of Commerce XML (cXML), the open technology standard for exchanging supplier content and transaction information between buyers and suppliers over the Internet. This collaboration will provide the opportunity for customers of both Ariba and Sigma-Aldrich to further streamline their procurement processes. In addition, Sigma-Aldrich will participate in the Ariba Users Group and Advisory Council forums where buying and selling organizations interact with other Ariba users and benefit from their experience and expertise, thus enabling Sigma-Aldrich to present complementary e-commerce capabilities to Ariba customers and prospects.

"This is a win/win relationship." says Blake Hibray, Vice President of Sales USA for Sigma-Aldrich. "Ariba enriches its offerings to its users by adding our 200,000 products and related information, and we will gain greater exposure to Ariba's clients in our industry."

"Sigma-Aldrich brings a wealth of chemicals expertise and products to the Ariba B2B e-commerce platform," said Pat Guerra, Vice President, Network Markets at Ariba. "We look forward to providing Sigma-Aldrich with Ariba Network supplier solutions that provide seamless connectivity to the many leading corporations around the world that use Ariba solutions to source and purchase research chemical products."

This announcement, combined with the EMAX Solution Partners, Inc. strategic collaboration, and the successful deployment of the HAHT Commerce e-software suite that enables web communication with critical back-end enterprise systems, is yet another step in Sigma-Aldrich's aggressive eCommerce rollout to its customers. Users of www.sigma-aldrich.com can shop, obtain up-to-the-minute pricing and product availability, and receive order confirmation, status and shipping information, all in real-time. As a manufacturer and developer of its products, Sigma-Aldrich ads this functionality to the Company's, already rich, technical information databases and on-line resources.

About Sigma-Aldrich
Sigma-Aldrich develops, manufactures and distributes the broadest range of high quality biochemicals, organic chemicals, chromatography products and diagnostic reagents available in the world. The Company's products are used in high-tech research and development in universities and industry, in the diagnosis of disease, and as specialty chemicals for pharmaceutical and other manufacturing purposes in more than 160 countries. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to the success of its customers through science, technology and service.

About Ariba Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of business-to-business eCommerce services and solutions. The company delivers an open, end-to-end, best-of-breed platform of interoperable solutions to manage corporate purchasing on the Internet, build net markets, and provide suppliers with buyer access and integration. Together, Ariba's software and services leverage the Internet-based Ariba Network to integrate the internal and external commerce processes of buyers, suppliers, net markets and commerce service providers. The result is a global eCommerce infrastructure that provides cost saving and revenue opportunities for businesses of all sizes.