San Jose, December 22, 2008 - Ketera, the leading On Demand Spend Management provider, today announced that businesses operating in the United Kingdom can easily manage the recent change in the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate which took effect December 1, 2008 using Ketera's Spend Management solutions. Updates to tax rates were made seamlessly and transparently without any impact to customers using Ketera's web-based suite, offered in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. These automatic updates to transactional forms, including procurement and invoicing, save time and money through improved accuracy and by avoiding manual updates to multiple forms.

Ketera Chairman and CEO Steve Savignano says managing changes in the business environment - such as tax rates and regulations - seamlessly and proactively is an example of why companies are turning to on demand models for spend management such as Ketera.

"When you estimate the number of businesses and individuals affected by simple tax rate change and multiply that by the number of forms that must be updated, it's staggering. Ketera ensures that whatever country you are doing business in, you can be sure you are working with the most recent data," Savignano adds.

The revision reduces the standard VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% for 13 months, beginning 1 December 2008, requiring businesses to make quick adjustments in their billing and Ecommerce systems in order to comply with the rate change.

The British government's recent decision to reduce the standard VAT rate by 2.5%, as part of the country's economic stimulus package, introduces compliance challenges and requires significant investments in time and resources for business owners who are using software applications to manage many aspects of their businesses, particularly accounting / ERP and Ecommerce.

In an on-premise solution model, there is significant customer investment in terms of resources and money to make changes like these effective across their different systems. With Ketera, there was no investment by the customer and all the work related to the tax rate changes was done by Ketera.

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“ We selected the Ketera eRFX tool because it is quick to implement, cost effective and drives efficiencies into the sourcing process.  Its portal design streamlines the communication, document traffic and analysis associated with conducting our RFPs.  The entire Ketera package has allowed us to run more events with fewer resources, leading to increased procurement efficiencies. ” Michael Feeney Vice President, Corporate Procurement for U.S. Bank

“ When using a hard copy or .pdf system to manage our contracts, Luminex would sometimes miss key milestones.With Ketera Contract management we now have full contract compliance and sufficient advanced warning to take the appropriate actions in a timely fashion.  The Ketera solution also has resulted in huge time savings for us; deciphering language in a contract used to take us hours, now it takes us minutes. ” David Mendoza Director, Strategic Planning and Business Development Group for Luminex

“ We recognized an opportunity to enhance our purchasing process with state–of–the–art technology – without the up–front investment and ongoing resource commitment associated with the implementation of enterprise software. ” Mitch Platt VP Contract Services for Con-way

“ Ketera′s on demand solution is ahead of the competition – we will be able to implement the solution in weeks and we never have to worry about taking the system down to install upgrades or make changes. ” Steve Kenny Vice President Risk Management and General Services for Columbia Credit Union

“ From the beginning, Ketera explained everything to us, both from the technical and sales side. They′ve accommodated our needs and have been very helpful and responsive. ” Michael Kapeles Senior Supply Manager for Cabot Microelectronics

“ Not only does Ketera provide innovative solutions for spend management, they also offer high quality professional services that let you get the most from their solutions. Working with Ketera is like a breath of fresh air. ” Nick Walker Procurement Manager for BTP

“ Ketera's new solution is really an amazing innovation that will revolutionize the purchasing industry. ” Dian Trosclair VP of Supply Chain Management for ServiceMaster

“ Using Ketera, we've lowered our costs and improved our compliance with negotiated corporate contracts. By buying on contract, we typically see a ten percent reduction in cost. ” Jim Cebula Director of Global Purchasing for Kennametal

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