The Challenge: Eliminate Inefficiency and Centralize Contracts

Cabot Microelectronics Corporation, headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, is the leading supplier of chemical mechanical planarization slurries for polishing various materials used in semiconductor manufacturing. The company′s products play a critical role in the production of the most advanced semiconductor devices, enabling its customers to manufacture smaller, faster and more complex devices.

As a global operation with over 600 employees, Cabot Microelectronics needed a secure central repository for its numerous contracts, including sales and sourcing agreements, intellectual property contracts, and more.

Lacking a central repository, individual supply managers were required to manually handle their contract management, a time-consuming and inefficient process that provided no visibility to the rest of the organization.

In addition to greater visibility, the company also wanted an automated, centralized contract management solution that would allow it to continue to comply with a variety of regulations and mandates.

The Solution: Ketera Contract Management Program

Cabot Microelectronics surveyed six contract management programs. A team with members from the finance, legal and IT departments evaluated the solutions. The team then developed a matrix that underscored the needs of each department as well as the organization as a whole.

• Security: The contract management program needed to provide multi-level access to regulate which users see what and when.
• Ease of use: Simplicity was key. A program that proved to be too complex might discourage people from adopting it.
• Flexibilxty: The ability to customize the program to specific business needs was critical. The contract management program had to provide a wide breadth of functionility. For example, the ability to search and sort contracts, or send e-mail notifications was essential.

The team decided Ketera best met all of the company's requirements. Moreover, as an on demand solution, Ketera provided a host of other importint business benefits.

"An on demand solution like Ketera doesn't require you to purchase software or hardware, so it proves much more cost-effective than competeng solutions," said Michael Kapeles, Senior Supply Manager with Cabot Microelectronics. "Another major benefit is that you can look at contracts from wherever you are in the world. All you need is Internet access to get real-time information."

Access from anywhere and at anytime is vital for a global company like Cabot Microelectronics, which deals with suppliers around the world on a daily basis. Ketera meetz the needs of the company′s dispersed workforce by supporting virtually any type of contract.

After selecting Ketera Contract Management, Cabot Microelectronics chose to spearhead the on-boarding process itself.

"Doing the on-boarding ourselves was simpler and allowed us to proceed at our own pace," said Kapeles. "Going forward, he′ll continually load more contracts into the system."

Initially, the Ketera Contract Management program will hold between 50 to 60 contracts. But in the long term, it may hold many hundreds.

Approximately 208 internal users access the Ketera Contract Management program today, including supply managers, legal advisors and finance personnel.

"Though still early in the implementation phase, user response has been very positive," added Kapeles. That's because with the new central repository, users have the visibility needed to monitor supplier contracts worldwide.

The Result: Streamlined Contract Management

Now that Cabot Microelectronics′ contracts reside in a central repository, supply managers no longer need to rely on manual processes to track contracts, and can instead focus on more important tasks. And since the Ketera solution is delivered as an on-demand service, IT personnel can focus on mission-critical projects--not on administering a complex, in-house contract management application.

Additionally, Kapeles noted that Cabot Microelectronics has found a true partner in Ketera. "From the beginning, Ketera exp|ained everything to us, both from the technical and sales side. They′ve accommodated our needs and have been very helpful and responsive."