After announcing PricewaterhouseCoopers as its sourcing and procurement provider last week, joint e-marketplace initiative corProcure has closed its ranks and will say no more.
The decision to form corProcure was announced on July 5, making PwC's selection a hastily stitched up deal. The consulting giant would not specify how much the contract was worth or even how long it would run, due to a strict confidentiality agreement issued by the corProcure consortium.
There is strong speculation within the industry that corProcure is set to come under attack by a rival mega-portal. Consulting firm Deloitte Touché Tohmatsu is said to be in talks with at least five companies in direct competition to corProcure's shareholders to establish a B2B exchange. Deloitte hinted in June that these plans were well underway so the market is expecting an official announcement any day.
The consortium is now in the process of selecting a partner, or partners, to provide the technology platform to integrate the individual systems. It is understood that Anderson Consulting and AT Kearney are both tendering for this highly lucrative deal but both companies are being very tight-lipped and declined to comment.
According to industry sources, the selection of PwC as the integration house displeased some of the members to the point of threatening to pull out, but for the moment they appear to have closed ranks.
The founding shareholders of the corProcure consortium are Wesfarmers, AMP, ANZ, Amcor, Goodman Fielder, Orica, Pacific Dunlop, Qantas, Telstra, Australia Post, BHP, Coca Cola, Amatil, Coles Myer, and Fosters.