MILPITAS, Calif., 8-November-2004 Kovair, Inc., the leading provider of document management and collaboration software, today announced a Supplier Management and Extranet Solution for outsourced projects.

Kovair’s new solution provides a secure environment for internal teams, suppliers and partners to manage documents, action items, project information and milestones. Kovair’s easy-to-use Hosted intranet and extranet solutions can be set up with as little as 3 mouse-clicks. Companies can now bring more ad-hoc processes under management and control with Kovair’s solution because there is no IT involvement, software purchase or programming. With Kovair’s per-user pricing, it is easy for customers to start with a small subscription fee, and add projects and users as required.

Companies have global teams working in collaboration with suppliers and customers. Many outsourced projects rely on suppliers for project management and communication of status, schedules, and costs. Companies need to have as much visibility into outsourced projects as they have on internal projects.

“When you outsource a project, it is still your project. Companies have a hard time bringing transparency into outsourced projects, even if the supplier is CMM or ISO certified. Kovair tools allow customers to get real-time project information without the supplier doing double work,” said Arvind Khilnani, CEO of Softype, a business process services company based in Palo Alto, California.

Extranets and intranets can take several months to implement and consume IT and programming resources. “With Kovair, you can be set up and deploy extranets and intranets on the same day,” says Mukesh Ahuja, VP of Business Development at Kovair. “Companies have added Extranets to their toolkit for managing key customer relationships. But Supplier relationships are also becoming strategic with the growth in outsourcing and BPO. Extranets are an excellent tool for managing Suppliers.”

Bipin Shah, CEO of Kovair, said, “We created this application because we see significant pain at companies in managing outsourced projects. Kovair has the best solution in terms of its simplicity and ease-of-use. Business users can administer and use Kovair’s software with a simple point-and-click interface. Recently we have added new Workflow capability for encoding of repeatable business processes and approval flows.”

Customers and suppliers both benefit from closer communication and collaboration through Extranets, and from management summary of projects provided by Kovair software. Suppliers can increase customer satisfaction by providing timely project information. Suppliers can also coordinate sales activities and customer proposal documents by using an intranet.