True Value Company Selects On Demand Sterling Commerce Solution to Improve Customer Service and Supply Chain Efficiency

NEW YORK--At the National Retail Federation (NRF) Annual Convention and Expo, Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) subsidiary, announced today that True Value Company has purchased its Sterling Supply Chain Visibility On Demand, a hosted solution that provides partner connectivity, process integration and real-time visibility through the company’s extended supply chain. True Value Company, one of the world’s largest retailer-owned hardware cooperatives, will use Sterling Supply Chain Visibility On Demand to improve the accuracy and efficiency of its global supply chain.

“Our mission is to provide outstanding service and product availability to our members and their customers,” said Steve Poplawski, senior vice president, logistics & supply chain, at True Value Company. “Being able to leverage actionable information in a real-time environment allows us to move beyond reaction mode, and systematically fix deficiencies across our supply chain.”

With more than 19,000 Sterling Collaboration Network (SCN) customers and more than 90 global network interconnects, Sterling Supply Chain Visibility On Demand provides True Value Company with immediate access to more than 270,000 unique trading entities around the globe. The solution enables True Value Company to implement flexible business processes and manage the flow of information regarding its mission-critical business activities across organizational and geo-political boundaries. The on demand network will make it easier for True Value Company to integrate its trading community, thus lowering total cost of ownership and expediting return on investment.

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility On Demand also enables True Value Company to:

• Accelerate speed-to-solution by quickly implementing an on demand solution.
• Improve asset utilization by leveraging critical supply chain data that exists within SCN to lower inventory and improve operational efficiencies.
• Achieve process improvements by reacting in real-time as issues occur to proactively respond to supply disruptions and improve market responsiveness.
• Improve customer service by providing associates with role-based views to manage their data and processes.

“With our on-demand solutions and a global supply chain community of customers, suppliers, and carriers, Sterling Commerce offers a unique value proposition over traditional application providers,” said Jim Bengier, global retail industry executive at Sterling Commerce. “True Value Company is taking an innovative approach to strengthen its supplier relationships to drive growth through simplified processes and improved integration across its diverse business ecosystem.”

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility On Demand, which Sterling Commerce also announced at NRF, uses a secure, reliable hosted infrastructure to instantly display and summarize actionable supply chain information from all electronic trading partners and communities. This enables retailers to proactively respond to supply disruptions and improve market responsiveness. The solution utilizes Sterling Commerce business-to-business integration expertise and its global supply chain community to maximize the number of supply chain partners with whom retailers do business. The return on investment from that integration is realized through decreased inventory carrying costs and improved operational efficiencies. [See related press release, “Sterling Commerce Delivers New On Demand Solution That Transforms Extended Supply Chain Data Into Real-time Actionable Information.”]

About True Value Company

True Value Company, headquartered in Chicago, is one of the world’s largest retailer-owned wholesale hardware cooperatives with sales of $2.0 billion in 2006. The True Value cooperative includes approximately 5,600 independent retailer locations worldwide operating under the store identities of True Value, Grand Rental Station, Taylor Rental, Party Central, Home & Garden Showplace and Induserve Supply. Additional information on True Value and its retail identities is available at www.truevaluecompany.com.

About Sterling Commerce

Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), helps customers thrive in a global economy by connecting their business communities, processes, people and technology. More than 30,000 customers worldwide – including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 – use Sterling Commerce solutions for business process integration, multi-channel selling, and supply chain fulfillment to improve profitability inside and outside their company walls. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Sterling Commerce has offices in 19 countries and most major cities around the world. More information on the company can be found at www.sterlingcommerce.com.