Subway has signed on with GE Global eXchange Services (GE) to provide e-commerce technology to the Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC) responsible for $1.8 billion-per-year in purchases of food, packaging and other essentials for its restaurants. IPC and GE Global eXchange Services will create IPCnet, an extranet that will improve information flow between IPC and their suppliers, thereby enhancing IPC’s ongoing food safety initiatives on behalf of Subway.

GE Global eXchange Services (GXS) extranet solutions for Subway’s IPC include supplier contracting, auditing, invoicing, sales tracking and administration. These solutions will assist IPC in electronically tracking food products throughout the entire distribution process, ensuring that only the highest quality products reach Subway franchisees and ultimately the consumer.

In addition to providing e-commerce technology for IPCnet, GXS is also hosting the network at its EC Service CenterSM. The center provides application integration, trading partner implementation, transaction processing and 24×7 monitoring services for supply chain networks worldwide.

GE Global eXchange Services extranet solution represents a distinct competitive advantage for IPC enabling us to monitor every step of the supply chain from the field to the sandwich,” says Janet Risi, president and CEO of IPC. “Our commitment to food safety and quality continues to be our highest priority and is constantly affecting the way we do business.”

“This powerful combination of technology and process improvements throughout IPC’s supplier community will shift the workload from time- consuming manual activities to higher-value decision-making processes,” said Bob Brooks, VP of marketplace solutions for GE Global eXchange Services. “By working with GXS to streamline their supply chain and improve communication with their suppliers, IPC will be able to ensure that the right product information reaches the right place at the right time.”

IPC buys all the food, packing and other essentials for Subway Restaurants. Annually, the company purchases approximately 35 million pounds of turkey and 11 million pounds of tuna.