Career Education Corp. Joins OB10 E-Invoicing Network to Reduce Costs, Improve Financial Management

Business Wire, Jan 8, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO -- Career Education Corporation (NASDAQ: CECO), operator of colleges, schools, and universities around the world, has joined the OB10 global electronic invoicing network, in a move designed to reduce costs and enhance its financial management capabilities.

OB10 today announced a three-year contract with Career Education, a company with more than $2 billion in revenue in 2005. OB10 has already begun migrating the company's 3,000 suppliers - which account for some 170,000 invoices annually - over to the e-Invoicing network.

"We selected the OB10 network in order to reduce our invoice processing costs and improve our efficiency at handling payments to our suppliers," explained Tom Bax, Vice President - Treasury Operations for Career Education Corporation. "We will also benefit from significantly improved management of our working capital and cash flow."

In contrast to traditional e-Invoicing approaches that require rigid file specifications, OB10's Any-to-Any Data Formatting(sm)capability allows organizations to send and receive invoices in any file format and file structure, eliminating the technical and cost barriers to adoption. OB10 has also assigned a dedicated team to work with Career Education's suppliers in the migration to e-Invoicing.

"E-Invoicing is an excellent complement to the other efficiency initiatives that Career Education Corporation is undertaking," noted Jamie Gunn, CEO of OB10. "Since electronic invoices cost up to 60 percent less to handle, and deliver guaranteed accuracy, Career Education can count on a much more efficient process with the OB10 network."

OB10, the leading global business-to-business e-Invoicing network, simplifies and streamlines the complex invoice-to-pay processes between companies and their suppliers. The OB10 network enables touch-free, straight-through invoice processing, eliminating virtually all the costs and delays involved in handling paper invoices. The network allows Career Education's suppliers to submit their invoices in any electronic format; it transparently maps the invoice data so the invoice is presented to the company in its desired format.

The OB10 global e-Invoicing network, with members in 70 countries and across six continents, is distinguished by the fact that it allows suppliers to submit invoices in any electronic format, from sophisticated ERP systems such as SAP and Oracle all the way down to small-business QuickBooks-generated invoices. Its ability to translate these invoices and present them to the buyer company in its preferred format is key to achieving high rates of supplier compliance. Suppliers can also count on receiving payment more quickly and accurately thanks to the OB10 network.

About Career Education Corporation

The colleges, schools and universities that are part of the Career Education Corporation (CEC) family currently offer high quality education to approximately 100,000 students across the world in a variety of career-oriented disciplines. The 80-plus campuses that now serve these students are located throughout the U.S., and in Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, and offer doctoral, master's, bachelor's, and associate degrees and diploma and certificate programs. Many students attend the fully online educational platforms offered by American InterContinental University Online and Colorado Technical University Online. Career Education is an industry leader whose gold-standard brands are recognized globally. Those brands include, among others, the Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America; the Harrington College of Design; the Brooks Institute of Photography; the Katharine Gibbs Schools; American InterContinental University; Colorado Technical University and Sanford-Brown Institutes and Colleges.

About OB10

OB10 (www.ob10.com) is the leading global B2B e-Invoicing network. OB10 simplifies and streamlines complex invoice-to-pay processes. Neither client organizations nor their suppliers are required to implement any hardware or software, and OB10 is independent of data file formats. OB10 reduces the cost of paper invoice processing by up to 60 percent and delivers ROI in less than a year. Operational across North America, Europe and Asia, OB10 is compliant with the requirements of tax and e-Invoicing legislation. To ensure unrivaled and rapid supplier enrollment, each new customer's suppliers are supported by an implementation services team responsible for getting them up and running on the OB10 network. Customers in North America and Europe include: HP, General Motors, Sara Lee, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg's, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), Agilent Technologies, Barclays, Cargill, Mohawk Industries, Greif, Eaton, Medas (BBC), and Fisher Scientific.