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WELCOME TO THE NETWORKED ECONOMY

NOW YOU NEED TO BUY SMARTER, SELL FASTER, AND  MANAGE CASH BETTER THAN EVER BEFORE.

STORY OF ARIBA.COM

When you set out to change the world, or even just a part of it, you need some things in your knapsack.

Passion?  Definitely.

Perseverance?  That’ll come in handy.

A touch of idealism?  Might get you over the humps.

Along with those, Ariba started with some crayons, a paper tablecloth, and the right idea.

It was 1996. Over sandwiches at Quadrus Café in Menlo Park, seven business colleagues were discussing the tremendous waste of time and money involved in corporate purchasing. The problem: outdated, paper-based procurement procedures—tedious, frustrating, and incapable of helping enterprises understand how their money was spent. The solution, they recognized, lay in this new thing called “the Internet” and the opportunity it presented to link computer systems and efficiently exchange information. Spilling the jar of crayons on the table, they diagrammed their solution and what it would do. It would have a walk-up user interface. It would integrate with enterprise financial systems. It would hook buyer’s right up to their suppliers. And doing so, it would fundamentally change the way business was done. On the surface, it was a great idea for cutting purchasing time and costs. At its core was something much more fundamental and powerful: Our collective need to connect and collaborate with like-minded people. It was an idea powerful enough to bring together venturous investors, talented employees, and strategic partners. And powerful enough to survive. Whether facing the pitfalls that come with any change endeavor or cataclysmic events like the dot-com bust, faithfulness to our idea of helping trading partners connect and collaborate has helped Ariba stay the course.

Over time, the scope of our work expanded, through development and acquisition, to include the full range of business-to-business commerce activities and the formation of a supplier network. Initially a procurement software company, we came to realize that businesses could enjoy stronger connections and better visibility by reaching beyond their four walls into a space where they could work more easily with their trading partners. So Ariba became a cloud company, and the Ariba Network continued to grow.

Then, the global economy emerged from the Great Recession—more connected, mobile, and interdependent than ever. We recognized that Ariba’s calling to facilitate trading partner collaboration would be fulfilled by our accepting the mantle of The World’s Business Commerce Network, and making it a place where cloud-based commerce is as easy for businesses as it is for consumers.

Today we can see how a crayon-drawn idea from years ago can evolve, adapt, and get bigger to have a major impact on the world. The Ariba Network is nearly a million businesses strong, with tremendous support as the newest member of the SAP family. Together with our customers we’re changing the way business gets done. And we invite you to join us.

THE ARIBA NETWORK

More than just a supplier network, the world’s business commerce network is a global community where your company can collaborate with any other — large or small, from anywhere in the world — whenever you’re buying, selling, or managing cash.

DISCOVER, CONNECT, AND COLLABORATE IN THE WORLD’S LARGEST TRADING PARTNER

COMMUNITY

Every two minutes, a business joins the Ariba Network. That’s one more potential buying or selling opportunity just waiting to be discovered — a trading partner with whom you could connect and collaborate through a single platform in the cloud to lower costs or risks, boost revenue, or manage cash and working capital.

Right now, there are nearly 1 million to discover, doing business in more than 140 countries around the world. Over the next 24 hours they’ll:

Transact nearly $1.1 billion in business commerce

Exchange nearly 60,000 purchase orders and 165,000 invoices

Collaborate on early-payment discounts involving $30 million worth of invoices

Save $82 million in supply costs

It's a simple matter of network effect : with so many buyers and sellers on the Network, and more joining all the time, you have more competitive business commerce opportunities here than anyplace else.

THE PREFERRED NETWORK FOR BUYING, SELLING, OR MANAGING CASH 

Providing access to industry-leading technology, proven process expertise, and community-shared best practices, the Ariba Network liberates trading partners from slow and costly paper-based processes. Easier than ever before, you’ll safely share compliance, risk, performance, and transaction information. Armed with greater visibility and intelligence, you’ll align your business decisions and react to changing market conditions with utmost agility for greater competitive advantage.

BUYING   ON   THE   ARIBA   NETWORK

Get access to a vast network of qualified, global suppliers, ready to compete for your business. With comprehensive and up-to-date spend and supplier management information, you’ll work with the right suppliers – at the right time – to lower costs and minimize risks.

SOLUTIONS FOR BUYERS

Armed with complete understanding of your company’s spending, work with the right suppliers – at the right time – to lower costs and minimize risks.

The system is very easy to use. It's intuitive and our users have been able to adopt it quickly.

Bob Fair, Director of Global Procurement Operations, McGraw-Hill

CONTROL THE SPENDING, COLLABORATE WITH SUPPLIERS, AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE

BOTTOM LINE

Buying smarter isn’t just buying at the lowest price. It knows everything about your company’s spending habits, and using that knowledge to be a stronger negotiator.  It’s being connected to a diverse network of high-quality suppliers, so you can quickly discover collaborative partners who can lower your costs for goods and services while minimizing your risks. And it’s contracting and procuring in ways that ensure compliance.

You can achieve all of that with Arriba’s spend management solutions and expertise. Take some time to explore what we have to offer. Because over the next 24 hours, Ariba customers will  save more than $82 million in supply costs. We’re certain we can help cut your costs, too.

SPEND ANALYSIS

Gather your spend data from wherever it lives, classify it according to company and industry standards, then enrich it with D&B market intelligence. You’ll get a comprehensive, insightful analysis of company-wide buying practices, on demand.

SUPPLIER DISCOVERY

Use our free buyer-seller matching service to open the door to the world’s largest business network, home to nearly 1 million connected companies worldwide. Find new sources in three simple steps:

1. Describe your needs. 2. Review proposals. 3. Make your selection. That's it. Really.

SOURCING

With market-leading tools, expertise, and network connections, you’ll create the right kind of sourcing environment. One that drives competition for your business, delivers best-value sourcing agreements, and provides sustainable savings.

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

Rid yourself of the paper and ink and you can automate, standardize, and speed up the entire contract lifecycle. Manage any type of agreement for greater productivity and compliance.

PROCUREMENT

Provide your users with consumer-like tools (think Amazon.com) that help them find the goods and services they need, from the suppliers you want them to use, and at your company’s preferred prices.

SUPPLIER MANAGEMENT

Keep supplier information updated and accurate, managing all of your data on a single, web-based platform. You’ll find it far easier to monitor supplier performance, assess compliance, and manage supply risk.

This is Spend Management

SELLING   ON   THE   ARIBA   NETWORK

Every day, leading buying organizations source millions of dollars worth of goods and services through Ariba.  We can help you become a preferred supplier by strengthening your e-commerce capabilities and accelerating your sales cycle.

SOLUTIONS FOR SELLERS

Strengthen and sharpen your e-commerce capabilities to become the preferred, easy-to-find vendor of purchase-ready buyers near and far.

SELL FASTER IN THE NETWORKED ECONOMY THROUGH THE ARIBA COMMERCE CLOUD

As more and more of your prospects and customers launch B2B e-commerce initiatives to find new suppliers to fulfill their goods and services needs, have you stopped to think about the time you’re spending managing each of those relationships? All those separate connections. All those profiles to maintain. All those passwords. All that redundancy and inefficiency. Truth is, if you want to grow your business in the Networked Economy, you really don’t have that kind of time.

To compete and sell faster, you need to drive e-commerce through a network-centric solution. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in the Ariba Commerce Cloud for Sellers. By signing on just once to the Seller Collaboration Console, using a consolidated company profile across all Ariba on-demand solutions, you can collaborate on the full source-to-settle process with all of your customers.  On one platform, you’ll have access to thousands of potential customers, free buyer-seller matching, tools for participating in buyers’ sourcing events, and more. The Seller Collaboration Console provides access to:

ARIBA DISCOVERY

This service automatically sends you notifications of high-quality requests for the types of goods and services you provide. With leads powered by Ariba Discovery, you’ll have access to purchase-ready decision makers among the world’s largest community of buyers.

ARIBA SOURCING

When your proposals are powered by Ariba Sourcing, you can quickly and easily respond to RFIs, RFPs, and auctions in a fair and transparent bidding environment. You’ll also find it easier to keep important information up-to-date, such as certificates.

ARIBA CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

With contracts powered by Ariba Contract Management, you can collaborate with your customers on contract creation and negotiation much more efficiently and effectively.

ORDER, CATALOG, AND E-INVOICE MANAGEMENT

You can increase wallet share, drive up order accuracy, and accelerate cash flow when orders, catalogs, and invoices are powered by the Ariba Network. You’ll have the tools you need to collaborate with customers during the entire order-to-cash process.

AND DON'T MISS THESE OTHER SOLUTIONS FOR DRIVING SALES

ARIBA SALES & MARKETING PROGRAMS

Proven, highly targeted sales and marketing strategies, including event marketing, designed to let more buyers know you’re savvy in the ways of e-commerce and able to respond quickly to their needs.

ARIBA CONTRACT MANAGEMENT FOR SALES CONTRACTS

To meet your sales goals, close more deals, and close them faster, use the leading contract management solution to automate your sales contracting process with all your customers.

To learn more about the Ariba Commerce Cloud for Sellers, the Seller Collaboration Console, and Ariba's Sales Acceleration Solutions, review our datasheets .

I love that I can walk up to my computer in the morning, and there's a stack of leads from Ariba Discovery waiting for me.

Cory Becker , Owner , Proforma Quicksilver

MANAGING   CASH   ON   THE   ARIBA   NETWORK

Exchanging purchase orders and invoices electronically helps you achieve compliant invoice processing on a global scale. Then you can collaborate with trading partners to optimize working capital and supply chain liquidity with network-based tools for discount management, receivables financing, and supply chain finance.

SOLUTIONS FOR MANAGING CASH BETTER

Get rid of the paper to capture more discounts, optimize working capital, and strengthen your financial supply chain.

Getting to an electronic invoicing process, especially in today’s global environment, makes a whole lot of sense.

Al Barbee, Director, North America Shared Financial Services, GlaxoSmithKline

FINANCIAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT FOR THE NETWORKED ECONOMY

Managing cash better begins with capturing all incoming invoice data in electronic format. That enables quick, automated processing and sets the stage for more collaborative financial supply chain management through online network connections.

Start with Ariba’s scanning services. Or, a combination of scanning and e-invoicing, to capture and index all your invoices and enable approval workflow. Then we can talk about getting rid of the paper altogether, moving your suppliers to Ariba’s smart invoicing network to automate exception handling and ensure compliance.

Attaining that level of e-invoicing maturity, you’ll be able to derive full benefit from the Ariba Network — settling payments and managing cash using collaborative tools that capture more discounts and optimize working capital.

CAPTURE, COMPLY, AND SETTLE WITH ARIBA NETWORK SOLUTIONS

INVOICE MANAGEMENT

Ariba’s solutions can capture and digitize 100 percent of your invoices for touchless processing, automated exception handling, and stronger compliance—procedural, contractual, and legal, as well as the intricacies of VAT/tax compliance.

PAYMENT MANAGEMENT

Lower your costs and risks while boosting productivity with this network-based solution for P-card and ACH payments. Suppliers will appreciate the automatic remittance notices.

DISCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Buyers and sellers can collaborate to  fully automate the process of offering, negotiating, and agreeing on early payment terms while optimizing both DPO and DSO.

RECEIVABLES FINANCING

With help from The Receivables Exchange, partners can leverage the Ariba Network to quickly convert receivables to cash at attractive rates.

SUPPLY CHAIN FINANCE

Buyers support key suppliers by providing access to affordable cash via the Ariba Network, simultaneously optimizing their working capital and strengthening their supply chain.

One way to think of the Ariba Network is as the Amazon.com for business. It’s a shared application infrastructure that any authorized individual in the world can access to manage the entire commerce process, or just pieces of it such as procurement, sourcing, supplier performance management, or invoice automation.

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PREPPING FOR THE IRON MAN COMPETITION

So in last blog, “It’s 2013…How fit is your organization?”, I challenged businesses on whether they have the essential tools necessary to run a lean and healthy e-savvy business. Did you check off all the items on the e-business fitness chart to see if your organization is on the right track to a winning e-commerce strategy?

If you did and your company passed with flying colors, that’s great as that’s right where you need to be to start driving top-line benefits and maximizing e-commerce ROI.

But have you asked yourself how many other businesses—including your competitors—have scored high on the fitness chart as well? Chances are, you are not alone. Just because your organization is considered “e-commerce fit”, that doesn’t mean that you can kick back and not make an effort to maintain that fitness level and stay healthy.

If you are passive with your e-commerce approach—stuck in the “Reactionary” or “Exploring” levels of the e-commerce maturity curve that I have previously mentioned— then you are suffering from the e-commerce plateau.

Similar to your physical fitness and workout routines, if you don’t constantly seek new ways to challenge yourself and discover new cardio and strength training regimens, your body will hit a plateau and become stagnate. There’s no additional weight loss, minimal gain in muscle definition, you no longer get any stronger, and you’re unmotivated to continue with your program.

This, too, can happen to your company if you don’t constantly stay on top of your e-commerce approach and ahead of your competition. Those more e-savvy and eager competitors will leave you in the dust for sure. So how can you avoid the plateau? How can you continue to grow stronger and be fit enough to compete in the Iron Man Competition and come out a champ?

As more and more organizations are starting to embrace and recognize just how important e-commerce tools are to their business, simply having and implementing the tools is no longer enough. Yes, that’s an important foundation, but competitive and knowledgeable companies (whom are categorized as “aggressive adopters”) are taking the approach to the next level. They are seeing that with the help of online tools and e-commerce channels, not only can it help save a company major bottom line dollars, it can also eliminate the

manual and paper-based transactions and monotonous order taking portion of the job—freeing up sales personnel to focus more on forming strategic partnerships with their customers rather than just traditional selling and customer support.

In turn, this leads to happier customers and stronger business relationships. Companies can enhance their competitive differentiation through increased productivity of their sales and account management teams. By advancing their sales team’s talents and approach, they can empower salespeople to take on new tasks and roles.

A leading example of a company that has kept their competitive edge through honing their e-commerce approach is SHI International, a business that believes customer service and account management is just as important as embracing and utilizing e-commerce tools.Watch the video to hear how online channels have changed the way they sell and how account executive Tammy Wagner builds loyalty with strategic accounts by continually seeking new ways to add value.

The reality is that sellers are increasingly called on to work with customers to help solve their business problems, forcing them to no longer just approach customers as a product-oriented sales approach, but more as a solution-oriented one. Those best at doing so are most likely to attain preferred vendor status—staying ahead of the competition, ready and equipped to be the next e-commerce Iron Man champ!

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

Supplier relationship managers have a thing or two to envy from Bob – The Employee.  This story unfolded a few weeks ago about an employee identified only as Bob, who had outsourced his own IT job to a firm in China. He reportedly spent his work hours watching cat videos or browsing Reddit and eBay while his Chinese counterpart churned the code behind the screens.

To top it all, Bob received exceptional ratings from his managers for his outstanding performance until the scam was unearthed during an IT security audit.  You’ve got to hand it to him for balancing his outsourcing act with his supplier over the years. But elsewhere, in the Pearl River delta – the hotbed of outsourced manufacturing in China, things are changing at a rate that’s leaving everyone worried.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal summarizes how the manufacturing-driven Chinese economy is losing its edge as the world’s factory floor due to a multitude of reasons. Continually increasing labor costs is seen as the primary culprit by many. The metamorphism of the Chinese manufacturing industry is a continental drift that stands to upend the buyer – supplier dynamics in the foreseeable future.

As an economy that accounts for close to 20% of the world’s manufacturing output, such trends carry heavy implications.   From the demand side point of view, it means going on a war footing to keep input costs on an even keel.  The writing is on the wall for many enterprises that have traditionally maintained their

manufacturing base in China. Faced with shrinking margins, many such enterprises are now scouting for supply bases in new and emerging geographies.

The larger question that this situation poses is – How can supply chains be more nimble to respond to the shifting market place dynamics?  And it is answered in large part by enabling collaborative commerce between buyers and suppliers.  It is in this context that the business network has been playing an increasingly critical role.

In the networked economy era, the business network has enabled buyers and suppliers to connect with each other while helping them navigate the changing business landscape.  And as a result such enterprises today are buying smarter, selling faster and managing cash better.  A classic example of this phenomenon at work is Plaid Enterprises.

Plaid Enterprises is a medium-sized manufacturing firm that specializes in do-it-yourself products. Like many enterprises with operations in the Chinese manufacturing belt, Plaid too felt the squeeze of rising labor costs impact its business adversely. They relied on thepower of the business network to discover and qualify new suppliers and were in for a surprise.   Within a matter of days, folks at Plaid were talking to a range of suppliers – from suppliers in the low-cost manufacturing regions in Asia to others as close as a mile away from their office.

Readily available intelligence inputs in the business network on supplier performance resulted in expedited qualification.  Finding their perfect supplier match on the business network resulted in reduction of costs by 34% and lead times by 75%.  Plaid Enterprises is not an isolated case.  Thousands of organizations, buyers and suppliers alike, are tapping on to the power of the business network and are reaping the benefits.

While geo-political risks, natural disasters, or shifting economic landscapes will forever cast a shadow on the supply chain apple cart, the enterprises that emerge successful are the ones that can keep pace with the change and embrace it for good.  Because at the end of it all, the show must go on.

WHAT WEATHER FORECASTING CAN TEACH US ABOUT BIG DATA (HINT: PEOPLE MATTER)

Weather forecasting provides a view into real clouds (the fluffy things in the sky). Weather forecasting also sheds light on decision-making in the age of Big Data. So there is an 80% chance of value below. In his book “The Signal and the Noise”, statistician, psephologist and blogger Nate Silver delves into the world of predictability. (A psephologist is someone who scientifically analyzes elections.) Silver gained notoriety with his political blogwww.fivethirtyeight.com, and more importantly, correctly predicting the outcome of race in 49 out of 50 states in the November 2008 presidential election (…for an encore, he correctly predicted the outcome of all 35 US Senate races).  Mr. Silver’s blog was acquired by the New York Times in 2010, where it resides today  .

Silver’s book about the art and science of predictions is peppered with thought-provoking examples from the real world. We’ll piggy-back on his story about weather forecasting because it’s clearly dealing with very Big Data and because it has the neat graphic below,reproduced with permission from the Royal Society.

The image shows 50 different variations of weather forecasts for France and Germany on December 24, 1999. All of these outputs were run from the same software running on the same machines with the same assumptions about how weather behaves.  Tiny, incremental changes to assumptions – maybe wind conditions in Stuttgart were adjusted a fraction of a percent, or barometric pressure in Hanover was a trifle higher in one simulation – yielded dramatically different outcomes charted in the ‘stamp maps’ below. In most forecasts, Paris sees a pleasant winter day. In several, it sees a very dangerous storm

Tragically, the result was Cyclone Lothar, a storm of enormous damage. Over 100 people lost their lives, and damage to property was estimated to cost well over $10 billion. While most forecasts of the storm were correct, some forecasters were criticized for having missed it.

Silver teases out insights into how forecasts actually get made. Surprisingly perhaps, it’s not just a software thing. Humans make adjustments and the final call.  Silver asks “What is it, exactly, that humans can do better than computers that can crunch numbers at seventy-seven teraFLOPS?”

Turns out forecasters know where the flaws are in the computer model and adjust shortcomings in the output. A human may adjust a forecast to say that the fog at Acadia National Park in Maine will stick around a little longer that day if the wind is blowing a certain way. The seasoned forecaster coaxes out the best prediction “in the way that a skilled pool player can adjust to the dead spots on the table at his local bar”,

says Silver. The National Weather Service, which tracks this stuff, tells Silver that humans improve the accuracy of temperature forecasts 10%, and precipitation forecasts by 25% over computers alone.

No skilled meteorologist would want to trade in the teraflop-churning servers to go it alone. But they will continue to leverage their experience and knowledge to improve what the computer delivers.

The lessons here for companies entering the age of Big Data could not be clearer. Yes, systems and solutions must be put in place to store, process and deal with the enormous mass of data coming at us from all directions, and to tease out patterns and detect new opportunities to deliver value. But it is to serve a still-human decision-making process.

Practically speaking, in the world of business to business relationships in the Networked Economy, this means that companies must complement Big Data investments with deep expertise and experience from sourcing, procurement, sales and marketing to make sure someone is around to manoeuvre the “dead spots in the pool table”.

In the end, Big Data may very well be about having humans help make computer decision-making better  – not the other way around. Who knew?

ARIBA SOURCING

“With Ariba Sourcing, we have achieved savings from 15 to 40 percent.”

- Jeff Hoover, Strategic Sourcing Manager, Air Products and Chemicals

BUILD THE RIGHT SOURCING ENVIRONMENT TO CUT YOUR COSTS AND MINIMIZE YOUR

RISKS

You want best-value sourcing agreements, the kind that provide sustainable savings. That takes the right strategic sourcing environment, one that's connected to a powerful supplier network and built with superior tools, expertise, and information. Only then can you stimulate enough competition among qualified sellers to cut costs while minimizing risks.

Build that environment with Ariba Sourcing, and deliver the best sourcing events ever. With tight integration to the Ariba Network, it provides:

Connections to more than 730,000 sellers

Quick and easy supplier discovery

Up-to-date supplier information

Intuitive RFX tools for RFI, RFP, and auctions

Patented competitive-bidding and timing options

Automated and adjustable negotiation processes

Access to Ariba’s sourcing partners, experts in category intelligence

GET THE MOST WIDELY ADOPTED STRATEGIC SOURCING SOLUTION, AND THE MOST

COMPLETE

FAST TIME-TO-VALUE

Enjoy fast time-to-value and low total-cost-of-ownership with cloud-based delivery.

USER-FRIENDLY APPLICATION

From the simplest RFX to the most complex multi-parameter bids, handy wizards and tools help you launch events, collaborate, and negotiate.

QUICK AND EASY SUPPLIER DISCOVERY

Create posts with Ariba Discovery, a free service that matches your needs with qualified sellers on the Ariba Network.

SOURCING LIFECYCLE AUTOMATION

Automate everything from supplier discovery and dynamic negotiations to savings tracking.

LOWER SUPPLY RISK

With the most sellers to choose from, and up-to-date profiles, ratings, and assessments, it’s easier to develop a large supply base and back-up sources.

BETTER WORKFLOW, BETTER COMPLIANCE

Improve project management and compliance with advanced, automated workflow and approval-routing.

EXPERTISE AND BEST PRACTICES

From onsite consulting to web-based templates, services are available to help maximize use of your solution.

SOURCING EVENT SUPPORT

Ensure event success with sourcing support desk and event-day management assistance. Level-one help desk support is offered to both buyers and sellers.

NETWORKING & KNOWLEDGE-SHARING

Network, share knowledge, and solve problems with your peers on Ariba Exchange, our free professional community platform.

CATEGORY AND COMMODITY INSIGHTS

Ariba Sourcing is category-intelligence ready, so you can enhance it with expert insights from Ariba’s sourcing partners

ARIBA STARTSOURCING

Powered and supported by FreeMarkets®, the online marketplace that started it all, Ariba StartSourcing lets you make fast and strategic sourcing decisions that drive immediate savings leveraging our FreeMarkets technology and services, and the world’s largest, most global online sourcing marketplace. 

Without costly software. Because it’s FREE.

NOW YOU CAN SOURCE THE WORLD’S LARGEST ONLINE SOURCING MARKETPLACE FOR

FREE

Powered and supported by FreeMarkets technology and services, Ariba StartSourcing is an intuitive, web-based RFX management tool that gives you access to nearly one million sellers on the Ariba Network and the world's largest online sourcing marketplace.  Delivered as a cloud-based service with no monthly fee, it enables you to quickly and easily create and manage strategic sourcing events without demands on your IT resources or operating budget. Thus equipped, you can…

Cut sourcing cycle times 50 percent

Reduce administrative costs 60 percent

Trim prices an average of 17 percent*

YOU GET ALL THIS. REALLY.

FAST RFX PUBLISHING

A wizard-driven process helps you rapidly create and publish your RFI, RFP, and reverse and forward auctions.

MORE COMPETITIVE BIDS

When you create your sourcing event, qualified sellers on the Ariba Network are alerted to your needs, stimulating more competition and bids for your business.

UP-TO-DATE SUPPLIER INFORMATION

Suppliers are motivated by competition to keep their profiles current, so you can spend your time more productively.

HANDY DASHBOARDS AND REPORTS

Drive events from your configurable dashboard, and stay informed about status, tasks, responses, and more with ready-made, exportable reports.

RAPID, EFFICIENT COMMUNICATIONS

Handle supplier Q&A and exchange messages right from your event: one-to-one, one-to-many, buyer-to-buyer, and buyer-to-seller.

GLOBAL/MULTI-LINGUAL CAPABILITIES

Information is normalized to your preferences when suppliers bid in their native language and currency.

HELPFUL ONLINE RESOURCES

Web-based tech support, tutorials, and RFX templates are at your fingertips to help build your sourcing events.

INTRODUCTIONS TO NEW SOURCES

Each of your sourcing events is posted with Ariba Discovery, our free buyer-seller matching service.

TWO-USER CAPACITY

Two users can both create two sourcing events per month. Minimum usage requirement is one event per month for your company.

BROAD TEAM COLLABORATION

Up to 20 team members can gain visibility into a sourcing event to collaborate and provide feedback.

ARIBA SAVINGS PIPELINE AND TRACKING

Reach your savings goals more efficiently and effectively with better pipeline management, analysis, and reporting.

MEASURE EFFECTIVENESS AND BE SURE THINGS GET DONE WHEN AND HOW THEY

SHOULD

Building your sourcing environment with the right technology, support, and expertise is a critical step toward accomplishing your objectives, but you can’t stop there. You need to build and track your savings pipeline to make sure your strategic sourcing milestones are being achieved. And, that your solutions and processes are being adopted across your organization.

With Ariba Savings Pipeline and Tracking, you’ll get the tools and support you need to…

Create your pipeline of sourcing activities and milestones

Assign resources to execute them

Measure your team’s effectiveness

Monitor sourcing initiatives from start to finish

Establish secure system controls and approvals

Rid yourself of manual processing errors

EASY-TO-USE TOOLS FOR STRENGTHENING YOUR STRATEGIC SOURCING PROGRAM

COMPREHENSIVE MONITORING

You can track estimated, negotiated, implemented, and actual spend and savings for each savings initiative.

SECURE VERSION CONTROL

Your savings initiatives documentation is stored in a single area and you can control it with versioning, locking, and check in/out functionality.

REDUCED RISK

In addition to showing tracking toward your savings goals, tools issue warnings when there’s a risk of not meeting them.

FLEXIBLE REPORTING

Analyze by month, region, department, or supplier. Add special fields to capture attributes like minority-owned business.

EFFICIENT APPROVAL WORKFLOW

You can set document reviews and approvals at the individual document level, or the overall phase level.

PLANNING ASSISTANCE

Capture transaction and history information about each savings initiative to create templates and make future projects easier.

Ariba Savings Pipeline and Tracking

Benefits

Visibility

• Creates a shared plan of upcoming sourcing activities to be executed

• Helps determine if necessary resources are available for upcoming projects

• Companies quantitatively measure the delivered value of their sourcing activities

• Shows tracking to savings goals and warns when those goals are at risk

• Allows continuous updates of values as sourcing contracts are executed

• Captures historical data to help in planning future sourcing initiatives

Flexibility

• Flexibility in the way savings initiatives are tracked

• Multi-dimension breakdown of savings by time period, region, department, supplier, and spend type

• Configurable allocation by month or user-defined period

• Streamlining the way savings initiatives are conceived, approved, and executed

• Validation tolerance allows threshold to be set for variance between totals and line level detail

Security

• Controlled document access, versioning, publishing and approving control capability

Implementing an online sourcing solution can play a significant role in achieving program goals, yet many companies still struggle in driving the usage of their tools and associated processes to realize the full benefit. To further complicate the matter, it has proven a challenge for many to fully measure and report on the benefits being produced by their sourcing initiatives.

Ariba has worked extensively with our customers to help them accelerate the adoption of their technology and drive results. Developing a pipeline of events to be executed has proven to be one of the most significant factors in driving sourcing activities. By defining a set of events andassigning the necessary resources, companies ensure that the tools are being used and the desired levels of throughput and spend under management are being achieved.

Timely and accurate visibility into existing savings initiatives, flexibility in the way savings initiatives are tracked, and streamlining the way savings initiatives are conceived, approved, and executed are critical for tracking savings initiatives. An effective solution must be able to:• Track current

transactions and histories associated with individual savings initiatives and use that information as a template for future initiatives

• Warehouse all transactional data to create

reports and analyze savings• Effectively capture and share savings insights across stakeholders

using a collaborative team workspace

• Provide warnings when at risk of not meeting savings goals

Ariba Savings Pipeline and Tracking achieves these capabilities by combining the strengthsof Ariba Sourcing Professional’s workflow and reporting to create a unique platform—helping companies establish a pipeline of savings activities and measure the impact of theirsourcing programs.

How it Works

To begin the process, Ariba Sourcing Professional allows all customers to create projects in the system in a “planned” state with estimated start and end dates. This can be done for both online and offline projects to get the full picture of upcoming sourcing activities. By assigning peopleto the project, it becomes easy to assess resource needs for upcoming projects. For maximum flexibility, resources can be designated as Internal, Ariba, or Other, in order to represent the full extent of execution support.

By adding the optional Savings Tracking capability, users can then monitor the entire lifecycleof each savings initiative, capturing multiple spend and savings data points to quickly generate reports that help organizations evaluate how they are tracking to their sourcing goals. Companies can track estimated, negotiated, implemented, and actual spend and savings for each savings initiative. Information can be broken out by month, region, department, or supplier allowing for complete tracking flexibility. Users may easily add specialized fields, like whether savings is attributed to a minority-owned supplier, using powerful configuration tools, and report on all captured information using the analytical reporting engine.

The multi-dimensional breakdown of data allows users to generate reports from several pre- defined templates. This solution is fully configurable and allows users to define custom logic for allocating savings and establishing validation tolerances. Additionally, the platform provides document control and versioning, as well as workflow and approval capabilities.

About Ariba, Inc.

Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions. Ariba combines industry- leading technology with the world’s largest web-based trading community to help companies discover, connect and collaborate with a global network of partners – all in a cloud-based environment. Using

the Ariba® Commerce Cloud, businesses of all sizes can buy, sell and manage cash more efficiently and effectively. Over500,000 companies around the globe use the Ariba Commerce Cloud to simplify inter-enterprise commerce and enhance results. Why not join them? To get on the path to Better Commerce visit: www.ariba.com/commercecloud/

Multi-DimensionalBreakdown of Data

Users can easily manipulate pre-defined reports that cover the entire range of spend and savingsrelevant information including an executive overview of savings, spend and savings detailed data, implemented and actual spend and savings data, and savings allocation details listed by savings initiative name andsupplier. Moreover, users can easily manipulate reportsto slice and dice through the entire available data model, easily creating their own insights into the company’s spend profile.

Documentation Version Control and Approval Workflow

Documentation for savings initiatives is stored in asingle area and controlled by versioning, locking, and check in/out functionality. Document reviews and approvals are possible at the individual document level, or the overall phase level.

Integration with Ariba Sourcing Professional

The Savings Tracking environment can be used to monitor ongoing activities within sourcing events. The Savings Tracking integration feature directly pulls

in bid information and negotiated savings from associated

Sourcing projects. Manual entry gives users the flexibility to incorporate offline event information to ensure comprehensive reporting on all savings.

Copyright © 2011 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved. Ariba is a registered trademark and Ariba QuickSource is a trademark of Ariba, Inc. Ariba

Sourcing solutions are protected by one or more of the following patents: U.S. Patent Nos. 6,199,050; 6,216,114; 6,223,167; 6,230,146;

6,230,147; 6,408,283; 6,499,018; and 6,564,192.

Ariba, Inc.910 Hermosa Court, Sunnyvale, CA 94085Toll-free (USA): 1 866 772 7422 I Outside USA: +1 650 390 1000www.ariba.com

): 1 866 CUSTOMER PROGRAMS

AND COMMUNITIES

Ariba’s customers are successful companies of all sizes, operating in all industries, and located across all

regions

of the globe.

ARIBA GLOBAL CUSTOMER PROGRAMS

Ariba is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions because our customers continually

challenge us to meet the needs of their growing and evolving businesses. And Ariba rises to that challenge,

delivering flexible and scalable solutions and services that drive results. Ariba's Global Customer Programs help

customers get the most out of their relationship with Ariba by providing a variety of ways they can engage in

helpful, ongoing dialogue with Ariba and each other.

CUSTOMER REFERENCE PROGRAM

Find out more about the various  reference activities  we offer. To learn how to self-nominate for reference

activities, please email us.

CUSTOMER FORUMS & COMMUNITIES

Ariba Customer Advisory Board (CAB) - For senior leaders chartered with driving spend management

vision and execution in their companies. CAB meetings occur twice a year at various locations around the

world.

Ariba Benchmark Program - A quarterly focus group meeting to discuss strategic development and

execution of spend management initiatives.

Ariba User Groups (UG) - Facilitating interaction between Ariba users and the sharing of best practices.

Meetings are comprised of users in different regions, using various Ariba solutions.

Ariba Customer Relationship Reviews (CRR) - Facilitating open discussion on a regularly scheduled

basis between customers and Ariba executives to ensure mutually beneficial partnerships.

Ariba Customer Success Group on Ariba Exchange – An online community where Ariba customers

meet to network, share ideas, and ask questions. 

CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

There is nothing more powerful to Ariba than the voice of our customer. Whether in-person, by phone, via email,

or a web-survey, Ariba wants to hear what you have to say so we can continually drive improvement across all of

our lines of business.

So you’ve been asked to participate in an e-sourcing event. Now what?

Whether you’re new to e-sourcing or have plenty of experience, every e-sourcing invitation represents a valuable

chance to help your business succeed. By participating in e-sourcing events, you can:

Win new contracts

Grow existing accounts and strengthen customer relationships

Gain crucial visibility with targets and prospects

Get a clear sense of what competitors offer and a better grasp of your market position

Level the playing field with sellers of all sizes

Hone your value proposition to capture follow-on business

ARIBA SELLER TECHNICAL SUPPORT

If your B2B e-commerce solution is integrated with the Ariba Network using cXML, EDI, or PunchOut

technology, you can sign up for tech support that includes:

Assistance with account configurations and registration issues

Direct access to technical support engineers via phone or web-form

Guaranteed, 24/7 support for high-priority technical issues

One-hour response time

Access to a variety of self-help tools online

We can also help catalog sellers who need assistance with catalog formatting and validation.

Ariba Seller Technical Support is provided for a fee of $495 per year as part of an integrated subscription package.

This single fee covers all buyer relationships in your Network account. To sign up, just log on to the Ariba

Network and click the My Services link.

Solutions

SOLUTIONS FOR THE NETWORKED ECONOMY

Buying smarter, selling faster, and managing cash better in today’s Networked Economy takes responsive and

supportive working relationships with your suppliers, customers, and financial partners. Ariba’s collaborative

business commerce solutions make those relationships efficient, effective, and profitable.

ARIBA'S CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS MAKE IT EASIER TO COLLABORATE AND COMPETE

Ariba’s industry-leading solutions are cloud-based software-as-a-service, delivered by subscription and on

demand. That’s why they’re...

SCALABLE, COST-EFFECTIVE, AND BURDEN-FREE

There’s no costly hardware or software to install, and no upgrades to manage. Simply access them on a multi-

tenant platform through a user-friendly interface, wherever you and your web browser may be.

EASILY INTEGRATED WITH YOUR ERP AND BACK-OFFICE SYSTEMS

They extend your systems beyond the four walls of your organization so you can share processes and collaborate

with trading partners as you drive more competitive business commerce.

SECURE AND RELIABLE

Ariba’s systems are independently audited, earning AICPA, WebTrust, PCI, and U.S. Department of Commerce

Safe Harbor certifications. They’re thoroughly tested and continuously monitored to perform safely and

consistently, and you can view real-time information on system performance and cloud status anytime

at trust.ariba.com.

BUY

Armed with complete understanding of your company’s spending, work with the right suppliers – at the right time – to lower costs and minimize risks.

BUY SMARTER

SELL

Strengthen and sharpen your e-commerce capabilities to become the preferred, easy-to-find vendor of purchase-ready buyers 

around the world.

SELL FASTER

MANAGE CASH

Get rid of the paper to capture more discounts, optimize working capital, and strengthen your financial supply chain 

– all at the same time.

MANAGE CASH BETTER