Success in today’s difficult economy depends on making the most of your resources—and saving time and money every way you can. At Ariba, we’re always looking for ways to help our customers meet their savings and efficiency targets by offering end-to-end spend management solutions. Along those lines, we’d like to turn your attention this quarter to a powerful toolkit called the Ariba® Supplier Network™. Buyers can take advantage of one or two functions on the Ariba Supplier Network or leverage it to automate every activity in the discover-to-pay cycle—from supplier discovery and enablement to ordering, financing, and payment. Read on to see how the many new capabilities and solutions delivered through the Ariba Supplier Network can make your job easier and your business more efficient.

Discover New Suppliers Faster
While supplier discovery typically absorbs a large amount of sourcing cycle time, Ariba Discovery™ can reduce that significantly. This free service automates the discovery process so buyers can quickly find additional suppliers to make strategic sourcing events more competitive. Simple navigation and a friendly walk-up user interface also make it easy to identify new suppliers for spot buys, rush projects, and new commodity areas. And with more than 250,000 suppliers listed, Ariba Discovery enables buyers to find virtually any type of supplier by commodity or region—allowing companies to strengthen their supply base, reduce supply chain risk, and cut costs.

Buyers with an immediate sourcing need or spot buy request can easily register for Ariba Discovery through http://discovery.ariba.com, then complete a posting based on their buying requirements in just minutes. The system matches those goods and services parameters to registered suppliers and notifies them of the posting. Interested vendors send responses directly through the Ariba Supplier Network, enabling buyers to review their replies, answer any questions, and ultimately notify winning bidders through the solution.

Identify Suppliers Who Can Hit the Ground Running
Ariba offers several programs to certify suppliers who have proven their proficiency in specific areas. By selecting suppliers with these certifications, buyers gain added assurance that selected vendors can effectively support their spend management objectives—and help accelerate the enablement process. Current programs include:

• The Ariba® Ready™ program, which certifies suppliers able to meet specific catalog requirements or demonstrate B2B eCommerce transactional capabilities on the Ariba Supplier Network. Designations include:

- CIF (catalog interchange format) Catalog—a simple, low-cost catalog that can be created easily from word processor, text editor, or spreadsheet applications

- Ariba® PunchOut™—a catalog that gives buyers user-friendly, interactive access to product and service content on suppliers’ B2B eCommerce websites

- Ariba Level 2 PunchOut—provides the features and benefits of Ariba PunchOut plus the ability to let buyers search across multiple suppliers

- Ariba Invoice and Payment—a series of solutions that automate invoicing and payment activities such as data entry, matching, and validation to help buyers reduce errors, eliminate supplier inquiries, and minimize exception handling

- Ariba Express Content—provides buyers with ready-to-use supplier goods and services content that Ariba has tested, certified, and preloaded for fast, easy access

A complete listing of certified suppliers can be found at http://www.ariba.com/supplier/supplierlist.cfm.

U.S. Focus

by Nicoleta Diaconu