Monday, 1st August 2011
Ariba, a leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions announced the launch of an on-demand collaboration solution to help enterprises running SAP ERP connect with external trading partners.

In today's global environment the need for businesses to work together collaboratively is key. Most companies using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, have a good handle on their financial data. It enables them to close their books each month, generate financial reports and comply with regulatory requirements. When it comes to connecting with external trading partners, many organisations still struggle because their ERP systems stop at the end of the enterprise.

To help remedy this situation, Ariba, Inc., (NASDAQ: ARBA), the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions, announced the launch of Ariba® Collaborative Commerce for use with SAP® ERP, an on-demand solution that enables companies using SAP ERP to reach beyond the four walls and connect with external trading partners to fuel better commerce.

Over the last two decades, ERP applications have driven dramatic improvements in internal information flows. However, as the enterprise becomes increasingly networked, companies must extend these applications to improve external process efficiencies and collaboration as well,” said Tim Minahan, Chief Marketing Officer, Ariba. “Ariba Collaborative Commerce for use with SAP ERP is specifically designed to facilitate this. Leveraging a network-centric model to connect partners, processes and spend across multiple systems, the offering allows companies to effectively streamline financials, increase visibility and collaboration across the supply chain and improve the efficiency of their trading relationships – all within their current IT environment.”

With Ariba Collaborative Commerce for use with SAP ERP companies can benefit from the following;

• Connect to more suppliers –companies can have access to the Ariba Network of thousands of suppliers. Without making any changes to their current infrastructure.
• Manage more spend - companies can extend their spend coverage and increase the value of their SAP system, by expanding easily maintainable catalogues and enhancing organisation-wide compliance across suppliers and other features.
• Automate more financials –by enhancing invoice processing by; validating and processing a clean invoice in days, drive 98 percent touchless processing and cost savings of up to 70 percent, and boost compliance with efficient PO-invoice matching.

“The ERP system is traditionally set up to handle processes from an internal standpoint,” said Mickey North Rizza, research director at Gartner in the recently published CIO Market Pulse survey, “Cloud-Based Business Commerce Solutions.” “Cloud apps allow you to take a piece of information you need to use with your partners out into the world where you both can see it.”