In terms of your company’s products
that CIOs would be interested in
implementing, can you name the
major ones?
I think the number one product is really
implementing the Ariba network, connecting
with all the suppliers outside and really
having a platform, basically replacing the
formerly known EDI solutions by a network-
based solution. So not a one-to-one, it is a
one-to-many connection, I think that’s the
number one benefit that I can see from a
CIO’s perspective.
On the other side, the integrated suite for
Ariba that we offer, running all your strategic
procurement activities, starting with the
spent visibility getting PO (purchase order)
or non-PO data going to supplier lifecycle
and performance management, having all
the data basically in one solution, working
with that, going on then for eSourcing or
eOptioning and using data to transfer it into
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IF YOUR DATA IS
POOR, IT DOES
NOT HELP YOU
EVEN IF YOU HAVE
GREAT IDEAS.
your contact management – that really is
the benefit of the strategic side.
This is the SAP Ariba Strategic Suite, the
strategic sourcing suite that we have, this is
accompanied with guided buying. The next
version, is not only a catalogue version, it
is also an interactive platform to connect
with the lines of businesses to basically
replace pre-tax orders and have a more
standardised way of how you work with
your businesses.
Then on the downstream side you have then
the purchase order financial automation
and invoice management. Ideally, you
do it by the network, basically send it out
and the supplier can do a purchase order
flip and send specs information, no paper,
no documents, nothing needed anymore.
Within the EU, it is now possible to really
drive support consistently.
How does the company manage
complexity for its customers?
What you see is that a lot of companies
have a zoo of solutions implemented and
from a CIO perspective, it’s a nightmare. The
difficulty is having nearly all the applications
integrated that you need to manage when
you do an update of one system, your ERP
or whatever related system it is, and then
you need to see that you can really catch
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