Ariba Expands Capabilities of Ariba Supplier Network

Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA), the leading spend management solutions provider, today announced the release of Ariba Supplier Network™ 44, the latest version of its industry-leading on-demand business collaboration platform. Building on the robust capabilities of previous versions, the release features advanced discount management and RFX functionality that enables buyers and suppliers to enhance their business by better managing trading relationships and working capital.

"More than simply managing transactions and costs, successful spend management is about responding quickly to changes in business and market conditions to maximize opportunities for growth," said Bob Shecterle, Vice President, Solutions Marketing, Ariba. "With the advanced features in the latest release of Ariba Supplier Network, buyers and suppliers can take advantage of opportunities to access capital, eliminate risk from their supply chain, lower costs, and ultimately, deliver greater results."

Improve Working Capital and Supply Chain Value
To remain competitive, companies must continually look for new ways to cut costs and streamline business processes. With Ariba Discount Management™, organizations of all types and sizes can take advantage of a variety of supply chain financing tools that promote cost savings, including purchasing cards, early payment discounts, dynamic discounting and third-party supplier financing.

A flexible combination of software, services and analysis delivered via Ariba Supplier Network, Ariba Discount Management enables buyers and suppliers to optimize activities throughout the entire procure-to-pay process and realize maximum value from their supply chain.

Buyer Benefits
•Optimize working capital and boost returns on short-term investments through self-funded early payment discounts
•Improve working capital through term extensions with minimal impact on supply base
•Increase days payable outstanding through third-party supply chain financing
•Minimize supply chain risk through more predictable payments

Supplier Benefits
•Maximize working capital through early payments
•Minimize ambiguity in forecasting through more predictable payments
•Leverage buyer’s cost of capital
•Shorten order-to-cash cycle

Identify New Trading Partners and Business Opportunities
Identifying trading partners and business opportunities can be time consuming and costly, yet nothing is more critical to the success of any business. Through enhanced public RFX functionality embedded in the latest release of Ariba Supplier Network, buyers and suppliers can effectively streamline these tasks and drive process improvements that generate bottom-line results.

Robust technology delivered via the network for use with Ariba Buyer™ or Ariba Sourcing™, the new functionality alllows buyers to publish RFX documents to a public site enabling registered and unregistered suppliers to respond to them in real time. More than 150,000 suppliers registered on Ariba Supplier Network are automatically notified of events that fit their profile, and unregistered suppliers can quickly and easily search postings by commodity type, geographic location and buyer.

Extending the Reach and Value of Spend Management
In addition to Ariba Discount Management and Public RFX capabilities, the latest version of Ariba Supplier Network contains a number of other enhancements designed to strengthen collaboration between buyers and suppliers and extend the value of spend management throughout the supply chain, including:

•Greater integration with ERP systems – Buyers can link multiple ERP systems to a single Ariba Supplier Network account to streamline transaction management.
•Expanded Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment (EIPP) capabilities – Buyers and suppliers can digitally sign invoices and automatically archive them on a weekly or monthly basis.
•Invoice Quick Enablement – Buyers can quickly on-board suppliers who invoice them but do not typically receive a purchase order by automatically enabling them as soon as an invoice is received.

"Spend management involves a community of users that extends beyond buyers and suppliers to include financial organizations and a variety of service providers," Shecterle said. "With the new features we’ve built into Ariba Supplier Network, we are enabling all of them to participate in the spend management process and realize the benefits that it delivers."

Product Availability
The latest version of Ariba Supplier Network is available and in use today by buyers and suppliers around the world.

About Ariba Supplier Network
Ariba Supplier Network is the world’s leading business collaboration platform, which combines technology and services to better match buyers and suppliers, automate transactions and optimize payments. Buyers and suppliers in 115 countries leverage the network to engage in transactions worth more than $95 billion a year and process one purchase order every two seconds.

About Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of spend management solutions to help companies realize rapid and sustainable bottom line results. Successful companies around the world in every industry use Ariba Spend Management™ software and services. Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 1.650.390.1000 or at www.ariba.com