Ariba broadens lineup of e-procurement software

E-procurement pioneer Ariba last week unveiled a new module and a handful of upgrades to its software lineup, all aimed at making it easier for companies to get control of their spending.

The vendor has worked to broaden its software portfolio and widen its emphasis from indirect procurement to include sourcing tools for identifying and contracting suppliers. The suite is designed to help companies change the way they acquire goods and services, and trim expenses through smarter purchasing - what Ariba calls "spend management."

Ariba's software works with a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) and CRM applications. It aggregates and consolidates purchasing information, including requests for quotes, contracts and invoices, to allow organizations to better see what they spend. The software also includes collaborative tools to manage the process.

New to its lineup of sourcing and procurement software is Ariba Category Management. Developed with Ariba customer ExxonMobil, the Category Management application can integrate data from multiple sources. It combines project management tools with data culled from Ariba modules and third-party ERP, SCM and CRM applications.

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E-procurement pioneer Ariba last week unveiled a new module and a handful of upgrades to its software lineup, all aimed at making it easier for companies to get control of their spending.

The vendor has worked to broaden its software portfolio and widen its emphasis from indirect procurement to include sourcing tools for identifying and contracting suppliers. The suite is designed to help companies change the way they acquire goods and services, and trim expenses through smarter purchasing - what Ariba calls "spend management."

Ariba's software works with a company's enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM) and CRM applications. It aggregates and consolidates purchasing information, including requests for quotes, contracts and invoices, to allow organizations to better see what they spend. The software also includes collaborative tools to manage the process.

New to its lineup of sourcing and procurement software is Ariba Category Management. Developed with Ariba customer ExxonMobil, the Category Management application can integrate data from multiple sources. It combines project management tools with data culled from Ariba modules and third-party ERP, SCM and CRM applications.

Ariba built hooks to the application features, which are required to execute project activities into the software. For example, if a manager needs to approve a contract, the Category Management application can send an alert and include a hot-link to the part of the application that lets the manager give the approval.

The new module also includes templates that employees can use for common tasks such as identifying suppliers, creating a short list of candidates and as-sembling a team of purchasing representatives.

By better coordinating people and tasks, Ariba hopes to trim weeks or even months off the process of running a new sourcing event, says Martin Boyd, director of product marketing at Ariba.

ExxonMobil is conducting a trial of the Category Management application, which is slated to be available next quarter.

In addition to the new Category Management module, upgrades of Ariba's key modules include Enterprise Sourcing 4.0, Buyer 8.0, Analysis 2.0 and Workforce 5.0. The new version of Analysis includes 55 reporting templates that can help identify savings opportunities, such as when a company is paying different prices for the same goods for different parts of the organization.

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Ariba unveiled its retooled product suite at a customer event in New York. Meanwhile, the company continues to struggle financially. Ariba reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss than it did last year - but its revenue also shrank. Ariba posted a net loss of $142.5 million, compared with a net loss of $224.3 million a year ago. Revenue fell to $58.2 million from $62.6 million in the same time period.

On the positive side, the spend management pitch so far is resonating with users who are keen on implementing technology to help control spending, says Tim Minahan, vice president of supply chain research at the Aberdeen Group.

"Are they out of the woods yet? No. No supply chain vendor is," he says. "But they are moving in the right direction," he adds.

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