Ariba LIVE 2014: “The Outcome Economy” « CPO RISING – THE SITE FOR CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICERS & LEADERS IN SUPPLY MANAGEMENT

Ariba, an SAP company, hosted its 15th annual user conference – Ariba LIVE – March 17 – 19 at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Conference Center in Las Vegas with a reported 2,200 procurement and finance professionals in attendance. The size and seniority of this audience makes Ariba LIVE the largest event in the industry (supply management) and perhaps, its most significant.

The Future of Commerce

Tim Minahan, longtime (and now former) Chief Marketing Officer & SVP, Network Strategy at Ariba (Tim was recently named Chief Marketing Officer, SAP Cloud) kicked off the show by proclaiming that “We have entered the Outcome Economy where the only thing that matters is results and constantly innovating to achieve them. And you [procurement and finance pros in the audience] are leading the charge.” A bold statement but one that Tim quickly backed up with numerous examples of procurement teams that are helping to change corporate business models (Tata Motors), developing new markets and supply (Rio Tinto – click here to read our discussion of Rio Tinto Chief procurement Officer, Ramsay Chu’s 2013 presentation), driving global compliance and impacting cash (Dollar Tree and Deutsche Bank (DB) – click here to read our discussion of DB), and impacting brands and brand management.

“All of these companies view procurement and finance as a platform for innovation.” Tim then went on to describe Ariba’s history and role in supporting these companies summarizing it by explaining that Ariba is focused on helping its customers achieve business outcomes today so that they can focus on innovating for the future.

Ariba traditionally uses this conference to make big announcements and launch new products and upgrades. This year was no different. The team apparently worked around the clock to be able to announce their plans to buy Fieldglass (click here to read Chris Dwyer’s great analysis of that deal) but the final details couldn’t be hammered out in time.

Anyway, as you’d expect, on the main stage of Day 1 Ariba’s focus was on networks and SAP’s plans for the next few years which can be summarized as ‘more investment to drive more localization and features, while expanding the types of documents and processes that the network supports. A whole series of recent product upgrades were also officially announced and these covered Ariba’s broad solution suite from Spend Analysis moving to the SAP HANA platform to the ability to support eInvoicing in complex tax jurisdictions like Brazil (click here for our Primer for Doing Business with Brazilian Suppliers) and Mexico (click here for Ten Key Points for Doing Business with Mexican Suppliers). This year, Ariba also placed a greater emphasis on services procurement ahead of its product launch, but perhaps in contemplation of a deal like Fieldglass (click here to see how Chris discusses Contingent Labor and the Overlooked Opportunity). Mobility also made the stage and appears to be a significant part of the go-forward solution strategy.

In our view, however, the most significant announcement Ariba made at the event was the arrival of AribaPay to the market. Announced last year as a partnership with Discover (click here to read our initial analysis of AribaPay), Ariba announced the first commercial usage of the solution. The solution enables AP groups (and procurement) and suppliers track and trace payments as information moves across Ariba’s Network to the Discover Network which has global settlement capabilities. Ariba reports that the remittance information provided via AribaPay is an improvement over ACH (limitations on remittance is perhaps, ACH’s main weakness). The solution hits the market at a time when general interest in payments is rising and while pricing hasn’t been announced, we expect the fees to be more similar to an ACH payment than that of a commercial card. We’ll have more coverage of the solution over on Payables Place in the future.

In closing, I wanted to share the keynote delivered by Boston’s own Bert Jacobs, CEO of “Life is Good” a fast-growing T-shirt and lifestyle company. Bert was the talk of the show and delivered an entertaining and upbeat speech. It clocks in at 47 minutes, but if you have the time, I think you’ll enjoy it.