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A global pandemic could not completely disrupt the industry behemoth’s annual North American user conference, SAP Ariba LIVE, as the software titan displayed agility and the know-how to stitch together a “virtual conference” in a matter of a few weeks. They’ve done it before (remember the great recession?) and in 2020, they successfully did it again. Given the need for social distancing, the conference, was in fact, a series of video presentations organized into a virtual agenda. Our team watched the entire show. Part One of our thoughts is below.
Overview
by Andrew Bartolini
So, SAP Ariba LIVE? Well, to misquote Meatloaf, “now don’t be sad, 1 out of 3 ain’t bad…”
#1 LIVE? – Given the social distancing requirements to flatten the coronavirus curve, there was no choice but to cancel the “LIVE” portion of the Ariba LIVE conference. While the circumstances are different, but perhaps no less dire, it is in many ways reminiscent of the time during the great recession when Ariba moved its user event online. (0 for 1)
#2 Ariba? – While it held on for far longer than could have been expected, the Ariba brand has finally been submerged within the larger SAP conglomerate. It was inevitable. Shortly after SAP acquired Ariba for $4.3 Billion, I advised the companies that there was high awareness and strong value in the Ariba brand and that losing it quickly would not be wise. By comparison, Business Objects was subsumed by SAP less than two years after it was acquired.
But, that was eight years ago and things have changed. In the early years together, SAP capitalized on its acquisition by attacking the pent-up demand for supply management solutions that existed within its customer base to expand its revenue lead over the competition to something nearly insurmountable. For example, even today, Coupa, a notable player in the eProcurement space reports earnings at roughly half of what Ariba’s were in 2011. Ariba’s primary competitors – Ivalua, GEP, and Jaggaer have all grown significantly over the last eight years, but as each is private, they do not report earnings. With new leadership at the top (new co-CEOs at SAP were announced last fall), the company decided that it was time to roll Ariba (and Fieldglass) in under the SAP banner (0 for 2).
#3 SAP? The Ariba company/team/solutions are now SAP, and that’s not a bad thing if the group can regain the focus that has ebbed and flowed since the acquisition. Over the last eight years, Ariba has experienced a steady rotation of leaders with different agendas and messages and it has at times been a part of different groups (that included Concur and/or Fieldglass). Such is the nature of large companies.
Once the original Ariba leadership team moved on, it was only under Alex Atzberger, that the messaging and focus seemed true to Ariba’s roots. Yet, while they have permanently lost the Ariba name, they’ve gone back to their roots and gained an original Ariba executive (by way of Quadrem) to lead the team forward. Chris Haydon, a longtime SAP Ariba executive was recently named the new President of “SAP Procurement Solutions” and there’s a certain amount of assurance in that decision. (1 out of 3, not bad :-))
The New Procurement Experience (Presented by Chris Haydon)
by Andrew Bartolini
And, so it began. The event kicked off with a traditional opening (as a reminder, I have some context here, having attended/participated/presented at 13 different Ariba LIVE conferences over the years) – a slick, bombastic video focused on the conference theme – “making it real.” From real impact, to real value, to real results, the rousing video identified the audience as heroes, connectors, aces, masters, icons, and idols, and congratulated them on their ability to protect their enterprises while focusing on growth touting “Intelligent Spend Solutions from SAP” at the closing.
Fade in on Chris at his laptop, in his home. After acknowledging the general disappointment of being unable to make those personal connections at LIVE, Chris said that the coronavirus and ensuing global events necessitated that the event be virtual. But, it also showed “how connected and dependent we are on each other and how quickly those connections can be threatened. Disruption is our new reality. Just as our families are adapting to a new reality, so are all the businesses around the world. A company that is not agile enough to pivot amidst all this disruption is a company at risk, and when companies are at risk, employees, communities, and countries suffer.”
Chris stated that SAP wants to be the best in the market, but that it also wants to support its customers and it understands the need for business continuity. To that end, Chris announced that SAP was going to immediately provide free access to “Ariba Supplier Discovery” to find new sources of supply at no cost. This means that any buyer can publish a bid on the network and reach any number of the 4 million+ suppliers on the network, all at no fee.
Chris then introduced “Intelligent Spend Management” stating that it is not software, marketing, nor spin. In Chris’ words (the beauty of on-demand video!), “It is a forward-looking change in how we think about procurement. Using the technology to focus on the tasks that can and should be automated or eliminated so we can better focus on the aspects of business that need and should have human expertise. It is about expecting more from our spending and taking greater advantage of data and insights to protect business continuity…. It is a reinvention of the procurement experience.” Perhaps channeling an old CPO Rising report, he then said, “It is time for procurement to become the epicenter of collaboration and innovation.”
The idea here is for data and intelligence to drive new and re-imagined processes and experiences that will enhance collaboration across the supply chain.
I am sure that in his new role, Chris was disappointed that thousands did not see him deliver his message live, but his video has been viewed an extraordinary 51,000+ times in less than two full days. Maybe there is something to a virtual summit after all? [sidebar: that’s a teaser – check in with us early next week]
The Path to Transformation (Presented By Lucille Trickett, HPE)
by Matthew York
Hewlett Packard has been an Ariba customer since 1999, having deployed on-premises sourcing, contract management, spend analysis, supplier performance management, and buying solutions that were highly customized. In mid-2015, Lucille Tickett, Senior Director, Global Solutions for the Office of Legal Affairs and Administration, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and her team (“HP”) began to have conversations with SAP Ariba’s customer experience team about migrating to their new cloud platform. HP wanted to improve internal processes and adopt industry standards. They also began to notice that the features and capabilities on the Ariba Cloud platform were, in their view, significantly better than their on-premises software, even with a high level of customization. Ultimately, Lucille’s team decided to migrate to the SAP Ariba Cloud platform, but in two phases: 1) source-to-contract, and 2) buy-to-invoice (or P2P). In parallel, they decided to transform HP’s T&E processes and tools, which were a patchwork of homegrown and third-party solutions and adopted SAP Concur to manage this process end-to-end.
HP kicked off Phase One of their transformation in January 2016 — first, by reviewing internal processes and mapping them to functions in the SAP Ariba system. They documented many process improvements that could be quickly implemented, and built out configuration workbooks and a deployment plan. In November 2016, HP technically went live with the migration, but they had to figure out how to migrate and archive their data. Five months later, HP went live with their source-to-contract solution across every country were HP does business. Lucille said that they have had great success and their users have given lots of positive feedback.
Phase Two was more complex, since HP had been undertaking an enterprise-wide IT transformation in which they had consolidated multiple ERP solutions into a single ERP, SAP S/4 HANA Master Data Governance (MDG). This required the new P2P and T&E solutions to integrate into the new ERP system. Phase Two began similarly to Phase One, but required fewer customizations and greater internal and external collaboration among stakeholders. In April 2018, HP went live with the first release of SAP S/4 HANA MDG, enabling them to gain a holistic view of their supplier relationships, and to clean up their vendor master database, optimized by 39%. In November 2018, HP went live with a single ERP solution on SAP S/4 HANA, and executed a “Big Bang” rollout of SAP Concur to 61 countries.
HP then rolled out SAP Ariba’s Buy-to-Invoice solution to business units in 52 countries, plus a requisition-to-invoice solution to five additional countries. HP fully enabled 1,200 suppliers on the network and “light” enabled 10,800 more. They also deployed hundreds of catalogs, guided buying, and single sign-on capabilities to more than 60,000 employees worldwide. Big and impressive numbers from this longtime Ariba customer, champion, and reference.
The Modern Workforce (presented by Arun Srinivasan)
by Christopher J. Dwyer
“The way work is done is changing,” said SAPFG’s General Manager, Arun Srinivasan, during “The Modern Workforce” breakout session at this year’s (virtual) edition of SAP AribaLIVE. The statement itself reflects just how critical today’s non-employee workforce is in regard to how businesses best optimize how work is done.
Srinivasan was joined by Lisa Zak, Medtronic’s Director of Strategic Sourcing. Medtronic’s contingent workforce program is self-managed (leveraging SAP Fieldglass as its core VMS tool) with 10,000 workers managed globally through the initiative. As the perception of contingent labor continues to evolve, Zak said that the global company actively relies on the extended workforce to get work done. “Our external workforce represents 26% of our overall talent,” she said. “They operate at the heart of our business. It’s not just agencies, temps, administrative assistants; [these workers] keep the supply chain running, as well as our manufacturing operations.”
Zak spoke of the many scientists, engineers, and other types of non-employee talent that are critical to the greater organization. “We couldn’t operate without them.” Medtronic’s program centralizes both traditional (such as invoicing) and strategic (workforce expansion) aspects of the global contingent workforce program through the SAP Fieldglass tool.
As Srinivasan spoke of the changes happening in the world of work, including Future of Work-era shifts such as talent preferences and emerging skillsets, Zak reiterated just how important the non-employee workforce is for Medtronic.
“Focusing on the talent “pool” itself [is more impactful] than targeting just the “swim lanes,” said Zak, stating that, at the end of the day, they are searching “for the best-fit talent for the work that we need to get done.”
Make sure to check in next week for a big announcement as well as Part Two of Ardent’s team review of the SAP Ariba Live Virtual Experience.
RELATED RESEARCH
SAP Ariba LIVE 2018– Refocusing on the Network and Driving Growth
AribaLIVE 2015: Looking to the Future of Business Commerce
Procurement with Purpose: Dreaming Big at Ariba Live and Beyond
