The Ariba Commerce Cloud: What's In It for You?

The launch of Ariba's new Commerce Cloud-a web-based platform designed to power more collaborative and efficient buying, selling, and financial management between businesses-marks a decisive strategy shift that will benefit you as a seller in multiple ways.

Though Ariba has always provided value to sellers, its focus on spend management has traditionally centered more on buying organizations. The new Commerce Cloud paradigm changes this equation by putting the needs of sellers and buyers on a par-making seller goals and requirements core to Ariba's mission and vision. As part of this shift, Ariba is investing extensive resources in a growing array of solutions and services that will help you as a seller find more business opportunities, better manage cash, and increase sales.

Making Business Commerce Easy
As a consumer, you're well acquainted with the ease of buying, selling, and managing cash online. When shopping, you can research a product, get feedback on vendors, see images of potential purchases, get answers to questions, configure and place your order, and pay securely-all in the space of an hour. You can sell items on eBay or manage your finances and investments via online banking or sites like ingdirect. The entire experience is fast, efficient, and even fun.

In the business world, however, the majority of commerce still slogs along using cumbersome paper-based processes that hamper access to partners and limit intercompany collaboration…that is, until now. The Ariba Commerce Cloud is transforming this picture, providing a single, easy-to-use resource where users can buy, sell, and manage cash with the same speed and efficiency that have become the norm in the consumer marketplace.

Benefits to Your Company
The Ariba Commerce Cloud will make it easier for you to take advantage of existing Ariba seller solutions by seamlessly integrating them into the Ariba® Network-providing faster, simpler access to the tools and services you use. Various solutions and programs will be enhanced or expanded, and new resources will be added to enhance your benefits even more, allowing you to:

• Increase access and sales to new customers through Ariba Discovery™, a powerful on-demand service that automatically connects you with buying organizations actively sourcing the products and services you sell. New features will help you get more leads, connect faster with key decision makers, shorten the sales cycle, streamline negotiations with potential new customers, and improve close rates.
• Manage cash more effectively through Ariba® Working Capital Management™ solutions-including Ariba Discount Management and Ariba Receivables Financing-which improve your access to cash and credit at reasonable rates and enable you to get paid as much as 20 percent faster, significantly reducing days sales outstanding (DSO).
• Increase productivity, differentiate your business, and grow revenue through Ariba Network catalog, order, and invoice solutions et Ariba Sales Acceleration solutions, which can help you:
  • Proactively take advantage of business commerce and the Ariba channel
  • Identify and resolve sales and marketing challenges
  • Boost customer satisfaction and retention
  • Gain greater visibility into customer processes
  • Increase sales with new and existing customers
  • Lower sales costs through 80 percent order accuracy improvement, 60 percent productivity increase, and 50 percent faster order-to-cash cycle
• Network more extensively through the Ariba Exchange, a new collaborative online forum where you can quickly and conveniently exchange ideas and discuss issues with buyers and business partners as well as other sellers.
• Connect to a growing network of qualified solution providers through the new Ariba Supplier Solution Provider Sales & Marketing Program which vets and validates companies in key technical areas to ensure their competence in helping you attain your goals.
• Drive more value from Ariba solutions by tapping into expanded educational resources on a wide variety of topics, such as how to better utilize Ariba Working Capital Management solutions, ways to ensure that you're most effectively finding new customers, tips on retaining customers and growing your customer base, and suggestions that help you maximize revenues through Ariba
• Enhance your credibility as a business commerce-savvy seller by joining the Ariba Ready™ program, which prepackages three different levels of networking, marketing, and consulting expertise to help you optimize your online programs and grow your business through the Ariba Network
• Gain exposure and preferred status with new eProcurement buyers through Ariba® Express Content, a program that lets you provide access to free, ready-to-use catalog content so your customers can sidestep lengthy catalog creation processes and order from you faster.
• Utilize critical market intelligence and benchmark trend reports gleaned from aggregate data on Ariba Network usage patterns across millions of transactions, thousands of companies, and hundreds of countries to help you better discover, win, and support customers.
• Shorten the sales contract cycle by 50 percent or more with the Ariba Contract Management™ solution, significantly enhancing contract visibility for you and your customers while driving higher sales and renewals.
• Increase your RFP wins through Ariba Global Consulting Services' new RFP Response Improvement solution, which provides analysis, design planning, and implementation support to help you transform your RFP response process into a best-in-class, high-ROI component of your overall sales strategy.
• Quickly and cost-effectively integrate with ERP and other backend systems of customers and partners using the Ariba Commerce Cloud through comprehensive integration support provided by Ariba ecosystem partner Hubspan.

These are just some of the many seller resources to be offered through the Ariba Commerce Cloud in the coming months. To provide input on solutions and services you'd like to see, please send an email to suppliersolutions@ariba.com or contact your Ariba account manager.

Ariba: Uniquely Positioned to Help You Succeed
As owner of the world's largest web-based trading network-a community of more than 730,000 sellers and buyers from 400 of the Fortune 500 transacting over 121 $ billion in annual spend-Ariba has the critical mass and scale required to deliver on the promise of transforming business commerce. Because the technology resides "in the cloud" (that is, on the Internet), Ariba applications and services as well as those of approved partners are available on demand to anyone using the Ariba Network. This means you can quickly add or subtract resources to meet changing requirements, usually without IT assistance. Access to Ariba expertise along with an extensive range of solutions across the market-to-pay cycle gives you and your customers the capabilities you need to automate and streamline functions and work together more efficiently.

Want to Learn More?
You can find videos, documents, and many other resources that explain the Ariba Commerce Cloud in more detail by going to www.ariba.com/commercecloud