A guideline to utilising the benefits of SAP Ariba - In conversation with Industry Expert and Consultant
SAP Ariba - In conversation with industry expert
Pritam Adhikari
SAP Ariba is a top SAP product that enables suppliers and buyers to interact and conduct business globally by offering cloud-based supply chain, spend management, and procurement services.
Which companies/industries are eligible
to implement SAP Ariba?
Ariba, according to Pritam is recommended for
mid-size to large organisations that are document and process heavy. Although
every company deals with a procurement department, Ariba Upstream (strategic
sourcing solution made for cloud) which involves modules like sourcing,
contracting and supply management are most suitable for domains like
manufacturing, hospitality, media and pharma as buying and selling are rampant
in these sectors.
For industries that deal with trading, he
is of the firm opinion that they can benefit greatly from the ever-extensive Catalogue
Management Solution hosted by Ariba. It provides traders an option to choose
from different sellers based on their price offerings. Furthermore, it enables
them to place orders and receive auto-generated receipts, all under one
automated system.
The
most well-suited module for the automobile industry is SAP Ariba’s Supply
Chain Collaboration. With this, suppliers can connect with customers
through a single channel of communication for production and
deliveries - the Ariba Network, hence eliminating
all email and mobile communication from their systems. “In the future if there
is any compliance issue, there is evidence to back you up as in the Ariba Network,
all communication with suppliers can be tracked and documented”, he states.
Supplier resistance v/s buyer resistance
At times, the feature of traceability brings
with itself a few challenges. Up until recently, procurement used to be an
end-to-end manual process. Thus, one of the biggest challenges for
organizations is change management and shifting from manual labour mentality,
which tends to invite resistance from participants.
Throughout his vast industry experience,
Pritam observes that supplier resistance is much less when compared to buyer
resistance, as SAP Ariba and its operations are much more beneficial to the
former. With Ariba, suppliers get an equal opportunity to participate in
requests for quotations (RFQs) and online
negotiations (auctions), from which they are
usually excluded during legacy practices.
Buyers, on the other hand, have often shown
a strong aversion to SAP Ariba and its functioning because it puts in place
harder deadlines for them than traditional procurement methods. “Buyer concerns
when working with Ariba are at least 10 to 20 percent more than that of
suppliers because they are comfortable with legacy practices they have been
performing for years”, comments Pritam.
Ariba brings to the forefront, a visibility
like no other. All day-to-day tasks, functionality, activities of the stakeholders
involved and relevant documents are traceable and liable for scrutiny at the
click of a few buttons. The design of the platform works in a way that along
each step of the way, notifications are generated and reports are sent to
everyone relevant to the processes, thus strengthening security and
accountability. “It is usually this visibility most buyers are wary of”, says
Pritam.
The advantages of Ariba
Despite the challenges discussed, SAP Ariba
has established itself as the future of procurement processes. This procurement
solution lets individuals or companies enlist themselves as potential buyers on
a global database. Potential customers then have an option to conduct audits
for buyers for a better scrutiny of their processes. If compliant, buyers are
provided with an eligibility certificate and they are enlisted in the database
for a better global visibility.
Apart from compliance, Ariba displays the
optimal prices for each resource or service, that would traditionally be set by
suppliers. This gives the buyer the power to negotiate with the supplier,
thereby eliminating dependency.
From negotiating to creating RFQs, and to passing
approvals and finalising quotations, SAP Ariba streamlines the procurement
process like no other solution. It helps to keep the system in check while
eliminating manual intervention, thus ensuring errors are minimised or error
handling is the best.
With a deeper understanding of spend
management, it offers a future-focussed procurement platform so your company is
not only able to sustain the tides of a changing market but also grow with time.
It also equips you with business process integration tools in real time which
makes it possible for you to find trading partners who can deliver at an
optimal value while implementing a seamless source-to-pay process.
If you would like to get in touch with our
experts for more information on SAP Ariba implementation and its various
industry-specific modules, visit our website and request for a free demo.
We also provide training to buyers and
users across domains, so they know how to utilise SAP Ariba in the most optimal
way. If you would like to opt for SAP Ariba as your procurement solution, our experts are here to help. We would be honored to be a part of your growth journey.
