Ariba Lands New Customers
by Richard Brown, Line56
Wednesday, January 17, 2001
PNC Financial Services Group, a bank holding company, says it will use Ariba’s B2B Commerce Platform to streamline its purchasing processes, reduce costs, create new business models and improve trading partner relationships. The agreement with PNC comes after Ariba yesterday announced a similar deal with Hallmark Cards, the manufacturer of greetings cards and assorted gifts.
By the end of Q1, PNC will introduce Ariba Buyer, Ariba Marketplace Network Edition and Ariba Dynamic Trade applications over a staggered period. Initially, PNC will first use Ariba Buyer to improve its management of goods and services procurement for regional and corporate operations to electronically aggregate purchasing from employee desktops and direct purchase orders to preferred suppliers and B2B marketplaces.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PNC consists of four subsidiary banks and 75 active non-bank subsidiaries. It offers regional banking, corporate banking, real estate finance, asset-based lending, wealth management, asset management and global fund processing services.
It generated $3.5 billion in revenue in the nine months ended September 30 2000. At December 31, 1999, the company’s total assets and deposits were $75.4 billion and $46.7 billion, respectively.
PNC will also build a private, online marketplace powered by Ariba Marketplace and Ariba Dynamic Trade in an effort to accelerate e-commerce with its corporate banking clients. They are expected to be able to exchange information and transact electronically, plus use the electronic bill presentment and payment service provided by BillingZone.com, a joint venture between PNC and Perot Systems Corporation. BillingZone.com and Ariba are in discussion about integrating BillingZone.com's service with the Ariba Commerce Services Network.
Tim Shack, CIO at PNC, claimed the financial services company is “aggressively pursuing its objective to create procurement efficiencies, trim costs and provide additional value to our clients.”
Meanwhile, Hallmark Cards chose Ariba Buyer 7.0 to streamline purchasing of products and services, such as office supplies and travel, for its corporate offices, manufacturing plants, and subsidiaries worldwide.
The implementation is intended to enable Hallmark to electronically collect, route and process purchasing requests from employee desktops. It is also expected to direct spending to preferred suppliers and B2B marketplaces to deliver time and cost savings. As an Ariba Buyer customer, Hallmark will have access to thousands of suppliers globally through the Ariba Commerce Services Network. Phase one of the deployment is scheduled to be completed by the second quarter 2001 and will cover six sites. Founded in 1910, Hallmark today has almost 21,000 staff and distributes its products in over 100 countries.
John Magner, vice president, North American operations, at Ariba, claimed that “the cost reductions and increased efficiencies that Ariba can provide a global organization like Hallmark will yield long-term benefits.”
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