B2B leaders turn to collaboration
Ariba broadens its footprint
Ariba, in Sunnyvale, Calif., plans to broaden its footprint in the next 12 months with offerings that help customers expand on Ariba's Spend Management strategy. New capabilities in the Spend Management applications will allow buyers and sellers to more effectively share information on items such as inventories, officials said.
Some Ariba functions can already be offered as Web services, according to officials. Ariba plans to upgrade, by mid-2002, all its applications that aren't already compatible with Java 2 Enterprise Edition to that standard. Officials said they will not support Microsoft Corp.'s .Net architecture for Web services unless customer demand rises.
Union Bank of California, a subsidiary of Union Bank Corp., is beta testing Ariba's value chain extension for contracts. Cindy Morrell, vice president of e-procurement at the San Francisco bank, said the Ariba tools give her the flexibility to use traditional blanket price orders, tiered pricing agreements and master-supplier agreements when dealing with vendors.
That new application allows collaboration among these functions and the Ariba Buyer procurement platform. The company is also evaluating Ariba's collaborative applications, including sourcing, contracts and invoicing.
"We're able to address those other areas, which a traditional requisition or purchase order doesn't necessarily address," Morrell said. |
