SAP Ariba Live: Spot Buy, Samasource and more!

Following the successful roll-out of Spot Buy in North America, Australia and Latin America, SAP Ariba and its premium partner Mercateo are now bringing the solution to Europe. The strategic alliance between the two industry leaders promises European companies a fundamental change in spontaneous purchasing.

In future, supply and demand will come together in an efficient and secure digital marketplace that promises buyers simpler and more transparent processes, greater flexibility and cost savings, while sellers benefit from new sales opportunities.

Mastering spontaneous purchases

Every purchasing decision presents challenges, but impulse purchases are particularly challenging. Most buyers do not have the resources to scrutinize suppliers and study supply details when the item in question is urgently needed.

So they order from the first supplier who promises them fast delivery. In this way, they miss out on considerable savings potential, while suppliers and manufacturers miss out on lucrative sales opportunities.

"Together with Mercateo, we are providing a solution so that buyers and sellers can effectively negotiate non-contractual spend and both sides can benefit from a modern understanding of procurement," explains Tony Alvarez, General Manager of SAP Ariba Spot Buy.

Alvarez continues: "Mercateo offers robust functionality for both purchasing and sales on both sides. The underlying philosophy and uncompromising commitment to a neutral trading platform fits perfectly with our own strategy. We are therefore very pleased to use Mercateo Unite as our primary infrastructure to bring together content from trusted suppliers in SAP Ariba Spot Buy to provide."

Simple and powerful solution

By connecting the SAP Ariba Business network with cloud-based procurement applications SAP Ariba Spot Buy provides a procurement experience based on traditional purchasing. The user-friendly menu navigation enables even inexperienced users to select and order exactly the goods and services they need from an extensive range.

They can access framework agreement catalogs or cover their marginal requirements, naturally in strict compliance with the respective procurement guidelines.

"Mercateo and SAP Ariba share a vision: they want to bring buyers and sellers together in a new, innovative way that benefits both sides," comments Dr. Bernd Schönwälder, CSO/CMO of Mercateo.

Digitization award for Deutsche Bank

Today, Wednesday, the #MakeProcurementAwesome Awards honored companies that have been able to take the lead in innovation through consistent digital transformation in procurement. The following were honored:

• Deutsche Bank
• Manutan
• Nedbank
• BASF

According to Ariba President Alex Atzberger, the award goes to those companies that no longer see purchasing as a tactical element for cost savings in digitization, but instead see purchasing as a strategic factor through the use of new technologies.

Fighting poverty with Samasource

Fair working conditions in global supply chains cannot be taken for granted. Ariba and Samasource want to change this. Founded in 2008, Samasource fights against poverty and discrimination.

The cooperation, which was also presented on Monday, is intended to combine Samasource's experience in providing training and job opportunities for people in poor regions such as Kenya, Uganda, India and Haiti with Ariba's procurement and supply chain expertise and create global awareness of fair working conditions in the supply chain.

Our readers will find out more about SAP Ariba Live in the next issue of E-3 Magazine.