On the Strip at Ariba LIVE 2014 Part 2
webadmin 25 Mar 2014
Throughout last week PayStream participated in Ariba LIVE from Las Vegas, Nevada. This blog is part of a series detailing our experiences from analyst briefings, one-on-one sessions with SAP and Ariba representatives, and keynote and breakout sessions at this highly informative industry conference.
Opening day at Ariba LIVE included several educational sessions for industry insiders including an analyst briefing and roadmap discussion. PayStream had the benefit of attending this event and has much to report for what’s in store for Ariba in 2014.
Recently, SAP acquired Ariba to include them as part of their cloud-based suite of financial and business intelligence solutions. Both parties had much to gain from this partnership. SAP offered its talent, expertise, technology, and investment while Ariba provided their customer success, and procurement and purchasing cloud DNA to further SAPs reach into the cloud ecosystem.
The analyst briefing offered insight into what Ariba had in store for both the immediate (within 3 months) and not-so-distant (within 3 years) future. Improvements are planned for all facets of the Ariba solution including strategic sourcing, P2P, services procurement, and the Ariba Network.
Increased functionality and enhanced user experience were two areas that were frequently mentioned as new additions to the Ariba solution. Ariba’s Strategic Sourcing Application improvements included a strategic search function within the application so as to avoid the need for a separate search engine. Also mentioned were recent updates for Internet Explorer 10 64-bit and Office 2013 support. In the near future increased support for the public sector and suppliers will be added as well as an increase focus on contract risk management.
Two recurring themes throughout Ariba’s roadmap were the inclusion of SAPs HANA and Globalization. P2P and Procurement support are being updated in the immediate future to include invoice, discount, shipping, and allowances support for Russia, China, Brazil, and Mexico. Better handling of multilingual codes & characters are also a top priority. The Ariba Network will be extending its reach into new markets in South America and Asia and will include compliance updates as well as integration with local third-party tax providers to ensure seamless user adoption in these foreign markets. The enhancements don’t just end there, as one might assume. Ariba is beginning a transition onto SAPs HANA framework.
SAPs HANA (High-Performance Analytic Appliance) was released in 2010 and is an incredibly powerful tool for reporting and analytics. HANA is an in-memory column-oriented, relational database management system. Traditionally, databases are stored on hard drives where processors have to communicate back and forth to analyze data. With enterprise level organizations this means that running reports can take hours or even days. For example, let’s say a supplier offers you a new arrangement involving new terms on one billion widgets. Before the introduction of HANA, running a report to see if this were in your best interest could take hours or even days; you would undoubtedly be calling them back (all the while they’re offering this exclusive offer to someone else). With HANA, instead of moving billions of records from hard-drives to a processor to be analyzed, the data is stored in-memory so you can analyze billions of records in seconds, not hours. With HANA, you’ll be able to make decisions faster and smarter. Ariba plans to have at least 90% of its application on the HANA platform by 2017, meaning faster reporting and increased efficiency for Ariba users.
PayStream is excited about the roadmap that Ariba has projected. The partnership of SAP and 
Ariba has merged two of the industry leaders in procurement and P2P to offer a solution like no other seen before. Stay tuned for the third installment of On the Strip at Ariba LIVE 2014 later this week. Topics will include a roadmap discussion about the Ariba Network and highlights from keynote speaker Bert Jacobs of the Life is Good Company.
Speaking of must-attend purchase-to-pay events, check this out.
