Procurement Technology Tip: When Ariba/SAP Plays the Executive Card, What Should You Do?
We’ve been in touch with a lot of folks going through procurement technology selections – as well as the consultants often advising them – in recent months. The good news: there’s lots of activity – more than ever, actually. And, more procurement teams than ever are investing the time – often with other stakeholders such […]
One version of the truth?
When you get two ex-accountants together, talk invariably turns to numbers. Dennis Howlett and I spent some time at the Plex conference a week ago and in discussing the book on SAP I am working on he advised me: “watch your numbers” It’s good advice and I have reached out to more analysts for data […]
Is the Cloud Disappearing or Darkening at SAP in Procurement?
SAP is shaking up its cloud business. Or perhaps the cloud is shaking up SAP. Both Vishal Sikka, who championed HANA on the executive board level, and Shawn Price, the president of SAP’s cloud business unit for only a few months, have left (see news coverage here and here). While there are different views on […]
Exploring e-Procurement Market Trends: No Winner Here
In the past quarter, we have gotten numerous calls from venture capital firms that wanted our opinion on the e-procurement (and broader Source-to-Pay) market, including growth and vendor prospects. As a favor, we try to spend a bit of time with them on the phone. But we suspect many leave more confused than when the […]
Bob Calderoni and Kevin Costello to Leave SAP – A New Chapter for Ariba Inside SAP
Spend Matters has learned from multiple sources that Bob Calderoni (formerly CEO of Ariba and currently President of SAP Cloud) and Kevin Costello (current President of Ariba within SAP) will be stepping down from their respective positions. Their current or future roles inside or out of SAP have not been announced, but sources suggest they […]
Ariba’s AribaLive conference reviewed
I attended the AribaLive event in Berlin last week – this is the European conference for Ariba customers and partners to share stories, network and learn from one another. Ariba is a company which provides electronic sales and procurement solutions for companies. There are over 1 million companies in 190 countries using Ariba. Customer companies […]
Sourcing reinvented: cloud supply chain and spend management
If the future is a networked world, then we may well find that the future belongs to sourcing vendors. No other category of vendors has had its landscape transformed so fundamentally by the advent of the Web, to the extent that leading vendors such as Concur and Ariba took early decisions to wholly rearchitect their […]
The SAP Business Suite and HANA
Most folks using procurement technology would rather not get into the underlying bits and bytes of technology architecture, let alone the nuances of database technology. For the most part this makes sense, though we’d argue that for systems integration, a lot of incremental business value in the P2P and services procurement areas can be derived […]
SAP cloudwashes its image
Watching the playoffs this weekend, I chuckled when I saw SAP is the NFL’s Official Cloud Software Solutions provider. Not sure how much it cost SAP but they are clearly eager to be considered “cloudy”. Since the revenues show a tiny cloud profile (prelim 2012 results show cloud revenues at EU 270 m in IFRS, […]
How Procurement Organizations Should Look at Supplier Fees: Be True to Thyself
By Jason Busch on September 10, 2015
Just when you thought a topic was, well, a non-issue, it comes roaring back again. Such is the case with supplier fees in a variety of procurement areas, including e-procurement, e-invoicing, network connectivity, trade financing, and supplier and contractor onboarding. I must have had several dozen different conversations with people in the past month or […]
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