For Business Process & Applications Professionals (Length: 4 pages)

Executive Summary (This is a document excerpt)

On April 26, 2005, Ariba announced that it was opening up its Ariba Supplier Network to companies who are using eProcurement products from competitors like SAP and Oracle. The move will shake up the eProcurement and eSourcing market. Ariba gives up its competitive advantage of having the largest network of pre-enabled suppliers for customers of its Ariba Buyer eProcurement product, benefiting SAP and Oracle, whose sales of eProcurement products have been handicapped by not offering a comparable supplier network. On the upside, Ariba can now go further in monetizing the value of the Ariba Supplier Network, building a new revenue stream while threatening smaller supplier networks like Perfect Commerce in North America and cc-hubwoo in Europe. It will bolster Ariba's position overall, since helping existing eProcurement clients of SAP and Oracle to solve their supplier connectivity issues will give Ariba an opening to sell other Ariba sourcing, invoicing, and spend analytics products. In the end, Ariba will gain more than it loses.