12 May 2006 | Anusha Bradley
Ariba has recruited a council of chief procurement officers to help the spend management firm to identify problems faced by purchasers and develop solutions for them.
The Ariba CXO Council was launched at Ariba LIVE in Las Vegas this week. It will meet twice a year and is comprised of 26 purchasing chiefs from leading companies that currently use Ariba products. They include Walt Disney, Dell, HSBC, Accenture, Alcoa, Hewlett Packard and Cisco.
The firms will help Ariba identify problems that procurement professionals feel are not adequately addressed or need to be tackled in the future. The council is also an opportunity for the companies to share best practice.
An Ariba spokeswoman told
supplymanagement.com: "The first meeting identified supply risk management as an issue that needed to be addressed."
She said the council might recruit non-Ariba customers in future.
In addition, this week the firm launched a package of on-demand or pay-as-you-go solutions and consultancy services. In November, it launched two basic on-demand spend packages aimed at small to medium-sized businesses. Ariba said its latest offering is a "complete" package system for firms of all sizes, which links elements of Ariba's procure-to-pay system with electronic invoicing, travel and expense and contract management systems.
Rick Collinson, Ariba's marketing director, told
supplymanagement.com that on-demand systems are appealing to a greater number of larger firms who did not want to pay licensing fees up front.
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