Ariba Enhances Smart Invoicing Capabilities

SUNNYVALE, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--With the fate of the global economy still uncertain, companies have made managing cash and working capital job number one. And Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) is arming them with the tools they need to do it with the latest release of its collaborative commerce platform. Designed to enhance the company’s smart invoicing capabilities, new features within the release enable organizations to further streamline global invoice processing, support complex compliance requirements, and improve business commerce collaboration.

“Implementing an electronic invoicing process has allowed OfficeMax and its customers to reduce purchase order and invoice processing errors”

“Accounts Payable (AP) teams spend inordinate amounts of time and effort processing paper invoices. To address this problem, many companies have implemented solutions to digitize them. But with one in five invoices still containing an overcharge or other error, it’s clear that digitization only leads to bad invoices being delivered faster,” said James Tucker, Director of Marketing, Invoice and Payment Solutions, Ariba. “With the enhancements to the Ariba® Invoice Management™ suite of solutions, companies around the world can execute a smart invoicing process that provides full visibility and control, improves compliance, and automates reconciliation, eliminating errors and rework so that only accurate invoices reach AP.”

Streamlined Invoice Processing

Delivered on-demand via the Ariba Network, Ariba’s Invoice Management™ solution features smart invoicing capabilities, where e-invoices undergo an automated validation process upon supplier submission. This smart validation eliminates errors and rework so only accurate and approved invoices reach AP. Validated invoices are then posted directly to ERP systems for on-time payment and discount capture.

“A unique strength of on-demand and cloud solutions is the integration and validation at the business process level, of pulling together many disparate elements of a process -- but with the proper governance along the way,” said Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst, Interarbor Solutions. “Managed automation across all the elements of the process makes invoicing work far better. And it leads to even further benefits up and down the supply chain and procurement lifecycles.”

By putting a smart invoicing process in place, companies can:

Reduce operating costs by 70 percent or more
Enable 98 percent touchless invoice processing
Minimize risk of overpayments and fraud

With the new features baked into the latest release of Ariba Invoice Management, companies can take things a step further and:

Accelerate processing of valid PO and non-PO invoices
Perform automated, detailed PO-line level matching on any invoice, including scanned invoices
Simplify management of rejected invoices and dispute resolution

Implementing an electronic invoicing process has allowed OfficeMax and its customers to reduce purchase order and invoice processing errors,” said Patrick Ogborn, Vice President, eCommerce, OfficeMax, an early adopter of Ariba’s solutions. “And this has enabled tighter integration and collaboration with our customers on the Ariba Network.

Expanded Global Coverage

World class organizations are embracing e-invoicing to streamline their payable operations, lower operating costs, improve compliance and optimize working capital. As more organizations seek to expand e-invoicing initiatives globally, the ability to meet complex tax and compliance requirements that vary by country is critical. With its recent acquisition of b-process, France’s largest electronic invoice network and one of the largest e-invoicing networks in Europe, and the latest release of the Ariba collaborative commerce platform, Ariba enables organizations to more effectively execute a global e-invoicing strategy that supports indirect tax methods such as VAT, withholding taxes, e-archiving, and related country-specific e-invoicing requirements.

b-process delivers a flexible set of solutions for e-Invoicing that are used by large buyer customers across industries, including: Carrefour, EADS, Eurocopter, Gefco, IATA, Marmara, Saint-Gobain and Vinci Energie. The solutions accept invoices in any type of structured format files, including positional, EDI, XML and PDF, allowing buyers and suppliers to quickly and easily connect to the b-process commerce network and begin processing invoices immediately, regardless of the AP, ERP, or other back office systems they are using.

Combined with the Ariba® Invoice Management™ suite of solutions, the offerings enable companies to implement a touchless global invoicing process that reduces operating costs by up to 70 percent, supports complex compliance requirements, and improves business commerce collaboration.

And with the expanded set of country-based business rules and templates and new tools delivered as part of the latest enhancements to Ariba’s solutions, companies can:

Configure up to 40 business rules at the country level and apply them to e-invoice templates, which include default e-invoice configuration by country
Capture withholding tax support critical in certain countries for specific suppliers
Prevent header-level taxes and discounts when lines on an invoice are subject to different tax rates
Automatically select titles for invoices and credit memos that follow country-specific guidelines

Ariba is consistently recognized for its understanding of the requirements for doing business in Europe and unique tools to address them, including its VAT compliance capabilities. Ariba Invoice Management has twice been ranked “Best Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment Solution” by Global Finance Magazine.

Improved Collaboration

In today’s volatile economy, two things are crucial to the success of any organization: collaboration and flexibility. This is particularly true when it comes to managing cash. With the latest release of the Ariba collaborative commerce platform, buyers and sellers can improve their ability to gain visibility into the timing and status of payments and thereby improve their cash flows.

They can also enable dynamic discounting programs to more effectively manage these cash flows and mitigate financial risk. Leveraging Ariba Invoice Management in conjunction with Ariba Discount Professional™, for instance, buyers and sellers can fully automate the process of offering, negotiating, and agreeing on early payment terms. Buyers can accelerate payments for approved invoices to key suppliers in return for discounts, earning an immediate return on their cash. And sellers can gain increased visibility into future cash flows, certainty in payment timing and the ability to use cash sooner to fund daily business needs.

“Faced with market volatility and economic uncertainty, many companies are parking their cash to hedge against financial risk,” said Drew Hofler, Senior Manager, Working Capital Management Solutions, Ariba. “But with interest rates at historic lows, an increasing number are beginning to view their supply chains as a more viable opportunity for investment. Leveraging Ariba Discount Professional, buyers can achieve a greater return on their cash that is effectively risk-free because they are investing in their own suppliers. And suppliers can access a better and faster source of cash for their receivables.”

To date, companies using Ariba Discount Management have been able to:

Increase early payment discount capture from 35 percent to greater than 90 percent
Expand supplier discount participation to greater than 20 percent
Achieve average discounts of 1.95%
Capture over $2 million in early payment discount savings for every $1 billion in targeted spend

But there’s a benefit to suppliers who offer discounts as well. “The cost of capital today is high for startups. Even with strong revenue growth, when you haven’t been in business for a long period of time, you often won’t have a balance sheet or P&L that you can lever to get competitive rates from traditional sources,” said John Evarts, COO and CFO of Mediafly, a Chicago-based company that delivers a cloud-based platform and applications for content management and distribution on mobile devices to Fortune 500 companies. “With Ariba’s dynamic discounting solution, we have gained quicker access to the capital we need to hire developers and get to the next set of features in our products which accelerates revenue and ultimately generates cash.”

Mediafly CEO Carson Conant further mentioned, “We actually ask prospective customers if they are on Ariba network because their answer has ramifications to how they can fuel our growth.”

Availability

Ariba’s collaborative commerce platform is available and in use today. To learn more about how your organization can leverage it to buy, sell and manage cash, more efficiently and effectively visit: www.ariba.com

To learn more about Ariba’s Invoice Management and Dynamic Discounting solutions and the results they can deliver, visit: http://www.ariba.com/solutions/manage-cash.cfm

About Ariba, Inc.

Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions. Ariba combines industry-leading technology with the world's largest web-based trading community to help companies discover, connect and collaborate with a global network of partners – all in a cloud-based environment. Using the Ariba® Commerce Cloud, businesses of all sizes can buy, sell and manage cash more efficiently and effectively. Over 700,000 companies around the globe use the Ariba Commerce Cloud to simplify inter-enterprise commerce and enhance results. Why not join them? To get on the path to Better Commerce visit: www.ariba.com/commercecloud/

Ariba Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act 1995: Information and announcements in this release involve Ariba's expectations, beliefs, hopes, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future and are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements included in this release are based upon information available to Ariba as of the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to Ariba's operating and financial results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: the impact of the credit crises on Ariba’s results of operations and financial condition; delays in development or shipment of new versions of Ariba's products and services; lack of market acceptance of Ariba's existing or future products or services; inability to continue to develop competitive new products and services on a timely basis; introduction of new products or services by major competitors; the impact of any acquisitions, including difficulties with the integration process or the realization of benefits of a transaction; the impact of our disposition, including the potential disruption of our ongoing business; the ability to attract and retain qualified employees; long and unpredictable sales cycles and the deferrals of anticipated orders; declining economic conditions, including the impact of a recession; inability to control costs; changes in the company's pricing or compensation policies; significant fluctuations in our stock price; the outcome of and costs associated with pending or potential future regulatory or legal proceedings; the impact of our acquisitions and dispositions, including the disruption or loss of customer, business partner, supplier or employee relationships; and the level of costs and expenses incurred by Ariba as a result of such transactions. Factors and risks associated with its business, including a number of the factors and risks described above, are discussed in Ariba's Form 10-K filed with the SEC on November 10, 2011.