http://spendmatters.com/research-library/perspectives/will-supplier-networks-thrive-implode-or-evolv...
I thought this would be an interesting read for those looking at solutions including Ariba. There are so many conversations out in the marketplace about what is good, what is bad and what is needed. However, this collection of essays gives a wide variety of opinions on the supplier network and future evolution of the technologies and trends.
Here are some of my key take aways from the reading:
- Charging a supplier for a procurement opportunity is reasonable, charging them to send in an electronic invoice especially a % of spend for getting paid is loosing traction in the marketplace. Charges to the supplier base will get back into the price of goods at some point.
- There is no global vendor today. Companies like Tradeshift are making the largest headway in this area; however, the legacy providers of electronic invoicing are still well behind the game in the emerging marketings such as Brazil and China.
- Workflow in the cloud is required when you have multiple ERP system, if you are on a single instance then looking at an internally deployed solution is a good strategy
- NO SAP implementation is the same, if someone tells you they have a standard connection to SAP -- say great, my SAP system is not standard. These variations cause the largest issues for integrating backend systems.
