The product has different modules, like sourcing and contract management. The use case depends on the client's requirements.
Ariba allows us to manage our suppliers seamlessly. It allows us to manage our relationship with the suppliers, the contracts, and invoices. It makes life easier for our organisation. It is a good application to use.
SAP could make it easier for people to become SAP Ariba consultants within the SAP ecosystem.
I have been using the solution for one year as a materials management consultant.
Most SAP systems are very stable, especially those hosted on the cloud. The solution is hosted by SAP and controlled by SAP, so it is very stable.
The product is scalable. My client’s company currently has about 7 to 10 people using the solution. These are the internal users. Some external suppliers also use the portal to view contracts and invoices. If there is a need to expand the procurement team, we will increase the usage of the solution. We train the technical team to maintain the solution. We also need to ensure that we have a log where we can check our integrations to ensure there’s no failure.
During implementation, we had some issues with the integration. We contacted SAP, and we were able to resolve them.
The setup is straightforward. SAP provides support to help us with the setup, and they provide a consultant to work with us on the project. It makes the process easier. The solution is cloud-based, hosted by SAP.
SAP has a methodology and approach for implementation. We must ensure that we are prepared for the deployment. Several things need to be in place. We need to pay for our license, SAP provisions, and Ariba for our test environment, where we can configure and test. Once that is done, we sit with the client, take their requirements, and document them. We also need to fill out a workbook, which we will then share with the client to confirm that they agree.
Once the client confirms that everything is correct, we forward it to SAP. SAP will then provision our instance based on the items in the workbook. We also need to discuss integration with the client. Once we are done discussing and obtaining all the necessary documentation, we begin to configure the system. We configure the system and test it. Once we are done setting up the system and testing, we can then deploy it and go live.
The tool improves our efficiency. It also improves our relationship with the supplier and provides real-time analytics. The ROI is very high.
SAP must reduce the pricing for Ariba. The solution is subscription-based. We pay annually for the tool. The license is expensive. It depends on how many users will be working on the platform.
It is one of the best hosting platforms we have around the world right now. I would recommend people to go ahead and use the solution. However, we need to ensure that our in-house team is trained on how to use it. It's not enough to outsource support. We need to ensure that we have the required knowledge to transfer from the implementation partner to our organization.
Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.
