Case Study: Global Retailing Company achieves automated source-to-settle and rapid global procurement scale with SAP Ariba

Global Retailing Company - Customer Case Study

A leading global retailer with banking, real estate and e‑commerce businesses created an indirect purchasing organization in 2009 but lacked systems and standard processes across its many European and Asian units. With an aggressive savings target of €200M per year and a very global supplier base with uneven IT capabilities, the company needed a fast, compliant, source‑to‑settle solution to standardize processes across geographies.

The retailer deployed Ariba Buyer and Ariba Analysis as SaaS integrated with SAP, supported by Ariba consulting, hosting and maintenance, plus Ariba Strategic Sourcing, supplier/contract management and b‑process inbound invoicing to maximize automation and tax compliance. Results included plans to enable 7,000 users by March 2012 (15,000 by 2013), more than 2,400 suppliers enabled, 70+ RFXs within nine months, and automated invoicing for 275 suppliers via Smart PDF and 175 via EDI.