Case Study: Evonik achieves simplified procurement and 10% reduction in manual purchase orders with SAP Ariba Spot Buy

How a B2B marketplace simplifies finding and buying non-sourced goods

Evonik, a global specialty-chemicals company with 32,000 employees, needed to simplify procurement for non-catalog items and rein in maverick and tail spending. Although their SAP Ariba catalogs were largely accurate, users struggled to find non‑sourced goods quickly, leading to manual purchase orders, higher operating costs for low‑volume suppliers in smaller countries, and a suboptimal user experience.

Evonik integrated SAP Ariba Spot Buy as a single‑sign‑on marketplace layered onto their Ariba environment, giving users searchable, vetted, policy‑approved content. The marketplace eliminated many low‑volume suppliers, enforced pricing and workflow controls, and let users find items in 5–10 minutes. The change improved catalog credibility and usability and delivered measurable benefits: a 10% reduction in manual purchase orders and a 20% time savings on reconciliation.

Evonik