The document discusses the challenges a company faced in identifying suitable sellers for sourcing events through traditional internet searches, which were time-consuming and often yielded low-quality results. Using Ariba Discovery significantly improved the seller identification process by matching the company's postings to over 500,000 pre-qualified sellers, reducing sourcing lead times from weeks to just 3-4 days. The company now uses Ariba Discovery for every sourcing event and additional groups are interested in its capabilities. A director of procurement praised Ariba Discovery for providing built-in relevance and good results.

1. Challenges Solutions Results
• Significantlyfacilitatedseller
identificationprocesswith
100s of sellersbeing matched
to the company’s postings
• Each posting averages about
10 sellerresponses
• Considerably reduced
sourcing lead time from
several weeks down to three
to four days
• Receivedresponses from
20 high-qualitysellers where
previouslyno sellerhad
been identifiable
• Company now createsat least
one AribaDiscoveryposting
for every sourcing event
• Additionalgroups outside of
the company’s Strategic
Sourcingdepartment
interestedin using Ariba
Discoveryfor functionaland
spot buying opportunities
• Tedious and time-intensive
selleridentificationprocess
using Internetsearch
engines that could take
several weeks
• Difficultto conductSupply
Market Analysis,especially
to search for and discover
best-in-classand innovative
sellercapabilities
• Often impossible to find
relevantprovidersof human
services– for example, using
Google keywords such as
“cleaningservices”
deliveredmillionsof results
• Analyzingsearch results
was a challengingand time-
consuming process without
guaranteeing identification
of high-qualitysellers
• Ariba Discovery™provides
company witha quickand
easy way to identify
relevantsellersby matching
sellers to the company’s
postings
• Can rely on Ariba’strusted
commercenetwork with
over 500,000 sellers
representingmore than
20,000 product and service
categories
• Gets responses from
pre-qualifiedsellers that
have been vetted by other
Ariba buying organizations
• Enables company’s Strategic
Sourcinggroup to conduct
Supply Market Analysisin
considerably less time,
deliveringbetterresults
• Using Ariba Discovery
provides the company with
a competitiveadvantage by
leveragingbest-in-class
sourcing technology
“Ariba Discovery provides built-in relevance for my team and our stakeholders when searching for sellers. We’ve testedthe
service multiple times and receivedgreat results back. We use it for all sourcing events.” Director Procurement,Leading
marketer of accessories and gifts
Profile
Leading marketer of accessoriesand
gifts that are beingsold worldwide
through retail stores, department
stores, specialtystores, catalogs and
the company website.
Ariba Solutions
 Ariba Discovery
Quick and Easy Seller Identification,
Large Pre-Qualified Seller Database
© 2013 Ariba, Inc. All rights reserved.