Event Overview
SAP Select / SAP Ariba Network Live / SAP Forum events were held in August 3 to 5 in the same place.
Ariba Network Live in Tokyo 2017 event ended with great success.Date: August 3, 2017
Place: Gland Prince Hotel Takanawa, Tokyo, Japan
Final Registration: 831
Attendee: 548 (65.94%)
Total satisfaction About 80% of attendees were very satisfied!!
I joined this event as part of SAP Ariba one team, and also as a SAP Mentor in the region.
The purpose of the event is addressed for business mainly, but I am writing this blog as SAP Mentor from product and technical point of view for SAP community members.
At first, please check out the high light of the event from Mike Odom, product manager currently working in Japan.
High Light of the Event
Movie - Mike Odom speaks the high light of the event.
My mission during the event is showing localization feature at demo pod, but also corporate with presales members to support answering the questions from attendee of the event.
The focused feature of the event are,
- "Guided Buying"
- "Light Account"
- "Could Integration Gateway" .
I would like to introduce one of the feature in brief.
"Guided Buying"
Pain for Buyer user: complex operation through multiple screen to input fields.
New: User is easy to find the right item and supplier with compliance.
- "One place to buy" with smart guidance for user to find right items, preferred suppliers, etc.
- User role based landing pages ex. end users, procurement experts, and suppliers
- Integration with Ariba solutions as long as external applications ex. Concur, Fieldglass.
"Light Account" - available since March 2017
Pain for suppliers and Buyers: Hard to motivate low transaction suppliers. Buyer needs to send order Fax to that suppliers not joining Ariba Network.
New: Light Account enables suppliers to use Ariba Network capabilities without Network fee and with limited feature
The guidance given from Ariba is,
Group A: "Full Account" - Strategic Suppliers expected high volume transaction and EDI connected, to be full enabled on Ariba Network
Group B "Light Account" and C "Interactive e": Other Suppliers to be light enabled on Ariba Network
SAP Ariba says that the 5 % of suppliers for one Buyer account is group A, and other 95% are group B and C.
The supplier enablement options for Ariba Network:
- Full Enablement - Network Fee based on transaction volume is charged to suppliers
- Light Enablement - No Network Fee charged
"Light Enablement" is a methodology enables to exchange basic transactions with free of charge, and instant sign-up by suppliers.
"Light Enablement" options:
- Light Account
- Interactive E-Mail
The feature eliminates effort to do manual operations from Buyer and use unified procedure and user interface. And suppliers can have a choice of upgrade account to have more benefit from full enablement. There are several restrictions for suppliers and it might not be a straight way to choose but this is an option for suppliers to join Ariba Network.
"Cloud Integration Gateway"
Pain for suppliers: Required to connect with Buyers based on Buyer interface format.
New: Possible to connect once and integrate all Buyers.
Cloud Integration Gateway has the following features based on "Connecting Once" vision.
- Self-serviced Integration Wizard for project setting up
- Supporting both standard EDI and new integration format
- Enhanced supported EDI transactions
- Auto testing tool
This resolves a technical challenge for Ariba Network suppliers to maintain and enhance its business.
Summary
To work as local product manager for Ariba in Japan, most of customers are requested to make own procurement order form. Guided Buying Feature with eForm enables customers to create own request form and flexible procurement process. I think this is the key to address to local customers in Japan.
Photos
Picture1. Yuzuru Fukuda, Kieth Krach, Rob Enslin
Picture2. SAP Ariba Presales team "Make Procurement Ausome!"
Picture3. me wearing SAP Mentor Foodie
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