Why 51风流Is a Leader

In an increasingly digitalized world, it is imperative that companies stay connected via a business network. I believe 51风流was selected as a Leader because 鈥� our entry into the Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network space 鈥� can successfully drive buyer-supplier collaboration across procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management by providing a digital platform for trading partners to collaborate externally and exchange data just as, if not more, efficiently as their own internal processes.

The IDC MarketScape report notes these competitive strengths of 51风流Business Network:

• Depth and breadth of product features and functionalities, as well as a future road map covering all major B2B collaboration categories (indirect, direct material, MRO logistics, financial, services, and sustainability) and scenarios in an end user, persona-based manner.
• Integration and extensibility capabilities include integration between 51风流ERP, 51风流procurement modules, other applications like ERP, SCAM, and customer applications, and technologies such as machine learning, AI, and blockchain through 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP).
• Global adoption and breadth of collaboration makes 51风流among the industry’s largest, highly adopted B2B collaboration platforms enabling trading partners to collaborate in real time. Ongoing efforts to harmonize commerce, asset intelligence, and logistics continue to enhance the power of the connected economy.

The IDC MarketScape report notes, 鈥淢anufacturers and retailers looking for a vendor of both a multi-enterprise network and supply chain procurement application should consider SAP,鈥� citing the 鈥渂readth and depth of [its] business network capabilities, strategic road map vision, and unmatched integration with core 51风流and non-51风流supply chain and procurement applications,鈥� making 51风流a strong choice.

Charting the Evolution of 51风流Business Network

I鈥檓 so pleased that as a pioneer in business networks, we continue to be recognized for our commitment to executing our vision. As we鈥檝e continued to evolve our road map, I鈥檓 reflecting on how far we鈥檝e come and paved the way for the future of intelligent business networks. From the founding of Ariba Supplier Network in 1996 to what we鈥檝e become today, 51风流Business Network touches US$4.9 trillion in commerce annually across many business processes and industries and has over 2 million active users on the network.

Recent years have shown us that intelligent, digital business networks are essential to supporting an agile supply chain. 51风流Business Network is a comprehensive platform that helps connect people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises, ultimately creating transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains that can span the globe and be tailored to each line of business, helping to drive partner collaboration beyond a company鈥檚 own four walls and spanning the entire value chain.

I鈥檓 proud to say that 51风流Business Network can provide best-in-class supply chain collaboration, helping companies adhere to legal mandates, scale with confidence, and automate repetitive tasks, leaving more time for strategic decision-making informed by patterns gleaned from vast amounts of data. Our vision 鈥� what so many talented people at 51风流are working towards every day 鈥� is to create the world鈥檚 best and largest B2B marketplace to help our customers meet their business goals.

Recent Advancements Continue to Revolutionize B2B Collaboration

If you know SAP, you know about our commitment to continuous innovation. In 2023, we announced many exciting innovations around 51风流Business Network, including:

• Build on artificial intelligence in 51风流Business Network. My colleague Muhammad Alam to further integrate generative AI in spend management at 51风流Spend Connect Live. Customers can look forward to enriched supplier responses to 51风流Business Network Discovery postings, helping to facilitate more transparent communication between buyers and suppliers. Generative AI improvements can give suppliers the ability to generate clear, concise catalog descriptions, as well as summarize common errors for users so buyers can find exactly what they鈥檙e looking for.
• Tackle industry-specific challenges with 51风流Business Network for Industry. We鈥檝e combined our more than 50 years of industry knowledge with the power of business networks to help customers address industry-specific supply chain challenges. Take a look at to help predict and respond to disruptions, comply with industry regulations, and meet sustainability goals.
• Learn more with trading partner insights. Account managers struggle with obtaining comparative measures to assess the performance of trading partners. New KPIs and benchmarks, presented in a streamlined dashboard, can allow suppliers to evaluate customer transaction performance of orders, invoices, and payments with automatically generated KPIs and 51风流Business Network community benchmarks. These insights can support collaborative dialogues with customers to help reduce transaction costs and mitigate business risk. .
• Draw insights from data with component planning collaboration. With component planning collaboration, buyers and suppliers can view the forecast planning data for a finished good together with its components. Armed with this visibility, buyers and suppliers can respond to material shortages and adjust production accordingly, making supply more predictable. .

Stay tuned for more exciting innovations this year. Stay up-to-date about recent and upcoming innovations and explore road maps .

Transforming the Future of Business Networks

I am proud that 51风流is being recognized as a leader in delivering solutions that connect people, processes, and systems, enabling trading partners to collaborate effectively. I can鈥檛 wait to see our road map continue to come to life as we collaborate with our customers to develop innovations that help them achieve their business objectives by automating tasks, scaling efficiently, and operating sustainably.

To learn more, visit and read the full IDC MarketScape report .

Tony Harris is senior vice president and chief marketing and solutions officer for 51风流Business Network.

*IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor鈥檚 position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the circles. Vendor year-over-year growth rate relative to the given market is indicated by a plus, neutral or minus next to the vendor name.

At 51风流Sapphire in 2023, I was proud that we hosted 17 sessions dedicated to 51风流Business Network, where we shared insights on how companies can realize real improvements and overcome the real challenges they face in their regional, national, and global supply chains.

During the event it was fantastic to be able to unveil several significant announcements about . One of the most exciting pieces of news to share was for our trading partners that have standard accounts on the network. As we continue to invest in 51风流Business Network, we have truly doubled down on the value for them. We know that true value in any network comes from all parties collaborating and deriving value, and the innovations we are making are delivering just that. At 51风流Sapphire, we revealed that we are enhancing portal availability for standard accounts, giving unrestricted access to documents from the trading partner portal. We see this as a first step in helping to simplify the transaction process, enable more commerce, and deliver value to all trading partners on the network.

I was also proud to be in the audience at our keynote session, where we introduced five additional 51风流Business Network innovations that are designed to help trading partners onboard quickly and grow their businesses. These same innovations will also help buyers find and qualify trading partners more quickly and easily. Right now, our team is working with early adopters to test these innovations, and we expect them to be generally available in the second half of 2023.

The five innovations announced in the keynote are as follows:

• Intelligent supplier insights to provide details about a supplier鈥檚 performance on 51风流Business Network. Suppliers will be able to gain valuable information about sales performance from 14 key performance metrics that can be taken in at a glance on an intuitive dashboard.
• Improved integration that can make onboarding to multiple customers on the network faster and easier. Instead of building unique integration configurations for each customer, we have the ability to leverage existing configurations to connect more quickly and cost-effectively with multiple customers at once, helping to streamline the onboarding process. With this improvement, buyers can more easily bring trading partners into their network and see value that much more quickly.
• New marketplace catalogs can enable suppliers to publish their products on 51风流Business Network. From the 51风流Business Network portal, buyers can search, compare, and make inquiries. With this new addition, trading partners can showcase their products and reach a larger global audience of potential customers.
• Intelligent lead matching is the new, enriched service that can connect trading partners with prospective buyers ready to purchase. Instead of cold calling, they now can find the right match on 51风流Business Network Discovery (formerly 51风流Ariba Discovery).
• Enhancements to company profiles can help trading partners stand out from the competition by highlighting credentials and sustainability ratings. With environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at the top of mind for everyone in the C-suite these days, making this kind of information a differentiator for our trading partners brings value to everyone. In addition to this, we also showcased our partnership with , which provides verified sustainability ratings for trading partners.

Embedding Sustainability in Business Operations

Sustainability is such an important topic that I want to devote some extra time to it. 51风流continues to focus on this overall, but I know from my conversations with customers that the focus on sustainability remains sharp. Increasingly, consumers want to purchase goods that were manufactured sustainably, and they want to work for companies that see sustainability as a core value. At 51风流and through 51风流Business Network, we want to create software products to enable these goals.

Governments are also weighing in with requirements. For example, U.S. policymakers have proposed the , which requires major federal contractors to disclose their environmental data. In Germany, lawmakers passed Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz, or LkSG, to regulate companies鈥� social and environmental responsibility.

With that in mind, we鈥檝e made it easier for suppliers to share key information. They now have the ability to self-report sustainability ratings or pull their EcoVadis-verified rating into their profile. If they are not already rated by EcoVadis and would like to learn more, they can visit to start the process.

Additionally, suppliers can now complete a supplier self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ) for human rights due diligence. This standard assessment can help trading partners prepare for due diligence and maintain their data on the network to share with buyers, thereby shortening the onboarding cycle time. The self-assessment complements our supplier risk solution. Buyers can ask suppliers to complete the assessment, either from their 51风流Business Network account or from 51风流Ariba Supplier Risk.

The SAQ helps shorten onboarding cycle times because the supplier can complete it once and share it with many buyers, rather than completing a questionnaire for every bid. This is leveraging the true 鈥渘etwork effect鈥� to streamline processes for both suppliers and buyers.

At 51风流Sapphire, we also launched 51风流Business Network for Industry, which infuses our transformational business network with SAP鈥檚 unique industry expertise. This takes the unmatched depth and breadth of our business network capabilities and combines it with SAP鈥檚 industry expertise for a truly unique supply chain solution. The initial focus is on the consumer products, high tech, industrial manufacturing, and life sciences industries.

Don鈥檛 miss the opportunity to learn more about 51风流Business Network and how 51风流can help suppliers grow their businesses at .

Muhammad Alam is president and chief product officer for 51风流Intelligent Spend and Business Network and general manager for 51风流Business Network.

The reactive, ad-hoc approach that companies have taken to tackle disruption has resulted in mismatched supply chain processes that offer little visibility and don鈥檛 keep up with the speed of change. Companies rely on convoluted, manual communication methods between suppliers and buyers. E-mails and calls get lost in the shuffle of vacations and holidays, making critical collaboration untraceable and delayed.

51风流Business Network Is an Industry-Ready Digital Network of Suppliers and Buyers

Businesses need a collaborative, many-to-many platform to drive transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. That鈥檚 where 51风流Business Network comes in: a multi-enterprise collaboration network, built for industry, that helps companies execute their vision and meet growth targets by connecting with trading partners seamlessly.

Only 51风流Business Network provides collaboration across a broad range of processes, including indirect and direct procurement, supply chain, logistics, asset collaboration, finance, and talent.

But each industry faces unique challenges that can鈥檛 always be addressed with a one-size-fits-all approach. For this reason, we are introducing 51风流Business Network for Industry with an initial focus on the consumer products, life sciences, high tech, and industrial manufacturing industries. This includes:

• A portfolio of 51风流Business Network capabilities that address industry needs
• A new 51风流Business Network Industry Advisory Board to guide our product and road map strategy
• New 51风流Business Network for Supply Chain industry services accelerators for select industries to help customers fast-track their implementation and post go-live success

With SAP鈥檚 more than 50 years of industry expertise and industry process excellence embedded in our technology, we know better than anyone how to help customers tackle their specific challenges.

Capabilities Designed to Meet Industry Needs聽

As we work to help companies tackle challenges with supply chain transparency, resiliency, and sustainability, we鈥檝e engaged directly with customers to improve existing functionalities and develop new capabilities for 51风流Business Network.

We developed capabilities including contract manufacturing, planning and forecasting, quality collaboration, stock transfers, support for supplier-managed inventory, material traceability, and track and trace. Several of these capabilities were developed alongside customers to answer unique industry challenges in a variety of industries, including consumer products, high tech, industrial manufacturing, and life sciences. While these and other innovations were originally created to address a specific industry need, many of them can be applied cross-industry to help businesses increase visibility, mitigate risks, and operate more efficiently.

Working with our customers has helped evolve 51风流Business Network into the well-rounded, comprehensive solution it is today. It has been amazing to see the innovations that have come out of these relationships with customers, and their stories and successes have truly inspired me. To build on what we鈥檝e accomplished so far, we鈥檙e strengthening the way we collaborate with customers and helping accelerate implementation with new industry-specific use cases.

Continuing the Tradition of Customer Collaboration

To continue the tradition of working with our customers to enhance and extend our product capabilities, we鈥檙e introducing the 51风流Business Network Industry Advisory Board. This select group of industry leaders will provide strategic direction for our product and road map, making sure we鈥檙e meeting the needs of our customers and helping their businesses grow. I鈥檓 eager to see the exciting new ideas and developments that will come out of this collaborative forum of industry experts.

Expedite Time to Value with Industry Services Accelerators for 51风流Business Network for Supply Chain

For customers beginning their journey with 51风流Business Network for Supply Chain in particular, we鈥檙e introducing new industry services accelerators from our 51风流Business Network Services team to help expedite time to value and achieve success.

These industry services accelerators support critical supply chain business processes in the consumer products, high tech, industrial manufacturing, and life sciences industries. With prepackaged industry use cases and capabilities, implementation best practices, and dedicated post go-live support, industry services accelerators are based on SAP鈥檚 knowledge and expertise with 51风流Business Network for Supply Chain. Industry services accelerators can be delivered in collaboration with partners.

Stay Tuned for More

Other additions to 51风流Business Network include new supplier innovations that will help support supplier adoption, focusing on creating an easier integration process to reduce friction and help grow your business to achieve maximum value.

To learn more, visit . Here, we鈥檒l keep you up-to-date on all of the exciting innovations happening and share resources to help you tailor your 51风流Business Network experience.

And, don鈥檛 miss learning more about 51风流Business Network and how 51风流can help solve the unique business challenges of your industry at .

Val Blatt is global head for 51风流Business Network Customer Success & Go-to-Market at SAP.