The BMW Group Moves Into Pole Position With Ariba B2B Commerce Platform
10 April 2000
The BMW Group Moves Into Pole Position With Ariba B2B Commerce Platform
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 10 Ariba, Inc. , the leading business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce
platform provider, today announced that the BMW Group, one of the world's
leading automotive manufacturers, has selected the Ariba(R) B2B Commerce
Platform as part of its global "eCommerce System" project.
The BMW Group will use the global Ariba B2B Commerce Platform to
streamline the BMW Group's annual worldwide spend. With 1999 revenues of over
34.4 billion pounds sterling (USD$31.7 billion), the BMW Group is a global
company with over 115,000 employees in more than 120 countries worldwide.
"For the BMW Group, Ariba was the only choice," said Robert Bauer, head of
eProcurement for the BMW Group. "Their frictionless global platform and proven
ability to execute were the keys to our selection and no one else even came
close."
"We will use the global Ariba platform to aggregate our spend, consolidate
our supplier base and improve the efficiency of our procurement process to
significantly reduce our cost of doing business," said Dr. Horst-Henning Wolf,
executive director of worldwide technical purchasing for the BMW Group.
The Ariba B2B Commerce Platform, including the Ariba B2B Procurement
solution and Ariba Commerce Services, will help the BMW Group realize greater
economies of scale and commerce process efficiencies, resulting in lower costs
and competitive advantage. The Ariba platform provides companies with a B2B
eCommerce infrastructure that electronically aggregates corporate purchasing
from each employee desktop and directs spending through the Ariba B2B platform
to preferred suppliers and B2B marketplaces at higher-volume prices.
The intranet-based Ariba B2B Procurement solution provides seamless
integration with Ariba B2B Commerce Services that can drive cost savings while
also speeding time-to-benefit. Ariba B2B Commerce Services provide a single
point of integration with business suppliers and seamless access to efficient
trading mechanisms such as reverse auctions, auctions, electronic payments and
streamlined transaction services.
"The BMW Group is showing Europe the way forward to do business in the
twenty-first century," said John McMahon, senior vice president of worldwide
operations for Ariba. "We look forward to helping the BMW Group reduce costs
and improve efficiencies to significantly impact their bottom line."
"We are very proud to have the BMW Group added to our European client
base," said Thomas Koenen, regional manager of central Europe at Ariba. "We
look forward to a great relationships with one of the leading companies in
Europe."
The initial rollout of the Ariba platform for the BMW Group is expected to
be completed by Q3, 2000 in Germany. Following the initial deployment, the
platform will then be deployed to the entire BMW Group.
About Ariba, Inc.
Ariba, Inc. is the global leader in B2B eCommerce solutions. Through the
Ariba B2B Commerce platform -- an open, end-to-end infrastructure of
interoperable software solutions and hosted Web-based commerce services -- the
company enables efficient online trade, integration and collaboration between
B2B marketplaces, buyers, suppliers and commerce service providers. The global
reach and best-of-breed functionality of the Ariba B2B Commerce platform
creates Internet-driven economies of scale and process efficiencies for
leading companies around the world, including more than 20 of the FORTUNE 100.
Ariba can be contacted in the U.S. at 650-930-6200 or at http://www.ariba.com.
Information in this release may involve expectations, beliefs, plans,
intentions or strategies regarding the future. These forward-looking
statements involve risks and uncertainties. All forward-looking statements
included in this release are based upon information available to Ariba as of
the date of the release, and we assume no obligation to update any such
forward-looking statement. The statements in this release are not guarantees
of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our
current expectations. Numerous factors could cause or contribute to such
differences. Some of the factors and risks associated with Ariba's business
are discussed in its registration statement on Form S-1 declared effective by
the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on June 22, 1999, and in the
other reports filed by it from time to time with the SEC.
NOTE: Ariba is a registered trademark of Ariba, Inc.