That move was short-lived and Ariba’s move into supply chain management (SCM) only credibly happened years after its 2012 acquisition by SAP. It’s a fair question, and similar to one that I asked Ariba when it tried to have a supply chain story by partnering with i2 Technologies over 20 years ago. Many folks might ask what a nice “business spend management” vendor (like Coupa) that is skilled in managing RFQs, contracts, requisitions, POs, invoices and payments is doing in a world defined by demand/supply planning, inventory optimization, network design, inbound supply orchestration, logistics, digital twins, supply chain risk, ESG, and other areas - across an n-tier supply network. To wit, “spend is what you pay and supply is what you get,” and Coupa, by way of example, has certainly made a strong leap in getting more supply-capable with its newest set of capabilities acquired from supply chain analytics vendor LLamasoft. I attended Coupa’s annual Inspire conference this year where the consensus of such a move was ‘cautious optimism.’ For more on transcending spend management to supply management see our PRO analysis here.
But can they transcend the business spend management sphere and really go beyond indirect spend management support into the realm of supply management beyond some of the “basics” (e.g., communicating direct POs to suppliers or running basic sourcing events for direct materials)? For example, can they manage n-tier supply risk (or at least supplier risk)? Can they optimize purchased inventory? Can they support collaborative supply planning with suppliers? Can they help orchestrate inbound fulfillment? Can they enable Design-for-Supply scenarios? We are witnessing a pivotal change in the market for some of the big source-to-pay (S2P) suite players (like Coupa, SAP and their peers) as they move toward a broader platform and ecosystem approach. Pierre Mitchell, Chief Research Officer and MD, Spend Matters
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