The Ariba Discovery service is an aptly named tool for would-be buyers and those selling merchandise—it enables buyers to easily seek out sellers via the Ariba business network and then allows them bid on the sellers’ goods.
But there’s an important qualifier to the service, says Barry Eisenberg, who works in business development for contracts and e-procurement at B&H Photo, Video & Pro Audio, and is the “seller” in this Ariba scenario: Buyers’ requests are pertinent, targeted and typically high quality.
“It’s not a bid system that we have to dig through—it’s not like we’ve got 500 bids to look through,” Eisenberg says. “The quality of leads is going to be good.” In that sense, Ariba Discovery is like an effective matchmaker service: It connects those who are committed to finding a new (and perhaps lasting) relationship.
B&H Photo started using Ariba Discovery in 2011 in attempt to improve upon conversion rates of the traditional marketing and sales tactics it used—for example, only a small percentage of customers targeted by B&H’s e-mail campaigns would ever respond to the emails.
The most important pieces of advice Eisenberg shares is for sellers to ensure that their Ariba profile is accurate and very specific. “Otherwise,” he adds, “[the sellers] will get a lot of fluff.”
For example, B&H’s initial profile had noted that is sells paper; to be more precise, it was photographic paper. “So we got a lot of RFPs for adult diapers and toilet paper,” he says, with a laugh. “Make sure you put in the right categories—it’s worth the extra hours.”
B&H’s financial investment was “nominal,” Eisenberg says, adding that it initially took four to five hours to set up B&H’s profile correctly and train on the system. Today, one B&H employee spends 10 to 20 minutes daily responding to the buyer communications.
B&H responds to all buyer requests within the first hour of the business day (though, from a technical perspective, the Ariba tool can respond instantly if that’s what the seller wants). Eisenberg says the company sells to more than 50 customers via the network and that B&H has realized “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in new business from being on Discovery.
When asked if he’s looking to do more with Ariba (or SAP, for that matter), he says he isn’t. But he is optimistic about the quality of technical support now that Ariba is under SAP’s umbrella. Eisenberg says he always takes a customer-first approach to new software for the business: “I’m driven by what the customer wants—not by any software.”
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For an in-depth look at Ariba’s products for buyers and sellers, and the strategic roadmap, see ASUGNews.com’s Ariba FAQ.