Caesars Bets on Ariba and Wins with Diverse Vendors

Entertainment giant goes all in on cloud-based applications and services, and boosts diverse spend while racking up savings

Caesars Entertainment Corp. maintains a sourcing culture of economic inclusion and its Horseshoe Cincinnati property aggressively drives public outreach events to actively encourage diverse vendors to participate in requests for proposals (RFPs). In sourcing a local supplier of CO2 for the venue, Caesars decided to try a new approach. It took a chance and signed on to Ariba Discovery, a premier service for matching buyers and sellers globally offered by Ariba, an SAP company—and ultimately won big.

Delivered via the Ariba Network, Ariba Discovery simplifies the process of supplier discovery by instantly matching buyer requirements to seller capabilities. “We created a posting and received strong bids from a number of suppliers, importantly diverse ones as well,” said Kory Manley, strategic sourcing process and compliance manager, Caesars Entertainment. “The best price came from a woman-owned supplier based in Cincinnati that would have been challenging to find absent the technology and detailed processes found in Ariba Discovery. These allow us to cast a wider net in our quest to find quality, service, and price across a large number of small and diverse businesses.”

Caesars kept at it, creating additional posts on Ariba Discovery to expand its supply base and increase competition in the sourcing events it runs using Ariba Sourcing. “It doesn’t take much time to do, and you may just find that there are more suppliers than you think, especially minority, women and disadvantaged businesses,” Manley said.

“It’s now an essential piece of our regional supplier diversity outreach program,” said Jessica Rosman, director of supplier diversity and sustainability, Caesars Entertainment.

Caesars received an average of five bids per post, and was able to find a new supplier of baked goods for its casinos and lessen its costs by 10 percent. The company also identified low-cost country suppliers of banquet chairs in half the time it used to take before tapping into Ariba Discovery’s supplier base. And because Ariba Discovery is fully integrated with Ariba Sourcing, Caesars was quickly able to add these suppliers to its database and collaborate more efficiently with them across the sourcing process—from discovery and award through contract delivery.

“Ariba Discovery is all about simplicity and speed,” Manley said. “Receiving responses in a single location, with exactly the details we need, makes it easy for us to evaluate, compare and respond to proposals. And having access to suppliers already transacting on the Ariba Network simplifies things even further. Knowing that Ariba captures diverse suppliers and offers an instant source of opportunities for us to engage those suppliers gives us a competitive advantage in our mandate to drive economic inclusion.”

In the past 12 months, more than $5 billion in new business opportunities were offered through Ariba Discovery, more than 15 million leads distributed, and more than 30,000 matches between buyers and sellers made.

“With over 1 million sellers worldwide, Ariba Discovery is the fastest, most efficient way for buyers to discover, connect, and collaborate with a global network of diverse partners who can deliver goods and services across a comprehensive range of categories at prices and terms that enable them to gain advantage in the marketplace,” said Rob Mihalko, vice president, Seller Marketing and Ariba Discovery. 

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