Ariba Solutions Key Component of the District's Administrative Systems Modernization Program (ASMP)
SUNNYVALE, Calif.—August 7, 2003—Ariba, Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA), a provider of Enterprise Spend Management (ESM) solutions, today announced that the Government of the District of Columbia has completed the first deployment phase of its Ariba® Spend Management initiative, known internally as the Procurement Automated Support System (PASS).
The District has initially gone live with Ariba® Buyer" and Ariba® eForms" to five agencies encompassing 450 users, over 500 suppliers, and 124 online catalogs containing over 50,000 items. In the first two weeks of using PASS, District buyers placed electronic purchase orders totaling more than $4 million, and converted over 300 purchase orders valued at over $40 million from the old system into the new one for tracking and invoice matching. The average cycle time for new orders from requisition submission, through all approvals, including the CFO, to electronic order dispatch to the vendor is now less than three days, instead of 21+ days. The District plans to implement PASS to a total of 58 agencies and approximately 1600 users by the end of the year.
The District of Columbia is a front-runner when it comes to spend management in the public sector, as they understand the critical role spend management plays, know what it takes for such an initiative to be successful, and have the right sense of urgency, said Kevin Costello, EVP Ariba Solutions Delivery. The synergies between the District's team, and Ariba Spend Management products and support services have laid the foundation for continued deployment success, which should bode well for the District in achieving its overall spend management objectives.
The use of Ariba Spend Management solutions was first spurred by the District's Administrative Systems Modernization Program (ASMP), a business transformation project and one of the most innovative programs the District has undertaken that will modernize back-office operations for the District's key administrative functions, including procurement. Procurement process improvement is a key piece of the ASMP with anticipated results from the Ariba solutions including lower prices, reduced purchasing-related costs, and reduced cycle times.
The Ariba Buyer solution is integrated into the District's back-end ERP systems including Oracle database systems, and its Bearing Point financial system, providing real-time budget checking during the procurement process, which greatly increases the speed, accuracy, and audit ability of PASS. The District is currently using PASS to better manage the purchase of contract and consulting services, IT equipment and office supplies, and plans to later extend the solution to include wider categories of spend.
The deployment of the Ariba Buyer solution, which went live approximately six months after the initial project kick-off, is the District's first step to fully automating and managing its entire sourcing and procurement process from planning to payment. Future implementation plans include deploying Ariba® Enterprise Sourcing" and Ariba® Contracts" by the end of the year, with Ariba® Analysis" to follow shortly thereafter for an integrated, closed-loop Enterprise Spend Management solution.
