NS Standardizes Procurement on Ariba; European Railway Service Implements Ariba's Spend Management Solutions to Drive Efficiencies, Savings and Greater Value From ERP Systems

22/05/2006 - 16:16

Ariba(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:ARBA), the leading spend
management solutions provider, today announced that NS, one of
Europe's most efficient railway services, has standardized its
procurement activities on the Ariba platform. Using Ariba Buyer(TM)
and Ariba Sourcing(TM), NS has streamlined critical processes,
achieved millions of Euros in savings and driven greater value from
its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
Ariba has been serving NS since 2000, when the company implemented
Ariba Buyer to help create a common purchasing platform across five
business divisions: NS Commerce, NS Travellers, NedTrain, NS
International and its real estate unit. With a total of 21 financial
administrative systems in place, NS realized the need to increase the
sharing of purchasing information among departments and develop
greater transparency and visibility into spend across different ERP
systems. To achieve this, NS made a company-wide decision to use Ariba
for all its purchasing activities and launched a full deployment of
Ariba Sourcing.
Ariba's spend management solutions are designed to complement and
enhance the value that companies realize from ERP implementations by
providing technology, commodity expertise and services required to
drive spend management results. Through simple adapters, organizations
using ERP systems can easily connect to the world's largest network of
suppliers and reduce the cost and complexity of doing business with
them. By leveraging a single platform to manage their trading
relationships and transactions from end-to-end, companies can realize
bottom-line savings while preserving and maximizing the system
investments they already made.
"We wanted a tool to help our business units work together. Ariba
Buyer provided the first step in achieving this, and is now used for
99% of all transactions in the commercial and transportation
department alone," said Jan van Putten, e-Procurement manager, NS.
"With Ariba Sourcing, we have been able to source around EUR 60
million in goods and services and identify total cost reductions of
14% across the business."
In addition to savings, NS has identified process efficiencies
that have greatly enhanced the productivity of its internal teams and
helped the company to maximize the value of its ERP applications. With
a centralized view of spend across systems, NS purchasing
professionals can gain access to the information they need when they
need it and collaborate more efficiently with their peers.
They can also drive compliance with contracts once they have been
sourced. With the ability to seamlessly link invoiced goods and
services with those that have already been purchased, NS teams can
review contractual arrangements and ensure that suppliers have honored
them.
"A lot of direct invoices are not connected to any PO," van Putten
explains. "Now using Ariba Invoice, we can see which invoices they are
and decide if they can be paid." van Putten estimates that it has
halved the time required to process an invoice and expects this figure
will be halved again once NS moves to a 100% electronic invoicing and
payment process.
"NS recognized the value of spend management early on and has put
in place the systems and processes to realize its true promise," said
Paul Hampton, Marketing Director, Ariba Northern Europe. "By
implementing Ariba spend management solutions and linking them tightly
with its ERP systems, NS demonstrated how spend management helps
companies increase their return on investment from ERP systems while
lowering their total cost of ownership. With Ariba, NS has not only
generated substantial process efficiencies, but achieved a total cost
reduction of 15%. We look forward to continuing to provide them with
integrated solutions that enable them to accelerate these results."

About NS

NS plays an important part in mobility in The Netherlands. The
company's objective is to carry passengers safely, punctually and
comfortably via attractive stations. NS is the largest passenger
carrier on the rail network in The Netherlands. The following are the
main policy objectives: running on time, giving information and
providing service, contributing to personal safety, creating
sufficient transport capacity, and ensuring clean trains and stations.
NS operates some 5000 train journeys a day in The Netherlands,
carrying 1 million passengers. 2800 coaches with 240,000 seats are
available to accomplish this task. NS manages 390 stations in The
Netherlands. NS operates two transport concessions in the United
Kingdom jointly with its partner Serco: Mersey Rail in the Liverpool
area and Northern Rail in the north of England. Services are provided
to customers by nearly 25,000 NS employees. The Dutch rail network is
not owned by NS. Infrastructure management (rails, signals, overhead
lines) and rail traffic control are the responsibility of ProRail. The
Inspectie Verkeer en Waterstaat (transport and water management
inspectorate) monitors railway safety in The Netherlands.

About Ariba, Inc.

Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of Spend Management solutions
to help companies realize rapid and sustainable bottom line results.
Successful companies around the world in every industry use Ariba
Spend Management software and services. Ariba can be contacted in the
U.S. at 1.650.390.1000 or at www.ariba.com.

Ariba, the Ariba logo, AribaLIVE and SupplyWatch are registered
trademarks of Ariba, Inc. Ariba Spend Management, Ariba Spend
Management. Find it. Get it. Keep it., Ariba. This is Spend
Management, Ariba Solutions Delivery, Ariba Analysis, Ariba Buyer,
Ariba Category Management, Ariba Category Procurement, Ariba Contract
Compliance, Ariba Contracts, Ariba Contract Management, Ariba Contract
Workbench, Ariba Data Enrichment, Ariba eForms, Ariba Sourcing, Ariba
Spend Visibility, Ariba Invoice, Ariba Travel & Expense, Ariba
Workforce, Ariba Supplier Network, Ariba Supplier Connectivity, Ariba
Supplier Performance Management, Ariba PunchOut, Ariba QuickSource,
PO-Flip, Ariba Settlement and Ariba Spend Management Knowledge Base,
Ariba Ready, Ariba Supply Lines, Ariba Supply Manager, and It's Time
for Spend Management are trademarks or service marks of Ariba, Inc.
Ariba Proprietary and Confidential. All rights reserved. Patents
pending. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act 1995: Information and announcements in this release involve
Ariba's expectations, beliefs, hopes, plans, intentions or strategies
regarding the future and are forward-looking statements that 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 statements. These statements are not guarantees of
future performance and actual results could differ materially from our
current expectations. Factors that could cause or contribute to
Ariba's operating and financial results to differ materially from its
current expectations include, but are not limited to: delays in
development or shipment of new versions of Ariba's products and
services; lack of market acceptance of Ariba's existing or future
products or services; inability to continue to develop competitive new
products and services on a timely basis; introduction of new products
or services by major competitors; the ability to attract and retain
qualified employees; difficulties in assimilating acquired companies;
long and unpredictable sales cycles and the deferrals of anticipated
orders; declining economic conditions; inability to control costs;
changes in the company's pricing or compensation policies; significant
fluctuations in our stock price; the outcome of and costs associated
with pending or potential future regulatory or legal proceedings; the
impact of our acquisitions, including the disruption or loss of
customer, business partner, supplier or employee relationships; and
the level of costs and expenses incurred by Ariba as a result of such
transactions. Factors and risks associated with its business,
including a number of the factors and risks described above, are
discussed in Ariba's Form 10-K filed December 7, 2005 and in its Form
10-Q filed May 15, 2006.