1. Ariba Knowledge
Nuggets
Ariba Discovery Opens Doors
You and your sourcing team have put a lot of time and energy into the hunt for new suppliers.
Reviewing trade publications, cruising the Web, seeking referrals, hiring consultants, hanging
out in trade shows. No wonder the process consumes nearly 30% of your resources!
By using Ariba Discovery, in just five minutes, you can create a posting of what you're looking for. Ariba
automatically matches it with high-quality suppliers, drawing from a base of companies located in 130
countries and representing more than 400 industries. Those interested deliver their bids, and any additional
information you request, securely through the system.
Business is agile, so how can you change with it? Ariba's directory is built with rich profiles to help you find
the right supplier for any challenging sourcing event. Like when your team lacks sufficient expertise for
sourcing a new category. Or when your sourcing parameters include specialized requirements, such as
involvement in green initiatives, diversity certification, and e-commerce readiness. Profiles are well-
maintained by suppliers and include details about RFP contact, company size, references, the number of
actively transacting relationships, and more.
Some markets experience high supplier turnover, especially the services market or those negatively impacted
by turbulent economies. When this happens, your approved vendor lists and traditional sources of supplier
information can quickly become outdated. Instead of relying on old time-consuming ways of doing things,
explore Ariba Discovery. With so many buyers and suppliers coming online to do business every day,
suppliers are motivated to routinely update their business profiles. This gives you quick access to searchable,
up-to-date information.
Supplier Discovery Consumes Significant Resources: Nearly 30% of Cycle Time
Finalize
contract Gather
terms market data
8% 8%
Analyze Identify
RFP suppliers 10%
Responses
15%
Make
contact 5%
Obtain capability
information 6%
Negotiate
15%
Qualify
Develop suppliers 12%
RFP 12% Source: Aberdeen Group E-Sourcing

2. Ariba Discovery Features
Powerful Matching Engine
Fast online registration and a three-step posting process make it simple for buyers to start receiving
proposals from suppliers whose capabilities match their needs.
• Ariba Discovery postings can be quickly and easily created on the web or in the Ariba Sourcing™
solution (Ariba Sourcing).
• User-friendly navigation and clear, straightforward language let both functional buyers such as
marketing and IT managers and experienced sourcing and procurement professionals obtain rapid
results.
• Ability to enter rich text descriptions of needed items or services enables buyers to control the level of
detail they want.
• Supports inclusion of 10 attachments using up to 20 megabytes.
• Works equally well for complex, strategic sourcing or fast, tactical purchases.
• Option to use automatic matching or hand-select individual suppliers
Consolidated, Highly Qualified Supply Base
Access to a large number of active, high-quality suppliers across every spend category eliminates the
need to source through slower, more cumbersome methods.
• A unique database that incorporates transactional-, supplier-, and community-provided information
that cannot be found anywhere else
• Includes suppliers across a broad range of industries from the Ariba® Network who are actively
trading with top buying organizations in the world today
• Visibility into the number of transacting relationships suppliers have with other buying organizations
accurately reveals experience levels
• Detailed supplier profile information provides exceptional clarity on vendor qualifications
• Suppliers can be searched by special characteristics such as minority-, veteran-, and women-owned
businesses as well as other diversity criteria such as green initiatives
Efficient Dashboard Management
Convenient dashboard access enables buyers to rapidly and effectively manage all account activities
directly from Ariba Discovery or any Ariba Sourcing solutions
• .Bookmarking can be used to create and edit a list of favorite suppliers
• Automated alerts inform buyers of incoming bids
• Buyers can post opportunities, review responses, and award contracts from a single location
• Users can drill down into supplier profiles for additional data such as contact information, special
certifications, sales territories served, and more
• Members of the same buying organization can view each other’s postings and the responses that
prospective suppliers have provided—enabling better team collaboration and evaluation in the
supplier discovery process
Activity Reporting
Gain access to monthly account activity reports.
• Buyers are able to view activity on each of their Ariba Discovery postings, including the number of
times viewed and response statistics
Community Ratings and References
Buyers can rate suppliers on multiple criteria using a simple fi ve-star ranking system and provide
supplier references that allow other buyers to better evaluate vendors in their selection process.
• Ability to search supplier ratings and references helps buying organizations determine whether they
wish to work with specific suppliers before they solicit an Ariba Discovery posting response
• Facilitates peer based support through shared knowledge with other buyers

3. Ariba Discovery Features
Powerful Search Capabilities
Buyers can use comprehensive search features to seek out specifi c suppliers according to a wide
range of characteristics.
• Buyers can search by company name, commodity class, sales territory, industry, stock symbol,
annual revenue, years in business, number of employees, diversity certifications, and more
• Enhanced commodity chooser with the stemming and drill-down feature allows for easier
navigation and more accurate search
• Supports compliance with government contracts, EEO legislation, and internal diversity purchasing
initiatives through ability to identify women-, veteran-, minority-owned, and green businesses plus
many other relevant certifications
• The Ariba Ready™ program (Ariba Ready) search option helps identify suppliers with best-practice
trading processes and exceptional transaction and content solutions
• Free-text search capabilities with synonym library that maps over 30,000 synonym terms to the
UNSPSC-based commodity tree broaden options even further
Online Communications Support
Ariba Discovery allows for direct messaging between buyers and suppliers on postings.
• Buyers can respond to questions sent by suppliers and have the option to publish the
correspondence to their Ariba Discovery posting—creating a mini-FAQ section
Flexible Access
Ariba Discovery offers several points of entry, making it easily accessible to both new and
experienced Ariba users.
• Publicly available from any computer with a web browser at discovery.ariba.com
• Can be accessed through links included in the on-demand Ariba Sourcing (Basic and
Professional) solution and the CD Ariba Sourcing (Hosted and Installed) solution Accessible
through any buyer.ariba.com account to buyers already using the Ariba Network
Savings Opportunities Are Missed
When Too Few Suppliers Are Engaged
Savings vs. # Bidders
35%
30% Typical number of
suppliers invited
25%
Avg Savings
20%
Adding additional
savings opportunities by
15% inviting more suppliers
10%
5%
0% 0 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
# Participants
Source: Ariba GSO Services Experience.

4. Ariba Discovery - Best Practices
Buyer Postings
Postings that are clear in articulating what a buyer needs, when it is needed, what
information the buyer would like the supplier to provide in a response, and also what
the next steps in the process are, will not only have a higher response rate, but also
ultimately lead to better responses that allow the buyer to work more efficiently.
Poor Posting:
“We are looking for a widgets supplier. Please provide details on your
capabilities.”
Good Posting:
“We seek an ISO 9001 certified supplier of widgets. We have 3 different sets of
widget specifications, all available as attachments to this posting. Your widgets
should meet the XYZ industry standard tolerance.
A qualified supplier will have at least 5 years of experience in the export of wid-
gets to Europe. Our annual volume will be between 50-100k units. It would be
ideal if the supplier had spray coating capabilities as well.
Please respond with your experience in the export of widgets, as well as the
volume you have produced in each of the past 3 fiscal years.
We seek to take this opportunity to auction in the next month, and plan to make a
shortlist of qualified suppliers within 1 week of the close of this posting.”
Buyers Benefits:
› Free unlimited use
› 5-minutes of work delivers the best suppliers from around the world
› Easy-to-search directory of over 200,000 global suppliers in
thousands of categories
› Deliver your postings globally in minutes, not hours or days
› Easily manage competitive bids on your dashboard
› Quickly form relationships with high quality, competitive suppliers
Suppliers Benefits Register FREE Now !
› Free supplier registration
› Unmatched access to qualified customers who are ready and able to buy
› Build relationships with a community of leading purchasing organizations and
gain visibility across markets w orldwide
› Search and automatically receive new business opportunities
› Faster business growth
› Long-term relationships with active, high volume buyers