Ariba pins hope on e-procurement tender

By ADAM GIFFORD

Despite winning only two customers in two years, business-to-business software vendor Ariba believes there is still hope for it in the New Zealand marketplace.

"Even though New Zealand companies are on a different scale from those in the United States and Japan, there are still 35 or so companies with revenue over $US100 million ($244 million), which represents an interesting potential opportunity for Ariba," said Asia Pacific managing director Lawrence Wee.

The immediate focus, though, is the whole of Government e-procurement project, which is due to go to tender next month.

Ariba is likely to get two shots at the tender, depending on its partners.

Onezone, the online marketplace developed by Biolab using Ariba technology, is a potential bidder, as is consulting firm Accenture.

Accenture could either offer a straight Ariba solution or the Government-specific one developed by its Epylon subsidiary.

Ariba will want to build on the momentum of winning this month the tender to provide an electronic procurement system for the state of Florida. Public-sector projects are keenly contested between Ariba and its main US rivals, Commerce One and Oracle.

Mr Wee said Ariba's chase for business involving the supply of technology to companies building online public and private marketplaces had exposed it to the dotcom collapse.

It was now trying to regain its focus on the enterprise market, supplying B2B and e-procurement systems for large organisations, he said.

It was tailoring its core product to specific industry verticals, such as the financial, public, healthcare and automotive sectors.

Ariba's results for the third quarter, ending on June 30, were better than predicted, with revenue of $US85.3 million, up 6 per cent from the same period last year.

Brendon Boyle, the head of the Government's e-procurement initiative, said the RFP (Request for Proposal) should be issued within the next few weeks.

"We're breaking it down to run a pilot with a small number of departments and agencies sourcing basic products.

"The first phase, proof of concept, should run from October to March," Mr Boyle said.

Likely bidders include Oracle with Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, an EDS-SolNet consortium offering the iPlanet BuyerXpert solution, Supplynet with Commerce One offering and e:\\volution.