Business Chief USA July 2019

the same four walls – within the same
firewall, if you will,” he explains.
Thompson and Padgett have, over
the past 18 months, changed the
course of SAP Ariba, redirecting the
business towards the promotion of the
business ecosystem. “The Ariba you
knew a year ago is very different to
the Ariba of today,” he says. “We’ve
changed our strategy and culture,
helping everybody within the company
understand that if we are open and
embrace the third party ecosystem
and the creative genius that can come
from that, amazing things can happen.”
One of the first steps that Ariba is
pursuing in its campaign to unlock the
power of the ecosystem is rebalancing
the buyer-supplier relationship. “The
buyer has become the hero, to a point
where we’ve spent so much time
building value for them that we’ve left
the supplier on the side of the road
with their suitcase wondering what
their value is to the network,” admits
Thompson. As such, improving value
proposition for the supplier is a key
element of Ariba’s strategy.
Announced in April 2019, SAP
Ariba’s new partnership with American
Express will, among other things, work
39
www.businesschief.com