He acknowledged that company did recently offer a HANA-optimized, SAP-branded server through its website, but said most servers for HANA will be provided by SAP partners. They aren't interested in being locked up in a stack with no choice, and suffering price pressure as a result,' he said. Snabe reaffirmed the company's decision, made in 2010, not to sell its own hardware. They are seeing average savings in administrative costs of ¬35 ($45) per flower arrangement ordered in-network, he said. He announced a new Ariba customer, Fleurop, a partner network for 7,000 German florists. On the seller side, benefits include increased revenue, lower processing costs, and up to 70% faster payments.

In addition, he said, 'On the buyer side, we see a 1% to 8% reduction in total spend, and better discounts.' 'Today, 98% of their invoicing is paperless and the accounts payable costs are down by 70%.' 'They have been in the Ariba network now for more than seven years,' he said. In return for those fees, customers are able to reduce transaction costs by automating many elements of the purchasing process, doing away with fax and email and eliminating the rekeying of data. In the third quarter of 2012, the last before SAP closed its acquisition of the company, Ariba reported network transaction revenue of $47.3 million and subscription revenue of $95.3 million.

Network members spend around $450 billion in-network annually, according to SAP, which takes a slice of that spending as the network enabler. As Ariba is integrated into all SAP products, customers 'will only have to decide whether they want this benefit,' he said.

Sap ariba business network