Konica Minolta Business Solutions (US) has announced it will tap into solutions from Ariba, the SAP subsidiary, to enable a digital procurement process.

John Thielke, Chief Financial Officer, Konica Minolta Business Solutions (US) said,  “Cloud and business networks are among the most innovative technologies of our day, and, in embracing them, we can transform our procurement into an automated, efficient and collaborative process that enables us to improve our productivity and performance and ultimately, better serve our customers.”

Like many companies, Konica Minolta relies on an extensive global network of partners. To connect with them and execute critical business processes, Konica Minolta will utilise the Ariba Network. Used by more than 1.6 million companies in 190 countries to discover, connect and collaborate around more than half a trillion dollars in commerce on an annual basis, the Ariba Network is claimed to be the world’s largest web-based trading community.

It will use using the network for from sourcing and orders through invoice and payment, along with and a range of the cloud-based applications delivered on it - including Ariba Sourcing , Ariba Contract Management, Ariba Procure-to-Pay , Ariba Invoice Management, Ariba Invoice Professional, Ariba Spend Visibility, and Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management.

With operations that stretch around the globe, Konica Minolta needs to buy lots of things from lots of different suppliers. Because it uses different systems and processes to do this, there are a lot of transactions to track and contracts to negotiate. With Ariba Spend Visibility and Ariba Sourcing, Konica Minolta can easily see all these transactions in one place, thereby creating an automated and standard process for sourcing. This allows the company to easily identify opportunities for savings and drive them to the bottom line.

When it comes to filling customer requests, Konica Minolta receives orders for products, then sources them from other vendors. Orders are often placed manually, and vendors ship the products directly, leaving Konica Minolta with a large number of transactions to monitor and manage. Leveraging the Ariba Network, Konica Minolta can create a consumer-like experience through which goods and services can be ordered with just a few clicks in compliance with corporate agreements and processes and tracked through delivery.

Konica Minolta also has vast amounts of paperwork, from contracts, to corporate purchasing and customer agreements. Whether hard copy or electronic, these contracts must be monitored to ensure everything from the right goods and services are purchased from the right suppliers to expiration dates are tracked and renewals are executed. With Ariba Contract Management, Konica Minolta can store and manage all of its contracts in a single cloud based repository that can be accessed anywhere, anytime from any device.

“In their initial phase, business networks were all about connecting companies more efficiently to perform a discreet process,” said Chakib Bouhdary, President, Business Networks, SAP. “Now, innovative companies like Konica Minolta are leading the way to the next frontier, harnessing their connectivity to optimize their spend and supply chain and enable new processes that can transform their business.”

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