Ariba strikes deal to attract suppliers

NEWS Struggling B2B company Ariba has secured a deal with supply-chain software provider Ironside in a bid to attract more suppliers. Through Ariba's Commerce Services Network, Ironside will handle order processing from suppliers and support supplier catalogues. AMR Research has said that customers will only see about 30 per cent of the potential total return on investment from their e-procurement systems if they do not ensure that their suppliers are also enabled. Ironside said that it will be able to take advantage of the ERP and procurement technologies customers already have in place, to provide a complete sell-side solution to its customers.