The world’s largest business network continues to get bigger as buyers and sellers around the world embrace offerings from SAP Ariba to digitize and make procurement awesome. During the second quarter ended June 30, new cloud bookings at SAP were up 33 percent. And SAP Ariba was a key contributor to the strong results, posting double-digit growth in its new cloud bookings.

“Procurement today is about supporting the business better by being more agile, making the buying experience simple and automating business-to-business commerce wherever possible,” said Alex Atzberger, President, SAP Ariba. “This can’t be done by stitching together point solutions designed only to cut costs. What’s required is an integrated, end-to-end offering that combines the convenience and agility of cloud applications with the strength of enterprise applications and connectivity, intelligence and global reach of an open business network.”

Powering Procurement Around the World

This is exactly what SAP Ariba delivers. And in the last quarter, global companies of all sizes signed up to use the company’s offerings to manage their spend across all categories – including direct, indirect, contingent labor and services - and reap the benefits they can provide.

“Green Cross has decided to deploy an integrated procurement strategy in order to accomplish process improvement and innovation,” says Ryu Man-Kyu, Associate Director of Purchasing at Green Cross Corporation, an aspiring leader in the global bioengineering industry headquartered in Korea. “With SAP Ariba’s innovative technology and business network, we can fuel a simple, transparent procurement process that delivers market advantage.”

“We chose SAP Ariba because the suite of modules provide highly integrated solutions that allow NS Brands to scale procurement activities while controlling spend, automating invoicing and contracts, as well as more effectively managing procurement requests from multiple sourcing locations,” said Matt Volker, Vice President Supply Chain; NS Brands, Ltd., a San Antonio, TX - based vertically integrated operation for premium produce varietals.

In North America, more than 3 million new subscribers embraced SAP Ariba’s guided buying capabilities, a market-leading innovation through which procurement organizations can create a contextual experience that automatically leads users to the goods and services they need to do their jobs, then guides them through buying them in compliance with company policies and processes.

In the Middle East, Saudi Aramco announced plans to launch a digital business marketplace using SAP Ariba solutions that will allow the company to connect, collaborate and manage transactions with thousands of global suppliers.

In Latin America, LATAM Airlines Group will leverage the Ariba Network to reach more suppliers and integrate SAP Ariba’s cloud-based applications with its ERP system to create a best-in-class procurement process through which it can reduce its operating expenses and improve results. And the Boticario Group, the third biggest Brazilian cosmetic company and the largest cosmetic franchise in the world, will use a range of SAP Ariba solutions to simplify its retail business.

They are joined by Fujitsu, Otsuka Pharma and Swiss Post in Europe, Hong Kong Electric in Greater China and many other buying organizations around the world.

Making Commerce Happen

Suppliers got in the game too, with more than 165,000 selling organizations – or more than one per minute – choosing to connect to the Ariba® Network. Why? Because it’s where global commerce is actually happening. In the last three months, nearly 3,000 opportunities worth more than $611 million were posted through SAP Ariba Discovery™ and the amount of commerce transacted on the network on annual basis soared to nearly $1 trillion. If the Ariba Network were a country, it would be among the top ten in Gross Domestic Product.

“At SAP Ariba, we are inspired by our customers who share our vision to make procurement awesome,” Atzberger said, “Leading companies around the world have fully embraced digital procurement and we are fully invested in delivering innovative solutions powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning that enable them to transform procurement today and in the future.”

To learn more about SAP Ariba’s solutions and how they are helping to make procurement awesome, visit www.ariba.com.

About SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba is how companies connect to get business done. On the Ariba Network, buyers and suppliers from more than 2.8 million companies and 190 countries discover new opportunities, collaborate on transactions and grow their relationships. Buyers can manage the entire purchasing process, while controlling spending, finding new sources of savings and building a healthy supply chain. And suppliers can connect with profitable customers and efficiently scale existing relationships – simplifying sales cycles and improving cash control along the way. The result is a dynamic, digital marketplace, where nearly $1 trillion in commerce gets done every year.

To learn more about SAP Ariba, visit www.ariba.com.

About SAP

As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable approximately 355,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

© 2017 SAP SE. All rights reserved.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices.