Ariba Gains a Competitive Edge with Salesforce and
the AppExchange

“Salesforce is the backbone of sales and marketing functions for Ariba. Everyone’s looking for efficiencies and a competitive edge and we get both through integration with Salesforce and by test driving and downloading applications from the AppExchange.”


Challenge
  • Ariba, a leading spend management solutions provider, wanted a leading CRM solution to enable sales and marketing functions
  • The company wanted opportunity and activity tracking to enable salespeople to work more productively 
  • The ability to measure the effectiveness of marketing activities was vital
  • Ariba required flexibility from its CRM solution including anytime, anywhere access 
  • Ariba also demanded an easy-to-use and customizable system that could be rolled out quickly and maintained cost-effectively

Solution
  • Ariba selected Salesforce Enterprise Edition, deploying it to hundreds of users in sales and marketing, as well as executives
  • Using Salesforce, Ariba manages leads automatically as they come over the Web; all leads are followed up on within a few hours-- within 24 hours maximum
  • Reports and dashboards are easily generated and allow executives to track sales and marketing metrics
  • The company broadened its usage of Salesforce by test driving and installing applications such as Inside View, ExactTarget, and Jigsaw, from the AppExchange marketplace

Results
  • Adoption has been strong, with sales and marketing users logging into Salesforce on average five times per week
  • Salesforce is now the backbone of Ariba’s sales and marketing functions; the company easily adds new applications from the AppExchange as needs arise
  • Users without a programming background can build custom applications and extend the power of Salesforce companywide
  • The company now ensures that all technology vendors integrate--or have plans to integrate with--Salesforce before a purchase
 
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