HP and Ariba Form Strategic Alliance to Automate the Acquisition of Operating Resources; Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation to Use the Companies' Solution

Business Wire, Dec 3, 1997

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1997-- Hewlett-Packard Company and Ariba Technologies today announced they will aggressively pursue the market for Internet/intranet solutions to help companies automate the acquisition of operating resources. HP and Ariba, which has quickly established itself as the leader in Operating Resource Management (ORM), will work together as strategic partners to build tools for business-to-business electronic commerce.

The companies jointly will target their enterprisewide solution at large corporations that want to reduce the costs of acquiring industrial supplies, office supplies, capital equipment, services and other non-production items required to support their workaday operations. Today, nearly all corporate purchases require purchase orders and supervisory approvals, a process that is slow and expensive to administrate.

Ariba's Java(TM)-language Operating Resource Management System (ORMS) automates each step in the entire corporate-acquisition process, from creating and approving a request or requisition to receiving and paying for goods or services. The browser-based application takes advantage of intranets and extranets to help corporations realize significant savings and faster order fulfillment.

"HP and Ariba are poised to seize a sizable share of the market for business-to-business electronic commerce," said Nigel Ball, general manager of HP's Internet and Applications Systems Division. "Our solution can quickly enable companies to achieve more efficient processes and to reduce their operating expenses by as much as 20 percent compared with paper-based or proprietary buying systems."

"We are very pleased that HP has chosen to partner with Ariba," said Keith Krach, chief executive officer at Ariba. "HP's vision for business-to-business Internet commerce and its global reach will enable us to collectively build the market for Operating Resource Management Systems."

Java enterprise applications such as ORMS are all the more scalable and reliable when powered by HP Domain Internet Servers running either HP-UX(1) or Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R). The latest HP-UX Virtual Machine with JIT for Java, along with the native Java kernel threads on HP-UX 11, allows Java applications to be deployed enterprisewide with the best performance and feature set on HP 9000 Enterprise Servers and workstations, as well as HP VISUALIZE workstations. The industry-leading 64-bit operating environment, HP-UX, makes it easier for customers to deploy high-performance, highly available Internet, intranet and extranet applications.

"With unmatched scalability, reliability and network- and system-management tools, HP-UX provides enterprise customers with the mission-critical application deployment, database management and Web capabilities they demand," said Ball.

Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation, the U.S. subsidiary of the global pharmaceutical company, says it will use the HP and Ariba solution to automate its acquisition of operating resources. (See today's related release issued by Ariba.)

"The HP and Ariba solution is a perfect combination to fit our business needs," said Greg Schnuck, procurement re-engineering manager at Boehringer Ingelheim. "It will help us accelerate our procurement process using the innovative technology of the Ariba system in conjunction with the reliable, high-performance HP-UX enterprise platform provided by HP."

HP's Professional Services Organization will help customers rapidly integrate the solution into their existing information-technology environments, providing connectivity to enterprise systems that manage areas such as accounting and human resources. Future cooperation between HP and Ariba could include the integration of Ariba's ORMS with HP solutions such as HP VirtualVault, an Internet security product; HP OpenView, which handles network and systems management; vPOS, which is point-of-sale software offered through HP's VeriFone subsidiary; and other technologies.

ABOUT ARIBA

Ariba is the leader in Operating Resource Management (ORM) solutions for Global 2000 corporations. The company's products deliver a high Return on Investment through reduced ORM transaction costs and improved management of the acquisition of the goods and services required to operate a company. The products leverage three technology trends: the deployment of intranets and extranets, Java, and network computing. Ariba can be reached at 408/543-3800 or at www.ariba.com .

ABOUT HP

HP is the official information-technology hardware and maintenance supplier to the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament and the 1997 Tournament of France. Selected for its technology and skills to support and manage mission-critical applications, HP will help create an information-management infrastructure for handling game-scoring; media centers; personnel accreditation; hotel information; and various ticketing, stadium, warehouse and back-office operations.

Hewlett-Packard Company is a leading global provider of computing, Internet and intranet solutions, services, communications products and measurement solutions, all of which are recognized for excellence in quality and support. It is the second-largest computer supplier in the world, with computer-related revenue in excess of $35.4 billion in its 1997 fiscal year. HP has 121,900 employees and had revenue of $42.9 billion in its 1997 fiscal year.