Last year Ariba bought b-process. And at the start of this year Ariba announces that Simply Market will leverage cloud-based solutions from b-process, now an Ariba company, to to automate and speed up the exchange of more than 1 million invoices a year.

About Simply Market

Here is some more information on the deal between Simply Market en b-process (now Ariba).

• Simply Market, is a French brand group of Auchan supermarket stores.
• Ariba’s b-process delivers a flexible set of cloud-based solutions for e-Invoicing that are already used by other companies like EADS, Eurocopter, Gefco, IATA, Marmara, Saint-Gobain and Vinci Energie.
• The solution accepts invoices in any type of structured format files, including positional, EDI, XML and PDF, allowing Simply Market en its partners to quickly and easily connect and begin processing invoices immediately, regardless of the AP, ERP, or other back office systems they are using.
• Using this offering, Simply Market aims to automate the exchange of more than 1 million invoices for inbound merchandise sent by more than 3,000 suppliers to Simply Markets warehouses and 269 salespoints.
• Nearly one third of its suppliers already uses b-process’ billManager platform, to exchange data with Auchan or other retail companies.

Quotes

Who can live without quotes from the sales reps? We sure can’t, so here they come:

• Philippe Le Goff, Directeur des Services Comptable et Financier at Simply Market:
  “The benefits of eInvoicing are widely acknowledged within Groupe Auchan and the retail industry. Using b-process’ solution will significantly enhance the exchanges of invoices between our suppliers and our salespoints, and the productivity gains we expect  to generate will create substantial value for both our suppliers and ourselves.”
  
  “Our goal is to convert 50 percent of these invoices into electronic format within six months and reach 85 percent within 18 months. With nearly one third of our suppliers already using billManager, b-process’ platform, to exchange data with Auchan or other retail companies, I believe these objectives should be easy to achieve.”
  
• Alexis Renard, PDG de b-process et Vice-Président d’Ariba:
  “When it comes to improving the efficiency of the invoice process, French retailers are leading the way. By implementing Ariba’s b-process solutions, Simply Market can reduce the paper, time and costs associated with manual invoicing and deliver efficiencies and savings that improve its operations and competitive advantage.”