It has been interesting in recent days to note just what an emphasis Ariba has been placing on the "middle-market" since its purchase of Procuri, both in terms of positioning the purchase to the financial markets and as a strategy for growth. Just like the major ERP providers, Ariba seems to feel the market at the top end does not offer much more opportunity for growth and are therefore heading downstream to try and pick off clients it would previously have dismissed as being too small.
This seems a pretty justifiable strategy if you have the resources and market penetration of SAP, but for Ariba? In the first place, Procuri’s customer profile was broadly the same as Ariba’s, with little in the way of proven mid-market appeal. Secondly, building traction for electronic purchasing in mid-market companies is a tough call, since the spend that can be brought under management is not big enough to warrant a serious investment in many cases, added to the issue that the procurement department ironically has very little budget to spend. And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, does a company like Ariba, especially following a recent acquisition, have the resources to manage and maintain a two-pronged approach to delivery without detracting from either community?
