IBM and e-commerce software developer Ariba this week announced a new partnership that will integrate Ariba’s Commerce Cloud Web platform with Big Blue’s collaboration suite to improve communication between online buyers and sellers.
The pact comes just days after IBM acquired Sterling Commerce for $1.4 billion to bolster its software integration, transaction and cloud-computing application portfolio.
Now through IBM’s (NYSE: IBM) deal with Ariba, buyers and sellers looking to simplify business-to-business transactions can use IBM’s LotusLive collaboration and social networking tools with Ariba’s (NASDAQ: ARBA) Web-based Commerce Cloud, for sales lead generation, finance, spend management and pricing information.
“Finding the right trading partners is hard. Collaborating with them to do business better is even harder,” Ariba CTO Bhaskar Himatsingka said in a statement. “Our integration plans with IBM LotusLive are designed to help make it easier for buyers and sellers to collaborate in new ways by taking advantage of IBM’s powerful set of web-based tools for real-time collaboration within Ariba’s sourcing and sales process solutions.”
The Ariba union is just the latest in string of partnership deals IBM has inked for its LotusLive suite.
In April, IBM said it had recruited more than 200 companies to sell its cloud-based e-mail, Web conferencing and collaboration apps and will offer a bundled services from the likes of Skype, UPS and Salesforce.
Ariba will integrate IBM’s LotusLive with Ariba Discovery, a Web-based, e-Harmony-like service that helps buyers and sellers find each other quickly, share proposals and network with others in their industry.
“Like people searching for someone special, businesses are looking for a high degree of compatibility with their prospective partners,” said Sean Poulley, vice president of IBM’s cloud collaboration group.
Larry Barrett is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS
- Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
December 16, 2020 - AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
December 11, 2020 - Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020 - Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020 - Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020 - Top 10 AIOps Companies
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020 - What is Text Analysis?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020 - How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020 - Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020 - The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020 - Top 10 Chatbot Platforms
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020 - Finding a Career Path in AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020 - CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020 - Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020 - Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020 - NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020 - Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020 - Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020 - IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020 - Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020