Ariba and AAPT yesterday announced the formation of a partnership agreement to provide business-to-business e-commerce solutions to their customers.
It's expected the two companies will finalise the agreement over the next few months.
AAPT, Australia's third-largest telecommunications provider, will provide value-added services to Ariba's small and medium business clients and will host and localise the solutions.
A major feature of the agreement is the development of a team of dedicated people who will deliver end-to-end e-commerce solutions to AAPT customers.
"Under the agreement we can offer customers high value Ariba services integrated with our transaction based e-commerce products and this will deliver real operational cost reductions to our clients," AAPT@commerce CEO David Glavonic said.
Ariba solutions enable companies to reduce the costs of operations and manage day-to-day business operations. The solution also enables buying organisations to electronically connect with their suppliers worldwide, allowing access to supplier content and automating transactions over the Internet.
Ariba's global client list includes Cisco Systems, FedEx, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, MCI WorldCom, Merck & Co, Philips Electronics N.V., SAirGroup (the parent company of worldwide airline SwissAir)and Visa.