Ariba vs GEP SMART

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Our analysts compared Ariba vs GEP SMART based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Procurement Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Ariba Software Tool

Product Basics

SAP Ariba is a cloud-based solution built to handle the end-to-end spend life cycle for businesses of all sizes. It also supports sourcing, procurement and numerous supply and distribution processes. It is scalable and comes with subscription or on-demand pricing options.

It integrates with ERP and other back-office options so that users can hang onto preferred workflows. With a focus on collaboration with suppliers and trading partners, users can extend their influence and discover valuable networking opportunities.
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GEP SMART (formerly SMART by GEP) is a cloud-based, AI-powered supply chain system built on Microsoft Azure. It is suitable for larger corporations and leverages cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain and the IoT to educate and empower decision making. Its unified setup gives users a simplified location for all of their needs and tasks.

It gives users the ability to monitor supplier performance and the entire purchasing process from requisition to approval. Users can automate source-to-pay processes and other tedious tasks to increase accuracy and cut down on the time and resources required for each. It provides cost-cutting inclusions that measure initiatives to their outcomes along with spend analysis and visibility through analytical reporting.
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$50 Monthly
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$500,000 Annually, Quote-Based
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Product Assistance

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Product Insights

  • Manage Supply Chain Disruptions: Robust analytics and real-time communications with suppliers enables responses to supply chain disruptions in advance and as they occur. Avoid costly problem resolution by tackling issues before they have a damaging impact. 
  • Reduce Costs: Cut costs and boost control over processes with accessible contract and procurement management tools. Remove costly mistakes from the equation and leverage sustained sourcing savings, resulting in increased profits. 
  • End-to-End Features: Support the entire sourcing process with robust features that strengthen sourcing, procurement, financial and supply chain management tasks. 
  • Boost Collaboration: Leverage a digital marketplace to help grow and manage sales cycles. Buyers can post sourcing through SAP Ariba Discovery and suppliers can respond with their details. Lets users join Ariba Network, which has a double the volume compared to eBay and Amazon combined. 
  • Improved Risk Reduction: Ensure suppliers go through rigorous onboarding and qualification measurements to guarantee them as a good fit. Includes performance management features that offer valuable insight into client’s partner performance. 
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  • Find The Best Products: According to our analysts, the platform offers one of the most robust catalog handling toolkits, offering 100% of key features and tools out of the box. It offers catalog templates, product bundling, favorite shortlisting and punch-out catalogs based on past purchases. The built-in AI enhances buying experiences by analyzing legacy data and directing buyers to ideal products. You can also track changes in pricing, lead time, SIN and contract numbers for each item.
  • Create Purchase Orders (PO) Efficiently: Our analysts rated the PO management module at 90, placing it alongside industry stalwarts like SAP Spend Management (95) and Workday Spend Management (88). It supports automated PO generation, approval workflows, recurring and pre-specified purchases, blanket orders, eSignatures, and file attachments. You can brand POs with your business logo and attach notes or files for suppliers.
  • Streamline Sourcing: The platform’s robust sourcing features earned a 93 rating from our analysts. You can automate online requisitions, compare supplier offers, and create and send RFQs to suppliers. The sourcing dashboard offers an overview of RFIs, RFQs, RFPs and auctions for data-driven decision-making. You can collaborate with the best suppliers using an automated supplier risk scoring system that considers restricted-party screening, financial risks, metrics, and more of each supplier.
  • Improve Supplier Collaboration: The platform scored a strong analyst rating of 91 for its supplier relationship management module. It lets you onboard suppliers, offers unique portals, facilitates internal communication, and enables supplier categorization and segmentation. The platform tracks supplier performance using custom metrics and offers a multi-tier assessment model and demand planning and forecasting tools.
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  • Buying and Invoicing: A configurable interface with built-in approvals keeps up-to-date with compliance and cataloging. Removes the difficulty in the procure-to-pay process by simplifying the management of each step and supports businesses agility and scalability through global spend and visibility tools. 
  • Financial Supply Chain Management: Streamline operations by eliminating manual entry and applying automation to complex processes. Link purchase orders to invoices, improve metric capture, comply with tax regulations, capture payment discounts and more. 
  • Strategic Sourcing: Integrates into procurement execution processes for increased visibility, more savings opportunities and spend segmentation. Enables teams to organize and standardize their source-to-contract tasks, as it aggregates purchase orders with proper classification. 
  • Direct Spending: Integrates with all processes from product design to manufacturing and delivery, which helps: 
    •  Speeds up the time to market and provides a head start on the competition. 
    •  Boosts supplier collaboration by identifying product shortages before they become costly problems. 
    •  Increases supply chain visibility to increase fill rates and reduce overall inventory levels. 
  • E-Procurement: Helps reduce bottom-line costs by delivering optimal negotiated savings rates. Decreases buying cycles by up to 50%, lowers supply costs by 10% and reduces processing costs by up to 60%. 
  • Intelligent Spend: Users can simultaneously handle spend by category as well as coordinate spend policies for supply chain operations with a fully unified view of all spend processes. Supports all critical spend categories, including direct and indirect materials, external labor, travel and other expenses. 
  • Buyer Services: Robust deployment services, solution consultations and adoption support enables a quick deployment and ensures that requirements are met right out of the gate. 
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  • Spend Analysis: You can automatically gather and integrate spend data from various sources into a unified dataset. Analyze spending patterns, from line-item details to enterprise-wide trends. Identify cost-saving opportunities with real-time spend alerts and advanced classification.
  • Sourcing: Use customizable templates and workflows to build multi-line proposals and quotes. Built-in supplier intelligence gives you a comprehensive view of existing suppliers. Drive best-value sourcing through real-time auctions and create sourcing events from pre-built templates.
  • Contracts Management: Use redlining and eSignature tools to collaborate with stakeholders and author contracts. Source-to-pay integration converts negotiated terms into digital contracts and catalogs. Dashboards help track contract utilization, compliance, supplier performance and potential risks. Quickly locate contract details with intelligent search. Maintain compliance with integrated reports, user-defined alerts and automated reminders for contract reviews, renewals and rebids.
  • Supplier Management: Maintain a supplier repository with buyer-entered and supplier-maintained data, including risk assessments, contact details, diversity certifications, financial information and critical business documents. Evaluate performances using customizable scorecards that combine qualitative and quantitative metrics. You can provide suppliers with greater control through self-service portals, easy registration options and master data management tools.
  • Procure-To-Pay: Electronically create and approve requisitions for catalog and non-catalog items. Generate purchase orders directly from requisitions or independently and track their status. Use line-by-line invoice matching tools and automatic approval workflows to reduce errors. Customize requisition-to-pay workflows, including failover, delegation and escalation rules, to cater to the specific needs of different business units and locations.
  • Payments: Automate global payments through Mastercard's virtual card service. The platform optimizes working capital by streamlining payments and providing early payment flexibility, improving liquidity and financial agility. Additionally, it integrates with sustainability initiatives to track and manage sustainable spending according to your CSR goals.
  • Accounts Payable Automation: Use an organized queue management workflow with automatic routing, reviews and approvals to minimize manual intervention and expedite problem resolution. Multi-way matching powered by AI ensures accurate invoice validation against purchase orders and negotiated prices, with configurable tolerances and user-defined matching rules. The platform uses OCR technology to convert scanned paper invoices or PDFs into machine-readable documents.
  • Risk Management: Develop a third-party risk management (TPRM) strategy to identify, prioritize and mitigate potential risks. The platform facilitates vendor segmentation based on a risk-based assessment to allocate resources efficiently and keep an eye on high-risk vendors. Risk assessments include cybersecurity vulnerabilities, data privacy, operational disruptions, compliance concerns, geopolitical instability and business continuity issues.
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Product Ranking

#1

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Procurement Software

#12

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Analyst Rating Summary

84
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Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Ariba
GEP SMART
+ Add Product + Add Product
Budget Management Contract Management Dashboard And Reporting Invoice Management Mobile Capabilities Native Integration And Extensibility Platform Capabilities Product Catalog Purchase Orders Management Receiving And Inventory Management Requisitions Sourcing Spend Management Supplier Management 0 81 83 89 60 45 100 100 90 56 67 93 76 91 0 25 50 75 100
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 1222 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 180 reviews
83%
of users recommend this product

Ariba has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 83% when considering 1222 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

92%
of users recommend this product

GEP SMART has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 180 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

4.9 (14)
n/a
4.1 (451)
4.4 (22)
3.5 (48)
4.6 (7)
4.3 (355)
4.7 (126)
4.1 (354)
4.2 (25)

Awards

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SelectHub research analysts have evaluated GEP SMART and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Product Catalog. GEP SMART stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Product Catalog Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Regular Feature Updates: New features are regularly introduced in the software, which is an advantage according to all reviews on this aspect.
Easy to Use: More than 90% of reviews on this feature suggest that the software has an intuitive user interface and all features are easy to navigate.
ERP Synchronization: It’s easy to integrate with an ERP system, a chief benefit as all reviews on the topic indicate.
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User-Friendly Interface: Users praise the platform for its intuitive design, making navigation and sourcing straightforward, even for team members without extensive procurement experience.
Efficient Sourcing: GEP SMART streamlines the sourcing process, enabling users to quickly identify and compare potential suppliers, saving valuable time and effort.
Improved Spend Visibility: The platform provides comprehensive insights into spending patterns, empowering users to identify cost-saving opportunities and optimize procurement strategies.
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Data Emailing: According to 80% of reviews on email capabilities, sending generated data via emails is slow and cumbersome.
Learning Curve: It has a learning curve for new users, as all reviews on this aspect state.
Lags Sometimes: According to all reviews on speed, the website lags occasionally while opening windows or clicking on drop down menus.
Customer Support: User support is quite slow especially for light account users, according to all reviews on customer support.
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Limited Customization: Users have expressed frustration over the inflexibility of templates and workflows, making it difficult to tailor the system to their specific procurement requirements.
Complex User Interface: The system's navigation and interface have been criticized for being overly complicated and not user-friendly, leading to a steep learning curve for new users.
Integration Challenges: Integrating GEP SMART with existing ERP or other procurement systems has proven to be a hurdle for some organizations, causing data silos and workflow disruptions.
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SAP Ariba is a comprehensive tool designed to help organizations with procurement, sourcing and supply chain management. User reviews suggest that data emailing and a steep learning curve are a couple major drawbacks of the product. The customer support is slow for light account users as well. Another con is that lags occur during basic navigation tasks. However, consistent product updates help solve such hindrances and consistently add new capabilities. It’s easy to use and can be easily synced with an ERP solution, which many users cite as a great advantage. All in all, it provides strong benefits but has some drawbacks that may make other solutions a better choice.

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Want to get SMART about procurement? GEP SMART is a cloud-based, AI-powered procurement software platform designed to streamline and automate the entire source-to-pay process. User reviews highlight its comprehensive functionality, covering everything from spend analysis and savings tracking to sourcing, contract management, supplier management, and procure-to-pay. Users praise its user-friendly interface and robust reporting engine, which allows for detailed tracking of spending and identification of areas for improvement. GEP SMART's mobile-native design is also a significant plus, enabling procurement professionals to work effectively from anywhere.However, some users have pointed out that the software's learning curve can be steep, especially for those unfamiliar with procurement software. Additionally, while GEP SMART offers a wide range of features, some users have expressed a desire for more customization options. Despite these minor drawbacks, GEP SMART is generally well-regarded for its comprehensive functionality, user-friendly interface, and mobile accessibility.GEP SMART is best suited for organizations looking for a unified, AI-powered procurement solution that can streamline their processes and enhance their strategic capabilities. Its comprehensive functionality and user-friendly design make it an ideal choice for businesses of all sizes, particularly those with a mobile workforce. However, organizations with highly specific customization needs may need to consider other options or factor in additional implementation time.

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