SAP Ariba Inks Data Deal For Vendor Risk Solution

Tokyo Shoko Research, a Japan-based commercial database, has signed an agreement with SAP Ariba in the latter’s effort to strengthen its supply chain risk mitigation offerings.

SAP Ariba will have access to Tokyo Shoko’s data on 8.4 million Japanese companies to augment its SAP Ariba Supplier Risk solution, the companies said in a press release Monday (July 22). Their agreement will pull more than 200 evaluation criteria within the Supplier Risk tool to strengthen SAP Ariba’s ability to asses potential supply chain threats, disruptions and vendor risk exposures.

The data from Tokyo Shoko’s database will include information gathered from in-person visits and discussions with those organizations, as well as benchmark data to compare organizations against their peers.

The SAP Ariba Supplier Risk solution allows supply chain processionals to automatically gain a holistic view of their supply chain and vendor risks in a streamlined platform. The solution currently aggregates data from more than 500,000 sources, including government data, news sites, public and private sources, and disaster information systems.

Vendor risk is becoming an increasingly integral part of the supply chain management process, according to analysts. Dun & Bradstreet published research last year that found risk management professionals are turning toward in-house analytics and third-party data to augment their risk mitigation efforts, yet 60 percent of surveyed professionals said they are struggling with unlocking data from their siloes.

Earlier this year, SAP Ariba struck a partnership with American Express to strengthen its payment services. That collaboration enabled businesses using SAP Ariba to send and receive B2B payments to access new financing options from directly within the Ariba Network. American Express is deploying Ariba Network APIs to integrate virtual cards as a new offering for business payers, the companies explained at the time.

Last month, reports surfaced that SAP Ariba ended its partnership with PrimeRevenue, an agreement that had been in place since 2016 that saw PrimeRevenue integrating its supply chain financing options within the SAP Ariba solution.