KDS, the European leader for business travel
e-procurement solutions, today announced that it is working with Aribaå®,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ARBA) to extend the benefits of Enterprise Spend Management
(ESM) to joint customers. Through participation in the Ariba Solution
Development Alliance Program.
Ariba
customers will benefit from seamless access from their Ariba®
Buyer(tm) procurement system to the KDS business travel procurement solution
for management and control of this important spend category.

Online business travel is one of the fastest growing elements in the
e-procurement world.  According to 2001-2003 PhoCusWright
Report, 20 percent
of corporate travel transactions were booked online in the last two years.
Furthermore, the online corporate travel market is expected reach $ 14.5
billion in 2002, rising to $ 22.6 billion in 2003. This rise would equate to
18.6 percent of the total corporate travel expenditure.

KDS
has benefited from companies growing interest in online booking tools
and has become the European leader in its market with customers such as
Alstom, BP, Galileo, Henkel and Shell.

The Ariba Solution Development Alliance Program is a comprehensive product
development and marketing program aimed at developing and promoting products
that are designed to enhance the functionality of Ariba solutions, as well
as interoperate with them.

By working together, KDS and Ariba provide companies with the opportunity to
optimise their existing procurement solution with extended travel management
capability. Large corporations, striving for cost reductions, can now
leverage the one procurement solution to:

- Ease and optimise travel purchase management (ordering, invoicing,
sourcing, analysing)

- Create and use the same and existing approval processes for travel as they
do for other spend categories

- Unify reporting on specific expenses

This technological and business collaboration between KDS and Ariba
addresses companies` needs to include travel, one of the top spend
categories, in their web-based procurement solution, thereby maximizing
savings.

To meet Ariba compatibility, KDS developed an interface based on Ariba®
PunchOut(tm) protocol (cXML). By utilizing Ariba PunchOut technology, a user
can “punch out” of the Ariba Buyer solution to the KDS corporate website to
gather purchasing information, and then return to the Ariba solution to
complete their order. 

“The integration of KDS technology with Ariba is the next step KDS is taking
to satisfy its customers who use the Ariba procurement solution.  This close
collaboration brings to the market another vision of buying travel,” says
Jean-Francois Vergnangeal, KDS Marketing Director.

“By working with KDS we can provide our customers with integrated and tested
technologies that address specific areas, such as travel, within their
overall ESM initiative,” said Priscilla Hung, director of Global Alliances,
Ariba.  “By capturing travel spend within their procurement solution,
customers can maximize cost reductions and process efficiencies.”

Related stories on ITN:

(06/12/2002) Shell Chooses KDS Solutions for Business Travel Management.

(17/01/2002) Galileo International to Select KDS Technology

(31/01/2001) KDS Awarded for Technological Innovations

——-