(The latest in our series examining the tech industry’s response to COVID-19.)
Since making its Ariba Discovery sourcing software temporarily available at no charge to help businesses cope with supply-chain disruptions, SAP said buyer postings have increased by 51% and supplier responses have jumped by 177%.
On March 10, as the world began to get a clear sense of the massive impact COVID-19 was having on all facets of life, SAP made 3 of its business applications available at no charge to help businesspeople deal with widespread disruptions and uncertainty.
In an open letter to employees, customers, partners and SAP’s entire ecosystem, co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein described their intentions for making that special offer.
“We also recognize the massive disruptions impacting global supply chains. We’ve opened up access to SAP Ariba Discovery so any buyer can post their immediate sourcing needs and any supplier can respond to show they can deliver,” they wrote.
They added that SAP was offering its TripIt app for travel issues and SAP Litmos for remote training capability at no charge for a limited time.
Those offers were part of an expansive message from Morgan and Klein about the crisis. We explored the full letter recently in As COVID-19 Rages, Microsoft & SAP CEOs Share Messages of Gratitude, Empathy, Hope.
As a followup to that, I asked SAP about the level of response it’s been receiving from those offers. A spokesperson said that relative to activity from January 1 through March 9, buyer postings were up 51% and supplier responses up 177% since the offer went live on March 10.
SAP also shared the 5 market categories that have experienced the highest levels of activity since the offer began on March 10:
- Computer hardware, software and telecom
- Medical equipment
- Lab equipment
- Professional and administrative services
- Infrastructure construction
