Letter to be distributed as initial outreach to suppliers targeted for inclusion in collaborative commerce program. The comments included below highlight the elements of the ‘EDICT’ framework and should be removed before distributing externally. This is a sample only. Edit to reflect your company’s timelines, EDICT policies, etc.
To: [TARGETED SUPPLIER]
CC: [SUPPLIER ENABLEMENT LEAD]
From:
Date:
[CATEGORY SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGER]
MM/DD/YYYY
[COMPANY] is very pleased to announce a progressive change within our company that will improve the way we interact with our suppliers. We have entered into a relationship with Ariba, the leading global provider of collaborative business commerce solutions, which will allow our suppliers to easily extend their back-end systems and processes to benefit from electronic transactions.
We expect our supplier to join the Ariba Network and transact electronically with us. Your participation is vital to ensuring that [COMPANY] can offer the most efficient and highest quality procurement and accounts payable processing possible, while moving to a paperless processing environment. Your participation in this new process will be required to continue providing products or services to
[COMPANY]. Please be advised that paper invoices received after MM/DD/YYYY will be returned unpaid.
Some of the benefits of the Ariba Network to suppliers include:

Increased sales: Find new customers and increase wallet share with existing customers by supporting online procurement initiatives that reduce maverick spend.

Lower process costs: Automate the order management process so you know orders are fully compliant with the terms you’ve negotiated with customers; get paid faster, and use self-service tools for instant visibility into sales orders, invoices, and payments.

Better cash flow: Use automated, online invoicing to decrease days sales outstanding (DSO) and reduce invoice errors so we are more likely to pay on time and according to your terms.

Increased customer retention: Strengthen relationships, boost customer satisfaction, and establish your company as a valuable business partner by providing a wide range of automated
 services that support customers’ online commerce initiatives and save time and money.
Greater visibility into customer processes: Gain real-time visibility into customer orders, change orders, invoice and payment status, and other documents and activities via open, flexible connectivity options that link your systems and processes with theirs.

Implementation of collaborative commerce will be measured along the following milestones:

Our goal is to begin transacting on the Ariba Network on DD/MM/YYYY.

The deadline to be enabled with [COMPANY] is DD/MM/YYYY. (suggested– 6 to 8 weeks after
‘goal’ date above)

To achieve the deadline of DD/MM/YYYY, you will need to: o Accept the Ariba Terms & Conditions, and o Deliver a test file to Ariba no later than DD/MM/YYYY. (suggested– 2 months prior to
‘deadline’ date)

As of DD/MM/YYYY (suggested – 1 month after ‘deadline’ date), POs will be delivered electronically only and any paper invoices will be returned unpaid.
We value our relationship with you and look forward to doing business with you electronically and, therefore, more collaboratively. Thanks for your participation.
PS. Ariba provides assistance to suppliers as well. We encourage you to visit www.AribaAnswers.com
, where you can find more information about Ariba, the Ariba Network, and how our collaboration can help your business.