I’ve been trolling around the Ariba Exchange quite a bit in the past couple of weeks. The site, along with Ariba SupplyWatch provides some of the best free content I’ve seen out there in the market. Ariba Exchange is a relatively new site, one that JP Massin, a relatively recent Ariba employee, provides further detail on over on his blog. According to JP, “The goal [of Ariba Exchange] is to create an engaging platform where Spend Management professionals can share point of views (POV), question marks, best practices, trends, risks and mitigation plans, opportunities and issues related to spend management, technology enablement and Ariba’s solutions of course. It’s a unique public knowledge-hub, segmented by communities of interest.”
While Ariba’s plans are clearly to have customers and prospects participate and lead discussions, much of the content for Ariba Exchange is still generated by Ariba’s own employees. Moreover, there’s less interaction than you might expect given the potential size of the active user community. Still, the concept of a social network which is tightly integrated with a user community, solution expertise and support — not to mention category knowledge — is one that I have no doubt will prove a winner in the market. I also like the site’s use of video as well, though I’m afraid Ariba is a couple years ahead of the market’s willingness to embrace the medium as a communication and information exchange forum…
