Blue Marble Media Shoots for Success and Wins with Ariba Discovery

Blue Marble Media Shoots for Success and Wins with Ariba Discovery

Video and motion graphics agency leverages premier business matching service to raise visibility among Global 2000 buyers, quickly lands contract with major bank

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cal Miller used to spend 90 percent of his time fishing for business. Today, the Vice President of Business Development for Blue Marble Media, a full-service video and motion graphics firm, is reeling it in, thanks to Ariba Discovery™, the premier service for matching business buyers and sellers offered by Ariba, an SAP Company.

"Finding new business leads is the major issue for a small business like us," Miller says. "We tried buying lists and outsourcing and neither worked. If we got 100 requests a year, only 10 were really qualified."

Then Miller signed up for Ariba Discovery, and everything changed. "We got a new client, a large bank, that didn't bother to have us go through their standard vetting process," Miller said. "They heard we were on the Ariba Network and gave us their business, just like that. Another prospect did the same thing."

Delivered via the Ariba® Network, Ariba Discovery simplifies the process of discovering qualified business partners and leads by instantly matching buyer requirements to supplier capabilities.

"There are plenty of tools that buying organizations can use to find new trading partners, but figuring out whether these suppliers can meet their needs is a bit of a battle," said Rob Mihalko, Vice President, Seller Marketing & Ariba Discovery at Ariba. "And while selling organizations devote a lot of time and resources to promoting themselves to prospective customers, they often come up empty."

Ariba Discovery is uniquely designed to help buyers and sellers overcome these challenges, combining a proprietary matching engine with unique profile information to help buyers identify the right trading partners, and sellers generate more relevant leads more quickly.

"In the last four months, Ariba Discovery has saved us at least 100 man-hours," Miller says. But more important, it has delivered results. According to Miller, Blue Marble Media has received more than 40 qualified leads through the service. And he says he was able to convert them faster than ever as a result of being on the Ariba Network.

"Buyers use Ariba as a quick path to vet out potential suppliers," Miller says. "If there were 10 companies like Blue Marble Media competing for the business, we jumped right to the head of the line because we are on the Network. It's like a badge of honor."

But there's an equal value proposition for sellers like Blue Marble Media. "Using Ariba Discovery, we can get lots of visibility with middle and upper management-level executives at companies in our target market," Miller says.

Since signing on to the service, Blue Marble Media has started building relationships with nine new buyers. And Miller is optimistic they will soon bear fruit.

"All we need is people to say, when we need something like this, Blue Marble Media will be on our list. Because once we get on that list, we'll probably close 50% of that business," Miller says. "With Ariba, we're able to do this. And that's a great win for us."

In the past 12 months, more than $5 billion in new business opportunities have been offered through Ariba Discovery, over 15 million leads distributed, and more than 30,000 matches between buyers and sellers made. To learn more about the service and the results it can deliver for your organization, visit: http://discovery.ariba.com

To hear more from Miller about his experience with Ariba Discovery, check out a recent podcast conducted on the BriefingsDirect Network.

About Blue Marble Media
Founded in 1995, Blue Marble Media is one of the nation's premier film, video and motion graphics production companies. We specialize in turnkey strategy, design and production of high-profile film, video and motion graphics content for the web and for a wide variety of traditional and non-traditional marketing, advertising and informational uses. For more information, please visit our website at: www.bluemarblemedia.com

About Ariba, an SAP Company
Ariba is the world's business commerce network. Ariba combines industry-leading cloud-based applications with the world's largest web-based trading community to help companies discover and collaborate with a global network of partners. Using the Ariba^® Network, businesses of all sizes can connect to their trading partners anywhere, at any time from any application or device to buy, sell and manage their cash more efficiently and effectively than ever before. Companies around the world use the AribaNetwork to simplify inter-enterprise commerce and enhance the results that they deliver. Join them at: www.ariba.com

About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYS: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device - SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 238,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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