GEP SMART vs SAP Ariba Procurement comparison

GEP Worldwide and SAP are both solutions in the Procurement Software category. GEP Worldwide is ranked #3, while SAP is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.5. Additionally, 100% of GEP Worldwide users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 80% of SAP users who would recommend it.

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between GEP SMART and SAP Ariba Procurement based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Procurement Software solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed GEP SMART vs. SAP Ariba Procurement Report (Updated: August 2026).

Buyer's Guide

GEP SMART vs. SAP Ariba Procurement

August 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Automation Anywhere

Featured Reviews

Venkat Sivaprakash

Management Consultant at Accenture

Has significantly improved document-driven workflows and reduced processing time across finance and HR functions

Automation Anywhere has evolved significantly and upgraded itself to provide agentic AI and AI-based automation solutions for document automation. The product has matured considerably over time. We can create workflows that can call an API. We can include prompts in particular workflows for ChatGPT-related functions, connecting to an LLM and RAG to perform tasks. For document automation, modern features are available to train documents, ensuring high accuracy and repeatability over time. The system is very easy to use. I recently completed a course in document automation, typically designed for people involved in coding and technical aspects. Though I understand coding comprehensively, I don't do actual coding. The course was very accessible. Currently, extensive coding isn't necessary due to the hybrid model incorporating GenAI aspects, low-code, no-code capabilities, APIs, and numerous pre-built objects in Automation Anywhere. The features include GenAI-driven prompting methods and workflow creation capabilities. In these workflows, we can create decision boxes and call APIs without coding. We simply pull objects, drop them, connect them, and add minimal coding when needed. The most crucial aspect isn't coding but rather sizing the automation and fleshing out the details. Automation Co-pilot takes notes and performs automated analysis. It can extract details from videos, summarize conversations, and provide detailed information. During calls, it identifies instructions and performs tasks such as preparing reports and reconciliation. Automation Anywhere can also connect with Microsoft Co-pilot. Through Co-pilot, real-time operations can be executed, allowing direct interaction between vendors and automation through this component.

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it_user1709418

Senior Product Manager at a university with 10,001+ employees

Doesn't require a background in analytics to run reports

SMART has been helpful for sourcing and public bids. For regulatory purposes, our university posts bids, depending on the scope of the bid. We get a lot of value out of SMART's ability to post to a public site and have suppliers see that information, register in the tool, and participate. SMART features for collecting information and its timeline capabilities are highly useful. Then on the contract side, the reporting capabilities are the most valuable. Our use case focuses primarily on post-execution and lifecycle management, so it's essential to be able to report accurately especially compliance-related reports. SMART is easy to use, especially when reporting. It isn't designed for a hardcore analyst. You don't need to have a background in analytics to run reports, which is huge. I realized I hadn't touched too much on the spending side, but we use SMART for all spending analytics, and any commodity manager procurement professional can go in and run a spending report. That was a business decision to restrict who can run reports since that data can be exported and used. But the reporting capabilities are incredibly easy to use.

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Argy Soudi

Senior Procurement Consultant at Ps digital tenders limited

Has connected procurement and contracts efficiently while setup and support still require improvements

Support could be faster for critical issues with SAP Ariba Procurement. When patching happens and new releases come out, it can be hit and miss, though mostly it remains reliable. The on-time response is 99.9999%, but the main issue over the years has been with releases and patching. The initial setup of SAP Ariba Procurement is not straightforward. We have been trying to set it up for two and a half years for the council I work with. The personal account login is ready-made and allows landing page adjustments, but the overall software implementation can take forever and requires multiple teams to work on it.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Automation Anywhere has helped our organization to save human efforts on mundane tasks and shifted it to more analytical and interesting tasks."

"We needed scalability and the ability to perform 10,000 or 1,000 or 200 tasks at any moment. No other software that we have had could provide such scalability and is built in a modular way."

"We are using Automation Anywhere for our leave approval process. We used to have three FTEs on the day shift working on this process. Now, we only have one FTE working on the leave approval process. The bot supports everything else in the process. With this bot, we are saving the cost of two FTEs."

"Features such as MetaBot and IQ Bot are very advanced and capable as compared to reading PDFs using OCR."

"From my perspective, the most valuable features in Automation Anywhere are the ability to connect to different systems of records."

"When our organization switched to Automation Anywhere, the accuracy rate improved and consequently, there has not been much data loss."

"I have been using Automation Anywhere for the past five years and it is one of the best tools to automate manual tasks."

"My organization has worked with multiple clients and helped them automate their repetitive and mundane processes, and these organizations have seen a drastic increase in employee productivity, reduced human errors, and better SLAs, all of which leads to customer satisfaction."

More Automation Anywhere pros

"The digital transformation and people being able to search and the reduction in redundancy are all part of the efficiency and process improvement, from our perspective, and there's a huge benefit to it."

"It's a huge efficiency tool and it has really accelerated our ability to drive the procurement business case in terms of cost savings."

"Among the most valuable features are the ability to send out purchase orders, create catalogs, and accept invoices through procurement. And the reporting function is robust."

"It's user-friendly, in terms of the design of the tool."

"In summary, using this solution benefits our organization through cost savings, better efficiency, improved transparency, and having information archived."

"In terms of ease of use, GEP has done a lot of work through its enhancements over the years to make the user experience more intuitive. There is a more standard-Amazon-like experience, where manuals and tutorials are not really required, simply because the user experience and what's on the screen are pretty intuitive."

"Through using GEP, we've been able to gain respect; the other departments in our company have come to rely upon us even more, and we have become a more trusted department within the company, among our peers, because we can speak to their spend at greater depth."

"The AI tool definitely has learned from the information we've given it but also from some of the corrections that we've made. It may have auto-applied a classification and then we have gone in and corrected it, given it some feedback. With that, more and more, we are not having to touch the information once it gets processed. It's classifying it from the get-go in the correct category."

More GEP SMART pros

"Salesforce provides me with the ability to create reports based on various parameters."

"The best features are the ease of use and the workflow management that allows me to understand every step in the approval process so that I can forecast the time through my request and its approval."

"The best thing about SAP Ariba Procurement, in comparison to a lot of its competitors, is that if the company has someone who knows how to configure it, they can do a lot of the process building themselves."

"I like the guided buying features."

"It is a stable solution."

"SAP Ariba Procurement has impacted my organization in many important ways that have been prolonged benefits."

"We made custom enhancements to suite our business process."

"Ariba allows us to manage our suppliers seamlessly."

More SAP Ariba Procurement pros

Cons

"I am looking for artificial intelligence and machine learning. I hope that they introduce them in A2019."

"There are a number of current tools which can be improved because they have many limitations. Like some better controls in emails, and better support for features in Excel and PDF."

"We would like to have more ease of use for the operations team."

"They need to improve the stability of the core functionality. If they keep the core constant and constant, they will continue to thrive."

"I would like them to add OCR features. This would help us deal with unstructured data and we can get more data out of images."

"The platform has good capabilities, but it could improve by providing more development options."

"It would be great if they provide installation documents that are easier to understand, place more focus on capturing the fields, and most importantly, concentrate more on the OCR capability."

"In the age of AARI and Automation Anywhere 2019 IQ Bot, the biggest challenges for me and my company are understanding the product and implementing it at the right place."

More Automation Anywhere cons

"We definitely have some asks for enhancements. One of the big ones we'd like to see is what we call "drag-and-drop." If I have an email that I want to maintain in the SMART record for whatever reason — for example, it has supporting information in it — I would love to be able to just drop that into the notes and attachments section without having to save it as a PDF and then upload it."

"We had a lot of challenges and disagreements with SMART. It's been a long road, for sure, on the contract side. There is a little bit of pushback on their part when we need stuff done. Things aren't done very efficiently. I'm still waiting on some changes that were requested well over a year-and-a-half ago."

"GEP's goal, at least during our integration, is to get through it, not necessarily get it right."

"We didn't like their dashboard initially, but they responded to that very well. They've given us some customizable dashboards and have also made it so that the dashboards can be exported into PDF and other formats, so that we can share them with the rest of the company... That was a weakness at the beginning, but one that they have responded to adequately and we're really pleased with the result."

"There are no mechanisms for them to check up on how they refresh their data. So oftentimes, when we go into the tool and we don't see something, we alert them and they say, "Oh, the data hasn't been refreshed, so we'll go ahead and refresh it," and then what we're looking for pops up. We should not have to be the ones to tell them they need to refresh. There should be a mechanism in place for that."

"Tech support could use a little bit more work."

"We had 50,000-plus contracts in Ntracts that had to be migrated to SMART. It was a big ask and it went horribly wrong, and we ended up having to do a second migration."

"Very recently, they implemented a customer success team to manage our expectations and communicate them to their technical team. That function is relatively new and some work needs to be done to build that connection so that it's a little more seamless."

More GEP SMART cons

"Salesforce is expensive, with a subscription-based model."

"Gaining access to the sourcing project by the supplier needs improvement."

"I would like to see more reports coming out of Ariba and more insights because it has to work in connection with SAP. So unless I run SAP and Ariba, I have to run. I am not able to see the utility of Ariba."

"During the initial setup process of SAP Ariba Procurement, there were a couple of challenges integrating the same system on our SAP platform."

"Integration: SAP Ariba's integration has not matured yet, there is lot of scope for improvement in terms scenarios, error handling, data update intervals, etc."

"Ariba Procurement tends to integrate best with other SAP products and is harder to work with if you have non-SAP products in your architecture."

"The initial setup of SAP Ariba Procurement is not straightforward. We have been trying to set it up for two and a half years for the council I work with."

"The SAP portion of the procurement is not always obvious or user friendly."

More SAP Ariba Procurement cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Annually, we are paying almost one million reais."

"It saves on the quality of work, because the quality can be bad when somebody's doing it. If a bot does the work, it's faster and comes with good quality. These are two important things along with the cost saving in the long run. That's where the value is."

"On a yearly basis, our licensing costs are about $80,000. There are no additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."

"More than 40 to 50 percent of the IT budget will be for the cost of automation projects in the coming years since these projects enhance operations add value."

"Automation Anywhere falls within a mid-range price point when compared to other RPA tools on the market."

"We have a few licenses. They cost roughly $10,000 each."

"In terms of pricing, it's not at all cheap, and that's a concern. The licensing cost is very high. While I don't know the exact prices of other tools, Microsoft offers the lowest pricing for its RPA platform compared to UiPath and Automation Anywhere."

"I find the license pricing to be competitive and reflective of the pricing models throughout the RPA space, and I believe there is a lot of value in continuing to maintain the free community edition platform."

More Automation Anywhere pricing and cost advice

"If our organization could use it as a full-fledged solution, then it would be valuable and give a return on investment. However, since we are not currently using it as a full-fledged solution, even facing some bugs and problems with the synchronization with some of the internal software, we are not able to use it in a full-fledged manner."

"My advice is to think wisely when it comes to estimating the number of licenses that you will require. If you settle on a number too early and you need additional ones, then the extra licenses might be quite expensive."

"The licensing cost depends on the customer."

"It is an expensive solution."

"The license is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Construction Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Outsourcing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Energy/Utilities Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	157
Midsize Enterprise	81
Large Enterprise	558

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	14

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It depends on your use case. Is it simply to automate a couple of processes? Is it to augment a human team? AA is ver...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

From my experience using AA tool, it depends on the applications that you want to automate, because there some applic...

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How good is Automation Anywhere for RPA processes?

It is a highly preferred RPA tool. You can check my Automation Anywhere Review to know more.

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What needs improvement with SAP Ariba Procurement?

At the moment, I don't have any specific reasons for improvement areas in SAP Ariba Procurement. The main improvement...

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What is your primary use case for SAP Ariba Procurement?

I am a customer of this tool, and I use SAP Ariba Procurement for my regular procurement roles. This software is used...

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What advice do you have for others considering SAP Ariba Procurement?

In managing supplier relationships and mitigating risks, SAP Ariba Procurement has a very strong role to play. It giv...

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Comparisons

UiPath Platform vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 12% of the time

Microsoft Power Automate vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 9% of the time

Blue Prism vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 6% of the time

AutomationEdge vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

WorkFusion vs Automation Anywhere

Compared 2% of the time

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Coupa Procure vs GEP SMART

Compared 9% of the time

Zycus Source to Pay Suite vs GEP SMART

Compared 8% of the time

JAGGAER Spend Director vs GEP SMART

Compared 8% of the time

PayShepherd vs GEP SMART

Compared 7% of the time

ElectrifAi ProcurementAi vs GEP SMART

Compared 6% of the time

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Oracle Procurement Cloud vs SAP Ariba Procurement

Compared 9% of the time

PeopleSoft eProcurement vs SAP Ariba Procurement

Compared 5% of the time

ORO vs SAP Ariba Procurement

Compared 5% of the time

Corcentric vs SAP Ariba Procurement

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle E-Business Suite iProcurement vs SAP Ariba Procurement

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Automation Anywhere

August 2026

Download Automation Anywhere product report

Buyer's Guide

GEP SMART

August 2026

Download GEP SMART product report

Buyer's Guide

SAP Ariba Procurement

July 2026

Download SAP Ariba Procurement product report

Also Known As

Automation Anywhere, Testing Anywhere, Automation Anywhere Enterprise, Agentic Process Automation System (Now Certified for WorkSpaces)

SMART by GEP

Ariba Procurement

Interactive Demo

Automation Anywhere

Demo not available

GEP Worldwide

Demo not available

SAP

Overview

Automation Anywhere offers ease of use, robust system connectivity, and GenAI-driven document automation through a cloud-native platform, significantly enhancing productivity across multiple industries with advanced AI features.

Delivering a comprehensive suite of tools designed for easy integration and rapid deployment, Automation Anywhere drives efficiency by reducing costs and automating repetitive tasks. Its cloud-native platform supports broad industry adoption, including advanced AI features like process automation and Co-Pilot, streamlining complex workflows with minimal technical skills required. Users benefit from robust integration capabilities, which facilitate seamless interaction with multiple systems. However, there is room for improvement in areas such as user-friendliness for beginners, stability, flexible licensing, and enhanced OCR functionality. Organizations in sectors such as banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare gain from the improved operational efficiency and ROI Automation Anywhere offers.

What are the important features of Automation Anywhere?

Ease of Use: Simplifies automation tasks with a user-centric interface.
Robust Connectivity: Provides seamless integration with multiple systems.
GenAI-Driven Document Automation: Leverages AI to automate document management.
Process Automation & Co-Pilot: Enhances workflow automation with advanced AI.
Cloud-Native Platform: Enables rapid deployment and integration.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Time Savings: Automation drastically reduces manual processing time.
Cost Efficiency: Decreases overall operational costs by automating tasks.
Productivity Enhancement: Streamlines workflows with AI-driven tools.
Improved Integration: Enhances ability to work with multiple systems.
Scalability: Supports growth with a flexible cloud-native architecture.

In the insurance industry, Automation Anywhere is utilized for automating processes such as enrollment management and compliance checks. Its applications extend to supply chain management, financial transactions, and business performance monitoring across sectors like banking, finance, manufacturing, and healthcare, helping organizations to automate routine tasks, improve efficiency, and reduce costs.

Automation Anywhere

GEP SMART is a comprehensive procurement platform offering a centralized contract repository, intuitive spend analytics, and AI-driven opportunity identification.

GEP SMART provides a user-friendly interface that enhances procurement transparency and efficiency. It accommodates electronic signatures, supports streamlined project management, and enables effective regulatory compliance. Its flexibility and consistent advancements improve user experience, accessible to those without extensive IT expertise. While challenges exist in supplier management scope and search functions, improvements are needed in contract handling and data integrity.

What are GEP SMART's key features?

Centralized Contract Repository: Easy access and management of contracts.
Intuitive Spend Analytics: In-depth analysis for better decision-making.
User-friendly Interface: Simplified navigation with efficient reporting.
Electronic Signatures: Streamlined procurement processes with digital verification.
AI Tools: Assists in opportunity identification and data consolidation.

What benefits do users gain from GEP SMART?

Enhanced Transparency: Improved visibility across procurement activities.
Streamlined Procurement: Efficient handling of RFQs, RFPs, and RFIs.
Improved Compliance: Supports adherence to regulatory requirements.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces unnecessary data entry and streamlines system configurations.
Flexibility: Consistent updates and enhancements improve the overall experience.

Organizations across industries implement GEP SMART for procurement activities such as sourcing, contract management, and spend analysis. They utilize its SaaS capabilities to facilitate sourcing events and manage contract lifecycles without needing full P2P integration. The platform is used to report on spend, diversity, and savings, ensuring efficient procurement processes.

GEP Worldwide

SAP Ariba Procurement streamlines procurement by integrating supplier management and contracts into a unified platform, enhancing productivity while allowing for seamless configuration and spend analysis.

SAP Ariba Procurement centralizes procurement activities, providing dynamic pricing tools such as reverse auctions and PunchOut functionality for simplified shopping. Its spend analytics improve decision-making and supplier visibility. The platform is configurable without third-party reliance, ensuring cost-effectiveness and quick ROI through online auctions and RFPs. Workflow management offers insights into approval processes, with guided buying and data analytics improving cost-saving and supplier performance. However, integration with non-SAP systems and user-friendliness can be improved, with additional focus needed on setup complexity and enhanced vendor management capabilities.

What are the most important features?

Supplier Management: Seamless integration and control over supplier interactions.
Contract Integration: Centralized management of contractual information.
Dynamic Pricing Tools: Includes reverse auctions for cost efficiency.
PunchOut Functionality: Simplifies the purchasing process.
Spend Analytics: Enhances decision-making and supplier transparency.

What benefits should users look for?

Cost Savings: Achieved through competitive bidding and auctions.
Quick ROI: Faster returns with streamlined procurement processes.
Improved Supplier Performance: Guided buying enhances supplier assessments.
Configuration Ease: No reliance on third-party solutions simplifies adoption.

Industries such as digital strategy and financial services implement SAP Ariba Procurement for sourcing, contracting, and vendor management. Its deployment in SAP Cloud supports the RFx process from analysis to supplier evaluation, facilitating contractual data management and indirect procurement tasks.

SAP

Sample Customers

Google, Linkedin, Cisco, Juniper Networks, DellEMC, Comcast, Mastercard, Quest Diagnostics

Exxon Chevron Macys

Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT)

Buyer's Guide

GEP SMART vs. SAP Ariba Procurement

August 2026

Free Report: GEP SMART vs. SAP Ariba Procurement

Find out what your peers are saying about GEP SMART vs. SAP Ariba Procurement and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.

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