Check out my quick overview on the SAP Ariba Network. I hope it helps others as much as writing it helped me.
What is the SAP Ariba Network?
The Ariba Network is where suppliers and buyers go to hang out. It’s where all the cool businesses go to buy and sell things online. You thought Amazon was cool, think again. The Ariba Network is a cloud environment that enables buyers and suppliers to interact and build transactional and strategic relationships. Exciting!
People like to shop online these days. It only makes sense for organizations and businesses to do them same. Buying stuff with paper is lame. Only the most radical people buy things without having to print, sign, scan, copy and email a crooked PDF. Overall, SAP Ariba Network is a much simpler way of transacting B2B relationships. SAP defines the Ariba Network as a “connection-centric approach where buyers and suppliers can establish trading relationships in the cloud”. Take a moment and think about how you buy things online today. You search and buy something on Amazon. You have a personal account that contains your information. You order an item and can track it at a basic level. The goods arrive at your house and you are once again happy. Very simple. The Ariba Network is similar. It’s just a lot bigger. A company would have access to many suppliers via the network. Buyers and Suppliers are managing their procurements and relationships through a single tool making their procurement processes electronic. Vendors can be customers and customers can be vendors. More or less.
After learning about Ariba I found these to be the top benefits of the Ariba Network:
- It is a modern way of buying and supplying goods/services
- Ariba Network is a document repository
- Ariba Network enforces powerful Business Rules
The Ariba Network brings buyers and suppliers to a more modern way of doing B2B/e-commerce transactions. Similar to SAP Fiori, it has a fairly intuitive user interface. It also holds many message types such as Purchase Orders (PO), Advance Shipping Notices (ASN), Goods Receipts (GR), Invoices, and others. No more snail mail! Ariba also offers a lot of powerful business rules. These are rules you define and set as a business. They govern and help support your processes. For example, a Goods receipt must be created before payment, an ASN is needed before a GR, or various invoicing rules. Rules can also be made on supplier types. Maybe you want to sort by the size or volume of your suppliers.
The Ariba Network enables suppliers to connect in multiple ways. This empowers all types such as small family run suppliers, or large global suppliers. Suppliers can connect to the network via email, fax, online, cloud integration gateway, EDI, or cXML.
Basic Buyer Summary:
- Buyers can communicate with suppliers and send things such as orders or even forecasts via the network.
- Buyers can use Ariba Buying and or Invoicing solutions to create orders and send via the Ariba Network.
- They can also transmit orders between their ERP system and Ariba Network if desired.
- Each buying organization will have a buyer account. This is different then the users accounts your coworkers/employees would be using.
- Customers of Ariba can also implement Single Sign On (SSO) if desired.
- And much more.
Basic Supplier Summary:
- Suppliers can receive and accept orders.
- They can have multiple supplier accounts linking to different buyers.
- Any supplier can register with the Ariba Network; however, they must have at least one Buyer create a relationship with them before the supplier can start transacting.
- There are different account types available to supplier. These types could be standard or enterprise and are based on size and cost (paid to Ariba to transact via the network).
- All suppliers are given a supplier network ID. This field helps to bridge the Ariba Network with your ERP system.
- They can send order confirmations and ASN.
- They can invoice the Buyers.
- And much more.
How does one get their suppliers onto the Ariba Network?
When you work to implement Ariba, you will most likely need a plan to get your suppliers onto the Ariba Network. Maybe you’re lucky and all your suppliers already have Ariba Network accounts. If not, Supplier enablement is the process of getting suppliers ready to transact with your business via the Ariba Network. Overall, you will need to analyze you suppliers, onboard them, and monitor them. As a buyer you’ll need to have a plan. What is your strategy for overall supplier relationships? It doesn’t have to be the same for each supplier. Maybe you just want to find the cheapest option for product A, or maybe you want to develop stronger relationships and create a true partnership.
Implement the Ariba Network — very short explanation:
If you are a business looking to implement Ariba, you will most likely be working with two parties. SAP Ariba themselves, and probably some consulting firm. SAP will introduce you to its enablement plan. It’s meant to help you as you go through the path of getting Ariba. Basically, you will do something like the following:
- Analyze your suppliers. For example, which of your suppliers are already on the Ariba Network?
- Analyze your spend data. For example, which of your suppliers are high vs lower volume?
- Create a plan to enable and educate your suppliers. Change is scary and hard. Change management is important. Don’t forget!
- Ariba Network account configuration. Making all the bells and whistles do their things.
- Various letters and communications need to be distributed internally and to suppliers. Again, change is hard. Communication is generally recommended.
- Others various tasks.
Getting that information is part of identifying your suppliers. The next step would be to prioritize them. This is important as it helps when reaching out to suppliers to register onto the Ariba Network. Ariba will also help with educating suppliers. In addition, testing is involved when onboarding starts. It will help determine whether you connected with your suppliers correctly and what not. Once you get your training wheels off, you’ll be able to transact with your suppliers and hopefully meet/discover new ones through the Ariba Network. Wow!
Relevant links and source:
A lot my knowledge and experience on SAP Ariba is through my work experience. In addition to that, I use the sources listed below. I am no Ariba expert. My only goal is to write so I can learn more and hopefully help others.
- SAP Learning Hub
- SAP Help Portal
- SAP Provides a lot of free resource such as this Intro to Ariba
- SAP Yard — nice site to bookmark if you want more technical knowledge.
- SAP Community page
- SAP Ariba Resources
Cheers!
