Managing Group Assignments

A group is a collection of users based on a logical division, such as:

• System role
• Department
• Location

Group membership enables users to perform specific tasks in the end-user and SAP Ariba Administrator interfaces. For example, only members of the Customer Administrator group can use SAP Ariba Administrator to import, export, and manage all types of data.

User Group membership can be used to:

• Determine the functions a user can perform.
• Route documents for approval.
• Control dashboard visibility.
• Setup email notifications.
• Control visibility on documents.
• Control visibility and validation of custom fields.

A group can contain many users, and a user can be assigned to many groups.

Some groups are specialized and only have actions in a single functional area; for example, the actions that a member of the Contract Manager group can perform are in the Contracts functional area.

Other groups can perform actions in multiple functional areas; for example, the actions a member of the Customer Administrator group can perform span the Sourcing, Supplier Management, and Contracts functional areas.

In the example above, Sourcing Agent contains four different users: Mary, Kirk, Juan, and Gene.

Kirk Stabler (user) belongs to the system groups Sourcing Agent, Contract Manager, and Report Administrator.

Headquarters is a custom-created group to help organize Kirk and identify him as a user at the organization’s headquarters.

There are two types of groups in SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing.

1. System Groups: SAP Ariba includes a number of default, or system-defined groups. To understand the capabilities of these groups, on the dashboard, choose Manage→Administration→User Manager→GroupsManage → Administration. Choose List All, and then view the Description field for each group.
   • Standard system groups grant users access to specific functionality.
   • Each system group description provides a list of actions that members of the group are able to perform.
   • The specific permissions associated with each group cannot be modified.
   • Example: Users who belong to the Reporting Manager group have permissions to access and manage reporting-related functionality.
2. Custom Groups: In addition to system groups, you can define your own groups.
   • Can be created to organize users by various logical divisions.
   • Are identified as AribaManaged.
   • Do not have direct permissions; instead, they can be added as a child of a system group, allowing custom groups to inherit system group permissions.
   • Example: A commodity approval group can be created to organize users who need to approve sourcing activities for specific commodity codes.
3. External: groups can be maintained in an external system, such as an ERP system or a set of CSV files.
   • Objects with this adapter source can be overwritten or deleted when data is imported from the external system.
   • Custom groups imported from a CSV file have this adapter source.

Administrators can assign custom groups as child groups of system groups to grant permissions to the custom group through a hierarchy. Only custom groups can be children of other groups, as system groups cannot be selected as a child of another group.

In the default configuration, some SAP Ariba system groups are already assigned out-of-the-box child groups, which inherit all the privileges of the parent group. For example:

• Members of the Sourcing Agent group can create sourcing events.
• The Event Administrator group is a child group of the Sourcing Agent group.
• Members of the Event Administrator group can also create events because the Event Administrator group inherits all the privileges of the Sourcing Agent group.

Each access level grants a unique set of permissions, which does not necessarily grant all permissions of "lesser" access levels. For example, a Sourcing Agent may not automatically be granted access to Supplier Management.

In the example of the image above:

• The custom group London Analysts is a child of the system group Senior Analyst.
• The custom group Boston Analyst is a child of custom group US Analysts.
• US Analysts is a parent group to New York Analysts, and Boston Analysts, and a child group of Senior Analysts.

• Groups can be used to grant functionality to a user.
• SAP Ariba solutions include standard system groups that have associated permissions.
• Groups can include other groups, and a user can belong to more than one group.
• Administrators can create custom groups that inherit permissions from the system groups they are children of.
• Groups can be used to route documents and approval rules and control document, dashboard, and field visibility.

Users that belong to the system group Customer User Administrator can edit user group assignments and create new custom groups.

To create a custom group, administrators can find the Groups page within the User Manager menu from the Administration page.

The Create Group button will draft a new custom group.

The Unique Name (system name) and Group Name (display name) are required fields to save the group which creates the new, custom group.

The Users and Child Groups tabs are optional.

On the Users tab, the Add/Remove button will open a user search where multiple users can be selected which assigns them to the new, custom group.

On the Child Groups tab, there is another Add/Remove option that will open a group search to create a hierarchy.

Once a custom group is drafted and saved, an administrator can then search for the system groups they want to assign as a parent group so that their new, custom group can inherit their permissions.

The administrator can edit a system group, and choose their custom group within the system group's Child Groups tab.

Users can be assigned to specific groups either:

1. By manually by editing Users or Groups in User Manager
2. By using the Import User Group Mapping data import/export functionality.

   

• Customer User Administrator users can create new groups and edit assignments.
• New groups are created in the Groups menu in User Manager using the Create Group button.
• The unique name and group name are required to create a new, custom group.
• The Users tab is used to assign active system users to the group.
• The Child Groups tab can be used to create a hierarchy.
• Administrators can edit system groups and assign custom groups as child groups to pass down system permissions.