Discussing Best Practices in the Configuration of SAP Ariba Direct Materials Sourcing and Central Purchase Contracts

By defining item types and their classification, you are setting up available items in Product Sourcing (for example, Project item or Invest item). Items represent materials or services that you would like to purchase.

The following item types are supported:

• Standard item
• Project item
• Invest item
• Item set

Item types and their configuration influence mandatory fields and available follow-on documents. You can introduce different naming and icons for the item types. The type of the item will be influenced by the item classification (If you set classification to Complex, the item will always require a procurement project behind it).

Central Contracts can be created based on supplier quotation from sourcing projects. To use Central Contracts, you need to define Central Contract document types. You can define specific document types for Central Contracts, which are created based on sourcing projects (for example, for reporting needs).

Additionally, you need to define allowed item categories. For SAP Ariba Direct Materials Sourcing, you need the Standard Item category. The other item categories are not supported in sourcing projects, but can be used in the Central Contract scenario.

To use Central Contracts, you need to define Central Contract document types. When this is configured, you will be able to also define mandatory fields (field selection) or follow-on processes (allowed item categories).

Once your sourcing project is finished and you have an awarded quotation, you will be able to use it for follow-on document creation. In this customizing, you will define central contracts documents or purchase order documents. For a central contract document, you can also define the document type.

In this customizing, you will define a group for follow-on documents. Once it is created, you can assign which documents you would like to allow in the group. For Central Contracts, you can define allowed document types.

Contact categories are used to categorize contacts in the process. You can create special categories that you can assign to contact persons in a sourcing project or quotation. When you provide such categories, the supplier/buyer will be able to contact the person responsible for a specific topic (like Engineering for technical questions or Sales for commercial topics).

First, you need to define contact categories, considering both buyer and supplier side. Once the categories are defined, you need to assign them to a group. At the end, you will need to assign any needed contact categories to sourcing projects and/or supplier quotations via a group.

Milestones provide the possibility to manage the progress of the sourcing project. By managing the milestones and their status, you gain visibility into the project’s progress, including what stage the project is in and any delays to the original planning.

First, you need to create types of milestones (for example, kick-off meeting or technical sign-off). Later you will define the possible statuses of milestones. You also need to create milestone groups and define the sequence of milestones. The sequence will determine how the milestones appear on the timeline.

In addition to milestones, you can use phases to indicate the stages of your sourcing project. The phases will appear in the project header. They are internal information about the sourcing project progress.

The phase model is customized in a similar way as milestones. First you need to set up the phases, then assign them to phase group and create a sequence in which they should appear.

After activating this switch, you will be able to collect carbon footprint data. This will enable you to request this data from suppliers and bidders.

To be able to use this feature, you need to activate following business function: MM_PUR_SRCG_PRODUCT_FOOTPRINT.

When you activate this feature, you will be able to add new suppliers in published sourcing projects. Once the project is published, you will need to update the supplier list to add new suppliers. The supplier will receive the published sourcing project.

To be able to use this feature, you need to activate the following business function: PROD_SRCG_ADD_SUPPL_2_PUBLISHED.

Cost Breakdown provide the option to request detailed pricing with listed price components from a supplier. You can use it to better understand the supplier pricing by breaking down the total cost into individual components. During the setup, you need to enable Cost Breakdown and decide which conditions will be relevant for the Cost Breakdown template.

Activate MM_PUR_SUPLR_COST_BRKDWN_TMPL. Once this is activated, add any needed conditions to the Cost Breakdown template.

Sourcing project type definition enables you to add specific types of sourcing that will fulfill your business needs. For example, assignment of different milestones or phase models to a specific sourcing project type. Additionally, in Sourcing Project Types, you can assign a scenario to your sourcing project type. A scenario is a set of customizations provided by SAP to enable certain starting points, field selection, or integration scenarios. Each sourcing project type can be assigned only to one scenario. You can create several sourcing project types with the same scenario.

In this customizing, you can define and name the sourcing project type. You will assign the following features: Contact Category Group, Phase Group, Milestone Group, Follow-On Document Group, Scenario, and Reason Group Codes to the sourcing project type.

The suitability evaluation allows other parties to provide feedback about the item in the supplier quotation. This feedback is simply for informational purposes and does not affect the subsequent steps in the process.

You can define suitability evaluation per sourcing project type and item classification.

For Central Contracts, you can define the screen layout. You need to enable the layouts for Central Contract document types.

In screen layout definition, you can define the screen layout for Central Contracts. Please ensure that the following layouts are available in your system:

• ME31C
• ME32C
• ME33C
• MKC
• PT0C
• PT2C
• PT3C
• PT4C
• PT8C
• WKC