If a customer deploys both strategic and operational procurement solutions, SAP recommend these solutions be suite integrated to benefit from the full capabilities the solutions have to offer, such as seamless source-to-pay business processes and sharing select master data.
Benefits of suite integration:
- Management of the entire spend cycle: Customers can manage their entire spend cycle, from source to invoice (depending upon their solutions), in one site.
- Centralized site administration: Administrators can manage master data, user accounts, and more from a central location.
- Centralized user experience: End users can log in to one site with one set of user credentials to access all of their SAP Ariba-related projects and activities.
- Reporting: Clients can run and schedule reports from a single site and leverage strategic sourcing and procurement data in the same report (where possible).
When the strategic (upstream) and operational (downstream) procurement solutions are suite-integrated, the complete source-to-pay process can be seamlessly supported in a single user interface. For example:
- Requisitions and invoices in SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing can reference contracts negotiated in SAP Ariba Contracts.
- Requisitions in the guided buying capability can launch simple RFPs in SAP Ariba Sourcing.
- Preferred suppliers in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance can influence supplier selection across the entire source-to-pay flow
The following master data is synchronized between the sourcing site (SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, "upstream") and the procurement site (SAP Ariba Buying, "downstream") when suite integration is performed:
- Currency conversion rates
- User and user group assignments
- Suppliers (not supplier users in sourcing)
- Commodity codes
After suite integration, the maintenance of this data is managed from the procurement site via Core Administration.
If either SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing solutions or SAP Ariba Procurement solutions are in production (live), data migration may be required to allow suite integration activities to be performed.
Key Considerations
Key considerations include (but are not limited to):
- Harmonization and possible migration of supplier data prior to suite integration
- Harmonization and possible migration of user data prior to suite integration
- Possible migration of contract data to ensure data reference integrity
- Updating your SAP Ariba Contracts project templates to include the Payment Terms document, and/or changes to your Contract Request procedures in SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing
Sufficient time should be planned for your Prepare and Deploy phases to accommodate these activities. Defer to your Deployment Lead at SAP, who will lead the suite integration activities, for guidance.
Summary
- Suite integration enables seamless source-to-pay processes, centralized administration, a unified user experience, and integrated reporting across procurement solutions.
- Supplier, user, and contract data may require migration and harmonization before performing suite integration.
- Allocate sufficient time for data migration, template updates, and integration activities during the implementation process.
- Your SAP Deployment Lead provides critical support and direction throughout the suite integration activities.