When a customer subscribes to an SAP Ariba solution, SAP automatically provisions the solutions on an SAP Ariba "site" (or "realm") in a data center. By default, the customer is provisioned a Test site and a Production site.
SAP also creates two buyer accounts on SAP Business Network:
- An account connected to the customer production site
- An account for the customer test site, identified by -t added to the Ariba Network ID (ANID)
If the customer already has an ANID, this will be used instead of creating a new account. This might be the case if the customer has another SAP Ariba solution already deployed, such as SAP Business Network Commerce Automation or SAP Business Network for Supply Chain.
Strategic Solutions
Strategic SAP Ariba solutions (sometimes referred to as "upstream") include SAP Ariba Sourcing, SAP Ariba Contracts, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, and SAP Ariba Supplier Risk. These solutions are all provisioned on the same site. A site is often referred to as a realm.
The solutions provisioned on the same site share:
- Master data (including users and their permissions)
- Integration configurations
- Project templates repository
- Parameters and feature toggles
- Extensions and configurations
- dForms
They also share dashboard configurations and Administration tools.
If included in solution scope, SAP Ariba Spend Analysis is deployed on the same strategic solution site as SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing solutions. SAP Ariba Spend Analysis, however, is only deployed on the Production site. Furthermore, SAP Ariba Spend Analysis only shares user data, dashboard, and Administration tools with the other strategic sourcing suite solutions.
Operational Solutions
The operational procurement solutions include SAP Ariba Buying, SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing, SAP Ariba Invoice Management, and SAP Ariba Catalog solutions, which are all deployed on the same site—but separate from the strategic SAP Ariba solutions site. You access administration tools for operational procurement through Core Administration.
Operational procurement solutions are sometimes referred to as "downstream" solutions.
Operational procurement is often deployed in a parent/child architecture with one parent site, and one or several child sites to mirror a customer ERP landscape. This is referred to as "multi-site" architecture, or Federated Process Control (FPC). Common data, such as currencies, user data, common supplier, and catalogs, are managed in the parent site, and transactions and ERP-specific data such as accounting codes and configurations are managed at child level
Summary
- SAP Ariba solutions are automatically provisioned with a Test site and a Production site in designated data centers.
- Strategic solutions (upstream) share master data, templates, dashboard configurations, and administrative tools when deployed on the same site.
- SAP Ariba Spend Analysis is only deployed on the Production site and partially shares data with other strategic solutions.
- Operational solutions (downstream) are deployed on separate sites, often using a parent/child architecture for multi-site management.