Creating a New Supplier

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to define steps to create a supplier request form and approve a new supplier.

Source-to-Order with Contract Compliance Process Flow

Process flowchart detailing supplier, sourcing, contract, and buying steps, showing roles like sourcing agent, vendor manager, contract manager, and site manager.

Suppliers and Supplier Requests

Suppliers can be loaded to the SAP Ariba solution in a number of ways:

  • From an external system, e.g. an ERP system
  • Through a mass upload
  • Individually as needed

Users in your company who want to work with new suppliers can request a new supplier by filling out and submitting a supplier request.

Supplier requests are based on a template which determines:

  • What information users need to provide in order to submit the request
  • Which category or supplier managers approve the request
  • Whether other stakeholders at your company must also approve the request

Additional Activities

After the request for a supplier has been approved, the supplier contact is invited to register and sent a registration questionnaire.

Supplier registration is sent to the supplier to finalize by updating their information and responding to the questionnaire.

With Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, a category or supplier manager can:

  • Qualify the supplier for one or more specific combinations of commodity categories and regions
  • Evaluate the supplier for a preferred status level (if your company uses preferred supplier levels)
  • Disqualify the supplier for commodity categories and regions for which it was previously qualified
Process flow diagram with four steps: Request, Registration, Qualification, and Preferred Status, represented by connected directional arrows.

Requesting a Supplier for Sourcing

Steps for requesting a supplier for sourcing: form creation, approval by supplier manager, event invitation, and registration invitation upon publish.

Step 1: Create Supplier Request Form and Submit for Approval

Supplier request form displaying fields for organization information, contact details including name, email, and phone, as well as additional information.
Customizable Request Form
Your organization can customize the supplier request form to capture the data required for supplier enablement
Duplicate Checking
Form fields can be marked to look for duplicate entries and alert requesters before the form is submitted

Step 2: Supplier Manager Reviews and Approves Supplier Request

Approval workflow for supplier registration showing stages, company information, ownership details, and certification questions for the registration process.
Configurable Process
  • Use the Supplier Request Template to control who must approve new suppliers under which situations
Multiple Approvals
  • The approval process might be complex, with conditions determining who must approve, and multiple approvers added in serial or parallel as is required

Step 3: Supplier is Available to be Invited to the Event

Supplier profile overview displaying registration status, qualification details, contact information, activity log, and sections like ERP profile and certificates.
Supplier 360
  • View supplier data on the supplier profile, including registration status, metadata, contact information, and more
Additional Steps with SLP
  • If your organization is using SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you can begin qualifications and set preferred supplier status from the 360 profile

Step 4: On Event Publish, a Registration Invitation is Sent

SAP Ariba Education Integrated event invitation email providing details on event timing, registration instructions, access link, and support contact information.
Standard Account
  • Suppliers will be given an Ariba Network account they can use for basic activities like responding to RFPs and transmitting documents
  • There is no fee for suppliers to use the Standard Account features
One Account for All Customers
  • Suppliers will be able to utilize a single Ariba Network account for all connected customers on the Ariba Network

Create a Supplier Request

As a functional buyer, you are requesting account creation for a supplier you think would be a good fit for your organization. After submitting the request, the vendor manager will review and approve the supplier for creation in SAP Ariba.

After completing this activity, you will be able to:

  • Create and approve a supplier request

ExerciseStart Exercise

Learning

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