Describing SAP Ariba 2402 Release Features

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature introduces additional options to the Due date rule in the Timing Rules section of the guided sourcing event templates to allow template administrators to:

• Specify a date and time value for the event end date.
• Delegate the event end date configuration to the event owners, or mark it as hidden or read-only.

As a template creator or a buyer administrator, you can choose to set the duration for the event ending time (Due date) or set a date and time. You can also choose one of the following rule options:

• Delegated: The ability to set the rule is transferred to the event owner. Both Duration and Time options for the event end date are displayed in the event. The event owner can choose one of the options and set the value.
• Read Only: Only the option selected in the template is displayed in the event. Event owner can set the value in the event.
• Hidden: Only the option selected in the template is displayed in the event. Event owner can set the value in the event.

This feature will help customers to get better control of configuring the bidding time.

This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled.

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature introduces an Intelligent Configuration Manager parameter that enables buyer users to publish sourcing events without inviting suppliers.

When the parameter Enable publishing an event without inviting suppliers is set to Yes, sourcing events can be published without inviting suppliers.

This feature will allow customers to publish sourcing events without inviting suppliers.

• This feature is supported in the classic SAP Ariba Sourcing user interface and the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.
• You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to configure the parameter.

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Contracts
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Customer configured
• Feature IDs Associated with This Feature
  • SC-19392
  • SS-44926
  • SS-49633

This feature enables template administrators to prevent event owners from creating new user groups in contract workspaces and sourcing requests, events, and projects.

When the Intelligent Configuration Manager (ICM) parameter Disable User Group Creation in Contract Workspaces and Guided Sourcing Projects (Application.ACM.DisableUserGroupCreation) is set to Yes, a new field, Disable User Groups Creation, becomes available in the contract workspace and sourcing templates. When Template Creators set the Disable User Groups Creation field to Yes, the following options are hidden from event owners:

• Create group in the Teams popup in sourcing projects and sourcing requests
• Overview → Edit Team → Create Group in contract workspaces

When the Create group option is hidden, it prevents the event owners from creating new user groups.

This feature prevents event owners from being able to create user groups in a contract workspace.

• You must enable the ICM parameter, Application.ACM.DisableUserGroupCreation.
• This feature is supported in both classic sourcing and guided sourcing user interfaces. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.
• For this feature to work in contract workspaces, your site must have SAP Ariba Contracts integrated with SAP Ariba Sourcing.

Previously, event owners were able to create new user groups in contract workspaces and in sourcing requests, events, and projects.

Now, the sourcing (sourcing requests, full projects and single-event projects in both guided sourcing and classic souring) and contract workspace templates can be configured to prevent event owners from creating new user groups when the ICM parameter Application.ACM.DisableUserGroupCreation is set to Yes. Template administrators can set the Disable User Groups Creation field, which appears under the Overview tab of the sourcing and contract templates, to Yes to hide the following options and thus prevent event owners from creating new user groups:

• Teams → Create group in sourcing requests, events, and projects in sourcing
• Overview → Edit Team → Create Group in contract workspaces

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature introduces an enhancement to the offline grading functionality in guided sourcing.

During offline grading, you can use the Scoring Weight column. Graders can export event content as an Excel file, grade it offline, and import it back into the event to complete the grading task.

With this feature, buyers or graders have the option to download an offline grading file, fill it out, and upload it back to the SAP Ariba application.

• This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.
• You must be the event owner or have project owner capabilities for the event.

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature enhances the supplier search and filtering options in guided sourcing instances that are integrated with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance by incorporating custom filters from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. The custom filters from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance are displayed in the Invite Suppliers page of guided sourcing events.

Custom filter integration from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supports the following types of filters:

• Text
• Short text
• Multiline free text
• Yes/No (Boolean)
• Whole number and percentage

Text, Short text, and Multiline free text filters can support free text entries or choices and allow single or multiple choices. Whole number and percentage type filters can support ranges and choices. Filters with up to five choices display the options as checkboxes. When there are more than five choices, they are displayed as multiselect dropdowns.

Apart from the custom search filters that are integrated from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you can continue to use the supplier search filters that are available in SAP Ariba Sourcing and the out-of-the-box search filters integrated from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.

You can activate the search filters by selecting the corresponding entries from the Search criteria setting dropdown. The filters appear in the Filters panel in the same order they are listed in the Search criteria setting dropdown. The custom filters are listed after the filters from SAP Ariba Sourcing and the out-of-the-box search filters integrated from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.

Project owners who are searching for suppliers to invite to their sourcing events now have access to certain SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor data so they can make decisions about who to invite to their events.

• Your site must have an active integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
• This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.

The filters you select from the Search criteria setting dropdown are session-specific and are cleared when you leave the session. You need to select the filters again the next time you want to access the filters.

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Business Network Discovery
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature enables buyers using guided sourcing to create and publish SAP Business Network Discovery postings for public- and private-sector events. SAP Business Network Discovery postings enhance the reach of the events and enable suppliers who are not part of the buyer’s supplier network to express their interest in participating in the event. In public-sector events, such suppliers, who express interest, are automatically invited; in private-sector events, buyer users can choose to invite all, some, or none of such suppliers.

You can utilize SAP Business Network Discovery to expand your supplier network beyond your established SAP Ariba supplier network and invite new suppliers to participate in guided sourcing events.

The feature provides buyers the option to publish private sector and public sector discovery posts in SAP Business Network. It will allow new suppliers in SAP Business Network or external suppliers to find the posting details and express intent to participate. It also provides the ability for suppliers to bid on the event in case of public sector posting.

• Your site must be integrated with SAP Business Network Discovery.
• This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.

• The parameter Block classic sourcing creation (Application.AQS.RFX.BlockClassicSourcingCreation) must be enabled for your site.

  If you are a new customer, the parameter Block classic sourcing creation (Application.AQS.RFX.BlockClassicSourcingCreation) is enabled by default during site deployment to make sure that new customers use only guided sourcing for event creation. If you are an existing customer and you want to create events using guided sourcing instead of classic SAP Ariba Sourcing, you need to submit a service request to SAP Ariba Support to enable this parameter.

• The feature SRC-1401 and the parameter Application.AQS.RFX.EnablePublicSector must be enabled for your site. Contact SAP Ariba Support to enable the feature and the parameter.
• The guided sourcing event must be in the Draft state.
• To create an SAP Business Network Discovery posting for the public sector, the event must be created from a template with the Is the sourcing event for the public sector rule set to Yes.

• Currently, migration of postings from the legacy SAP Business Network Discovery to the new SAP Business Network Discovery is not supported in guided sourcing.
• Localization is not supported for fields that are retrieved from third-party sites.
• Search is not supported for Commodities and Regions fields.
• When the parameter Block classic sourcing creation (Application.AQS.RFX.BlockClassicSourcingCreation) is enabled, the following UI elements in the dashboard become unavailable:
  • The Supplier Discovery Postings pane
  • The Supplier Research Posting option in the Create menu

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature enables template administrators to create guided sourcing templates that restrict the project owners from adding users and groups that are not specified in the template to the review and approval tasks in full projects, events, and sourcing requests.

This feature helps customers with compliance and regulatory requirements by restricting project owners' actions on review and approval tasks so that only a specific set of users or groups can be assigned to them.

• This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface. To use this feature in the guided sourcing user interface, your site must have guided sourcing enabled and you must be a member of the Category Buyer group.
• You must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates project’s Template Creators team group to create or edit templates.

• Applicable Products
  • SAP Ariba Sourcing
  • SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
• User Type
  • Buyer
• Enablement Model
  • Automatically on

This feature enables you to integrate Scoutbee Supplier Discovery capabilities with guided sourcing.

Buyers using guided sourcing can utilize Scoutbee Supplier Discovery to expand their supplier network beyond their established SAP Ariba supplier network and invite new suppliers to participate in guided sourcing events.

Customers will now be able to discover new suppliers by publishing a supplier discovery demand request to Scoutbee Supplier Discovery. The demand request is processed by Scoutbee through both automated and manual processes and a list of suppliers matching the demand is provided to the customer in guided sourcing.

• This feature is supported only in the guided sourcing user interface.
• Your solution package must include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture).
• A member of the Customer Administrator group must enable the Intelligent Configuration Manager (ICM) parameter Application.AQS.Scoutbee.Enabled and configure the following ICM parameters:
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.IntelligenceURL
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.OAuthAudience
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.OAuthClientId
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.OAuthClientSecret
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.OAuthGrantType
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.OAuthURL
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.ServiceURL
  • Application.AQS.Scoutbee.SupplierProfileUrl
• In order to use the Scoutbee Supplier Discovery functionality, a Scoutbee license is required.

Scoutbee Supplier Discovery requests may take up to 48 hours to return results.

For more information about this feature, watch 2402 Readiness Feature Preview: Scoutbee Supplier Discovery™ Integration with Guided Sourcing (SS-49324) – Demo.