Configuring Specific Templates and Features

Before an approved supplier record is created in SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions, you may wish to validate it against the information in the SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S).

The Enable external ERP approval integration setting enables you to send approved supplier requests to MDG-S to be validated against supplier and customer business partners. Any duplicates are identified and information, such as address and Dun & Bradstreet ID, is validated. If necessary, information is corrected based on the information in MDG-S, which is always the source of truth in this scenario.

To enable the setting, you must be a member of the SM ERP Administrator user group and complete the following steps:

1. On the dashboard, choose Manage → SM Administration.
2. Choose ERP Integration.
3. In the Supplier profile update synchronization area, select the Enable external ERP approval checkbox.
4. Choose Save.

To configure the Internal Supplier Request template, complete the following steps:

1. Edit the supplier request form.
2. Edit the team.
3. Edit the approval task.

When using the Internal Supplier Request template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an internal request form with an approval task.
• The template does not support any additional documents.
• The template only supports Approval tasks on its single survey document. You can add approval tasks in addition to the template's default approval task on the internal request survey document and chain them together as predecessors, but you cannot add any other type of task to the template.
• You must configure the minimum required content in the internal request form: supplier name and contact first name, last name, and email address.
• If you want to use buyer category assignments to add approvers, you must configure Commodity, Region, and (if enabled) Department questions in the internal request form.

This table outlines the required and recommended content for the internal supplier request form.

To configure the External Supplier Request template, complete the following steps:

1. Edit the external supplier request form.
2. Edit the team.
3. Edit the approval task.

When using the External Supplier Request template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an external request form with an approval task.
• The template does not support any additional documents.
• The template only supports Approval tasks on its single survey document.
  • You can add approval tasks in addition to the template's default approval task on the external request survey document and chain them together as predecessors, but you cannot add any other type of task to the template.
• You must configure the minimum required content in the internal request form: supplier name and contact first name, last name, and email address.
• If you want to use buyer category assignments to add approvers, you must configure Commodity, Region, and (if enabled) Department questions in the internal request form.
• Internal users cannot edit external supplier requests, so do not add questions intended for internal users to external supplier requests.

This table outlines the required and recommended content for the external supplier request form.

Depending on your site’s configuration, the system may automatically send a registration invitation to a newly approved supplier or may require an internal user to manually send a registration invitation.

A site-level parameter, Application.SM.AutoStartRegistration, controls whether or not supplier registration is started automatically upon approval of a supplier request. By default, a category or supplier manager must manually invite the supplier to register after the supplier request is approved.

To configure different workflows for new registrations and registration updates, you must create separate phases. Complete the following steps:

1. Create a phase for new registrations.
2. In the Choose where the tasks in this phase should be applied field, select New Registration.
3. Add the approval task for the initial registration and add any other tasks associated with initial registration tasks, such as To Do tasks for internal surveys, to this phase.
4. Create a phase for registration updates.
5. In the Choose where the tasks in this phase should be applied field, select Registration Update.
6. Add the approval task for the registration update and add any other tasks associated with registration update tasks, such as To Do tasks for internal surveys, to this phase.

You can use editability conditions to allow the suppliers you already work with to skip the questions in the registration questionnaire that apply to new suppliers. Both suppliers and internal users can see the questions, and if you import or migrate your legacy suppliers’ previous answers, they are also visible.

To streamline the registration questionnaire for legacy suppliers using editability conditions, complete the following steps:

1. At the project level, create a field match condition based on the Is Legacy field and set a value equal to No.
2. In the survey, add or edit a question that you want legacy suppliers to skip.
3. In the question, select the Is Legacy = No condition as the Edibility Conditions setting.

   Only suppliers that are not legacy suppliers can edit the answer to the question.

You can use visibility or editability conditions to prevent suppliers from editing the answers they provided during their initial registration when they subsequently update the registration questionnaire.

To prevent suppliers from editing initial answers during registration updates, complete the following steps:

1. At the project level, create a field match condition based on the Registration Status field and set a value not equal to Registered.
2. In the survey, add or edit a question that you do not want registered suppliers to be able to update.
3. In the question, complete one of the following steps:
   1. In the Visibility Conditions field, select Registration Status ≠ Registered.
      Note

      There are two types of apostrophes used.

      If the question is not visible to the supplier during the update, both the question and the supplier's original answer are also hidden from your company’s internal users when they review the supplier's registration update.

   2. In the Editability Conditions field, select Registration Status ≠ Registered.

To keep supplier profile information current, you can set up external supplier registration questionnaires so that they generate periodic email notifications reminding suppliers to submit updates. The update interval you specify in the survey document’s Rules determines when periodic updates are due.

If you do not enable the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely setting for an external survey, it automatically closes to further updates in the amount of time specified in the Application.AQS.RFX.ReopenIfClosedInterval parameter.

SAP Ariba recommends that you enable the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely setting or make sure that the reminder interval you set is shorter than the amount of time specified in your site's Application.AQS.RFX.ReopenIfClosedInterval parameter.

The bank component feature uses a question with a special Bank Account answer type to collect supplier bank information in external supplier management questionnaires. A set of predefined fields in the question enables you to ask for bank details automatically, without having to create a separate question for each detail.

Note the following security features:

• IBAN number and Account number are masked by default. While you can edit the masking pattern, if you remove it entirely, the default overrides your edit and still applies.
• SAP Ariba encrypts certain fields in the vendor database to provide an additional layer of protection for sensitive data.
• After a supplier has been flagged as inactive in your site for 30 days, SAP Ariba automatically deletes all data in bank, tax, and supplier contact database fields. If you reactivate the supplier after this, you must collect that information again.

Bank Account questions are designed for use in repeatable sections. This allows suppliers to provide details for as many bank accounts as they choose.

To configure the bank component feature, complete the following steps:

1. Import master data for optional features.
2. Add a question to an external questionnaire.
3. Set the answer type to Bank Account.
4. Review the field masking pattern.
5. Provide the supplier field mapping.

The tax component feature uses a question with a special Tax answer type to collect supplier tax IDs. Tax questions include a set of customer-configured fields that enables you to automatically ask for those country-specific tax IDs instead of having to create a separate conditional question for each individual tax ID in each country.

Note the following security features:

• SAP Ariba encrypts certain fields in the supplier database to provide an additional layer of protection for sensitive data.
• After a supplier has been flagged as inactive in your site for 30 days, SAP Ariba automatically deletes all data in bank, tax, and supplier contact database fields. If you reactivate the supplier after this, you must collect that information again.

To configure the tax component feature, complete the following steps:

1. Import the tax metadata.
2. Add a question to an external questionnaire.
3. Set the answer type to Tax.
4. Provide the supplier field mapping.

You may need to maintain information about the supplier that is specific to your company’s processes, inducing the following:

• ERP profile information such as company code and purchasing organization
• Supplier blocking indicators
  • Blocking is a less drastic step than deactivating a supplier.
  • You can set up five types of blocks: central block, payment block, purchasing block, company code-specific block, and purchasing organization-specific block.
  • SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions do not enforce supplier blocks. Users can still invite blocked suppliers to sourcing events and create contracts and purchase orders for blocked suppliers. However, a visual indicator of a supplier's blocked status is visible in their supplier profile.
• Flags for supplier deletion
  • Flagging a supplier for deletion can inactivate the supplier in the SAP Ariba supplier database or set a deletion flag for a specific company code or purchasing organization in an integrated ERP system.

To maintain this information, you can configure one or more internal-facing questionnaires that users at your company fill out and submit.

To configure an internal registration questionnaire, complete the following steps in the Supplier Registration Template:

1. At the project level, create a new survey document.
2. In the survey, select the following values in the Supplier Management area on the Rules page:
   1. In the Specify questionnaire format field, choose Form.
   2. In the Specify questionnaire type field, choose Internal or Supplier Profile.
3. Add content to the survey.

To configure the Supplier Registration template, complete the following steps:

1. Edit the supplier registration questionnaire.
2. Edit the team.
3. Add phases to the supplier registration questionnaire.
4. Edit the approval task.
5. Add additional approval tasks.
6. Add internal surveys.
7. Add tasks for internal surveys.

When using the Supplier Registration template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an external survey document with an approval task.
• The template only supports survey documents.
  • The template supports multiple external and internal questionnaire survey documents.
• The template only supports To Do and Approval tasks.
  • You must create an Approval task for each external questionnaire you add.
  • It is optional to create To Do and/or Approval tasks for each internal questionnaire you add.
• You can use the questionnaire type setting to control whether or not approval or rejection of an internal survey document affects the supplier's registration status.
• The template only supports the use of phases to define separate workflows for new and updated registration questionnaires.
• The template does not add team members to project groups based on buyer category assignments.
• Internal and external registrations both use the same supplier registration project template, but the template does not support creating conditional content or workflows based on whether a registration is external or internal.

Modular questionnaire project templates define the questionnaires and workflows your organization uses to gather and maintain discrete sets of related information, such as certificate information, qualification information, and data privacy or security practices, about suppliers.

You can create multiple SM Modular Questionnaire templates, one for each modular supplier management questionnaire. Each SM Modular Questionnaire template specifies the type of questionnaire, its content, and its approval flow.

To configure an SM Modular Questionnaire template, complete the following steps:

1. Import the master data.
2. Create a new template.
3. Edit the template properties.
4. Add an external survey.
5. Add phases and tasks for the external surveys.

When using SM Modular Questionnaire templates, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The templates must always include a survey document.
  • Do not add any other type of document, or more than one survey document, to the templates.
• External templates only support To Do and Approval tasks, but they do not require any tasks.
  • If you do not add an approval task to the survey document, the project is automatically approved when the respondent submits the questionnaire.
  • Make sure that the names you give to tasks clearly associate them with the questionnaires to which they belong so that respondents can easily identify the associations.
• The templates only support the use of phases to define separate workflows for new and updated modular supplier management questionnaires.

You can apply standardized, template-driven judgments to the answers to questions on a modular supplier management questionnaire by defining scoring. By providing an indication of the desirability or acceptability of respondent answers, scoring reduces the need for subjective judgments.

In modular supplier management questionnaire scoring, predefined grades for individual questions combine with their importance and the weight of their sections to produce numerical scores for the sections. Section scores roll up into an overall numerical score for the questionnaire.

Section and questionnaire scores are percentages that express how many points the questionnaire answers earned out of the maximum number of possible points.

Every score falls within a scoring band, or grouping of scores. All scores within a band receive the same judgment and the same label, such as Good, Average, or Poor. Colored dots provide a visual indicator of the band in which the score falls.

To configure scoring for modular supplier management questionnaires, complete the following steps:

1. Import master data.
2. Add scoring to the questionnaire.
3. Set up scoring bands on the Overview tab of the template.
4. Set up scoring bands on the sections in the questionnaire.

The use of scoring in modular supplier management questionnaires is limited as follows:

• Scoring and section-level scoring bands are currently not supported for repeatable sections.
• In sites that use the classic supplier 360° profile, overall questionnaire scores and scoring band indicators are not visible on the Questionnaires tile.

You collect and maintain supplier certificates in modular supplier management questionnaires.

SM Modular Questionnaire templates can contain one or more certificate questions, or certificate sections with individual certificate questions, along with other types of content. They include the following features to support certificate management:

• Commodity, Region, and Department properties for the project template, which allow you to tie a certificate or set of certificates to the specific combinations of commodity, region, and department to which they’re applicable
• Questionnaire type and certificate type fields, which allow you to differentiate between modular questionnaire projects that serve different purposes and categorize the certificates they contain
• Expiration schedules and notification settings for both certificate questions (in question or certificate section settings) and entire questionnaires (in the questionnaire survey document’ Supplier Management rules)

If the New certificate section with customizable certificate fields feature is enabled in your site, you have the option to create certificate sections for adding certificate questions in modular supplier management questionnaire templates.

This feature allows you to:

• Customize the standard certificate fields that are automatically included in the certificate section
• Add more questions within the certificate section
• Define visibility and editability conditions for the standard certificate fields and the additional questions in the certificate section
• Create multiple certificate sections by copying and pasting an existing certificate section

To configure certificate management, complete the following steps:

1. Import the master data.
2. Add content to the survey in an SM Modular Questionnaire template.

If the New modular process framework for qualification and custom supplier lifecycle processes feature is enabled in your site, your organization can use supplier management process projects to collect information about and decide status for supplier qualifications or other business processes.​

Process projects provide a flexible, repeatable framework for creating different supplier management processes for different types of suppliers using different combinations of modular supplier management questionnaires.​

A process project can be for:​

• Qualification: You can create multiple different qualification processes to ask for specific information for a particular combination of commodities, regions, and departments; leverage separate approval flows; and create internal-only qualification processes.​
• Miscellaneous processes: You can tailor multiple different processes to specific circumstances and for specific types of suppliers using collections of modular questionnaires.​

If the New modular process framework for qualification and custom supplier lifecycle processes feature is enabled in your site, you define custom qualification processes in process project templates instead of in the legacy Supplier Qualification Template.

This table summarizes some key differences between process projects, which provide a flexible process framework, and legacy qualification projects, which has features tailored to its specific role in the supplier lifecycle.

If your site previously used legacy qualification projects for supplier qualifications, you can switch to using qualification process projects instead.​

• Enabling the process project feature in your site immediately disables creation of new projects from the legacy supplier qualification project template, but suppliers and internal users can complete the questionnaires and tasks in legacy qualification projects.​

Migration of data from legacy qualification projects to process qualification projects isn't supported.​

• If a supplier has at least one legacy qualification in any status, their 360° profile includes a tab that shows any legacy qualification and disqualification projects.​
• If a supplier has a legacy qualification for a combination of commodities, regions, and departments, that legacy qualification continues to determine the supplier's qualification status for that combination until there's a qualification process with an approved, conditionally approved, or denied status for the same combination.​

To configure a process project template, complete the following steps:​

1. Import data definitions.​
2. Set up modular questionnaires. ​
3. Set up process project.​
4. Define automatic status assignments.​

When using process project templates, the following requirements and limitations apply:​

• You must set the process type for each process project template you create to specify whether it'sused for qualification or is an individual (miscellaneous) process.
• Aside from the intake form survey document, don't add any other survey documents, or any other type of document, to process project templates.
  • The intake form must include at least one mapped Commodity, Region, or Department question. If you want the process to expire, the intake form must also include mapped questions that define the process expiration schedule.​
• Process project templates only support External Tasks (every template must contain at least one External Task, and each External Task must specify a modular questionnaire type) and one Approval task for the intake form.
  • They do not support phases.​
• ​​You must create project groups with Process Initiator and Decision Maker roles on the Team tab.
  • You must add members to Process Initiator groups directly in the project template.​
  • You have the option to populate Decision Maker groups outside of the template using buyer category assignments (the user matrix).​

If the New modular process framework for qualification and custom supplier lifecycle processes feature is not enabled in your site, your organization uses the legacy supplier qualification project template to qualify suppliers for specific combinations of commodities, regions, and departments.​

The supplier legacy supplier qualification project template uses one workflow and one external questionnaire for all qualifications. It can also include an internal questionnaire.​

The external qualification questionnaire is a dynamic questionnaire generated from two different types of template documents:​

• An empty survey document, which functions as a vehicle for serving the qualification content.​
• Content documents, which define questionnaire segments for specific combinations of commodity, region, and department.​

To configure the legacy Supplier Qualification Template, complete the following steps:​

1. Set up the prequalification questionnaire.​
2. Edit the supplier registration questionnaire.​
3. Add questionnaire segments as content documents.​
4. Edit the team.​
5. Edit the approval task.​
6. Add internal surveys.​
7. Add tasks for internal surveys.

By default, legacy supplier qualifications are always based on a commodity and a region. If you want to qualify suppliers based on department as well as commodity and region, you must use a prequalification questionnaire.​

If you want legacy qualifications in your site to expire, you can use the prequalification questionnaire or an internal qualification questionnaire. You also have the option to establish a waiting period before an expired qualification can be requalified.​

This table provides information about the five questions that are currently supported in the prequalification questionnaire.​

When using the legacy Supplier Qualification Template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an external qualification questionnaire survey document with an approval task.
• The template only supports survey and content documents.
  • The template supports only one external questionnaire. You define the content of the external questionnaire in multiple content documents; the survey document itself must be empty.
  • The template supports multiple internal questionnaire survey documents.
  • Do not apply project-level visibility conditions based on commodity, region, or department to the content documents that define qualification questionnaire segments.
  • Plan a consistent strategy for organizing each questionnaire segment's contents using sections.
• The template only supports To Do and Approval tasks.
  • You must create a To Do task for each internal questionnaire you add.

To configure the Preferred Supplier Management template, complete the following steps:

1. Import the preferred supplier levels.
2. Edit the category status form.
3. Edit the team.
4. Edit the approval task.

When using the Preferred Supplier Management template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an internal category status questionnaire survey document with an approval task.
• Because the category status survey is filled out in the supplier 360° view by an internal user, a form is recommended.
• The template does not support any additional documents.
• The template only supports To Do and Approval tasks.
• If you do not want to require approvals for preferred category status changes, you can set the approval task to auto-approve.

To configure the Supplier Disqualification Template, complete the following steps:

1. Edit the supplier disqualification form.
2. Edit the team.
3. Edit the approval task.

When using the Supplier Disqualification template, the following requirements and limitations apply:

• The template must always include an internal disqualification questionnaire survey document with an approval task.
• The template does not support any additional documents.
• The template only supports To Do and Approval tasks.
• If you want to make the disqualifications date-based and introduce a phase-out period, you can create a Date question and map it to project.DisqualificationDate.
• If you want to prevent requalification until a certain date is reached, add a Date question and map it to project.DisqualifiedUntilDate.