Creating Surveys

A survey is a tool used to collect information about a supplier from a defined group of participants. The participants can be internal or external users.

The two types of data usually collected are qualitative and quantitative:

• Quantitative questions capture numeric information, for example ‘Percentage of on-time deliveries’. The numeric answer can be pushed directly to the scorecard or a score can be generated based on the scoring.
• Qualitative questions are more subjective and ask responded for their opinion. Those are usually multi-choice questions with answers like ‘Excellent’, ‘Meets Expectations’, ‘Poor’. Qualitative questions are graded based on the answer. For example, ‘Meets Expectations’ could generate a score of 85.

A survey can combine both types of questions.

Surveys are based on survey models from the templates. Although the survey templates are designed with the intention of providing a standardized survey design as selected by your organization, sometimes there are considerations that might cause the project owner to change a survey in a project. Standardizing the core performance criteria ensures that you measure suppliers on the same objectives enabling a comparison of performance across suppliers, industries and regions as well as for roll-ups of overall scores. For example, you will be able to see which suppliers were rated similarly on a specific question that was included in the survey, such as the suppliers responsiveness to meeting invitations.

Surveys are created from the Documents tab of the SPM template or project. Once you provide basic information like Name and Description, Commodity, Scorecard, a four step wizard guides you through the creation process.

1. Rules: On the Rules page, you will set parameters that will determine if and how certain features are used. Rules are organized into logical groups such as Timing Rules, Bidding Rules, Project Owner Actions, Market Feedback, Message Boards.
2. Participants: This is where you specify the individuals who will be invited to the survey and evaluate supplier’s performance. They can be internal users or external users. It is a common practice to invite supplier’s representative to the ‘voice of supplier’ section.

   You can define which sections will be send to specific participants.

3. Content: Here you will create the questions you want participants to answer and any addition information. You will also map sections or questions to the KPIs from your scorecard.
4. Summary: On the summary page you will review all previously entered information to make sure it is correct before publishing it.

You can add any of the following content type to your scorecard.

A Section is a way to organize the content by grouping it in a logical way. Sections can be mapped to KPIs and can contain any kind of content. You can specify participants that will answer questions in this section.

A Question is the most common type of content in a survey. When creating a question, you will need to specify answer type, whether participants can specify any value in the answer or must choose from pre-defined values, whether a response is required, and whether participants can see each others’ answers. Questions can be mapped to a KPI.

A Requirement allows you to add a statement and communicate information to the participants.

An Attachment can be added from Desktop by uploading a file from your local computer. You can also add an attachment from Sourcing Library.

Content from Library takes you to Sourcing Library, where you should store the common content. You can then easily copy content to the survey.

Once survey content is created, it should be mapped to the scorecard. You can map both sections and questions to KPIs. Mapping only sections gives you a more summarized view, often easier to analyze. It may not be necessary for your organization to have KPIs for every survey question. Often it is sufficient to have KPIs for sections like Quality, Customer Service, Account Management etc.

If your organization requires more granular information on suppliers’ performance, you may want to map each survey question to a KPI. In this design, you may want to organize your KPIs into sections as well to mimic the structure of the survey. The KPIs based on survey questions will then roll up and you will see scores for each KPI and KPI section.

Scoring is a method of evaluating participant responses by assigning numeric grades to them. The grades are then pushed to the KPIs in the scorecard, where they are further analyzed.

There are two types of scoring available in SAP Ariba:

• pre-grading
• post-grading

In pre-grading, the project owner provides a grade on all possible responses to questions in advance. It is usually done when the survey is designed and can be adjusted during the Planning phase of the SPM project. When the participants submit their responses, the system automatically assigns the pre-determined grade for each response. The grade is then automatically pushed to the scorecard. This is the most common scoring type in SPM, as most survey questions have pre-defined responses. The pre-grading automates the SPM process.

In post-grading, participants submit their responses to the survey. When the survey is over, the responses are reviewed and assigned a grade.

The more scoring points you assign each piece of event content, the more that content contributes toward the total score. SAP Ariba uses two types of scoring points, weight and importance, together to score hierarchical content.

Weight specifies the relative importance of each section by assigning a number between 1 and 100. The weights of all sections are summed up and displayed in the Maximum points for content. The total of the section weights does not need to equal 100, although most people prefer that since it is easier to think in terms of 100%.

Importance specifies a value between 0 and 10 points for each question to signify its relative importance within each section. The points within the section do not need to total any particular value. Rather, the points within the section indicate how important each question is in relation to other questions within the same section. The system automatically calculates the overall contribution of each section and question to the final score.

Target Grade - This can be set at the section or question level. If the supplier’s grade falls below that target, the grade is highlighted in red once scoring is complete.

Pre-grading is the most common approach to scoring in SPM. It is usually set up in the template and if well designed, does not require a lot of adjusting in a project. It also creates the most streamlined process, as the grades are automatically calculated when participants respond to the survey and pushed to the scorecard.

In pre-grading, every answer to a question is assigned a percentage of the total number of points the supplier could get for that question. In questions with numerical answers, SAP Ariba performs a calculation to assign grades. The calculation is based on from, to and ideal values that you specify.

Once you create your survey in the project, you are able to tailor that survey as needed either in the Master survey or in the Period survey. If you make changes to the Master document, it will be the basis for the survey from this point forward. If you change the survey in the period survey, it will only affect that period’s survey. If you also change the weights of the survey, your supplier comparison capabilities may be reduced or eliminated. This is true both for comparing previous supplier surveys and in comparing this supplier’s results to other suppliers of similar or different commodities or regions.

The Importance of different questions needs to be adjusted for this supplier either for a specific period or for all performance periods with this supplier. The Importance may need to be adjusted within a section or in looking at all of the sections in comparison to each other. Making changes to the sections will affect comparisons the most as these are the most frequent reporting items.

Another reason is that you may want specific people to respond to only 1 section of the survey, like the supplier is the only one who responds to the supplier section or accounting is the only one that responds to the payments and pricing section.

If changes are needed to the overall survey design, it is best to have the advanced user make changes in the original template, so all new projects and surveys generated from the template inherit the new design.