Outlining Automation of Central Procurement Quotes with Ariba Network (5JT)

Scope item Automation of Central Procurement Quotes with Ariba Network (5JT) is belonging to the business areas Central Procurement and Invoice Management which are part of "Sourcing and Procurement" line of business.

As a Central Purchaser you can get the best supplier for all your Purchase Requisitions from multiple connected back-end systems like SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud or SAP ERP in the central SAP S/4HANA Cloud central procurement system.

The SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement offers a centralized RFQ process with a deep integration into the customer's landscape. It connects SAP Ariba Network to the customer's SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA system (on-premise or Cloud). 

SAP Ariba Network provides access to more than two million companies who can provide quotations and quick and easy supplier discovery.

With the SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement, you can pool or aggregate purchase requisitions created in multiple connected backend systems to create a single central RFQ and thus get support for better scale pricing.

SAP Ariba Discovery will match you with quality suppliers that meet your needs, so that you can make sure you get the most competitive pricing from your supplier base.

Quotation are send from Ariba Network to SAP Central Procurement. Awarding is done on SAP Central Procurement. You can create operational contracts or purchase orders in connected systems after finalizing the best suppliers using SAP Central Procurement.

You can onboard suppliers on Ariba Network from SAP S/4HANA Cloud through quote automation. The onboarding can be initiated by sending central requests for quotation (cRFQs) to suppliers.

The scope item Automation of Central Procurement Quotes with Ariba Network (5JT) enables you to create central requests for quotation (central RFQs) in SAP S/4HANA Cloud for central procurement by pooling purchase requestions from connected SAP S/4HANA Cloud , SAP S/4HANA, or SAP ERP systems. The central RFQs are send to SAP Ariba Discovery, where suppliers can create quotations. The supplier quotations are then send from SAP Ariba Discovery to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud central procurement system. After awarding the best supplier quotations in central procurement, you can create purchase orders in the connected systems.

For setting up this integration scenario, it is recommended to use Cloud Integration Automation Service (CIAS) which provides a guided workflow. You can get more information about CIAS from SAP Help Cloud Integration Automation Service.

The following diagrams shows the process overviews of Automation of Central Procurement Quotes with Ariba Network (5JT).

• Create a central RFQ in SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement System for purchase requisitions that are created in the connected back-end systems (central purchaser)

• Send the central RFQ to the SAP Ariba Discovery application, where suppliers can submit quotations

• Award one or more central supplier quotations in SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement System (central purchaser)

• Use central supplier quotation to create operational purchase orders in the respective connected backend ERP systems or central contracts in SAP S/4HANA Central Procurement System which creates operational purchasing contracts in the respective connected systems.

• Aggregate demand by pooling requisitions created in multiple connected backend systems into one central RFQ

• Source the best supplier based on the aggregated demand, using the power of SAP Ariba Discovery

• Quick turnaround time to get the prices from suppliers

• Digital collaboration with suppliers reducing manual processing steps

• Seamless creation of purchase orders and contracts in the respective backend systems upon finalization of the Award process in SAP Central Procurement

• You cannot create a central request for quotation if you don't have suppliers. Ensure that you add the suppliers (bidders) to the central request for quotation. The suppliers must be registered suppliers in Ariba Network.

• The central request for quotation can't contain the follow-on document type WK (central contract). 5JT only supports the follow-on document type NB (purchase order).

• For central requests for quotation (central RFQs), notes can be created in multiple languages, but are only transferred to Ariba Network if their language matches the language in the header data of the central RFQ. Notes created in other languages will not be transferred.

• While creating a posting on Ariba Network, you can create new templates or make a copy of the existing default template. However, you can mark only one template as the default template.

• SAP Ariba does not support the standard default template available in the Posting Configuration tab. Ensure that you create a new template or make a copy of the standard default template for the posting and edit the values as recommended.

• In supplier quote messages, notes can only be created and transferred to SAP S/4HANA Cloud in the preferred language of the buyer in Ariba Network.

• The maximum file size supported for attachments is 99 MB.

The following table lists the SAP Fiori apps that are used in the Automation of Central Procurement Quotes with Ariba Network Process steps.