Locate Scope Item in Line of Business
Scope item Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) belongs to the Sourcing and Contract Management business area, which is part of the "Sourcing and Procurement" line of business.
Introduction
Extend your SAP S/4HANA operational procurement processes to SAP Ariba Sourcing and select the most cost-effective bids from millions of suppliers on the Ariba Network. Once awarded, you can automatically convert bids in SAP Ariba Sourcing to purchase orders in SAP S/4HANA.
Ensure event success by using the SAP Ariba Sourcing support desk and event-day management assistance. Evaluate the total cost impact of sourcing decisions. Reduce the amount of time and effort spent on administrative tasks. Handy wizards and tools help you launch events, collaborate, and negotiate. With a large number of suppliers from which to choose, and up-to-date profiles, ratings, and assessments, you can easily develop a large supply base and back-up sources, reducing supplier risks.
This scope item connects your SAP S/4HANA digital core for Sourcing and Procurement with SAP Ariba Collaborative Sourcing through the SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway. This integration provides access to intuitive RFX tools (for requests for information, requests for proposals, and auctions), connections to nearly two million companies, quick and easy supplier discovery, and automated and adjustable negotiation processes. Once you subscribe to SAP Ariba Collaborative Sourcing, you can simply activate this SAP S/4HANA scope item with the guided configuration.
This scope item is not part of SAP S/4HANA shipment and requires additional licenses for the Ariba Network.
The figure, Process Overview, shows the process overview of Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL).
Business Benefits
The following are the business benefits:
- Enjoy fast time-to-value and low total-cost-of-ownership with cloud-based delivery.
- Improve project management and compliance with advanced, automated workflow, and approval-routing.
- Integrate your SAP S/4HANA to SAP Ariba Sourcing by simple activation.
- Simplify and accelerate your configuration by taking advantage of built-in SAP Best Practices.
- Get predictable results fast as these best practices guide you through the integration process step-by-step.
Key Process Flows
- As a purchaser, create a Request For Quotations (RFQ) for SAP S/4HANA purchase requisitions that do not automatically find a single source of supply.
- Send the RFQ to the SAP Ariba Sourcing application. This triggers a sourcing request.
- As sourcing manager in SAP Ariba Sourcing, access your worklist and convert sourcing requests into sourcing projects.
- As sourcing manager, monitor sourcing projects that result in (reverse) auctions, or requests for quotations, and provide these to suppliers on the Ariba Network. Monitor the responses from suppliers.
- As sourcing manager, award one or more bids in SAP Ariba Sourcing.
- Send awarded bids automatically to SAP S/4HANA where forwarded bids, purchase orders, or operational contracts are created.
| Process Step No. | Process Step | Details | SOAP Service |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Create purchase requisition | In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, an employee or an MRP run (defined by a material planner) creates a purchase requisition for a material that has no source of supply. Apps that can be used to create purchase requisitions manually are: My Purchase Requisitions - New Manage Purchase Requisitions - Professional Create Purchase Requisitions - Advanced For details check the unit Requisitioning (18J) | n/a |
| 2 | Create request for quotation in SAP S/4HANA Cloud | In SAP S/4HANA Cloud, the purchaser responsible creates a request for quotation for one or several purchase requisitions, using the Manage Purchase Requisitions app. From the request for quotation, the purchaser can display all follow-on documents that are created in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Apps that can be used to create requests for quotation manually include: Manage RFQs For details check the unit Request for Price (1XF) | n/a |
| 3 | Route request for quotation to SAP Ariba Sourcing | The request for quotation is transferred from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP Ariba Sourcing using the Managed Gateway for Spend&Network. Notes that exist at the item level, as well as detailed description at the header level, are transferred to SAP Ariba Sourcing. Attachments that exist at the header or at the item level of the request for quotation are also transferred. Note:Information that is entered in the Detailed Description section of the RFQ is later displayed as the Sourcing Project Description in SAP Ariba Sourcing. | Request For Quotation S4 Request Outbound A2A (RequestForQuotationS4Request_Out) |
| 4 | Create a sourcing request and a sourcing project in SAP Ariba Sourcing | In SAP Ariba Sourcing, a sourcing request is generated. At the base of the sourcing request, a sourcing manager creates a sourcing project. See also: How to process sourcing requests created from integration events | n/a |
| 5 | Receive and award bids | Within the sourcing project, suppliers can submit bids in one or several rounds of bidding. When bids come in, the sourcing manager awards a supplier or suppliers and decides whether a purchase order or purchase contract is to be created in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. See also: | n/a |
| 6 | Create supplier quotations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud | The awarded quotes are routed to SAP S/4HANA Cloud using Managed Gateway for Spend&Network, including attachments and notes from the suppliers at the item level. Corresponding supplier quotations are automatically created in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. | Supplier Quotation Request Inbound (A2A) (SupplierQuotationS4Request_In) |
| 7 | Create purchase orders or purchase contracts | Subsequently, purchase orders or purchase contracts with reference to the quotations are automatically created in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. | n/a |
Notes and Restrictions
Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) is intended to cover the same business process as its predecessor Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (1A0). Since Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) leverages the advantages of the SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network (Managed Gateway for Spend&Network), do not implement Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (1A0) as of now. Existing implementations of Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (1A0) can still be used until further notice.
The following are the Restrictions on Requests for Quotation.
- SAP S/4HANA Cloud
You cannot create a request for quotation that has no suppliers. Ensure that you add the suppliers (bidders) to the request for quotation. The suppliers must be registered suppliers on the Ariba Network.
An RFQ cannot contain service line items. SAP Ariba solutions do not support service line items.
The purchaser who creates an RFQ must not be an Ariba Marketplace supplier.
An RFQ cannot contain the follow-on document type with WK. SAP Ariba solutions only support the NB (purchase order) document type value.
You cannot send an RFQ with reference to a purchase requisition to SAP Ariba solutions.
You cannot send an RFQ from multiple SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems.
- SAP Ariba Sourcing
SAP Ariba solutions do not support adding new line items to the request for quotation. Although the sourcing manager has the permissions to add line items to the request for quotation sent from the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, SAP Ariba recommends that no new line items are added.
The sourcing request cannot contain suppliers that do not exist on SAP Ariba Sourcing. The sourcing request must only contain suppliers that exist on the SAP S/4HANA Cloud (business partners), SAP Ariba Sourcing, and the Ariba Network.
You can use this app to create RFQs in SAP S/4HANA. There are different processes that you can start from within the Manage RFQs app.
You send your created RFQs later to SAP Ariba Sourcing, where the bidders and suppliers can place their bids. After you have decided which bidder or supplier should receive the award, you send the awarded quotation back to SAP S/4HANA. A purchase order or a contract is created automatically in the background. You can display it within the Manage Purchase Orders app or within the Manage Purchase Contracts app.
To request only price and quantity information or shipping costs, you send these RFQs later to the Ariba Network, where the suppliers can create their bids. These bids are sent back to SAP S/4HANA, where you can award one of them.
You can also create price requests in SAP S/4HANA and send them directly to your supplier using e-mail or as a printed version by mail. You receive the quotations from your suppliers and then create the quotations in SAP S/4HANA manually.
Support for Lean Service Items in Request for Quotations with SAP Ariba Sourcing
Purchasers can now create a Request for Quotation (RFQ) by adding lean services along with goods in SAP S/4HANA Cloud through integration with SAP Ariba Sourcing. Purchasers can set a delivery range with a service start and end date for every service type of item.
Value Proposition
- Flexibility in sourcing both goods and lean services
- Visibility to service-delivery time lines
- Enjoy fast time-to-value and low total-cost-of-ownership
Capabilities
- A purchaser can create an RFQ of type external sourcing request by adding lean service items and other items of type material.
- Strategic purchasers in SAP Ariba Sourcing can view the created sourcing request by searching with the reference of the RFQ ID and perform other sourcing related activities as normal to finalize the bid and award.
- Send the quote to external system. This creates supplier quotation and follow-on document like purchase order or purchase contract in SAP S/4HANA Cloud for the respective items of lean service and/or material type.
- The sourcing request in SAP Ariba Sourcing includes a delivery range for lean service items, which is visible to suppliers for bidding.
SAP Fiori Apps
The following table lists the SAP Fiori apps that are used in Sourcing with SAP Ariba Sourcing (4BL) Process steps.
| Process Step | Business Role | SAP Fiori App |
|---|---|---|
| Create a Request for Quotation | Purchaser | Manage RFQs |
| Create a Sourcing Project (as a buyer in SAP Ariba Sourcing) | Buyer (!) in Ariba Sourcing | This process step is for creating a sourcing project on Ariba Network. |
| Display the supplier quotation (optional) | Supplier (!) in Ariba Sourcing | This process step is for bidding on the previously created sourcing event on the Ariba Network. |
| Accept the supplier's bidding (as a buyer in SAP Ariba Sourcing) | Buyer (!) in Ariba Sourcing | This process step is for the buyers to accept one or more of the respondents as the chosen supplier on the Ariba Network. |
| Send a quote message (as a buyer in SAP Ariba Sourcing) | Buyer (!) in Ariba Sourcing | This process step is for sending the Quote message to SAP S/4HANA to create a new purchase order from the sourcing event. |
| Display the automatically created info record from an award | Purchaser | Manage Supplier Quotations |
| Display a purchase order | Purchaser | Manage RFQs |
