SAP Business Network is a cloud-based business-to-business (B2B) trading platform and supplier network offered by SAP. SAP Business Network is designed to facilitate and streamline procurement and supply chain processes for organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises.
SAP Business Network includes both a testing environment and a production environment, enabling seamless interaction between buyers and trading partners. Notably, there is no development environment provided within SAP Business Network.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is an offering designed to give businesses the benefits of a cloud environment while granting customer control and customization capabilities like on-premises solutions. It runs on a single-tenant infrastructure, meaning the resources are dedicated to one customer, offering higher levels of security and customization. Unlike the public cloud version, which is managed and updated by SAP on a shared infrastructure, the private edition allows customers to have their instance on either an SAP data center or a hyperscaler partner's data center.
This setup provides businesses with the flexibility to manage their upgrade cycles and tailor the system to their specific needs, while still offloading the infrastructure management and maintenance to the cloud provider. It's an optimal solution for organizations looking for the agility and scalability of the cloud, combined with the depth of control over the environment typically seen in on-premises deployments.
Buyers typically have a 3-system landscape.
SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway
SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network, offers a streamlined Integration-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution. It leverages SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) functionality via a public tenant in various regional data centers and functions as a gateway to connect buyers' SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition with SAP Business Network.
There is a single buyer account that serves in each environment, test and production. The Integration Suite, managed gateway account is accessible through the buyer account login.
In order to login into the Integration Suite, managed gateway account execute these steps:
- Log on to the SAP Business Network production buyer account (buyer.ariba.com).
- Click Account Settings → Manage Profile
- Click SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network Setup
When you log in to the production environment, you can simultaneously manage both the test and production environments.
SAP Cloud ALM
SAP Cloud ALM is a complete Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) suite designed for buyers primarily utilizing cloud solutions. It provides comprehensive implementation and operational features for cloud solutions.
In the context of the SAP Business Network Supplier Portal, SAP Cloud ALM plays a crucial role in aiding project management and implementation. To streamline the end-to-end integration across all systems, SAP Cloud ALM provides a set of pre-defined tasks arranged in the right sequence, customized to your specific business needs. You can review and follow these tasks along with their descriptions. Additionally, these tasks may include associated resources like accelerators and e-learning materials to assist you in independently carrying out these activities.
From an operational standpoint and within the context of integration with SAP Business Networks, SAP Cloud ALM can also provide support for monitoring and exception handling for business transactions.
SAP For Me
SAP for Me is the one-stop digital platform for buyers to use a variety of self-service tools to manage their systems, solutions, support cases, and more. SAP for Me is an essential resource at the beginning of an implementation because the buyer system admin will use the Systems & Provisioning dashboard to provision the SAP Business Network Buyer accounts.
Other areas of SAP For Me:
SAP Identity Services
SAP Cloud Identity Services run on the SAP Business Technology Platform and include both the Identity Authentication Service (IAS) and Identity Provisioning Service (IPS). Collectively, these services provide a single sign-on (SSO) experience across a buyer’s SAP systems and ensure that system and data access are secure.
SAP Roadmap Viewer
The Roadmap Viewer is a key tool that gives you access to the steps and plans for setting up SAP solutions through the SAP Activate method. It shows a clear outline of the tasks, outcomes, and actions your project teams need to take, along with helpful resources in the form of documents and links. The content makes it easier to keep an eye on all the important tasks and goals for your SAP projects while navigating you through the different project stages.
Tasks can include accelerator assets in both document and hyperlink formats.
The content can be imported into a SAP Cloud ALM tenant for easier access and use.
