Categorizing the Supplier Account Types

A standard account is an email based method of responding to a buyer's purchase order. It allows for instant supplier onboarding with no fees.

If certain suppliers want more advanced features, standard accounts can be upgraded to enterprise accounts. Enterprise accounts provide additional benefits, such as the ability to view previous documents, online support, running reports, and collaboration on more advanced business processes. Enterprise accounts are subject to charges dependent on the number of transactions processed and the monetary value of those transactions over a period of time.

For an overview of the different types of Account for Suppliers, watch this video.

Taking a look at three different types of suppliers, you can see which types would benefit from the full enterprise account enablement.

This group needs full enterprise enablement out of the gate.

• Vendors with legacy EDI integration that needs to be moved over
• SAP Business Network Matched suppliers already integrated with other clients
• High volume suppliers related to the customer specific business case that need to integrate and have white glove treatment
• Strategic for other aspects that require enterprise enablement

These groups can be enabled on the fly using standard accounts. Suppliers trending to higher volumes can upgrade to full-use accounts benefiting form the advanced features set at their choice (desiring integration, multi-client management, deeper analysis)

The standard account capability of SAP Business Network allows suppliers to sign-up for a free account that supports unlimited exchange of all basic fulfillment documents processed from interactive emails. In addition, the capability gives suppliers access to:

• SAP Ariba Discovery
• SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management
• SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance

Signup and usage create minimal change impact by using barrier-free enablement from either email or a Web browser.

Advanced SAP Business Network features required for higher-volume suppliers, such as access to reporting or integration with cXML or EDI, are excluded from standard accounts. Suppliers can upgrade to a full-use account on SAP Business Network to get access to these types of features.By offering unlimited usage and no account fees, the standard account capability makes it easy for buyers to enable all their suppliers on SAP Business Network.

A supplier receives an email of their PO transactions generated out of SAP Ariba (or ERP). Due to moderate/less volume for these types of suppliers, it's important that a targeted communication at transaction time is sent to prompt the supplier to act.

The email clearly directs the supplier to Process Order via the active buttons.

Alternatively, suppliers can be invited to log into SAP Business Network directly to see all open purchase orders to be processed or to manage Non-PO invoice activities and gain visibility into statuses in a self-service manner.

When the supplier clicks the Process Order button (or the supplier logs in directly to SAP Business Network and processes the purchase order on the portal interface), they are brought to the screen.

This page illustrates the online version of the PO (mimicking what is sent in the email) to guide the supplier to perform the actions required by the client.

Here the supplier can:

• Confirm Line Items
• Send Ship Notice (if applicable for materials)
• Create Invoice

When clicking on Create Invoice, the supplier is brought to this screen.

All customer specific invoice rules are enacted automatically as the supplier creates their invoice online (in real time, matching to PO header and line items).

The only way the supplier can get to the 2nd screen in the Invoice Creation wizard, and submit it to the customer, is if all customer validation rules are met (assuring only valid invoices come to the customer).

After submitting an invoice, a standard enabled supplier can navigate on SAP Business Network portal interface to see the status of their submitted invoice.

As invoice statuses change, emails are sent with a clear action button to direct the supplier directly to this page.

All information on the invoice and current approval status are available in a simple view.

From the homepage, suppliers can view and navigate to open POs, invoices, order confirmations, ship notices and more.

Standard reporting and analysis is also available for managing individual customers.

The following steps outline the standard enterprise enablement experience:

Although email and action button access can be sent to enterprise enabled suppliers (the same email as standard accounts), this function is typically either summarized or turned off by suppliers due to their PO volume.

As such, a common practice for these suppliers, who use SAP Business Network day to day/week to week, is to log into SAP Business Network directly.

This is the same login screen for Standard suppliers electing to log in directly to SAP Business Network.

Once on the homepage after logging in (same as the standard account homepage), these suppliers will typically navigate to their open PO list.

This is the same view as standard accounts but with more volume due to the type of supplier they are (higher volume and in this case perhaps with multiple clients they are managing on SAP Business Network).

Clicking on a purchase order will pull up the order summary, shown to the right.

This is the exact same view that is displayed for a standard supplier.

The same action buttons on the top of the order summary are used to take action on the PO:

• Confirm Line Items
• Send Ship Notice (if applicable for materials)
• Create Invoice

Same as with standard, for enterprise, clicking on the Create Invoice button, the supplier is brought to the create invoice screen.

All customer specific invoice rules are enacted automatically as the supplier creates their invoice online (in real time, matching to PO header and line items).

Exactly the same as with standard accounts, leveraging the same rule set, the only way the supplier can get to the Confirm and Submit screen in the Invoice Creation wizard, is if all customer validation rules are met (assuring only valid invoices come to the customer).

Again, same as a standard enabled supplier, the enterprise enabled supplier can navigate on SAP Business Network portal interface to see the status of submitted invoices.

As invoice statuses change, emails are sent with a clear action button to direct the supplier directly to the page shown on the right (if they chose to keep those emails on).

All information on the invoice and current approval status are available in a simple view.

Enterprise suppliers are able to manage their profile at a more detailed level. Two specific elements that differ from standard supplier accounts are:

• Managing activities/processes across many clients. Standard suppliers can only manage their activities 1:1 with 1 client while enterprise can manage across clients in 1 interface/dashboard.
• Setup and manage integration processes with SAP Business Network to not require using SAP Business Network Interface for receiving and sending transactions.

Enterprise enabled suppliers have deeper profile configuration abilities for these cross client and integration setup activities.

Due to these more sophisticated suppliers, there is a lot more support and white-glove treatment offered to help the supplier build a tighter bond around SAP Business Network with their processes & systems.