Configuring the External System Approvals of Updates to Supplier Data in the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance​

You can activate the Enable external ERP approval setting. This feature requires approval from an integrated external system for any changes a supplier makes to its registration profile in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.

Once External Approval in ERP is enabled, the changed values will only be reflected in the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor model when the external approver confirms them. If the changes are rejected, the data will not be changed in the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor model.

By default, the integration between SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP MDG-S is bi-directional, meaning that updates are exchanged in both directions. The "Enable external ERP approval" setting allows you to determine whether changes to supplier data in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance require approval in an integrated system that supports approval workflows for modifications to vendor records.

The Enable external ERP approval setting requires that your integrated system environment support an approval process for updates to vendor records. The update request that SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions send to SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA is designed to feed into existing SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) workflows for approving changes to vendor records.

The external system approval requirement applies only to supplier registration project updates. Suppliers can update their registration questionnaires in these projects, while internal users can continuously update related internal surveys. This requirement pertains solely to fields linked to vendor database fields, as only these fields are synchronized with the integrated system.

Here is the high-level workflow that describes the approval in SAP MDG-S for updates to supplier data:

1. In SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, the registered supplier submits an update to one or more mapped fields in the registration questionnaire; for example, the supplier might update their address in the registration questionnaire in address fields that are mapped to vendor database address fields.
2. The updates are approved either automatically or manually. Sites that require final approval in an external system typically configure automatic approval for registration questionnaire updates. However, if you need manual approval of the registration questionnaire in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, that approval must occur before the update is sent to the SAP MDG-S.
3. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance sends an update request to the SAP MDG-S, including the new data.
4. The SAP MDG-S receives and processes the update request through its approval flow.
5. A vendor administrator either accepts the changes, agrees with a modified form of the changes, or rejects the changes.
6. The vendor record in SAP MDG-S reflects these actions by either including the changes sent from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance (in either whole or modified form) or remaining unchanged.
7. In either case, SAP MDG-S sends the current vendor record back to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance using the Data Replication Framework (DRF).
8. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance updates the vendor database to match the vendor record sent by SAP MDG-S.
9. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance sends an e-mail notification to the supplier registration project owner, the user who manually synchronized the supplier to SAP MDG-S, and the supplier's primary supplier manager indicating whether the update was approved or rejected in SAP MDG-S.
10. The notification includes the supplier data update request status. If it was rejected, it also consists of the error message from the external system, which the category or supplier manager can use to correct the update and submit it again.

To summarize, if the changes were accepted in SAP MDG-S (in either whole or modified form), the changes approved in SAP MDG-S are also committed to the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor database. If the changes are rejected in SAP MDG-S, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance commits the unchanged supplier record to the vendor database. In either case, the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor record reflects the current, approved vendor record in SAP MDG-S.

If additional updates for the same supplier are made in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance while a previous update is still awaiting approval in SAP MDG-S, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance will hold those updates and only send them to SAP MDG-S after a response to the previous update is received.

When approving supplier updates in SAP MDG-S, it is generally advisable to set the approval task for registration questionnaire updates in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance to auto-approve, since you are managing the changes within SAP MDG-S.

Follow these steps to turn on these two settings:

1. Log into your SAP Ariba Sourcing realm, and from the Dashboard page, navigate to Manage>SM Administration.
2. Choose ERP Integration from the menu on the left hand and expand the Supplier profile update synchronization area.
3. Check the Enable external ERP approval box.
4. Choose Save.