Configuring the MDG-S Validation and Approval of Suppliers Created in the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance​

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to require approved supplier requests to be validated in the SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S) module before SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions create the new supplier database record.

Requiring SAP MDG-S validation and approval for supplier creation in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance ensures accurate, compliant, and risk-free supplier data across the enterprise, improving data governance, procurement efficiency, and regulatory compliance. This activity ensures high-quality, validated, and compliant supplier master data before supplier records are created in the ERP system.

The default behavior is that SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance immediately creates a new supplier in SAP ERP when a supplier request is approved. But suppose the "Enable external validation of supplier creation" feature is activated. In that case, the supplier data is sent to SAP MDG-S for validation before creating a record in the SAP ERP.

The Enable external validation of supplier creationin ERP or MDG setting is designed to work with ERP configurations that use SAP MDG-S for Supplier Master Data Management. It does not work with SAP ERP configurations that do not include MDG-S.

The Enable external validation of supplier creation in MDG-S setting is designed for customers who maintain corporate-level business partners (suppliers and customers) in SAP MDG-S and use MDG-S to perform duplicate SAP Business Partner Screening and vendor record enrichment.

This setting allows you to send approved supplier requests to SAP MDG-S, where they are validated against both supplier and customer business partners. Any duplicates are identified, and information such as address and Dun & Bradstreet ID are validated and corrected if necessary, based on the information in SAP MDG-S, which is always the source of truth in this scenario. This validation occurs before the supplier record is created in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, which is especially important for preventing the creation of duplicate supplier records in some circumstances.

By default, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance only checks for duplicate suppliers within the SAP Ariba vendor database. In cases where there is a second approved supplier request for what SAP MDG-S recognizes as an already existing and synchronized supplier, there can be duplicate separate records in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance that correspond to one supplier record with multiple SM_ID key mappings in SAP MDG-S. There is no way to merge multiple supplier records or SM IDs in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performacne. So, every new supplier created will be validated in the MDG system, and if a duplicate is found, it will be marked as inactive.

Here is the high-level workflow describing the validation and approval process for creating new suppliers in MDG-S:

1. A user creates a new supplier request.
2. If an approval flow is defined in the Supplier Request Project Template, approvers review and approve the new supplier request. If the Supplier Request Project Template uses auto-approval, the supplier request is automatically approved.

3. At this point, instead of creating the supplier record, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance adds an automatic task, MDG-S Validation, to the supplier request workflow. That task sends the supplier request to SAP MDG-S for validation, and the supplier request moves from In Approval to In External Approval status.

4. SAP MDG-S performs one of the following actions:
   1. f SAP MDG-S does not find a match to an existing supplier or customer business partner, it sends the supplier request back to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance with a new, unique SAP ERP vendor ID. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance then creates a new supplier record based on the request, and the supplier moves to Not Invited registration status.
   2. If SAP MDG-S finds a match with an existing supplier or customer business partner:
      1. SAP MDG-S adds the new, unique SM_ID sent in the request to the mapping tables in the existing business partner.
      2. SAP MDG-S returns a replication request to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance with the existing supplier's SM_ID and ERP vendor ID.
      3. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance reconciles the replication request and verifies whether the ERP vendor ID assigned by SAP MDG-S matches a supplier in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
      4. If there is a matching supplier, SAP Ariba creates a supplier record for the originating supplier request but marks it as Inactive with an ERP integration status of Duplicate.
      5. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance sends an e-mail notification to the requester and all active team members in the supplier request project, informing them that the request was denied because SAP MDG-S found a duplicate supplier and redirects them to the existing matched supplier in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.

When you activate the Enable External Validation of Supplier Creation feature for SAP MDG-S, it ensures that the validation and approval of supplier creation requests in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance are conducted correctly. With this feature enabled, approved supplier requests will be validated and checked for duplicates in SAP MDG-S before the new suppliers are created. Any duplicate requests will be matched against existing suppliers.

Once SAP Ariba Customer Support activates this feature, you will need to set the corresponding parameter to True. Additionally, the user performing this action must be a member of the SM ERP Administrator group.

Follow these steps to set the parameter:

1. Log into your SAP Ariba Sourcing realm, and from the Dashboard page, navigate to Manage>SM Administration.
2. Choose Configuration Parameters from the menu on the left hand and search for the parameter Application.SM.SupplierRequest.EnableExternalValidationOfSupplierCreation.
3. The default value of the parameter is False. Hover over to More (the three dots) on the right-hand side of the table, and choose the Edit option.
4. Using the drop-down, choose and set the parameter value to True.
5. Choose Save. You can see the notification "Configuration Parameter update success."

Once the parameter, Application.SM.SupplierRequest.EnableExternalValidationOfSupplierCreation is set to True, you can then turn on the settings Enable external validation of supplier creation in ERP or MDG in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance to start using the functionality.

External validation in SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S) requires that supplier requests be checked for duplicates in an external SAP MDG-S system. When external validation is enabled, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Performance will hold an approved supplier request in a pending state until it receives a replication message from SAP MDG-S. If SAP MDG-S identifies that the requested supplier matches an existing supplier, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance will deactivate the original requested supplier record and redirect the requestor to the matched supplier identified by SAP MDG-S.

To perform this activity, the user needs to be a member of the SM ERP Administrator group.

Follow these steps to turn on the Enable external validation of supplier creation in ERP or MDG setting:

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 validation of supplier creation in ERP or MDG box.
4. Choose Save.