Introducing SAP Ariba Procurement Master Data Integration

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to demonstrate an understanding of SAP Ariba Procurement Master Data Integration, including prerequisites, limitations, and required master data objects.

SAP Ariba Procurement and Master Data

SAP Ariba Procurement is a comprehensive solution that helps organizations streamline their procurement processes. One crucial aspect of this solution is the integration of master data, which refers to the core information about suppliers, products, and other relevant entities. Master data integration ensures that accurate and up-to-date information is available across various systems and applications within an organization's procurement ecosystem. ​

This lesson provides important information to effectively work with master data in SAP Ariba Procurement.​

Master data consists of general information stored in SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise). This information is used in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions to construct transaction documents like Purchase Orders, Invoices, and Receipts.​​

image that depicts transaction documents being constructed.

The SAP Ariba Procurement solutions provide the integration events for standard data imports from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise). Because an SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) implementation sometimes contains extra data to be included with the SAP Ariba Procurement solutions for documents like Purchase Orders, Receipts, or Invoices, you can modify these data imports to include such data.​​

You can also import Master Data by running integration events manually from SAP Ariba Administrator.​

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Buyer Tasks

Buyers can perform the following tasks using the SAP Ariba Procurement solutions integrated with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise):​​

  • Perform a simplified master data integration for Supplier, Supplier Location, Payment Terms, Remittance Location, and User data between the SAP Ariba Procurement solutions and SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise).
  • Integrate Master Data from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) to the SAP Ariba Procurement solutions system.​​
  • Run the Incremental Load while running the master data events directly.​​
  • Integrate master data from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) to SAP Ariba Procurement solutions in a Federated Process Control-enabled environment.​​
  • Run the Full and Incremental Delete operation directly through the Direct Connectivity Integration method.​
image of a checklist

Prerequisites and Limitations

Prerequisites

Before importing master data, be sure that the following prerequisites have been met: ​

  • To avoid a runtime error, ensure that you implement the following SAP notes:
    • 1402826: Supplement to Note 548131
    • 1716777: Runtime error IMPORT_WRONG_END_POS when displaying class
  • Define necessary authorizations in SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise).​
  • Create user groups in the SAP Ariba Procurement solution with the SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) role names.​
  • Maintain the required common configurations for Master Data integration.​
  • To export multiple e-mail addresses for vendors with multiple contacts, buyers on the Managed Gateway for Spend and Network Add-On versions from SP007 to SP010 must apply the SAP Note 2952550.

Hint

When you import large amounts of master data from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise), be sure that you run the program ARBCIG_MASTER_DATA_EXPORT in the background by scheduling the job.​

Limitations

While importing master data, the following limitations are applicable: ​

  • SAP Ariba Procurement solutions integrated with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) does not support a supplier location linked to multiple vendors.​
  • The legacy supplier export task is no longer supported. Instead, use the Export Supplier Data (Consolidated File) task.
  • SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network does not support the Incremental load operation for the Enhanced Payment Terms master data.

To understand the limitations of specific types of the incremental load export task, refer to the following section of the SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway for Spend Management and SAP Business Network Overview Guide:

Working with Master Data > Import Master Data for SAP Ariba Procurement Solutions > Incremental Load Events

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Required Master Data

To successfully integrate SAP Ariba Procurement with other systems, certain master data elements are required. These include vendor master data, material master data, organizational master data, and employee master data. By ensuring the accuracy and completeness of these master data elements, organizations can streamline their procurement processes and improve efficiency within SAP Ariba Procurement.​

The following table displays the master data elements that are required:

Required Master Data
Account Assignment CategoriesPayment Terms
Account Field Display StatusPlants
Asset and Asset ClassPlant Purchase Organization
Cost CentersPurchasing Groups
Company CodesPurchasing Organizations
Currency Conversion RatesStorage Locations
ERP Commodity CodesSupplier-Related Data
Fund Management DataTax Codes
General Ledger AccountsUser and User Groups
Internal OrdersWBS Elements
image depicting some required master data elements

Optionally, you can import the following data from SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA (on premise) with some configuration on your part:​​

  • Users
  • Release authorizations
  • User release authority

Note

Fund Management Data includes Funds, Funds Center, FM Area, Functional Area, Commitment Item, Earmarked Fund, and Budget Period Grant.

The vendor master payment terms import is available in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions.​​

The following Master Data events are supported in different languages:​​

  • Account Category Language
  • Cost Center Language
  • ERP Commodity Code Language
  • General Ledger Language
  • Tax Code Language
  • Payment Terms Language

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