Ensuring Compliance with  SAP Ariba

SAP Ariba Contracts is an application that offers tools for the management of contracts. It leverages workspace functionality and the use of templates designed by administrators to ensure legal and business requirements are respected by contract creators. ​

A contract workspace is organized by documents, tasks, and the team. It is a place to store everything you need to create the contract. It often includes a contract document called the main agreement, and any contract addenda in the workspace. It may also include other documents that relate to the contract, such as supporting documents, pricing history, and so on. The contract workspace lists all the tasks that must be performed to create and approve the contract, and which team members are in charge of every step.​

​In SAP Ariba a contract can have one of three hierarchical types:​

• Standalone Agreement: A contract which is not part of a hierarchy​
• Master Agreement: The top-most contract in a hierarchy. A master agreement is used to group one or more sub-agreements​
• Sub-agreement: A contract associated with a parent contract in a hierarchy. The parent of a sub-agreement can be a master agreement or another sub-agreement. A sub-agreement can have only one parent, but it can have multiple children. ​

For example, the master agreement can represent the framework for the buyer- supplier relationship, while the sub-agreements can be between different departments of the buying organization and the supplier.

SAP Ariba Contracts allows you to manage the entire contract lifecycle in a centralized location. Here are the main steps:

Contract Request: Initiates the contract process by creating and sending a request to a contract manager to create a Contract Workspace.​

Prepare a Workspace and Author a Main Agreement: In this step a contract manager creates a Contract Workspace in SAP Ariba and begins drafting/authoring the Main Agreement and other contract documents in preparation for Review and Negotiation.​

Review and Negotiate: In this step, contract documents go through an internal review process and then are sent out to a supplier for further red lines and negotiation.​

Approve and Finalize: In this step, contract documents go through final approvals and signatures are obtained. The workspace is then published and the contract executed.​

Amend and Manage: Finally, a contract may be amended and then further managed through Dashboard tools, Access Controls and Reporting. ​

If SAP Ariba Contracts is integrated with your SAP Ariba Procurement or Invoicing Solutions, you start the creation of your contract within SAP Ariba Contracts. ​

​Once the contract creation and authoring is finalized, and the contract is signed, the pricing terms agreed upon can be sent to the SAP Ariba Procurement solution to be leveraged for buying.

SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing provides functionality for operational contract creation, via the Ariba Contract Compliance tool. Through release and no-release contracts, customers can enter set up procurement agreements for items and services, recording any associated recurring or fixed fees. You do not create purchase orders against a no-release order contract, but you can receive against it, and suppliers can invoice against the contract. Alternatively, release contracts allow you to create purchase orders and apply contract pricing and any discounts directly on the PO. ​

Contracts can be set up in hierarchical relationships. This allows for the accumulation of contract spend and cascading of contract pricing terms and discounts up and down through the contract hierarchy.

Buyers using SAP Ariba Contracts, SAP Ariba Contracts integrated with SAP Ariba Sourcing, or SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite can choose to integrate their SAP Ariba Contracts instance with Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) for SAP Ariba solutions to leverage the intelligent and flexible contract authoring capabilities offered by ICI. The intelligent contract authoring capabilities offered by ICI include self-service contract management, rule-based contract authoring, dynamic assembly of clauses and documents, and advanced negotiation and collaboration features.​

​The tasks that are delegated to ICI include:​

• Assembly of contractual documents like the Main Agreement, contract addendums, and other standard project documents.​
• ​Clause and template management.​
• ​Review and negotiation of the Main Agreement document with the involved participants.​
• ​Signature and approval of the stipulated contract terms and conditions