Describing External Supplier Request Process

Suppliers who want to work with your company submit themselves for consideration by filling out and submitting an external supplier request, historically referred to as supplier self-registration. The external supplier request form is accessible via your company’s unique external supplier request URL.

The external supplier request process is defined by your company’s external supplier request template. The template determines what information suppliers need to provide in order to submit the request, which category or supplier managers must approve the request, and whether other stakeholders at your company must also approve the request. There are different templates for external and internal supplier requests because you may need to solicit different information about the supplier in each scenario.

The external request template is only available in sites with external supplier requests enabled. As part of this enablement, SAP Ariba provides your company’s unique external request URL. Your company determines the means through which you will share the URL with potential new suppliers. The external supplier request process is often enabled by organizations in the public sector.

Your company’s unique external supplier request URL allows suppliers to access your site as guest users for the limited purpose of completing the external supplier request form. The format of the external supplier request URL is http://realmname.sourcing.ariba.com/ad/selfRegistration.

Duplicate checks help prevent the creation of duplicate supplier records from external supplier requests by showing approvers potential matches to existing suppliers.

The information in the request that contributes to the duplicate check depends on your site's configuration and the setup of your organization's supplier requests.

• External supplier requests and duplicate check based on custom questions are both optional features

When an approver is approving an external supplier request, it is checked against the existing suppliers in the database. If the user is presented with potential matches, they may:

• Deny the request (if they believe it is a duplicate)
• Approve the request (if they believe it is not a duplicate)

1. A supplier creates an external supplier request by clicking the buyer’s unique external request URL.
2. Notifications let the approvers know that the request requires approval. They can also see outstanding requests using Manage → My Tasks on the dashboard. The approvers review the request and approve or deny it. Approvers can edit supplier requests in order to add missing information, correct mistakes, or supply information that was designed to be added by approvers, before approving the request and creating the supplier.
3. Notifications let the requesting supplier know if the external request has been denied so the requesting supplier can have further discussions about denied requests.
4. When an external supplier request is approved, the supplier is created in the SAP Ariba supplier database. Depending on your site's integration settings, the new supplier might be automatically or manually synchronized with your ERP vendor master list either at this point or during the registration process.

Automatic

• Requests are automatically approved on submission.

Manual

• Approvers choose to approve, deny, or request additional information.

SAP ERP MDG-S validation (optional)

• MDGS Validation step added
  • If request matches existing supplier, request denied.
  • If request does not match existing supplier, supplier created in SAP Ariba.

Your company’s configuration determines whether supplier requests are automatically approved on submission or must be manually approved, and whether or not they include a step for validation in an integrated SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S) system.

If your site requires manual approval, approvers perform one of the following actions:

• Click Approve to approve the request.
• Click Deny to deny the request, enter explanatory comments to tell the requester the reason for the denial, and click Confirm denial.
• To request additional information, click Request additional info, enter a comment for requester explaining what information you want, and click Confirm request additional info.

If your site is configured to require validation of approved supplier requests in an integrated SAP MDG-S system, the supplier request shows a new automatic step, MDGS Validation, and the supplier is in In External Approval status. If SAP ERP MDG-S matches the request to an existing supplier, the request is automatically denied and you are redirected to the existing supplier's 360° profile. If SAP ERP MDG-S does not match the request to an existing supplier, the supplier is created in your site with the status Not Invited, and the supplier contact specified in the request is added as the primary contact. The supplier now has a 360° profile, and its Summary area shows information from the supplier request.