SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Setup Guide
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Setup Guide
Getting started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
What is SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The supplier request process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The supplier registration process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The supplier qualification process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The preferred supplier management process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Key assumptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance setup checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Understanding supplier management templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Commodity, region, and user combinations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Documents: forms, questionnaires, and internal surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Tasks: form and questionnaire approvals and internal survey to do tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Team: automatic assignment by commodity and region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance default template configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Best practices for fitting SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance projects into SAP Ariba
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance workflows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
General best practices for supplier management templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Best practices for supplier request templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Best practices for supplier registration templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Best practices for supplier qualification templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Best practices for preferred supplier management templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Where to find more information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Site configuration options for setting up SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. . . . . . .154
Site configuration options for supplier contacts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance setup checklist [page 12]
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance default template configurations [page 16]
Best practices for fitting SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance projects into SAP Ariba Supplier
Lifecycle and Performance workflows [page 18]
● Defined, template-based processes for managing suppliers that scales easily to bring large numbers of
suppliers under management.
Users create supplier requests from the Create menu on the dashboard. The category or supplier managers
assigned to the supplier review the request, approve or deny it, and monitor the approval flow and status in the
supplier's 360° profile on the Supplier Management tab of the dashboard.
Notifications let the approver know that the request requires approval, let the requesting user know when the
request has been approved or denied, and show the final approver so that requesting users can have further
discussions about denied request.
When a supplier request is approved, the supplier is added to the Ariba supplier database. Integration settings
determine when the supplier is added to your ERP vendor master list, at which point your company's users can
begin creating requisitions for the supplier, adding them to sourcing events, and so forth; one of the options is
after the request has been approved.
The registration process typically solicits basic profile information from the supplier; for example, what
commodities they supply, the regions in which they operate, whether they have certifications in broad categories
such as diversity, whether they will agree to a code of conduct, and so forth. It can also include internal questions
that allow supplier or category managers to add internal information to the supplier's profile.
● What questionnaire segments the category or supplier manager can select to assemble the questionnaire, and
which segments are required.
The category or supplier managers assigned to the supplier invite the supplier to register, assemble and send the
questionnaire, review the supplier's answers, fill out internal surveys, complete to do tasks, approve or deny the
registration, and monitor the approval flow and status in the Registration tile on the supplier's 365° profile on the
Supplier Management tab of the dashboard. The supplier answers the registration questionnaire in their Ariba
Network for Suppliers profile; they must register with Ariba Network if they have not already. The supplier's profile
is automatically shared between Ariba Network and your Ariba supplier management solution.
Notifications let supplier know that they have been invited to register and provide a link to the questionnaire; let
the user who created the original supplier request know that registration has started; let approvers know that they
need to approve a supplier registration; let internal stakeholders know if they need to complete other tasks; and let
the supplier know that the registration has been approved, denied, or requires more information.
Integration settings determine when the supplier is added to your ERP vendor master list, at which point your
company's users can begin creating requisitions for the supplier, adding them to sourcing events, and so forth;
options include after the request has been approved, when the supplier is in the registration process, and after the
registration has been approved.
In solutions that include Ariba Sourcing, event templates can specify that suppliers must be registered in order to
either participate in or be awarded events.
The qualification process typically solicits detailed information from the supplier that is specific to the
qualification's regions and commodities; for example, their sourcing and sustainability processes; shipping,
delivery, and return policies; commodity-specific certifications; methods of compliance with regional laws; and so
forth. Qualifications are always based on commodities and regions; they do not have to be for the commodities
and regions for which the supplier registered.
● What questionnaire segments the category or supplier manager can select to assemble the questionnaire, and
which segments are required.
● Which category or supplier managers approve the qualification.
● The content of the questionnaire segments.
● Whether other stakeholders at your company must also approve the qualification.
● Whether a denied qualification can be resubmitted.
● Whether internal questionnaires or other tasks or documents are part of the qualification process.
The category or supplier managers assigned to the supplier start the qualification, assemble and send the
questionnaire, review the supplier's answers, approve or deny the qualification, and monitor the approval flow and
Notifications let supplier know that they have been invited toqualify for specific commodities and regions and
provide a link to the questionnaire; let approvers know that they need to approve a supplier qualification; and let
the supplier know that the qualification has been approved, denied, or requires more information.
At any point after the supplier qualification has been approved, category or supplier managers can:
In solutions that include Ariba Sourcing, event templates can specify that suppliers must be qualified in the event's
commodities and regions in order to either participate in or be awarded events.
Users specify that they want to designate a supplier as preferred for a commodity and region in the supplier's 365°
profile on the Supplier Management tab of the dashboard.
If the process includes an approval flow, notifications let the approver know that the request requires approval, let
the requesting user know when the request has been approved or denied, and show the final approver so that
requesting users can have further discussions about denied request.
In solutions that include Ariba Sourcing, event templates can automatically invite the suppliers that are preferred
for the event's commodities and regions..
Key assumptions
The topics about setting up SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance assume the following:
● Your site has all non-SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance-specific master data (commodities,
regions, users, departments, and so forth) loaded.
● If your site also uses master data services, those services have already been configured, and their integration
has been set up. Master data service integration and SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supplier
data integration are separate configurations.
The following templates are designed to work as parts of the supplier management workflow:
There is only one template for each of these project types in a site. When you update one of these templates, you
push those updates to all of the projects created by the template.
Supplier management project templates function in much the same way as other project templates: they have
documents, tasks, project teams, and so forth. However, the way users experience projects created from these
templates is very different.
The category or supplier managers who manage these projects do not work in the classic project interface, with its
tabs for documents and tasks and team. Instead, they work in the 360° profiles of individual suppliers. A supplier's
360° profile includes all supplier management projects for the supplier. The category or supplier manager
assigned to the supplier creates and manages projects from this profile: starting registration, qualification, and
other processes, sending and approving forms and questionnaires, monitoring approval flows, and so forth.
These supplier management project templates are designed to support these special workflows and user
experiences.
Note
Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management solutions also use SPM project templates for
supplier performance management. Users manage these projects outside of supplier 360° profiles, in the
classic project interface. Therefore, SPM project templates do not share any of the special characteristics
discussed in these topics. For information on setting up SPM project templates, see Configuring Supplier
Performance Management Reviews.
These templates have therefore built commodity and region information into their processes in the following ways:
● Targeting forms and questionnaires: Template creators create different questionnaire segments with
questions pertaining to specific commodities or regions (or both). When a supplier or category manager sends
a questionnaire to a supplier, they assemble that questionnaire from all of the segments that apply to the
supplier's commodities and regions.
● Assigning the appropriate project owners, approvers, and other team members: If user assignments to
commodities, regions, and project groups are imported into a site, and the project templates use those
assignments to determine project group membership, supplier management templates automatically add
those users to the teams of the appropriate projects. These team members have access to the project,
approve or deny forms and questionnaires, and can be assigned to perform other tasks as well.
Supplier management processes center around a form or questionnaire, which solicits information about a
supplier. Therefore, each supplier management project template includes a default survey document, which forms
the basis of that form or questionnaire. Projects can use additional internal surveys to supplement the form or
questionnaire information.
● Forms: for projects that need a basic set of information from a limited number of questions, you use the
default survey document in the project, without any additional content or other documents, to create the form.
For example, a supplier request is an initial process and might involve having one of your company's sourcing
agents or buyers provide the name, contact information, commodities, regions, and other basic information
for the requested supplier. In this case, you create the supplier request by editing the default template survey
to set its type to Form and add all of the form content.
● Simple questionnaires: for projects that need a larger set of general information that is not for the most part
commodity- and region-specific, you use the default survey document in the project, without any additional
content documents, to create the simple questionnaire.
For example, if your solution includes supplier qualification projects, you might want to reserve targeted
commodity- and region-specific questions for the qualification phase and ask general questions in the
registration questionnaire. In this case, you create the supplier questionnaire by editing the default template
survey to set its type to Questionnaire and add all of the questionnaire content.
● Targeted questionnaires: for projects that need a dynamic questionnaire with targeted questions based on
the supplier's commodities and regions, you use the default survey document in the project as an empty
container to generate the dynamic questionnaire. You then add a content document for each targeted
questionnaire segment.
For example, if your solution does not include supplier qualification projects, you might want to ask your
suppliers both general and commodity- and region-specific questions during registration. In this case, you set
the survey up as a framework by setting its type to Questionnaire and leaving it empty. You then create a
content document with questions for all suppliers, another content document with questions for suppliers in
● Internal surveys: supplier management projects support additional survey documents to allow category or
supplier managers to supplement the information gathered in the project's form or questionnaire.
For example, suppliers fill out registration questionnaires, but your company's registration process might
include having a category or supplier manager rate the supplier on a set of specific metrics. In this case, you
create an additional survey document in the project, set its content type to Form, and specify that it is internal.
You then add questions to it.
Note
When you create approval or to do tasks for a form or questionnaire, those tasks must always be on the survey
document, not the individual questionnaire segments (content documents).
Supplier management projects are designed to use an approval task on the template's survey document to route
approvals for various supplier management processes. The approval flow is defined in the approval task.
Although there are a number of task types available in SAP Ariba projects, the most important task for a supplier
management project is the approval task on the project's form or questionnaire.
Approval flows in approval tasks are often constructed using site-wide user groups (such as Supplier
Qualification Manager or Legal) and project groups (such as Project Owner). If you are using either buyer
Supplier management projects also support to do tasks; for example, a to do task that requires a category or
supplier manager to complete the project's internal survey.
Users complete these approvals and to do tasks in the supplier's 360° view. Users must complete any other
project tasks outside of the supplier's 360° view by clicking Manage My Tasks on the dashboard.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solution projects use teams to define who can work with and approve supplier
management processes for specific suppliers.
In other SAP Ariba projects, the user who creates the project is automatically a member of the Project Owner
group. However, supplier management project templates are designed to dynamically add users to project groups
on the Team tab, including Project Owner, based on their assignments to categories, regions, and project groups.
If you are not using category and region assignments, you can also create team member rules in order to make
those assignments. User assignments to category and region are site-wide and automatically apply to project
groups in all supplier management projects except for SPM projects, while you must set up team member rules
separately in each project template.
● The forms and questionnaires are not yet visible in the site, since they are in Draft status.
● Members of the Template Creator group can edit the templates. However, they do not become owners of any
of the projects created from the templates.
● The users who create projects from these templates are automatically the project owners, since the system
user aribasystem is the Project Owner group.
● The users who create projects from these templates are also the approvers for the approval tasks.
The SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance workflow activates projects in this order:
1. Supplier request
2. Registration
3. Qualification (in at least one category/region)
4. (Optional) Preferred supplier designation (in at least one category/region)
Category or supplier managers cannot invite a supplier to register until the request has been approved, start a
qualification until the registration has been approved, or designate a supplier as preferred for a category/region
combination until a qualification in that category/region has been approved. This flow is automatic and is not
configurable in the templates or elsewhere.
Because of this automatic flow, and since category or supplier managers interact with these projects through the
specialized workflows on the supplier 360° view, best practices help to ensure that SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance project templates fit into those processes and workflows.
The following are best practices for all supplier management templates:
● In other Ariba projects, template creators use project conditions to display specific documents based on the
project's commodities and regions. Supplier management templates automatically show only the
questionnaire segments that apply to a supplier's commodities and regions to the category or supplier
manager who assembles the questionnaire to send to the supplier. Therefore, it is unnecessary to apply
project conditions to the content documents that define questionnaire segments.
● Supplier management questionnaires consist of one empty survey document, which serves as a container,
and a number of questionnaire segments (content documents). Each content document is tied to specific
● You can either set up a supplier request form or a questionnaire. However, since the request process is the
initial stage of your relationship with the supplier and is designed to solicit only basic information, a form is
recommended. [page 83] If you do want to use a questionnaire, set the survey document's questionnaire
type to Questionnaire, but create the content directly in the survey document. Do not use content documents
to create questionnaire segments. There is no mechanism for assembling a questionnaire from segments
based on the supplier's commodities and regions in request projects, and in any case you have no information
on the supplier's regions and commodities before the form is submitted, so using content documents to
create a questionnaire in a supplier request project does not make sense.
● Make sure to make the question about the supplier's name required and map it [page 107] to the
[Link].name1 field in the supplier database. The supplier name and mapping is required in
order to create the supplier in the database.
● Since the person requesting the supplier is likely to have the best initial information about supplier contacts,
add questions for the contact's first name, last name, and email address and map them to the
[Link], [Link], and [Link] fields in the supplier database. Supplier
contact information and mapping are also required for supplier requests.
● Adding a question for the supplier contact's phone number and mapping it to [Link] to the
supplier request is recommended.
● Asking for the supplier contact's locale based on the locale information in your site is also recommended. This
locale information allows SAP Ariba to send the notifications and questionnaire content that match the
supplier contact's language. To do this, ask for the contact's locale using master data as the acceptable
answer value, select Locale as the master data type, and map the question to [Link].
● Depending on your company's processes, you can set up your registration questionnaire either to ask general
or commodity- and region-specific questions:
○ If your solution includes supplier qualification projects, and you want to reserve commodity- and region-
specific questions for the qualification phase, set up the template's default survey document as a
questionnaire [page 83] and add content to it.
○ If you want to ask sets of questions targeted to specific commodities and regions during registration, set
up the template's default survey document as a questionnaire [page 85] but do not add content to it.
Then add questionnaire segments as separate content documents [page 86]. You can add general
questionnaire segments as well as questionnaire segments based on specific categories or regions. Make
sure that the supplier request includes questions about the supplier's commodities and regions so that
you can target the registration questionnaire segments correctly.
● Plan a consistent strategy for organizing each questionnaire segment's contents using sections [page 89]. If
you do not use sections in any questionnaire segments, all of the content is displayed as a continuous
numbered list when the segments are assembled in the final questionnaire. If you use a top-level section in
each segment, and nest all of the segment's content inside it, each segment is its own numbered section in the
final questionnaire, with the segment content as numbered sub-items under it. However, if you use a top-level
section in one questionnaire segment and no top-level section in the segment that comes after it, the content
in the second segment is added to the previous segment's section, and uses the previous section's numbering,
in the final questionnaire.
● Make sure that any internal-facing documents or other content you add to questionnaire segments is not
visible to participants.
● Use additional internal surveys to allow category or supplier managers to add internal information that needs
to be displayed prominently displayed in supplier profiles.. In registration projects only, internal surveys are
displayed as sections of the Summary tab on the Overview tile in the supplier 360° profile, alongside other
basic information about the supplier.
Caution
If you add a survey document to the template in addition to the default survey document, make sure to set Is
questionnaire internal only? to Yes. Any survey other than the default survey must be interal-facing in supplier
registration projects.
External suppliers fill out and submit qualification questionnaires. They are automatically internal-only, regardless
of whether you set Is questionnaire internal only? to Yes or No for the default survey document.
● Set up the template's default survey document as a questionnaire, but do not add content to it. [page 85]
● Add separate questionnaire segments (content documents) based on questions for specific category/region
combinations. [page 86] Supplier qualifications are always based on specific commodity/region
combinations.
● Unlike registration, which is a one-time process, the qualification process is designed so that category or
supplier managers can run multiple separate qualifications on the same supplier for different commodities or
regions. A supplier contact will potentially answer multiple qualification questionnaires from you. Therefore,
it's a good idea to choose the levels of the commodity and region hierarchies at which you want to qualify
suppliers and use them consistently to target questionnaire segments so that you avoid asking the same
questions over and over. For example, you can create a questionnaire segment that is required for all suppliers
in the US. However, if your company qualifies suppliers by individual state, every new qualification
questionnaire for a new state will include that required segment for the US. If you need to gather information
about a supplier that is broadly applicable across multiple commodities or regions, consider either doing so
during registration or making sure that the questionnaire segment is not required so that category or supplier
managers can omit it from successive qualifications.
● Plan a consistent strategy for organizing each questionnaire segment's contents using sections [page 89]. If
you do not use sections in any questionnaire segments, all of the content is displayed as a continuous
numbered list when the segments are assembled in the final questionnaire. If you use a top-level section in
each segment, and nest all of the segment's content inside it, each segment is its own numbered section in the
final questionnaire, with the segment content as numbered sub-items under it. However, if you use a top-level
section in one questionnaire segment and no top-level section in the segment that comes after it, the content
in the second segment is added to the previous segment's section, and uses the previous section's numbering,
in the final questionnaire.
● Make sure that any internal-facing documents you add are not visible to participants.
Caution
If you add a survey document to the template in addition to the default survey document, make sure to set Is
questionnaire internal only? to Yes. Any survey other than the default survey must be interal-facing in supplier
qualification projects.
Users at your company designate qualified suppliers as preferred on the Summary tab of the Overview tile in
supplier 360° profiles. Preferred supplier management forms are automatically internal-only, regardless of
whether you set Is questionnaire internal only? to Yes or No.
The following are best practices for preferred supplier management templates:
Importing master data (including users, regions, commodities, Common Data Import and Administration Guide
and so forth) into your site
Note
The information about importing supplier data and manag
ing suppliers and supplier users in this guide does not apply
to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
SAP Ariba project templates in general, including documents, Project Template Guide
task, teams, versioning, and publication
To do tasks and access control in projects Managing Projects, Teams, Documents, and Tasks
Managing enterprise users in your site Common Data Import and Administration Guide
Setting up sourcing event templates to use qualified and pre Event Management Guide
ferred suppliers
Setting up Supplier Lifecycle and Performance users involves making sure that those users have the appropriate
permissions through user group membership and assigning the users who are responsible for suppliers by
commodity and region.
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance user groups [page 23]
Prerequisites
Before you set up Supplier Lifecycle and Performance users, they must be created in your site.
Typically, enterprise users are imported as master data as part of Ariba's deployment of your site, and might be
updated by periodic imports from an integrated ERP system. You can also manually create enterprise users [page
25].
The following table describes the user groups are pertinent to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance:
Template Creator Manage all SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
templates, including creating questionnaires and request
forms. In the default configuration, the Template Creator
group is a member of the project team for all of the SAP Ariba
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance templates.
Project Email Templates Administrator Customize the content of all SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance notifications.
Customer Administrator Import and export data in Ariba Administrator and SM Admin,
create new users, and add groups to existing users.
Customer User Admin Create new users and add groups to existing users.
Preferred Supplier Manager Initiate and manage processes to designate preferred suppli
ers.
SM Ops Admin Import and export data in SM Admin area and manage all SAP
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance templates, including
creating questionnaires and request forms.
Legal Approve forms and questionnaires, if they are part of the ap
proval process defined in the template. This group does not
confer many functional privileges, but is useful for defining ap
proval processes that require participation by your organiza
tion's legal department.
Finance Approve forms and questionnaires, if they are part of the ap
proval process defined in the template. This group does not
confer many functional privileges, but is useful for defining ap
proval processes that require participation by your organiza
tion's legal department.
To set up your SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance users, either create new users [page 25] or edit
existing users [page 26], adding the relevant groups to them.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Customer User Admin group in order to add users to a
site.
Context
If you need to add many users, it is more efficient to run data import tasks.
Procedure
○ Type: This field can be set to Enterprise User, Third Party Enterprise User (Ariba), or Supplier User.
○ User ID: A unique internal identifier for the user. For security reasons, this field cannot contain an
apostrophe.
○ Name: The display name for the user.
○ Organization: Do not modify the value in this field.
○ Business Email Address: The user’s business email address.
User email addresses are checked for validity. Valid email addresses be entered, even in test
environments. Invalid email addresses trigger an error message and must be corrected. By default, an
email address must include a valid, existing domain. (The domain name is the part of the email address
that appears after the @ sign.) Ariba Customer Support can set a parameter to turn off the domain portion
of the validity check, in which case only syntax is checked. The name of the parameter is
[Link].
Note
If Ariba Customer Support configured a set of valid email address domain names specifically for your
site, any domain you use in the Business Email Address field must match a domain in that set, unless
you select the Allow External Email Domain option (see the next item).
○ Allow External Email Domain - Click this check box to allow an unapproved email address domain for this
user.
○ Click the check box if you want Ariba Administrator to generate a temporary password and send a login
invitation message to the user immediately after you click Save.
○ Clear the check box (the default) if you want to manually generate a temporary password before Ariba
Administrator sends a login invitation message..
6. On the Ship To Addresses tab, click Add/Remove to display the available shipping addresses and enter the
user’s ship-to address.
7. On the Billing Addresses tab, click Add/Remove to display the available billing addresses and enter the user’s
billing address.
8. On the Groups tab, click Add/Remove to display the available groups. Select one or more groups to assign to
the new user and click Done.
9. Click Save to save your changes, or click Cancel to return to the previous page without saving your changes.
Results
If you allowed Ariba to generate a temporary password for the user, the user receives the system-generated email
invitation containing a temporary password and instructions for logging in to Ariba. When the user clicks the URL
in the invitation, the user is prompted to create a new password.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Customer User Admin group in order to edit users.
Context
If you need to edit many users at once, it is more efficient to run data import tasks.
How to define a replication model for supplier data integration [page 32]
How to import the supplier management transports into SAP ERP [page 33]
How to maintain table entries for SAP Ariba supplier management solutions [page 34]
How to replicate Business Partner master data from SAP Ariba supplier management solutions [page 48]
Monitoring integration errors in SAP Ariba supplier management solutions [page 56]
The integration between Ariba supplier management solutions and SAP ERP and MDG is bidirectional and enables
you to replicate supplier master data as business partners in SAP ERP and SAP Ariba.
Note
If your Ariba solution includes existing Ariba Sourcing, Ariba Contract Management, or Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management (classic functionality) solutions, and you have an existing
integration with SAP ERP for supplier data, this integration method replaces the previous one.
The outbound integration from SAP ERP to SAP Ariba supplier management solutions is achieved through
business partner interfaces provided by MDG and standard SAP programs such as Data Replication Framework
Note
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk consumes outbound supplier data from SAP ERP, but does not send any data back
inbound. Therefore, if your solution does not include any SAP Ariba supplier management solutions except for
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, you only need to configure outbound integration.
The inbound integration from SAP Ariba supplier management solutions with SAP ERP and MDG is achieved
through a polling client, /ARBA/SM_BUSINESS_PARTNER_PULL, that runs on SAP ERP. You can specify the polling
frequency and configure the polling client to poll SAP Ariba supplier management solutions at regular intervals for
business partner master data or confirmation messages for the business partners exported from SAP ERP.
Alternatively, you can manually trigger the poll by executing the /ARBA/SM_BUSINESS_PARTNER_PULL program
from the SAP ERP user interface. When you execute this program, you can choose one or more of the following
options:
Note
SAP Ariba supplier management solutions do not currently support Business Partner Relationship
Bulk Replicate Request and Business Partner Relationship Bulk Replicate
Confirmation.
Tip
Create a scheduled job to run the polling client and data replication at regular intervals. You can use the
sm36 transaction code to schedule the program to run at regular intervals.
For every successful poll, SAP Ariba supplier management solutions include the sequence number of the message
in the response. The polling client updates the sequence number in the /ARBA/SM_SEQNUM table when a poll is
successfully completed. In case of an error, an error log is created in SLG1. For subsequent polls, the polling client
includes the sequence number of the last successful poll, which is stored in /ARBA/SM_SEQNUM.
When a polling request goes without a sequence number, SAP Ariba supplier management solutions identify it as a
first time request and sends the business partner records starting from the first record. The number of records
that SAP Ariba supplier management solutions send in response to a poll request depends on the configuration in
SAP Ariba for the maximum number of records to include in a response. Currently, this is set to 10 records.
If there are more than the configured number of records to replicate, SAP Ariba supplier management solutions
send the remaining records as responses to subsequent polls until there are no new records to replicate. SAP ERP
continues to use the same sequence number in the polls until SAP Ariba supplier management solutions send a
new record and updates the sequence number.
SAP ERP and MDG integration with SAP Ariba supplier management solutions uses SOAP messages for
requesting and receiving data from SAP Ariba. SAP Ariba supplier management solutions use MDG business
partner interface structure to store supplier master data. However, SAP Ariba supplier management solutions
integration with SAP ERP supports extension of the business partner data structure to enable you to use custom
You can use the Direct Connectivity or Mediated Connectivity integration method to integrate SAP Ariba supplier
management solutions with SAP ERP.
Prerequisites
The following items are prerequisites for integrating SAP Ariba supplier management solutions with SAP ERP:
Authorizations - Yes
BAdI -Yes/No
Custom Exits - No
Implicit Enhancements- No
Integration workflow
The following high-level steps describe the workflow for setting up integration between SAP Ariba supplier
management solutions and SAP ERP:
1. If you have not done so already, configure MDG or DRF integration for suppliers. For more information, see the
Configuring Master Data Governance for Suppliers on the SAP Help portal. For outbound integration, complete
the following tasks:
○ Enable the business functions listed in MDG business functions for supplier data integration [page 31].
○ Set up the Customer-Vendor integration, define a replication model [page 32], and a assign a target
system or replication model or outbound implementation.
(SAP ERP)
2. Import the latest SAP Ariba supplier management transports into SAP ERP [page 33]. (SAP ERP)
3. Maintain table entries for SAP Ariba supplier management in the /ARBA/SM_SEQNUM table [page 34]. (SAP
ERP)
For the outbound integration between SAP ERP and SAP Ariba supplier management solutions, you must activate
the following business functions:
Note
You do not require MDG license to activate these business functions.
● CA_BP_SOA
● CA_SUPPLIER
● DRF_FOUNDATION
Note
DRF_FOUNDATION is activated only in SAP_BS_FOUNDATION 748 and later. If you are running a lower
version of SAP_BS_FOUNDATION, you can use the transaction code SFW2 to define a custom business
function named Z_DRF_FOUNDATION with the following switches:
○ MDG_BS_CA_MDGAF_UI_SFWS_06
○ MDG_BS_CA_UI_SFWS_06
○ MDG_DATALOAD_SFWS_01
○ MDG_DRF_MAIN_05
○ MDG_DRF_MAIN_UI_05
○ MDG_DRF_SFWS_06
○ MDG_DRF_SFWS_07
○ MDG_DRF_UI_SFWS_06
○ MDG_KEY_MAPPING_05
○ MDG_KEY_MAPPING_UI_05
○ MDG_VALUE_MAPPING_05
If you have an MDG license and have the CA_BP_SOA, CA_SUPPLIER_SOA, and MDG_FOUNDATION business
functions activated, ensure that you also define and activate the DRF_FOUNDATION business function, which
contains the following additional switches that MDG_FOUNDATION does not contain:
● MDG_BS_CA_MDGAF_UI_SFWS_06
● MDG_BS_CA_UI_SFWS_06
● MDG_DRF_SFWS_06
● MDG_DRF_SFWS_07
● MDG_DRF_UI_SFWS_06
For the outbound integration between SAP ERP and Ariba supplier management solutions to work, you must
configure the data replication settings.
Procedure
1. Run the transaction code DRFIMG from the SAP ERP user interface.
The Display IMG window appears.
2. Click Data Replication Define Custom Settings for Data Replication Define Technical Settings
Define Technical Settings for Business Systems .
The Change View "Define Business Systems": Overview window appears.
3. To define a new business system and to maintain the logical system for the receiving systems, click New
Entries.
4. In the New Entries: Overview of Added Entries window, specify a business system, for example ABC_123,
and a logical system, ABCCLIENT123.
5. Click Save and go back to the Display IMG window.
6. To define a replication model, click Data Replication Define Custom Settings for Data Replication
Define Replication Models .
The Change View "Define Replication Model": Overview window appears.
7. Click New Entries to enter a name for the replication model and add a description.
8. Select the line that contains the newly-added replication model and click Assign Outbound Implementation.
Create a new entry and enter the following values using the input help:
For more information, click the IMG activity documentation icon on the left side of Data Replication
Define Custom Settings for Data Replication Define Replication Models in the Display IMG window.
You must download the latest version of the Ariba supplier management transports to implement the integration
between SAP Ariba supplier management solutions and SAP ERP. To implement Mediated Connectivity, you must
download the latest .TPZ files.
Procedure
1. On the Home tab of [Link] , go to Product Summary On-Demand and click Ariba Cloud
Integration.
Context
You can use the sm30 transaction code to access tables. To maintain a table, enter the name of the table in the
Table/View field of the Maintain Table Views: Initial Screen, and click Maintain.
Procedure
Service Name Name of the SAP Ariba supplier management solutions im
port service.
Example values:
○ BP_REPLICATE_CONFIRM
○ BP_REPLICATE_REQUEST
○ BP_RELATNSHP_CONFIRM
○ BP_RELATNSHP_REQUEST
Note
SAP Ariba supplier management solutions currently do
not support BP_RELATNSHP_CONFIRM and
BP_RELATNSHP_REQUEST services.
Note
If you are using Mediated Connectivity integration
method, leave this parameter blank.
Sequence Number The sequence number for the last successful import for the
given service.
You can leave this blank. When this parameter is left blank,
SAP Ariba supplier management solutions identify the re
quest as a first time request and sends records starting with
the first record to the maximum number of records as con
figured to send in one batch.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM ERP Admin group in order to manage ERP integration settings in the SM Admin
area.
Context
Integration configurations in SM Admin only support shared secret authentication for integration. It does not
support certificate authentication. The shared secret you use here does not have to be the same password you use
for other SAP Ariba integration configurations.
Procedure
Direct Connectivity is one of the two integration methods you can use to integrate Ariba supplier management
solutions with SAP ERP. The other method is Mediated Connectivity [page 39].
Note
Before you configure Direct Connectivity, you must configure the Web Services Runtime for SAP ERP on Client
000 and the actual business system clint. For more information, see Configuring the Web Service Runtime on
the SAP Help portal.
Context
You can use the SOAMANAGER configuration to set up Direct Connectivity for integrating SAP Ariba supplier
management solutions with SAP ERP. This topic explains the SOAMANAGER configuration for the polling client.
To set up SOAMANAGER configuration for the outbound services, repeat these steps with the proxy name and URL
access path that correspond to the DRFOUT and confirmation out services.
Procedure
Note
User ID is the name of the sourcing realm and the password is the shared secret that you configured in the
Ariba application.
9. Click Next.
Note
Ariba Supplier Management integration with SAP ERP does not support WS-RM .
Note
When you do a Web Service Ping, you might receive a “Web service ping failed (RC=403). Service Ping
ERROR: Forbidden.” This is expected behavior and does not indicate any error in the SOAMANAGER
configuration.
Except for the URL access path, the configuration remains the same as that for /ARBA/
CO_POLLING_CLIENT_REQRES.
Context
To enable HTTPS connection between SAP Ariba and SAP ERP, install SSL client certificate.
Procedure
1. Open your browser in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome and download the client certificate for the URL that
you have configured in SOAMANAGER.
2. Click the Secure Lock indicator on the address bar and then click the Connection tab.
3. Click the Certificate information link to download the certificates.
The Certificate dialog box appears.
4. Click the Details tab and then click Copy to File.
The Certificate Export Wizard appears.
5. Follow the steps in the Certificate Export Wizard. Ensure that you select the DER encoded binary X.509
(.CER) option. This option is selected by default.
6. Specify the path where you want to store the certificates. Click Finish.
7. On your ERP system, go to STRUST and click SSL Client SSL Client(Anonymous).
8. Click the Import Certificates button and then choose the path where you exported the certificates.
9. Click Allow and then Continue to download the certificates.
10. Click Add to Certificate List.
You will see a message that you have added the certificates successfully.
Note
Ensure that you save the newly added certificates. This notifies the ICM about the new certificates you have
just imported.
○ In case you see an ICM_HTTP_SSL_ERROR, verify that the SSL certificate is valid and the configuration is
correct.
○ If the connection is successful, you see a message saying the connection is successful.
Mediated Connectivity is one of the two integration methods you can use to integrate SAP Ariba supplier
management solutions with SAP ERP. The other method is Direct Connectivity [page 36].
Note
SAP Ariba does not provide an out-of-the-box integration option for outbound integration or confirmation out.
The Mediated Connectivity configuration explained in this section is specific to the inbound integration between
SAP Ariba and SAP ERP. For the outbound integration and confirmation out services, you can create custom
configuration scenarios on a dual stack [page 46] or single stack [page 45] system.
Context
Note
The integration scenario configuration explained in this topic is specific to the inbound integration between SAP
Ariba supplier management solutions and SAP ERP. Ariba does not provide an out-of-the-box integration option
for outbound integration or confirmation out. You might want to create your own custom dual stack [page 46]
or single stack [page 45] configuration scenario for the outbound integration and confirmation out.
Procedure
1. From the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration main page, select Integration Directory > Integration Builder,
and then log in to the Configuration: Integration Builder application.
2. In the Integration Builder page, select Tools > Apply Model from ES Repository.
3. In the first screen of the Transfer Model from ES Repository wizard > Select ES Repository Model and then
click Process Integration Scenario.
4. Click the Name field and then click the Display Input Help pull-down menu and then click Input Help.
5. Select AR_Supplier_Management from the Select Process Integration Scenario from Enterprise Services
Repository screen.
6. Click Apply. The Transfer Model from ES Repository wizard appears. The Namespace and the Software
Component Version is available in the wizard.
7. Click Continue and then click Close. Based on the value you set in the Select Process Integration Scenario
from Enterprise Services Repository field, this completes the export or import configuration scenario .
8. In the Model Configurator, click the Assign Component button.
Note
You require the Proxy Sender communication channel only for a single stack Java machine. If you are using
a dual stack Java machine, the Communication Channel cell must be left blank.
21. Click the New Communication Channel button (the icon at the top left) on the Communication Channels
page to start the Create Communication Channel wizard.
22. Click Continue and in the next page click the Name field, then click the Display Input Help dropdown list and
select Input Help. Select the following Communication Channel Template:
CCT_PollingClient_SOAP_Receiver
23. Click Finish. The Model Configurator window appears.
[Link] the Model Configurator, click the Create Configuration Object button.
25. In the Create Configuration Object window, do the following:
Context
The SSL client certificate enables the SAP Process Integration to successfully establish an SSL connection with
Ariba Sourcing. To enable HTTPS connection over Mediated Connectivity, configure SSL certificate.
Procedure
1. To download the SSL client certificate from the Ariba Sourcing URL, follow these steps.
1. Open your browser in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, and download the SSL client certificate for the
URL that you configured in the SOAP communication channel.
2. Click the Secure Lock indicator on the address bar and then, click the Connection tab.
3. Click the Certificate information link to download the certificates. The Certificate dialog box appears.
4. Click the Details tab and then click Copy to File. The Certificate Export Wizard appears.
5. Follow the steps in the Certificate Export Wizard. Ensure that you select the DER encoded binary X.509
(.CER) option. This option is selected by default.
6. Specify the path where you want to store the certificates and click Finish.
2. The SSL client certificates that SOAP Adapter uses to connect to Ariba Sourcing must be stored in the SAP
Process Integration keystore.
3. Go to the SAP Process Integration main page and click NetWeaver Administration Configuration
Management .
4. Click Certificate and Keys.
5. Search for the default keystore TrustedCAs and Click Import Entry button.
Note
Alternatively, you can add the SSL client certificate to the keystore you created for client certificate-based
authentication.
6. Select X.509 Certificate option from the Select Entry Type drop-down list in the Entry Import window.
7. Select file and import.
Procedure
1. Open the Configuration Integration Builder from the main SAP Process Integration page.
2. In the Objects tab of the Integration Builder, click Communication Channel.
3. Click Edit button that corresponds to the Communication Channel, and click Configure User Authentication.
4. In the Target URL field, specify the URL of the Supplier Management system. For Example:
○ [Link] management system URL>/SM/soap/PollingService for inbound
integration.
○ [Link] management system URL>/SM/soap/BPIntegrationServiceIn for outbound
integration.
○ [Link] management system URL>/SM/soap/BPIntegrationServiceInConf for
confirmation out.
5. In the User text box, enter the name of the Sourcing realm..
6. In the Password text box, enter the same shared secret that you specified on the Integration Toolkit Security
page of the Ariba application.
7. Save and activate the communication channel.
Procedure
The PI server appears and the Summary section indicates that the connection to XI is successful.
Procedure
1. Start Transaction SM59 and create RFC destination SAP_PROXY_ESR (Type G) under HTTP Connections to
External Server.
1. Under the Technical Settings tab, add AEX (PI Java Stack) server host name and port.
2. In the Path Prefix field, enter /rep.
3. Under the Logon & Security tab, you must ensure that the user is assigned to the role
SAP_XI_REP_SERV_USER.
2. Create an HTTP destination to AEX of Type G (example: PI_AEX) as follows:
1. Under the Technical Settings tab, add AEX (PI Java Stack) server host name and port.
2. In the Path Prefix field, enter /XISOAPAdapter/MessageServlet?ximessage=true.
3. Under the Logon & Security tab, user must be assigned to role SAP_XI_REP_SERV_USER.
3. Start transaction SXMB_ADM.
4. Expand Integration Engine > Configuration.
5. Click Integration Engine Configuration to edit global configuration data.
6. Under Global Configuration Data, enter:
○ Category: Runtime
○ Parameter: IS_URL
○ Current Value: dest://<PI_AEX>
This is the same G Type RFC destination mentioned in step 2.
8. Start transaction SLDAPICUST.
9. Enter SAP XI hostname, port, XI user ID, and password.
10. Run SLDCHECK command in SAP ERP.
Context
For outbound integration and the confirmation out service from SAP ERP to SAP Ariba supplier management
solutions, you must set up configuration scenarios. This topic contains the steps for creating a configuration
scenario on a single stack system.
Procedure
1. From the SAP Process Integration main page, log in to Integration Directory Integration Builder .
2. Right click the object type Configuration Scenario in the left pane, and click Create from the popup menu.
○ Specify a name for the communication channel. For example, you may name the receiver communication
channel for outbound integration as CC_DRF_SOAP_Receiver, and the communication channel for
confirmation out as CC_Con_SOAP_Receiver.
○ Set the Adapter Type to SOAP.
○ Set the Message Protocol to SOAP 1.1.
○ Set one of the following values for Target URL:
Note
Interface Operation Mapping is not required.
○ On the Outbound Processing tab, specify the communication channels for receiver.
For example, you may name the receiver communication channel for the outbound integration as
CC_DRF_SOAP_Receiver, and the one for the confirmation out service as CC_Con_SOAP_Receiver.
○ If the Integrated Configuration is not part of the Configuration Scenario, add the Integrated Configuration
to the configuration scenario.
Repeat the steps to create configuration scenarios for both outbound integration and the confirmation out
service.
Context
For outbound integration and the confirmation out service from SAP ERP to SAP Ariba supplier management
solutions, you must set up configuration scenarios. This topic contains the steps for creating a configuration
scenario on a dual stack system.
Procedure
1. From the SAP Process Integration main page, log in to Integration Directory Integration Builder .
○ Specify a name for the communication channel. For example, you may name the receiver communication
channel for outbound integration as CC_DRF_SOAP_Receiver, and the communication channel for
confirmation out as CC_Con_SOAP_Receiver.
○ Set the Adapter Type to SOAP.
○ Set the Message Protocol to SOAP 1.1.
○ Set one of the following values for Target URL:
○ Specify the SAP ERP business system as the communication component for Receiver Determination.
○ For Receiver Determination for the outbound integration, set Sender interface to
BusinessPartnerSUITEBulkReplicateRequest_Out.
○ For Receiver Determination for the confirmation out service, set Sender interface to
BusinessPartnerSUITEBulkReplicateConfirmation_Out.
○ Add a local rule to Receiver Determination and set the Ariba Supplier Management business system as the
communication component for the rule.
○ If the newly-created Receiver Determination is not added to the configuration scenario, add Receiver
Determination to the configuration scenario.
7. Create Interface Determination and configure the following settings:
Note
Interface Operation Mapping is not required.
8. Define Receiver Agreement and configure the following settings: After you create the Receiver Agreement,
specify the Receiver Communication channel CC_DRF_SOAP_Receiver.
○ Set the Sender Communication Component to the SAP ERP business system.
○ Set the Receiver Communication Component to the Ariba Supplier Management business system.
○ Set one of the following values for the Receiver Interface:
Repeat the steps to create configuration scenarios for both outbound integration and the confirmation out
service.
Prerequisites
● Maintain values in the /ARBA/SM_SEQNUM table as explained in How to maintain table entries for SAP Ariba
supplier management solutions [page 34].
● Set up Direct Connectivity [page 36] or Mediated Connectivity [page 39] integration method between SAP
Ariba supplier management solutions and SAP ERP.
You can replicate Business Partner master data from SAP Ariba supplier management solutions in SAP ERP and
Master Data Governance.
Tip
Always schedule this program to run at regular intervals. You can use the sm36transaction code to schedule the
program to run in the background at regular intervals.
Procedure
The Ariba Supplier Management Business Partner Pull Interface window appears.
2. Choose one or more of the following options:
○ Business Partner Bulk Replicate Request. To import the supplier master data.
○ Business Partner Bulk Replicate Confirmation. To receive confirmation for the supplier master data
import.
3. Click Execute.
The following structures have been modified to include the GenericCustomField element and the
genericCustomFieldListCompleteTransmissionIndicator attribute:
Language Code LanguageCode SAP Language code for the title and de
scription of the field. If no value is speci
fied, it defaults to en.
Receiver Check Table GenericCustomFieldMappingName Receiver's name of the check table used
to validate the code values.
If you need to extend your business partner data to include these custom fields, you can implement the following
BAdIs of the enhancement spot MDG_SE_SPOT_BPBUPA:
● MDG_SE_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_IN to extend the business partner data while creating the record in ERP.
● MDG_SE_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_OUT to extend the business partner data in ERP while sending to Ariba Supplier
Management.
Customizations using the MDG_SE_SPOT_BPBUPA enhancement spot are specific to the Business Partner tables in
SAP ERP.
You can implement the BAdI CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER to replicate these extensions in the vendor master data tables.
The CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER BAdI enables you to map customizations in business partner tables to vendor master
data tables.
Related Information
ABAP example code for processing incoming GenericCustomField data [page 51]
The following example contains a sample ABAP code for processing incoming GenericCustomField data.
METHOD if_mdg_se_bp_bulk_replrq_in~inbound_processing.
***Implementation for customer data
***Local Declaration for Internal table
DATA: lt_ariba_generic_data TYPE /arba/generic_custom_fiel_tab1.
***Local Declaration for Work Area
The LOOP AT lt_ariba_generic_data INTO ls_ariba_generic_data code creates a loop for the list of
GenericCustomField data in the structure generated from the SOAP WSDL. You could add your processing at
this point in the code to check for GenericCustomField records with specific names and process each of the
custom fields appropriately.
You can choose which of the custom fields you need to implement and at which extension [page 49] point. You can
specify the name of the field and also specify to which fields in your SAP Ariba supplier management solution the
custom fields you add map to.
To create custom fields to SAP Ariba supplier management solutions, you can implement the
BAdIMDG_SE_BP_BULK_REPLRQ_OUT, which extends the master data when SAP ERP sends the data to the SAP
Ariba supplier management solution.
Context
To extend the business partner data, you can create custom message mappings in the SAP Process Integration.
1. From the SAP Process Integration main page, click Enterprise Service Repository.
2. Select the Software Component Version ARIBA_SUPPLIER_MANAGEMENT 2.0 of [Link].
3. Select the customization namespace [Link]
4. Right click and create new mapping and operation mapping for customization.
5. Customize the mapping to suit your requirements, create new message mapping by assigning the request and
source message type.
6. Save the changes and activate the mapping.
7. Assign the message mapping in Operation Mapping.
8. Save and activate the Operation mapping.
9. Go to the Integration Directory and click Integration Builder.
10. Click the Configuration Scenario for Supplier Management.
11. Select Interface Determination and click the Edit icon.
12. Assign the operation mapping as per the customization in Interface Determination.
13. Save the changes and activate Interface Determination.
These default settings are useful for making sure that required fields are populated with initial values and for
setting values for fields that aren't mapped from forms and questionnaires. For example, you might want to set a
default general ledger account number for the supplier because it is a requirement in the ERP and, since the
category or supplier managers who approve supplier creation do not have access to that information, it is not a
question on the supplier request. Users in SAP ERP can update these default values as necessary after the initial
supplier synchronization.
Note
SAP ERP uses a category code of 2 for business partner objects that are suppliers; SAP Ariba supplier
management solutions automatically set this default value.
The Defaults area of SM Admin provides samples and allows you to download your current default settings and
upload new default settings.
● A sample file, Default_properties_sample.csv, with the names of all of the fields for which you can set
defaults in the name column. The file also has a value column, and you can use the sample to construct your
Default_properties.csv file. The file includes a name/value pair setting
[Link] to 2.
Default_properties.csv
Default field values specify the initial values set for supplier fields. You import data defining default field values in
the Defaults area of SM Admin using Default_properties.csv.
Field Description
name The name of the field. To obtain a list of valid field names, ex
port the sample file from the Defaults area of SM Admin.
value The default value to set for the field. This can be a concrete
value or a valid variable. To obtain a list of valid variables, ex
port the sample file from the Defaults area of SM Admin.
name,value
[Link],2
[Link],33001
[Link],${[Link]}
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM ERP Admin group in order to set up supplier synchronization.
Context
Automatic synchronization occurs automatically when the supplier reaches the specified status and is designed to
synchronize all suppliers of that status in the SAP Ariba supplier management solution database with the ERP.
Procedure
Status Description
Not Invited The supplier request has been approved and the supplier is
created in the SAP Ariba supplier management solution da
tabase, but the supplier has not been invited to register yet.
Pending Approval The approval flow for the registration has started and there
is one final approval pending. (Manual synchronization
only.)
5. Click Save.
SRT_TOOLS
SXMB_MONI
You can use the SXMB_MONI transaction code to view errors occurred on SAP Process Integration when you use
the Mediated Connectivity integration method.
You can filter the status list by message direction, time range, status, and message type.
There are two different types of SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance data: site master data, imported in
Ariba Administrator, and supplier-specific data, imported in the SM Manager.
Importing site master data for SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 57]
Importing SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supplier data [page 63]
This section discusses only the master data that is specific to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. The
Ariba Common Data Import and Administration Guide describes all other site master data, as well as site
administration, in detail.
Note
The information on importing supplier data in the Ariba Common Data Import and Administration Guide, and the
data import tasks in Ariba Administrator for supporting supplier organizations and profiles, apply only to sites
that do not use SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. In sites with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance, there is a separate process for importing supplier data [page 63].
For example, you can assign John Smith to computer equipment in North America as a project owner. He is a
member of Supplier Request Manager user group, and the approval flow for the supplier request form makes
You an assign a user to a combination of commodities, regions, and project groups. You can also assign a user to
only a region (by specifying the region and using All for region) or to only a commodity (by specifying the
commodity and using All for commodity).
Note
● When you assign a user to a commodity or region in one level of the hierarchy, that user is also assigned to
all commodities and regions below it. For example, if you assign John Smith to North America, he is
assigned all three countries in North America and to all cities and states in those countries.
● When you assign a user to a project group, that group must also exist in the appropriate template.
You use the Import Enterprise user category region data import task to specify user assignments to categories
and regions. The task reads from the [Link] file, which contains the following fields:
Field Description
ProjectGroup The name of the project group to which the user is assigned.
[Link] The code for the commodity to which the user is assigned.
The following example shows lines of the [Link] file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
ProjectGroup,[Link],[Link],[Link],[Link]
Name,[Link]
Legal,All,unspsc,North America,tjones,PasswordAdapter1
Project Owner,4213,unspsc,All,ljenkins,PasswordAdapter1
Project Owner,All,unspsc,Los Angeles,grooney,PasswordAdapter1
Project Owner,All,unspsc,San Diego,grooney,PasswordAdapter1
To assign a single user to multiple commodities or regions, you must create separate rows, one for each
assignment. This example uses two rows to assign the same user, George Rooney, as project owner for all
commodities in Los Angeles and San Diego.
After you have defined assignments in [Link], you import it into your site [page
60].
Preferred supplier levels indicate the degree to which your organization prefers one supplier over another for a
given category or region.
Examples of preferred supplier levels include number ranges (such as 1-5) or text labels (High, Medium, Low).
If your organization designates preferred suppliers, you must define their levels. If your preferred levels are text
labels, you must also define translations for each language you use in your site.
You use the Import Preferred Supplier Level data import task to define preferred supplier levels. The task reads
from the [Link] file, which includes the following fields:
Field Description
Note
If you plan to set up sourcing event templates, to automati
cally invite preferred suppliers to sourcing events that
match their categories and regions, you must make sure
that your preferred level uses a UniqueName of 1. Only
suppliers with a preferred level that maps to 1 are automati
cally invited to sourcing events.
The following example shows lines of the [Link] file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName
Gold,1
Silver,2
Bronze,3
After you have defined preferred supplier levels in [Link], you import it into your site
[page 60].
You use the Import Translations for Preferred Supplier Level data import task to define preferred supplier levels.
The task reads from the [Link] file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the [Link] file for supplier level translation, as
well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName
Oro,1,Spanish
Or,1,French
Ouro,1,BrazilianPortuguese
After you have defined preferred supplier level translations in [Link], you import it
into your site [page 62].
Related Information
After you enter your data in the CSV files, you can import it using the data import tasks available from Site
Manager in Ariba Administrator.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to import data into a site.
Context
These steps are for importing data that does not require translation.
The maximum number of objects that can be removed from the database at one time is 160,000. This number
is controlled by a system parameter. If this number is exceeded, a warning message appears.
The following table describes import operations. If a data import task does not support a particular data
import operation, that operation is not available.
Load Creates and modifies objects in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data
file does not already exist in the database, it is created. If an object in the data file already exists in
the database, it is modified using the value in the data file.
Create Creates new objects in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data file al
ready exists in the database, it is not modified.
Update Only Modifies existing objects only in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data
file does not already exist in the database, it is not created. If you do not want to modify a particu
lar object, do not include it in the data file.
Deactivate Deactivates objects in the database based on objects in the data file. If you do not want to deacti
vate a particular object, do not include it in the data file.
5. Enter the location of the relevant file, or click Browse to find and select the file.
6. Click OK to import your data, or click Cancel to exit without importing your data.
7. Click Refresh Status on the Data Import/Export page to view the current status of the data import.
Next Steps
For detailed status information, click the link in the Status column.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to import translation data.
Procedure
Next Steps
For detailed status information, click the link in the Status column.
● SimplifiedChinese
● TraditionalChinese
● English
● French
● German
● Italian
● Japanese
You can download samples of all SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance data files from the Imports/
Exports area of SM Admin. On the dashboard, click Manage SM Admin to access this area.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Supplier/Customer Manager group to export supplier
data in Ariba Administrator.
Context
Existing Ariba supplier data is exported in a [Link] file. That file contains two CSV
files: SupplierOrganization_Export.csv, which contains data on the suppliers, and
SupplierOrganizationOrganizationIdPart_Export.csv, which maps supplier domain IDs. For details on
the fields in these files, click Download Data Dictionary in the Ariba Administrator Site Manager Data
Import/Export task.
○ If your site includes Ariba procurement solutions, on the dashboard, click Manage Core
Administration .
○ If your site does not include Ariba procurement solutions, n the dashboard, click Manage
Administration .
Next Steps
After exporting the existing Ariba suppliers from your site, you import them into the supplier database [page 64].
Importing supplier-related data makes it available for supplier management, risk, and procurement activities.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM ERP Admin, SM Ops Admin, Supplier Risk Manager, or Customer
Administrator group to import supplier data in SM Admin.
To import existing Ariba suppliers, you must first obtain the data using a data export task in your site [page 63].
The suppliers referenced by supplier data files, such as supplier contacts, preferred supplier lists, and supplier
factory data, must already exist in the database before you import the files, either as a result of importing suppliers
first or because they were created manually in the user interface. The exception to this rule is for supplier
qualification data, which offers an option to create the suppliers referenced in the file if they do not already exist.
Procedure
Supplier from Sourcing Suppliers exported from SAP Ariba solutions using
[Link].
Supplier qualification data A list of supplier qualifications by commodity and code and
region using [Link].
Preferred Supplier list data A list of preferred suppliers by commodity code and region
using [Link].
Purchasing org data The purchasing organizations associated with the supplier,
including defaults, using
[Link].
Custom display names Custom labels for registration and qualification statuses us
ing [Link].
Primary Supplier Manager The names of primary and alternative internal contacts for
suppliers using [Link].
4. (Optional) For supplier qualification data, check Create supplier if required to add any suppliers in the data
that don't already exist to the database.
5. On the Upload tab, click Browse and navigate to the file you want to import.
6. Click Upload.
Next Steps
Click the Upload Summary tab to view the status of your data import.
line1 The first line of the supplier address. At least one of the following fields is re
quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
line2 The second line of the supplier address. At least one of the following fields is re
quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
line3 The third line of the supplier address. At least one of the following fields is re
quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
postalCode The postal code of the supplier address. At least one of the following fields is re
quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
city The city of the supplier address. At least one of the following fields is re
quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
state The state or province of the supplier ad At least one of the following fields is re
dress. quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
countryCode The two-character ISO country code of At least one of the following fields is re
the country for the supplier address. quired: line1, line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode.
[Link]
You import supplier contact (supplier user) data using the Supplier Contacts data type and
[Link]. To specify the same supplier as preferred for multiple categories or regions, add a
unique row for each combination of category, region, and supplier
[Link]
Supplier qualification data is used to designate supplier qualification status in the guided buying feature for Ariba
Procure-to-Pay, and for suppliers that were created outside of SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. You
import data about suppliers' qualification status using the Supplier qualification data file type and
[Link]. To specify the same supplier as qualified for multiple categories or regions, add
a unique row for each combination of category, region, and supplier.
sourceSystem For existing Ariba suppliers, if the Yes for existing suppliers.
SupplierOrganizationOrganiz
For suppliers that do not already exist in
ationIdPart_Export.csv file con
the database, if you check the Create
tains a Domain and Value entry for the supplier if required option during data
supplier, use the Domain in this field. If import, you can leave this field blank.
not, use SM. The supplier is added with the default SM
source system.
For suppliers imported from outside
Ariba, use the sourceSystem speci
fied in [Link].
● NotQualified
● QualificationStarted
● InQualification
● PendingQualificationAppr
oval
● PendingResubmit
● QualificationRestricted
● QualificationRejected
● Disqualified
● Qualified
● Expired
[Link]
Preferred supplier data is used to designate preferred suppliers in the guided buying feature for Ariba Procure-to-
Pay and Ariba Procure-to-Order solutions and in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, and for suppliers that were created
outside of Ariba in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. You import data about your list of preferred
suppliers using the Preferred Supplier list data file type and [Link]. To specify the same
supplier as preferred for multiple categories, add a unique row for each combination of category and supplier.
Related Information
● [Link]
● [Link]
● [Link]
● [Link]
ion
● [Link]
oval
● [Link]
bmit
● [Link]
● [Link]
nDenied
● [Link]
ed
● [Link]
ionStarted
● [Link]
ation
● [Link]
lificationApproval
● [Link]
ubmit
● [Link]
ionRestricted
● [Link]
ed
● [Link]
● [Link]
ionRejected
● [Link]
locale The ISO code for the language used for Yes
the displayName.
[Link]
Primary supplier manager data is used to specify a primary and optional alternate contact within your company
who either interfaces with the supplier or can answer questions about it. Primary and alternate supplier managers
do not have any role in supplier projects; they are for information only unless you issue mass registration
invititations, in which case they are required. You import data about primary supplier managers using the Primary
Supplier Manager file type and [Link].
When a solution is initially deployed, supplier project templates such as the Supplier Request Template or the
Supplier Registration Template are in Active status. Setting the templates up involves creating new versions,
editing them, and publishing the updates.
After the initial setup, once projects have been created from the templates, the upgrade will affect those projects.
Note
It is not necessary to publish the surveys and content documents in a template before you publish the template
itself.
To do this... Choose...
View template details Actions Template View Details to view the name, description, version, sta
tus, base language, rank, owner, access control, conditions, tasks, and Documents tab.
View the template’s history Actions Template View History to view and search the past actions per
formed on the template, including the type of action and the user who performed the
action.
Edit the template properties attrib Actions Template Edit Properties to edit the template name, description,
utes owner, process status, rank, access controls, and conditions.
Export the template to a ZIP file Actions Template Export Template to export various template components
to XML files in a ZIP file.
To deactivate a template so new Actions Template Inactivate . You can later Reactivate the template.
projects cannot be created from it
Display all tabs in a project Actions Display Full View . The newly-created template displays in compact
view. The view you use when publishing the template determines the initial view users
see in projects created from the template. Choose Actions Display Compact
View to return to the compact view.
Note
Templates for Ariba Sourcing quick projects only use compact view.
You must publish a project template to make it available to users who are creating projects.
If the template contains team member rules file documents, those files are validated during publication, and an
error message tells you which team member rules files contain errors. You need to fix any validation errors in team
member rules files before you can successfully publish a template.
When you publish a template, any previous active version of that template changes to archive status. You can
create a new version from an archived version as a way to recover a previous version as the current draft.
Note
Documents do not have versions within a particular version of a template. However, if you make changes to a
document in a subsequent version of a template, the original version of the document is retained in the previous
template version.
Note
If you cannot publish a supplier-related template because of errors in the team member rules file, you publish
the file to see exact error messages.
Next Steps
After you have completed work on a template, you can export it to a ZIP file and import it for later use.
2. Navigate to the supplier-related template you want to modify and choose Actions Template New
Version on the Overview tab.
3. Edit the template.
4. Navigate to the Advanced Options tab.
5. In the Upgrade Template Settings area, select Yes.
Results
After you have published a new version of the template, the Upgrade Template Task Status area on the
Advanced Options tab shows how many projects have been the template upgrade scheduled task has upgraded
to the new template version, and how many it has yet to upgrade. Projects that are upgraded when users open
them do not count toward either of these numbers, because it only counts those projects that are touched by the
scheduled task. If a project is upgraded when a user opens it while the scheduled task is running, the total number
to be upgraded decreases by 1.
Individual project History tabs show when they were upgraded to the new template version and display all of the
changes to project groups, tasks, phases, and documents that occur during a template upgrade. For example, a
template upgrade adds a document to a project. The History tab for the project contains two entries with the same
The second entry is for the added document with Details text similar to the following:
To view information about the current template version, click the link in the Details column for the workspace
change.
Supplier management processes such as supplier requests and registrations uses template survey and content
documents to create forms and dynamic questionnaires targeted to suppliers based on region and commodity.
They can also use survey documents to solicit information from internal stakeholders. Content in these
documents can be mapped to specific fields in your supplier database.
Adding content to a supplier form, questionnaire segment, or internal survey [page 89]
Using visibility conditions to show or hide content based on answers [page 95]
How to add translations for form and questionnaire content names [page 106]
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
edit its survey document. See Editing and publishing supplier project templates [page 79] for more information.
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, timing rules, definitions,
participants, and so forth) that are not relevant to supplier management processes. These settings are ignored
in supplier management projects. Only the supplier management settings on the survey's Overview page and
the content on its Content page are used in supplier management projects.
Procedure
○ For Specify questionnaire format, choose Form to create a form or Questionnaire to create a simple
questionnaire.
○ For Is questionnaire internal only?, choose Yes if only your organization's employees will be filling the
form our, or No if external people such as supplier contacts will be filling it out.
○ For Is questionnaire required?, choose Yes.
7. Click Content.
8. Add content to the form or questionnaire. [page 89]
9. Click Summary.
10. Perform one of the following actions:
○ To save the form or questionnaire and work on it later, click Exit, then click Save and then exit
○ To publish the form or questionnaire, click Publish.
Results
Once you publish the form or questionnaire and upgrade and publish the project's template [page 81], the it is
available to all users who have permission to use it.
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
edit its survey document. See Editing and publishing supplier project templates [page 79] for more information.
Context
When you are setting up the targeted questionnaire by editing the survey, do not add any content to it directly. You
add questionnaire content in separate content documents.
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, timing rules, definitions,
participants, and so forth) that are not relevant to supplier management processes. These settings are ignored
in supplier management projects. Only the supplier management settings on the survey's Overview page and
the content on its Content page are used in supplier management projects.
Procedure
Note
Always choose No for registration and qualification questionnaires, which are designed for suppliers to
fill out.
Results
The questionnaire framework is now ready. The next step is to add content to it by creating questionnaire
segments [page 86].
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
create questionnaire segments. See Editing and publishing supplier project templates [page 79] for more
information.
Context
Selecting at least one commodity and one region for each questionnaire segments is required, because it is how
you make sure that they are sent to suppliers for those commodities and regions. If you select a commodity or
region at a high level of the hierarchy, the questionnaire segment is sent to all suppliers who are associated with all
of the commodities or regions under it. To make the questionnaire segment general to all suppliers, choose All for
both commodity and region.
Procedure
If the commodity or region you want to specify does not appear on the menu, click select more, select the
commodity or region, and click Done. If you want to send the questionnaire segment to all suppliers, choose
All
9. (Optional) To add more commodities or regions, click add more to the right of the Commodity and Region
dropdown menus and repeat the previous step.
10. Click Create.
11. Add content to the questionnaire segment. [page 89]
12. Click Done.
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
edit its survey document. See Editing and publishing supplier project templates [page 79] for more information.
Context
In most cases, internal surveys are displayed the supplier 360° tile related to the project. For example, in solutions
that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, internal surveys are displayed on the Qualification tile.
The exception to this rule is for supplier registration projects, where internal surveys are displayed on the
Overview tile; this design allows you to use an internal survey as a way to allow category or supplier managers to
supplement supplier registration information and display it as part of the supplier profile.
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, timing rules, definitions,
participants, and so forth) that are not relevant to supplier management processes. These settings are ignored
Procedure
If the commodity or region you want to specify does not appear on the menu, click select more, select the
commodity or region, and click Done. If you want to send the questionnaire segment to all suppliers, choose
All
9. (Optional) To add more commodities or regions, click add more to the right of the Commodity and Region
dropdown menus and repeat the previous step.
10. Click Create.
11. On the Rules page, in the Supplier Management area, perform the following actions:
○ To save the survey and work on it later, click Exit, then click Save and then exit
○ To publish the survey, click Publish.
Results
Once you publish the survey and upgrade and publish the project's template [page 81], the survey is available to all
users who have permission to use it.
Note
On the content table, you can drag and drop pieces of content to place them in the order in which you want
them to appear.
Context
Sections are automatically numbered in their order of appearance, and the content inside them is numbered
based on the parent section number. For example, a section in a questionnaire segment might be numbered 1, and
the three questions inside it numbered 1.1, 1.2. and 1.3.
Top-level sections in questionnaire segments are useful for organizing content in the final questionnaire, which is
assembled from multiple segments. If you nest all of the content of a questionnaire segment inside a section, it is
displayed and numbered together in the final assembled questionnaire. If you do not, but the content of a previous
questionnaire segment is nested in a top-level section, the content of the current segment is added to and
numbered with the previous segment's content in the final questionnaire.
If you apply a condition to a section, that condition applies to all of the content in the section. Sections are
therefore useful if you have a series of questions that you want to show or hide based on the answers to other
questions.
Procedure
Context
Note
The Add Question pages for both surveys and content documents include a number of settings (include in cost,
access control, participant-specific initial values, and so forth) that are not relevant to supplier management.
These settings are ignored in supplier management projects. Only the settings discussed in the following steps
are used in supplier management projects.
Procedure
○ Select Add Question at the bottom of the content table to add the question to the end of the form
or questionnaire.
○ Select the section to which you want to add the question and select Add Question at the bottom of
the content table.
○ Click a section to add the question inside or after it and select Add Question from the pull-down
menu.
2. If you selected a location for the new question, select Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
3. Choose an answer type from the Answer Type dropdown menu. The answer type you choose determines the
other settings you can specify for the question.
4. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
5. (Optional) For answer types that allow acceptable values, on the Acceptable Values dropdown menu, perform
one of the following actions:
○ To allow respondents to enter any value in the answer field, choose Any Value.
○ To force respondents to choose a value from the master data loaded in your site, choose Master Data
Value. At the bottom of the Add Question page, choose a master data type from the Master data types
to use for value dropdown menu.
Allow participants to select multiple values? If you select Yes, the list of choices is a set of check boxes instead
of a pull-down menu, and respondents can select multiple values
to answer the question. If you allow multiple answers to a question,
you cannot add it to reports.
Enter values and click Add to add choices to the list. Select a value
from the list and click Set Default to make it the default choice.
○ For answer types that allow number ranges, to limit answers to a specific range of numbers, select
Limited Range. At the bottom of the Add Question page, add from and to values to define the range. For
date questions, select a relative range such as Last Week or This Year from the Range menu, or select
Custom and specify a fixed from and to date to define the range.
6. For decimal number, money, or percentage answer types, enter the number of decimal places; the default
number is 2.
7. Specify the following settings for the question; available settings depend on the answer type you selected:
Response Required? Specifies whether or not you want to require various respondents to answer the
question. Options are:
○ Not Required
○ Yes, Participant Required: suppliers must answer the question.
○ Yes, Owner Required: creates an internal-only question. Only use this op
tion in internal forms (such as the supplier request form) and surveys.
For projects where the supplier answers the questionnaire, there is no way
for an internal user to edit the questionnaire to add owner-required an
swers.
Reference documents Click Attach a file to attach a reference file to the question; you can either up
load the file from your local computer or select it from your site’s library content.
You can only attach library content to which you have access.
Visible to Participants Specifies whether or not suppliers can see the question. Selecting No creates a
question that is only visible to internal users. Note that for projects where the
supplier answers the questionnaire, internal users can see the question but can
not answer it.
Participants can add additional Specifies whether or not respondents can add additional attachments and com
comments and attachments ments to the question using an icon that opens an extra comment field and at
tachment link.
SM Field Mapping If you want to map the question to a supplier database field [page 107], enter
the field name.
Visibility Conditions Specifies the conditions under which suppliers and internal users at your com
pany see the question. Click none and select an existing condition, or select
Create Condition to create a new condition. For details, see Using visibility con
ditions to show or hide content based on answers [page 95].
8. (Optional) Provide an initial value as an example, in order to communicate your expectations of how
respondents should answer by performing one of the following actions:
○ For yes/no questions, select Yes or No as a default value, or select Unspecified if you do not want to
provide a default value.
○ For attachment questions, click Attach a file and either upload the file from your local computer or select
it from your site’s library to provide an attachment that respondents can use as a template or form for
providing their responses
○ For certificate questions, select Yes or No as a default value, or select Unspecified if you do not want to
provide a default value. If you select Yes, you can click Details and provide default certificate information
such as issuer to communicate your expectations for how respondents will answer the question.
○ For quantity questions, the default unit of measure for the initial value is each. To change it, click each and
select from the list of units of measure used in your site.
○ For all other answer types, enter an initial value in the Initial Value field.
9. Click Done.
Related Information
Supplier form, questionnaire, and internal survey question answer types [page 94]
Procedure
○ Select Add Requirement at the bottom of the content to add a new requirement to the end of the
questionnaire.
○ Select the section before or inside of which you want to add the requirement and select Add
Requirement at the bottom of the content table.
○ Click a section to add the requirement inside or after it and select Add Requirement from the pull-
down menu.
Context
When you add an attachment to the profile questionnaire, use its description to communicate the format of the
attached file and your expectations for its use by respondents.
You can add document files either from your local computer or from the Sourcing Library to supplier profile
questionnaire attachments.
You cannot set visibility conditions on attachments initially when you add them as standalone attachments.
However, when you edit any attachment you added this way, you can set visibility conditions on them and add
reference documents at that time.
Note
In addition to standalone attachments, you can also attach files to questions, requirements, and other pieces of
content.
Procedure
○ Select Add Attachments from Desktop at the bottom of the content table. Click Browse, navigate
to the file you want to attach on your local computer, and click Open. Click Add More to add up to 10 files
as attachments at the same time.
○ Select whether or not suppliers can see each attachment from the Visible to Participants pull-down
menu. Selecting No creates an attachment that is only visible to internal users.
○ Limit access control to the file to specific sets of users.
4. Click Done.
Text (single line limited) The answer field accepts a single line of text (numerical and al
phabetic characters) with no character returns and a maxi
mum of 255 characters.
This answer type is the only one for which you can set master
data values as an acceptable answer.
Text (single line) The answer field accepts a single line of text (numerical and al
phabetic characters) with no character returns and a maxi
mum of 4000 characters.
Text (multiple lines) The answer field displays six lines of text initially and can be
expanded indefinitely with a vertical scroll bar and no charac
ter limit.
Decimal Number A decimal number; for example, 19.5. The default number of
decimal places is 2
Yes/No The input field is a dropdown menu with Yes and No menu
items.
Note
Use the separate Certificate answer type to ask for small
business, diversity, green, and other certifications.
Certificate The answer field is a pull-down menu with Yes and No menu
items. Selecting Yes displays a Details link that allows re
spondents to enter certificate information such as issuer,
number, location, type, and effective and expiration dates, and
to upload a certificate file as an attachment.
If you add a question to your document from the Sourcing Library (as library content), you have the option of
copying its conditions as well so that they operate in your document.
You can create two types of visibility conditions: basic and advanced.
When you create either type of condition, keep in mind the following considerations:
● If the project uses a form, all respondents see the single form, and visibility conditions based on commodity
and region can be useful for displaying content dynamically based on answers. But questionnaires are
assembled from content document segments that are targeted to specific commodities and regions. It is
therefore important be aware of all of your existing segments and the commodity and region settings you have
applied to each segment, and only apply visibility conditions based on commodity or region in segments where
it makes sense. For example:
○ If you have a questionnaire segment that applies to all commodities, but another questionnaire segment
that applies only to IT and computer equipment, it doesn't make sense to use visibility conditions to add a
question to the general questionnaire that is only shown to suppliers of IT and computer equipment. Add
the question (without conditions) to the IT and computer equipment questionnaire segment instead, and
it will automatically only show to those suppliers.
○ If you have a questionnaire segment that applies to all regions, and other region-specific questionnaire
segments that only target regions down to the country level, you can use visibility conditions for specific
states, regions, or cities to show content based on more granular region values. Add conditional questions
that only applies to Parisian suppliers to the questionnaire segment targeted at France.
● You cannot create conditions based on questions of answer type Text (multiple lines). You can create
conditions based on questions of any other answer type.
● If you set a visibility condition for content that suppliers will see in registration or other questionnaires, make
sure that the question that triggers the condition is visible to participants.
Prerequisites
You must create the question on which the condition is based before you can create the condition.
Context
1. Use an existing question or create a new question on which to base the condition.
2. On the content table, perform one of the following actions:
6. Perform one of the following actions to set the condition content match:
○ For questions with numerical answer types (including date and money), enter a From and To value to
create a range of values.
○ For questions with text answer types, enter a string of text which must match participant answers exactly
to satisfy the condition.
○ For questions with Yes/No answer types, select either Yes, No, or Either.
○ For questions with a defined list of answer values that are specific to the question, select the answer from
the dropdown menu.
○ For questions with answers that must be selected from a list of site-wide values (such as commodity),
click select and select the values that participants’ answers must match in order to satisfy the condition.
7. Click OK.
Next Steps
Now you can apply the condition to form or questionnaire segment content. When you are creating or editing a
section, question, requirement, or attachment, for Visibility Condition, click none and choose from the list of
available conditions.
Prerequisites
You must create the questions on which the condition is based before you can create the condition.
1. Use an existing question or create a new question on which to base the condition.
2. Perform one of the following actions:
○ Click Undefined and select the question on which you want to base the condition from the list of options,
then specify the content match that fulfills the condition.
○ To enclose an expression within an expression, click the expression and select it. The new expression is
added to its left.
○ To add a condition in parallel to another condition, click the expression to its left, then select the question
or formula from the list of options and specify the content match that fulfills the condition.
○ To nest a set of conditions with an expression inside another expression, add a condition to the first
expression, then select Content Match for the condition and select the expression. The new expression is
added to the left of the condition, but within the first expression.
7. Continue adding nested conditions and expressions as needed.
8. Click OK.
Next Steps
Now you can apply the condition to form or questionnaire segment content. When you are creating or editing a
section, question, requirement, or attachment, for Visibility Condition, click none and choose from the list of
available conditions.
Expression Definition
All of An advanced expression that can include multiple expressions used for conditions that require all
expressions to match (AND). You can use the All of expression to make a condition true under spe
cific, layered circumstances.
For example, you can create an All of expression with two content matches: Are you Woman Owned
Enterprise Certified? = Yes and Are you Small Business Certified? = No. This condition is true for any
supplier that is Woman Owned Enterprise Certified but is not Small Business Certified. You can use
this condition to display specific content for suppliers with that combination of certifications.
Any of An expression that is true if one or more of the expressions defined in it are true (OR).
For example, if you define an Any of condition with four questions in it, that condition is true if the
participant’s answer matches the answers you define as content matches for at least one, or as
many as all four, of those four questions.
None of An expression that is true only if none of the expressions defined in it are true (NOT).
For example, you can create a None of expression with content matches to four different regions
where you have manufacturing plants for questions that ask participants if they have shipping cen
ters close to those regions. You can use this condition to display content to suppliers who answered
No to all of those questions, and therefore might not be able to fulfill your shipping requirements.
Content examples
Prerequisites
Lists of choices are only available for questions with one of the following answer types:
Procedure
When you add a question with a limited range answer to a form or questionnaire segment, any values entered in
the field that do not fall within that range are rejected, and the person filling out the form or questionnaire must
provide an answer within the defined range in order to submit it successfully..
Prerequisites
Limited ranges are only available for questions with one of the following answer types:
● Whole Number
● Decimal Number
● Date
● Money
● Percentage
● Quantity
For questions with answer type Date, you can limit answers relative to the current date or specify a fixed (custom)
date range. For example, you can require that the respondant's answer be in the current year, current month,
previous fiscal quarter, and so forth.
Procedure
○ For number ranges, enter numerical values in the From and To fields.
○ For date ranges, choose a value from the Range dropdown menu, or choose Custom and specify a fixed
date range.
5. Specify other settings for the question and click Done.
The Certificate question answer type includes fields that allow respondents to provide effective and expiration
dates, issuers, and other details. You can map the question to the supplier database.
Procedure
When the supplier chooses Yes to provide a certificate and clicks the Details link, a window opens up. The supplier
can enter issuer, effective and expiration dates, certificate numbers, and other details, as well as uploading the
certificate as an attachment.
Context
You can use one of two methods to ask for a supplier's address: by using the Address answer type, as
demonstrated in this example, or by creating separate questions for each address field [page 103]. The method
shown here is useful if you do not want to allow multiple lines in a supplier's street address, since the Address
answer type only supports one street address line. With the Address answer type, respondents select from a list of
countries on a dropdown menu.
You can follow these steps for questions with the Commodity and Region answer types, mapping them to the
[Link] and [Link] database fields respectively.
Procedure
Results
The form or questionnaire shows a predefined set of address fields: Street, City, State/Province/Region, and
Country, which uses a dropdown menu to allow users to select from a list available countries. These fields are all
mapped to the supplier database.
Context
You can use one of two methods to ask for a supplier's address: by using the Address answer type [page 102], or
by creating separate questions for each address field, as shown here. Since the Address answer type supports a
fixed number of address fields, including only one street address line, the method shown here is useful if you want
to ask for supplier addresses with multiple lines for street address. You can only map the first address line to the
supplier database, but you can still acquire all of the lines in the supplier's street address.
The question you create for the country portion of the address has a text answer type, so respondents enter a text
value instead of choosing from a dropdown menu of available countries unless you use master data as the
acceptable answer values and choose Region as the master data type for the answer.
Procedure
Procedure
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Add Question .
b. Enter a name for the question, such as Are you certified green?.
c. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, choose Certificate.
d. For Visible to Participant, choose Yes.
e. In the SM Field Mapping field, enter certificate.
f. Specify other settings for the question and click Done.
2. Create a condition based on a yes answer to the green certificate question:
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Edit Conditions .
b. On the Edit Conditions page, click Add.
c. In the Create Condition window, enter a name for the condition, such as Show for green certified.
d. For the expression, click Undefined and select your green certification question.
e. Select Yes for the content match.
f. Click OK, then click Done.
3. Create a question that will only show when a supplier Yes to your certification question:
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Add Question .
b. Enter a name for the question, such as Please provide your company's sustainability
policy. You can add it as an attachment..
c. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, select Text (multiple line).
d. For Visible to Participant, choose Yes.
e. For Participant can add additional comments and attachments, choose Yes.
a. For Visibility Conditions, click none and select your green certified condition.
b. Click Done.
Context
This question is useful in category status forms in preferred supplier management projects, where internal users
can request changes to the preferred status of the suppliers they work with.
Procedure
Results
Users answering this question select from among the supplier preferred levels defined in your site's master data
on a dropdown menu.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator group in order to edit project templates. You must also belong to
the Translator group in order to add translations of form or questionnaire content names in the template.
Context
You can provide translations for each of the languages that are enabled in your site. The translation fields include
the same formatting controls as the original content name fields, so you can also duplicate the formatting.
Note
These translations apply only to the text in the Name field of form and questionnaire content. There is no way to
translate answers that involve lists of choices, and attached files are always in the language of the file. If you
need to add content with attachments or lists of choices that are also translated into multiple languages, you
must:
● Create a piece of content in each language, rather than creating a single piece of content in the base
language and providing translations. For each piece of language-specific content, the choices in the list of
choices and the attached documents must be in that language.
● Use either visibility conditions based on region or region-specific questionnaire segments to make sure that
the content for each language only displays for the region corresponding to that language.
Note that this way of providing translated content is less precise, because it is not based on individual user
locale settings; for example, if you add French content that is visible to suppliers in Switzerland, it is shown to
Swiss users who specify either French or German as their language.
Procedure
1. Above the content table for the survey or content document, choose Actions Translate .
The Content Translation page opens. It displays the Base Language on the left in read-only fields and the
Translation Language on the right in editable fields. You cannot modify the base language data from this
page.
For example, a supplier request form needs to ask for the supplier's name. You create this field by adding a
question, titled something like Supplier Name:, to the form. If you do not map the question to a supplier
database field, the answer is simply stored in the database as value associated with the question. However, if you
map the question to the [Link].name1 field, the answer is stored in the database as the supplier's
name.
Mapped fields are synchronized with your ERP system's vendor master data. When a value is updated in the ERP
system, that update is synchronized to the mapped field in Ariba.
Most questionnaire content does not have to be mapped. However, any other form of questionnaire content that
you want to synchronize with the ERP system must be mapped to a supplier database field. For supplier projects,
these fields typically include basic supplier information (name, contact, address, bank acount, and other important
information). This reference [page 107] provides a list of common supplier database field names for basic
information.
Users in the SM Integration Administrator group can download a complete list of available supplier database field
names by clicking Manage SM Administrator on the dashboard, navigating to the Defaults area, and
downloading the Default_properties_sample.csv file.
The following list of common supplier database field names is useful for mapping between a piece of form or
questionnaire content and a supplier database field that will be synchronized with the integrated ERP system.
The information in these fields is used to determine possible matches to existing suppliers in the database.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
[Link] The first name of the supplier contact, the person to whom the
registration questionnaire invitation is sent by default.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
[Link] The last name of the supplier contact, the person to whom the
registration questionnaire invitation is sent by default.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
Note
This field is recommended in supplier request forms.
[Link] The locale of the supplier contact. Map a question that uses
master data of type Locale as the acceptable answer value to
this field.
Note
This field is recommended in supplier request forms.
The information in these fields is used to determine possible matches to existing suppliers in the database.
address.line1 The first line of the supplier's street address. The information
in address fields is used to determine possible matches to ex
isting suppliers in the database.
[Link] The state or province of the supplier's street address. The in
formation in address fields is used to determine possible
matches to existing suppliers in the database.
[Link] The postal code of the supplier's street address. The informa
tion in address fields is used to determine possible matches to
existing suppliers in the database.
[Link] The ISO language code for the language of the supplier's ad
dress.
The information in these fields is used to determine possible matches to existing suppliers in the database.
[Link] An identifier for the tax authority to which the supplier reports.
taxInfo.taxNumber1 A set of unique identifiers for the taxes to which the supplier is
subject, as defined by the tax authority.
taxInfo.taxNumber2
taxInfo.taxNumber3
taxInfo.taxNumber4
taxInfo.taxNumber5
[Link] The type of the supplier bank account; for example, checking.
[Link] The date from which the supplier bank information is valid.
These fields are for Ariba use only and are not synchronized with an ERP system.
Adding project groups and team members to project templates [page 113]
Using buyer category assignments to add team members to project groups [page 115]
Using team member rules to add project groups and team members [page 116]
● By manually adding project groups on the template’s Team tab. The groups you add in a template are added
to every project created from the template. You add project groups on a template’s Team tab as you would
add groups to a project. You can also specify if project owners can edit a project group in projects created
from the template (Can owner edit this Project Group). You can also add individual users or entire user
groups to project groups. For supplier request, registration, qualification, and preferred supplier management
project groups, if your site includes user assignments to project groups, commodities, and regions, you can
specify that members of a project group are added dynamically based on assignment (Apply buyer category
assignment matrix).
● By creating team member rules. Team member rules dynamically add groups or individual users to a project
based on the values supplied during project creation.
Note
In projects, use either the buyer category assignment matrix or team member rules to assign users to groups in
a supplier project template. Do not use both. Buyer category assignments apply to all project groups to which
they are applied in all supplier templates. Team member rules must be added to each project template's team
separately.
To specify members of the Project Owner group that are inherited by projects created from a template, you must
use either buyer category assignments or team member rules.
Members manually added to a Project Owner group from a template’s Team tab are not inherited by any projects
created from that template. Manually adding members to the Project Owner group for a template grants those
users Project Owner rights for that template only.
It is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each method before you choose which
approach you want to use.
Implementation: Imported as site master data and auto Created and uploaded in each individual
matically apply to all supplier projects. project template. Updates must be made
Updates to the master data update all in indiviudal templates as well.
projects automatically.
Template project group creation: Template creators must manually add Project groups specified in team mem
the project groups specified in the cate ber rules files in the project template are
gory assignment data to the supplier automatically added to projects when
templates. they are created from the template.
Criteria for project group membership: Use only commodity and region to as Use commodity, region, department, and
sign users to project groups. permission groups such as Classified
Access to assign users to project
groups.
Note
Buyer category assignments are not available in SPM projects. You must use team member rules for them.
Related Information
Using buyer category assignments to add team members to project groups [page 115]
Using team member rules to add project groups and team members [page 116]
By default, project groups (including Project Owner) do not use buyer category assignment.
Prerequisites
You can only apply buyer category assignments to project groups in supplier request, registration, qualification,
and preferred supplier management templates.
Buyer category assignment data must be imported into your site in order for users to be added to project groups
based on those assignments.
In order to make supplier or category managers the owners of those supplier projects based on commodity and
region assignments, you must edit the Project Owner group to apply the category assignment matrix to it and
make sure that the system user aribasystem is a member of the group.
Procedure
1. Open a supplier template for editing. If the template status is not Draft, create a new version so that you can
edit it [page 79].
You can use team member rules files to automatically add project team members when a project is created. To
pre-populate the Project Owner group from a template, you must use a team member rules file. (If you add users
to the Project Owner group in a template from the Team tab, those users will be members of the Project Owner
group for that template project only; they are not inherited by any projects created using that template.)
Note
In supplier request, registration, qualification, and preferred supplier management project templates, you can
use buyer category assignments to populate the Project Owner groups from the template instead. However,
buyer category assignments are not available in other project template types, including SPM project templates.
Team member rules files are a specific type of template document. They are always Microsoft XLS workbooks.
Unlike other project documents, you can upload team member rules files on the template’s Team or Documents
tab. However, once you have uploaded a team member rules file, you manage it as you would any other template
document on the Documents tab.
Team member rules files help you standardize your template creation process. Your company can create different
rules files for different kinds of projects, such as projects in different regions, or projects that are associated with
different commodity categories. For example, you can create team member rules files to route ownership of
projects to the people at your company who are responsible for a particular region or commodity category. When a
user creates a project with the appropriate region or commodity categories, the project uses the team member
rules to populate the team with the correct members for that region or commodity category. Whenever someone
edits a project, the team rules are re-processed to update team membership based on the changes.
You create team member rules using the following general steps:
1. Download a team member rules file template that contains the project template’s current project groups and
field names; see Creating Team Member Rules Files [page 118].
2. Create team member rules in the file; see Creating Team Member Rules Files [page 118].
3. Upload the team member rules file to the project template; see Adding Team Member Rules to a Template
[page 121].
Related Information
Using buyer category assignments to add team members to project groups [page 115]
The team member rules file template contains the following tabs:
● Instructions: A set of instructions for using the team member rules file.
● Team Member Rules: A worksheet where you create team member rules by entering values in columns.
● Field Names: A list of the full names of all of the template’s current fields in dot notation.
● Project Groups: A list of all of the template’s current project groups.
You use the information on the Field Names and Project Groups tabs to create team member rules on the Team
Member Rules tab.
The Field Names and Project Groups tabs are populated with all of the current fields and project groups in the
template at the time you download the team member rules file template. If you add project groups or fields to the
template, you can download the file again to see those additional values on the Field Names and Project Groups
tabs.
If your site uses the supplier profile questionnaire to gather information about suppliers, you can also create team
member rules based on published supplier profile questionnaire content that is available for reporting. The content
must have a single response; you cannot create rules based on questionnaire content that has multiple responses,
such as multiple choice questions. If you add reportable content to the profile questionnaire, you must re-publish it
and then download the file again in order to see those additional values on the Field Names tab. For more
information on supplier profile questionnaire content, see Managing the Supplier Profile Questionnaire. If your site
uses supplier request and registration projects and registration questionnaires to gather information about
suppliers, the content of those questionnaires is not available in team member rules templates.
Each row on the Team Member Rules tab creates a rule. Ariba Spend Management reads the rules file and, if all of
the Field_Name values in a row match in the project created from the template, it does the following in the new
project:
● Assigns the users in the User or Group columns to the project specified in the ProjectGroup column.
● Makes any user specified in the OwnerId column the default project owner.
When Ariba Spend Management matches values to add team members, it uses the following criteria for each row
in the rules file:
● All values in field name columns must match the template project’s values for those fields or the row is not
considered a match and is ignored. For example, if the rules file uses [Link]
and [Link] field name columns, the values in both of those columns must match the
project template’s values. If only the [Link] value matches, the row is ignored
and the users or groups are not added to the project group or made the default project owner.
If a rule (row) does not match and is ignored, processing continues to the next rule (rule evaluation does not
stop).
● Wildcards (*) and empty column values always match. For example, if the rules file uses
[Link] and [Link] field name columns, and the
[Link] value matches while [Link] is a wildcard, the
row matches and the users or groups are added to the project group or made the default project owner.
Procedure
If you want the rule to apply to all of the possible values for a column, enter a wildcard (*) in the column or
leave it blank.
If you want the rule to apply to a range of values for a column, use the tilde character (~). Range expressions
are inclusive on the lower boundary but not on the upper boundary. For example, to create a rule that applies
to every value of 1000 and over, enter 1000~; to create a rule that applies to every value from 0 to 3, enter
0~4; to create a rule that applies to every value below 1000 (but not 1000 itself), enter ~1000. You can only
use range expressions in rules for numeric fields.
Field_Name The Field_Name columns represent the names of different Ariba Spend Management fields. If
the Field_Name value you specify in this column matches values in a project created from the
template, the template adds the users or groups in the row to the project group, or makes the
specified user the default project owner. For the Supplier field in supplier workspace profiles,
you must include the full field name using dot notation; for example, the full name of the
Country field is [Link]. The Field Names tab in a
team member rules file template lists the full names for all current fields in the project tem
plate from which it was downloaded.
You must always supply either a specific value or a wildcard for Field_Name columns. You
cannot enter multiple values in a Field_Name column. However, you can include multiple
Field_Name columns in a rule file; the values in all Field_Name columns in a row must match
in order for the template to add the users or group to the project group, or to make the speci
fied user the default project owner.
Some data field values must match specific values in the system, such as values for regions or
commodity codes. For these field types, you can use an export task to find out what the spe
cific values should be. If you cannot access the necessary export events, contact the Cus
tomer Administrator in your organization.
If you are using date fields or data fields with numeric values that are mapped to an element in
a vector, such as commodity codes, you must force Microsoft Excel to store the value as text.
To do this, either change the format of the column to type Text in Microsoft Excel or prefix the
value with an apostrophe (‘); for example, for a value of 500, enter ‘500.
Note
Values for countries must be 2-letter ISO country codes.
For more information about how the system matches values in Field_Name columns with val
ues in projects, see Understanding Rule Matching in Template Projects [page 117].
ProjectGroup The name of the project group to which you want to add users or groups; for example, Project
Owner. You must supply a value for this column. The Project Groups tab in a team member
rules file template lists all of the current project groups in the project template from which it
was downloaded.
User The user names of the users you want to assign to a project group; for example, bobsmith.
You do not have to supply a value for this column; you should only use it if you want to assign
individual users to the project group.
You can enter one user name, or multiple user names separated by colons (:); for example,
bobsmith:tomjones:anndavis.
PasswordAdapter The password adapter associated with the user name or user names. Ariba Spend Manage
ment uses password adapters to distinguish between users that have the same user names.
The default password adapter values are PasswordAdapter1 (for internal users at your
company, the buyer organization) and SourcingSupplierUser (for external supplier and
customer organization users). Use this column only if you have also entered one or more val
ues in the User column.
You can only enter one value per row in this column, so if you want to create rules for both
buyer and supplier users, you must create two separate rules, one for each
PasswordAdapter value.
Group The name of the global user group that you want to assign to the project group; for example,
Supplier/Customer Manager or Supplier Registration Manager
You do not have to supply a value for this column. If you do supply a value, and you also supply
a value in the User column on the same row, both values are added to the project group. You
can enter one group, or multiple groups separated by colons (:).
OwnerID The user name of the default project owner for all projects created from the template; for ex
ample, bobsmith.
You do not have to supply a value for this column; you should only use it if you want to make a
specific user or users the default project owner for all projects created from the template. If
there is no value specified in this column, the new project is owned by the user who created
the project and the members of the Project Owner group.
In the supplier workspace, request, registration, qualification, and preferred supplier manage
ment templates, the project owner is the account owner or category manager for the supplier.
You can assign specific users as owners for specific projects created from the template, or
specify aribasystem as the default, unassigned owner. Specifying aribasystem in the
template means that the person who creates the project is not the project owner by default, so
that ownership of the supplier project can be assigned to the correct owner at a later time.
Note
You should exercise caution when making a single user a default project owner in the tem
plate. When a user creates a project that matches the template’s rules for default project
ownership, the user who created the project is not the project owner and cannot manage
the project; only the default project owner can. There are specific cases where default
project ownership is useful. For example, whenever different users in solutions that include
Ariba Supplier Information Management or Ariba Supplier Information and Performance
Management create unapproved supplier organizations, they automatically create associ
ated supplier workspaces that they are not intended to manage; your supplier workspace
template should route default ownership of those supplier workspace projects to the spe
cific Supplier/Customer Manager users who manage specific sets of suppliers. However,
it is usually important for the user who created a contract workspace, Ariba Sourcing event,
or SPM project to own and manage the project, instead of using the template to assign a
default owner.
OwnerPasswordAdapter The password adapter associated with the owner’s username. The default password adapter
values are the same as those for the PasswordAdapter column. Use this column only if you
have also entered one or more values in the OwnerId column.
Region,ProjectGroup,Group,User,PasswordAdapter,OwnerId,OwnerPasswordAdapter
● every user in the global My Group group is assigned to the My Project Group project group
● the users xleo and hlei are assigned to the My Project Group project group
● the user hlei becomes the default project owner
Context
You add team rules to a template by uploading team member rules files on the Documents or Team tab. You
cannot create tasks for team member rules file documents or set conditions on them.
There is no limit to the number of team member rules files you can add to a template. Each team member rules file
that you upload to a template adds to the total set of team member rules the template uses. To modify a
template’s existing team rules, you must make edits to the appropriate team member rules file on your local
computer and upload the file as a replacement document.
Procedure
1. Create or open a project template. If the status is not Draft, create a new version as described in Creating a
New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 79].
2. On the Team tab, choose Actions Team Member Rules Upload Rules File .
3. Click Browse and navigate to the team rules file.
4. Add an optional description. Ariba recommends that you describe the type of rules the file creates, so that
users who edit the template can see them at a glance.
5. Set other properties for the rules file, such as base language and keywords.
6. Click Create.
Results
The uploaded team member rules file now appears on the template’s Documents tab.
Context
1. On the Documents tab, click the team rules file you want to validate and choose Publish.
If the team member rules file does not contain any syntax or data errors, the document publishes. If it does
contain errors, a validation error message displays at the top of the page, and the team member rules file
document is not published. You cannot publish a template that contains team member rules files with
validation errors.
2. If you see a validation, correct the problems in the team member rules file and publish it again. Validation error
messages are displayed at the top of the Ariba page.
Each supplier template includes a defalt approval task for template's form or questionnaire. You use that task to
define the form or questionnaire's approval process.
Using commodity and region assignments or team member rules for form and questionnaire approvals [page
125]
How to edit approval flows with the approval process diagram [page 133]
Template authors can also specify a simple set of parallel or serial approvers directly in the Approvers or
Reviewers field. This method provides a simple way to specify approvers but does not include all the functionality
provided by the approval rule editor.
Serial approvers are assigned consecutively in the order they appear in the approval flow diagram (from left to
right). Ariba Spend Management does not activate a node in a flow (assign a task to the approver in the node) until
the preceding approvers (approvers to the left in the approval flow) have submitted approvals or reviews. In the
following approval flow, Ariba first assigns the task to user AAA. After AAA submits his or her approval, Ariba
assigns the task to user BBB.
An approval flow can contain a combination of both parallel and serial approvers.
● Expand the group (and any subgroups) and insert each user as a parallel approver (or reviewer) in the
approval flow. Each user receives notification about the task. All users in the group are needed to approve (or
review) the document. After all users in the group approves (or reviews) the document, the approval flow
moves to successive approvers.
● Insert the group as a single unit in the approval flow. All users in the group receive notification about the task.
Any one user in the group is sufficient to approve the task (or move to the next approver in a serial flow).
The behavior when you add a group to an approval flow is determined by the method you use to add the approver.
● If you add a group using the graphical approval flow editor, the pane for adding an approver contains the
option All approvers need to approve? If you select No, Ariba Spend Management inserts the group as a
single unit in the approval flow. If you select Yes, Ariba Spend Management expands the group and inserts
each user as a parallel approver. The default value is No.
● If you add a group as an approver directly in an editable Approvers or Reviewers field in a task window for a
serial or parallel approval flow, Ariba Spend Management does not expand the group.
● If the group was inherited from an approver lookup table file in the template, Ariba Spend Management does
not expand the group.
Approvers added to a task before the task is submitted cannot be removed after the task is submitted for that
round. However, these approvers can be removed in any subsequent rounds (if the approvers were not specified in
the project template).
Approvers added after a task is submitted are retained only for the current round. If a new review or approval
round is created, the new round does not include any approvers added after the task was submitted.
If you click the Properties tab for a task, you see only the reviewers or approvers in the flow that were present
when the task was submitted. Ariba Spend Management does not show reviewers or approvers added after the
task was submitted. To view reviewers or approvers that were added after the task was submitted, you must click
View Task Details and then click the Review Flow, Negotiation Flow, or Approval Flow tab.
This example uses conditions commodity and region assignments to add the appropriate category or supplier
managers and other stakeholders to the approval flow to a supplier request form.
Prerequisites
This example assumes that the following commodity, region, and project group assignment data is loaded in the
site:
Project Owner,801116,unspsc,USA,ljenkins,PasswordAdapter1
Human Resources,8011,unspsc,USA,tjones,PasswordAdapter1
Human Resources,8011,unspsc,Canada,ayang,PasswordAdapter1
Global Services,80,unspsc,All,rbarney,PasswordAdapter1
● Larry Jenkins (ljenkins) to the Project Owner project group for all temporary personnel services (UNSPSC
code 801116) in the United States. He is a category manager for temporary labor and will manage all
temporary labor suppliers in the US.
Context
Although this example uses commodity and region assignments, it applies equally as well to projects where team
membership is assigned based on team member rules. The only difference is that team member rules
automatically create the project groups specified in the rules, while with commodity and region assignments, you
must manually add the specified project groups to the project template.
In this example, a category manager must approve the supplier registration; if it is for a temporary labor supplier, a
human resources representative must approve the registration in parallel; after that, all registrations for services
are sent serially to the global services department for final approval.
Procedure
1. Open the Supplier Registration Template. If the status is not Draft, create a new version as described in
Creating a New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 79].
2. Since Human Resources and Global Services are not default Ariba groups, create them by performing the
following steps:
The Project Owner group is always included in projects, so you do not have to add it manually. However, make
sure that the aribasystem system user is a member of the group; it is a requirement for adding users to the
Project Owner group dynamically.
3. Create conditions for the temporary labor and management and business professionals and administrative
services commodities by performing the following steps:
a. On the Conditions tab, click Add Condition.
b. Enter a name for the condition, such as Temporary Labor Services, and a description, such as
Applies when the commodity is temporary labor services.
c. Click the action triangle button () next to All Are True and choose Add Condition Field Match .
A new, untitled approval node appears on the graph in parallel to the Project Owner node.
b. Click the new rule to select it.
c. In the Approval Rule Editor area, enter a name for the node, such as Human Resources, and a
description, such as Adds a member of the Human Resources department to the approval
flow for temporary labor suppliers.
d. In the Condition area, click the action triangle button () next to All Are True and choose Add
Condition Reference to Condition .
e. On the Reference to Condition dropdown menu, choose Search more, then click the Select button to the
right of the Temporary Labor Services condition.
f. Click OK.
g. In the Action area, for Type, choose Add Approvers and Groups.
h. From the Action dropdown menu, choose Add Project Group.
i. Make sure that All users in group have to approve is not selected. In this scenario, only the user in the
project group who is assigned to the specific supplier registration commodities and regions needs to
approve the registration.
j. Select Approval Required.
k. For ProjectGroup to be added to the flow?, on the dropdown menu, choose Search more. Click the
Select button next to Human Resources, then click Done.
l. For Reason for the specified approver(s) to be added to the flow , enter a reason such as A Human
Resources representative must approve requests related to temporary labor.
8. Next, add a serial node for the global services representative with a condition on the management and
business professionals and administrative services commodity by performing the following steps:
a. In the Approval Process Diagram area, click the action triangle button () to the right of the Project
Owner approval node and choose Add Parallel Rule.
A new, untitled approval node appears on the graph in parallel to the Project Owner node.
b. Click the new rule to select it.
c. In the Approval Rule Editor area, enter a name for the node, such as Global Services, and a
description, such as Adds a member of the Global Services department to the approval
Results
When you publish the template, and a supplier of temporary labor services in the United States submits a
registration questionnaire, the following actions occur in that supplier registration project:
● Category manager Larry Jenkins is added to the Project Owner group for the supplier registration and
becomes the project owner. He receives a notification that he needs to review the registration, then approves
or denies it.
● At the same time, human resources representative Theresa Jones is added to the Human Resources group
for the supplier registration. She receives a notification that she needs to review the registration, then
approves or denies it.
● Regina Barney is added to the Global Services group for the supplier request. After both Larry Jenkins and
Theresa Jones have approved the supplier registration, she receives a notification that it is her turn to approve
it. Her approval or denial is final.
Alan Yang is not added to the Human Resources group for the supplier registration, because he is assigned to
temporary labor services in Canada, and is therefore not a match for this supplier registration.
1. Create or open a project template. If the status is not Draft, create a new version as described in Creating a
New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 79].
2. If the task does not already exist, select the appropriate document and click Create New Task Review ,
Approval, or Negotiation. The system opens a window to create the task.
If the task already exists, click the task name and click Action View Task Details . In the task area, click
Actions Task Edit .
3. Use one of the following methods to add approvers:
○ Specify a simple set of parallel or serial approvers directly in the Approvers or Reviewers field. Select
Parallel or Serial for the approval flow type, then use the pull-down menu in the Reviewers or Approvers
field to add approvers without using the approval rule editor. See Limitations when Specifying Approvers
in the Approvers or Reviewers Field [page 129] for limitations.
○ Open the approval rules editor. In the window for a new task or task without an approval flow, navigate to
the Approvers or Reviewers field, then click one of the following:
Note
If you select Parallel or Serial for the approval flow type and use the approval rule editor to add
approvers, the system changes the approval flow type to Custom.
If you have a Custom approval flow and change the approval flow type to Parallel or Serial, the system
removes all customization data from the approval flow, including:
○ Any condition for each rule.
○ Any rule that uses an approver lookup table file.
○ The Required Approver or Watcher option. All approvers become required approvers.
○ The title, description, and reason for each approver.
If the approval rule flow type is parallel or serial, template authors can specify a simple set of parallel or serial
approvers directly in the Approvers or Reviewers field, with the following limitations:
● The approval flow can contain either parallel or serial approvers, but not both parallel and serial approvers.
● You cannot add any watchers to the flow.
● Approval Process Diagram. Add rules here or select a rule to see the condition and action.
● Approval Rule Editor. Specify or view the condition that triggers the action (add users or groups) for the rule
selected in the diagram. It contains the following sections:
○ Condition: Specify a condition for the action. If you always want the action to occur, use the default
condition (an empty All Are True condition).
○ Action. Specify or view the action taken when the condition is met. The action specifies if approvers are
added by selecting individual users or groups using a drop-down menu or by using an Approver Lookup
Table.
● Parameters. Specify parameters for the rule selected in the diagram. If you are not using an Approver Lookup
table, use the drop-down menu to select the users or groups to add to the approval flow.
The approval rules for a given task are shown in the Approval Process Diagram. Each approval rule consists of:
● A condition.
The condition in an approval rule contains one or more references to conditions defined for the template.
● An action.
The action adds specified approvers to the approval flow. If the condition is met, then the system performs the
action and adds the specified approvers to the approval flow.
Creating a condition is optional; if you do not create a condition, the default condition (an empty All Are True
condition) always evaluates to true and the action always occurs.
In this example, the approval process diagram has the rule Over $100M. The rule Over $100M is highlighted and
the editor shows the condition and action for this rule: if the template condition Contract Amount Over $100M
is true, the system takes the action to add the user Max Olson to the approval flow.
1. Add one or more approval rules, which are shown in the approval process diagram. For information about
working with the approval process diagram, see How to edit approval flows with the approval process diagram
[page 133].
Related Information
Use the following procedure to create a simple approval rule without using an approval rules table. Each approval
rule adds one approver or group of approvers to the approval flow.
Procedure
1. Create a new task in a template or edit an existing template task from the View Task Details page.
2. Select the approval flow type and click the corresponding approval flow icon (such as ).
The approval rule editor opens.
3. In the approval process diagram, click Add Initial Rule.
4. Specify a a name in the Rule Title field and add text for the Rule Description.
5. Optional: If you always want the approvers in this rule to be added, leave the Condition area as it is
(containing only the All Are True statement). If you want to add the approvers based on a condition, see Using
approval rule conditions [page 135].
6. In the Action area, select Add Approvers and Groups if it is not already selected. From the Action pull-down
menu, choose the type of approver you want to add:
○ Add Approvers: adds one or more individual users, groups, or project groups.
○ Add Group: adds one global group.
○ Add Project Group: adds one project group.
○ Add Contract Approver: adds the Contract Approvers global group if the required conditions are met. For
more information, see Specifying Actions to Add Approvers and Groups [page 137].
○ Add Launch Approver: adds the Sourcing Approver global group if the required conditions are met. For
more information, see Specifying Actions to Add Approvers and Groups [page 137].
○ Add Supervisor. Adds the supervisor of a project user field (such as the Owner field) to the approval flow
using notification profiles. The rule can also be “chained” to repeatedly add supervisors.
○ All users in group have to approve: This field is present only if you are adding a global group or project
group to the approval flow. If selected, the system expands the group and adds each user in the group as
an individual parallel node in the approval flow. Each user in the group must approve (or review) the
document.
○ If the All users in group have to approve option is not selected, the system adds the group as a single
entity in the flow and only one user in the group is needed to approve (or review) the document. After any
one user in the group approves the document, the approval flow moves to successive approvers.
○ Approval required: If selected, the approver must approve or review the document associated with the
task (this is the default value). If this option is not selected, the approver is added as a watcher. A watcher
cannot approve the task but can view the task and the approval flow.
○ Approving Group, Approver(s) to be added to the flow, or ProjectGroup to be added to the flow: Select
the group or users to be added.
○ Reason: Reason for adding the approvers. This field is optional. By default, the text you specify in this field
is included in email notifications sent to approvers.
8. To add additional approval rules to the flow, go back to the Approval Process Diagram and click the action
triangle button ( ) where you want to add the node in the flow.
The new node is highlighted in green to indicate that the contents of the Approval Rule Editor apply to this
node.
9. Click Done.
Related Information
Each box, or node, in an approval flow represents an approval rule. Approval rules are processed in order from left
to right. When the system creates an approval flow from the approval rules, it evaluates the condition for each rule
and adds the approvers specified in the action for the rule.
Nodes in an approval flow have action triangle buttons () you can click to add or move nodes . To delete an
approval rule, click the “X” button ().
1. Open the approval flow editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 129].
2. To add an approval rule:
a. Click the area in the approval flow where you want to add the approver (or reviewer).
○ If there are no approvers in the approval flow, click Add Initial Approver to add an approver. This
button is available only when there are no approvers.
○ If you are adding a serial approval rule to a flow with existing rules, click the action triangle button ()
where you want to add the approval rule.
○ If you are adding a parallel approval rule to a flow with existing rules, click the left-most action triangle
button () in the flow.
b. Choose Add Serial Node or Add Parallel Node.
c. To specify where the parallel rule or flow should connect back into the main approval process, click a blue
target (). (If there is only one position possible, the position is selected for you.)
d. In the approval rule editor below the diagram, enter a title and description for the new rule.
3. To move an approval rule:
a. Click the left or right triangle action button () beside the approval rule you want to move.
b. Choose Move Rule.
The updated diagram shows the new position of the moved rule.
4. To delete an approval rule:
a. Click the “X” button () on the approval rule you want to delete.
b. Click OK when prompted for confirmation.
Next Steps
● (Optional) Specify a condition for this rule (Using approval rule conditions [page 135]).
● Add approvers.
Related Information
Note
Specifying a condition for an approval rule is optional. If an approval rule has no condition defined, the system
always performs the action specified for that rule.
A condition for an approval rule consists of components. The components can be:
● References to a condition, which are references to a condition defined for the template. The approval rule
editor also enables you to create a template condition and add a reference to the new condition.
● Subconditions, which contain a set of condition components that are evaluated together with a series of logical
operators. Subconditions enable you to build conditions with multiple components.
● Document field matches, which evaluate to true or false depending on field values in document forms.
Note
You can also define conditions and actions based on an approver lookup table. For example, you could create a
lookup table that adds approvers based on commodity codes. For more information, see Adding Approvers
from Approver Lookup Tables [page 139].
A condition in an approval rule always contains at least one subcondition. In its simplest form, an approval rule
condition consists of a subcondition that contains a reference to a template condition. For example, you could
have the following condition expression:
This condition expression consists of the All Are True subcondition and the field match Regions is equal
to USA.
Note
All condition expressions start with a subcondition, even if the only additional component is a field match or a
reference to a condition.
References to a condition
When you choose to add a reference to a condition, the system opens a window with a chooser for conditions
already defined in the project template and a Create Condition link you can click to open the condition editor and
create a new condition for the template. For more information about the condition editor, see Defining Approval
Rule Conditions [page 136].
Subconditions
Subconditions enable you to group and evaluate a set of condition components as a whole.
● All Are True. For this subcondition to be true, all the condition components that it contains must be true.
Conceptually, the All Are True subcondition places AND operators between the condition components in the
set.
● Any Are True. For this subcondition to be true, at least one of the condition components that it contains must
be true. Conceptually, the Any Are True subcondition places OR operators between the condition components
in the set.
● None Is True. For this subcondition to be true, all condition components that it contains must be false.
Conceptually, the None Is True subcondition uses NOT...AND NOT operators:
NOT condition component 1 AND NOT condition component 2 AND NOT condition component 3.
An approval condition can contain multiple subconditions (and components). You add condition components from
left to right in the condition builder. The components are evaluated in the opposite direction—from right to left.
Context
Use the condition builder in the approval rule editor to define the condition for an approval rule.
Procedure
1. Open the approval flow editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 129].
2. In the approval process diagram, select the rule for which you want to build a condition.
3. Click the action triangle button () next to All Are True. All conditions must start with a subcondition even if
you plan to add only one other condition component. The default initial subcondition is All Are True. If you
want to change the subcondition type, scroll down to the Change To area and choose the new type. For more
information on subcondition types, see Subconditions [page 135].
To create a new template condition or to add a reference to a project template condition, click the action
triangle button next to All Are True, then click Reference to Condition.
The system opens a pane with a Reference to Condition field and a Create Condition link.
To create a new project condition, click Create Condition. You can also use this link to define a document field
condition..
4. Enter a name for the condition, such as RegionIsEMEA.
5. Enter a description for the condition.
6. All conditions start with the subcondition All Are True. If you want to change the subcondition type, click the
action triangle button () next to All Are True, then select a type under Change To, such as None Is True.
7. To add a field match, click the triangle button next to All Are True, then click Add Condition Field
Match .
A field match builder opens. Click Select. A pull-down menu opens with project fields commonly used for field
matches.
8. Select a project field, such as Regions. If you want to use a field that is not listed or to use a subfield (such as
the country in the customer or supplier address), click more fields to open a complete list of project fields.
Click Select for the field you want to use and click Done.
9. Select an operator from the pull-down menu, such as is equal to.
10. Click Select to the right of the (No Value Selected) text to specify the value for the field match.
Depending on the data type for the field, the system displays a pull-down menu with acceptable values, a
selection pane, or data entry pane. Enter or choose the value, set of values, or range of values (as applicable)
that you want to match.
If a field can have multiple values, the system displays a selection pane. Clicking Select opens a chooser that
enables you to specify a set of multiple values for the field match. The condition will be true if any of the field
values in the set are matched. To create a condition that is true if all of the specified field values are matched,
you must create a condition expression with the All of operator and multiple field matches, where each field
match specifies a single value.
11. Continue adding condition components as necessary.
12. Click OK.
1. Open the approval rule editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 129].
2. In the Approval Process Diagram area, select the rule (node) for which you want to add approvers.
3. (Optional) Specify or create a condition for the action as described in Defining Approval Rule Conditions [page
136].
4. In the Action area, select one of the following options to add approvers.
○ Add Approvers and Groups: Specify a user, global group, or project group from the Action pull-down
menu.
You can also use this option to add the supervisor of a project user field (such as the Owner field) to the
approval flow. This action can also be “chained” to repeatedly add supervisors.
Related Information
An approver lookup table maps field values to approvers. When project is created, the system compares project
field values with field values in the lookup table. If they match, the system adds the approvers specified in
matching entry.
When you define a new table, you define the field columns to include, the operation to use for evaluating the fields,
and the types of approvers to include. Then you export the column headers, fill in the data, and upload the file.
Procedure
1. Open the approval flow editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 129].
2. In the approval process diagram, select the rule for which you want to use an approver lookup tab.
3. (Optional) Specify or create a condition for the action as described in Defining Approval Rule Conditions [page
136].
4. In the Action section, select Use Approver Lookup Table.
5. Click Add Columns and add the project fields you want to evaluate to select approvers.
6. In the Operation pull-down menu, specify the operation to use when comparing the value specified in the
approver lookup table with project field values. The default is equal to.
The operator is applied to every field value in the selected column. To use different operators for the same
field, you must create additional approver rules and approver lookup table files.
7. Under Approver Type Fields, select one or more check boxes for the types of approvers you want to include in
the file. For information about types of approvers, see Types of Approvers in Approver Lookup Tables [page
140].
8. To create a Microsoft Excel file template containing the columns you specified, click Export Column Headers,
and save the file. The default file name is [Link], where SiteName is the name given
to your Ariba customer site. You can rename the file with a more descriptive name.
9. Open the file and enter field values.
For example:
For information about field values, see Approver Lookup Table Field Values [page 140].
10. To upload the edited approver lookup table file, verify that you have selected the appropriate rule and that Use
Approver Lookup Table is selected for the Action. Upload the file by clicking Upload File. A sample of the data
you entered appears in the table.
● User lets you specify one ore more users by user ID. Separate multiple IDs with colons.
● Group lets you specify one or more groups. Separate multiple names with colons. To specify a global group,
enter the group name.
To specify a project group, enter the project group ID (PGnnnnn). If you do not know the project group ID, you
can display it by returning to the Action area, and selecting Add Approvers and Groups. Select Add Project
Group. In the ProjectGroup to be added to the flow pull-down menu, choose Search for more. The system
opens a chooser for project groups that includes an ID column for the project group ID.
○ If you copy a template, the project group IDs in the new template will be different than the IDs in the
original template. After you copy a template, determine the project group IDs in the new template and
update the approver lookup table with the new IDs.
○ If you import a template, the system replaces project group IDs in the imported template if the project
group IDs are already used by another template. After you import a template, verify that the project group
IDs in the approver lookup tables match the project group IDs in the template and update the approver
lookup tables if needed.
● ApproverList lets you specify multiple user IDs or unique group names. Separate the IDs with colons. Users in
a list are added to the approval flow as one single approver. Only one user in the list needs to approve.
● ApproverFieldPath lets you add an approver based on a field path relative to an object specified in a column of
the approver lookup table file. This type is useful if you have custom master data that includes a user or group
as a subfield. Contact Ariba Customer Support if you want to use approver field paths. All field paths used in
approval rules must be approved by Ariba Customer Support.
● one or more columns for project fields (field_name columns, where field_name is a project field name,
such as Amount or Commodity)
● one or more columns for approvers (approver_type columns, where approver_type is the type of
approver to add, such as Group or User)
● a Tooltip column
● a Required column
For example:
The field values for approver lookup tables are described in the sections that follow.
Each field_name column represents a project field. Enter a value in the cell that you want to compare with the
value for this field in projects created from this template. The system uses the operator specified in the Operation
field when comparing the values; the default operator is equal to. If the comparison is true, the system adds the
approvers specified in the approver_type field for this row.
If there are multiple field_name columns, the system only adds the approvers in the row if all field comparisons
are true in the row (the system uses the logical operator AND when evaluating multiple field comparisons).
If the operator is is between, specify two values separated by a dash (-). The is between operator matches values
greater than or equal to the first value and less than the second value. For example, 1000-1000000 matches the
following values: 1000, 1001, and 999999. It does not match the value 1000000.
Some data field values must match specific values in the system, such as values for regions or commodity codes.
For these field types, you can use an export task to find out what the specific values should be. If you cannot
access the necessary export events, contact the Customer Administrator in your organization.
If you are using data fields with numeric values that are mapped to an element in a vector, such as commodity
codes, you must force Microsoft Excel to save the value as text by prefacing the value with an apostrophe ( ' ).
approver_type
Each approver_type column represents the type of approvers to be added and will be one of the following
values: User, Group, ApproverList, or ApproverFieldPath.
For descriptions of the types and how to specify the values for these types, see Types of Approvers in Approver
Lookup Tables [page 140].
Tooltip
Contains text for the system to display when users mouse over the node in an approval flow.
Required
Specify TRUE to add the approvers in this row as required approvers; specify FALSE to add the approvers as
watchers.
The following example adds the user Ann Alcott to the approval flow if the Commodity field for the project is 44,
which maps to office equipment for this customer. Note that the value for the Commodity field is prefaced with an
apostrophe ('44), which forces Microsoft Excel to store the data as text.
You can specify only one value in a field_name column. If you want to add the same approver for multiple field
values, you must add a row for each possible field value. For example:
If an approver lookup table file contains multiple rows, the system reads the entries in order and selects the first
entry that evaluates to true when comparing all fields in the entry. If you have multiple rows, place more specific
entries before less specific entries. For example, you want to have one approver for the Region HI-USA and
another approver for all other regions in the USA. HI-USA is a child of the region USA. You can specify the
operation is child of for the Region field and create the approver lookup table as follows:
Do not reverse the order of the rows. If you do so and use the operation is child of for the Region field, Ariba Spend
Management would select the entry for the region USA even when the region in a project is HI-USA.
The following example uses the operator is greater than or equal to for the Amount field. Note that the row with
the higher value (1000000) in the Amount field is listed first. If the row order was reversed, Ariba Spend
Management would select the 1000 entry for all amounts greater than or equal to 1000, even when the amount is
greater than 1000000.
The following example uses the operator is between for the Amount field. The ranges for the amounts are
separated by a dash (-).
If an approver lookup table file contains multiple field values, the system uses the AND operator for the field
values. For example, the user creates the following approver lookup table file with the Amount and Region fields:
The operator for the Amount field is greater than or equal to and the operator for the Region field is child of. The
system adds the user aalcott to projects with the amount greater than 1000000 (USD) and in the EMEA region.
For projects in all other regions with the amount greater than 1000000 (USD), the system adds the user molson.
About customizing SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance notification templates [page 144]
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance notification reference [page 149]
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance provides a specific set of notification templates that are tailored to
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance workflows. SAP Ariba also provides a standard, generic set of
notifications that you can apply to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance projects.
Note
SAP Ariba provides a generic set of notifications for different actions related to approval tasks, but they are not
used for SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance questionnaire approval tasks. Instead, SAP Ariba
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance questionnaire approval tasks use the specific approval task notification
templates for each SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance project type.
You must be a member of one of the following groups to customize email templates:
● Customer Administrator
● Project Email Templates Administrator
● Contract Administrator
● Project Administrator
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of one of the following groups to edit email templates:
● Customer Administrator
● Project Email Templates Administrator
● Contract Administrator
● Project Administrator
Procedure
Tip
○ If you are editing a notification that is already associated with a specific project type, this option is not
available.
○ Selecting a specific project type makes it easier to add email template tokens that are specific to that
project type. If you create or modify a template for All Applicable Types, the email token chooser
displays only the subset of email template tokens that apply to all project types.
○ If you select a project type and a template already exists for that type, the system asks if you want to
open and load the existing template for that project type.
○ If you click Cancel, the text from the current template remains loaded in the editor but the system
changes the project type to the type you selected. This operation enables you to copy a template for
one project type (the project type of the template you originally opened) for use with another project
type (the project type you selected after opening the template).
○ If you click OK, the system loads the existing template for the selected project type and discards any
changes you made in the current template.
5. Make changes or additions to the text and add formatting to meet your needs.
6. (Optional) Add or remove email template tokens. To remove email template tokens, delete the text and the
square brackets.
7. (Optional) Add any translations.
8. Click Save to save the edited template.
9. Click Done to exit the email template editor.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of one of the following groups to edit email templates:
Context
Email template tokens are delimited by square brackets ([ ]). For example, the text [[Link]] is an
email template token that the system replaces with the workspace or project title (name) when it sends an email
message generated from the email template.
Procedure
When you add an email template token in the next step, the system inserts the email template token in the first
set of empty square brackets. If there are no empty square brackets, the system places the email template
token at the end of the Content or Subject field; you can cut and paste the token to another area after it is
inserted.
3. Perform one of the following actions:
○ To add an email template token to the subject line, to the right of the Subject field, click Add Email
Template Token.
○ To add an email template token to the body of the email, below the Content field, click Add Email
Template Token.
The system opens a Choose Content Field or Choose a Subject Field window with folders that contain the
email template tokens available for the specific message and area (subject or content).
4. Perform the following actions:
○ Click the expand arrows next to a folder name to display the email template tokens.
○ Click the cue tip next to the email template token to display more information.
○ Click Select to add the selected email template token.
5. Click OK.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Translator or Customer Administrator groups to add translated text to email
templates.
Procedure
○ To provide translations of the email subject, below the Subject field, click Translations.
○ To brovide translations for the email body content, below the Content field, click Translations.
The system opens a page that contains translation fields for each locale available in SAP Ariba solutions.
3. Enter your translated text in the field that corresponds to its language..
4. Click OK.
Related Information
You can delete customized email templates for a specific project type. You cannot delete default email templates
for specific project types, or customized email templates used for all applicable project types. If you delete an
email template for a specific project type, the system immediately reverts to the email template used for all
applicable project types for that event.
SAP Ariba sends notifications for the following events related to supplier requests:
SAP Ariba sends notifications for the following events related to supplier registrations:
SAP Ariba sends notifications for the following events related to supplier qualifications:
● Action needed: Fill out qualification questionnaire to become a qualified supplier with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier's main business contact once a category or supplier manager has launched a new
qualification.
● Fyi: <supplier name> has submitted qualification info with <buyer name>
Sent to the user who submitted the request for the supplier who is now in qualification.
● Fyi: <supplier name> has started a qualification process with <buyer name>
Sent to the qualification project's team members.
● Action needed: Review qualification for <supplier name>
Sent to the users in the qualification questionnaire approval flow once it is their turn to approve the supplier
qualification.
● Approved: Supplier qualification request with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier who submitted the qualification questionnaire.
● Declined: Supplier qualification with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier who submitted the qualification questionnaire if the qualification is finally denied.
● Action needed: Provide additional qualification information to <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier who submitted the qualification questionnaire if an approver has denied the questionnaire
but allowed the supplier to resubmit answers, and includes any comments the approver made to explain the
denial.
● Action needed: Review disqualification for <supplier name>
Sent to the users in the disqualification approval flow once it is their turn to approve the supplier
disqualification.
● Approved: The disqualification request for <supplier name> in <commodity category>
Sent to the user who submitted the request to disqualify the supplier once the disqualification is finally
approved in cases where the disqualification is immediate and does not include an intermediary restriction.
● Approved: the disqualificaton request for <supplier name> in <commodity category>
Sent to the user who submitted the request to disqualify the supplier once the disqualification restriction is
finally approved.
● Fyi: The status for <supplier name> in <commodity category> has changed to Disqualified
Sent to the user who submitted the request to disqualify the supplier in cases where the disqualification date
on the approved disqualification restriction has been reached and the supplier's status changes from
Restricted to Disqualified.
SAP Ariba sends notifications for the following events related to preferred supplier status changes:
● Action needed: Approve new category status for <supplier name> in <category>
Sent to the users in the preferred supplier category status change request approval flow once it is their turn to
approve the status change.
● Approved: The status change made for <supplier name> in <category>
Sent to the internal user who requested the category status change.
● Denied: The status change made for <supplier name> in <category>
Sent to the internal user who requested the category status change, and includes the name of the approver
who denied the request.
● Fyi: The status of <supplier name> for <category> has changed to <status>
Sent to the category or supplier managers who manage the supplier.
Once you have imported supplier data and set up your supplier management projects, mass registration
invitations invite all specified suppliers to register with your company automatically..
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group to issue mass registration invitations.
You must have imported primary supplier manager data for the suppliers you want to invite. Suppliers that do not
have a primary manager are not included. You must also have imported supplier contact data for the suppliers you
want to invite.
You must have set up and published the supplier registration project template in your site.
To include a specific list of suppliers, you must add their ERP vendor IDs to a [Link] [page 153] file.
Context
When you import supplier data (either existing SAP Ariba suppliers or suppliers from outsite SAP Ariba), they are
created in the database with the Not Invited status.
For suppliers created individually through approved supplier requests, the category or supplier manager assigned
to the supplier will manually invite the supplier to register. However, when you are getting started with your SAP
Ariba supplier management solution, or whenever you create a large number of suppliers using data import,
manually initiating registration invitations is not practical. Moreover, if the supplier data does not include
categories or regions, the registration projects cannot assign project owners based on buyer category
assignments or team member rules. Supplier mass registration automatically sends invitations to all of the
suppliers you register and assigns them to their primary supplier contacts for initial processing.
Procedure
○ To invite every supplier in the database that has the status Not Invited and a primary supplier manager,
choose Mass Invite All.
○ To invite a specific list of suppliers, click Choose file, navigate to [Link] [page 153], and click
Upload.
4. Click Send Invite.
[Link]
[Link] defines the list of suppliers you want to automatically invite to register all at once. Only those
suppliers who have a primary supplier manager defined by importing [Link] are
included in the automatic invitation, so you must import that file before importing [Link].
Related Information
A separate parameter,
[Link], specifies whether
or not the supplier contacts are automatically approved when they are synchronized, or
whether they require manual approval.
[Link]
This parameter specifies whether or not new supplier contacts added to your site through
synchronization with the suppliers' Ariba Network account are automatically approved. If
this parameter is set to Yes, the new supplier contacts are automatically approved. If it is
set to No, the new supplier contacts must be approved or denied manually. The default
setting is No.
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