Cloud Integration Gateway Overview:

SAP® Ariba® delivers variety of solution in the areas of Supplier Management, Strategic Sourcing, Direct Spend, Supply Chain, Procurement, Financial Supply Chain etc. Each solution has discrete integration strategies. For e.g., Ariba Network can be integration with cXML, EDI, File etc where as Ariba Buying can be integration with Webservices, File etc. If a customer has both the solutions and he has to follow two different approaches to integrate his ERP with the respective system.  This mode of distinct integrations will change in the near future and Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway(CIG) will be the single point of contact for all Ariba cloud solutions.

What is Cloud Integration Gateway?

SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway(CIG) enabled by SAP Cloud Platform Integration(CPI) is an offering that integrates SAP Ariba solutions into existing customer infrastructure. While SAP Cloud Platform Integration is a generic integration platform, SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway specializes in supply chain and procurement processes with a defined set of message types and Ariba interface specific mappings.

SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway(CIG) accelerates the integration process by making it simple to connect trading partners, SAP Ariba cloud solutions like Ariba Network, Ariba Sourcing, Ariba Buying, Ariba Contract Management etc. and customer back-end systems like SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA.Intuitive self-service tools let you quickly configure, extend, and test processes, while automated upgrades and monitoring make it easy to keep transactions flowing smoothly.

CIG provides an efficient way to integrate buyer and supplier systems through one gateway to Ariba Network  and Ariba solutions in the cloud. Also, Buyers can leverage the use of their existing integration solutions like SAP Process Integration(PI), Process Orchestration(PO) or Cloud Platform Integration. CIG also enables suppliers to connect once to Ariba Network to integrate with many customers without having to deal with buyer-specific mappings or customized configurations.

CIG can be adopted in just 3 easy steps:

CIG also offers a variety of self-service tools which is used to integrate various transactions flows in just few clicks. It includes:

• Integration Portal
• Integration Wizard
• Developer Tools
• Test Central Framework

Integration Portal:

Once CIG is enabled in AN buyer account, it will be navigated to a new URL https://integration.ariba.comcalled integration portal. It consists of various sections like Integration Projects, Tools and Transaction Tracker.

Integration Wizard:

Customers are required to create project – a wizard based integration configuration running based on the synchronized data when CIG is enabled in Ariba solution and in SAP ERP/S4HANA. In this project, various configurations like Basic Information, Connection,Mapping, Cross-referencemust be performed.

Developer Tools:

Tools like Schema Validation, Test Transformation, Test Connectivity are available in Integration portal.

Schema Validationtool is to validate the data against B2B standards like UN-EDIFACT, ASC-X12, OAGIS, xCBL, PIDX, GUSI, EANCOM.

Test Transformation tool is to perform the data transformation from the list of provided B2B standards to other format. For e.g., transform the cXML OrderRequest message to OASIS format.

Test Connectivity helps the customer to test the inbound and outbound connections.

Transaction Tracker enables the customer to monitor the inbound and outbound messages towards CIG. Buyers can track the messages based on their Environment Test/Production, Status or Type of the documents or Transaction Numbers.

Test Central Framework:

It has the repository of standard test cases available for the customer testing. Test cases can also be extended as per the customer requirements. It also simulates the response from Ariba supplier.