Product Information
Introduction to SAP Ariba
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In this blog you will find a list of resources to help you get started with learning about SAP Ariba. For the hands-on tutorial video series by Tahir Hussain Babar (Bob), see Questions? Please post as comment. Useful? Give us a like and share on social media. Thanks! |
Intelligent Spend Management
A Suite of Solutions
Intelligent Spend Management is a suite of three cloud-based solutions, part of SAP’s solutions for the Intelligent Enterprise:
- Direct and indirect spend (SAP Ariba)
- Travel and expense (SAP Concur)
- Services and external labor (SAP Fieldglass)
For more information, visit:
Recent articles:
SAP Ariba
About Ariba
Ariba was founded in 1996 and acquired by SAP in 2012. Previous Ariba acquisitions included Quadrem (B2B network), b-process (electronic invoicing), Freemarket, Procuri, Agile Software, and TRADEX.
For its Intelligent Spend Management cloud business portfolio, SAP also acquired SucccessFactors (2012), Concur (2014), Fieldglass (2014).
For more background information, see
- news.sap.com/2012/05/sap-to-expand-cloud-presence-with-acquisition-of-ariba
- www.ariba.com/about/news-and-press
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAP_Ariba
Procurement Competitive Landscape
For an overview of the competitive landscape for procurement, see
- Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay Suites (2019) – Gartner
- IDC Market Share – Worldwide Procurement Applications Software Market Shares, 2018: Cloud Leads the Way – IDC
SAP Ariba Solutions
Part of the Intelligent Spend Management suite of solutions, SAP Ariba itself is also defined as a suite of solutions, categorised under portfolios.
The portfolios are:
- SAP Ariba Supplier Management
- SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing (a.k.a. indirect spend)
- SAP Ariba Solutions for Direct Spend (a.k.a. supply chain)
- SAP Ariba Procurement (buying)
- SAP Ariba Financial Supply Chain (invoicing)
For more information, visit
- www.sap.com/products/e-procurement.html
- www.ariba.com
- www.ariba.com/resources/library (all solution briefs, whitepapers, etc.)
| Portfolio | Solution | Information |
| Supplier Management | Supplier Lifecycle and Performance (SLP) | data sheet |
| Supplier Risk | data sheet | |
| Strategic Sourcing | Strategic Sourcing Suite | data sheet |
| Sourcing | data sheet | |
| Spend Analysis | data sheet | |
| Contracts | data sheet | |
| Savings Pipeline and Tracking Add-on | data sheet | |
| Discovery for buyers | data sheet | |
| Start Sourcing | data sheet | |
| Network | Ariba Network for Suppliers | data sheet |
| Supply Chain Collaboration (SCC) | SCC for Buyers | data sheet |
| SCC Forecast Add-on | data sheet | |
| SCC Inventory Add-on | data sheet | |
| SCC Quality Add-on | data sheet | |
| Procurement | Buying & Invoicing (procure-to-pay) | data sheet |
| Buying (procure-to-order) | data sheet | |
| Catalog | data sheet | |
| Operations Desk | solution brief | |
| Guided Buying | information sheet | |
| Spot Buy | data sheet | |
| Financial Supply Chain | Invoice Management | solution brief |
| Payables | solution brief | |
| Contract Invoicing | solution brief | |
| Discount Management | ||
| Platform | Extension Studio | |
| APIs | data sheet | |
| Integration | SAP Ariba with SAP S/4HANA | solution brief |
| Cloud Integration Gateway | data sheet |
Books
SAP Press
SAP Press has published two titles on the topic of sourcing and procurement
- SAP Ariba, Business Processes, Functionality, and Implementation by Justin Ashlock [reading sample]
- Sourcing and Procurement in SAP S/4HANA by Justin Ashlock [reading sample]
SAP Training
openSAP
The following openSAP courses related to SAP Ariba are available:
- Introduction to Ariba (2015)
- Procurement Transformation with SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA (2018 repeat)
- Procurement Innovation – SAP Ariba and S/4HANA in a Nutshell (2018)
SAP Training
SAP Ariba trainings are provided as classroom instructor-led and through the SAP Learning Hub. To view Ariba-related training use the filter Area of interest = SAP Ariba or filter on software solution (note that not all Ariba solutions are prefaced with “SAP Ariba”).
“Products” returned include classroom trainings, certifications, e-learnings, and training paths.
Learning Journeys
Learning Journey provide a path of recommended learnings. Consultant journeys include the path towards certification.
| Learning Journey | Training | Certification |
| SAP Ariba Sourcing | AR111, AR120, AR121, AR130, AR710 | C_ARSOR |
| SAP Ariba Contracts | AR211, AR231, AR710, AR711, AR820 | C_ARCON |
| SAP Ariba Supplier Management | AR310, AR320, AR330 | C_ARSUM |
| SAP Ariba Spend Analysis | AR410 | C_ARSPE |
| SAP Ariba Procurement | AR510, AR530, AR520, AR720, AR820 | C_ARP2P |
| SAP Ariba Supplier Enablement – Buy Side | AR540, AR610, AR910 | C_ARCAT |
| AR920 | E_ARSEB | |
| SAP Ariba Supplier Enablement – Sell Side | AR940 | C_AR_SES |
| SAP Ariba Integration | AR720, AR820 | C_AR_INT |
| AR821 | E_ARSAP | |
| TAR822 | E_ARBUY | |
| SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration | AR930 | C_ARSCC |
| SAP Ariba Snap | TAR95E | C_ARSNAP |
SAP Learning Journeys on the SAP Help Portal
Courses
The following courses are currently available for Sourcing, Contracts, Supplier Management, Procurement, Integration, and the Network.
Certifications
For the latest information about certification, visit
Topic areas for each exam list the recommended trainings (see also the Learning Journey above).
For the list of all currently valid certifications, see https://training.sap.com/certification/validity
SAP Ariba Support
Support for SAP Ariba solutions is provided from SAP Ariba.
SAP Ariba Customer Hub
A public resource with links to podcasts, road maps, webinars, and support sites:
SAP Ariba Exchange
User community site with FAQ and tutorials, and links to the Learning Center and Support Center (requires user account for full access):
SAP Ariba Connect
Support portal with product and support information (requires user account)
- support.ariba.com
- service.ariba.com (Supplier)
SAP Ariba Knowledge
Enterprise content management system (CMS), portal, search, and recommendation engine all in one, including links with support.ariba.com and connect.ariba.com:
SAP Support
The SAP Support Portal provides publicly available information. To access the product availability matrix and the SAP ONE Support Launchpad, an SAP Support account (S-user) is required.
Product Availability Matrix
The Product Availability Matrix (PAM) lists RTC (release to customer), GA (general available), and EMM (end of mainstream support) dates for on-premise SAP products. For SAP Ariba, this concerns the suite integration products:
- SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway 1.0, add-on for SAP S/4HANA
- SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway 1.0, add-on for SAP ERP
- Ariba Network Integration 1.0 for SAP Business Suite
- Ariba Cloud Integration 9.0
SAP ONE Support Launchpad
Product support lists knowledge base articles (KBA), documentation (SAP Help Portal), Guided Answers, Questions & Blogs from the SAP Community, and Download. Again, concerns the suite integration products:
- SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway 1.0, add-on for SAP S/4HANA
- SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway 1.0, add-on for SAP ERP
- Ariba Network Integration 1.0 for SAP Business Suite
- Ariba Cloud Integration 9.0
Commonly used components (shortlist)
- BNS-ARI-CI-AN (Ariba Network Integration)
- BNS-ARI-CI-BUY (Ariba Procurement Integration)
- BNS-ARI-CI-SRC (Ariba Sourcing Integration)
- BNS-ARI-CI-FND (Ariba Integration Foundation for Common Tools)
- BNS-ARI-SE (Suite Enablement for Ariba)
- BNS-ARI-SE-FND (Foundation for Ariba Integration)
- BNS-ARI-SE-ERP (Ariba Integration Add-On for ERP)
- BNS-ARI-SE-SRM (Ariba Integration Add-On for SRM)
- BNS-INT-ARI-MM (Ariba Integration with S/4HANA Materials Management)
Documentation
SAP Help Portal
The SAP Help Portal provides access to What’s New guides, getting started guides, installation and upgrade guides, administration and configuration guides, development guides, references, and end-user information, if applicable. This information is publicly available.
SAP Community
For blogs and question/answers on SAP Ariba topics, follow the “tags”:
- SAP Ariba Live
- Ariba Network
- Ariba Cloud Integration
- SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway
- SAP Ariba Procurement
- SAP Ariba Supplier Management
- SAP Ariba Supply Chain
- SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing
Tutorials
Social Media
The SAP Ariba YouTube channel provides mainly marketing-related material like event highlights, customer success stories, testimonials, but also a number of “quick tips” How-to videos. You can also connect to Ariba on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
SAP Help Portal
Ariba tutorials are also available from the SAP Help Portal.
SAP Ariba Learning Center
Ariba tutorials are also available from the Learning Center on the Ariba Exchange user Community:
Events
For information about upcoming SAP Ariba Live events and for keynotes and presentations of past events, visit:
Share and Connect
Questions? Please post as comment.
Useful? Give us a like and share on social media.
Thanks!
If you would like to receive updates, connect with me on
- LinkedIn > linkedin.com/in/dvankempen
- Twitter > @dvankempen
| Over the years, for the SAP HANA Academy, SAP’s Partner Innovation Lab, and à titre personnel, I have written a little over 300 posts here for the SAP Community. Some articles only reached a few readers. Others attracted quite a few more.For your reading pleasure and convenience, here is a curated list of posts which somehow managed to pass the 10k-view mile stone and, as sign of current interest, still tickle the counters each month. |
Nice overview!
Thank you Denys van Kempen to such a wonderful summary of SAP Ariba product.
This will be my goto guide to provide a reference to my customers going forward.
Amazing one-stop-shop. Will be on the lookout for updates!
component clarification:
Great thorough introduction on SAP Ariba