New Ariba Network Supplier Portal – Information for Network Buyers

AN UPDATED VERSION OF THIS BLOG CAN BE FOUND HERE.

——————————————————————————————

On May 21st, the SAP Ariba Network product team will be starting global roll-out of a new supplier portal homepage and workbench to all network suppliers. Below is a short summary of what network buyers need to know about the change and recommended actions.

New portal home page and workbench for all suppliers:

• Suppliers will see two new pages, the portal homepage and workbench, both user configurable to be optimized the way they work
• Across the network, the navigation menu has been updated with new labels, replacing “inbox” and “outbox”
• And suppliers will see new widgets that provide quick status overviews, opportunities, and insights
• See brief video (~3 minutes) below for an overview
• Review the buyer overview PPT

No impact to current processes, transactions or configurations:

• As existing network pages (i.e. order confirmation, invoice creation, and supply chain collaboration documents) remain the same, there is no change to supplier transaction workflows
• Suppliers have the option to return to the old portal by clicking on “Back to Classic View” (via shell bar, or in settings menu)
• For buyers, there are no changes to network configuration, transaction rules or any migration of documents

Phased roll-out with early adopter program:

• An early adopter program has been in place for the last year, with several thousand suppliers already successfully transitioned
• For each supplier account transitioned, the account admin was sent 2 notification emails
• Suppliers accounts were selected based on feature usage and activity, so some of your suppliers may already be on the new portal.

Supplier change management for the global roll-out starting May 21st

• Supplier notification emails will be sent 2 weeks prior and will point to a self-enablement landing page, with short videos
• Starting early May, there will be alerts and notices in the classic portal, in addition to notification emails
• When suppliers first log-in to the new portal, they will see a welcome pop-up which also points to self-enablement page

Ariba Network will be part of SAP Business Network starting May 21st

• SAP’s network strategy is to unify our existing networks by providing a common onboarding service, directory, login site, portal, collaboration flows, and analytics under the SAP Business Network name
• Suppliers will see “SAP Business Network” instead of Ariba Network on a few pages
  • Login page
  • New Homepage
  • New Workbench
• Solution name change is gradual and part of a larger product strategy to unify SAP-owned networks
• Similar to the new portal, this brand name change doesn’t impact supplier accounts (ANID), login credentials, transactions, or network configurations

Recommendation preparation tasks for buyers:

• Buyers should review any existing supplier-facing training materials and user guides that contain screenshots and how-to instructions, and update based on the new portal and workbench user interface.
• Buyers should inform supplier-facing contacts at their organization of the changes, for example by reviewing the videos on the self-enablement page.
• Buyers can find a summary in the Update for Network Buyer’s presentation, below under Relevant Links.
• For further questions, contact your Customer Engagement Executive, or Ariba Support.

Overview video what’s new (~3 minutes)

Relevant Links:

• Self-enablement landing page
• Overview presentation for buyers: New Supplier Portal and Workbench: Update for Network Buyers