As the fourth quarter of 2022 is well under way, our team has been busy delivering on the customer experience and engagement needs across the Procurement and Business Network areas. Read on to learn more about the key capabilities being delivered in our 2211 (Q4 2022) product release.
Key focus areas in sourcing and contracts discussed in this quarterly blog include support for using European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) and for publishing procurement notices on the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) portal for public sector events. We also introduce contract integration with Icertis Contract Intelligence.
In the procurement space the focus turns to improvements in the receipt of goods in guided buying and central procurement business scenarios for SAP S/4HANA.
For our supplier management and risk users we are adding supplier duplicate checks using tax answers, supporting engagement scores in risk exposure, and providing custom fields for supplier risk data.
Not to be left out, some key additions to our Business Network capabilities include support for trading relationship requests for standard supplier accounts, and component planning collaboration in supply chain.
Read more about new innovations in this blog and be sure to check out the entire list of over 100 innovations in the Release Readiness area of SAP Ariba Connect.
Sourcing and Contracts – Contract integration with Icertis Contract Intelligence
Buyers using SAP Ariba Contracts integrated with Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) for SAP Ariba Solutions are able to use the ICI interface to create and update contract documents. Users may seamlessly navigate between the ICI interface and SAP Ariba Contracts after the contract workspace records are linked as shown in the screen provided below. Additionally, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities of icertis to assemble, review, negotiate, and approve contracts. A detailed demonstration of these risk identifying capabilities may be found here.
Contracts – Icertis integration
Public sector sourcing - Use of European Sourcing Procurement Document (ESPD)
For our European Union (EU) sourcing customers public entities use a standardized qualification and selection questionnaire to assess potential suppliers participating in a tender. The ESPD allows public entities to screen and select potential suppliers based on this harmonized criteria insuring consistency in sourcing efforts. The utilization of this digital process flow that automates the ESPD creation in the tender process ensures legal compliance and consistency with EU public procurement rules. These added capabilities further strengthens the participants' attendance volumes and decreases the administrative burden as participants are able to reuse their responses from any other ESPD service.
Public sector sourcing - Publishing notices on the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) portal
Publishing public procurement tenders in the European Union (EU) via the Tender Electronic Daily (TED) portal is vital for public entities to adhere to compliance requirements. Legal compliance is provided thanks to a digital end-to-end process flow which is consistent with EU public procurement rules and requirements. The data processing is integrated and automated such that notices containing important details like bid items, bid timing, selection criteria and award basics can be easily executed.
Public notice dashboard for buyers
Guided buying and Central Procurement – Support for receiving goods in use scenarios with SAP S/4HANA
Casual users of guided buying can now not only create the requisitions in the application, but also my now receive goods via guided buying and have those receipts reflected in SAP S/4HANA as well. Overall this added functionality simplifies the receipt of goods in a self-service procurement scenario and ensures that the receiving status is accurately reflected in SAP S/4HANA as well. The consistent user experience drives increased efficiency in the procurement to receipt process for users of guided buying.
Receipt process flow
Supplier Management and Risk – Support duplicate checks using tax answers, Engagement scores in risk exposure, custom fields for supplier risk
Several updates to the Supplier Management and Risk area are delivered with the 2211 release. Starting with the completion of duplicate supplier record checks utilizing tax information, efficiencies are gained through the comparison of tax answers in the supplier request process. Data points are validated regardless of the request source, whether via supplier request, data import, replication from an integrated ERP, or in a supplier registration questionnaire, a duplicate review may now be completed based on the tax details.
Duplicate check based on tax information
Inherent risk and residual risk in control-based risk assessment projects are now contributing factors to the risk exposure details. This capability delivers an improved view of the total risk associated with doing business with a specific supplier. The expanded exposure score enables buyers to make more informed decisions in risk aware procurement processes as well.
Expanded risk profile details
Risk exposure configuration capabilities has been expanded to allow up to 300 custom fields across all risk categories. These custom fields can contribute to the risk exposure or they may be setup to be displayed as informational only without contributing to the risk exposure. To view and manage these custom fields, a new custom data tab has been added to the supplier's risk profile which displays the custom information for each risk category.
Custom risk tab display
Business Network - Trading relationship requests for standard supplier accounts
Streamlining of the supplier registration process for all suppliers drives tremendous efficiencies to the business network efforts of all. These updates eliminate the need for time consuming activities linked to actions like walk-up registration with manual relationship requests or sending penny-level purchase orders to suppliers. Now customers have the flexibility to choose the best registration path for this sub-set of suppliers.This significant advance in supplier management may be explored further through this demonstration.
Supply Chain - Component planning collaboration
Contract manufacturing supplies and their buyers want a clear view of the planning situation for the production of finished goods and the related components to be used. With a comprehensive view of all the information exchanged between the buyer and contract manufacturers about finished goods and component materials, as well as projected stock and shortage warning tools, it is considerably easier to identify any material shortages and rapidly address the related challenges.
Component planning access
For more information on SAP Procurement efforts, please visit:
- Early Release Webcast Series here
- Feature information portal (SAP Ariba Connect) available here
- Help Portal Product Page for Procurement and Network
- SAP Procurement Community: here
- What’s New here
- Revisit prior release blogs from 2022: Q1 - 2202 / Q2 - 2205 / Q3 - 2208
- SAP Managed Tags:
