Here are the 6 new features out of my quick count of 85 new features that I thought were really interesting in the May 19, 2023 (
2305) release for SAP Ariba.
- Data purge capabilities in SAP Ariba solutions [SI-23] - this was a common ask from customers, especially the legal or audit teams to allow them to more easily purge data that had reached their standard for data retention instead of keeping data since the start of their contract with SAP Ariba. So a customer can now purge transaction data, audit log data, blocked user's profile information, and supplier master data. This can be done as a one-time manual process (purge all data older than a specific date) or a recurring process based on the retention policy. (coming now in the June release)
- Ability to Access the Supplier's SAP Business Network Profile in the Supplier 360° Profile [SM-34778] - This feature will link from the Supplier Summary screen to the Supplier's network profile. There is work underway to connect the supplier's SAP Business Network (SBN) profile data with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle & Performance (SLP) more naturally, but this is a good first step in making it easy for the customer business user to connect to additional marketing, sustainability, and corporate information on the SBN.
- Ability to Mark Suppliers as Excluded in Guided Sourcing Events [ET-1490] - this feature allows the user in Guided Sourcing to exclude suppliers at the event level. This feature is small but powerful, allowing the user more control of the event to display that a supplier was considered but excluded by the customer rather than just deleting the supplier and having that "one manager" who we all know ask the question on why a specific supplier wasn't in the event.
- Two features I really like on managing suppliers in Guided Buying to help reduce risk and increase the due diligence success of the organization
- Improved Screening for Suppliers in Guided Buying [GB-18350] - this feature requires users to have the evaluation of the supplier completed in the SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle & Performance (SLP) module prior to engaging in purchasing in Guided Buying and offers the option to encourage customer users to only used evaluated suppliers.
- Evaluate Potential Risk for Non-Catalog Purchases [GB-18894] - This feature integrates the SAP Ariba Supplier Risk engagement assessment process with the Guided Buying purchase requisition to evaluate suppliers as part of a requisitions activity so that the risk assessment is not accidentally missed when required by corporate policy.
- Guided buying usage reports [GB-13455] - when I managed indirect procurement I always wanted to see trends of what my general business users were buying or even more interesting, searching but not finding. This will generate a report to show number of users that logged in, number of users that added items to their card, total number of items added to the carts, and searches that returned no results.
Here is a quick link to the
early release series sessions, organized by solution area, release schedule, and whether you want the recording or the presentation.
Also note that there are 3 features that will become mandatory this release and I included the links to the release guide for each.
- Diversity Information Available in Catalog [GB-16949] - the user will see any available diversity information for that supplier in the catalog items' details.
- Date Format Unified in Guided Buying [GB-22232] - the date format now matches the rest of SAP Ariba
- Decommissioning of Certain TLS Ciphers for SAP Ariba Gateway in Australia Data Center [OPEC-11902] - Yeah, so, um, I'm in marketing so best you read this one for yourself.
2305 Release Highlights Preview:
https://blogs.sap.com/2023/04/19/sap-procurement-2305-release-key-innovations-preview/
And last but not least, Bert Freedman put together a
great list of feature highlights if you want an alternate perspective.
Comment below on your favorites!
🙂
