https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ajmaradiaga/feeds/main/scmt/topics/SAP-Ariba-Contracts-blog-posts.xml SAP Community - SAP Ariba Contracts 2026-02-28T12:11:54.272186+00:00 python-feedgen SAP Ariba Contracts blog posts in SAP Community https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-source-to-contract-2505-release-highlights/ba-p/14079394 SAP Ariba Source to Contract 2505 Release Highlights 2025-04-21T09:11:14.765000+02:00 RB-051923 https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1539210 <P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Guided Sourcing</STRONG></P><P><STRONG>Guided Sourcing Integration with SAP WalkMe &nbsp;&nbsp;[SOURCE-2530]</STRONG></P><P>We’re excited to bring SAP WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform to Guided Sourcing. This integration provides step-by-step tours and tooltips directly in the UI to help users complete tasks confidently and quickly.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_0-1744916466382.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/252218i17BD498EC64C8CA8/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_0-1744916466382.png" alt="RB051923_0-1744916466382.png" /></span></P><P>Need help setting up a sourcing event or adding a new contact? Just launch a WalkMe tour and get guided support through each step - available in all SAP Ariba-supported languages and major browsers.&nbsp; It helps users ramp up faster, reduces support queries, and ensures consistency in how sourcing events are set up and managed.</P><P><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG><STRONG>Bonus-Penalty in Guided Sourcing [SOURCE-1253]</STRONG></P><P>Sourcing large-scale events often comes with a high volume of bids and variables. Our new Bonus-Penalty feature helps buyers and evaluators make more objective, transparent decisions.</P><P>You can now assign bonus or penalty values to supplier bids during the grading and scoring process. This lets you incorporate qualitative considerations—like sustainability practices or delivery timelines—directly into your bid evaluations. It brings clarity and fairness to supplier selection in complex events, helping teams align supplier choices with business goals.</P><P><STRONG>View Period Quantity Assignments of Line Items on a Graph in Guided Sourcing [PSOURCE-1370]</STRONG></P><P>Planning and analyzing time-based sourcing events just got easier. With this enhancement, buyers can now visualize quantity values per validity period using a bar chart, directly in the Guided Sourcing interface.</P><P>Clicking on a line item’s quantity value opens a graphical breakdown—no more guessing or toggling between spreadsheets. Plus, when the “Enable period quantity” condition is active, the total is now read-only, ensuring data consistency. This provides a quick and intuitive way to understand how quantities are distributed across time periods—perfect for more accurate planning and decision-making.</P><P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Contracts</STRONG></P><P><STRONG>SAP Task Center Integration with SAP Ariba Contracts [SCONTR-1210]</STRONG></P><P>Navigating approvals doesn’t need to be a labyrinth. With our new SAP Task Center integration, buyers can now process approval tasks directly assigned to them from SAP Ariba Contracts. This feature bridges the gap between task creation and completion, offering a clear and direct path for approvals. By centralizing these tasks, users can expect faster turnaround times and reduced administrative overhead.</P><P>The SAP Task Center service enables integration with SAP and non-SAP applications to provide a single entry point for end users to access all their assigned tasks. You can use SAP Task Center as a unified inbox for tasks across multiple applications with integrated user experience. Tasks from multiple SAP solutions are gathered in one list and ready to be processed in just one click, shortening the completion time for business-critical tasks. For example, business users can process all their tasks from the connected systems, without the need to switch and log in separately into different inboxes.</P><P><STRONG>Customize Your Contract ID Prefix [SCONTR-1280]</STRONG></P><P>Understanding that every business has unique identifiers, we’re adding flexibility to contract management with the ability to customize the prefix for the Contract ID in SAP Ariba Contracts.&nbsp; A well-structured contract ID can help to improve contract management by making it easier to identify, locate, and manage contracts.&nbsp;</P><P>Choose a prefix that aligns with your business needs and makes tracking contracts more intuitive for your team. This customization allows for a personal approach to contract management and user-friendly tracking.</P><P><STRONG>User Interface Enhancements for Non-Disclosure Agreement Contracts [SCONTR-1395]</STRONG></P><P>Navigating non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) just got easier. Our enhanced user interface for managing NDA contracts introduces several changes that enhance visibility and accessibility. This ensures clarity and ease-of-use, making the management of sensitive agreements less cumbersome. Whether you're creating, tracking, or archiving NDAs, our streamlined interface is designed to simplify each step, allowing users to focus on what matters most—business confidentiality and compliance.&nbsp; Changes to the User Interface include:</P><UL><LI>The filter bar, previously located at the top of the Manage NDA Templates and the Manage NDAs pages, is now placed inside the data table on each respective page.</LI><LI>The icon for sorting data with each column is changed.</LI><LI>There are font style changes on the Manage NDA Templates and the Manage NDAs pages to emphasize titles, default input text fields, data entries in tables, and more.</LI></UL><P><STRONG>For highlights in Category Management in this release, please use the link below:</STRONG></P><P><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2550" target="_blank">SAP Ariba Category Management 2505 Release Highlights - SAP Community</A></P> 2025-04-21T09:11:14.765000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/how-to-streamline-sap-ariba-contract-workspaces-with-bots-without/ba-p/14117768 How to Streamline SAP Ariba Contract Workspaces with Bots Without Overloading Your System 2025-06-03T14:06:10.646000+02:00 Anastasiia_Kh https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1437172 <P>A common challenge when using bots in SAP Ariba is ensuring that they are properly customised to prevent system performance issues. One scenario where this is especially important is when bots imitates human actions, ensuring consistency and efficiency responsible for updating mass contract workspaces, which can result in the creation of over 10,000 purchase requisitions (PRs). in such cases the bots must be carefully optimised to avoid overwhelming the system.</P><P>Here’s an example of the process when a bot updates a contract workspace and generates PRs:</P><OL><LI><STRONG>Navigating to the Contract Workspace</STRONG></LI></OL><P>The bot begins by accessing the contract workspace and selecting the contract terms. This is similar to a manual process where a human would navigate through the interface. The bot then opens the contract terms and selects the appropriate realm, along with a few necessary details, ensuring the correct data is populated for further processing</P><P><STRONG>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;2. Creating Contract Terms</STRONG></P><P>Next, the bot clicks the "Create" button to initiate the creation of the contract terms. During this step, it auto-populates the header information, such as the requester and requestor’s details (when creating auto-release PRs). Any required details are defined, including potential issues that might arise, such as missing or incorrect purchasing units or data selection, which have occasionally led to errors in past processes.</P><P>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; 3.&nbsp;<STRONG>Completing Contract Limits and Pricing Terms</STRONG></P><P>The bot proceeds to the “Limits” tab and fills in any relevant limits that are required, though this step generally involves fewer entries. Once completed, it moves on to the line items, where the bot will input all the pricing terms. Unlike previous methods that may have relied on Excel files, the bot now completes this step by going line by line—filling in details such as descriptions, community codes, and material groups for each line item. Once this is done, it will save the information and return to the contract workspace.</P><P>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;4.&nbsp;<STRONG>Attaching Files and Publishing the Contract</STRONG></P><P>If required, the bot will attach any reference files associated with the contract. After completing all necessary updates and reviewing the terms, the bot publishes the contract workspace. This creates the contract term and prepares it for the final steps.</P><P><STRONG>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;5.Automating PR Creation</STRONG></P><P>Once the contract terms and workspace are finalized, the bot auto-releases the requisitions (PRs). This automation eliminates the need for manual intervention, ensuring that PRs are created and released in accordance with the contract’s details.</P><P><STRONG>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;6. Contract Amendments and Updates</STRONG></P><P>The process for contract amendments follows a similar structure, with the primary difference being that a contract workspace already exists. In this case, the bot updates the contract terms based on the provided information. These updates can include modifications to the header information, line items, or even the closure of the contract. Once the updates are completed, the bot saves and submits the changes, and then publishes the updated contract term, ensuring that PRs continue to be auto-released.</P><DIV class="">&nbsp;</DIV><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Screenshot 2025-06-03 at 14.09.00.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/268898iD1C2BEA18B05ABAA/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Screenshot 2025-06-03 at 14.09.00.png" alt="Screenshot 2025-06-03 at 14.09.00.png" /></span></P><P class="lia-align-center" style="text-align: center;">Example of the process</P><P>During the contract workspace creation or update process in SAP Ariba, there are eight distinct <STRONG>SourcingUpdateRequest</STRONG> messages that are exchanged between the Buyer application and the Sourcing application. These messages follow this sequence:</P><OL><LI><STRONG>Composing</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Submitted</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Sourced</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>SourcingConfirming</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>SourcingConfirming - Action - Approved</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>SourcingCompleted</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Processing</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Processed</STRONG></LI></OL><P>Each of these steps involves the system processing a message, and the system requires approximately <STRONG>2 seconds</STRONG> to process each message. Therefore, for a single contract, it will take around <STRONG>16 seconds</STRONG> (2 seconds × 8 messages) for the entire message exchange process to complete.</P><P><STRONG>Managing Large-Scale Contract Workspace Updates</STRONG></P><P>When dealing with large numbers of contract workspaces (e.g., updating or creating over 1,000 contract workspaces via bots), careful attention must be paid to system load and message queue management to avoid performance issues. To ensure smooth processing, the following guidelines are recommended:</P><OL><LI><STRONG>Batch Processing with Pauses:</STRONG><UL><LI>It is advisable to process contracts in <STRONG>batches of 1,000 contracts</STRONG> at a time. After each batch, introduce a <STRONG>30-minute pause</STRONG> before starting the next batch. This pause allows the message queue to be cleared and drained from the previous batch of contracts, ensuring that new messages don’t overload the system and cause delays.</LI></UL></LI><LI><STRONG>Pause Between Contract Request Creation and Publish:</STRONG><UL><LI>To further optimize the process, it is recommended to introduce a <STRONG>15-second pause</STRONG> between contract request creation and publishing. This is especially important when multiple bots are being used. For example, if 15 bots are running in parallel, each bot sends its own "Composing" message into the queue. By introducing the 15-second pause, the system ensures that these parallel messages have time to propagate, and the "Publish" button becomes visible for the next steps in the process.</LI></UL></LI></OL><P>Also additionaly to reduce the load to the system there is a parameter and feature toggle that can to Optimize sending sourcing update messages to SAP Ariba Contracts</P><P><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/buying-invoicing/managing-contract-compliance/managing-compliance-contracts-with-sap-ariba-contracts#optimize-sending-sourcing-update-messages-to-sap-ariba-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Compliance Contracts with SAP Ariba Contracts</A></P><P><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/buying-invoicing/intelligent-configuration-manager-parameters-reference/restrain-sending-sourcing-update-messages" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Restrain sending sourcing update messages</A></P><P>However, it is important to note,&nbsp; if your business is already using or planning to implement bots within SAP Ariba, it is essential to follow SAP’s guidelines to ensure compliance and system stability. According to SAP Knowledge Base Article <A href="https://support.ariba.com/item/view/KB0405392" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">KB0405392</A>, customers are contractually prohibited from using non-human users (bots) in SAP Ariba systems without proper registration. Although SAP Ariba does not officially support or certify bots, it does allow their use—provided they are registered through the SAP Ariba Developer Portal. Registration helps SAP recognise bot usage, ensures contractual compliance, and promotes responsible and secure implementation.</P><P>For further details and specific restrictions, refer to:</P><P><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/what-s-new-in-sap-procurement-and-sap-business-network-2020-b65c5796406c4376a64b70c0044e17b0/opec-6466-support-of-rpa-bots-on-developer-portal?q=RPA+bots" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>OPEC-6466:</STRONG> <EM>Support of RPA Bots on the Developer Portal</EM></A></P><P><A href="https://support.ariba.com/item/view/KB0405179" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer"><STRONG>KB0405179:</STRONG> <EM>How to register iRPA Bots in SAP Ariba Developer Portal</EM></A></P><P>By following these best practices, businesses can ensure that the bots function efficiently while maintaining optimal system performance, even when processing large volumes of contract workspaces.</P> 2025-06-03T14:06:10.646000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/sap-learning-blog-posts/explore-contract-management-master-assembled-docs-clause-library-templates/ba-p/14158435 Explore Contract Management: Master Assembled Docs, Clause Library, Templates and More! 2025-07-23T14:58:01.049000+02:00 susann_schroeter https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/390419 <P><FONT size="3"><SPAN>I&nbsp;</SPAN>recommend to access our&nbsp;</FONT><A title="Managing SAP Ariba Contracts" href="https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/managing-sap-ariba-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Managing SAP Ariba Contracts</A>&nbsp;learning journey.<BR /><BR /><STRONG>Overview<BR /></STRONG><SPAN>This intermediate learning journey will introduce you to the management of contract workspace functionality, such as assembled documents, clause library, templates, and legacy contracts.</SPAN></P><DIV class=""><P><STRONG>Learning objectives<BR /></STRONG></P><UL><LI>Author assembled documents in contract workspaces.</LI><LI>Create clauses for the Clause Library</LI><LI>Load legacy contracts</LI><LI>Manage digital signatures</LI><LI>Administer contract workspace templates</LI></UL></DIV><P><STRONG>Prerequisites<BR /></STRONG></P><UL><LI><A class="" href="https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/discovering-sap-ariba-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Discovering SAP Ariba Contracts</A></LI><LI><A class="" href="https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/introducing-sap-ariba-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Introducing SAP Ariba Contracts</A></LI></UL><DIV class=""><P><STRONG>Please post you question related&nbsp;to the digital learning Journey in the&nbsp;</STRONG><A href="https://groups.community.sap.com/t5/sap-learning-q-a/qa-p/learningqanda-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>Q&amp;A area</STRONG></A><STRONG>.&nbsp;<BR /></STRONG>Our SAP Learning Experts will get back to you as soon as possible!&nbsp;We are here to support you.&nbsp;</P></DIV><DIV class=""><DIV class=""><DIV class="">I appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to continue sharing interesting topics.</DIV></DIV></DIV><DIV class=""><DIV class=""><DIV class=""><P>Kind regards,<BR />Susann</P></DIV></DIV></DIV> 2025-07-23T14:58:01.049000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-source-to-contract-2508-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14162702 SAP Ariba Source to Contract 2508 Release Key Innovations Preview 2025-07-28T14:43:53.686000+02:00 HoangD https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2096385 <P>Hello SAP Ariba Source to Contract Community and welcome to our 2508 key innovations blog.&nbsp;<SPAN>We're thrilled to unveil the latest features in our Q1 2025 release for SAP Ariba's source-to-contract solutions.&nbsp;</SPAN></P><P>Here’s a closer look at what’s new this quarter:</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Contract Management</STRONG></P><P><EM>SAP Ariba Contracts Integration with WalkMe (<SPAN>SCONTR-1444</SPAN>)</EM></P><P><SPAN>WalkMe integrated is now available in SAP Ariba Contracts.<SPAN class="">WalkMe</SPAN>&nbsp;Digital Adoption Platform provides step-by-step guidance directly within the app. It's ideal for helping users complete common tasks like examples in the screenshot below.</SPAN></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="HoangD_0-1753450283656.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291605iB9A11C812DBF2C86/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="HoangD_0-1753450283656.png" alt="HoangD_0-1753450283656.png" /></span></P><P>The idea behind is simple, if we have to spend less time try to figuring out how to do the task, we'll get more time getting things done, and that's what we aim to achieve this this integration</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Managing Baseline and Supplier Contracts for Pre-Award Negotiation in Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP Ariba Solutions&nbsp;(<SPAN>SCONTR-1499</SPAN>)</EM></P><P><SPAN>If your organization uses Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) alongside SAP Ariba, there's good news. You can now manage both baseline and supplier contracts directly in Icertis during pre-award negotiations.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>We've also improved the APIs so that developers can easily copy data from one contract workspace to another.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Guided Sourcing</STRONG></P><P><EM>AI Copilot Joule in Guided Sourcing (<SPAN>SOURCE-2725</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>We’re excited to introduce<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG>Joule</STRONG>, SAP’s generative AI copilot, in Guided Sourcing, currently in Early Access. <STRONG>AI Copilot Joule in Guided Sourcing&nbsp;will be generally available to customers on September 19th, 2025.</STRONG></P><P><SPAN>With Joule, we hope that our users will be able to complete tasks, find information, and navigate the platform easier and quicker.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Ability to Create Partitioned Events in Guided Sourcing (<SPAN>SOURCE-2342</SPAN>)</EM></P><P><SPAN>For teams handling big or complex sourcing projects, we’ve added partitioned events.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>This lets individual sourcing team members manage their own groups of suppliers. They can invite participants, track their bids, and update terms independently without needing full project ownership rights.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Display Remaining Time for Line Items in Bid Console for Guided Sourcing Auctions and Competitive RFPs (<SPAN>SOURCE-2544</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>Timing matters!&nbsp;<SPAN>The bid console now clearly shows how much time is left per line item during auctions and RFPs.</SPAN></P><P>.With this release, buyers can now see the remaining time for each line item or lot directly.&nbsp;</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="HoangD_1-1753450283794.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291606iDAA59C969DEE5D58/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="HoangD_1-1753450283794.png" alt="HoangD_1-1753450283794.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><SPAN>The changes are applicable for competitive RFP, Auction, Reverse auction bid console screens.&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN>For Japanese, dutch auctions the new column Time remaining will not show and the watch screen timer values will not change.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Support for Event Search Filters on the Supplier Home Page in Sourcing Events (<SPAN>SOURCE-2585</SPAN>)</EM></P><P><SPAN>Suppliers can now use their home page to set personalized search filters for sourcing events.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>They can filter events by region, commodity, or dates, and even save these filters for future logins.&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN>They can filter events by region, commodity, or dates, and even save these filters for future logins. This small improvement makes life easier for suppliers, especially those are handling multiple event across regions or in different categories.</SPAN></P><P>---</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>This quarter’s release are practical changes based on the feedback we have received. With these changes, we believe your source to contract activities will be much simpler, faster and easier than ever.</P><P>Stay tuned for our additional upcoming blog posts and follow me to stay informed on upcoming feature releases across SAP Ariba. Once, these items are officially released on August 14th, the feature reference IDs (i.e. SC-22524) can help to find more detailed information on&nbsp;<A href="http://help.sap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://help.sap.com</A>.</P><P>Thank you for being a part of the SAP Ariba community and we look forward to continuing our journey of innovation together!</P><P>Resources:</P><UL><LI>Feature related materials:</LI><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A>&nbsp;(Customers except CIM)</LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A>&nbsp;(For CIM customers)</LI></UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI>SAP Help Portal pages -&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/sap-business-network-for-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Network</A></LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI></UL> 2025-07-28T14:43:53.686000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-2508-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14159593 SAP Ariba 2508 Release Key Innovations Preview 2025-07-31T12:39:50.411000+02:00 JesG https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1828371 <H3 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-1864328828"><FONT color="#333399"><STRONG>Highlights of Enhancements across Procurement</STRONG></FONT></H3><H4 id="toc-hId-1796898042"><STRONG>Joule, Your AI Copilot</STRONG></H4><P>As you may know, Joule is the SAP AI copilot - a virtual assistant that uses a conversational interface to help users of SAP business applications complete tasks more efficiently.</P><P>The conversational interface is brought to life with the help of these 4 interaction patterns:</P><UL><LI>With<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG>informational interactions<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN></STRONG>we are providing our users knowledge-based results. All SAP applications in which Joule is available make their knowledge-base available via Joule, e.g. SAP Help Documentation. This is managed by SAP and offered to every Joule user out of the box.<BR />We're also bringing in Document Grounding with which we enable our customers to upload their customer-owned content, e.g. HR-policies, travel-policies, FAQs, and others, so that their users can ask questions based on these documents.</LI></UL><UL><LI><STRONG>Navigational Pattern</STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>- Easily<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>navigate<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>SAP applications by simply asking via natural language. Joule offers you a navigational link which opens the respective application and UI in a new browser tab. In the destination, a user can open Joule again and continue where they have left with the same conversation history.</LI></UL><UL><LI><STRONG>Trans</STRONG><STRONG>actional interactions<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN></STRONG>provide our users with a direct entry point to the backend system. Triggering and influencing business processes with the power of natural language and AI. E.g. purchase orders which need to be reviewed and approved, job positions which are created or any other CRUD-interaction (create, read, update, delete) within SAP cloud applications.</LI></UL><UL><LI>And a 4th,<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG>Analytical pattern</STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>to enable analytical interactions based on JustAsk and SAP Analytics Cloud, enabling customers to leverage Joule for analytical queries.<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><EM>This is currently not implemented in Ariba.</EM></LI></UL><P><EM>With the Q3 2025 release, Joule is being made available in the SAP Ariba applications of Guided Buying, Guided Sourcing and Supplier Management.</EM></P><P><I><SPAN>Please note that AI copilot Joule in the aforementioned products will be in Early Access until September 19th, 2025 at which time it will be made generally available to customers.</SPAN></I></P><P>For a&nbsp;<SPAN>complete list of Transactional and Navigational Joule skills which are available per application area</SPAN>, view our new blog:&nbsp;<A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2650" target="_blank">Joule 2508 Release Key Innovations</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H4 id="toc-hId-1600384537">SAP Ariba Category Management Highlights</H4><P><STRONG>Ability to Set an Initiative as Obsolete in SAP Ariba Category Management (ARBCATA-463)</STRONG></P><P>Keeping your workspace organized is essential for focus and efficiency. With this feature you can now manually mark outdated initiatives as obsolete, easily closing those that are no longer relevant. This means your team will see only initiatives that matter, reducing clutter and helping everyone prioritize more effectively.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_5-1753439334794.png" style="width: 457px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291428iB3F85FC0945E6BB4/image-dimensions/457x274?v=v2" width="457" height="274" role="button" title="JesG_5-1753439334794.png" alt="JesG_5-1753439334794.png" /></span></P><P>Additionally, the Initiatives Overview page now allows you to filter by multiple phases—including the Obsolete phase—so you can quickly get the view you need and keep data clean and actionable.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_6-1753439334841.png" style="width: 594px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291429i4B070A9869232CD5/image-dimensions/594x141?v=v2" width="594" height="141" role="button" title="JesG_6-1753439334841.png" alt="JesG_6-1753439334841.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Standardized and Detailed Category Risk Assessment (ARBCATA-489)</STRONG></P><P>Risk management is fundamental to strong category strategies. With this feature , the risk assessment tool has been enhanced so administrators can define standardized risk types for evaluation across all purchasing categories.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_7-1753439397306.png" style="width: 664px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291430i93A342AEE942C5C5/image-dimensions/664x312?v=v2" width="664" height="312" role="button" title="JesG_7-1753439397306.png" alt="JesG_7-1753439397306.png" /></span></P><P><SPAN class=""><SPAN class="">The new Risk Types page on the Strategy and Plan tab</SPAN></SPAN></P><P>Category managers can now identify, score, and qualify each risk in detail, with information like cause, impact, and mitigation strategies.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_8-1753439397354.png" style="width: 627px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291431i066641663BD6962D/image-dimensions/627x608?v=v2" width="627" height="608" role="button" title="JesG_8-1753439397354.png" alt="JesG_8-1753439397354.png" /></span></P><P><SPAN class=""><SPAN class="">The New Risk page that appears when you click Create on the Risk Assessment page now includes 3 sections: Assessment, Details, and Mitigation.&nbsp;</SPAN></SPAN>These scores contribute to an overall risk score at the strategy and plan level, which reflects the combined risk across category, timeframe, business unit, and region. This gives category managers a structured, repeatable approach to assessing category supporting informed decision-making at every level.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_9-1753439397332.png" style="width: 690px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291432iEB95A60058743BF5/image-dimensions/690x381?v=v2" width="690" height="381" role="button" title="JesG_9-1753439397332.png" alt="JesG_9-1753439397332.png" /></span></P><P><SPAN class=""><SPAN class="">The Risk Assessment page now displays a Risk Assessment Matrix and Risks table.</SPAN></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Ability to Select Tool Documents for AI-generated Category Strategy Recommendations (CATMAN-16)</STRONG></P><P>Now that it’s possible (with the above feature) to create multiple Cost Structure and Market Dynamics documents, this new AI-driven strategy recommendations allows you to choose which Cost Structure and Market Dynamics documents to include, ensuring the insights you receive are tailored to your specific business needs. This accelerates the development of effective strategies, minimizing revisions and aligning recommendations with your goals.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_10-1753439482036.png" style="width: 627px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291434iFB66D868512F49B9/image-dimensions/627x243?v=v2" width="627" height="243" role="button" title="JesG_10-1753439482036.png" alt="JesG_10-1753439482036.png" /></span></P><P><SPAN>You can now choose specific Cost Structure and Market Dynamics documents when generating recommendations for category strategy details, in cases where multiple tool documents are linked to a strategy and plan document</SPAN></P><P>For further details on these innovations and more, view our new blog:&nbsp;&nbsp;<A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2649" target="_blank">Category Management 2508 Release Key Innovations</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-816341879" id="toc-hId-1274788313"><FONT color="#333399">Highlights from Source-to-Contract</FONT></H3><P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Contracts Integration with WalkMe (SCONTR-1444)</STRONG></P><P><SPAN>This feature facilitates the integration between&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP Ariba Contracts</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;and the&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">WalkMe</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;Digital Adoption Platform. Through this integration, buyers receive on-demand guidance from&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">WalkMe</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;for several commonly used workflows within&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP Ariba Contracts</SPAN><SPAN>.</SPAN></P><P class="">This enables organizations to accelerate user adoption of technology, boost productivity, and maximize the value of enterprise software investments.</P><DIV class="">Smart walk-throughs powered by<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">WalkMe</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>are available for the following workflows within<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP Ariba Contracts</SPAN>:<UL class=""><LI>Creating a contract workspace</LI><LI>Importing line items into a contract workspace using the Simplified Excel Import functionality</LI><LI>Creating contract workspace templates</LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="cont me.png" style="width: 391px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291632iDAE34F9E1D088755/image-dimensions/391x370?v=v2" width="391" height="370" role="button" title="cont me.png" alt="cont me.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Managing Baseline and Supplier Contracts for Pre-Award Negotiation in Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP Ariba Solutions (SCONTR-1499)</STRONG></P><P><SPAN>If your organization uses Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) alongside SAP Ariba, you can now manage both <EM>baseline and supplier</EM> contracts directly in Icertis during pre-award negotiations.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>We've also improved the APIs so that developers can easily copy data from one contract workspace to another.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Display Remaining Time for Line Items in Bid Console for Guided Sourcing Auctions and Competitive RFPs (SOURCE-2544)</STRONG></P><P><SPAN>This feature enables buyers to view the remaining time for line items and lots within the&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Bid Console</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;page and is applicab</SPAN><SPAN class="">le to guided sourcing eve</SPAN><SPAN>nts such as English forward auctions, English reverse auctions, and competitive RFPs.</SPAN></P><P>Timing matters!&nbsp;<SPAN>The bid console now clearly shows how much time is left per line item (or lot) during auctions and RFPs.</SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_1-1753452209576.png" style="width: 511px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291640i1F40CD3D1594300E/image-dimensions/511x207?v=v2" width="511" height="207" role="button" title="JesG_1-1753452209576.png" alt="JesG_1-1753452209576.png" /></span><P><SPAN>The changes are applicable for competitive RFP, Auction, Reverse auction bid console screens.&nbsp;</SPAN><EM>For Japanese, dutch auctions the new column Time remaining will not show and the watch screen timer values will not change.</EM></P></DIV><P>&nbsp;</P><P><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;<A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2664" target="_self">Source-to-Contract 2508 Release Key Innovations</A></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-1078274808"><FONT color="#333399"><STRONG>Highlights from Procure-to-Order</STRONG></FONT></H3><P><STRONG>AI Copilot Joule in Guided Buying (GUIDEB-1163) </STRONG><EM>- GA September 19th&nbsp;</EM></P><P>AI copilot Joule in Guided Buying features a conversational interface designed to help users complete tasks efficiently. It leverages generative and other AI technologies to understand natural language requests, identify user intent, perform actions, and provide valuable insights.</P><P>With Joule, you can easily access information such as:</P><UL><LI>Requisition approval status</LI><LI>Requisition details</LI><LI>Recent purchases</LI></UL><P>You can find the Joule panel by clicking on the icon at the top of your screen. This release is just the beginning of our journey to harness AI across buying processes, driving significant efficiency gains and more for our entire user base.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_0-1753438489093.jpeg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291419i602B57A5F7D6980E/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="JesG_0-1753438489093.jpeg" alt="JesG_0-1753438489093.jpeg" /></span></P><P><EM>Please note that AI copilot Joule in Guided Buying will be in Early Access until <STRONG>September 19th, 2025</STRONG> at which time it will be made generally available to customers</EM></P><P>For more detailed information please see this blog:<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2650" target="_self">Joule in SAP Ariba Applications</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1865039873" id="toc-hId-881761303"><FONT size="4">Enhancements to WalkMe in Guided Buying (GUIDEB-1266)&nbsp;</FONT></H3><P>We were excited to announce the first iteration of WalkMe in Guided Buying in the last release (2505), now to build on this momentum with an important user experience enhancement.</P><P>The WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform is now enabled for all Guided Buying customers and the WalkMe panel can now display content from SAP Companion also through some subtle UI changes.</P><P>If both WalkMe and SAP Companion are enabled, the walk me panel now displays a separate tab for each respectively:</P><P>&nbsp;<span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_1-1753438755946.jpeg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291421i163E4D2AA657493D/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="JesG_1-1753438755946.jpeg" alt="JesG_1-1753438755946.jpeg" /></span></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_2-1753438756321.jpeg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291422i292D41DCB0E6B449/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="JesG_2-1753438756321.jpeg" alt="JesG_2-1753438756321.jpeg" /></span></P><P>Previously, WalkMe was disabled by default, and SAP Companion content displayed in a different panel.</P><P><SPAN>This innovation offers more flexibility, allowing you to use the right resources and support at the right time in the most suitable way. It will help guide you seamlessly through your desired procurement processes and drive better outcomes.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog: <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2660" target="_blank">Procure-to-Order 2508 Release Key Innovations</A></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-619828374" id="toc-hId-685247798"><FONT color="#333399">Highlights from Central Invoice Management</FONT></H3><P><STRONG>Enriched Filtering Capabilities for the Invoice List (CIM-2270)&nbsp;</STRONG></P><P>We know that dealing with large volumes of invoices can be challenging, especially when you need to find that one specific invoice or group relevant data for reporting and analysis. With our latest release, we’re streamlining this process even further.</P><P>Within the invoice list you can use the Adapt Filters button to add several new filters to the filter bar. For additional information on how to adapt filters in the invoice list, see Adapting Filters and Creating Variants. The following filters are now available:</P><UL><LI>Company Code Country/Region</LI><LI>Supplier Country/Region</LI><LI>Purchase Order</LI></UL><P>The new filters allow you to search the invoice list more precisely and accurately as seen in the image below:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_3-1753439118799.png" style="width: 733px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291426i8B6D863AAEA4FED1/image-dimensions/733x407?v=v2" width="733" height="407" role="button" title="JesG_3-1753439118799.png" alt="JesG_3-1753439118799.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Posting Date Automatically Updated During Automatic Processing (CIM-2920)</STRONG></P><P>For organizations that use automatic processing for invoices in SAP Ariba, you likely set a default posting date—often the current date—when invoices are automatically submitted. With our new enhancement, if you have defined the default posting date as the current date, the system now dynamically updates the posting date to the exact current date right before the invoice is submitted.</P><P>We understand that sometimes, there may be a delay between when automatic processing starts and when an invoice is actually submitted. In the past, this gap meant an invoice could end up with a posting date that was out of alignment with the real submission time, potentially causing confusion or even issues with financial reporting or compliance.</P><P>With the new enhancement, the posting date will always reflect the true date of submission—even if the process experiences minor delays. This change can have a major impact for finance and accounting teams.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_4-1753439118522.png" style="width: 492px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291425i30C32A51A91044A5/image-dimensions/492x102?v=v2" width="492" height="102" role="button" title="JesG_4-1753439118522.png" alt="JesG_4-1753439118522.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Submission of Invoices Enriched by Data Attribute Recommendation (CIM-2965)</STRONG></P><P>With this feature, changes have been made to the automatic submission process for invoices enriched by data attribute recommendation. Now, when the confidence threshold for fields enriched by data attribute recommendation is between 0.5 and 0.7, the automatic submission is stopped, and you can review the fields within the invoice on the invoice detail page. You can then manually submit the invoice or adjust the invoice before submitting.</P><P>Data attribute recommendation can automatically enrich and complete the following fields in draft invoices:</P><UL><LI><STRONG>G/L Account</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Cost Center</STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>WBS Element</STRONG></LI></UL><P>Data attribute recommendation is a machine learning service that is trained with a set of invoices that you select. Once data attribute recommendation is trained and activated,&nbsp;SAP Ariba CIM&nbsp;can automatically complete missing fields in draft invoices using the data learned during the training.</P><P><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog: <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2659" target="_blank">Central Invoice Management 2508 Release Key Innovations</A></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-488734293"><FONT color="#333399"><STRONG>Highlights from Supplier Management &amp; Risk</STRONG></FONT></H3><P><STRONG>Supplier Management Integration with WalkMe (SLP-2265)</STRONG><BR />This feature integrates SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture) with WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform. Users can take advantage of easy-to-understand guidance powered by WalkMe.</P><P>Supplier Management&nbsp;WalkMe&nbsp;integration includes several standard smart walk-throughs from&nbsp;SAP Ariba&nbsp;for common workflows. Customers can also choose to develop their own content by first purchasing&nbsp;WalkMe&nbsp;Premium for&nbsp;SAP Ariba&nbsp;solutions. For more information about&nbsp;WalkMe&nbsp;Premium for&nbsp;SAP Ariba&nbsp;solutions, see&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/link-disclaimer?site=https%3A%2F%2Fwalkme.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://walkme.com</A></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_0-1753447290438.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291535i0BA5434BDA3F53C4/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="JesG_0-1753447290438.png" alt="JesG_0-1753447290438.png" /></span></P><P>If you have an&nbsp;SAP Companion&nbsp;help system enabled, its help content remains available.</P><P>View implementation details and more<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/supplier-management-integration-with-walkme?state=DRAFT&amp;locale=en-US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>AI Copilot Joule in Supplier Management (SLP-2258)</STRONG><BR />Joule, SAP's generative AI copilot, is now available in supplier management. Joule uses a conversational interface to help users complete tasks efficiently. It leverages generative and other AI technologies to understand natural language requests, identify intent, perform actions, and provide insights. Using generative AI, it can execute tasks, deliver tailored responses, and summarize information effectively.</P><P>(IMPORTANT: AI Copilot Joule in&nbsp;SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance&nbsp;will be in early access until September 19th, 2025, at which time it will be made generally available to customers.)</P><P>View implementation details and more<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ai-copilot-joule-for-sap-ariba-solutions?state=DRAFT&amp;locale=en-US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>For the list of tasks that you can perform using Joule, refer to the topic&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/joule-for-sap-ariba-supplier-information-and-performance-management?locale=en-US&amp;state=DRAFT&amp;version=cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joule Capabilities in Supplier Management</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Option to Join the SAP User Research Panel (SRISK-1771)</STRONG><BR />This feature provides you an option to join the SAP User Research Panel, where you can share your thoughts and ideas to enhance SAP Ariba Supplier Risk and other SAP products you currently use.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="JesG_1-1753447326845.jpeg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/291537i592992F7562C567E/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="JesG_1-1753447326845.jpeg" alt="JesG_1-1753447326845.jpeg" /></span></P><P>View implementation details and more<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ari-27137-option-to-join-sap-user-research-panel?state=DRAFT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Risk Exposure Summary Report Displays Overall Residual and Inherent Risk Levels (SRISK-1763)</STRONG></P><P>This feature provides information about the inherent and residual risk levels of suppliers in the Risk Exposure Summary report. This crucial information aids in making informed decisions when engaging with suppliers.</P><P>In addition to the existing risk exposure information, the Risk Exposure Summary report now includes two additional columns to provide inherent and residual risk level information for the suppliers you monitor in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.</P><P>Changes to the User Interface -&nbsp;Currently, the Risk Exposure Summary report summarizes the overall risk exposure, and category-wise risk exposure such as legal and regulatory, environmental and social, and operational risk exposure. This enhancement introduces two additional columns to display overall inherent risk level and residual risk level information for the suppliers you monitor in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.</P><P>View implementation details and more<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/risk-exposure-summary-report-displays-overall-residual-and-inherent-risk-levels?state=DRAFT&amp;q=SRISK-1763" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;<FONT color="#3366FF"><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-supplier-management-amp-risk-2508-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14162495" target="_self">Supplier Management &amp; Risk 2508 Release Key Innovations&nbsp;</A></FONT></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>These innovations aim to significantly enhance your procurement and sourcing capabilities, leading to improved efficiency, data-driven insights, and strengthened supplier relationships.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><FONT color="#333399"><STRONG>Stay connected with our community for more insights and updates:</STRONG></FONT></P><UL><LI><A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5032180/4D3B093B9CA084E451C5A33E7342EF3A/6267305" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Register for the&nbsp;Early Release Series for 2508 release</A>&nbsp;(August 12-14, 2025)</LI><LI>Resources</LI></UL><UL><UL><LI>Feature related materials:</LI></UL></UL><UL><UL><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A>&nbsp;(Customers except CIM)</LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A>&nbsp;(For CIM customers)</LI></UL></UL></UL><UL><UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI>SAP Help Portal pages -&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/sap-business-network-for-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Network</A></LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI><LI>SAP Products and Services YouTube channel -&nbsp;<A href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWV533hWWvDk7zRbhOsWQkF5BGWokhHYH" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWV533hWWvDk7zRbhOsWQkF5BGWokhHYH</A></LI><LI>"Spend Management and Business Network" playlist -&nbsp;<A href="https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3ZRUb1AKkpSPtGOGv41NrN_6_WwyiYrF&amp;si=29zqqpUPaRoKUvU4" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3ZRUb1AKkpSPtGOGv41NrN_6_WwyiYrF&amp;si=29zqqpUPaRoKUvU4</A></LI><LI><SPAN>Make sure to check out our other blogs and subscribe to all of our authors to keep up-to-date with the latest and greatest innovations!</SPAN></LI></UL></UL> 2025-07-31T12:39:50.411000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/transform-procurement-with-the-sap-ariba-business-ai-accelerator/ba-p/14146755 Transform Procurement with the SAP Ariba Business AI Accelerator 2025-08-12T07:24:42.409000+02:00 RamyaGP84 https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1692044 <P>Gordon Donovan's, Global Vice President Research, Procurement &amp; External Workforce at SAP, recent conversations with the Procurement Leaders, clearly states that we are currently living in a world of "Polycrisis" - a mix of geopolitical, environment and macroeconomics risks, where Procurement is right on the front lines. Instead of just focusing on cost savings, the role of procurement has become one of Risk Management and Strategic Value Creation and AI plays a critical role in making this shift possible.</P><P>These conversations emphasis that AI is a not a buzz word but is a critical tool for facing today's reality. The procurement leaders have pointed out the few key areas where AI plays a major role:</P><UL><LI>Enhanced Risk Management and Resilience</LI><LI>Strategic Decision-Making and Optimization</LI><LI>Automation and Productivity</LI><LI>Data-Driven Supplier Management</LI></UL><P>Ultimately, Donovan's discussions show that AI is not just about efficiency; it's about giving procurement leaders the intelligence and agility they need to thrive in a world full of interconnected risks. The real power of AI lies in its ability to transform procurement into a function that can anticipate and respond to change, rather than simply reacting to it.</P><P>We have the McKinsey's 2024-2025 research which supports these conversations.&nbsp; AI is set to drive and redefine how the procurement operates, arrive at decisions and deliver value in an Organization. Their findings show that organizations where AI has been adopted early, they are seeing:</P><UL><LI>Up to 30% faster sourcing cycles</LI><LI>5–10% reductions in spend</LI><LI>Over 20% improvements in contract compliance</LI><LI>Significant reduction in manual exception handling</LI></UL><P>These Research also identifies four important areas where adopting AI can make a major impact:</P><OL><LI>Spend analysis and bundling strategies</LI><LI>Supplier performance evaluation and ESG monitoring</LI><LI>Automated RFP creation and negotiation</LI><LI>Reducing value leakage across the Source-to-Pay cycle</LI></OL><P>Source (<A href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/revolutionizing-procurement-leveraging-data-and-ai-for-strategic-advantage" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/revolutionizing-procurement-leveraging-data-and-ai-for-strategic-advantage</A></P><P><A href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/where-is-procurement-heading-in-the-next-ten-years" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/where-is-procurement-heading-in-the-next-ten-years</A></P><P><A href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/procurement-2025-reimagining-the-function-for-success" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/operations/our-insights/procurement-2025-reimagining-the-function-for-success</A>)</P><P>SAP Ariba's embedded capabilities align closely with these areas, and it goes beyond when supported by SAP Joule and the Business AI Accelerator Service in Preferred Success.</P><P><STRONG>Where AI Is Already Delivering Value in SAP Ariba</STRONG></P><P>SAP Ariba was already into the AI Journey before generative AI became the focus in the technology world. The Solution was enabling meaningful automation through traditional Machine Learning AI. The functionalities are already live and in use today.</P><P><STRONG>Guided Sourcing</STRONG></P><UL><LI><STRONG>Smart Event Creation</STRONG> helps sourcing leads get started faster by recommending event templates based on historical data</LI><LI><STRONG>Supplier Recommendations</STRONG> suggest relevant, qualified suppliers using profile matching and past performance insights</LI></UL><P>The result: shorter sourcing cycles, better supplier outcomes, and more informed decisions.</P><P><STRONG>Guided Buying</STRONG></P><UL><LI><STRONG>Personalized Product Recommendations</STRONG> surface the most relevant items for each user based on behaviors and role</LI><LI><STRONG>Catalog Item Matching</STRONG> offers compliant alternatives when users search for off-catalog or non-preferred items</LI></UL><P>The result: increased compliance, reduced maverick spend, and a better buying experience overall.</P><P><SPAN>These use cases represent just a portion of what’s possible. SAP’s AI in Procurement site offers a more comprehensive view for teams looking to explore beyond the basics: </SPAN><A href="https://www.sap.com/sea/products/spend-management/ai-for-procurement.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><SPAN>Visit SAP AI for Procurement</SPAN></A></P><P><STRONG>The Business AI Accelerator Service: What it is and why it matters?</STRONG></P><P>The Business AI Accelerator Service in the Preferred Success isn't about introducing the Organizations to the new technology that is available in the solution. It’s a structured service which is designed to help organizations to start their journey with AI along with their SAP Solutions. It helps them to put AI into action by starting with the embedded capabilities and extending more strategic use cases through custom use case ideation.</P><P><STRONG>Why customers use it:</STRONG></P><UL><LI>To align AI initiatives with business goals</LI><LI>To identify use cases with measurable value</LI><LI>To understand how to implement AI responsibly</LI><LI>To support users through the transition with change enablement</LI></UL><P><STRONG>What it includes:</STRONG></P><P><STRONG>SAP Business AI Essentials</STRONG></P><P>We start with foundational education: What AI is (and isn’t), how it’s already embedded in SAP solutions, and how our Co-Pilot, SAP Joule enhance procurement operations.</P><P><STRONG>Governance and Ethics Enablement</STRONG></P><P>We provide a framework to ensure that AI initiatives are compliant, transparent, and aligned with SAP’s global principles for ethical AI. That includes privacy, fairness, and human oversight.</P><P><STRONG>Change Management Support</STRONG></P><P>Success with AI isn’t just about data—it’s about people. We provide guidance on how to prepare procurement teams for AI-driven workflows and address the common challenges in adoption</P><P><STRONG>Use Case Discovery Workshop</STRONG></P><P>In this session, we work with your team to identify pain points, assess feasibility, and prioritize use cases that deliver near-term ROI. This is a highly interactive, business-first discussion.</P><P><STRONG>Where to Start:</STRONG></P><P>You don’t need to perfectly define the plan to start the AI journey, our Business AI Accelerator service is designed to meet you on wherever you are in the AI Journey. Whether you're just brainstorming potential use cases or you've already got some ideas you want to validate, this service provides the clarity and expert guidance you need to move forward with confidence.</P><P>If you already have Preferred Success subscription for SAP Ariba, then starting with the service is easy. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager to learn more and schedule the sessions to help you unlock and start your AI Journey.</P><P><SPAN>If you are not a Preferred Success Customer yet, </SPAN><SPAN>simply get in touch with your </SPAN>SAP Partner or Account Representative<SPAN>. They can walk you through the available options to join the program and unlock this, and many other, valuable services.</SPAN></P><P>Learn more about <A href="https://www.sap.com/services-support/service-offerings/preferred-success.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Preferred Success</A> and how it helps customers accelerate outcomes and reduce transformation risk</P> 2025-08-12T07:24:42.409000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ux-q3-2025-update-part-5-sap-ariba-and-sap-fieldglass/ba-p/14183700 SAP UX Q3/2025 Update – Part 5: SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass 2025-08-20T07:30:00.022000+02:00 ThomasReiss https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/149639 <P><STRONG>This fifth post in my series gives an overview of latest UX innovations in </STRONG><STRONG>SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass, products for managing your spend (procurement) and external workforce</STRONG><STRONG>. </STRONG><STRONG>For SAP Ariba: Joule is now available for selected products, on-boarding guidance is provided by WalkMe, and we have some additional AI-assistance in SAP Ariba Category Management, amongst other enhancements. For SAP Fieldglass, Joule is now available too, and the SOW (Statement of Work) dashboard can now be adapted per user role, ensuring that users see what fits best for them. Also, you can now use generative AI for importing SOWs from documents.</STRONG></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H1 id="toc-hId-1608756847">SAP Ariba</H1><P>Here are the recent UX innovations that I have picked:</P><UL><LI>On-boarding guidance via WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform.</LI><LI>Joule, our AI copilot, available for selected SAP Ariba products.</LI><LI>UX enhancements in Category Management: Supplier preferencing, Strategy and Plan enhancements for collaboration and AI-insights, plus some more minor enhancements in details.</LI><LI>Integration of the SAP User Research Panel into selected products’ built-in user feedback surveys.</LI></UL><H2 id="toc-hId-1541326061">On-boarding guidance via WalkMe</H2><P>When new employees join the procurement team, we now make it easier for them to get up and running with SAP Ariba by providing enhanced step-by-step guidance on how to get typical tasks done in the system. With the 2508 release, we provide WalkMe for the following SAP Ariba products:</P><UL><LI>SAP Ariba Buying</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Contracts</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Invoice Management</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Sourcing</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance</LI><LI>SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</LI></UL><P>WalkMe offers engaging, intuitive, role-based guidance to help&nbsp;user quickly achieve value by minimizing barriers during initial use of the product and creating a great first experience. Figure 1 gives you an idea of what this looks like, showing first the list of activities available for the current user context within SAP Ariba Sourcing, and then an example of one of the guidance steps (the fourth step after the user had selected “Create a guided sourcing project”).</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 1: An example of WalkMe for SAP Ariba Sourcing. Alt Text: two cut-outs from screenshots are shown. On the left the WalkMe panel lists two options “Create a sourcing project” and “Create a guided sourcing event”. On the right, the UI for “Create guided sourcing project” is shown with a pop-over explaining the options for a selecting either a “Single event” or a “Full project”, and explaining why the system has pre-selected “Full project”." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302302iB8862162AE20B897/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="01 WalkMe for Ariba.jpg" alt="Figure 1: An example of WalkMe for SAP Ariba Sourcing. Alt Text: two cut-outs from screenshots are shown. On the left the WalkMe panel lists two options “Create a sourcing project” and “Create a guided sourcing event”. On the right, the UI for “Create guided sourcing project” is shown with a pop-over explaining the options for a selecting either a “Single event” or a “Full project”, and explaining why the system has pre-selected “Full project”." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 1: An example of WalkMe for SAP Ariba Sourcing. Alt Text: two cut-outs from screenshots are shown. On the left the WalkMe panel lists two options “Create a sourcing project” and “Create a guided sourcing event”. On the right, the UI for “Create guided sourcing project” is shown with a pop-over explaining the options for a selecting either a “Single event” or a “Full project”, and explaining why the system has pre-selected “Full project”.</span></span></P><P>In the guided sourcing capability for SAP Ariba Sourcing, <A href="https://www.walkme.com/glossary/walkthroughs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Walkthroughs</A> are available for the following tasks:</P><UL><LI>Create a guided sourcing project.</LI><LI>Create a guided souring event.</LI><LI>Create a guided sourcing event in a project.</LI><LI>Invite suppliers.</LI></UL><P>Check out the video below to see WalkMe in action in guided sourcing, and find out more in the documentation:</P><UL><LI>Video: <A href="https://dam.sap.com/mac/app/p/video/asset/preview/fJrNLod?ltr=a&amp;rc=10&amp;doi=SAP1184521" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Explore Guided Sourcing Events with WalkMe</A> (3:35 min.)</LI><LI>Documentation: <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/6a18b40795e64d2f9cdfcdf8d9e74aac.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866?locale=en-US%26Version=SAP%2BAriba%2B2508&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Procurement+and+SAP+Business+Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">WalkMe Available in SAP Ariba Products</A>.</LI></UL><P>You can go one step further and provide content tailored to your organization by purchasing WalkMe Premium for SAP Ariba Solutions. For more information about WalkMe Premium for&nbsp;SAP Ariba, visit the <A href="https://sap-my.sharepoint.com/personal/thomas_reiss_sap_com/Documents/Documents/_UXD/PM/Content/Fiori/Fiori%20Next/Blogs/2025-07%20UX%20Update%20for%201H2025/work/5%20-%20Ariba%20and%20Fieldglass/For%20more%20information%20about%20WalkMe%20Premium%20for%20SAP%20Ariba,%20see%20https:/www.walkme.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">WalkMe home page</A>.</P><H2 id="toc-hId-1344812556">Joule for SAP Ariba</H2><P>With the 2508 release, Joule, our AI copilot, is now available for:</P><UL><LI>Supplier management.</LI><LI>Guided sourcing.</LI><LI>Guided buying.</LI></UL><P>Figure 2 shows an example of what it looks like when you open up Joule in guided buying, where it provides suggestions for what you could ask. These suggestions are clickable, but you can of course type in your text directly.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 2: Joule for guided buying. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jitesh, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Approvers of a requisition”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302303i35DB81BB0C13B59E/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="02 Joule for Ariba.jpg" alt="Figure 2: Joule for guided buying. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jitesh, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Approvers of a requisition”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 2: Joule for guided buying. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jitesh, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Approvers of a requisition”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown.</span></span></P><P>The currently availabe capabilities are listed in the documentation:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/d318d95e0f3c4b40a6f9728ffac5cbba.html?locale=en-US&amp;state=PRODUCTION&amp;version=cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joule Capabilities in Supplier Management</A>.</LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/14da4cab754d4aa88a2c08008646bdb4.html?locale=en-US&amp;state=PRODUCTION&amp;version=cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joule Capabilities in Guided Sourcing</A>.</LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/9ea249851e8649ed90595be39ab67500.html?locale=en-US&amp;state=PRODUCTION&amp;version=cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joule Capabilities in Guided Buying</A>.</LI></UL><P><EM>Please note that AI copilot Joule in Guided Buying will be in Early Access until September 19th, 2025 at which time it is planned to be made generally available to customers.</EM></P><H2 id="toc-hId-1148299051">UX Enhancements in SAP Ariba Category Management</H2><P>This section covers UX enhancements for supplier preferencing, Strategy and Plan enhancements for collaboration and AI-insights, and provides a link to more UX enhancements in detail.</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1080868265">Supplier Preferencing</H3><P>When buying from various suppliers, it’s good to know how these suppliers view their relationship with your company. Do they value your custom highly? Or at the opposite extreme, do they see you as a nuisance, i.e. low volume but high effort and hence unprofitable?</P><P>Supplier preferencing is an established approach that helps organizations understand how they are perceived by vendors. By leveraging this insight, businesses can strengthen supplier relationships, foster collaboration, and improve supply chain effectiveness.</P><P>Supplier preferencing involves evaluating how suppliers view a buying organization based on two key dimensions:</P><UL><LI><STRONG>Attractiveness of Account</STRONG>: How appealing the buying organization is to the supplier, influenced by factors like reputation, growth potential, and ease of doing business.</LI><LI><STRONG>Relative Value of Business</STRONG>: The monetary value or strategic importance the buying organization's spend brings to the supplier.</LI></UL><P>Each dimension can be assessed as “high” or “low”, resulting in four possible categories Core, Development, Nuisance and Exploitable, as explained in the</P><UL><LI>Documentation: <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/efcd0979d5984ea1abfa9b2abbce1a7f.html?locale=en-US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Supplier Preferencing</A>.</LI></UL><P>We now provide an intuitive user experience for buyers to apply supplier preferencing very easily, and get an easy to understand overview for each supplier and for each strategy and plan you have created for buying from that supplier. Figure 3 shows an example for a fictitious supplier called SpeedShip, where the outcome of assessments for various strategy and plans are shown.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 3: Supplier preferencing example in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing with a heading “SpeedShip”, below that four tabs “Overview”, “Performance”, “SWOT” and “Supplier Preferencing” (selected). The pop-over summarizes the supplier as “Nuisance”, with a timestamp of last update, and shows a list of Assessments." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302305i32082BB40CA85CA4/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="03 Supplier Preferencing 1.png" alt="Figure 3: Supplier preferencing example in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing with a heading “SpeedShip”, below that four tabs “Overview”, “Performance”, “SWOT” and “Supplier Preferencing” (selected). The pop-over summarizes the supplier as “Nuisance”, with a timestamp of last update, and shows a list of Assessments." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 3: Supplier preferencing example in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing with a heading “SpeedShip”, below that four tabs “Overview”, “Performance”, “SWOT” and “Supplier Preferencing” (selected). The pop-over summarizes the supplier as “Nuisance”, with a timestamp of last update, and shows a list of Assessments.</span></span></P><P>Figure 4 shows an extract of the questionnaire which employees can fill out in order to assess the supplier preference.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 4: Supplier preferencing questionnaire in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing part of a Supplier Preferencing Assessment Questionnaire, with yes/no questions on the attractiveness of account, such as “Do you see our organization as a potential strategic partner in the industry?”." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302307i4AE6140FCABA4F76/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="04 Supplier Preferencing 2.png" alt="Figure 4: Supplier preferencing questionnaire in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing part of a Supplier Preferencing Assessment Questionnaire, with yes/no questions on the attractiveness of account, such as “Do you see our organization as a potential strategic partner in the industry?”." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 4: Supplier preferencing questionnaire in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Develop Strategy and Plan app with a pop-over showing part of a Supplier Preferencing Assessment Questionnaire, with yes/no questions on the attractiveness of account, such as “Do you see our organization as a potential strategic partner in the industry?”.</span></span></P><H3 id="toc-hId-884354760">Strategy and Plan: Collaborate Externally by Sharing Plans as PDF</H3><P>Now, Category Managers can share their strategy and plan documents with stakeholders who do not have access to SAP Ariba Category Management, by exporting them to a PDF file.</P><P>Stakeholders can review the strategy and plan outside&nbsp;of SAP Ariba Category Management, provide input, follow its direction, and consider it when developing related strategies. The exported file contains the most relevant content from all tools organized into pages so it can also be used as slide deck. Figure 5 shows the export screen, with parts of the first two pages with text summary and details, and Figure 6 shows how charts and tables are nicely presented as a page within the PDF file.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 5: Creating a PDF file for the category strategy and plan within SAP Ariba Category Management, for sharing with stakeholders. Alt Text: A screenshot of the application Category Strategy and Plan with a pop-over for exporting to PDF. The left two thirds of the pop-over shows a preview of the PDF, showing the Strategy and Plan Summary, the right third shows settings for formatting and exporting." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302308i3085282E08432D81/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="05 Strategy and Plan in PDF 1.png" alt="Figure 5: Creating a PDF file for the category strategy and plan within SAP Ariba Category Management, for sharing with stakeholders. Alt Text: A screenshot of the application Category Strategy and Plan with a pop-over for exporting to PDF. The left two thirds of the pop-over shows a preview of the PDF, showing the Strategy and Plan Summary, the right third shows settings for formatting and exporting." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 5: Creating a PDF file for the category strategy and plan within SAP Ariba Category Management, for sharing with stakeholders. Alt Text: A screenshot of the application Category Strategy and Plan with a pop-over for exporting to PDF. The left two thirds of the pop-over shows a preview of the PDF, showing the Strategy and Plan Summary, the right third shows settings for formatting and exporting.</span></span></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 6: An example PDF page from the exported category strategy and plan for sharing with stakeholders, from SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot showing a pop-over displaying one PDF page with eight cards, the top row of four cards showing charts for Spend, Top Suppliers, Top Regions, Top Subcategories, the bottom row showing lists for the values depicted in the charts." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302310i4C82F6760B3D9851/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="06 Strategy and Plan in PDF 2.png" alt="Figure 6: An example PDF page from the exported category strategy and plan for sharing with stakeholders, from SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot showing a pop-over displaying one PDF page with eight cards, the top row of four cards showing charts for Spend, Top Suppliers, Top Regions, Top Subcategories, the bottom row showing lists for the values depicted in the charts." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 6: An example PDF page from the exported category strategy and plan for sharing with stakeholders, from SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot showing a pop-over displaying one PDF page with eight cards, the top row of four cards showing charts for Spend, Top Suppliers, Top Regions, Top Subcategories, the bottom row showing lists for the values depicted in the charts.</span></span></P><H3 id="toc-hId-687841255">AI-Assisted Summary for Strategy and Plan</H3><P>As a category manager, you can use generative AI capabilities for generating a summary in the approval document. AI-enhanced summaries provide a quick overview, highlighting key points without&nbsp;the need to manually review details across all sections of the approval documents. You can refine these summaries and then submit the document for approval. Figure 7 shows an example of such a summary.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 7: AI-generated strategy and plan summary in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Strategy Summary section of the Develop Strategy and Plan application, showing a full width editable text field containing text in sections “Market Dynamics”, “Category Segmentation”, “Cost Structures”. On the right above the section an AI button “Generate” is shown." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302311iC263E727B21FA77B/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="07 AI-summary of Strategy and Plan.jpg" alt="Figure 7: AI-generated strategy and plan summary in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Strategy Summary section of the Develop Strategy and Plan application, showing a full width editable text field containing text in sections “Market Dynamics”, “Category Segmentation”, “Cost Structures”. On the right above the section an AI button “Generate” is shown." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 7: AI-generated strategy and plan summary in SAP Ariba Category Management. Alt Text: A screenshot of the Strategy Summary section of the Develop Strategy and Plan application, showing a full width editable text field containing text in sections “Market Dynamics”, “Category Segmentation”, “Cost Structures”. On the right above the section an AI button “Generate” is shown.</span></span></P><H3 id="toc-hId-491327750">Additional enhancements</H3><P>We have made some additional smaller enhancements to UI details, which improve the user’s experience. They are documented here:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/89c0c5a331a24a6e9b6b34ea71f726e0.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866?locale=en-US%26Version=SAP%2BAriba%2B2508&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Procurement+and+SAP+Business+Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Ariba Category Management User Interface Enhancements</A>.</LI></UL><H2 id="toc-hId-165731526">Integration of the SAP User Research Panel</H2><P>Getting feedback from the actual users of an application is key in order to continuously improve the user experience, and we are intensifying our efforts to reach the real users of our products, rather than the IT departmens who buy them. The <A href="https://www.sap.com/japan/design/stories-resources/sap-user-research-panel" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP User Research Panel</A> gives users the opportunity to sign-up to give feedback to SAP directly. We launched it nearly two years ago, see for example <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/your-voice-matters-join-the-sap-user-research-panel/ba-p/13572934" target="_blank">Your voice matters! Join the SAP User Research Panel</A>. Since then many users across all areas have signed up.</P><P>We would like to encourage users of SAP Ariba to sign up too, and to make this easier, we have introduced a direct link to it from the user feedback survey. Users of SAP Ariba Category Management and SAP Ariba Supplier Risk occasionally receive a popup with a short survey asking for feedback on the product. Now, at the end of this survey, they are offered a link to sign up to the user resarch panel.</P><P>Find out more in the documentation:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/947e4b45dfca4f169a41ae9612a30ab8.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866?locale=en-US%26Version=SAP%2BAriba%2B2508%26q=panel&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Procurement+and+SAP+Business+Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP User Research Panel for SAP Ariba Category Management</A>.</LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/9073399125eb4de78b60fc38a268abcd.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866?locale=en-US%26Version=SAP%2BAriba%2B2508%26q=panel&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Procurement+and+SAP+Business+Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP User Research Panel for SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</A>.</LI></UL><H2 id="toc-hId--30781979">Further Information</H2><P>For an overview of the key innovations with the 2508 release of SAP Ariba, have a look at this blog post:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-2508-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14159593" target="_blank">SAP Ariba 2508 Release Key Innovations Preview</A>.</LI></UL><P>&nbsp;</P><H1 id="toc-hId-413361880">SAP Fieldglass</H1><P>Joule is now available for SAP Fieldglass, the Statement of Work (SOW) dashboard has been enhanced to allow role-specific customized views, and you can now use generative AI for importing SOWs from documents.</P><H3 id="toc-hId--369957639">Joule for SAP Fieldglass</H3><P>Our AI copilot Joule helps users for these specific activities:</P><UL><LI>Selecting job posting templates</LI><LI>Selecting statement of work templates</LI><LI>Completing work items</LI><LI>Viewing quarterly trends</LI><LI>Running reports</LI><LI>Closing workers</LI><LI>Searching help content</LI></UL><P>As an example of how Joule makes work easier for users, consider finding the right template for a job posting: rather than scanning through available templates, you can just give Joule the position or project, a description, and a few other details, and Joule will provide recommendations for which template to use. Once you have chosen a template, Joule can auto-populate some of the fields, speeding the process up for you.</P><P>You can also use Joule for analytical queries: as Joule to show you quarterly trends, and Joule will show you them in the form of graphs embedded within the Joule UI.</P><P>Figure 8 shows Joule when first opened in SAP Fieldglass, with hints as clickable buttons for what you can ask for.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 8: Joule in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jennifer, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Create Job Posting”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302313i7599D381F8CA4323/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="08 Joule for Fieldglass (with white space).jpg" alt="Figure 8: Joule in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jennifer, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Create Job Posting”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 8: Joule in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: An image showing Joule after it has been opened for the first time, with the text “Hello Jennifer, How can I guide you?” at the top. The bottom half contains the chat area, with the text “Get started with Joule” followed by a selection of five suggestions as clickable buttons, such as “Create Job Posting”, at the very bottom the input field for the user to message Joule is shown.</span></span></P><P>Look at the documentation for more information:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_Fieldglass/76e97fe0cccf4d37a5dadc652a375e33/e3dc12e0215447cfa4507eff66e8224b.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/0c2fc99f5fd34e8e8662fbdff4cbbb0d?locale=en-US%26Version=2025.04.0.0;2025.05.0.0;2025.06.0.0;2025.07.0.0;2025.07.0.0.&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Fieldglass" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joule in SAP Fieldglass</A></LI></UL><H3 id="toc-hId--566471144">SOW Dashboard with Customizable Views</H3><P>Effective Statement of Work (SOW) management requires real-time access to critical details like spend activity, service delivery progress, and pending action items. This helps track overall SOW progress, maintain budget control, and enable informed decision-making. &nbsp;Last year, we introduced the SOW Dashboard, providing a comprehensive real-time view of critical SOW data (see <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ux-innovations-in-public-cloud-products-joule-ai-entry-points-apple/ba-p/13594954" target="_blank">my last year’s blog post</A>).</P><P>Users in different business roles need to interact with the SOW, and each role has a unique set of details relevant to them for overseeing the health of the SOW. Now, the SOW dashboard supports customized views based on user roles, which streamlines the information displayed, so that users see only what is most relevant to them. Hence, they get a more focused and efficient experience tailored to their unique needs</P><P>Figure 9 shows an example of the SOW Dashboard set up for a user focused on project status and task management. Figure 10 shows an example for a user focused on financials and spend task management.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 9: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on project status and task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW Activity Items”, “SOW Line Items”, “SOW Worker Activity Items” and “Upcoming SOW Worker End Dates”. The first three are represented as lists, with color-coded summaries of items that are critical and that have warnings, the fourth shows a 2D visualization with no. of SOW workers on the y-axis and time remaining (days) on the x-axis." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302314i7A2F4BE7E738E294/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="09 SOW Dashboard - Project status view.jpg" alt="Figure 9: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on project status and task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW Activity Items”, “SOW Line Items”, “SOW Worker Activity Items” and “Upcoming SOW Worker End Dates”. The first three are represented as lists, with color-coded summaries of items that are critical and that have warnings, the fourth shows a 2D visualization with no. of SOW workers on the y-axis and time remaining (days) on the x-axis." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 9: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on project status and task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW Activity Items”, “SOW Line Items”, “SOW Worker Activity Items” and “Upcoming SOW Worker End Dates”. The first three are represented as lists, with color-coded summaries of items that are critical and that have warnings, the fourth shows a 2D visualization with no. of SOW workers on the y-axis and time remaining (days) on the x-axis.</span></span></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 10: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on financials and spend task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW with Largest Budgets”, “Deviations in Actual Spend”, “SOW Spend &amp; Duration Alterts”, and “SOW Revisions”. The first two are represented as charts, the other two as lists." style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302315iC53A068CE6A4FA77/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="10 SOW Dashboard - Finance view.jpg" alt="Figure 10: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on financials and spend task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW with Largest Budgets”, “Deviations in Actual Spend”, “SOW Spend &amp; Duration Alterts”, and “SOW Revisions”. The first two are represented as charts, the other two as lists." /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 10: SAP Fieldglass SOW dashboard customized for users focused on financials and spend task management. Alt Text: A screenshot of SOW Dashboard showing four cards “SOW with Largest Budgets”, “Deviations in Actual Spend”, “SOW Spend &amp; Duration Alterts”, and “SOW Revisions”. The first two are represented as charts, the other two as lists.</span></span></P><H3 id="toc-hId--762984649">SOW AI-Assisted Document Extraction</H3><P>No matter how good the software, having to manually copy data from a document into a system to create a Statement of Work (SOW) does not rank as a great experience for most people! Now, we have significantly improved the user experience by leveraging generative AI to automate a lot of this work.</P><P>SAP Fieldglass has integrated SAP Document AI, so that users can automate the extraction and transformation of statement of work content from uploaded documents. This combined AI approach parses the source files, identifies relevant content, and generates a structured, accurate draft statement of work, reducing manual effort while improving data consistency and completeness. Figure 10 shows how users now have the new AI-enabled workflow option for creating a statement of work.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Figure 11: New AI-enabled option for creating a statement of work in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: A screenshot of a pop-over “Create Statement of Work” containing two clickable cards: on the left “Standard Workflow” and description “Manually enter and select the details for this Statement of Work”, on the right with an AI icon “Upload Document Workflow” and description “Select a file for AI to read and populate Statement of Work details.”" style="width: 528px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/302316iCFEABC9DBCA180C8/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="11 SOW DOX.jpg" alt="Figure 11: New AI-enabled option for creating a statement of work in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: A screenshot of a pop-over “Create Statement of Work” containing two clickable cards: on the left “Standard Workflow” and description “Manually enter and select the details for this Statement of Work”, on the right with an AI icon “Upload Document Workflow” and description “Select a file for AI to read and populate Statement of Work details.”" /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Figure 11: New AI-enabled option for creating a statement of work in SAP Fieldglass. Alt Text: A screenshot of a pop-over “Create Statement of Work” containing two clickable cards: on the left “Standard Workflow” and description “Manually enter and select the details for this Statement of Work”, on the right with an AI icon “Upload Document Workflow” and description “Select a file for AI to read and populate Statement of Work details.”</span></span></P><P>Once the document has been processed, you can open the drafted statement of work to view the outcome: the AI icon appears next to sections of the document to indicate fields with content extracted using AI.</P><P>Find out more in the documentation:</P><UL><LI>Documentation: <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_Fieldglass/76e97fe0cccf4d37a5dadc652a375e33/11173bc394ce4069967d586eeb3505f7.html?locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https://help.sap.com/whats-new/0c2fc99f5fd34e8e8662fbdff4cbbb0d?locale=en-US&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Fieldglass" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SOW DOX (Document Extraction)</A>.</LI></UL><H3 id="toc-hId--959498154">Further Information</H3><P>Have a look at all the latest updates, month by month, in the</P><UL><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/0c2fc99f5fd34e8e8662fbdff4cbbb0d?locale=en-US" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New Viewer for SAP Fieldglass</A>.</LI></UL><P>&nbsp;</P><H1 id="toc-hId--569205645">Continue Reading - UX Innovations in SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur</H1><P>I hope you enjoyed this fifth part, covering SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass. Here is the link to part six,&nbsp;covering latest UX innovations for selling and travel with SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur:</P><UL><LI><A class="" href="https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ux-q3-2025-update-part-6-sap-customer-experience-and-sap-concur/ba-p/14193219" target="_blank">SAP UX Q3/2025 Update – Part 6: SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur</A>.</LI></UL><P>Part 1 of the series lists all the parts, and links to those parts that have already been published:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ux-q3-2025-update-part-1-ai-joule-sap-build-work-zone-sap-mobile-start/ba-p/14161847" target="_blank">SAP User Experience Q3/2025 Update – Part 1: Many New Innovations Available (AI, Joule and More)</A>.</LI></UL><P>Do keep posting your experiences and recommendations yourself in the SAP Community, with the SAP Fiori and/or the User Experience tag! In case you are wondering how to get a list of the most recent blog posts on SAP Fiori and User Experience in our new SAP Community, use these links:</P><UL><LI><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Fiori/pd-p/73554900100700000977" target="_blank">Latest blog posts on SAP Fiori in the SAP Community</A>.</LI><LI><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/User+Experience/pd-p/4616d815-f39e-45c8-b13b-5a2d6679778f" target="_blank">Latest blog posts on User Experience in the SAP Community</A>.</LI></UL><P>For general information on design at SAP and SAP Fiori, check out:</P><UL><LI><A href="http://www.sap.com/design" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.sap.com/design</A>.</LI><LI><A href="http://www.sap.com/fiori" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.sap.com/fiori</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/fiori" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community: SAP Fiori topic page</A><SPAN>.</SPAN></LI></UL> 2025-08-20T07:30:00.022000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/how-personal-spending-habits-mirror-enterprise-procurement/ba-p/14224248 How Personal Spending Habits Mirror Enterprise Procurement 2025-09-23T07:27:53.148000+02:00 avishekjana https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/878307 <H3 id="toc-hId-1890035428">Introduction</H3><P>When it comes to managing our personal finances, most of us intuitively follow certain steps to control spending and save more. Interestingly, these same steps closely mirror the structured procurement processes that enterprises use to manage spend at scale.</P><P>To illustrate, let’s start with a simple personal example and then see how it aligns with enterprise procurement practices.</P><HR /><H3 id="toc-hId-1693521923"><SPAN>Personal Spend and Saving: A Simple Thought Process</SPAN></H3><P>Imagine you want to save more money this month. You realize there are two main ways to do that:</P><OL><LI><STRONG>Increase your income.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":up_arrow:">⬆️</span></STRONG></LI><LI><STRONG>Reduce your expenses.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":down_arrow:">⬇️</span></STRONG></LI></OL><P>Let’s focus on reducing expenses.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-center" image-alt="avishekjana_0-1758533780327.png" style="width: 392px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/317809i68D17F5BBC3126EA/image-dimensions/392x537?v=v2" width="392" height="537" role="button" title="avishekjana_0-1758533780327.png" alt="avishekjana_0-1758533780327.png" /></span></P><P>This logical sequence helps you save money while still ensuring your family’s needs are met.</P><HR /><H4 id="toc-hId-1626091137">How This Mirrors Enterprise Procurement</H4><P>At the enterprise level, procurement follows the same flow—only it’s structured, automated, and scaled to handle greater complexity.</P><P><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG></P><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD><STRONG>Personal Spend Example</STRONG></TD><TD><STRONG>Enterprise Procurement Process<BR /></STRONG></TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="57px">Classify expenses (e.g., groceries)</TD><TD width="638px" height="57px"><STRONG>Spend Classification:</STRONG> Categorize spend into goods and services like IT equipment, raw materials, or consulting services.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="57px">Analyze where you spend the most</TD><TD width="638px" height="57px"><STRONG>Spend Analysis:</STRONG> Identify high-spend areas and uncover potential savings opportunities.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="30px">Search for vendors</TD><TD width="638px" height="30px"><STRONG>Sourcing:</STRONG> Conduct market research, invite bids (RFPs), and evaluate supplier capabilities.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="57px">Negotiate and select a vendor</TD><TD width="638px" height="57px"><STRONG>Contracting:</STRONG> Negotiate terms (price, quality, delivery) and create legal contracts to formalize agreements.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="57px">Receive daily apple delivery</TD><TD width="638px" height="57px"><STRONG>Cataloging &amp; Purchase Request:</STRONG> Maintain supplier catalogs for easy ordering and raise purchase requests as needed.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="57px">Receive invoice at month-end</TD><TD width="638px" height="57px"><STRONG>Purchase Order &amp; Receipt:</STRONG> Issue purchase orders, confirm goods/services received, and match them with the invoice.</TD></TR><TR><TD width="292px" height="30px">Pay the vendor</TD><TD width="638px" height="30px"><STRONG>Invoicing &amp; Payment:</STRONG> Process, approve, and execute payments through financial systems.</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><HR /><H3 id="toc-hId-1300494913">Conclusion</H3><P>Managing personal finances may seem worlds apart from enterprise procurement, but the underlying principles are remarkably similar. Both rely on <STRONG>classification, sourcing, negotiation, purchase, and payment</STRONG> to optimize spend while meeting essential needs.</P><P>The next time you shop for apples, you’re not just budgeting - you’re practicing procurement on a personal scale.</P><P>&nbsp;</P> 2025-09-23T07:27:53.148000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-procurement-solutions-for-lifesciences-amp-healthcare-customers/ba-p/14236001 SAP Ariba Procurement Solutions for Lifesciences & Healthcare customers 2025-10-06T18:43:00.248000+02:00 NanditaGhosh https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1417435 <P>In this post, we consider a common usecase for pharmaceutical companies: the procurement of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) from approved contract manufacturers (CMO) or suppliers.</P><P><STRONG>User Story</STRONG></P><P><EM>As a production planner in a mid-size pharmaceutical company, I need to procure an API only from approved manufacturers (CMO), verify the regulatory documents for completeness, correctness, and validity, so that the purchase can be processed without compliance risks or delays.</EM></P><P><STRONG>Personas Involved</STRONG></P><UL class="lia-list-style-type-disc"><LI>Production Planner&nbsp;(using MM on ERP)</LI><LI>Category Buyer&nbsp;(Using&nbsp; <a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Category+Management/pd-p/73555000100700001681" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="1276-1">SAP Ariba Category Management</a>&nbsp;)</LI><LI>Quality Assurance Approver&nbsp;(using <a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Supplier+Lifecycle+and+Performance/pd-p/9566c2c2-c688-4939-ac50-30732b383e53" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="427-1">SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance</a>&nbsp;&amp; <a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Supplier+Risk/pd-p/73554900100700001196" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="1180-1">SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</a>&nbsp;)</LI><LI>Supplier Manufacturer&nbsp;(using the <a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Business+Network+for+Suppliers/pd-p/1eb95805-9431-483a-8a5a-14ce1d6cb62b" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="1205-1">SAP Business Network for Suppliers</a>&nbsp;)</LI><LI>Supplier Risk Analyst&nbsp;(using&nbsp;<a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Supplier+Risk/pd-p/73554900100700001196" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="1180-2">SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</a>)</LI><LI>AP Invoice Processor&nbsp;(SAP Ariba Invoicing</LI></UL><P><STRONG>System Recommendations &amp; Assumptions</STRONG></P><UL class="lia-list-style-type-disc"><LI>Supplier/Contract Manufacturer can be sourced using Ariba Guided Sourcing and onboarded using SAP Ariba SLP , continuously monitored for risks (ESG, financial, regulatory, etc.) using SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.</LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Picture1.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/323405i20AA441002592807/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Picture1.png" alt="Picture1.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;</P><UL class="lia-list-style-type-disc"><LI>Possibility to invite customers for a sourcing event in&nbsp; &nbsp;SAP Ariba Sourcing, based on their qualification and risk status as well as ability to fulfill the business n</LI><LI>At the end of the sourcing event, a supplier will be selected.</LI></UL><P>The Supplier 360 dashboard on SLP can be used to view supplier details.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Picture2.png" style="width: 864px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/323404iB168D69BECEC9BBB/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Picture2.png" alt="Picture2.png" /></span></P><UL class="lia-list-style-type-disc"><LI>Suppliers can be qualified and registered using SLP, where status, certification information, risk information, etc., can be maintained and viewed. GxP relevant certificates (GMP certificate, DMF/CEP references, country-specific permits) can be used for supplier qualification.</LI><LI>Contracts can be created using baseline contract templates in Ariba.</LI><LI>The API material can be maintained in ERP with a unique material code. Manufacturer’s substance codes and parent-child code mappings can also be maintained in ERP.</LI></UL><P><U><STRONG>End-to-end Flow ( Considering PR originates in ERP, for direct material procurement)&nbsp;</STRONG></U></P><UL><LI>ERP:<UL><LI>MRP run creates a PR for API-12345 for supplier AKME Systems for 50 kgs with a delivery deadline of 4 weeks</LI></UL></LI><LI>PR Sent to Ariba Buying/Guided Buying :<UL><LI>The PR is sent to Ariba Buying/Guided Buying for collaboration and approvals.</LI><LI>Information related to parent-child codes mapping, a reference list of approved suppliers, etc. is also sent.</LI></UL></LI><LI>Category Buyer Review :<UL><LI>The category buyer in Ariba Guided Buying reviews the PR and confirms the supplier/manufacturer pairing.</LI><LI>Custom fields display required information like manufacturer's codes, parent code, DMF, etc.</LI></UL></LI><LI>QA Approval :<UL><LI>As part of QA approval, following checks could be considered:&nbsp;<UL><LI>Ensuring the CMO/supplier is approved in SLP and not expired,</LI><LI>Verification parent-child codes match the ERP records,</LI><LI>Validation of country permits,</LI><LI>Verification of other documents and certificates like GXP relevant, FDA approval, etc.</LI></UL></LI></UL></LI></UL><P>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; If all checks are fine, then PR will be approved, else returned with comments.&nbsp;</P><UL><LI>PO Creation in Ariba Guided Buying <STRONG>:&nbsp;</STRONG><UL><LI>A PO is created in Guided Buying and sent to the supplier via SAP Business Network / SCC.</LI><LI>It is possible to add conditions to ensure that no PO is created without QA approval.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Ariba Buying for creating PO" style="width: 744px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/323398i41737A955865C16A/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Picture3.png" alt="Ariba Buying for creating PO" /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">Ariba Buying for creating PO</span></span></P><UL><LI>Supplier Confirmation via SAP Business Network/SCC:<UL><LI>The supplier confirms PO quantities and delivery dates.&nbsp;</LI><LI>Provides a shipment plan and ASN (Advance Ship Notice) with batch number, expected lot (UoM), CoA (Certificate of Analysis), other certificates relevant for GMP, export/import permits, etc.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="SAP Business Network" style="width: 936px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/323399iAD8E0CA815393203/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Picture4.png" alt="SAP Business Network" /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">SAP Business Network</span></span></P><P>Supplier can also proactively create Quality Notifications in SAP Business Network / SCC, in order to communicate to the buyer about quality issues like defects in the products, non-confirming items, etc.&nbsp;</P><UL><LI>S/4HANA or ERP Processing :&nbsp;<UL><LI>The integration with S/4 HANA ensures that the confirmation and ASN data is received by the production planner.</LI><LI>The Quality Assurance Approver also receives notification using QM.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI><LI>Goods Receipt in S/4HANA :<UL><LI>GR is posted by the warehouse for received batches.</LI></UL></LI><LI>Supplier PO-Flip on the SAP Business Network/SCC :<UL><LI>The supplier can perform PO-flip and send the invoice electronically.&nbsp;</LI><LI>Ariba Invoicing runs 3-way match (PO,GR,Invoice). If the match is successful, invoice is posted for payment.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI><LI>Auditing and Reporting :&nbsp;<UL><LI>An audit trail of approvals, documents and timestamps is maintained for auditing and reporting purpose in Ariba.</LI><LI>integration with SAP Analytics Dashboard also helps the buyer in accessing analytical reports and checking various metrics.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI><LI>Continuous Risk Monitoring :<UL><LI>SAP Ariba Supplier Risk performs 24/7 monitoring for geopolitical risks, social &amp; environmental risks, financial risks like bankruptcy, cyber threats, sanctions list changes, etc.&nbsp;</LI><LI>Alerts are raised for risk situation changes, supplier status changes, etc. based on the configuration of users. An alternate supplier can be recommended based on the qualified suppliers listed for the same category.&nbsp;</LI></UL></LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="SAP Ariba Supplier Risk" style="width: 936px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/323400iB2A8455E98E752A6/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="Picture5.png" alt="SAP Ariba Supplier Risk" /><span class="lia-inline-image-caption" onclick="event.preventDefault();">SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</span></span></P><P>Please read my blogs <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/boosting-procurement-efficiency-in-2024-with-ariba-supplier-risk/ba-p/13707926" target="_blank">Boosting Procurement Efficiency in 2024 with SAP Ariba Supplier Risk</A> &amp; <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/best-practices-for-effective-supplier-risk-management-with-sap-ariba/ba-p/13708301" target="_blank">Best Practices for effective supplier risk management with SAP Ariba</A> for more information on SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.</P><P>To conclude,&nbsp;SAP Ariba, integrated with SAP S/4HANA, offers a comprehensive solution for the life sciences and healthcare industry, addressing the complexities of API procurement. By leveraging these tools, companies can enhance supplier management, compliance, efficiency, and overall supply chain resilience.</P><P>Stay tuned for our next blog, where we will explore how SAP Ariba procurement solutions could help with the compliance requirements of regulated industries like life sciences and healthcare.</P><P>&nbsp;</P> 2025-10-06T18:43:00.248000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/what-is-adoption/ba-p/14249634 What is Adoption? 2025-10-21T18:03:14.404000+02:00 HowardT https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/157893 <P>As a former customer turned SAP employee dedicated to adoption, I hear some very different ideas about what adoption actually is.&nbsp; It seems to mean something very different to almost every customer I’ve spoken with (over 100 at this point)!&nbsp; So let’s clear the fog and attempt to create a working definition of adoption!</P><P>_______________________________________________________________</P><P><STRONG>First, What Adoption Is Not</STRONG></P><UL><LI>Not just the starting line. Marathon running for instance involves preparation, a starting line, a finish line, and in between a lot of hard work. Similarly, the day you “go live” is the starting line, not the finish line. You have to run the entire race!</LI><LI>Not “our users seem happy.” Sentiment is helpful but measurable business outcomes are the stuff of gold medals.</LI><LI>Not just a dashboard of random metrics. 1,000 logins are great but 3 automated processes that cut cycle time in half are better.</LI><LI>Not a once-and-done project. As your business, your processes, and your roadmap evolve; adoption is a continuous discipline.</LI></UL><P>_______________________________________________________________</P><P><STRONG>So… What Is Adoption?</STRONG></P><P>Adoption is the strategic, ongoing process of turning your SAP software into everyday business results. It goes beyond initial deployment to drive full, meaningful engagement across your organization—so you realize the value you bought, renew with confidence, and double-down on what works. Let’s review adoption as <STRONG><EM>three</EM></STRONG> components.</P><P><STRONG>1) Depth and Breadth of Usage</STRONG></P><P>Great adoption means your team uses the right capabilities deeply—and enough teams use them broadly—to create enterprise-wide impact.</P><UL><LI><STRONG>Depth</STRONG>: You’re not just approving POs or reviewing timesheets—you’re using game- changing features like Guided Buying for SAP Ariba or SOW Bid for SAP Fieldglass. The features &amp; functions that move the needle are the ones tied to specific value drivers such as price reduction, efficiency, quality, and compliance.</LI><LI><STRONG>Breadth</STRONG>: Procurement, Finance, Operations, HR, and field teams all participate making workflows across what was once a silo’d organization. Swivel chair processes are gone. Handoffs are digital, not manual.</LI></UL><P><EM>Signs you’re winning:</EM></P><UL><LI>Feature usage moves from “core” capabilities to advanced.</LI><LI>Multiple business areas participate in end‑to‑end workflows (not isolated tasks).</LI><LI>Efficiency metrics improve: cycle time ↓, rework ↓, compliance ↑.</LI></UL><P><STRONG><EM>Benefit: Your process becomes a case study in total transformation not just another software deployment.</EM></STRONG></P><P><STRONG>2) Consumption Aligned to Entitlement</STRONG></P><P>You’ve matched what you own (spend/users/modules) with what you actually use—so value is realized, not left on the table.</P><UL><LI>You avoid shelfware by activating high‑value modules you’ve already paid for (and most likely justified with a business case).</LI><LI>Usage equals value. Your consumption patterns justify renewals and make the case for expansion.</LI></UL><P><EM>Signs you’re winning:</EM></P><UL><LI>License utilization aligns with the contract &amp; business need.</LI><LI>Shelfware is activated with a plan.</LI><LI>Stakeholders can see a clear story of investing “x” to get “y”.</LI></UL><P><STRONG><EM>Benefit: The ROI is predictable &amp; justified from a budget perspective because results are tangible.</EM></STRONG></P><P><STRONG>3) Value Achieved</STRONG></P><P>Adoption is measured by business results, not just the number of logins.</P><UL><LI>Efficiency: cycle time, touchless processing.</LI><LI>Compliance: policy adherence and audit readiness.</LI><LI>Cost/price: realized savings and cost avoidance.</LI><LI>Quality: candidates for SAP Fieldglass are up to the challenge</LI></UL><P><EM>Signs you’re winning:</EM></P><UL><LI>KPIs tie to executive priorities.</LI><LI>Value is repeatable and attributable to specific SAP-enabled scenarios.</LI><LI>Leaders want to know, “What else can we automate?”</LI></UL><P><STRONG><EM>Benefit: SAP solutions become an engine for transformation and growth. SAP is a valued and trusted partner.</EM></STRONG></P><P>_______________________________________________________________</P><P><STRONG>A Practical 90</STRONG><STRONG>‑Day Adoption Game Plan</STRONG></P><OL><LI>Start with value. Identify 3–5 outcomes (e.g., reduce invoice cycle time by 30%, increase spend under management by 15%).</LI><LI>Map value to capability. Which capabilities make those outcomes real? (e.g., SAP Fieldglass Rate guidance or SOW bids.&nbsp; SAP Ariba Guided Buying, a well-defined supplier risk process.)</LI><LI>Activate champions by role. Procurement, AP, HR, and Operations, each need a champion with a playbook and a plan.</LI><LI>Configure KPIs &amp; measure them early so you can see adoption in real time.</LI><LI>Show the score. Publish a simple, clear scorecard; spotlight improvements and highlight bottlenecks.</LI><LI>Scale what works. Turn the first wins into success stories; communicate and repeat what works across teams/regions.</LI><LI>Run regular adoption health checks. Which areas of the business need more help? Who deserves an innovation award?</LI></OL><P>_______________________________________________________________</P><P><STRONG>Adoption done right . . . </STRONG></P><P>So how are you running the race of adoption? Does your preparation phase need help? Do you need help getting from mile 13 to 20? When adoption is done right, your SAP solutions become the way your business runs—faster, smarter, with endurance &amp; purpose.</P> 2025-10-21T18:03:14.404000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/the-future-of-procurement-unlocking-value-through-business-accelerators/ba-p/14249802 The Future of Procurement: Unlocking Value Through Business Accelerators with Klaus Fischer 2025-10-22T16:00:00.063000+02:00 MelBowling https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1969589 <P><STRONG>The Future of Procurement: Unlocking Value Through Business Accelerators with Klaus Fischer</STRONG></P><P>In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, procurement is no longer just a back-office function—it’s a strategic driver of growth, resilience, and innovation. This was the central theme of a recent episode of SAP’s “The Future of Procurement Podcast,” featuring Klaus Fischer, a veteran SAP leader and board advisor, whose career has spanned engineering, consulting, and transformative acquisitions. Fischer’s insights offer a roadmap for organizations seeking to unlock value by bridging finance and procurement, embracing technology, and fostering collaboration.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":classical_building:">🏛</span>️</STRONG><STRONG> From Engineering to Boardroom: The Journey of Transformation</STRONG></P><P>Klaus Fischer’s story is emblematic of the evolution within procurement. Starting at SAP’s headquarters in Germany, Fischer’s career journey led him from engineering to strategic advisory roles, culminating in his pivotal involvement in SAP’s acquisition of Ariba—a move that redefined spend management and procurement for the enterprise. By integrating Ariba’s cloud-based capabilities with SAP’s robust ERP solutions, Fischer helped create a seamless, end-to-end platform that empowers organizations to optimize spend, drive compliance, and build resilient supply chains.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":link:">🔗</span></STRONG><STRONG> Breaking Down Silos: The Power of Finance and Procurement Alignment</STRONG></P><P>A recurring theme in the discussion was the critical need for CFOs and CPOs to break down organizational silos. In a climate marked by low growth, high costs, and regulatory complexity, Fischer emphasized that external pressures—geopolitical shifts, tariffs, inflation, and supply chain disruptions—demand agile, integrated responses. Internal challenges, such as data silos and manual processes, further hinder agility. The solution? Unified platforms and processes that connect finance and procurement, enabling real-time decision-making and accelerating value realization.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":rocket:">🚀</span></STRONG><STRONG> Business Accelerators: Unlocking Value Quickly</STRONG></P><P>Fischer introduced the concept of “business accelerators”—strategic initiatives that rapidly unlock value across finance and procurement. Mastering working capital, for example, is more critical than ever. By connecting invoice-to-pay and invoice-to-cash processes, organizations can optimize cash flow, reduce risk, and improve key performance indicators like day sales outstanding (DSO) and day payable outstanding (DPO). Change management and governance are essential to overcoming resistance and ensuring successful adoption of new technologies and processes.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":robot_face:">🤖</span></STRONG><STRONG> AI and Unified Data: The Next Frontier</STRONG></P><P>Looking ahead, Fischer identified AI-powered automation and unified data as game-changers for procurement and finance. SAP’s embedded AI capabilities—spanning category management, guided sourcing, spend visibility, and financial close—enable organizations to achieve dramatic improvements in speed, accuracy, and strategic outcomes. The trustworthiness and precision of enterprise AI are paramount, especially when managing complex, high-value transactions.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":chart_increasing:">📈</span></STRONG><STRONG> Real-World Outcomes and Forward-Looking Insights</STRONG></P><P>When finance and procurement teams collaborate, companies realize tangible benefits: optimized savings, reduced risk, improved compliance, and more effective supplier onboarding. End-to-end workflows and internal controls ensure consistency and resilience, even amid global disruptions. Fischer’s forward-looking advice for leaders? Embrace agentic AI, automation, and integrated business processes to stay ahead in 2026 and beyond.</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-unicode-emoji" title=":light_bulb:">💡</span></STRONG><STRONG> Conclusion: Procurement Never Sleeps—Neither Should Your Ideas</STRONG></P><P>As organizations navigate uncertainty and transformation, the alignment of finance and procurement, powered by technology and strategic leadership, will be the key to unlocking sustainable growth. The future of procurement is collaborative, data-driven, and relentlessly innovative. What accelerators will your organization pursue next?</P><P><EM>Share your thoughts, feedback, and ideas as we continue exploring the future of procurement together.</EM></P><P><STRONG>Please like, share, and subscribe!</STRONG><BR />Send feedback and questions to:&nbsp;<A href="mailto:TheFutureOfProcurement@sap.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">TheFutureOfProcurement@sap.com</A></P><P><STRONG>LISTEN to the Podcast HERE:</STRONG></P><P><STRONG>SAP: </STRONG><A href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-procurement/id1764078646" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>https://podcast.opensap.info/future-of-procurement/</STRONG></A></P><P><STRONG>Spotify:&nbsp; </STRONG><A href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5twXP1NehSqgCAznTnzQ5H" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>https://open.spotify.com/show/5twXP1NehSqgCAznTnzQ5H</STRONG></A></P><P><STRONG>Apple:&nbsp; </STRONG><A href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-procurement/id1764078646" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-future-of-procurement/id1764078646</STRONG></A></P><P><STRONG>Follow SAP</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:<STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG><A href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/sap/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/company/sap/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow SAP Ariba</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/ariba/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/company/ariba/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow Nitor Partners</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nitor-partners/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/company/nitor-partners/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow ConvergentIS</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergentis/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">&nbsp;https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergentis/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow Klaus</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaus-fischer-a970a26/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaus-fischer-a970a26/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow Erik</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-derenne/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-derenne/</A></P><P><STRONG>Follow Justin</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmorse/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmorse/</A>&nbsp;&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Follow Sarah</STRONG>&nbsp;– LinkedIn:&nbsp;<A href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/swnelson12/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/swnelson12/</A></P> 2025-10-22T16:00:00.063000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-sourcing-amp-contracts-2511-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14251127 SAP Ariba Sourcing & Contracts 2511 Release Key Innovations Preview 2025-10-24T08:53:26.089000+02:00 JesG https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1828371 <H2 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-1763632875"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Contracts - Feature highlights</FONT></H2><H3 id="toc-hId-1696202089"><FONT color="#000000">AI Copilot Joule in SAP Ariba Contracts (SCONTR-1279)</FONT></H3><P><FONT color="#000000">Joule, SAP's generative AI copilot, is now available in SAP Ariba Contracts. Joule uses a conversational interface to help users complete tasks efficiently.</FONT></P><P><FONT color="#000000">View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ai-copilot-joule-in-sap-ariba-contracts?state=DRAFT&amp;locale=en-US" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</FONT></P><H3 id="toc-hId-1499688584">&nbsp;</H3><H3 id="toc-hId-1303175079"><FONT color="#333399"><FONT color="#000000">Supplier Eligibility Validation in Contract Workspaces (SCONTR-1445)</FONT></FONT></H3><P><FONT color="#000000">This feature enables buyers to set supplier eligibility criteria using supplier registration and qualification statuses from SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. It ensures that only suppliers who meet the specified eligibility criteria are included in a contract. These criteria can be validated during various stages, such as during contract creation, publication, or when transferring contract data and line items to integrated external systems like SAP ERP.</FONT></P><P><FONT color="#000000">View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/supplier-eligibility-validation-in-contract-workspaces?state=DRAFT&amp;locale=en-US" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</FONT></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H2 id="toc-hId-977578855">&nbsp;</H2><H2 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-781065350"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Sourcing - Feature highlights</FONT></H2><TABLE width="939px"><TBODY><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-713634564"><STRONG>Ability to Block Access to Classic Sourcing for Project or Event Creation </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-517121059"><STRONG>(PSOURCE-1452)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature blocks product sourcing users from creating sourcing projects and requests in the classic SAP Ariba Sourcing interface. To create sourcing projects or events, users can use the guided sourcing interface, which streamlines the process and helps users complete more projects with less effort.</P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-block-access-to-classic-sourcing-for-project-or-event-creation?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-320607554"><STRONG>Ability to Add Plants to Material Line Items in Hybrid Mode </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-124094049"><STRONG>(PSOURCE-1468)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature allows you to associate a plant with material line items (not associated with any BOMs) in hybrid mode within product sourcing. This improves the creation of Purchase Info Records (PIRs) by automatically collecting prices for material line items in product sourcing.</P><H4 id="toc-hId--441053832">Business End User Tasks</H4><P class=""><A class="" title="Use this procedure to create a Purchase Info Record (PIR) from a product sourcing material linked to a plant in hybrid mode." href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/creating-purchase-info-record-from-material-line-item-linked-to-plant?locale=en-US&amp;state=DRAFT&amp;version=cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Creating a Purchase Info Record from a Material Line Item Linked to a Plant</A></P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/dms-20841-ability-to-add-plants-to-material-line-items?state=DRAFT&amp;q=Purchase+Info+Record+Creation+Without+Plant-level+Information+for+Line+Items+Linked+to+Placeholder+Plants+in+Product+Sourcing" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--344164330"><STRONG>Ability to Upload CSV File to Autofill Term Values for Material Quote Events in Product Sourcing</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--540677835"><STRONG>(SOURCE-1641)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--737191340">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature provides system administrators an interface to upload a CSV file that includes predefined term values. These values are used to autofill term values when a new material quote event is created in product sourcing.</P><P class="">Previously, the system prefilled term values in a material quote event only from matching terms in the most recently awarded event. As a result, users had to enter term values manually for every new material quote event.</P><P class="">Now, the system prefills term values from a<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">CSV</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>file uploaded by the system administrator. When a new material quote event is created, the system reuses term values based on the following values:</P><UL class=""><LI><P><SPAN class="">TermID</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN class="">TermName</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN class="">MaterialID</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN class="">SAPPlantID</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P><SPAN class="">SAPSupplierID</SPAN></P></LI></UL><P class="">This feature is supported for Approved Manufacturer List (AML) suppliers only.</P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/upload-csv-file-to-autofill-term-values-for-material-quote-events-in-product-sourcing?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--933704845"><STRONG>Ability to Add, Update, Remove URLs in Guided Sourcing Full Projects </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1130218350"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2542)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1326731855">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>With this feature, project owners can add, update, and delete URLs in the <STRONG>Events and other documents</STRONG> section of a guided sourcing full project.</P><P><SPAN>The option to add URLs is added under&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class=""><SPAN class="">Create &gt;</SPAN>&nbsp;<SPAN class="">Document</SPAN></SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Events and other documents</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG>section in guided sourcing full projects.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-left" image-alt="SOURCE-2542.jpg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/331660i5C2ADEED38DDBC47/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="SOURCE-2542.jpg" alt="SOURCE-2542.jpg" /></span></SPAN></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-add-update-remove-urls-in-full-sourcing-projects?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--1523245360"><STRONG>Exclude Reverted Savings Allocations in Analytical Reports in Guided Sourcing </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1719758865"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2559)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature ensures that when draft savings allocations are reverted to the published state, the draft allocations are discarded. Consequently, only active (non-reverted) allocations are included in analytical reports generated from savings forms in guided sourcing full projects.</P><P><SPAN>Previously, analytical reports generated from savings forms in guided sourcing full projects included all savings allocations, including those reverted from drafts. With this feature, these reports now only include active (non-reverted) savings allocations.</SPAN></P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/exclude-reverted-savings-allocations-from-analytics-fact-table-in-guided-sourcing?state=DRAFT&amp;locale=en-US" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--1916272370"><STRONG>Ability to Export All Rows from Content Tables in Guided Sourcing Events </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1944602184"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2590)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--2141115689">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables buyer users to export the complete set of rows from content tables within guided sourcing events.</P><H4 id="toc-hId-1663935095">Changes to the User Interface</H4><DIV class=""><UL class=""><LI><P>The<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Export all rows</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>option is added to the download icon (<SPAN class=""></SPAN>) for the following event pages in guided sourcing:</P><UL class=""><LI><P>The<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Monitor</SPAN>&nbsp;</STRONG>page: In the<STRONG>&nbsp;<SPAN class="">Items that needs quotes</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>and the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class=""><SPAN class="">Questions, requ</SPAN>irements, and attachments</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>tables</P></LI><LI><P>The<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Award</SPAN>&nbsp;</STRONG>page: In the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Award allocation</SPAN>&nbsp;</STRONG>and<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Questions, requirements, and attachments</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>tables</P></LI></UL></LI></UL></DIV><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-export-all-rows-of-content-tables-of-guided-sourcing-events?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-1760824597"><STRONG>Additional Contract Workspace Types in Guided Sourcing Full Projects </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-1564311092"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2595)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-1367797587">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature adds additional contract workspace document type options to guided sourcing full projects.</P><P><SPAN>Currently, in the<STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG></SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Events and other documents</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG>section of guided souring full projects, you can create a&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Contract workspace</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;document as only the&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Procurement</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;type. This feature adds the following additional&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">Contract workspace</SPAN></STRONG><SPAN>&nbsp;document types:</SPAN></P><UL class=""><LI><P><STRONG><SPAN class="">Sales</SPAN></STRONG></P></LI><LI><P><STRONG><SPAN class="">Internal</SPAN></STRONG></P></LI></UL><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/additional-contract-workspace-types-in-guided-sourcing-full-projects?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-1171284082"><STRONG>Ability to Import and Export Event Content in XLSX Format in Sourcing </STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-974770577"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2596)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables buyers to import and export event content in SAP Ariba Sourcing in the XLSX format.</P><P><SPAN>Previously, event content could only be exported and imported in the XLS format. With this feature, both XLS and XLSX formats are supported. While XLSX is set as the default export format, you can still opt for XLS based on your preference.</SPAN></P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-import-and-export-event-content-in-xlsx-format-in-sourcing?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-778257072"><STRONG>Communication Support in SAP Business Network Discovery Postings for Sourcing Events&nbsp;</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-581743567"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2640)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables communication between buyers and suppliers in SAP Business Network Discovery postings for sourcing events. Buyers can directly respond to supplier-initiated questions, send messages to suppliers, and receive responses within the event posting.</P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/message-center-functionality-in-sap-business-network-discovery-postings-for-events-in-sap-ariba-sourcing?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId-553413753"><STRONG>Automatic Initial Offer Submissions in Guided Sourcing&nbsp;</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-356900248"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2647)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-160386743">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature adds the ability to copy participants and bids from a past event to a new event and use the past bids as initial bid submissions in the new event.</P><P><SPAN>Previously in guided sourcing, buyer users needed to use a multi-round event to reuse bids as initial bids for subsequent rounds. Users couldn't copy bids from a past single event to a new single event. Now, buyer users can copy participants and items with their associated bids from past single events and reuse the bids as initial bids in a new single event.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>For the buyer, this feature ensures that supplier bids remain unchanged between events, without the need for a multi-round event. This also gives suppliers the option to not login and interface with the event unless they want to modify their bid, which saves time for the supplier.</SPAN></P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/automatic-initial-offer-submissions-in-guided-sourcing?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--36126762"><STRONG>Ability to Generate Event Summary in Guided Sourcing Using Generative AI&nbsp;(SOURCE-2670)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--232640267">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables buyer users to generate event summary in guided sourcing utilizing generative AI capabilities.</P><P class="">The summary is generated using the following data from the sourcing event:&nbsp;<STRONG><SPAN class="">ID</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Title</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Description</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Type</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Base Language</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Currency</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Owner</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Display Version</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Contract Months</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Contract Effective Date</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Contract Expiration Date</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Baseline Spend</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Target Saving Percentage</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Create Date</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Last Modified</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Origin</SPAN>,<SPAN class="">Template</SPAN>, </STRONG>and<STRONG>&nbsp;<SPAN class="">Supplier Bids</SPAN></STRONG>.</P><P class="">The summary is generated in the event's base language, not the user's locale. It is created at the event level, so all users can see the same summary. If a user chooses to regenerate the summary, it is based on the data visible to that user, not the overall event data.</P><P class=""><EM>Note: This premium feature is available at no cost during the trial period.</EM></P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-generate-event-summary-in-guided-sourcing-using-generative-ai?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--429153772"><STRONG>View Predecessor Projects in Analytical Reports in Guided Sourcing&nbsp;</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--625667277"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2694)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--822180782">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables you to view predecessor project details in analytical reports for sourcing requests, events, and full projects in guided sourcing.</P><P class="">Previously, predecessor project details were not included in analytical reports for sourcing requests, events, and full projects in guided sourcing. With this feature, you can now add the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Predecessor Project</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>column on the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Pivot Layout</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>page of the report wizard when creating an analytical report. Once added, these details will appear in the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Predecessor Project</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>column in reports. However, data from projects originally created using the classic SAP Ariba Sourcing interface will appear in the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Based on Project</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>column instead of the new<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Predecessor Project</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>column.</P><DIV class=""><H4 id="toc-hId--1312097294">Changes to the User Interface</H4><P class="">On the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Pivot Layout</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>page of the analytical report wizard, a new field,<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Predecessor Project</SPAN>, is added for sourcing requests, events, and full projects in guided sourcing.</P></DIV><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ss-68465-view-predecessor-projects-in-analytical-reports-in-guided-sourcing-full-projects?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--1215207792"><STRONG>Access Controls for Task Comments&nbsp;</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1243537606"><STRONG>(SOURCE-2716)</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--1440051111">&nbsp;</H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature adds access controls for task comments in guided sourcing full projects.</P><P class="">You can now specify which user groups can access task comments in a guided sourcing full project. Only users with the specified access permissions, or the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Project Owner</SPAN>, can see an access controlled comment.<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Project Owners</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>can view all task comments. Access controls are chosen below the comment. Comments that do not use access controls are visible to all project members.</P><DIV class=""><H4 id="toc-hId--1929967623">Changes to the User Interface</H4><P class="">Task detail pages now include<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Access control</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>options below the the comment field. Click the button on the right side of the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">Access control</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>field to choose options.</P></DIV><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/access-controls-for-task-comments?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR><TR><TD width="400.391px"><H3 id="toc-hId--1833078121"><STRONG>Ability to Make Counter-offers in Guided Sourcing Events&nbsp;</STRONG></H3><H3 id="toc-hId--2029591626"><STRONG>(SSINDUSTRY-517)</STRONG></H3></TD><TD width="537.344px"><P>This feature enables buyers to propose counteroffers to suppliers during a new round of a sourcing event. A counteroffer is a special type of negotiation round in multi-round bidding, giving buyers an additional way to secure competitive pricing from suppliers.</P><P class="">Previously, buyers could not propose a take-it-or-leave-it offer to suppliers.</P><P class="">With this enhancement, buyers can do the following:</P><UL class=""><LI><P class="">Set a specific price as a counteroffer in a new rou<SPAN class="">nd.</SPAN></P></LI><LI><P class="">Share the counteroffer with selected supplie<SPAN class="">rs.</SPAN></P></LI></UL><P class="">Supplier can respond to the counter offer in the following manner:</P><UL class=""><LI><P class="">If suppliers accept, the counteroffer price is recorded as their submitted quote for that line item. Buyers can then either proceed to awarding or start another negotiation round.</P></LI><LI><P class="">If there is no response from suppliers, their previously submitted quote remains valid and continues in the event.</P></LI></UL><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/ability-to-provide-counter-offer-in-industrial-sourcing?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><H3 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-2068862165">&nbsp;</H3><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1872348660"><STRONG>Stay connected with our community for more insights and updates:</STRONG></H3><UL><LI><SPAN>Register for the </SPAN><A href="https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&amp;eventid=4640273&amp;sessionid=1&amp;key=2D8815AEAB99DF8CDEF0A531B984FF16&amp;groupId=5578275&amp;sourcepage=register" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Early Release Series for 2511 release</A>- <A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5089442/B448623B0B50813BE8151CF35923ABF8/6377618" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Multi-registration link</A> and for CIM customers- <A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5084717/BBAC157EB755B0C15253FCFF0841F0AB" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">P2P link</A>&nbsp;</LI><LI><SPAN>Feature related materials:</SPAN><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A><SPAN> (Customers except CIM)</SPAN></LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A> (For CIM customers)</LI></UL></LI></UL><UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI><SPAN>SAP Help Portal pages -</SPAN>&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A> &nbsp;</LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI></UL> 2025-10-24T08:53:26.089000+02:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/what-s-new-in-2511-release-navigator-for-spend-management/ba-p/14255247 What's New in 2511 - Release Navigator for Spend Management 2025-10-28T14:26:00.593000+01:00 RyanRussman https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/16144 <P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RyanRussman_0-1761587580210.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333118iBBADB3E479284820/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="RyanRussman_0-1761587580210.png" alt="RyanRussman_0-1761587580210.png" /></span></P><P>We're thrilled to announce the upcoming innovations for our 2511 Release! Our dedicated team has been working tirelessly to ensure you stay ahead with the latest enhancements. Below you can access the Release Navigator for Spend Management and easily locate all essential resources for a successful release, feature highlights for the upcoming release, and ways to connect to stay up to date!</P><P>Over the coming months, we'll be revamping and enriching our related content to mirror the newest advancements. Currently users can still access Business Network via the Release Navigator for Spend Management, you will be redirected to the Release Navigator for Supply Chain Management. As this journey continues, SAP Business Network content will begin to migrate from Spend Management communications to Supply Chain Management communications and portals! Dive into the 2511 release details below.&nbsp;</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-center" image-alt="RyanRussman_2-1761587580212.png" style="width: 698px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333119i20F7668559484F71/image-dimensions/698x267?v=v2" width="698" height="267" role="button" title="RyanRussman_2-1761587580212.png" alt="RyanRussman_2-1761587580212.png" /></span><A href="https://readiness-at-scale.enable-now.cloud.sap/pub/20230621_ras/index.html?library=library.txt&amp;show=book!BO_4CE88EACA46BDC8B#slide!SL_3DB31BE3ACE59AC" target="_self" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-center" image-alt="RyanRussman_1-1761587580210.png" style="width: 230px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333117iD4F44ECE24A4B659/image-dimensions/230x39?v=v2" width="230" height="39" role="button" title="RyanRussman_1-1761587580210.png" alt="RyanRussman_1-1761587580210.png" /></span></A></P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RyanRussman_3-1761587580213.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333120i2FC564803AF5386F/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="RyanRussman_3-1761587580213.png" alt="RyanRussman_3-1761587580213.png" /></span></P><P>Here are feature Highlights for the 2511 release for SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network. Make sure to read through the blogs to learn more about these features and ensure you are properly prepared for these updates.</P><UL><LI>Accelerated Release Cycle for SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network Add-On 1.0 for SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/d18c416aeb48492987dc2cfc47e15e91.html?parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2Febae48c99c394515810f2dd51fdd8468%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511%26Product%3DSAP%2BIntegration%2BSuite%2C%2Bmanaged%2Bgateway%2Bfor%2Bspend%2Bmanagement%2Band%2BSAP%2BBusiness%2BNetwork%3BSAP%252BBusiness%252BNetwork%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSupplier%252BRisk%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSupplier%252BManagement%252Bsolutions%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSupplier%252BLifecycle%252Band%252BPerformance%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSupplier%252BInformation%252Band%252BPerformance%252BManagement%252B%28new%252Barchitecture%29%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSupplier%252BInformation%252Band%252BPerformance%252BManagement%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BStrategic%252BSourcing%252BSuite%252BSAP%252BAriba%252BSourcing%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BStrategic%252BSourcing%252BSuite%3BSAP%252BAriba%252Bstrategic%252Bsourcing%252Bsolutions%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSpend%252BAnalysis%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSourcing%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BSource-to-Contract%252BSuite%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BProcurement%252Bsolutions%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BInvoice%252BManagement%3BSAP%252BAriba%252Bdeveloper%252Bportals%3BSAP%252BAriba%252Bdeveloper%252Bportal%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BDeveloper%252BPortal%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BContracts%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BContract%252BInvoicing%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BCategory%252BManagement%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BCatalog%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BBuying%252Band%252BInvoicing%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BBuying%3BSAP%252BAriba%252BAPIs&amp;parentName=What%27s+New+in+SAP+Ariba+Procurement+Solutions&amp;locale=en-US&amp;version=LATEST" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">BPI-596</A>)</LI><LI>AI Copilot Joule in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/4176b38c7d1e43769dadb0517ee3af96.html?version=cloud&amp;locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2F6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511&amp;parentName=What%27s%20New%20in%20SAP%20Procurement%20and%20SAP%20Business%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SRISK-1848</A>)</LI><LI>AI Copilot Joule in SAP Ariba Contracts (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/4af23ac1e3724ba0a16341dcc993ac81.html?version=cloud&amp;locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2F6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511&amp;parentName=What%27s%20New%20in%20SAP%20Procurement%20and%20SAP%20Business%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SCONTR-1279</A>)</LI><LI>Use of Spend Data for AI Recommendations in Category Segmentation (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/d02cdcb385ef49d8835faaab0392ec0d.html?version=cloud&amp;locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2F6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511&amp;parentName=What%27s%20New%20in%20SAP%20Procurement%20and%20SAP%20Business%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ARBCATA-504</A>)</LI><LI>New Transactional Use Cases for Approvals and Navigational Use Cases for AI Copilot Joule in&nbsp;SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/68bda0897ac348f29d61593c93dae3c7.html?version=cloud&amp;locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2F6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511&amp;parentName=What%27s%20New%20in%20SAP%20Procurement%20and%20SAP%20Business%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SLP-2288</A>)</LI><LI>Spend Analysis Benchmarks — Company vs Industry Performance (<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/PRODUCTS/88ea813a3d0f42878f90775648ed03ca/bfd6fce546f94fd8a6f979ea85b599f0.html?version=cloud&amp;locale=en-US&amp;parentHref=https%3A%2F%2Fhelp.sap.com%2Fwhats-new%2F6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866%3FVersion%3DSAP%2BAriba%2B2511&amp;parentName=What%27s%20New%20in%20SAP%20Procurement%20and%20SAP%20Business%20Network" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ANALYSIS-1324</A>)</LI></UL><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RyanRussman_4-1761587947247.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333121i91B836A5B7FBF66B/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="RyanRussman_4-1761587947247.png" alt="RyanRussman_4-1761587947247.png" /></span></P><P>Follow the <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Integration+Suite%25252C+managed+gateway+for+spend+management+and+SAP+Business+Network/pd-p/73554900100800000872" target="_blank"><STRONG>Spend Management and Business Network</STRONG></A> and <A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/tag/Readiness%40Scale/tg-p" target="_blank"><STRONG>ReadinessS@Scale</STRONG></A> community tags, and&nbsp;<A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/16144" target="_blank"><STRONG>Ryan Russman</STRONG></A> to stay up to date with the latest blog posts.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RyanRussman_5-1761588043593.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333122i20D2AFB806D20996/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="RyanRussman_5-1761588043593.png" alt="RyanRussman_5-1761588043593.png" /></span>The 2511 release will incorporate release content updates only. With the migration of SAP Business Network to Supply Chain Management, the Release Navigator for Spend Management will continue to publish content updates but may delay UX updates to help minimize disruption to customers and partners.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RyanRussman_6-1761588094139.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/333123iB3B7822E1370F84D/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RyanRussman_6-1761588094139.png" alt="RyanRussman_6-1761588094139.png" /></span></P><P><STRONG>Support.SAP.com – </STRONG><A href="https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/enterprise-support/releaseready.html?anchorId=section_501520374" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>Release Ready</STRONG></A><STRONG> page</STRONG>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>SAP Activate – </STRONG><A href="https://go.support.sap.com/roadmapviewer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>Roadmap Viewer</STRONG></A> &nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>SAP Enterprise Support Value Map - </STRONG><A href="https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/enterprise-support/value-maps.html?anchorId=section_832621019" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><STRONG>SAP Enterprise Support Value Map for Spend Management and Business Network</STRONG></A></P><P><STRONG><U>Making Your Impact</U></STRONG></P><P>At SAP, we greatly appreciate your input and suggestions. You are invited to submit feedback and suggest topics to be covered through our <A href="https://sapinsights.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_egtCPhgGOuO4Iwm?SolutionArea=SAPAriba" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Topic Request &amp; Feedback Survey.</A> This survey provides you with an opportunity to provide insights on your experience with the release navigator for Spend Management and Business Network, as well as suggestions on how we can further enhance your release experience. Additionally, we encourage you to share your feedback, thoughts, or questions in the comment section below.&nbsp;</P> 2025-10-28T14:26:00.593000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-2511-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14251130 SAP Ariba 2511 Release Key Innovations Preview 2025-10-29T12:27:17.205000+01:00 JesG https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1828371 <H3 id="toc-hId-1012855384" id="toc-hId-1892715618"><FONT color="#333399"><STRONG>Highlights of Enhancements across Procurement</STRONG></FONT></H3><H3 id="toc-hId-1696202113"><STRONG>Accelerated Release Cycle for SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network Add-On 1.0 for SAP S/4HANA and SAP ECC (BPI-596)</STRONG></H3><P><STRONG><EM>HEADS-UP!</EM> </STRONG>Starting with the <STRONG>SAP Ariba 2602</STRONG> release, the release frequency of the SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management, and SAP Business Network 1.0 AddOn <STRONG>increases to four times a year</STRONG>. This applies to SAP S/4 HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, and SAP ECC. The AddOn support package will be released in February, May, August, and November, effective from SAP Ariba release 2602.<STRONG> Increased frequency of delivery provides you with quick access to the latest features, improvements, and compliance enhancements on time, and enables faster adoption.</STRONG></P><P><STRONG><SPAN class=""><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-left" image-alt="273930_273930_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/331302i560761141E240305/image-size/medium/is-moderation-mode/true?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="273930_273930_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" alt="273930_273930_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" /></span></SPAN></STRONG></P><P class="">To benefit from the latest innovations and ensure compliance with support policies, <STRONG>it is recommended that you stay up-to-date&nbsp;<SPAN class="">by deploying the latest service pack to your product</SPAN>ion environment<SPAN class="">s.</SPAN></STRONG></P><P class="">&nbsp;</P><UL><LI>This change in release frequency <STRONG>affects</STRONG> the buyer-side add-on, that is<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>Buyer Addon, for SAP ERP and<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP S/4HANA</SPAN>.</LI><LI>This change in release frequency<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><STRONG><SPAN class="">does not</SPAN>&nbsp;affect</STRONG> the supplier-side add-on, that is,<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><SPAN class="">SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network</SPAN><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>1.0 AddOn for SAP ERP Suppliers.</LI></UL><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/cig-wip/accelerated-release-cycle-for-sap-integration-suite-managed-gateway-for-spend-management-and-sap-business-network-add-on-1-0-for-sap-s-4hana-sap-s-4hana-cloud-private-edition-and-sap-ecc?state=DRAFT&amp;version=LATEST" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-1499688608">Enhancements to the SAP Ariba SCIM API (MDATA-596)</H3><P>This feature introduces the following enhancements to the SAP Ariba SCIM API: Support for new fields for the SAP variant (expenseApprovalLimit and approvalLimit), Support for Generic variant fields (ApprovalLimit, ExpenseApprovalLimit, ShipTo, and PurchasingUnit), Support for the following for both variants: Audit logging of user and group changes initiated by the SCIM API, userType option in the $filter parameter, Group Responsible Purchasing Unit (purchasingUnit) field , New name and description attributes to uniquely identify groups.</P><P>View implementation details and more <A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/ariba/ariba-applications-wip/enhancements-to-sap-ariba-scim-api?state=DRAFT" target="_self" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</A>.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-816341879" id="toc-hId-1303175103"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Category Management - Highlights&nbsp;</FONT></H3><P><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2776" target="_blank">SAP Ariba Category Management 2511 Release Key Innovations</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-816341879" id="toc-hId-1106661598"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Source-to-Contract - Highlights</FONT></H3><P><FONT color="#333399"><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-sourcing-amp-contracts-2511-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14251127" target="_blank">SAP Ariba Sourcing &amp; Contracts 2511 Release Key Innovations Preview</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-816341879" id="toc-hId-910148093"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Procure-to-Order - Highlights</FONT></H3><P><FONT color="#333399"><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/blogs/blogworkflowpage/blog-id/spend-management-blog-sap/article-id/2775" target="_blank">SAP Ariba Procure-to-Order 2511 Release Key Innovations</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><H3 id="toc-hId-816341879" id="toc-hId-713634588"><FONT color="#333399">SAP Ariba Supplier Management &amp; Risk - Highlights</FONT></H3><P><FONT color="#333399"><SPAN>For further details on these innovations and more, view our blog:&nbsp;</SPAN></FONT><A href="https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-supplier-management-amp-risk-2511-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14251070" target="_blank">SAP Ariba Supplier Management &amp; Risk 2511 Release Key Innovations Preview</A></P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Stay connected with your community for more insights and updates:</STRONG></P><UL><LI><SPAN>Register for the&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&amp;eventid=4640273&amp;sessionid=1&amp;key=2D8815AEAB99DF8CDEF0A531B984FF16&amp;groupId=5578275&amp;sourcepage=register" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Early Release Series for 2511 release</A>-<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5089442/B448623B0B50813BE8151CF35923ABF8/6377618" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Multi-registration link</A><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>and for CIM customers-<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5084717/BBAC157EB755B0C15253FCFF0841F0AB" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">P2P link</A>&nbsp;</LI><LI><SPAN>Feature related materials:</SPAN><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A><SPAN>&nbsp;(Customers except CIM)</SPAN></LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>(For CIM customers)</LI></UL></LI></UL><UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI><SPAN>SAP Help Portal pages -</SPAN>&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A><SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN>&nbsp;</LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI></UL> 2025-10-29T12:27:17.205000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/sap-learning-blog-posts/want-to-learn-how-to-implement-sap-ariba-contracts/ba-p/14259277 Want to learn how to implement SAP Ariba Contracts? 2025-11-07T16:35:21.855000+01:00 Katrin1 https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1489671 <P>I recommend to access our&nbsp;<A title="Implementing SAP Ariba Contracts" href="https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/implementing-sap-ariba-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Implementing SAP Ariba Contracts</A>&nbsp;learning journey.<STRONG><BR />Learning outcome</STRONG><BR />By the end of this learning journey, you will be able to:</P><DIV class=""><DIV class=""><UL class="lia-list-style-type-square"><LI>effectively manage SAP Ariba Contracts</LI><LI>create contract workspaces, task approval, authoring contract&nbsp;documents</LI><LI>administer the system setup</LI></UL></DIV></DIV><DIV class=""><DIV class=""><STRONG>Goals</STRONG></DIV></DIV><UL class="lia-list-style-type-square"><LI>Get started with SAP: Building the basics</LI><LI>Develop your experience: Skill deepening learning</LI><LI>Excel in your expertise: Advanced specialization learning</LI></UL><P><STRONG>Please post your question related to the digital learning journey in&nbsp; the<SPAN>&nbsp;</SPAN><A title="Q&amp;A area" href="https://groups.community.sap.com/t5/sap-learning-q-a/qa-p/learningqanda-board" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Q&amp;A area</A>.</STRONG></P><P>I appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to continue sharing interesting topics.</P><P>Kind regards, Katrin</P> 2025-11-07T16:35:21.855000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-sap-fieldglass-and-sap-s-4hana-erp-solutions-for-public/ba-p/14267649 SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass and SAP S/4HANA ERP solutions for public healthcare 2025-11-13T07:41:01.585000+01:00 AllanSoo https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1427410 <P>Author: Allan Soo</P><P><STRONG>Introduction</STRONG></P><P>Healthcare public sector procurement spend is among the largest across the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2021, 31.9% of all public procurement spend touches on public healthcare and infrastructure [<A href="https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/public-procurement.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">1</A>]. Nearly 75% of public spend on healthcare came from taxpayers [<A href="https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/decarbonising-health-systems-across-oecd-countries_5ac2b24b-en/full-report/rethinking-health-systems-supply-chains-pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products_1052fcf7.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">2</A>]. With an ageing population and a shrinking taxpayer base, governments across the world are grappling with these fiscal challenges. One solution is to deploy effective spend management, procurement solutions across cost-intensive sectors of the economy to keep costs down.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="AllanSoo_0-1763015870827.png" style="width: 632px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/339931i15D22FD6CDAC53F5/image-dimensions/632x491?v=v2" width="632" height="491" role="button" title="AllanSoo_0-1763015870827.png" alt="AllanSoo_0-1763015870827.png" /></span></P><P>Figure depicting the percentage government expenditure across the OECD-EU countries for 2023 [<A href="https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2025/06/government-at-a-glance-2025_70e14c6c/0efd0bcd-en.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">3</A>]. Public sector procurement across the OECD-EU markets was 14.7% (2023), an increase of 0.9% compared to 2019. &nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Why an effective, public procurement platform is crucial for public healthcare and governments?</STRONG></P><P>Public procurement in healthcare is one of the most regulated forms of purchasing dealing with hospitals, pharmacies, and qualified suppliers. This requires complex compliance to purchasing pharmaceutical ingredients, chemicals and other regulated products to be compliant to public healthcare agencies. An example is the procurement of surgical implants and tools which must comply with the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA) and other dangerous goods regulations.</P><P>Healthcare public procurement is becoming a significant challenge for governments worldwide due to factors such as an ageing population, rising deficits and total debts, the high costs of running healthcare facilities, and increased health and safety regulations.</P><P><STRONG>Track spend and compliance across cost-intensive healthcare segments by different categories with SAP Ariba Category Management, SAP Ariba Intake Management and SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Performance Management</STRONG></P><P>SAP Ariba Category Management gives public sector healthcare purchasers the tools to track spend goals on their most cost-intensive areas of their agency including high-tech equipment, specialized hospital beds, pharmaceutical purchases and more.</P><P>The solution gives public healthcare purchasers the option to manage supplier performance and track these against budgets, manage funds and investments assigned and set to them by the government.</P><P>The solution also offers customers a 360-degree visibility into the supplier’s healthcare certifications and qualifications, making sure that they comply to directives and maximize compliance across all purchases made for the public facilities. For example, Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) license for Australia, Wholesale Distribution Authorisation for EU suppliers supplying medicinal products, and Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency certification for medicinal product manufacturing in the United Kingdom.</P><P>Adverse events can then be monitored using SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance Management to manage supplier risks appropriately. 3rd party data such as D&amp;B can give government buyers additional intelligence on the market risk of that supplier such as sustainability, supply chain exposure, and aid in calculating inherent and residual risk scoring…and so on. Up to 25 custom risk scores can be applied to the healthcare supplier in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.</P><P><STRONG>Renegotiate and manage multiple quotes across healthcare suppliers to drive cost savings with finance</STRONG></P><P>To keep costs down, buyers have the ability with SAP Ariba Sourcing and Procurement for Public Sector in SAP S/4HANA, to manage different quotes and renegotiate prices with existing suppliers to obtain better deals. For example, evaluating the procurement of multiple MRI and X-ray machines, and different existing drug prices to encourage better competition between pharmaceutical suppliers to drive down prices.</P><P>Buyers can take advantage of the SAP Taulia Private Cloud solution with SAP S/4HANA and Dynamic Discounting feature where fast, early account payable transactions towards suppliers can lead to discounted cash savings that yield improved bottom line benefits for public healthcare finance customers.</P><P><STRONG>Connect SAP Ariba Sourcing and SAP Ariba Buying solutions to the SAP S/4HANA ERP for high-level spend management and monitoring</STRONG></P><P>Go beyond purchasing and ordering with high-level dashboard spend visibility [<A href="https://www.sap.com/assetdetail/2021/08/aaf4122d-f87d-0010-bca6-c68f7e60039b.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4</A>] to track the list of purchase orders with SAP Ariba Central Procurement with SAP Ariba Buying (3EN) and SAP Ariba Buying, with guided buying capabilities (2NV) into SAP S/4HANA. Easily track the process flow of your purchases and export accounting documents to SAP finance and accounting solutions. Use three-way matching against invoice, purchase order and goods receipt to ensure that cost information is accurate. Request quotes from suppliers, allocate budget and discuss on pricing terms.</P><P>One highly relevant area for this is the operational procurement of medical apparel, protective equipment, gloves and face masks. You as the buyer want the tools to negotiate with suppliers on favorable pricing terms, sort price lists in Catalogs available over the SAP Business Network, and see the list of purchase orders, invoices and goods receipts in one place. You can set estimated budgets throughout the quotation process and track how far below under the target price you are able to get the costs down to attain cost savings.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="AllanSoo_1-1763015870830.png" style="width: 575px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/339932iF0FA152F1F1796A9/image-dimensions/575x473?v=v2" width="575" height="473" role="button" title="AllanSoo_1-1763015870830.png" alt="AllanSoo_1-1763015870830.png" /></span></P><P>Figure showing SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing solution where healthcare purchasers can track how far below taxpayer funded budget they can obtain when purchasing medical supplies like gloves.</P><P>With these solutions, healthcare public sector buyers and public finance can move away from matching for accuracies and scrutinize cost details on these items and work collaboratively with other departments to find alternative suppliers and products that offer cheaper and better-quality substitutes. &nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Leverage AI solutions for contracts management </STRONG></P><P>SAP Ariba Contract Intelligence by Icertis SolEx has contract authoring capabilities that are bolstered by AI to automate much of the clause generation that is in line with the public healthcare industry and to drive compliance. Examples can include authoring in sustainability criteria, medical manufacturing license requirements from suppliers, and assigning responsibilities on direct suppliers and their affiliates. By automating the contract lifecycle, lead times can be reduced and anomalies within contract clauses can be detected and flagged for risk mitigation. The solution helps users identify contract leakage risks to prevent cost blowouts and put boundaries on spend conditions for public healthcare purchases. Risk scores on suppliers can be imported from SAP Ariba Supplier Risk to SAP Ariba Contracts to guide contract awarding decisions so that risk-aware awarding decisions can be made. Managing suppliers is part of the public sector procurement responsibility to ensure that government healthcare agencies continue receiving the best outcomes for the budget they are given with the right contracts in place.</P><P><STRONG>Put cost guardrails on healthcare goods and services procured</STRONG></P><P>With WK value contracts [<A href="https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/configuring-sap-s-4hana-cloud-private-edition-sales/working-with-value-contracts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">5</A>] in SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba Contracts [<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/strategic-sourcing/contract-administration/configuring-central-contracts-integration-between-sap-ariba-contracts-and-sap-s-4hana-cloud" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">6</A>] users can set guardrails against overspending on suppliers. Given that in healthcare settings the quantity of goods can be non-negotiable, SAP Ariba Contracts offers the flexibility to adjust quantity (through quantity contracts) and assign other attributes such as discounts on purchased goods through supplier collaboration and negotiations. Buyers can set cost parameters on the value contracts and publish it through the Cloud Integration Gateway to SAP S/4HANA. Purchase cost data can then be ingested by finance solutions to monitor and act on the financial performance of the health agency.</P><P><STRONG>Smart Peppol invoicing with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management</STRONG></P><P>With eInvoicing solutions offered with SAP Documents and Reporting Compliance (cloud edition) within S/4HANA ERP Public Cloud Edition, SAP Business Network via SAP Integration Suite, and SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management - Peppol compliant documents can be exchanged to help government healthcare sectors align with eInvoicing compliance requirements or eliminate the use of physical paper. Eliminating physical paperwork and complying to Peppol eInvoicing means enhancing fraud-prevention systems in place to build trust with the public and install financial protections, improves productivity and minimizes errors in costing amounts. &nbsp;Peppol is used by over 40 countries worldwide for business-to-government transactions, and is becoming a standardized, secure method of receiving invoices from the private sector supplier base by government agencies. Public hospitals and other healthcare agencies can examine and analyze invoice costs based on the high-fidelity information supplied electronically within the system, making it easily auditable for finance.</P><P><STRONG>AI-driven Statement of Work (SOW) creations in SAP Fieldglass to alleviate workloads and focus on the things that matter</STRONG></P><P>Minimize admin work and hire contractors to help comply to a variety of laws during the SOW creation process. Use the GenAI solution at SAP to identify opportunities to control costs during the SOW creation and reduce document creation times by about 71% by inputting titles, summaries and extracting data from PDF documents. With freed-up workloads, users can focus on the quality, risk and service traits of the contract (such as proper skills matching for best labour productivity outcomes). An example includes SOW creation for biohazardous health waste disposal services and scoping the boundaries of work, and clearly stating what services are in and out of scope and using SOW teams feature to collaborate with non-procurement colleagues on budget planning with finance that addresses high-spend service categories.</P><P><STRONG>Improved SOW rates negotiation and cost management features on contracted services</STRONG></P><P>Service buyers can negotiate for better rates post-agreement, automate offboarding signatures to cease spend, ensure hours worked are fulfilled by the contractors, reallocation of unspent SOW funds back to master SOW, inactivate cost centers when they are no longer used, and trigger alerts when rates vary away from agreed ones. These are features that are offered by SAP Fieldglass to service buyers in public healthcare settings to put a lid on costs.</P><P>Picture this, you need to onboard technicians to provide maintenance and calibration services for the complex equipment that the hospital has. Your rates need to be specified clearly, and any pay deviations need to be notified to the service buyer, clear start-end dates for the services and so on need to be in the SOW for legal reasons. You use the GenAI feature to produce an SOW quickly, double check the contents of this document, and have the work order issued. Skills are clearly specified for the job to minimize lead times onsite, and the best labour-hire is made. Therefore, costs are controlled, and the best productivity is obtained for maintenance work at the hospital.</P><P><STRONG>Support green procurement practices</STRONG></P><P>SAP Ariba Sourcing integrates with the suite of SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP sustainability solutions to drive green procurement practices across the public healthcare sector. Given that Scope 3 contributes to around 79% of total carbon emissions [<A href="https://www.google.com/search?q=carbon+emissions+healthcare+sector+globally+Scope+3&amp;sca_esv=b1a2f407046ddbac&amp;sxsrf=AE3TifO-KxpXajNNKV03ikSAti2X8Ryd6Q%3A1763012894710&amp;ei=HnEVacb2KujU1e8Pq86V4Qg&amp;ved=0ahUKEwjG_crqtu6QAxVoavUHHStnJYwQ4dUDCBE&amp;uact=5&amp;oq=carbon+emissions+healthcare+sector+globally+Scope+3&amp;gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiM2NhcmJvbiBlbWlzc2lvbnMgaGVhbHRoY2FyZSBzZWN0b3IgZ2xvYmFsbHkgU2NvcGUgMzIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABMgUQIRifBUiuDFDhBljNC3ABeAGQAQCYAeUBoAHYCaoBBTAuNi4xuAEDyAEA-AEBmAIIoAL3CcICChAAGLADGNYEGEfCAgcQIRigARgKwgIEECEYFZgDAIgGAZAGCJIHBTEuNi4xoAfqLbIHBTAuNi4xuAfyCcIHBTAuNy4xyAcQ&amp;sclient=gws-wiz-serp" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">7</A>] for this sector across the OECD markets, governments can use SAP tools to drive sustainable procurement practices on their direct suppliers. Examples including procuring gloves with a low product carbon footprint, high recycled content, and rubber data to ensure that illegal deforestation has not contributed to its production.</P><P>Alongside SAP Ariba Supplier Management, SAP Fieldglass and SAP Ariba Contracts, public healthcare sectors can manage risk appropriately and enforce sustainability practices and compliance on suppliers and contractors. This includes due diligence screening solutions on a supplier’s human rights and deforestation records, having the right sustainability credentials, and embedding sustainability due diligence into the core operational and strategic sourcing processes from procurement to the ERP environment. Given the mandates that governments must meet for their own net-zero, human rights and material circularity directives - SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass and SAP ERP Sustainability solutions provide a comprehensive suite of products to drive decarbonization and compliance in the public healthcare space. Partner solutions on the SAP app store can be used to enrich supplier data with sustainability scores and other external intel.</P><P><STRONG>Tap into the SAP Spend Intelligence in SAP Business Data Cloud solution for rich data reporting on procurement spend</STRONG></P><P>Enrich healthcare spend data with other SAP Business Data Cloud products to gain deeper insights into the entire healthcare organization’s finance and spend data. SAP Spend Intelligence offers customers a large variety of data products it can ingest. For example, sustainability, risk, contract leakages and off-contract purchase order spend. &nbsp;By providing strategic and operational insights into a public healthcare’s spend, buyers can optimize for and eliminate out non-compliance and uses AI and machine learning to automatically allocate spend categories neatly for interpretation. SAP Joule can be employed to clean and present cluttered data in a meaningful way that helps drive high-level decision-making processes which maximizes healthcare spend impacts and cuts down maverick and unwanted tail spend.</P><P><STRONG>Conclusion</STRONG></P><P>SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass and SAP S/4HANA ERP solutions provide finance and spend management solutions that offer customers the tools to keep up to date with the latest innovations in driving cost savings, optimize spend, manage down risks, reduce fraud and work collaboratively with public sector finance teams in government. Given the significance of public healthcare sectors across developed markets, innovative procurement spend management solutions play a key role in controlling costs in a high-expenditure industry. For years to come, healthcare expenses are projected to increase with an ageing population, rising deficits and living cost challenges.</P><P>This requires a comprehensive, suite of solutions for the public sector that leverages best-of-breed AI and solution offerings that advance the modernization of public sector procurement and finance operations. Governments have a responsibility to foster trust, comply to own directives, address fiscal challenges across the economy for the wellbeing of citizens, and deliver services cost-effectively to the public.</P> 2025-11-13T07:41:01.585000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blog-posts-by-sap/understanding-the-purpose-of-the-predecessor-projectfield-in-sap-ariba/ba-p/14279779 Understanding the Purpose of the Predecessor ProjectField in SAP Ariba 2025-11-28T12:46:44.744000+01:00 Anastasiia_Kh https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1437172 <P><SPAN>In SAP Ariba, the&nbsp;<STRONG>Predecessor Project</STRONG>&nbsp;field is designed to help users create logical, traceable, and organized relationships between projects. Although users often assume the predecessor feature is intended for copying data, its primary purpose is to build project relationships that support reporting, visibility, and structured project hierarchies.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>This article explains what the Predecessor Project field is used for, how it differs from the&nbsp;<STRONG>Copy from Project</STRONG>&nbsp;capability, and why predecessor projects remain selectable even after they are completed or approved.</SPAN></P><H3 id="toc-hId-1894806887"><STRONG>What Is the Purpose of the&nbsp;<EM>Predecessor Project</EM>&nbsp;Field?</STRONG></H3><P><SPAN>The Predecessor Project field serves&nbsp;<STRONG>two main purposes</STRONG>:</SPAN></P><OL><LI><SPAN><STRONG>Establishing a Link Between Related Projects</STRONG></SPAN></LI></OL><P><SPAN>Selecting a predecessor project allows you to link the current project to an existing one.</SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>This relationship does&nbsp;<STRONG>not</STRONG>&nbsp;require copying values from the predecessor.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>If the sole intention is to copy data, users should instead use the&nbsp;<STRONG>Copy from Project</STRONG>&nbsp;option.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>The predecessor linkage provides context, relationships, and traceability between projects.</SPAN></LI></UL><P><SPAN><STRONG>2. &nbsp; Supporting Hierarchical Reporting (Subprojects)</STRONG></SPAN></P><P><SPAN>When you assign a predecessor project, the system can treat the current project as a&nbsp;<STRONG>follow-on</STRONG>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<STRONG>subproject</STRONG>&nbsp;in reporting views.</SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>This helps teams and organizations visualize chains of related initiatives.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>It ensures reporting structures reflect how projects truly relate to one another.</SPAN></LI></UL><H3 id="toc-hId-1698293382"><STRONG>Predecessor Project vs. Copy from Project</STRONG></H3><P><SPAN>Although both functions may prepopulate fields, they serve different purposes.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN><STRONG>Predecessor Project</STRONG></SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>Selecting a predecessor from the dropdown menu creates a&nbsp;<EM>follow-on relationship</EM>.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Fields that exist in both the predecessor and the current project may be pre-populated.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>The main goal is&nbsp;<STRONG>linking projects</STRONG>, not cloning them.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>The predecessor project retains its identity and lifecycle.</SPAN></LI></UL><P><SPAN><STRONG>Copy from Project</STRONG></SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>Creates a&nbsp;<STRONG>copy</STRONG>&nbsp;of an existing project.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>The copied project retains most of the original project’s attributes.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>You&nbsp;<STRONG>cannot</STRONG>&nbsp;select a new template or project type when copying.</SPAN></LI><UL><LI><SPAN>The new project inherits the project type and uses the latest published version of the template originally used.</SPAN></LI></UL><LI><SPAN>This option is intended for reusing structure and content—not linking projects.</SPAN></LI></UL><H3 id="toc-hId-1501779877"><STRONG>Why Is a Predecessor Project Still Available After Completion or Approval?</STRONG></H3><P><SPAN>A predecessor project remains selectable&nbsp;<STRONG>even after it is completed, approved, or closed</STRONG>, because its function is not tied to its status. The predecessor mechanism exists to maintain continuity and logical connections across related initiatives, regardless of where each project is in its lifecycle.</SPAN></P><P><SPAN>The purpose of a predecessor is&nbsp;<STRONG>not</STRONG>&nbsp;to transfer or copy data—it is to maintain a conceptual and reporting link.</SPAN></P><H3 id="toc-hId-1305266372"><STRONG>Example Scenario: ABC Corporate Electronics Procurement</STRONG></H3><P><SPAN>Consider the following use case:</SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>ABC &nbsp;manager creates a&nbsp;<STRONG>parent RFI project</STRONG>&nbsp;to collect information from suppliers.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Once the RFI is completed, each team member creates their own&nbsp;<STRONG>individual sourcing or contracting project</STRONG>&nbsp;to procure electronic devices based on their personal needs.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Even though the original RFI project is already&nbsp;<STRONG>completed</STRONG>, it remains available as a predecessor.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Each team member sets the RFI project as their predecessor, creating a clear traceable line between the parent project and all the follow-on projects.</SPAN></LI></UL><P><SPAN>This ensures:</SPAN></P><UL><LI><SPAN>All child projects remain connected to the original sourcing initiative.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Reporting and audits reflect a complete project hierarchy.</SPAN></LI><LI><SPAN>Stakeholders can easily understand the sequence and relationship between efforts.</SPAN></LI></UL><H3 id="toc-hId-1108752867"><STRONG>How Field Copying Behaviors Are Controlled in SAP Ariba (Advanced Field Configuration)</STRONG></H3><P>Whether fields are copied, synced, or inherited across projects (including predecessor and copied projects) depends on&nbsp;<STRONG>Advanced Field Configuration</STRONG>&nbsp;settings. These settings determine when and how field values flow between parent, predecessor, or copied projects.</P><P>Below are the key configuration options:</P><UL><LI><STRONG>Sync in copied project on create:</STRONG></LI><UL><LI>This option copies fields when using the&nbsp;<STRONG>Copy from Contract</STRONG>&nbsp;field on create or&nbsp;<STRONG>Actions &gt; Copy Project.</STRONG></LI></UL><LI><STRONG>Sync in follow-on project on create:</STRONG></LI><UL><LI>This option copies fields when using the&nbsp;<STRONG>Actions &gt; Follow-on Project&nbsp;</STRONG>or by selecting a&nbsp;<STRONG>Predecessor Project.</STRONG></LI></UL><LI><STRONG>Sync in subagreement on create:</STRONG></LI><UL><LI>This option copies fields when using the&nbsp;<STRONG>Parent Agreement&nbsp;</STRONG>field on create or&nbsp;<STRONG>Actions &gt; Sub Agreement</STRONG>.</LI></UL><LI><STRONG>Sync in subproject on create:</STRONG></LI><UL><LI>This option copies fields when using the&nbsp;<STRONG>Actions &gt; Create Subproject&nbsp;</STRONG>(from the&nbsp;<STRONG>Documents</STRONG>&nbsp;tab).</LI></UL><LI><STRONG>Sync in subproject on change:</STRONG></LI><UL><LI>Makes the field in a subproject be auto pulled from its parent project whenever the field is updated in the parent project, including when the subproject is created.</LI></UL></UL><OL><LI>These options are not available for all fields and must be configured by an SAP resource.</LI><LI>Present under Advanced tab of Field Configuration for specific fields.</LI></OL><P><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG></P><H3 id="toc-hId-912239362"><STRONG>Summary</STRONG></H3><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD><P><STRONG>Feature</STRONG></P></TD><TD><P><STRONG>Predecessor Project</STRONG></P></TD><TD><P><STRONG>Copy from Project</STRONG></P></TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Purpose</P></TD><TD><P>Link projects logically</P></TD><TD><P>Reuse content by creating a copy</P></TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Effect</P></TD><TD><P>Creates follow-on relationship; may prefill shared fields</P></TD><TD><P>Creates a new project based on another</P></TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Template control</P></TD><TD><P>Uses template of the current project</P></TD><TD><P>Inherits template of the original project</P></TD></TR><TR><TD><P>Best used for</P></TD><TD><P>Reporting structure, traceability, subproject relationships</P></TD><TD><P>Cloning project design, structure, and content</P></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P><a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Sourcing/pd-p/064803c0-aae3-46ca-8514-389b50b4838f" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="425-1">SAP Ariba Sourcing</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://community.sap.com/t5/c-khhcw49343/SAP+Ariba+Contracts/pd-p/32a4b2ae-0d09-497d-b196-c45e3e758efe" class="lia-product-mention" data-product="420-1">SAP Ariba Contracts</a>&nbsp;#<STRONG>Predecessor Project</STRONG></P> 2025-11-28T12:46:44.744000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-source-to-contract-2601-release-key-innovations-preview/ba-p/14309797 SAP Ariba Source to Contract 2601 Release Key Innovations Preview 2026-01-19T11:14:56.725000+01:00 HoangD https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/2096385 <P>Hello SAP Ariba Source to Contract Community, and welcome to our 2602 Key Innovations blog.<BR />In this post, we’re sharing the main updates included in the Q1 2026 release for SAP Ariba source-to-contract solutions.</P><P>Here’s a closer look at what’s new this quarter.</P><P><BR /><BR /><STRONG>SAP Ariba Contract Management</STRONG></P><P><EM>Generating Contract Summaries in SAP Ariba Contracts Using AI&nbsp;(<SPAN>SCONTR-1266</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>When buyers or suppliers open a contract workspace, SAP Ariba Contracts now automatically generates a contract summary. The summary is based on the contract header information and is created using SAP AI Core services.</P><P>This applies to both new and existing contracts. If contract details change during the lifecycle, users can generate a new version of the summary. If the generated summary is not satisfactory, users can retry, within a predefined limit. The retry limit can be adjusted through configuration of the SAP AI Core instance, if needed.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="loiobae6a2c83b7d40c493b44d57a89f16cb_HiRes.png" style="width: 999px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/362552i3B4130481B1488D3/image-size/large?v=v2&amp;px=999" role="button" title="loiobae6a2c83b7d40c493b44d57a89f16cb_HiRes.png" alt="loiobae6a2c83b7d40c493b44d57a89f16cb_HiRes.png" /></span></P><P>This change helps users get a quick overview of a contract without reviewing the full document immediately.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Excluding Ad Hoc Tasks During Baseline-to-Supplier Contract Data Transfer&nbsp;(<SPAN>SCONTR-1556</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>During pre-award negotiations, supplier contracts are often created by copying data from a baseline contract. With this release, buyers can configure the system to exclude ad hoc tasks during this data transfer.</P><P>Ad hoc tasks are typically not inherited from templates and are often informal or exploratory in nature. If copied into supplier contracts, they can unintentionally become binding steps. Excluding these tasks helps ensure that supplier contracts include only the required contractual information.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>SAP Ariba Guided Sourcing</STRONG></P><P><EM>Enhancements to Manual Award Scenarios&nbsp;(<SPAN>SOURCE-2594</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>Manual award scenarios in guided sourcing have been updated to improve usability when allocating items or lots to multiple suppliers.</P><P>Users can now open an "Allocate Award" popup from the award allocation panel. This popup allows users to:</P><UL><LI><P>Allocate awards by percentage or quantity</P></LI><LI><P>Enter allocation values for each supplier</P></LI><LI><P>View the total allocated value</P></LI><LI><P>Apply or save allocations in a single place</P></LI></UL><P>These changes reduce the need to scroll through long lists when working with multiple suppliers.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Modifying Event Duration and Searching Sourcing Requests Using Joule&nbsp;(<SPAN>SOURCE-2534</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>Joule can now be used to adjust the duration of open RFP and RFI events. If an event includes a task, the approver must still approve the timing change for it to take effect. Auction event durations cannot be modified using Joule.</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="Screenshot 2026-01-19 at 10.58.05 (2).png" style="width: 206px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/362559iA0D5562E927B5C59/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="Screenshot 2026-01-19 at 10.58.05 (2).png" alt="Screenshot 2026-01-19 at 10.58.05 (2).png" /></span></P><P>Joule can also be used to view sourcing requests created within a specific timeframe and to open a specific sourcing request directly.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><EM>Creating Optimization Scenarios Based on Score&nbsp;(<SPAN>SOURCE-2690</SPAN>)</EM></P><P>For guided sourcing events where scoring is enabled, buyers can now create optimization scenarios with the objective of maximizing score.</P><P>A new "Maximize Score" option has been added to the "Create Scenario" page. This allows award scenarios to be based on overall scoring results, rather than other criteria alone.</P><HR /><P>The Q1 2026 release introduces targeted updates across contract management and guided sourcing. Each change is designed to reduce unnecessary steps and make existing workflows easier to manage.</P><P>These features can be adopted independently, depending on your current setup and processes.</P><P>Stay tuned for our additional upcoming blog posts and follow me to stay informed on upcoming feature releases across SAP Ariba. Once, these items are officially released on February 14th, the feature reference IDs (i.e. SC-22524) can help to find more detailed information on&nbsp;<A href="http://help.sap.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://help.sap.com</A>.</P><P>Thank you for being a part of the SAP Ariba community and we look forward to continuing our journey of innovation together!</P><P>Resources:</P><UL><LI>Feature related materials:</LI><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A>&nbsp;(Customers except CIM)</LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A>&nbsp;(For CIM customers)</LI></UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI>SAP Help Portal pages -&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/sap-business-network-for-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Network</A></LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI></UL> 2026-01-19T11:14:56.725000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/2602-early-release-series-for-sap-ariba-and-sap-business-network-releases/ba-p/14311463 2602 Early Release Series for SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network releases 2026-01-21T01:25:59.278000+01:00 JC1 https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/14111 <H3 id="toc-hId-1917653664"><A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5212429/F9ACB43E61384D5BBF52D66E53BD625C/6555235" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Sign up now</A> for the 2602 Early Release Series</H3><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-left" image-alt="278083_278083_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" style="width: 200px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363541i5EE9B705DB89F417/image-size/small/is-moderation-mode/true?v=v2&amp;px=200" role="button" title="278083_278083_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" alt="278083_278083_l_srgb_s_gl.jpg" /></span></P><P><SPAN>Follow this blog to receive notification of new series as soon as registration opens.</SPAN></P><P>SAP strives to equip our customers and partners with valuable release readiness resources for each SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network quarterly release.</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P><STRONG>Early Release Series</STRONG></P><P>The Early Release Series webcasts cover features planned for the upcoming SAP Ariba and SAP Business Network quarterly release.&nbsp; This platform, available to customers and partners, has a clear mission: deliver an interactive forum to engage with SAP product experts providing simple, direct answers to your most pressing questions.&nbsp; There is a different session for each product area with content tailored for the specific audience:</P><UL><LI>Supplier Management &amp; Risk</LI><LI>Procure to Pay</LI><LI>Source to Contract</LI><LI>Business Network</LI></UL><P>If you want to learn more and actively engage with SAP subject matter experts, we encourage you to participate in these informative sessions.&nbsp; <A href="https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/5212429/F9ACB43E61384D5BBF52D66E53BD625C/6555235" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Register now!</A></P><P><STRONG>Quarterly Release Communications</STRONG></P><P>Notice of upcoming quarterly releases will be communicated to Buyer customers three weeks prior to the release date.&nbsp; Suppliers receive notice two weeks prior.&nbsp; Releases are communicated via email notification (look for subject line starting with: <STRONG>Advance Release Notice</STRONG>).</P><P>Anyone from your organization that has chosen to <A href="https://me.sap.com/notes/2900069/E" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">subscribe to product notifications</A> will receive these announcements.&nbsp;</P><P>The <A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#item-view&amp;/185165" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">release calendar for SAP Business Network </A>&nbsp;and <A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#item-view&amp;/206826" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">release calendar SAP Ariba Applications</A> identify release timing several quarters in advance.</P><P><STRONG>Where to find out more details?</STRONG></P><P>On demand replays of webcasts from completed quarterly releases can be consumed from <A href="https://support.ariba.com/item/view/186303" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">Release Readiness Resources: Webcast Archive Page</A></P> 2026-01-21T01:25:59.278000+01:00 https://community.sap.com/t5/spend-management-blog-posts-by-sap/sap-ariba-central-invoice-management-2602-release-key-innovations/ba-p/14310519 SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management 2602 Release Key Innovations 2026-01-21T15:39:27.494000+01:00 RB-051923 https://community.sap.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1539210 <P>1<STRONG>.&nbsp; Launch Automatic Matching Manually (CIM-2465)</STRONG></P><P>You can now trigger&nbsp;automatic matching&nbsp;directly from the&nbsp;Manage Supplier Invoices Centrally&nbsp;app while editing a draft invoice. With the new&nbsp;"Match Automatically"&nbsp;button, you can quickly validate invoice data against purchase orders or receipts without leaving your workflow.</P><P>Once you have chosen&nbsp;Match Automatically, you can determine which line items will&nbsp;be considered when you launch the automatic matching:</P><UL><LI>All items</LI><LI>Non-manually assigned items</LI><LI>Unassigned items</LI><LI>Items with errors</LI></UL><P>Any existing posting data that is provided for the selected line items will be deleted and recreated through the automatic matching. The supplier invoice will be saved and move to the process step&nbsp;Reference Object Matching.</P><P>Example of the User Interface</P><P>The screenshot below shows a new&nbsp;Match Automatically&nbsp;button along with the options for automatic matching in the&nbsp;Manage:</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_0-1768856688150.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363047i06B607FE93264A89/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_0-1768856688150.png" alt="RB051923_0-1768856688150.png" /></span></STRONG></P><P>Benefits:</P><UL><LI>Saves time:&nbsp;Eliminate the need to navigate between screens to initiate matching.</LI><LI>Improves accuracy:&nbsp;Reduce errors by automating the validation process.</LI><LI>Boosts efficiency:&nbsp;Speed up invoice approvals with fewer manual steps.</LI></UL><P>This enhancement helps you to process invoices faster while maintaining compliance and control.</P><P>2.&nbsp; <STRONG>Decision Tables in Configure Assignment Group Rules App</STRONG> (CIM-2861)</P><P>Managing invoice assignments just got smarter. With this release, the Configure Assignment Group Rules app now supports Decision Tables, making it easier to define and apply complex routing rules.</P><P>When creating a variant in the&nbsp;Configure Assignment Group Rules&nbsp;app, you can now select&nbsp;Decision Table&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Assignment Group/User Rule&nbsp;field within the&nbsp;Step Configuration&nbsp;tab. Below are the available input parameter combinations for different decision tables. Assignment groups and users are the output:</P><UL><LI>Company Code and WBS Element</LI><LI>Company Code and Cost Center</LI><LI>Company Code, Invoicing Party, and Gross Amount</LI><LI>Company Code and G/L Account</LI><LI>Commodity Code&nbsp;</LI></UL><P>Example of the User Interface</P><P>The figure below shows the list of decision tables available in the&nbsp;Configure Decision Tables&nbsp;app for the assignment group and user determination:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_1-1768857027631.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363048iB28F4369BBAA8316/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_1-1768857027631.png" alt="RB051923_1-1768857027631.png" /></span></P><P>Why it matters:</P><UL><LI>Simplified rule configuration:&nbsp; Decision tables provide a clear, structured way to define assignment rules, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors.</LI><LI>Enhanced flexibility:&nbsp; Use decision tables directly in the Assignment Group/User Rule field under the Step Configuration tab when setting up variants.</LI><LI>Improved accuracy:&nbsp; Ensure invoices are routed to the right teams or users based on predefined conditions, improving processing speed and compliance.</LI></UL><P>This feature empowers your finance and procurement teams to handle exceptions and approvals more efficiently, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating invoice processing.</P><P>3.&nbsp; <STRONG>Assignment Group/User determined by Custom Logic in the Configure Assignment Group Rules app</STRONG> (CIM-1759)</P><P>With this release, it is possible to determine&nbsp;the assignment group or user, or a combination of&nbsp;both, using custom logic.</P><P>In the&nbsp;Configure Assignment Group Rules&nbsp;app, you now have the option to choose an assignment group/user rule. This is available in the new&nbsp;Assignment Group/User Rule&nbsp;field in the&nbsp;Step Configuration&nbsp;tab.</P><P>If you choose&nbsp;Assignment Group/User Determined by Custom Logic&nbsp;in this field, it allows you to determine the assignment group or user of a step without specifying them during variant creation. The determination is done outside the app via an API.</P><P>Example of the User Interface</P><P>The screenshot below shows the Step Configuration tab in the Configure Assignment Group Rules app:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_3-1768857722047.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363050i4441BA03B2B87708/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_3-1768857722047.png" alt="RB051923_3-1768857722047.png" /></span></P><P>4.&nbsp; <STRONG>Simulation of Workflow Steps before Submission of Invoice</STRONG> (CIM-1759)</P><P>The latest release of SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management introduces exciting new features designed to simplify workflows, reduce errors, and improve collaboration between finance teams and suppliers.&nbsp;</P><P>Key Benefits of this Feature:</P><UL><LI>Enhanced Transparency&nbsp;– See the full approval path upfront, so there are no surprises.</LI><LI>Proactive Issue Resolution&nbsp;– Spot potential delays or missing approvals before submission.</LI><LI>Improved Efficiency&nbsp;– Reduce back-and-forth by ensuring invoices follow the correct workflow from the start.</LI></UL><P>Changes to the User Interface</P><P>The screenshot below shows tab when there is no request for information available and an approval workflow is yet to start:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_4-1768858211944.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363052i2B4F88F334A02009/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_4-1768858211944.png" alt="RB051923_4-1768858211944.png" /></span></P><P>The next screenshot shows the tab when a request for information has started but an approval workflow is yet to start:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_5-1768858273497.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363053i245990E95D766BFB/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_5-1768858273497.png" alt="RB051923_5-1768858273497.png" /></span></P><P>&nbsp;The final screenshot below shows the tab when all the workflows have started:</P><P><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_6-1768858517676.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363054i2DE2E0CDAC6B0190/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_6-1768858517676.png" alt="RB051923_6-1768858517676.png" /></span></P><P>This enhancement is just one way we’re making invoice management smarter and more intuitive for our customers.</P><P>5.&nbsp; <STRONG>New Field for Invoice Management</STRONG> (CIM-3034)</P><P>A new&nbsp;Contact Person&nbsp;field has been added to the invoice detail page, allowing users to designate a responsible individual for managing and approving invoices. This feature enhances accountability and streamlines the invoice approval process, ensuring timely payments and efficient workflow management.</P><P>This field is hidden by default. You can control its visibility using the&nbsp;Configure Business Data Scope&nbsp;app. For more information, see&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/CENTRAL_INVOICE_MANAGEMENT/0d464aa205484c6eb6b1b521f71d4a85/b790978cd99e4e3a86a4a6052917ad45.html?locale=en-US&amp;state=DRAFT&amp;version=DEV" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">About Field Control</A>. You can use the value help to enter a name in this field.</P><P>You can also set the contact person&nbsp;as an approver of an invoice. To do this, select&nbsp;<EM>Contact Person for&nbsp;The&nbsp;Invoice</EM>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Agent Determination Rule&nbsp;field of the&nbsp;Step Configuration&nbsp;tab.&nbsp; This applies when creating a variant or adding a step in an existing variant in the&nbsp;Manage Workflows for Supplier Invoice Approval&nbsp;app.</P><P>In addition, you can configure automatic allocation of a supplier invoice to the name entered. To achieve this, select&nbsp;Contact Person for the Invoice&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Assignment Group/User Rule&nbsp;field of the&nbsp;Step Configuration&nbsp;tab. This applies when creating a variant or adding a step in an existing variant in the&nbsp;Configure Assignment Group Rules&nbsp;app.&nbsp;&nbsp;</P><P>A new&nbsp;Contact Person&nbsp;filter is also added to the invoice list page to filter the invoices based on it. This filter and the column are not available by default. See&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/CENTRAL_INVOICE_MANAGEMENT/0d464aa205484c6eb6b1b521f71d4a85/775273ccae4a4b7b929f06f00d209bd6.html?locale=en-US&amp;state=DRAFT&amp;version=DEV" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adapting Filters and Creating Variants</A>&nbsp;for more information on how to show or hide the filters and the columns.&nbsp; Any update made in this new field is&nbsp;recorded in the activity log.</P><P>Changes to the User Interface</P><P>The screenshot below shows you the Contact Person field:</P><P><STRONG><span class="lia-inline-image-display-wrapper lia-image-align-inline" image-alt="RB051923_8-1768858983780.png" style="width: 400px;"><img src="https://community.sap.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/363074iCD28EA7B905A4754/image-size/medium?v=v2&amp;px=400" role="button" title="RB051923_8-1768858983780.png" alt="RB051923_8-1768858983780.png" /></span></STRONG></P><P>Benefits:</P><UL><LI>Enhanced accountability&nbsp;– Designate a specific contact for each invoice, reducing confusion and delays.</LI><LI>Streamlined approvals&nbsp;– Faster processing with direct responsibility, leading to timely payments.</LI><LI>Improved workflow efficiency&nbsp;– Better tracking and communication for smoother invoice management.</LI></UL><P>This small but impactful feature helps teams work more effectively, reducing bottlenecks and improving collaboration across finance and procurement teams.</P><P>What’s Next?</P><P>Stay tuned for more innovations in SAP Ariba Central Invoice Management as we continue to enhance automation, visibility, and control in your invoice management processes.</P><P>Have questions or want to learn more? Reach out to your SAP representative or explore our help documentation at <A href="http://help.sap.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">http://help.sap.com</A><U>.</U></P><P>Let’s make invoice management simpler, smarter, and faster—together.</P><P>Resources:</P><UL><LI>Feature related materials:</LI><UL><LI><A href="https://connectsupport.ariba.com/sites#releasereadiness-display" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow noreferrer">SAP Ariba Connect - Release Readiness</A>&nbsp;(Customers except CIM)</LI><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management/release-readiness-procurement" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Readiness Community page</A>&nbsp;(For CIM customers)</LI></UL><LI><A href="https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/intelligent-spend-management" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SAP Community for Intelligent Spend Management page</A></LI><LI>SAP Help Portal pages -&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/portfolio-category/NETWORK_AND_SPEND_MANAGEMENT" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Procurement</A>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<A href="https://help.sap.com/docs/sap-business-network-for-supply-chain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Network</A></LI><LI><A href="https://help.sap.com/whats-new/6a6876bb02204429bfc72cf8b861a866" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">What’s New</A></LI></UL><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P><P>&nbsp;</P> 2026-01-21T15:39:27.494000+01:00