SAP Business Network for Supply Chain

Collaborate with your trading partners to improve supply assurance through better planning, visibility, and automation.
Composite image of overhead view of three parked eighteen wheelers and a fragment of SAP supply chain collaboration software UI showing ETA of destination.

Regain supply chain visibility and control across multiple tiers of suppliers

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Improve on-time, in-full performance

Work more effectively with suppliers on supply chain planning, direct procurement, inventory, and quality processes.

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Align with all key trading partners

Partner more effectively with suppliers to improve visibility, strengthen control, and ensure reliable supply to meet customer commitments.

Predict and address supply chain issues

Use cross-company business rules and shared data to identify potential issues and address them before they occur.

Reduce inventory and costs

Improve supply predictability and quality so you can reduce excessive inventory buffers and costs.

Explore supply chain and planning collaboration capabilities

Improve customer satisfaction by boosting assurance of supply and on-time deliveries through strong supplier partnerships.

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Supplier onboarding and support
Accelerate time to value with our onboarding team, proven methodologies, and tools.

Broad set of collaboration processes
Take advantage of our wide range of mid- and near-term execution processes, such as scheduling agreements and stock consumption.

Intelligent business rules
Use configurable, cross-company business rules to define tolerances and improve compliance.

Dashboard, reports, and analytics
Access dashboards and reporting tools that make it easier to track supplier compliance and identify potential shortages or overages.

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Explore supply chain collaboration
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Trading partner onboarding and support
Obtain manufacturing and inventory status and help suppliers commit to forecasts with our proven processes.

Forecast, manufacturing, and capacity collaboration
Share forecast data, obtain visibility into supplier manufacturing, and collaborate on manufacturing resources.

Configurable business rules
Establish rules and acceptable variances for forecast commits and improve compliance using cross-company business rules.

Dashboard, reports, and analytics
Make it easier to track supplier compliance and identify forecast commit exceptions with intuitive dashboards and reporting tools.

Explore planning collaboration
Make your supply chain resilient and sustainable

In our Lessons from Leaders webcast series, you’ll learn about best practices used by global companies to revolutionize their supply chain processes.

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See how customers are succeeding with SAP

See what analysts are saying about SAP

Multi-enterprise supply chain commerce network

SAP is positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2025 Vendor Assessment.

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Direct spend vendor assessment

Read why SAP is positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Direct Spend Vendor Assessment.

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Resources

Frequently asked questions

Supply chain collaboration is the extension of internal systems and processes to an ecosystem of trading partners. On the supply side, this ecosystem typically includes direct materials suppliers across multiple tiers, such as contract manufacturers, co-packers, shippers, carriers, and third-party logistics providers. Businesses can work together on long-, mid-, and near-term processes, such as supply chain plans, purchase orders, scheduling agreements, and stock movements and transfers.

Supply chain collaboration is important because it helps improve supply assurance by providing visibility into potential supply chain disruptions. This in turn improves customer service. As reliance on external partners increases, companies must expand the focus of their digital transformations beyond their own internal systems and processes to involve their trading partners.

Technology helps supply chain partners collaborate more effectively and efficiently by automating manual tasks, eliminating data silos, and enabling innovative new ways of working together.

 

Automation replaces manual processes (such as spreadsheet-based interactions) to improve accuracy and reduce costs.

 

Third-party technology for supply chain collaboration can replace legacy software to provide modern capabilities and a road map for innovation.