What is supplier management?

Supplier management is the end-to-end strategic process unifying all procurement activities with their suppliers. Encompassing information management, performance management, risk management, and supplier collaboration, it provides a 360-degree view of a supplier’s value throughout the supplier lifecycle.

What’s the difference between supplier management and supplier relationship management?

Supplier management and supplier relationship management refer to two distinct yet overlapping scopes of activity within procurement. Supplier relationship management is about the strategy and collaboration used to manage the most critical suppliers in order to achieve greater business value. Supplier management is more holistic and involves the system and processes needed to manage all your suppliers.

What solutions are part of SAP Ariba Supplier Management?

SAP Ariba Supplier Management includes two solutions: SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supports all the processes and information required in every step of the supplier lifecycle, from onboarding to qualification to ongoing monitoring and assessment. SAP Ariba Supplier Risk is focused on delivering risk due diligence across the source-to-pay process.

Supplier management software

Improve supplier relationships and resiliency with solutions that help you manage supplier lifecycle, performance, and risk all in one place.

Learn about next-gen SAP Ariba solutions

Optimize the supplier relationship management process for procurement

Drive spend to preferred suppliers and reduce risk

Ensure compliance across your procurement function through supplier onboarding, qualification and segmentation, and performance management with SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions.

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Centralize supplier data and insights

View supplier information in one place for real-time insights into performance, risk, and relationships so you can make faster, more informed sourcing and procurement decisions.

Improve supplier performance

Assess and embed supplier performance data for data-driven decision making to help ensure a more resilient supplier base.

Promote supplier collaboration

Foster stronger, more transparent supplier relationships with SAP Business Network. Collaboration leads to increased efficiency and responsiveness across the procurement function.

Mitigate supplier risk

Identify, assess, and proactively manage supplier risk with integrated tools for monitoring performance, compliance, and sustainability.

Explore supplier management capabilities

Manage the entire supplier lifecycle, proactively address risks, and work more collaboratively with your suppliers for improved decision making across procurement.

Supplier performance evaluations

Add more flexibility to your evaluation process with granular KPIs and scoring, improving performance with decisions based in data.

Native procurement suite

Manage and share supplier information in-context across SAP Ariba procurement solutions.

Self-service capabilities for suppliers

Boost confidence in supplier data by allowing suppliers to access and update their own information via SAP Business Network.

Two-way sync with SAP ERP

Keep supplier data up-to-date and consistent with bidirectional synchronization between SAP ERP and SAP Ariba solutions.

Learn more about supplier lifecycle management

Risk due diligence

Investigate and assess risk exposure associated with targeted suppliers in your supply base.

Proactive risk monitoring

Receive personalized risk alerts while monitoring regulatory, legal, financial, environmental, social, and operational risks

Collaborative risk assessment

Assess and mitigate risk using issue management and action plans and collaborating with your team on risk disposition workflow actions.

In-context supplier risk information

Embed real-time supplier risk intelligence in your procurement workflows to make informed decisions.

Learn more about supplier risk management

SAP Business AI for supplier management

Explore AI-driven automation with an intuitive supplier management experience through Joule, SAP’s copilot.

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See how customers are succeeding with SAP

Improving supplier relationships with SAP Ariba

Rich’s is managing its vendor relationships so it can onboard suppliers more quickly and maintain supplier data all in one place.

Read Rich's story

Reinventing procurement as a strategic capability

With standardized processes, Smith+Nephew is reshaping its procurement operations as part of an ambitious sustainability strategy.

Read the Smith+Nephew story

Uncovering new business potential via procurement

Pony.ai is centralizing access to accurate data, digitalized sourcing, and supplier performance management in the cloud.

Read the Pony.ai story

See what analysts are saying about SAP

SAP named a Market Leader in supplier management

This Ardent Partners report highlights SAP’s robust supplier management capabilities and focus on innovation.

Read the report

Resources

Frequently asked questions

: Supplier management is the end-to-end strategic process unifying all procurement activities with their suppliers. Encompassing information management, performance management, risk management, and supplier collaboration, it provides a 360-degree view of a supplier’s value throughout the supplier lifecycle.
: Supplier management and supplier relationship management refer to two distinct yet overlapping scopes of activity within procurement. Supplier relationship management is about the strategy and collaboration used to manage the most critical suppliers in order to achieve greater business value. Supplier management is more holistic and involves the system and processes needed to manage all your suppliers.
: SAP Ariba Supplier Management includes two solutions: SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supports all the processes and information required in every step of the supplier lifecycle, from onboarding to qualification to ongoing monitoring and assessment. SAP Ariba Supplier Risk is focused on delivering risk due diligence across the source-to-pay process.