SAP Ariba Sourcing
Learn how strategic sourcing gives you the single greatest opportunity to impact the cost, quality, and performance of your supply chain and your business. Download the DocumentBoost your bottom line with strategic sourcing
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Strategic sourcing gives you the single greatest opportunity to impact the cost, quality, and
performance of your supply chain and your business. But globalization, economic volatility, and
tightening supply markets can hold you back. What’s needed is an integrated solution that drives
fast, sustainable results across the sourcing lifecycle.
Locating a supplier and pricing an item simply aren't enough
today. Sustainable savings come from defining and executing
a supplier selection process, identifying cost-cutting
opportunities, and creating contracts that convert oppor-
tunities into actual savings. This requires evaluating the
total cost impact of sourcing decisions and shortening the
amount of time and effort spent on administrative tasks.
The SAP Ariba Sourcing solution helps you achieve these
goals. As a widely adopted and comprehensive strategic
sourcing solution, it delivers exceptional sourcing and
negotiation technology along with unparalleled strategy
and category expertise, access to a global network of
suppliers, and automation that streamlines critical tasks
across the sourcing lifecycle. When integrated with
SAP Business Network for Procurement and deployed
as part of our strategic sourcing suite that spans spend
visibility, sourcing, contract management, and supply base
management, it enables you to realize even greater value.
Solution Quick factsBenefitsObjectives
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Strategic sourcing gives you the single greatest opportunity to impact the cost, quality, and
performance of your supply chain and your business. But globalization, economic volatility, and
tightening supply markets can hold you back. What’s needed is an integrated solution that drives
fast, sustainable results across the sourcing lifecycle.
Locating a supplier and pricing an item simply aren't enough
today. Sustainable savings come from defining and executing
a supplier selection process, identifying cost-cutting
opportunities, and creating contracts that convert oppor-
tunities into actual savings. This requires evaluating the
total cost impact of sourcing decisions and shortening the
amount of time and effort spent on administrative tasks.
The SAP Ariba Sourcing solution helps you achieve these
goals. As a widely adopted and comprehensive strategic
sourcing solution, it delivers exceptional sourcing and
negotiation technology along with unparalleled strategy
and category expertise, access to a global network of
suppliers, and automation that streamlines critical tasks
across the sourcing lifecycle. When integrated with
SAP Business Network for Procurement and deployed
as part of our strategic sourcing suite that spans spend
visibility, sourcing, contract management, and supply base
management, it enables you to realize even greater value.
Solution Quick factsBenefitsObjectives
Prioritize and plan
for opportunities
SAP Ariba Sourcing makes use of spend data captured by
spend analysis tools so you can work with business units
to identify opportunities to rationalize the supply base,
negotiate lower pricing, or implement new requirements.
Identified opportunities can then be prioritized and cre-
ated within the software as new sourcing events or projects
including key stakeholders, project tasks, and milestones.
The output of each event or project is a short-term, mid-
term, or long-term agreement that can span one or more
deliverables and can be sourced from one or more quality
suppliers.
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SAP Ariba Sourcing provides robust
integration capabilities to third-party
systems so you can push and pull
sourcing event information.
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution
for opportunities
SAP Ariba Sourcing makes use of spend data captured by
spend analysis tools so you can work with business units
to identify opportunities to rationalize the supply base,
negotiate lower pricing, or implement new requirements.
Identified opportunities can then be prioritized and cre-
ated within the software as new sourcing events or projects
including key stakeholders, project tasks, and milestones.
The output of each event or project is a short-term, mid-
term, or long-term agreement that can span one or more
deliverables and can be sourced from one or more quality
suppliers.
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SAP Ariba Sourcing provides robust
integration capabilities to third-party
systems so you can push and pull
sourcing event information.
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution
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Develop an informed sourcing strategy
Once you’ve identified sourcing events, you can use
SAP Ariba Sourcing to develop a strategic sourcing plan
or process that enables the greatest potential impact on
long-term business growth and profitability. Plans may
include multiple deliverables and vary with the complexity
of each project.
For example, sourcing 3,000 printer cartridges for U.S.
office locations requires a simple sourcing plan, such as
putting the project out to bid. But to source 150,000 laptop
computers for employees around the world, you need a
more complex plan that accounts for risk and compliance,
large volume and cost, the needs of different employees,
and so on.
SAP Ariba Sourcing lets you structure the most appropri-
ate process for simple to complex projects, specify key
deliverables, centralize content and communications, and
more. You can:
• Execute sourcing strategies and adjust plans as needed
• Centralize strategic sourcing information for faster and
easier access
• Gain real-time visibility into projects so you’re always
“in the know”
• Enable knowledge management so expertise and
experience are not lost over time
• Facilitate process compliance across departments and
office locations so that people follow an approved
comprehensive set of steps for sourcing multiple
spend categories
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution
Develop an informed sourcing strategy
Once you’ve identified sourcing events, you can use
SAP Ariba Sourcing to develop a strategic sourcing plan
or process that enables the greatest potential impact on
long-term business growth and profitability. Plans may
include multiple deliverables and vary with the complexity
of each project.
For example, sourcing 3,000 printer cartridges for U.S.
office locations requires a simple sourcing plan, such as
putting the project out to bid. But to source 150,000 laptop
computers for employees around the world, you need a
more complex plan that accounts for risk and compliance,
large volume and cost, the needs of different employees,
and so on.
SAP Ariba Sourcing lets you structure the most appropri-
ate process for simple to complex projects, specify key
deliverables, centralize content and communications, and
more. You can:
• Execute sourcing strategies and adjust plans as needed
• Centralize strategic sourcing information for faster and
easier access
• Gain real-time visibility into projects so you’re always
“in the know”
• Enable knowledge management so expertise and
experience are not lost over time
• Facilitate process compliance across departments and
office locations so that people follow an approved
comprehensive set of steps for sourcing multiple
spend categories
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution
Determine the right processes, activities, and tasks
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SAP Ariba Sourcing supports comprehensive category
management, including:
• Project management – Model best practices–based
sourcing and procurement processes, including phases,
tasks, milestones, team members, collaborators, and more
• Process, workflow, and approval management – Use
powerful process and workflow management and savings
tracking technology to accelerate sourcing cycles,
increase productivity, and track savings efficiently
• Document management – Enable easier document
collaboration, sharing, and management using version
controls, comment capabilities, and an audit trail
• Knowledge management – Capture and present orga-
nizational and category knowledge for reuse
• Resource management – Employ management and
reporting tools to manage user priorities and staff avail-
ability and use team management tools to deploy users
across projects
• Intelligent recommendation – Leverage machine
learning on the actions users take to provide intelligent
guidance on next steps
Together, these category management functions help
sourcing personnel determine the right processes, activities,
and tasks to use for a particular sourcing project given the
category, geography, and business units involved. In addi-
tion, they help project teams collaborate in dedicated
workspaces, share documents, and review and approve
selections, orders, and more. At the same time, managers
can view and understand current resource utilization,
constraints, and performance.
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution
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SAP Ariba Sourcing supports comprehensive category
management, including:
• Project management – Model best practices–based
sourcing and procurement processes, including phases,
tasks, milestones, team members, collaborators, and more
• Process, workflow, and approval management – Use
powerful process and workflow management and savings
tracking technology to accelerate sourcing cycles,
increase productivity, and track savings efficiently
• Document management – Enable easier document
collaboration, sharing, and management using version
controls, comment capabilities, and an audit trail
• Knowledge management – Capture and present orga-
nizational and category knowledge for reuse
• Resource management – Employ management and
reporting tools to manage user priorities and staff avail-
ability and use team management tools to deploy users
across projects
• Intelligent recommendation – Leverage machine
learning on the actions users take to provide intelligent
guidance on next steps
Together, these category management functions help
sourcing personnel determine the right processes, activities,
and tasks to use for a particular sourcing project given the
category, geography, and business units involved. In addi-
tion, they help project teams collaborate in dedicated
workspaces, share documents, and review and approve
selections, orders, and more. At the same time, managers
can view and understand current resource utilization,
constraints, and performance.
Objectives Quick factsBenefitsSolution