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SAP Ariba — Procurement & the SAP Business Network

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Version note: v1 — initial release

Section 1 of 7

What Ariba Is and the Source-to-Pay Process

A cloud procurement suite and the world's largest business network

SAP Ariba is SAP's cloud-based procurement and supplier-collaboration suite. Like SAP Concur, it is a SaaS application reached through a browser — there are no classic GUI transaction codes (T-codes) to memorise; you navigate role-based dashboards and guided screens. What sets Ariba apart is the SAP Business Network (formerly the Ariba Network), a vast cloud marketplace connecting millions of buyers and suppliers. When you transact in Ariba you are not just running internal software — you are collaborating with your trading partners on a shared network where purchase orders, order confirmations, ship notices, and invoices flow electronically between companies.

The two halves: strategic vs. operational procurement

Procurement splits into two complementary disciplines, and Ariba has products for each.

Strategic (upstream) procurement is about deciding what to buy and from whom on what terms: analysing spend, running competitive sourcing events, negotiating, and locking in contracts. This is Ariba Sourcing and Ariba Contracts.

Operational (downstream) procurement is about the day-to-day act of buying and paying: an employee requisitions an item, a purchase order is issued, goods are received, and the supplier's invoice is matched and paid. This is Ariba Buying & Invoicing (with Guided Buying as its friendly front end).

Source-to-Pay: the end-to-end chain

Stitched together, these products deliver the source-to-pay (S2P) process:

  1. Analyse spend — understand where money goes and find sourcing opportunities.
  2. Source — run an RFx or auction (Ariba Sourcing) to select suppliers competitively.
  3. Contract — capture the negotiated terms and prices in a contract (Ariba Contracts).
  4. Buy — employees requisition against catalogs and contract prices (Guided Buying / Buying & Invoicing).
  5. Receive & invoice — goods/services are received and the supplier invoices over the Business Network.
  6. Pay — the matched invoice settles, typically posting in the SAP S/4HANA backend.

The subset from requisition to payment (steps 4–6) is the procure-to-pay (P2P) process. Source-to-pay is the full strategic-plus-operational loop. Used together, Ariba Sourcing, Contracts, and Buying & Invoicing turn a negotiated price into an enforced catalog price into a matched, paid invoice — with the supplier collaborating on the same network throughout.