January 2018 Release: Feature Names & Descriptions for Buyers (webpage)

SAP Ariba On-Demand: January 2018 Release

We are pleased to announce the SAP Ariba January 2018 Release. This release includes features for Ariba Network and SAP Ariba Applications.

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Ariba Network Features

Quote Automation
Invoice Management
Supply Chain Collaboration

SAP Ariba Applications Features

Strategic Sourcing Features
Supplier Management Features
Procurement Features

Planned New Features for Ariba Network

Quote Automation Capabilities
Feature	Description	Solutions
Search and invite test account suppliers to bid on RFQs	Buyers can use buyer test accounts to search and invite test account suppliers to bid on RFQs. This feature helps buyers to test the complete flow of RFQ bidding.	Ariba Quote Automation
Specify award currency while awarding a bid	By default, quote automation allows buyers to award a bid in the currency which is specified in the bid by the supplier. With this feature, while awarding, buyers can select the currency in which the RFQ was posted. This feature is useful for buyers in cases where the item will be shipped from a local office and the regional rules require the purchase order to be issued with the correct currency.	Ariba Quote Automation
Show closing date for each RFQ on the RFQ postings page for suppliers and buyers	Quote automation displays the response deadline date for each RFQ on the postings page in SAP Ariba Discovery	Ariba Quote Automation
Improved comparison of data in the exported supplier responses file	When buyers export supplier responses, the CSV file additionally includes the following details: - Buyer initial values - Exchange rate at the time of review Buyers with RFQs having more than 20 line-items and more than 5 supplier bids per line-item can make a comparison to take decisions offline.	Ariba Quote Automation
Show a list of deleted RFQs on Terminated tab	Quote automation displays all the deleted RFQs in a new Terminated tab. This feature helps buyer administrators move the deleted RFQs into the Terminated tab so that buyers will not see unwanted RFQs. The buyer would like to move postings that are withdraw from the ERP to a terminated status. Buyer administrators would like to move these RFQs out of the work queue of the individual buyers.	Ariba Quote Automation
Export supplier responses in a semicolon-separated file	Buyers can also export supplier responses in a semicolon-separated file. This feature helps buyers who use semicolon-separated files for comparison of supplier responses.	Ariba Quote Automation
Show details of a bid award	When buyers split an award, quote automation displays the details of the split award so that buyers can refer to the details of how they have split the award. This feature is helpful if the buyer has split the award between multiple suppliers and wants to refer to the split award details at a later time.	Ariba Quote Automation

Invoice Management Capabilities
Feature	Description	Solutions
Invoice from ordered or received quantity triggered on a PO line item basis	Ariba Network suppliers can invoice based on ordered or received quantities. Buying organizations configure this option based on default invoicing rules or supplier group rules. However, buyers may want to use different invoice verification methods for the order’s line items. For instance, some items may require a receipt before invoicing, but others don’t. Buyers send the order to Ariba Network from their backend procurement system (such as SAP ERP) and the resulting cXML includes line-item control keys.	Ariba Invoice Automation

SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration Features
Feature	Description	Solutions
Generic framework for upload and download - manufacturing planning visibility upload	Typically, in contract manufacturing, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) maintain only critical bills of material (BOMs) while their contract manufacturers maintain exhaustive lists of components. With the "Generic framework for upload and download- manufacturing planning visibility upload" feature, suppliers can upload manufacturing-planning CSV files for inventory, supplier planning data, and visibility; and can search for these documents by type. After a supplier uploads a manufacturing-planning CSV file, Ariba Network generates a corresponding cXML document and triggers a transaction based on the cXML document.	Ariba Network buyer users with SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration enabled
Adding components and batch in order confirmation	Between the time a contract manufacturer receives a purchase order and the time the contract manufacturer begins manufacturing, the contract manufacturer might change the batches of components assigned to a particular order. Contract manufacturers need the ability to revise the batch and component information assigned to a purchase order, and to have those revisions delivered automatically to the relevant documents in their customers' ERP systems. With the "Order confirmation batch assignment" feature, contract manufacturers can update order confirmations ”including those for subcontracts ”ship notices, and component consumption updates.	Ariba Network buyer users with SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration enabled

Planned New Features for SAP Ariba Applications

SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing
Feature	Description	Solutions
Supplier bidding by email	This feature enables participants to respond to RFQs or submit bids for single-item events via email.	SAP Ariba Sourcing
Update Material Master Items in CLID from Sourcing Award	With this feature in addition to appending lines to a CLID in a contract workspace from a sourcing award, the lines with the same material number can now be updated.	SAP Ariba Sourcing SAP Ariba Contracts
Price by time for sourcing events and contract CLIDs	This feature extends the capabilities in Simple RFx that allows for collecting price by time for Sourcing events and Contract Line Item Documents. Buyers will be able to request pricing from the supplier for a # of periods, chose the periods(Month/Qtr/Year) and when to start the periods.	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
Placeholder Part Management	Allows for a user to add placeholder parts to a BOM to represent costs that need to be modeled but don't yet exist in the BOM. The feature enhances the users ability to replace the placeholder part with the actual part when it arrives with a BOM wide search and ability to copy pricing and splits.	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
Default plant	This feature is for customers who do not use plant or have only one plant. The feature allows you to store prices in the pricing database without having to select a contract manufacturer/plant.	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
BOM Roll-ups and Costing	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite enables buyers to integrate their Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems and load product bill of materials (BOMs) information into SAP Ariba. After buyers integrate BOM information into SAP Ariba, they can manage their hierarchical BOMs, materials, ownership, contract manufacturer, and pricing over time directly in SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite.	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
Ability to Add Additional Materials to Simple RFx Events	This feature allows for a buyer to add additional materials from the Material Master to Simple RFx events	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
Drag and drop for file uploads	Allow users the capability to drag and drop files for uploads	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite
Participant Read Only Line Items	This feature allows you to lock suppliers down on pricing for certain items while you continue to negotiate the price of other items within a sourcing event.	SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite

SAP Ariba Supplier Management
Feature	Description	Solutions
Ability to skip 'Send assessments' phase when no risk assessments are required	For scenarios when an engagement request does not require risk assessments, system will be able to automatically skip the task 'Send assessments'. Customers will be able to configure a parameter to select whether they still want to go through the 'Send assessments' phase in case when no risk assessments are required.	SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Editability conditions in supplier management questionnaires	Adds a new condition type for a question in a questionnaire to disallow editing of a response when the condition is met. For example allow editing only when registration status is Invited.	SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture)
Multiple category/region/BU selection in supplier search	Enhances search with ability to make multiple selections of Categories/Regions/BUs.	SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture)
Associating descriptive answers with codes in supplier management questionnaires	Adds capability to associate descriptive answers with codes as part of answer options (list of choices), and only persist the code (as identified via a pair of code delimiters) from the selected option(s) in the vendor master table.	SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture)

SAP Ariba Procurement
Feature	Description	Solutions
SAP Ariba Open APIs to fetch catalog data from SAP Ariba solutions	This feature introduces three new APIs on the SAP Ariba Open API Platform to enable external applications to fetch catalog data from SAP Ariba solutions.	SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing SAP Ariba Buying SAP Ariba Catalog
Support for synchronizing incremental catalog subscriptions from Ariba Network	With this feature, the Ariba Network Full Subscription Synchronization scheduled task picks up all the versions published on Ariba Network since the last run of the task. If the latest catalog version is a full load, then the previous incremental versions are ignored by the task.	SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing SAP Ariba Buying SAP Ariba Catalog
Catalog search relevance improvements	Improve search relevance by boosting search keyword matches to popular items and matches in the items ShortName	SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing SAP Ariba Buying SAP Ariba Catalog
Hide Price on Purchase Orders	This feature will enable requesters/approvers to optionally hide the Price/Amount of a Non catalog item on a Collaborative Requisition Request and a PO that is sent to Supplier on Ariba Network. If any item is hidden, the order total is also hidden. The hidden values are presented as "Undisclosed" for the supplier.	SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing SAP Ariba Buying
Sending purchase order attachments and comments in response to requests from external systems	This feature provides users of SAP Ariba Procurement solutions the ability to send the details of purchase orders, including their attachments and comments, in response to requests from external systems.	SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing SAP Ariba Buying
Support for approvals of user profile requests, invoices, and invoice reconciliations in Guided Buying	This feature enables end users in Guided Buying to approve user profile requests, invoices, and invoice reconciliations.	SAP Ariba Buying, with the guided buying capability SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing, with the guided buying capability

For more details, please contact your Customer Engagement Executive. This information reflects the status of SAP Ariba's planning as of January 2018 and the features discussed are subject to change at any time without notice. SAP Ariba assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions and nothing in this web page should be construed to represent any commitment by SAP Ariba to include any specific new features in any version of the SAP Ariba solutions.

Procurement

Service requisitions and email notifications

Easily create service requisitions in your SAP Ariba procurement solution and import service requisitions from external systems.
Streamline email traffic by managing system notifications based on user groups and roles or turning messages off for specific users.

Greater purchasing flexibility for users in guided buying

Enable users to shop by searching by supplier name to find goods and services.
Allow users to add/remove ad-hoc approvers to the approval flows to expedite and make approvals more accurate.

Click on a link to see what's planned for the release.

Quick Links

SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Features

SAP Ariba Supplier Management Features

SAP Ariba Procurement Features

Planned New Features for SAP Ariba Applications

SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing
Feature	Description	Solutions
Sourcing Requests tile	This feature introduces a new Sourcing Requests dashboard action tile for buyers. The Sourcing Requests tile shows information about sourcing requests for which buyers are the owner, team member, or both.	SAP Ariba Sourcing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, advanced edition
Support multiple currencies for line items in a Contract Line Items Document (CLID)	This SAP Ariba Contracts feature allows buyers to specify different currencies for different line items in a Contract Line Items Document (CLID).	SAP Ariba Contracts SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, advanced edition
Display changes made to line items in contract line items documents	This SAP Ariba Contracts feature allows owners of Approval, Review, or Negotiation tasks to view differences in line item attributes between the previous published version and revised (published or draft) contract line items documents (CLID) version, thus helping them quickly approve changes. This feature also allows buyers or creators of CLID documents to view differences in line item attributes between CLID document versions.	SAP Ariba Contracts SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, advanced edition

SAP Ariba Supplier Management
Feature	Description	Solutions
Search based on questions	This feature provides ability to search on any questions with limited answer types.	SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing, advanced edition

SAP Ariba Procurement
Feature	Description	Solutions
Combined Spend Contract Workspace	The concept of combined spend is introduced to permit businesses more visibility and greater flexibility in procurement spend. - Allow user to see Contract Terms related to Purchase Orders, Receipts, and Invoices - Allow user to see Contract Workspace related Purchase Orders and Invoices (ad hoc transactions) - Allow user to link contract document from other Contract Workspace projects that are combined spend
Enhancements to service requisitioning process	This feature includes the following enhancements to the service requisitioning process: - User interface changes to allow buyers to create service requisitions by specifying the item category. - Ability to import service requisitions from external systems and manage them in SAP Ariba Buying solutions.
Managing email notifications	This feature enables administrators to manage email notification settings and their recipients based on groups and roles. It also enables users to manage their individual email notification preferences and specify if they do not want to receive certain administrative emails.
Ability to add or delete approvers	This feature allows the end users to add ad hoc approvers/watchers to the requisition approval flow.
Supplier search and details page	This feature allows the user to search for suppliers by supplier Name. Suppliers are displayed as tiles in search results similar to catalog items. Users will also be able to look at basic Supplier information by clicking on the Supplier tiles.
Improved commodity selection on a request	This feature allows the user to choose a commodity code from an intuitive tree diagram when creating a request.
Enhanced sourcing processes	Add multiple line items on a request for quotation (RFQ). Cancel a submitted RFQ in cases where you decide not to move forward. Create sourcing request documents for high-touch tactical sourcing.
Enhanced landing page configuration	This feature provides an ability to define landing pages using an intuitive UI. The new interface supports landing pages tiles that lead to another landing page, a form, or an external web address.
Cross Catalog Search	This feature provides the user with the ability to search items from various content channels using a single search interface.
Report of expiring catalog items	With this feature, a new 'Catalogs with items expiring in 30 days' report displays the various catalogs that contain items that expire within the next 30 days.
Third-party systems integration for tax determination on approvable documents	This feature supports integration between SAP Ariba solutions and third-party tax calculation systems to allow users to add externally calculated tax data on requisitions and invoice reconciliation documents.
Enhanced approval flow reporting	This feature provides a new Approvals fact to include approval flow related information. Using this fact, customers can generate a single report to view approved by users, active, and pending approvers. This fact also includes approval cycle times, queue assignments, and provides information about delegated approver roles.
Customizing the accept and dispute action labels on invoice reconciliation documents	With this feature, customers can define the names of the accept and dispute exception-handling actions displayed on invoice reconciliation documents. This helps exception handlers to distinctly identify all the options available to resolve invoice exceptions before they choose the most appropriate action based on their business needs.
Invoiced amount accumulator changes on contracts and purchase orders	This feature provides an option to control if the invoiced and available amount calculation on no-release order contracts includes or excludes taxes and charges to avoid that contracts are closed prematurely. It also corrects the way that the remaining amount (amount that is yet to be invoiced) is calculated on purchase orders.
Self-service group management for private help communities	Assign special groups to your purchasing experts and to the people who maintain your custom help content in your guided buying private help community. Users in these groups can ensure a smooth and successful purchasing experience for your guided buying users.

For more details, please contact your Customer Engagement Executive.This information reflects the status of SAP Ariba's planning as of April 2017 and the features discussed are subject to change at any time without notice. SAP Ariba assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions and nothing in this web page should be construed to represent any commitment by SAP Ariba to include any specific new features in any version of the SAP Ariba solutions