SLP Setup
SLP Setup
About SM Administration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . .581
Workflow for Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. . . . . . . 582
Prerequisites for Integrating Dun & Bradstreet with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Configuring Dun & Bradstreet Integration in Your Site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun & Bradstreet Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier Request and Registration
Questionnaires. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Deletion of Dun & Bradstreet Data from Your Site. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .593
Field Reference for Dun & Bradstreet Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Default Data for Bank Account, Tax, and Address Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Default Bank Control Keys in Bank Account questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for IBAN Numbers in Bank Account Questions
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618
Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for Account Holder Names, Account Numbers,
and Bank Keys in Bank Account Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628
Default Country/Region-Specific Tax ID Field Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .646
Default country/region-specific ERP region code mappings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
Default Syntax Validation for Postal Codes in Supplier Addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .745
This guide is for SAP Ariba buyer template creators and administrators seeking information about how to maintain
supplier data and set up processes for managing supplier lifecycles.
Buyers use supplier lifecycle processes to add new suppliers, gather and maintain supplier profile information, and
decide which suppliers are qualified or preferred in specific domains.
Related Guides
Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba
Supplier Management Solutions
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions provide a set of linked projects for managing suppliers. Category and
supplier managers use supplier profile to manage these processes and monitor their suppliers in one place.
The following diagram illustrates the complete set of projects in an SAP Ariba supplier lifecycle:
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture). Both solutions offer:
• Defined, template-based projects for managing suppliers that scale easily to bring large numbers of suppliers
under management. These projects include:
• Internal and external requests for adding new suppliers to your vendor database.
• Supplier registrations for collecting and maintaining detailed profile information.
• (Optional) Supplier performance management (SPM) projects for evaluating the performance of the
suppliers with which you do business.
• Modular questionnaires for managing supplier certificates and collecting other reusable chunks of
information.
• A centralized supplier database with a complete, unified vendor model, and bidirectional integration with SAP
ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP MDG.
• A complete supplier profile for each supplier that provides guided navigation for supplier information and
lifecycle management activities.
• Supplier self-service through SAP Business Network
• "Matrix"-based supplier qualifications, preferred category status requests, disqualifications, and miscellaneous
lifecycle processes based on combinations of commodity categories, regions, and (optionally) departments.
Supplier qualifications can be managed using dedicated supplier qualification projects or qualification process
projects, which leverage modular questionnaires to collect information once and reuse it wherever it's
applicable. The flexible process framework also supports miscellaneous processes that can be tailored to
custom business processes and requirements.
• Built-in alignment with SAP Ariba Buying solutions and SAP Ariba Sourcing to leverage supplier qualifications
and preferred status in procurement and sourcing activities.
Supplier Qualification and Requalification Using Supplier Qualification Projects [page 26]
Key Assumptions for Setting Up SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions [page 31]
Integration Options for SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions [page 35]
Supplier IDs in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 36]
Transition from Supplier Organizations to Supplier Requests and Registrations [page 40]
Related Information
Procurement agents, functional buyers, people running sourcing events, and others in your company who want to
work with new suppliers can request a new supplier by filling out and submitting an internal supplier request form.
Note that there's a separate project for suppliers to create an external supplier request [page 15].
Requesters create internal supplier requests from the Create menu on the dashboard and monitor their progress in
the My Activities area of the Supplier Management dashboard. As the requester enters information in an internal
supplier request, an automatic duplicate check presents them with possible matches to suppliers that already
exist in the database. The requester then has the option of canceling the request if they see a valid match or of
submitting the request if they don't believe any of the potential matches are duplicates.
If your site is integrated with Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), the supplier request workflow also includes a step that looks
up the supplier in the Dun & Bradstreet database. If if the supplier isn't found, this workflow can also include an
exception process for requesting a non-D&B supplier.
Notifications inform approvers that the request requires approval. They can also see outstanding requests by
choosing Manage My Tasks on the dashboard. Notifications also inform the requester when the request has
been approved or denied, and show the final approver so that the requester can have further discussions about
denied requests. Approvers also see a list of potential duplicate suppliers so that they can deny duplicate requests
and approve only requests for genuinely new suppliers.
When a supplier request is approved, either automatically or manually, the supplier is created in your site's supplier
database. The information in the approved external supplier request shows in the Supplier request detail area of
the supplier's profile. If your site is integrated with Dun & Bradstreet, the new supplier profile includes data from
D&B.
If your site is integrated with SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S), the supplier request workflow
can also include a final step for validating approved supplier requests in SAP MDG-S before creating suppliers in
the database. If MDG-S identifies the supplier as a duplicate, SAP Ariba marks the approved request as a duplicate,
hides it, and redirects the requester to the existing, matched supplier instead. This option is only supported if your
supplier requests don't use Dun & Bradstreet integration.
Newly created suppliers are eligible for registration, which gathers detailed profile information about them. Your
site's configuration determines whether the supplier is automatically invited to register or a registration manager
can manually start an internal or external registration. If your site is integrated with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA,
or SAP MDG-S, your site's integration settings determine whether the new supplier is automatically or manually
synchronized with the integrated system's vendor master list either at this point or during supplier registration.
Related Information
External supplier request projects aren't available by default and are only available in sites where the feature is
enabled. As part of external supplier request enablement, SAP Ariba Support provides your organization with
an external supplier request URL that’s specific to your site. Your organization can provide this URL to potential
new suppliers through specific outreach programs, by publishing it on a corporate website, or through other
means. Suppliers can introduce themselves to your organization by clicking the URL, completing a ReCAPTCHA
verification, and filling out and submitting the external supplier request form. Note that there's a separate type of
request project for internal users at your company to request a new supplier [page 13]. External supplier requests
are sometimes called self-registration, but the form submitted is a request, the first step in working with a supplier.
Supplier registration [page 16], the next step, is a separate type of project.
Notifications let the approver know that the external supplier request requires approval; they can also see
outstanding external requests using Manage My Tasks on the dashboard. Approvers see a list of existing
suppliers in the database that match information in the external request so that they can deny duplicate requests
and approve only requests for genuinely new suppliers.
When an external supplier request is approved, the supplier is created in your site's supplier database. The
information in the approved external supplier request shows in the Supplier request detail area of the supplier's
profile.
Depending on your site's configuration, the supplier can be automatically invited to register at this point, or a
category or supplier manager can manually issue a registration invitation. If your site is integrated with SAP ERP,
SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S, your site's integration settings determine whether the new supplier is automatically
or manually synchronized with the integrated system's vendor master list either at this point or during supplier
registration.
Related Information
After a new supplier is created, a registration manager starts a supplier registration by sending one or more
external registration questionnaires to recipients. Registration projects can also include internal questionnaires,
and starting the registration makes them available for editing. Approvers review the submitted questionnaires and
approve or deny them. If the new registration is approved, the registration project then supports ongoing updates
to both external and internal questionnaires.
Internal Invites people in your organization to fill out and submit exter-
nal registration questionnaires on behalf of the supplier. Sup-
pliers don't participate in internal registrations, and you collect
registration information about them from people in your or-
ganization. A registration manager can invite the supplier to
participate in an internal registration later, converting it to an
external registration.
Both registration types use the same registration project and have the same registration statuses.
Depending on your site's configuration and the particular supplier, there are several different methods for starting a
registration:
(In sites that include SAP Ariba Sourcing) Automatically when- External
(In sites that include SAP Ariba Sourcing) Automatically when External
The registration process typically asks for detailed profile information about the supplier, such as the commodities
they supply, the regions in which they operate, what standards they adhere to or agree with, financial details, and
so forth. Depending on the way registration is set up in your site, it can include one or more external registration
questionnaires to gather this information.
Supplier registration projects can also include internal questionnaires that allow internal stakeholders to answer
questions about the supplier based on your organization's internal processes and to add internally important
information to the supplier's profile.
It's possible to cancel a registration while it's in progress. Canceling is the only way to convert an external
registration to an internal one after the supplier has been invited, and is useful if an external registration is stalled
and you want to complete it internally instead.
• The number of external registration questionnaires and the number of internal questionnaires (if any), and
their content.
• Registration approvers, and whether or not there are different approval flows and other tasks for new
registrations versus questionnaire updates.
• Whether other tasks are part of the registration workflow.
• Whether or not denial of an internal questionnaire affects the supplier's registration status in a new
registration.
• How long external questionnaires remain open so that suppliers can submit their answers.
Users with the appropriate permissions start the registration, send one or more external questionnaires to
recipients, fill out any internal questionnaires, review the questionnaire responses, request more information,
complete To Do tasks, approve or deny the registration, and view its progress and status in the Registration detail
area of the supplier's profile.
In external registrations, the supplier submits external registration questionnaires in their SAP Business Network
profile. To do so, they must create an SAP Business Network account if they don't already have one. The supplier's
profile is automatically shared between SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions.
Once registration is complete, the supplier is public, meaning that they have a linked SAP Business Network
account in your site.
In registrations that are done using the Set Registered option, registration managers choose this option in the
supplier's profile and the supplier doesn't participate at all. The Set Registered option is available only after the
supplier request is approved. When registration managers choose this option, the system immediately sets the
status of the supplier to Registered. In addition, the system synchronizes supplier data with your ERP systems
automatically or with manual intervention depending on how your site is configured. This data then becomes
available for supplier qualifications or for use in other SAP Ariba procurement applications. After setting a supplier
as Registered, you can still start an internal or external registration project. However, if you do so, the registration
process starts and the Set Registered option is only available again if you cancel the newly started registration.
Notifications inform:
• Questionnaire recipients that they've been invited to register, including a link to the external questionnaires.
• The requester for the supplier that the registration has started.
• Approvers that they need to approve a new or updated registration questionnaire.
• Internal stakeholders that they need to complete other tasks.
• The supplier that the registration has been approved, denied, or requires more information (in external
registrations only).
If a registration invitation includes multiple external questionnaires, questionnaire recipients receive a separate
notification for each questionnaire. If the registration has been canceled, notifications inform registration managers
of the cancellation.
As your organization's registration process evolves over time, an administrator can upgrade existing registration
projects to the latest version of the template. An upgrade can include changes to internal or external
questionnaires, tasks, and approval flows. The administrator can opt to sent notifications about the upgrade
to supplier contacts so that they can update affected questionnaires. Internal users don't receive upgrade
notifications.
If your site is integrated with an SAP ERP system, your site's integration settings determine whether a new
supplier is automatically or manually synchronized with your ERP vendor master list. Many organizations require
registration before synchronizing a new supplier to the ERP system.
For suppliers with external registrations, additional settings allow registration managers to establish a fulfillment
relationship with the supplier as they register, at the same time as the sourcing relationship is established.
In solutions that include SAP Ariba Sourcing, event templates can specify that suppliers must be registered to
either participate in or be awarded events. There's also a configuration option for requiring a minimum registration
status for participation in sourcing events.
Related Information
Supplier registration projects can be set up to support different approval flows for new registrations and for
updates to individual questionnaires.
When a new registration starts, external registration questionnaires are open for the amount of time defined in
the template questionnaire's timing rules. Once the recipient submits the questionnaire the first time, it closes
automatically. After all of the tasks in a new registration are completed and the supplier has Registered status,
previously closed external questionnaires automatically reopen for an amount of time defined by your site's
configuration and configurations in individual questionnaires. The default amount of time a questionnaire remains
open is 365 days from the approval. The recipient assigned to the external questionnaires in a registration can
navigate to them and submit updates at any time when they're not in approval. External questionnaires can be set
up to generate periodic reminders asking suppliers for updates.
Internal registration questionnaires are also always open for update when they're not in approval.
In a new registration, once the recipient invited to the registration opens at least one questionnaire, only they
can access the external questionnaires in the registration. In internal registrations, the registration project owner
can also access external questionnaires. After the new registration is approved, you can reassign external
questionnaires to a different recipient at any time when no external questionnaire updates are in approval.
Only the assigned recipient or, in internal registrations, the registration project owner, can update the external
questionnaires.
If a registration starts as an internal registration, meaning that people in your organization submit questionnaires
on behalf of the supplier, internal recipients can continue to update those questionnaires. A registration manager
can invite the supplier to an internal registration, transferring ownership of external questionnaires to a supplier
contact. When a supplier contact submits external questionnaires from a registration that was previously internal
for the first time, that initial submission is also treated as an updated.
As your organization's registration process evolves over time, an administrator in your organization can upgrade
existing registration projects to the latest version of the template. An upgrade can include changes to internal
or external questionnaires, tasks, and approval flows. The administrator can opt to sent notifications about the
upgrade to supplier contacts so that they can update affected questionnaires. Internal users don't receive upgrade
notifications. Suppliers or internal recipients can also choose to update registrations for other reasons.
When a recipient submits an update to an external registration questionnaire, the supplier remains in Registered
registration status, but has a separate Pending Approval registration update status.
The new registration workflow includes all of the tasks associated with all of the questionnaires in a new
registration. If your registration projects include one or more registration update phases to define tasks for
registration updates, each questionnaire update is handled individually. When a respondent submits an update
to an external or internal registration questionnaire, only the tasks associated with that questionnaire start, and
task owners or approvers can complete the tasks related to the questionnaire being updated. When there are no
remaining tasks in progress for the questionnaire that is being approved and no tasks in progress for the other
questionnaires in the update phase, the update status is Approved.
If the registration update isn't set to auto-approve, approvers approve or request more information for registration
updates. If the updates are approved, they're added to the supplier's profile. The supplier remains in Registered
registration status, but has Approved registration update status. The registration update status is always based on
the entire workflow defined by all of the tasks in registration update phases.
Related Information
A supplier management process project is a framework that includes a collection of modular questionnaires to
gather information relevant to the process and a workflow for deciding an outcome. A process project can be for:
• Qualification: If your organization uses process projects for supplier qualifications, the modular questionnaires
can ask for specific qualification-related information for a particular combination of commodities, regions,
and departments. A qualification process can include one or more general modular questionnaires that cover
your organization's universal qualification criteria. It can also include specific modular questionnaires related
to critical information or certifications for specific commodities, regions, and departments. Qualification
processes can include both internal and external questionnaires.
If your company uses a qualification process and you're a process initiator for it, you can create and manage
those qualification process projects in the Qualifications or Processes detail area of the supplier profile.
• Miscellaneous processes: If your organization uses process projects for any other types of supplier
management process, they can also include external or internal modular questionnaires relevant to that
specific process. If your organization uses a miscellaneous process and you're a process initiator for it, you can
create and manage those process projects in the Processes detail area of the supplier profile.
• Discontinuation: If your organization uses qualification process projects, they can be disqualified using a
discontinuation process. A discontinuation process can also include internal modular questionnaires to collect
information about the reason for discontinuing the qualification process. You can fully or partially discontinue
existing qualification processes in the Qualifications detail area of the supplier profile.
Data imported in your site determine whether a process is a qualification process, discontinuation process, or
other (miscellaneous) process and the names of its statuses. The process project template determines:
Within a process, each modular questionnaire is defined by its own template, which determines:
• The questionnaire's type, which determines the processes it's included in.
• Whether the questionnaire is internal or external.
• Whether or not the questionnaire is required in matching processes.
• The commodities, regions, and departments to which the questionnaire applies.
• The content of the questionnaire.
• The approval flow for the questionnaire.
• Whether there are other tasks in the questionnaire's workflow.
• Whether or not the questionnaire project itself has an expiration date, and if so, which people in your
organization receive notifications of pending and elapsed expirations in addition to the questionnaire owner.
• Whether the expiration of a certificate in a questionnaire triggers the questionnaire project's expiration as well.
• Whether or not recipients can update the questionnaire after it's first approved, and if so, whether or not the
updates also require approval and the update approval flow.
• Whether the questionnaire automatically generates update requests to recipients each time it's included in a
new or renewed process.
Each modular questionnaire contains its own answers. Once a recipient has submitted a modular questionnaire for
the first time, those answers are available in the questionnaire in any process that reuses it.
Users with the appropriate permissions create a process for a supplier in the relevant area of their supplier profile.
Process creation involves several steps:
1. The process initiator chooses what type of process they want to create, then specifies the commodities,
regions, and departments for the process and answers any other questions in the process intake form. If the
2. The process initiator sees the modular questionnaires that are both included in the process and match
the process commodities, regions, and departments. These questionnaires can be newly assigned, meaning
that they’ve never been filled out before for this particular supplier. If they've already been filled out and
approved for the supplier, the process initiator has the option to request an update, or the update request
Notifications let questionnaire recipients know that they need to fill out or update their assigned questionnaires
and inform the supplier primary contact that they've been invited to participate in the process.
Suppliers fill out or update external modular questionnaires and view any processes to which they've been
invited in their SAP Business Network account. Internal recipients fill out or update the internal modular supplier
management questionnaires to which they've been assigned in the Questionnaires detail area of the supplier's
profile or from the detail page for the process. Task owners and approvers complete To Do tasks and approve or
deny individual questionnaires in the Questionnaires detail area or from the process details page as well.
While a process is in progress, the process project owner can cancel it if necessary.
After all approvals and other tasks for every questionnaire in the process are completed, a decision-maker for the
process makes a final status decision for it in the Qualifications, or Processes detail area of the supplier profile.
These final statuses have names that are specific to your organization's business process, but they correspond to
an approved, conditionally approved, or denied status.
Once a process is complete, a process initiator can renew it to collect updated information for a new status
decision. For qualification processes, a renewal is a requalification.
Decision-makers can also update the final status for a process at any time without a renewal. For example, if a
critical underlying questionnaire expires without an update, a decision-maker can change the final status of the
After a qualification process has been approved, category or supplier managers can evaluate the supplier for a
preferred category status level (if your organization uses preferred supplier levels) for the same combination of
commodities, regions, and departments or a subset. This option isn't available if the process is only conditionally
approved.
The process initiator of an approved or partially approved qualification process can fully or partially discontinue the
qualification process.
Customer administrators can also create processes using data imports. These processes aren't based on projects
and don't have associated questionnaires or workflows. However, if the imported process has an eligible status,
users with the appropriate permissions can:
Canceling a process created using a data import doesn't generate any notifications, since there's no associated
project.
Related Information
Note
This topic describes qualification and requalification using supplier qualification projects. If your site uses
the process projects to manage supplier qualifications, refer to Qualification and Miscellaneous Supplier
Management Process Projects [page 21].
Supplier qualification questionnaires typically ask for detailed information from the supplier that’s specific to the
qualification's commodities and regions. For example, qualification questionnaires can ask suppliers about their
sourcing and sustainability processes; shipping, delivery, and return policies; commodity-specific certifications;
compliance with policies; and other matters. New qualifications are always based on commodities and regions that
a qualification manager selects. They don't have to be for the commodities and regions for which the supplier is
registered. Qualifications and requalifications are also based on departments if they're enabled in your site.
When a supplier has either been disqualified or had a qualification expire, they're eligible for requalification.
Qualifications and requalifications use the same workflow; however, a requalification is always based on the same
commodities, regions, and departments as the previous disqualification or expired qualification.
• The questionnaire segments for various commodity, region, and department combinations, and which
segments are required.
• The approvers for the qualification or requalification. In sites that use buyer category assignments, approvers
are automatically assigned based on the commodities, regions, and departments of the qualification or
requalification.
• The content of the questionnaire segments.
• Whether other stakeholders in your organization must also approve the qualification or requalification.
• Whether internal questionnaires or other tasks or documents are part of the qualification or requalification w.
• Whether the qualification expires after a specific date, and if so, whether there's a waiting period before the
supplier can be requalified.
The category or supplier managers assigned to the supplier start a new qualification or a requalification, send
the questionnaire, review the supplier's answers, request more information, approve or deny the qualification or
requalification, and monitor the approval flow and status in the Qualification detail area of the supplier's profile on
the Supplier Management tab of the dashboard. The supplier answers the qualification questionnaire in their Ariba
Network for Suppliers profile. The supplier's profile information is automatically shared between SAP Business
Network and SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions.
Notifications let the supplier know that they've been invited to qualify for specific commodities, regions, and
departments and provide a link to the questionnaire; let approvers know that they need to approve a supplier
qualification or requalification; let supplier or category managers know when one of their qualifications has expired
or is eligible for requalification; and let the supplier know that the qualification or requalification has been approved,
denied, or requires more information.
At any point after the supplier qualification or requalification has been approved, category or supplier managers
can:
• Start new qualifications for additional combinations of commodities, regions, and departments.
• Evaluate the supplier for a preferred category status (if your company uses preferred supplier management
projects).
• Disqualify the supplier for commodities, regions, and departments for which it was previously qualified.
In solutions that include SAP Ariba Sourcing, event templates can specify that suppliers must have specific
qualification statuses for the event's commodities and regions to either participate in or be awarded events.
Departments aren't considered for event eligibility.
Although a customer administrator can set preferred statuses for suppliers using a data import operation in both
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions, preferred supplier management projects are only available in solutions
that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
Supplier preferred category status is always based on a combination of commodity and region. It can also be based
on departments if the department feature for supplier management projects is enabled in your site.
• What information users add to the preferred category status request form.
• Whether the preferred category status request requires approval, and if so, who the approvers are.
• Whether other stakeholders in your organization must also approve the status change.
Users request a preferred category status for a new commodity, region, and department combination, or a change
to an existing status, in the Preferred detail area of the supplier's profile on the Supplier Management dashboard.
Up to five status levels are supported, including the preferred level. They also remove preferred status levels there.
Note
• You can't combine multiple qualified combinations in the same preferred status request. For example, if a
supplier has separate qualifications for Electronic reference material and Printed media in the Canada
region, you must create individual preferred category status requests for each category.
• If your site uses process qualifications, you can request preferred category status for any valid process
qualification or a subset.
If the preferred supplier management workflow includes an approval flow, notifications let the approver know that
the preferred status change request requires approval; let the requesting user know when the preferred status
request has been approved or denied;s and show the final approver so that requesting users can have further
discussions about denied preferred status requests.
In solutions that include SAP Ariba Sourcing, event templates can be set up to automatically invite the suppliers
that are preferred for the event's commodities and regions. Department isn't considered for automatic event
invitation.
Although a customer administrator can set qualification statuses for suppliers using a data import operation
in both SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions, supplier qualification and disqualification projects are only
available in solutions that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
Note
Disqualification projects work with qualifications based on supplier qualification projects. If your site uses
process projects to manage supplier qualifications, you don't use disqualification projects to manage
disqualification statuses. For more information, refer to Qualification and Miscellaneous Supplier Management
Process Projects [page 21].
Disqualifications are always based on a previous qualification. However, the disqualified commodities and regions
don't have to match exactly, and the disqualification always applies to all commodity or region levels below the
ones approved for disqualification. For example, a supplier can be qualified for Europe and later disqualified only
in France; that disqualification applies to all departments and cities in France. Disqualifications are also based on
departments if they're enabled in your site.
Category or supplier managers start the disqualification, approve or deny it, and monitor the approval flow and
status in the Qualification detail area of the supplier's profile on the Supplier Management dashboard.
If a disqualification includes an approval flow, notifications let the approver know that the disqualification requires
approval, let the requesting user know when the disqualification has been approved or denied, and show the final
approver so that requesting users can have further discussions about denied disqualifications.
Qualification managers can requalify disqualifications. If a qualification is restricted, a qualification manager can
only do so after the restricted period has passed and the supplier is disqualified. If a disqualification has a minimum
disqualification period, they can only do so after that date has passed. They can also start new qualifications for
categories, regions, and departments other than the ones for which the supplier was disqualified.
Note
• If a supplier is requalified for a process, the supplier can again be marked "preferred" for the same
combination of commodity, region, and department.
• If a supplier is qualified for more than one process type for the same commodity, region, and department
combination, is preferred for the same combination, and is subsequently disqualified for one of those
processes, then the "preferred" status is automatically invalidated.
Related Information
SPM projects periodically solicit feedback from internal stakeholders based on a standardized set of criteria that is
applied to all suppliers.
The category or supplier managers assigned to the project manage review cycles and use the information
gathered in them to evaluate and act on supplier performance by, for example, collaborating with suppliers on
improvements, designating them as preferred suppliers, or initiating disqualifications.
SPM projects use the classic SAP Ariba project interface, meaning that they aren't visible in supplier profiles on
the Supplier Management tab or linked to other supplier management projects. Supplier or category managers
create them by clicking Create SPM Project on the dashboard, and view them by searching for projects on
the Home dashboard.
Details on using SPM projects are covered separately in Running supplier performance management reviews.
• Your site has all common master data that isn't specific to suppliers (commodities, regions, users,
departments, and so forth) loaded.
• The commodity, region, and (optionally) department data used in supplier management projects uses a
hierarchical structure with an "All" root node at the top of the hierarchy and, to the degree possible, multiple
levels of groupings. In some supplier management projects such as qualifications, disqualifications, and
preferred supplier management projects, the commodity/region/department combination for the project is
an important part of its functionality. If your master data uses a flat structure with a large number of low-level
values, users must add large numbers of low-level commodities, regions, or departments to those projects if
they want to include broad categories, regions, or departments, resulting in potential performance issues for
project-related queries. Structuring your commodity, region, and department data so that they can add the
most appropriate grouping at a higher level avoids this problem. Supplier management project performance is
likely to be poor if the project includes more than 50 commodity, region, and department values. In addition,
if you use the user matrix (buyer category assignments) to populate project groups based on the project
commodity, region, and department, a well-defined hierarchy with groupings at multiple levels can provide
better user matrix coverage.
For example, if a category or supplier manager wants to qualify a supplier for shoes, but your commodity
master data only includes level 4 entries for mules, kitten heels, pumps, hiking boots, running shoes, and so
forth, the category or supplier manager must add each of those individual commodities to the qualification
project, and all queries related to that qualification must include all of those individual commodity values. On
the other hand, if your commodity hierarchy includes a level 3 value for shoes, with all of those level 4 values
located under it, the category or supplier manager can simply qualify the supplier for shoes, resulting in more
efficient qualification queries using the single commodity value.
In some cases, only one or two of the three "matrix" elements (commodity, region, and department) is
important in the project. For example, a qualification manager can qualify a supplier globally for a specific
commodity, or qualify a supplier for a commodity in Europe regardless of department. Including a top-level
value for "All" at the top of your commodity, region, and department hierarchies allows the category or supplier
Related Information
Introduction to Supplier Management in SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions [page 12]
Where to Find More Information [page 47]
Integration Options for SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions [page 35]
Note
If the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is
enabled in your site, you use process projects for supplier
qualification. You can also create process projects for cus-
tom lifecycle processes.
To use these APIs, you must complete the onboarding process on the SAP Ariba developer portal (https://
developer.ariba.com/api/ ). For instructions on how to do so, see the documentation there.
The Supplier Data API with Pagination includes endpoints that allow you to:
• Extract basic supplier details, project IDs, questionnaires, and questionnaire content, including information on
certificate questions.
• Update registration, qualification, and modular questionnaires.
• Update qualification, preferred, and process decision statuses.
It uses pagination tokens to paginate results, and includes query and filter parameters that let you filter results. For
details, refer to Supplier Data API with Pagination.
The external approval API allows you to process supplier management approval tasks in an external system,
including the addition of comments. You can also use it to lock manual process decision-making while a Supplier
Data API with Pagination client application sets the status decision. For details, refer to External Approval API for
Sourcing and Supplier Management.
Note that in addition to creating a client application with the API, you must configure the approval tasks in your
supplier management projects [page 510] to allow external approval.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions Integration with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/
4HANA Cloud, and SAP MDG
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions support integration with SAP ERP and SAP Ariba Supplier Management
solutions, with or without SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S), using SAP Integration Suite,
managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network.
In configurations that include MDG-S, integration options enable validation of supplier requests in MDG-S before
the supplier record is created in the SAP Ariba supplier database and approval in MDG-S of updates to supplier
data in registration questionnaires.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions support integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud using SAP Integration
Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network and SAP Master Data Integration
(MDI) for customers who meet all prerequisites and requirements.
These integration methods includes bi-directional synchronization of supplier data between SAP Ariba Supplier
Management solutions and the ERP system.
• For integrations with SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA, SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway for Spend
Management and SAP Business Network Configuration Guide
• For integrations with SAP MDG, Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
• For integrations with SAP S/4HANA, Integrating Supplier Data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud with SAP Ariba
Solutions Using SAP Master Data Integration
If you have migrated from supplier organizations and have an existing supplier data integration using the SAP Ariba
integration toolkit, you can continue to use that integration to import of a limited set of supplier data from an ERP
system to SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions in CSV data files. For details and restrictions, refer to .
If you have migrated from supplier organizations and have an existing supplier data integration using SAP Ariba
SOAP web service APIs, you can continue to use that integration to import of a limited set of supplier and supplier
contact data from an ERP system to SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions. For details and restrictions, refer
to Use of SOAP Web Service APIs for Supplier Data Integration with the Unified Vendor Model.
Related Information
Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway for Spend Management and SAP Business Network Configuration Guide
SOAP Web Service API Integration Guide
A supplier in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance
Management (new architecture) can have the following IDs:
ERP vendor ID A mandatory ID for the supplier, which • ERP Vendor ID in supplier profiles
must be unique in combination with the • erpVendorId in data imports
supplier's source system.
and exports in Manage SM
A supplier's ERP vendor ID can come Administration
from one of the following sources:
• ERP Vendor ID in JSON re-
• Automatic assignment by SAP sponses for Supplier Data API with
Ariba: SAP Ariba automatically as- Pagination client applications
signs an ERP vendor ID that starts • smsupplierid in the
with VDR and a source system of SupplierIDs.csv file used by
SM to all new suppliers created man- supplier organization data import
ually in SAP Ariba through an ap- tasks for operational procurement in
proved supplier request. In sites that
Manage Core Administration
are integrated with SAP ERP or SAP
Site Manager Data Import/
S/4HANA, this VDR ERP vendor ID
serves as a placeholder until the Export , in sites that include SAP
grated system and obtains the "real" as SAP Ariba Buying or SAP Ariba
SM vendor ID A unique ID that SAP Ariba assigns auto- • SM Vendor ID in supplier profiles
matically to suppliers in SAP Ariba Sup- • smVendorId in data imports and
plier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP exports in SM Administration
Ariba Supplier Information and Perform- • SM Vendor ID in JSON re-
ance Management (new architecture).
sponses for Supplier Data API with
Supplier Data API with Pagination client Pagination client applications
applications use SM vendor IDs to re-
trieve or update data for specific suppli-
ers.
DUNS ID A unique identifier assigned to suppliers • dunsId in data imports and ex-
by Dun & Bradstreet, a company that ports in SM Administration
maintains detailed information about • Duns Id in JSON responses for
companies, and also known as a D-U-N-S Supplier Data API with Pagination
Number. client applications
ANID An ID that SAP Business Network auto- • Ariba Network ID or ANID in sup-
matically assigns to suppliers when they plier profiles
create accounts there. • An Id in JSON responses for Sup-
plier Data API with Pagination client
A private supplier is a supplier that exists
applications
in your site but doesn't have a linked SAP
Business Network account. (The supplier Both of these fields hold the supplier's
can have an SAP Business Network ac- sourcing ANID.
count, but if they do, it's not yet linked to
your site.) A public supplier has a linked
SAP Business Network account and an
ANID in your site.
Related Information
The unified vendor model offers more flexible tools for gathering profile data, and in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance it includes additional methods for information-gathering and supplier management through
qualifications, preferred supplier management, and disqualifications.
SAP Ariba offers tools for migrating data from supplier organizations, supplier users, and supplier profile
questionnaires to the unified vendor model and supplier registration questionnaires. For information on these
tools, refer to Migrating Suppliers to the Unified Vendor Model.
• Rich supplier profile with all supplier information and management functionality in one place.
• Unified vendor master data management, with a complete vendor model in a supplier database and
bidirectional integration with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP MDG.
If your site uses Supplier Performance Management (SPM) projects, they continue to be standalone projects
and aren't accessible from the supplier profile.
In sites that have transitioned from supplier organizations to the unified vendor model, users can no longer
explicitly create new suppliers. The new supplier request and registration processes replace both supplier creation
(workspace projects) and the supplier profile questionnaire. Existing suppliers that are migrated to the unified data
model no longer have a Profile tab or data in the supplier profile questionnaire. Instead, they have a Supplier
Management tab where they can search for suppliers and view supplier profiles, which include data managed in
supplier registration and other supplier management questionnaires.
This transition means that template creators no longer update your site's supplier workspace template and
supplier profile questionnaire. Instead, they set up request and registration project templates. Category and
supplier managers work with supplier data on the Supplier Management dashboard, and manage registration
in each supplier's profile instead of on the Profile tab.
The following table summarizes the differences between supplier organizations with the supplier profile
questionnaire and the request and registration workflow for gathering supplier profile information:
Supplier creation Users in different supplier management Users such as sourcing agents and func-
Supplier profiles A supplier organization's Profile tab A supplier's profile on the Supplier
shows common profile fields and the Management dashboard shows request
supplier's answers to the supplier profile and registration information, information
questionnaire. from the ERP system, and information
from SAP Business Network.
Questionnaires Users collect information about suppliers Users collect information about suppli-
using the supplier profile questionnaires. ers using separate internal and external
registration questionnaires and modular
questionnaires.
Supplier search Users search for suppliers from any Users search for suppliers based on
dashboard tab based on values in profile name, ID, or contact name from any
fields. They can't filter search results. dashboard tab, and results are shown on
the Supplier Management tab. They can
filter search results based on commodity,
region, status, and other criteria.
Synchronization of new suppliers to the In integrated sites, all new suppliers are The stage of the request or registration
integrated ERP system initially synchronized to the ERP system process at which new suppliers are ini-
after they're created. tially synchronized to the integrated ERP
system is configurable.
SAP Companion provides online help to buyers who view and manage suppliers on the Supplier Management
dashboard tab. For supplier management, SAP Ariba provides:
• In-application help for many supplier profile pages and for the supplier search page, with standard help content
that provides a descriptive explanation of the user interface elements.
• Access to product documentation.
• Access to tutorials through the Learning Center.
• Ability to add custom help content and customize the layout and presentation, if you have a valid SAP Enable
Now license.
Prerequisites
• The parameter Web Assistant in-context help for supplier management must be enabled in your site. If the
supplier profile summary feature (NGSM-2959) is enabled in your site, this parameter controls the availability
of in-application help on that page as well.
• For custom content:
• You must have a valid license for SAP Enable Now.
• The self-service configuration parameter Specify the Web assistant JavaScript template URL for
supplier management must be enabled in Intelligent Configuration Manager. This parameter requires a
template URL that you can only obtain with a valid license for SAP Enable Now.
• To edit content in SAP Companion, you must be a member of the SAP Enable Now User group in your SAP
Ariba site and have the author role with write permissions assigned to you in Enable Now Manager.
Tip
In the Administration SAP Companion Integration area of Enable Now Manager, toggle on the
Enable Editor Globally setting while adding or editing custom content, but toggle it off to make that
The user interface pages that have online help contain a question mark icon ( ) on the right edge of the page. You
can click the question mark icon to open SAP Companion.
• For detailed instructions on how to set up and configure the SAP Companion for custom content, refer to SAP
Companion Integration Guide.
The integration guide includes information on SAP Companion setup for SAP Ariba.
• For instructions on how to add and manage content in the SAP Companion, refer to the SAP Companion
Authoring Guide.
Related Information
To deploy custom help content, you must map the page in the supplier management user interface where the help
content appears and the corresponding custom help page. Pages in the supplier management user interface are
identified by page IDs in SAP Companion.
The following table lists the IDs of the pages that support custom help content.
Search results The supplier search results page with fil- supplierSearch
ters that shows after a supplier search on
the Dashboard.
Supplier profile summary This page is only available when the sup- ngsmSupplier360
plier profile summary (NGSM-2959) is
enabled in your site, where it replaces the
Summary area.
ERP data area The ERP data detail area of the supplier erp-data-container
profile.
Public profile area The Public profile area of the supplier public-profile-container
profile.
Activity log area The Activity log detail area of the sup- activity-log-container
plier profile.
Registration invitation page The Registration detail area of the sup- registration-start-
plier profile when a supplier is in Not invitation
Invited registration status.
Qualification details page The qualification details page that you qualification-details-
see when viewing an individual qualifica- container
tion created from a qualification project,
which includes summary information,
process flow graph, questionnaires, and
tasks.
Note
• While adding custom help content in SAP Companion, you need the page ID to link the content to the
specific pages. When a new page is added to the supplier management user interface, it's assigned a page
ID.
• Currently, there's no support for SAP Companion in pages specific to process projects.
Managing master data other than suppliers (including users, Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba
regions, commodities, and so forth) into your site and un- Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Manage-
linking public suppliers' SAP Business Network accounts and ment Solutions
ANIDs
Note
The information about importing supplier data and man-
aging suppliers and supplier users in this guide doesn't
apply to your solution.
SAP Ariba project templates in general, including documents, Project Template Guide
task, teams, versioning, and publication
Note
The information in this guide is general. Supplier manage-
ment project templates have a number of specific restric-
tions and requirements, and don't support a number of
general project template features.
SAP Ariba project templates in general, including documents, Managing Projects, Teams, Documents, and Tasks
task, teams, versioning, and publication
Note
projects in general, including details about approval and To Do
Since users interact with supplier management projects
tasks
in a specialized workflow, for details about how users inter-
act with supplier management projects, refer to Managing
Suppliers and Supplier Lifecycles.
Managing enterprise users in your site Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba
Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Manage-
ment Solutions
Understanding what permissions each supplier management Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management Group Descrip-
user group has in detail tions
Setting up sourcing event templates to use qualified and pre- Event Management Guide and Event Rules Reference Guide
ferred suppliers
General templates for email notification templates generated Managing Project Email Notifications
by SAP Ariba projects and their tasks
Setting up Supplier Performance Management (SPM) projects Configuring Supplier Performance Management Reviews
Setting up integration with SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway for Spend Manage-
ment and SAP Business Network Configuration Guide
Setting up integration with SAP Master Data Governance for Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance
Suppliers (MDG-S)
Using supplier management-related SAP Ariba APIs on the • Help for the SAP Ariba Developer Portal
SAP Ariba developer portal • Supplier Data API with Pagination
• External Approval API for Sourcing and Supplier Manage-
ment
Understanding and using SAP Ariba security features SAP Ariba Security Guide
Monitoring security-related system information such as Managing SAP Ariba Audit Information
changes to user records, application data, and application con-
figurations
Purging supplier transactional and master data Intelligent Configuration Manager Administration
SM Administration is a collection of tasks for managing functionality related to suppliers, including importing
supplier data, setting configuration parameters, and configuring supplier data integration.
The tasks that are available in SM Administration depend on your organization's SAP Ariba solution package, the
features that are currently enabled in your site, and your user permissions.
Data import or export (appli- Import and export supplier-re- Data Imports for Supplier and SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
cable data import tasks) lated data. Supplier-Related Data [page and Performance
119]. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Guided buying
Default field values Set default field values to Setting Default Values for Ven- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
meet ERP requirements. dor Database Fields [page and Performance
512]. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
ERP Integration Configure integration with an Setting Up Initial Supplier SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
Data Synchronization to the and Performance
SAP ERP system.
ERP System. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
For guided buying, this area tion and Performance Man-
is only applicable in sites that agement (new architecture)
have supplier data integration SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
with SAP S/4HANA Cloud us- Guided buying
ing SAP Master Data Integra-
tion.
Integration status Monitor inbound and out- Viewing and Managing Sup- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
plier Data Integration Mes- and Performance
bound integration messages
sages [page 518] SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
and troubleshoot errors.
tion and Performance Man-
For guided buying, this area agement (new architecture)
is only applicable in sites that SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
have supplier data integration Guided buying
with SAP S/4HANA Cloud us-
ing SAP Master Data Integra-
tion.
Mass invite Onboard large numbers of • Mass Registration Invita- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
suppliers at once by issuing and Performance
tions for Suppliers [page
mass registration invitations, SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
554]
or invite a large number of tion and Performance Man-
suppliers at once to fill out a • Mass Modular Question-
agement (new architecture)
modular questionnaire.. naire Invitations for Sup-
pliers [page 559]
Questionnaires Import external registration Importing Supplier Registra- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
questionnaire data. tion Questionnaires [page and Performance
567]. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
Inactive Suppliers Inactivate or reactivate suppli- Supplier Inactivation and Re- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
ers. activation [page 563]. and Performance
SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Auto migration Automatically migrate sup- Migrating Suppliers to the Uni- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
plier organizations and sup- fied Vendor Model. and Performance
plier profile questionnaires. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
Cancel qualification Cancel in-progress qualifica- Canceling an In-Progress Sup- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
tion projects. plier Qualification Project and Performance
[page 575].
Template upgrade Upgrade supplier registration How Registration and Mod- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
or modular questionnaire ular Questionnaire Template and Performance
projects to the latest template Upgrade Works [page 207]. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
version. tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Config Configure Dun & Bradstreet Refer to Dun & Bradstreet In- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
integration. tegration with SAP Ariba Sup- and Performance
plier Lifecycle and Perform- SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
ance [page 581]. tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
Advanced view configuration Manage access to project ad- Refer to Managing Access to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
vanced view by project type the Advanced View of Supplier and Performance
and control which permissions Management Projects [page SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
allow advanced view access. 577]. tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
Reports Download vendor onboarding Refer to Creating a Supplier SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
reports. This vendor onboard- Data Snapshot. and Performance
ing report is also available as a SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
supplier data snapshot. tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
Service Admin Authorize access to Supplier Refer to Supplier Data API SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
Data API with Pagination cli- with Pagination. and Performance
ents using v3 or below of the SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
API. v3 is deprecated, and cli- tion and Performance Man-
ent applications using later agement (new architecture)
versions of the API can use
realm query parameters to
authorize access.
Configuration Parameters Manage configuration param- Refer to Managing Configura- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
eters for supplier-related fea- tion Parameters in SM Admin- and Performance
tures and functions. istration [page 817]. SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Guided buying
BTP Applications Perform required configura- Specifying the SAP Business SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
tions for enabling the supplier and Performance
Technology Platform Subac-
profile summary.
count Application URL for Ac-
cessing the Supplier Profile
Summary [page 59]
Use these steps to enable the supplier profile summary in your site.
Prerequisites
• A deployed SAP Ariba site that includes at least one of the following solutions:
• SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
• SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
For each individual supplier, the content that's available in the profile summary depends on your site's solution
package and the activity and data associated with the supplier. For more information, refer to About the
Supplier Profile Summary.
• A user in your SAP Ariba site who is a member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
• An SAP for Me account with S-user login credentials. This account must have an entitlement to the SAP Ariba
Supplier Management SAP Business Technology Platform subscription. For more information on how to
request such an account, see the SAP for Me website .
• An SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication account. Your organization must have a tenant in and
complete the setup steps in Identity Authentication, and an administrator must have roles there that allow
them to manage tenant configuration and users.
• Users created in your SAP Ariba site. For specific prerequisites for creating corresponding users in SAP Ariba
and SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication to enable single sign-on, see Considerations and
Requirements for User Setup in SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication [page 58].
• For the Operational Score panel, SAP S/4HANA 1809 or higher, or SAP S/4HANA, cloud edition, with the
Supplier Operational Evaluation app.
Context
If your SAP Ariba solution package includes SAP Ariba Supplier Risk and you've already enabled the findings
feature (ARI-16846), you've already completed some of the necessary configuration steps.
Procedure
1. In SAP for Me, log in as an S-user and request provisioning for SAP Ariba Supplier Management.
See Provisioning the SAP Ariba Supplier Management Subscription on SAP Business Technology Platform
[page 54].
The same single sign-on configuration applies to all SAP Ariba supplier management applications
accessed through Identity Authentication. If you've already completed it when setting up Finding and
Event Collaboration, you can skip this step.
b. Create a corresponding user in Identity Authentication for each user in your SAP Ariba site. For more
information, refer to Considerations and Requirements for User Setup in SAP Cloud Identity Services -
Identity Authentication [page 58].
3. In your SAP Ariba site, perform the following actions:
• Name: supplier360-operational-score
• Type: HTTP
• URL: the URL of the SAP S/4HANA application where the operational score data originates
• Authentication: BasicAuthentication
• User and Password: authentication credentials for the SAP S/4HANA application
For more information, see the topics about creating and managing destinations in the SAP BTP
documentation.
Prerequisites
• Your SAP Ariba site must be deployed and include the relevant solution entitlements. For example, if you're
provisioning the SAP Ariba Supplier Management SAP BTP subscription to enable Finding and Event
Collaboration, your site must include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.
Context
For more information on SAP for Me, including an introductory video, demonstration, and information about
gaining access, visit https://me.sap.com/ .
Provisioning in SAP for Me automatically establishes a connection between your SAP Ariba applications and the
specified applications on SAP BTP.
Provisioning doesn't automatically establish single sign-on or synchronize users between those applications. Set
up single sign-on separately and ensure that the same users exist in both your SAP Ariba site and in SAP Cloud
Identity Services - Identity Authentication. See Setting Up SAP Ariba Single Sign-on for SAP Ariba Supplier
Management [page 56] and Considerations and Requirements for User Setup in SAP Cloud Identity Services
- Identity Authentication [page 58].
Provisioning the SAP Ariba Supplier Management SAP BTP subscription provisions certain optional features
to which you're entitled as part of an existing SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions subscription.
Procedure
• In SAP for Me, follow the steps for requesting provisioning. For details, see Products Available for Provisioning
Card in the SAP for Me help.
Results
After you've submitted the provisioning request, you can track its progress. For details, see Provisioning Status
Card in the SAP for Me help.
Successful provisioning returns a URL. Users access the provisioned applications through your SAP Ariba site
instead.
Provisioning also creates a subaccount for you in an SAP-managed SAP BTP global account. Details about and
access to this subaccount are included in the fulfillment profile for your provisioning request. The permissions
you have in this subaccount include the ability to create destinations and to assign a role collection to an
Identity Authentication user group. A role collection assignment is a required step for enabling Finding and Event
Collaboration.
Related Information
Management
Use these steps to grant users in your SAP Ariba site single sign-on access to applications associated with the
SAP Ariba Supplier Management SAP Business Technology Platform subscription, such as Finding and Event
Collaboration and the supplier profile summary.
Prerequisites
Your organization must have a tenant in and complete setup steps in Identity Authentication, and an administrator
must have roles there that allow them to manage tenant configurations and users.
If your SAP Ariba site isn't already configured for single sign-on, you must contact SAP Ariba Support and request
them to configure single sign-on in your site's profile before proceeding with the steps in this procedure.
Context
Your SAP Ariba site uses Identity Authentication for single sign-on between it andSAP Ariba supplier management
applications such as Finding and Event Collaboration and the supplier profile summary on SAP BTP. Single
sign-on allows users with the appropriate permissions to seamlessly transition between your SAP Ariba site and
these SAP BTP applications.
For example, single sign-on allows users to view supplier profiles on the Supplier Management dashboard in
your SAP Ariba site. It also allows who have roles in findings to seamlessly transition between their Supplier
Risk dashboard and engagement pages in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk and finding workflows in Finding and Event
Collaboration.
Note
• The steps in this procedure are high-level steps that only mention the specific values that are required for
this single sign-on scenario. For detailed procedures and information about all required settings, see the
SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication documentation.
The procedure in this topic describes how to configure single sign-on between your SAP Ariba site and Identity
Authentication at a high level. Single sign-on between Identity Authentication and SAP BTP must also be
configured. Provisioning the SAP Ariba Supplier Management SAP BTP subscription includes single sign-on
between the provisioned SAP BTP subaccount and Identity Authentication.
For more information about single sign-on between SAP Ariba and Identity Authentication, see Single Sign-On with
Corporate Authentication and User Authentication and Single Sign-On Using the SAP Cloud Identity Services –
Identity Authentication Service in the SAP Ariba documentation and SAP Ariba Integration Scenario in the Identity
Authentication documentation.
Procedure
1. In Identity Authentication, create a new application with a Type of SAP Ariba solution. See the topic Create
SAML 2.0 Application in the Identity Authentication documentation for details.
2. Configure the SAML 2.0 service provider for your new tenant with the following manual settings:
a. For Name, enter your site's enterprise URL.
b. For Assertion Consumer Service Endpoint (ACS), enter your site's default ACS URL, which is the URL
used for single sign-on.
c. For Single Logout Endpoint, enter a value if necessary. This setting is optional for this configuration.
d. Copy in your SAP Ariba signing certificate.
e. For the digest algorithm for signing outgoing messages, choose SHA-256
Note
Currently, your SAP Ariba site doesn't generate a metadata profile for SAML 2.0 service provider
configuration, so all configuration is manual.
See the topic Configure SAML 2.0 Service Provider in the Identity Authentication documentation for details.
3. Configure the subject name identifier using Login Name as the Login ID. Login Name is currently the only
supported option for this single sign-on scenario. See the topic Configure the Subject Name Identifier Sent to
the Application in the Identity Authentication documentation for details.
4. In the Tenant Settings area, capture the following information and provide it to SAP Ariba Support for use in
their configuration of single sign-on in your SAP Ariba site:
a. Make note of the following endpoints:
Assigning Internal Users to Roles in Findings Based on the Associated Commodities, Regions, and Departments
Considerations and Requirements for User Setup in SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication [page
58]
Adding Users to Findings Groups in SAP Cloud Identity Services - Identity Authentication
Internal users in your SAP Ariba site access supplier management applications on SAP BTP, such as the supplier
profile summary and Finding and Event Collaboration, using single sign-on through Identity Authentication.
Configuring single sign-on is required for enabling features that use these applications.
Single sign-on requires every internal user in your SAP Ariba to have a corresponding user in SAP Cloud
Identity Services - Identity Authentication. When creating these parallel user objects, keep in mind the following
requirements and considerations:
• The Login Name for each user in Identity Authentication must exactly match their User name in your SAP
Ariba site. Single sign-on uses Login Name as the Login ID.
• Identity Authentication requires a unique email address for each user, which isn't the case in your SAP Ariba
site.
• Identity Authentication also requires that each Login Name is unique across all user types. Your SAP Ariba site
only requires a unique User name per user type (buyer, supplier, or third party).
If you plan to download user data from your SAP Ariba site as a basis for creating new users in Identity
Authentication, make sure to make any necessary corrections so that the data meets Identity Authentication
requirements.
See the topic Create a New User in the Identity Authentication documentation for details.
Currently, for Finding and Event Collaboration, external users (supplier contacts) and third-party users are
available in findings from SAP Ariba Supplier Risk supplier records and can be added to the findings team. They use
links in email notifications about the findings where they're added to create Identity Authentication accounts and
access those findings.
Tip
It's not necessary to manually create these users one by one. You can:
• In Identity Authentication, import up to 25,000 users at a time in CSV files. See the topic Import CSV File
with Full User Profile in the Identity Authentication documentation for details.
• Use SAP Cloud Platform Identity Provisioning on SAP BTP to integrate user master data between Identity
Authentication and SAP Ariba. See the step on provisioning and distribution of SAP Global User ID in the
SAP Ariba Integration Scenario topic in the Identity Authentication documentation.
Prerequisites
You have completed provisioning of the SAP Ariba Supplier Management SAP BTP subscription in SAP for Me.
This provisioning creates a customer-specific subaccount in an SAP-managed account. For more information, see
Provisioning the SAP Ariba Supplier Management Subscription on SAP Business Technology Platform [page 54].
Procedure
Related Information
In addition to these general best practices, the following topics describe best practices for setting up templates for
specific project types:
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template
[page 223]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting up the External Supplier Request Project Template
[page 231]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Registration Project Template [page
246]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template
[page 223]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Qualification Project Template [page
313]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Disqualification Project Template
[page 321]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Preferred Supplier Management Template
[page 324]
• Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 330]
• SAP Ariba recommends that you add no more than 500 pieces of content to an individual questionnaire.
Adding more than 500 pieces of content can cause performance to degrade progressively as you add more
content.
• It's not necessary to publish template survey documents in supplier management project templates.
Publishing a new version of the template automatically publishes all changes to its survey documents.
• Don't combine a Bank Account question with individual questions mapped to vendor.bankInfos fields in
the same questionnaire. Either use a Bank Account question or use individual mapped questions in a single
questionnaire.
• No more than one questionnaire per project can include mapped questions for commodities, regions, and
departments.
• It's possible to create project field match conditions on global user groups to control which users can see the
template. Using a project field match on user groups is intended only for controlling overall template visibility.
This configuration is useful in some types of projects, such as sourcing events and contract workspaces, where
the project creator selects which template to use. It isn't supported in supplier management projects, since
project creators don't use the classic project creation workflow and don't choose the template to use.
Use of field matches on user groups for individual project items within a template, such as tasks or project
groups, isn't supported in any type of project.
• Currently, SAP Ariba doesn't synchronize data in mapped questions in modular questionnaires to an integrated
ERP system. Collect ERP-related data in supplier requests or registration questionnaires instead.
• Repeatable sections have the following restrictions related to integration:
• Supplier contact information isn't synchronized to the integrated system.
• While you can collect multiple supplier extended addresses in repeatable sections, replicating multiple
addresses to the integrated system isn't currently supported.
• Data in nested repeatable sections isn't synchronized to the integrated system. The integration best
practice is to add Tax and Bank Account questions to unnested repeatable sections in the external
registration questionnaire.
• Use of GenericCustomField mappings in repeatable sections isn't supported.
• Use of custom fields isn't a best-practice, verified scenario for integrations. If you map a question to a custom
field in the vendor.businessPartnerGenericCustomField or vendor.supplierGenericCustomField
class, that field is automatically created in the SAP Ariba supplier database. Replicating a supplier from an
integrated ERP system with data in custom fields in those classes also creates those fields in the SAP Ariba
supplier database. However, this scenario is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape
based on your specific requirements.
• Maintain international address versions directly in the integrated ERP system rather than in SAP Ariba.
• Import default properties [page 512] to set the following required default values:
vendor.vendorInfoExt.recon 1 All
ciliationPeriodCounterValu
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba
e
2205 release, this value is automatically
set in initial site configurations at de-
ployment.
vendor.roleExt.roleCode For integration with SAP MDG-S and SAP MDG-S and SAP S/4HANA
SAP S/4HANA, use the answer to the
question in the supplier request about
account group [page 71] to condition-
ally set required values [page 517] for
vendor.roleExt.roleCode. The
following example shows required val-
ues:
name,value,vendor.vendor
InfoExt.maintenanceProfi
leCode
vendor.roleExt.roleCode(
FLVN01),FLVN01,KRED
vendor.roleExt.roleCode(
FLVN01),FLVN01,LIEF
name,value,vendor.vendor
InfoExt.maintenanceProfi
leCode
vendor.roleExt.roleCode,
FLVN01,KRED
Note
For integrations with SAP ERP,
don't set any default role code in
SAP Ariba. After initial synchroni-
zation, the supplier is created in
the integrated system with a ge-
neric business partner role. Based
on your requirements, specific role
codes can then be added in the
integrated system to maintain pur-
chasing organizations and com-
pany code information for the sup-
plier. SAP Ariba recommends as-
signing purchasing organizations
and company codes using business
name,value,vendor.vendor
InfoExt.maintenanceProfi
leCode
vendor.vendorInfoExt.num
berRangeIntervalBusiness
PartnerGroupCode(0001),0
001,KRED
vendor.vendorInfoExt.num
berRangeIntervalBusiness
PartnerGroupCode(0002),0
002,LIEF
name,value,vendor.vendor
InfoExt.maintenanceProfi
leCode
vendor.vendorInfoExt.num
berRangeIntervalBusiness
PartnerGroupCode,0001,KR
ED
• If you plan to collect supplier bank account information that includes only IBAN numbers, refer to SAP Note
3926463 for information about required configurations in SAP ERP, SAP MDG-S, or SAP S/4HANA.
External approval of supplier Contact SAP Ariba Support to SAP MDG-S • Requiring SAP MDG-S
enable, then enable in the in- validation and approval
creation
tegration settings in your site of supplier creation in
This feature adds a final step SAP Ariba Supplier Life-
in the supplier request appro- cycle and Performance
val process for validating ap- solutions
proved requests in SAP MDG- • How to require SAP MDG-
S. If SAP MDG-S returns a rep- S validation and appro-
val of supplier creation in
lication message that referen-
SAP Ariba Supplier Life-
ces an existing supplier, SAP
cycle and Performance
Ariba marks the requested
supplier as a duplicate, hides
it in the user interface, and
redirects the requester to the
matched supplier instead.
Note
Use of this feature to-
gether with supplier re-
quest Dun & Bradstreet
integration (SM-7213)
hasn't been verified
and isn't currently recom-
mended. Either use exter-
nal approval of supplier
creation or Dun & Brad-
street integration, but not
both.
External approval for up- Contact SAP Ariba Support to SAP MDG-S • Requiring external sys-
enable, then enable in the in- tem approval for updates
dates to supplier data in SAP
tegration settings in your site to supplier data in SAP
Ariba
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
This feature adds a final step and Performance
in the approval process for up- • How to require exter-
dates to information in map- nal approval for supplier
ped questions in supplier reg- data updates in SAP
Ariba Supplier Manage-
istration questionnaires where
ment solutions
SAP Ariba sends an approval
request to SAP MDG-S and
only updates the supplier re-
cord if the update is approved
in SAP MDG-S. SAP Ariba rec-
ommends that this feature al-
ways be enabled in sites inte-
grated with SAP MDG-S.
Use Internal Format for ERP Contact SAP Ariba Support to All
disable if necessary
Vendor Id
<TextSAPScriptLine
>
<mdg:OrdinalNumber
Value>1</
mdg:OrdinalNumberV
alue>
<mdg:SAPScriptLine
FormatCode
xsi:nil="true"/>
<mdg:SAPScriptLine
Text
xsi:nil="true"/>
</
TextSAPScriptLine>
If a respondent deletes an
existing answer from a map-
ped question in an SAP Ariba
questionnaire, the value in the
field updates to a blank (null)
value. When the questionnaire
update is synchronized to an
integrated ERP system, the
corresponding empty element
isn't included in the integra-
tion message and therefore
doesn't remove the previous
answer in the integrated ERP
system, causing a mismatch
in supplier profile data in the
2 systems.
Integration best practices also rely on the following features, which were initially released as optional features but
are now automatically enabled in all customer sites:
You can verify that these features are enabled in your site by checking that they're available to add to survey
documents in supplier management project templates. Contact SAP Ariba Support to enable any of these features
that aren't currently enabled.
Configuration parame-
ter Recommended setting Configuration method Applicable systems Notes
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba release with an internal supplier request project template in version 1, these
best practices are captured in default request content. For details, refer to Default Best Practice Content for the
Internal Supplier Request [page 227].
SAP Ariba supports the following mapped questions in the supplier request for integration:
Supplier name Text (single line limited) vendor.vendorInfo.na Required to create the sup-
me1 plier record in SAP Ariba.
Supplier contact email ad- Text (single line limited) contact.email Required to create the sup-
dress plier record in SAP Ariba.
Supplier contact first name Text (single line limited) contact.firstName Required to create the sup-
plier record in SAP Ariba.
Supplier contact last name Text (single line limited) contact.lastName Required to create the sup-
plier record in SAP Ariba.
Supplier account group Text (single line limited) with vendor.vendorInfoExt This question is required.
a list of choices of account .maintenanceProfileC
group codes in the integrated ode In integrations with SAP MDG-
system as the Acceptable S or SAP S/4HANA, you can
Values use its answer to set required
default values for
vendor.roleExt.roleC
ode and
vendor.vendorInfoExt
.numberRangeInterval
BusinessPartnerGroup
Code by importing default
properties.
Data collected in this way synchronizes to the integrated ERP system. SAP Ariba also recommends adding some
data to supplier records in the integrated ERP system rather than in SAP Ariba.
Currently, SAP Ariba has the following recommendations for internal registration questionnaires in sites that are
integrated with an SAP ERP system:
• Don't include questions about supplier company codes and purchasing organizations. Add company code and
purchasing organization information to supplier records in the integrated ERP system rather than in SAP Ariba.
• Don't include questions that set blocked indicators. Set blocked indicators in the integrated ERP system rather
than in SAP Ariba.
To enable setting and editing supplier keywords or internal aliases in SAP Ariba, you can optionally create questions
in an internal registration questionnaire mapped to these fields:
• vendor.vendorInfoExt.keyWordsText
• vendor.vendorInfoExt.additionalKeyWordsText
SAP Ariba currently supports the following mapped questions in external supplier registration questionnaires for
supplier data integration.
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba release with a supplier registration project template in version 1, these best
practices are captured in default content for the external registration questionnaire. For details, refer to Default
Best Practice Content for the Internal Supplier Request [page 227].
Telephone or mo- Country/Region Text (single line limited) with a list of vendor.addres You can also in-
bile number (inside code valid country/region codes in SAP MDG- sExt.telephon clude a question to
a repeatable sec- S as Acceptable Values e[$index].num set the telephone
tion) berCountryCod
usage code
e
(vendor.addre
Main number Text (single line limited) vendor.addres ssExt.telepho
sExt.telephon ne.usage.usag
e[$index].num
eCode), but it isn't
berSubscriber
required.
ID
Or you can set
Extension Text (single line limited) vendor.addres
default telephone
sExt.telephon
and mobile de-
e[$index].num
fault usage co-
berExtensionI
D des for all suppli-
ers using configu-
Mobile flag Yes/No vendor.addres ration parameters
sExt.telephon [page 791] in SM
e[$index].mob
Administration.
ilePhoneNumbe
rIndicator
Bank details (inside a repeatable section) Bank Account vendor.bankIn Bank Account
fos[$index] questions allow
suppliers to pro-
vide bank mas-
ter data such as
bank address and
bank name for
buyer reference in
a supplier registra-
tion questionnaire.
These fields cur-
rently aren't vali-
dated against bank
master data in the
integrated system.
Integrations with
SAP ERP, SAP S/
4HANA, and SAP
MDG-S currently
don't support bank
account numbers
longer than 18
characters.
You can add other, unmapped questions to external registration questionnaires needed. SAP Ariba recommends
adding an approval task to the external registration questionnaire.
Note
SAP Ariba doesn't currently recommend mapping supplier name and address questions to international
versions in sites integrated with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S.
Data imports create suppliers and supplier-related data in your site, and can also define important functionality in
supplier management projects. You can export the current data in your site.
Depending on the nature of the data, you import and export supplier-related data in one of the following two
locations in your site:
• Administration Site Manager Data Import/Export , which includes data import and export tasks
related to:
• Functionality in supplier management projects, such as questionnaire, certificate, and process types,
preferred supplier levels, and scoring bands.
• Fields, validation, and other behavior in bank, tax, and address questions.
• SM Administration Data import and export , which includes data import and export tasks related to:
• Suppliers and supplier contacts
• Supplier lifecycle statuses such as internal registration, qualification, preferred, and process, and supplier
characteristics such as diversity
• Automation of some functions in supplier management projects, such as buyer category assignments to
project teams (the user matrix) and assignment of process project statuses
There's also a separate workspace for importing custom SAP region codes.
Data Imports for Supplier Management Projects and Questionnaires [page 76]
Business Partner IDs for ERP Suppliers Added Through SAP Ariba Procurement solutions [page 173]
Depending on your solution and the features enabled in your site, supplier management projects and
questionnaires can use the following types of data:
Preferred supplier levels [page 78] Names of the 5 preferred supplier management statuses in
your site (SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance only).
Modular questionnaire types [page 80] Types for the modular questionnaire projects in your site.
Supplier certificate types [page 83] Types for the certificates you collect using certificate manage-
ment in modular questionnaire projects.
Questionnaire scoring bands [page 86] Groupings or bands into which you divide different ranges of
modular questionnaire scores.
Questionnaire scoring band categories [page 85] Different types of scoring bands you use for scoring modular
questionnaires.
Process types [page 90] Types for the qualification and other lifecycle processes in your
site (SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance only, in
sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798)
is enabled).
Custom process statuses [page 92] Custom statuses for the process types in your site, which are
mapped to standard project states (SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecy-
cle and Performance only, in sites where the flexible process
framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled).
Country/region-specific tax ID fields [page 96] Country/region-specific tax ID fields, including supplier field
mappings and validation patterns, that are used in answers to
Tax questions in supplier management questionnaires.
Country/region-specific bank ID prefixes [page 99] Optional country/region-specific prefixes used in automatically
generated bank IDs for Bank Account questions in supplier
management questionnaires.
Country/region-specific bank control keys [page 102] Country/region-specific bank control key values available in
the Control Key field of Bank Account questions in supplier
management questionnaires.
Country/region-specific IBAN number syntax [page 104] Country/region-specific syntax against which IBAN number
answers in Bank Account questions is validated.
Country/region-specific syntax validation for bank account Country/region-specific syntax validation for bank account
holder name, account number, and bank key or ABA routing holder name, account number, and bank key or ABA routing
number [page 107] number answers in Bank Account questions.
Country/region-specific ERP region code mappings [page 111] Country/region-specific mappings between the custom SAP
region codes in Extended Address questions and the state
codes in supplier profile addresses on SAP Business Network.
Country/region-specific postal code validation for supplier ad- Country/region-specific syntax validations for postal codes in
dresses [page 112] Address and Extended Address questions.
Mappings between guided buying ship-to addresses and pre- Mappings between the 2-character ISO country codes used in
ferred and qualified supplier regions [page 115] guided buying and the region codes your site uses to identify
preferred and qualified suppliers.
These types of data are specific to supplier management. The Common Data Import and Administration Guide for
SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions describes data imports for
Note
The information on importing supplier data in Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba
Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions, and the data import tasks in
Ariba Administrator for importing and exporting supplier organizations and profiles, apply only to sites that
don't use the unified vendor model. Sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP
Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture) use the unified vendor model. In
sites that use the unified vendor model, there's a separate process for importing supplier data.
Guided Buying Ship-To Address-to-Preferred and Qualified Supplier Region Mapping Data Import [page 115]
Related Information
Examples of preferred supplier levels include number ranges (such as 1-5) and text labels (such as High, Medium,
Low). The most preferred suppliers are associated with a lower number ("1"), and the least preferred suppliers are
associated with the higher number ("5").
You use the Import Preferred Supplier Level data import task to define preferred supplier levels. The task reads
from the PreferredSupplierLevels.csv file, which includes the following fields:
Field Description
Note
Sourcing event templates have settings that allow you
to automatically invite preferred suppliers to sourcing
events that match their categories and regions. Suppliers
with a preferred category status that corresponds to a
UniqueName of 1 are automatically invited as preferred
suppliers.
The following example shows lines of the PreferredSupplierLevels.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName
Gold,1
Silver,2
Bronze,3
After you've defined preferred supplier levels in PreferredSupplierLevels.csv, you import it into your site.
You use the Import Translations for Preferred Supplier Level data import task to define preferred supplier levels.
The task reads from the PreferredSupplierLevels.csv file, which includes the following fields:
Field Description
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Oro,1,Spanish
Or,1,French
Ouro,1,BrazilianPortuguese
After you've defined preferred supplier level translations in PreferredSupplierLevels.csv, you import it into
your site.
Related Information
Questionnaire types specify the different categories or areas into which your organization's modular questionnaires
are divided, based on their purpose or other categories. Each modular questionnaire template has a type that
determines its use.
For example, your organization can define questionnaire types such as Compliance, Finance, Quality,
Certifications, and so on. Based on your site's modular template configurations, modular questionnaire
managers can send different modular questionnaires based on their questionnaire type as well as the commodities,
regions, and departments applicable to a specific lifecycle process.
If your company uses modular questionnaires, you must define their types. If the types you use are text labels, you
must also define translations for each language you use in your site.
You use the Import Questionnaire Types data import task to define questionnaire types. The task reads from the
SMQuestionnaireType.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the SMQuestionnaireType.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Description,EvaluationType,Name,UniqueName
Health and safety requirements,Graded,Occupational Health and Safety
Requirements,OHSR
Certifications,NonGraded,Certifications,CERT
You use the Import Translations for Questionnaire Types data import task to define translations for the
questionnaire types you defined in SMQuestionnaireType.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes
the following fields:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Requisitos de Salud y Seguridad Ocupacional,OHSR,Spanish
Arbeitsschutzanforderungen,OSHR,German
Related Information
For example, your organization can define certificate types such as Small Business, Women Owned, Green,
various ISO standards, and so on.
If your organization uses certificate management, you must define certificate types. If the types you use are text
labels, you must also define translations for each language you use in your site.
Tip
When defining your certificate types, keep in mind that the names of certificate types (which you define in the
Name field) and their translations show in the following places:
• A dropdown menu that template creators use when creating certificate questions in modular supplier
management questionnaires.
• Certificate information in suppliers' profiles.
• As search filters in supplier search on the Supplier Management dashboard.
• The subject lines of email notifications sent to suppliers and internal users to inform them of certificate
expirations.
• In your suppliers' Ariba Network for Suppliers accounts, next to the certificate questions they've answered
for you.
Use the Import Certificate Types data import task to define questionnaire types. The task reads from the
CertificateType.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the Certificate.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Description,Name,UniqueName
Green Certified,Green,GRN
ISO 9001,ISO 9001,ISO9001
You use theImport Translations for Certificate Types data import task to define translations for the certificate
types you defined in CertificateType.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines from a CSV file for certificate type translations, as well as the mandatory
header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Verde,GRN,Spanish
Grün,GRN,German
Related Information
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
Adding a Certificate Section with Customizable Certificate Fields [page 391]
Scoring band categories define the different types of scoring bands your organization can use in questionnaire
scoring, based on the type of questionnaire data being scored or other categories. Each scoring band type includes
a set of individual bands.
For example, you can create a scoring band category called Compliance to use in modular questionnaires that
assess a supplier's compliance with different standards and procedures. You define the bands for the Compliance
band type in a separate scoring band data file.
If your organization uses scoring and banding in modular questionnaires, you must define scoring band categories.
There's no limit to the number of band categories you can define. If the categories you use are text labels, you must
also define translations for each language you use in your site.
You use the Import Scoring Band Categories data import task to define scoring band categories. The task reads
from the SMBandCategory.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the SMBandCategory.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
Description,Name,UniqueName
Scoring band category for compliance-related questionnaires,Compliance,Compliance
Scoring band category for audit-related questionnaires,Audit,Audit
You use the Import Scoring Band Category Translations data import task to define translations for the scoring
band types you defined in SMBandCategory.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
The following example shows a line from a CSV file for scoring band category translations, as well as the mandatory
header
UniqueName,Name,Description,Language
Compliance,Conformidad,Tipo de banda de puntuación para cuestionarios relacionados
con la conformidad,Spanish
Related Information
Each band category can include one or more bands. There's no technical limitation on the number of bands per
band category, but you can only assign them 16 pre-defined HTML colors . In practice, it's a good idea to create
no more than five bands per category to keep guidelines clear and prevent approvers and other stakeholders
from having to make subjective judgments on the differences between narrow bands. Keep in mind also that the
template creator must use all of the bands defined for the selected band category in a questionnaire. They can't
pick and choose which bands to use.
You define the bands themselves, their labels, and their associated colors in scoring band data. For example, for
the Compliance band category, you can define bands of Noncompliant (red), Marginally Compliant (yellow),
If your organization uses scoring and banding in modular supplier management questionnaires, you must define
scoring bands. If the band names you use are text labels, you must also define translations for each language you
use in your site.
You use the Import Scoring Bands data import task to define scoring bands. The task reads from the SMBand.csv
file, which includes the following fields:
• Aqua
• Black
• Blue
• Fuchsia
• Gray
• Green
• Lime
• Maroon
• Navy
• Olive
• Purple
• Red
• Silver
• Teal
• White
• Yellow
The color visually differentiates scores
that fall within different bands. It's a good
idea to use a different color for each
band in a single band category; other-
wise, approvers and other stakeholders
must know how to interpret the numeri-
cal differences between scores that fall
within different bands.
The numerical range to the right of the Name in the hover text is the band range defined in the modular
questionnaire project template.
The following example shows lines of the SMBand.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
BandCategory.UniqueName,Color,Description,Name,UniqueName
Compliance,Red,Band for noncompliant scores,Noncompliant,Compliance0
Compliance,Green,Band for fully compliant scores,Fully Compliant,Compliance3
You use the Import Scoring Band Translations data import task to define translations for the scoring band
categories you defined in SMBand.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
The following example shows a line from a CSV file for scoring band category translations, as well as the mandatory
header
UniqueName,Name,Description,Language
Conformidad,Completamente en conformidad,Banda para puntajes completamente en
conformidad,Spanish
Related Information
Process types define the different supplier management processes used in your site and associate each type with a
predefined SAP Ariba lifecycle stage. Each process project template has a type that determines its use.
You associate a process type with one of the following lifecycle stages:
Qualification The qualification stage of the lifecycle. Users with the appropri-
ate permissions can start, manage, and view process projects
for this stage in the Qualification detail area of a supplier's
profile.
If your organization uses process projects, you must define their types. If the types you use are text labels, you
must also define translations for each language you use in your site.
Note
• For qualification and miscellaneous process projects, there's a 1:1 relationship between process types and
process project templates. One template defines the workflow for one process type. You can't associate
more than one process project template with a single process type.
Currently, you can define only one discontinuation process type and one discontinuation process template.
The discontinuation process type automatically associates with all qualification process types, and the
discontinuation project template applies to all discontinuation processes.
• All processes with the Qualification lifecycle stage, and associated processes with the
Disqualification lifecycle stage, affect a supplier's overall qualification status. For example, if you
create prequalification and qualification processes with the Qualification lifecycle stage, setting an
approved status for either of those processes results in an overall qualified status. This overall qualified
status makes the supplier eligible for a preferred category status. Depending on your configuration, it can
also make a supplier eligible for a sourcing event or synchronize them to an ERP system.
Use the Import Process Types data import task to define process types. The task reads from the
SMProcessFlowType.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The valid value for this field is Blank values default to SUPPLIER.
SUPPLIER.
The following example shows lines of the SMProcessFlowType.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
AribaLifeCycle,Description,EntityType,Name,UniqueName
Miscellaneous,Anti-corruption screening process,SUPPLIER,Anti-Corruption
Screening,AC
Qualification,Detailed qualification with risk metrics for strategic
suppliers,SUPPLIER,Qualification for Strategic Suppliers,qual_strategic
Use the Import Translations for SM Process Types data import task to define translations for the process types
you defined in SMProcessFlowType.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines from a CSV file for process type translations, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Detección Anticorrupción,AC,Spanish
Calificación para Proveedores Estratégicos,qual_strategic,Spanish
Related Information
You can define custom statuses for each type of process in your site to provide status labels in the user interface
that reflect your organization's business processes and terminology.
Note
If you don't define custom statuses, the system uses project states [page 94] such as InProgress and
ConditionallyApproved as statuses instead.
If you define custom process statuses, you must also define translations for each language you use in your site.
You use the Import Process Statuses data import task to define custom process statuses. The task reads from the
SMResourceStatus.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the SMResourceStatus.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Description,ImageName,Name,ProcessType.UniqueName,ProjectStatus,UniqueName
Qualification has not yet started,,Qualification Not
Started,qual_strategic,InCreation,qualNotStarted
Qualification has started,,Qualification Started,qual_strategic,Created,qualStarted
You use the Translations for Process Status data import task to define translations for the process types you
defined in SMResourceStatus.csv. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines from a CSV file for process type translations, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Related Information
All SAP Ariba projects, including process projects, have an underlying project state. However, process project
states aren't automatically associated with predefined statuses. Instead, for each process type, you map your
custom process statuses to underlying project states.
In other types of supplier management projects, SAP Ariba automatically applies display labels to project states.
For example, legacy supplier qualification projects show Qualification Started instead of Created by default. You
can also define custom display labels for legacy qualification projects.
Process projects are by definition highly customized, and therefore don't include any default statuses. You define
custom statuses for each project state for each process type you’re using. You can tailor these statuses to both the
specific process type and to your organization's business processes and terminology.
For example, if you have a miscellaneous process type called Compliance, you can define a status of Compliant
for projects of that type that are in Approved state, Noncompliant for projects in Denied state, and Partially
Compliant for projects in ConditionallyApproved state.
If you're transitioning from legacy qualification projects to qualification process projects, any supplier qualification
based on a legacy qualification project or data import continues to show the legacy qualification status. Any
supplier qualification based on a qualification process project or process status data import shows the process
status. However, project states for process types that are mapped to the Qualification lifecycle stage are
mapped to standard SAP Ariba qualification statuses so that important functionality tied to those statuses also
functions with qualification processes, including:
• Sourcing events, contract workspaces, and guided buying. Note that qualification statuses in these areas only
function correctly if you have no more than 1 process type with the Qualification lifecycle type.
• Ability to start a preferred supplier management project once a qualification process project has an approved
status.
• Initial synchronization to an integrated ERP system based on qualification.
Unlike other supplier management projects, where SAP Ariba automatically sets project status based on final
approval or denial of the project, there are 2 different ways of setting the final status of a process project:
• Manually, when a member of a project group with the Decision Maker role in the process project sets the final
status.
You can also set and update process statuses using data import or the Supplier Data API with Pagination. Those
statuses don't require a project.
The following table describes the valid values for underlying SAP Ariba project states, which you must specify in
the ProjectStatus field of your custom process definition CSV file, as well as their corresponding standard SAP
Ariba qualification statuses:
InCreation The project hasn't yet been created or is Qualification Not Started
in the process of being created.
PendingDecision All of the approval tasks in the proc- Pending Qualification Approval
ess's modular questionnaire projects
have been finally completed or approved.
Related Information
You can define the country/region-specific tax ID fields that respondents see in Tax questions, including validation
patterns and the vendor database fields to which they map, using data import tasks in Ariba Administrator.
Tax questions in supplier management questionnaires present respondents with an initial country/region
dropdown menu. Once the respondent chooses a country/region/region, the tax ID fields that you've defined
for that country/region show.
Sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2211 release include default tax field data. Refer to Default Country/Region-
Specific Tax ID Field Data [page 646] for details.
You use the Import SAP Tax Metadata data import task to define country/region-specific tax ID fields. The task
reads from the SapTaxMetadata.csv file, which includes the following fields:
CountryCode The country/region code to which the tax ID applies. The coun-
try/region code that you specify must match the country/re-
gion code master data loaded for your site.
IsOrganization A boolean field that specifies the tax category. Specify TRUE
for Organization or FALSE for Personal. Tax questions cur-
rently don't support the collection of personal tax data, and
rows with IsOrganization set to FALSE are ignored dur-
ing tax data import.
TaxName The name of the tax. This name is used as the label for the
tax ID field in the question in your site's default locale. You
can provide translations for this name in a separate translation
data import file.
RegexPattern A regular expression that defines the validation pattern for the
tax ID.
Tip
All tax ID fields for the chosen country/region are required
by default. To allow respondents to submit a blank answer
for a tax field, you can define a validation pattern of (^$).
To both allow blank answers and ensure that if the sup-
plier does answer the question, their answer has a valid
format, you can place the (^$) pattern at the beginning
or end of an existing validation pattern, separated by a
pipe character (|). For example, either of the following pat-
terns allows the supplier to submit either a blank answer
or an answer with a length of 10: (^$)|(^\d{10}$) or
(^\d{10}$)|(^$).
SampleFormat An example of a valid value for the tax ID. This example is used
in the automatic validation error message that respondents
see when they provide an answer that doesn't match the vali-
dation pattern defined in RegexPattern.
Note
• For most countries/regions, SAP Ariba automatically maps each tax number or ID field to its corresponding
taxIdentificationNumberTypeCode. See the reference information for supplier tax field mappings for
exceptions to this rule. [page 437].
• The information in country/region-specific tax ID fields shows in the ERP data detail area of supplier
profiles. However, the labels for these fields describe the TaxCode field rather than the TaxName you assign
it. For example, if you define a TaxCode of 1 with a TaxName of Income Tax Number, the label for this
field in the ERP data area is Tax Number 1.
The following example shows lines of the SapTaxMetadata.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
UniqueName,CountryCode,IsOrganization,TaxCode,TaxName,RegexPattern,SampleFormat
DE0,DE,TRUE,0,Germany: VAT Registration Number,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU
DE1,DE,TRUE,1,Germany: Income Tax Number,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU
DE2,DE,TRUE,2,Germany: VAT Number,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU
DE3,DE,TRUE,3,Germany: Elster Tax Number,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU
DE4,DE,TRUE,4,Germany: Tax Number,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU
You use the Import SAP Tax Metadata Translations data import task to define translations for country/region-
specific tax ID fields. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
Field Description
The following example shows lines of the country/region-specific tax field translation file, as well as the mandatory
header:
UTF-8
UniqueName,CountryCode,IsOrganization,TaxCode,TaxName,RegexPattern,SampleFormat,Lang
uage
DE0,DE,TRUE,0,Umsatzsteuer-Identifikationsnummer,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU,German
DE1,DE,TRUE,1,Einkommensteuernummer,^DE\d{9}$|^EU,DE123456789:EU,German
Related Information
SAP Ariba automatically generates unique, sequential IDs for each of a supplier's banks. These IDs are unique
per supplier but not across suppliers. Bank Account questions include a country/region dropdown menu that
allows questionnaire recipients to specify the country/region in which the bank is located. Automatically generated
bank IDs consist of sequential numerical values and, optionally, a country/region-specific prefix. Defining country/
region-specific prefixes allows you to create bank IDs that are unique per bank and per country/region or per
currency using the same ID format as the integrated ERP system. For example, you can define a prefix of EUR for all
European Union countries.
Country/region-specific bank prefixes are optional. If you don't define them in your site, SAP Ariba generates
sequential numerical bank IDs with a maximum length defined by the self-service configuration parameter Define
the length of supplier bank IDs (Application.SM.BankIdSize). For example, if the maximum length is 4 and
you don't define country/region-specific prefixes, SAP Ariba generates sequential, numerical bank IDs starting
at 0000 or 0001 up to a maximum of 9999. The self-service configuration parameter Start automatically
You use the Import Country-Specific Bank ID Prefix data import task to define country/region-specific bank ID
prefixes. This task reads from the BankIdMetadata.csv file, which includes the following fields:
Field Description
CountryCode The country code to which the tax ID applies. The country code
you specify must match the country code master data loaded
for your site.
Note
• You can define the same prefix for multiple countries.
For example, if multiple countries use the same cur-
rency, and your bank ID prefixes are based on cur-
rency, you can define the same currency prefix for
all of the countries that use it. For example, if your
maximum bank ID size is 4 and you assign all of the
countries in the European Union a prefix of EUR, SAP
Ariba can generate 10 bank IDs for all supplier banks
in the European Union using the EUR prefix (EURO -
EUR9).
• Once a supplier has reached the maximum number
of unique bank IDs that SAP Ariba can generate for
a prefix, based on prefix length and maximum bank
ID length, subsequent IDs default to numbers only.
These strictly-numerical IDs are unique per supplier
but not per country/region. For example, if your maxi-
mum bank ID size is 4, your prefixes are 3 characters,
and you assign all of the countries in the European
Union a prefix of EUR, but a supplier has more than 10
The following example shows lines of the BankIdMetadata.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
CountryCode,Prefix
US,USD
DE,EUR
JP,JPY
Related Information
You can define custom, country/region-specific bank control keys that show in the Bank Control Key dropdown
menu in Bank Account questions using a data import task in Ariba Administrator. By default, the dropdown menu
includes values defined by default master data.
A bank control key specifies the type of the supplier bank account, such as savings or checking. Different countries
can have different bank control keys. Bank Account questions in supplier management questionnaires include a
Bank Control Key field and a country/region field for the bank address. Once a respondent has chosen a country/
region, the Bank Control Key dropdown menu shows the bank control keys defined in your site's master data in
the format ControlKeyDesc [ControlKeyCode]. In sites that are integrated with an SAP ERP system, integration
errors can occur when a supplier synchronized to the ERP system has an invalid bank control key. Importing the
bank control key values used by the ERP system in SAP Ariba helps avoid this issue.
Default bank control key data is loaded in your site. Refer to Default Bank Control Keys in Bank Account questions
[page 617] for details. Default translation data isn't.
You use the Import Country-Specific Bank Control Key data import task to define custom bank control keys. The
task reads from the BankControlKeyMetadata.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the BankControlKeyMetadata.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
ControlKeyCode,ControlKeyDesc,CountryCode,UniqueName
Savings,savings account,US,USSavings
Checking,checking account,US,USChecking
You use the Import Country-Specific Bank Control Key Translations data import task to define translations for
bank control keys. The task reads from a CSV file that includes the following fields:
Field Description
The following example shows lines of the country/region-specific bank control key translation file, as well as the
mandatory header:
UTF-8
Name,UniqueName,Language
Cuenta de Cheques,USChecking,Spanish
Cuenta de Ahorros,USSavings,Spanish
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Country/Region-Specific Validation Syntax, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account IBAN Number
Data Import [page 104]
Country/Region-Specific Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Holder Name,
Account Number, and Bank Key or ABA Routing Number Data Import [page 107]
Default Bank Control Keys in Bank Account questions [page 617]
Importing Your Data [page 116]
Importing Your Translation Data [page 117]
Language Values for Defining Translations [page 118]
You can define custom, country/region-specific validation syntax, visibility, and optionality for the IBAN answers
that respondents provide to Bank Account questions in supplier management questionnaires using a data import
task in Ariba Administrator.
The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is a system for identifying bank accounts across national borders.
This system uses a specific syntax that includes a country code, check digits, and other bank information. In sites
that are integrated with an SAP ERP system, integration errors can occur when a supplier synchronized to the ERP
system has an IBAN number that doesn't use the required syntax.
Bank Account questions in supplier management questionnaires include a country/region field for the bank
address. If you've defined IBAN syntax, once a respondent has chosen a bank country/region, SAP Ariba validates
the answer in the IBAN Number field and shows the appropriate error message for invalid answers.
Default IBAN syntax data is loaded in your site. Refer to Country/Region-Specific Validation Syntax, Visibility, and
Optionality for Supplier Bank Account IBAN Number Data Import [page 104] for details.
You use the Import Country-Specific Bank IBAN fields data import task to define custom IBAN validation syntax
and visible and mandatory flags. The task reads from the BankIBANMetadata.csv file, which includes the
following fields:
The following example shows lines of the BankIBANMetadata.csv file file, as well as the mandatory header. It
includes Visible and Mandatory flags for the IBAN Number field:
UTF-8
CountryCode,IBANFormat,IBANLength,IBANRegex,IBANMandatory,IBANVisible
BR,BR2!n8!n5!n10!n1!a1!c,25,BR\d{25}[A-Z]{1}[A-Z0-9]{1},Y,Y
In this example, IBAN Number is both visible and required when recipients select Brazil as the bank country/
region.
Note
When setting Visible and Mandatory flags for these fields, keep in mind that for each country/region:
Data imports for bank syntax validation don't validate Visible and Mandatory flags to identify incorrect
combinations.
Related Information
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
You can define custom, country/region-specific syntax validation for the supplier bank account holder name,
account number, and bank key or routing number answers that respondents provide to Bank Account questions in
supplier management questionnaires using a data import task in Ariba Administrator. You can also use it to define
country/region-specific visibility and optionality for account number and bank key.
Bank Account questions in supplier management questionnaires include a country/region field for the bank
address. Once a respondent has chosen a bank country/region, SAP Ariba validates the answer in the Account
Holder Name, Account Number, and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number fields. If the respondent attempts to
submit a questionnaire with invalid values, those fields show the appropriate error message.
Default syntax data is loaded in your site. Refer to Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for
Account Holder Names, Account Numbers, and Bank Keys in Bank Account Questions [page 628] for details.
Tip
Default syntax data doesn't include any validation patterns, only field sizes and, in some cases, check rules.
If syntax validation data includes field sizes and check rules, the system automatically generates validation
patterns from them. In sites integrated with an SAP ERP system, specify field sizes and check rules. In sites
that aren’t integrated with an SAP ERP system, specify regular expressions for validation patterns instead. If
you want to specify a regular expression for a validation pattern, make sure that the corresponding check rule
and size fields are blank.
Bank account field validation definitions include fields where you specify which check rule to use during syntax
validation using a number between 1 and 8. These numbers correspond to the following check rules:
You use the Import Country-Specific Bank validation fields data import task to define custom, country/region-
specific syntax validation for supplier bank account holder names, account numbers, and bank key or ABA routing
numbers, and visible and mandatory flags for account numbers and bank keys or ABA routing numbers. The task
reads from the BankMetadata.csv file, which includes the following fields:
Tip
The Account Holder Name field
doesn't support special characters.
Making sure that the validation pat-
tern you define excludes special
characters helps questionnaire re-
cipients to avoid this issue.
AccountNumberSize The maximum length allowed for the ac- Either AccountNumberCheckRule
count holder name value. and AccountNumberSize or
AccountNumberRegex are required.
BankKeyRegex A regular expression that defines the val- Either BankKeyCheckRule and
idation pattern for the bank key or ABA BankKeySize or BankKeyRegex are
routing number. required. If BankKeyCheckRule and
BankKeySize are specified, the sys-
tem automatically generates a regular
expression based on those values and
any values in the BankKeyRegex field
are ignored.
BankKeySize The maximum length allowed for the ac- Either BankKeyCheckRule and
count holder name value, which can be a BankKeySize or BankKeyRegex are
number from 1 to 18. required.
The following example shows lines of the BankValidationMetadata.csv file file, as well as the mandatory
header. It includes Visible and Mandatory flags for the Account Number and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number
fields.
UTF-8
CountryCode,AccountHolderNameCheckRule,AccountHolderNameRegex,AccountHolderNameSize,
AccountNumberCheckRule,AccountNumberRegex,AccountNumberSize,BankKeyCheckRule,BankKey
Regex,BankKeySize,AccountNumberMandatory,BankKeyMandatory,AccountNumberVisible,BankK
eyVisible
DE,4,^[0-9]{20}$,20,6,^[0-9\s]{0,20}$,20,1,^[a-zA-Z0-9]{0,30}$,30,N,N,N,N
US,3,^[a-zA-Z0-9]{20}$,20,7,^[a-zA-Z0-9\s]{20}$,20,4,^[0-9]{20}$,20,Y,Y,Y,Y
In this example, both Bank Key/ABA Routing Number and Account Number are hidden and not required when
recipients select Germany for the bank country/region, but are visible and required when recipients select the
United States.
Note
Bank Key/ABA Routing Number and Account Number are both required to create a complete bank ID for
banks in countries/regions that don't use IBAN numbers. When setting Visible and Mandatory flags for
these fields, keep in mind that for each country/region:
Data imports for bank syntax validation don't validate Visible and Mandatory flags to identify incorrect
combinations.
Related Information
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Country/Region-Specific Bank Control Key Data Import [page 102]
Country/Region-Specific Validation Syntax, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account IBAN Number
Data Import [page 104]
Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for IBAN Numbers in Bank Account Questions [page 618]
When a supplier is public, meaning that they have an SAP Business Network account linked to your site,
updates they make to their SAP Business Network profile synchronize to your site. SAP Business Network uses
ISO-3166-2 state codes in supplier profile addresses. The default region codes in Extended Address questions
are automatically mapped to SAP Business Network state codes. If you import custom SAP region codes from
T005S and T005U tables to populate the region field in Extended Address, you can import country/region-specific
ERP region code mapping master data to maintain mappings between your custom SAP region codes and SAP
Business Network state codes and ensure that supplier address information synchronizes correctly between the
integrated ERP system, your SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions site, and supplier profiles on SAP Business
Network. You can also use the master data to add, edit, or remove mappings as your ERP region data changes.
Note
Whenever you update SAP region codes in your site, you must use this data import to update their mappings as
well.
SAP Ariba provides a set of default country/region-specific ERP region code mappings [page 664].
By default, these ERP region codes aren't available in Address questions in buyer-facing
questionnaires. To make them available, enable the self-service configuration parameter
Application.SM.UI.EnableERPRegionDisplayInSimpleAddress in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters .
You use the Import Country-Specific ERP Region Code Mappings data import task to define custom country/
region-specific ERP region code mappings. The task reads from the StateCodeRegionMapping.csv file, which
includes the following fields:
PrevANStateCode The previous state code used for the Yes if you're updating a mapping for
current mapping, if any. Note that since an existing SAP Business Network state
SAP Business Network has moved from code. Otherwise, no.
using two- or three-character state co-
des to using ISO-3166-2 state codes, the
default mapping data already includes
PrevANStateCode data so that the
state codes associated with suppliers at
the time of that change are mapped to
the correct region code.
PrevERPRegionCode The previous ERP region code used for Yes if you're updating a mapping for an
the current mapping, if any. The data in existing region code. Otherwise, no.
this column enables mappings for suppli-
ers that were created with the previous
region code.
The following example shows lines of the StateCodeRegionMapping.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
UniqueName,CountryCode,ANStateCode,ERPRegionCode,PrevANStateCode,PrevERPRegionCode
"anrm_00000077","AU","AU-QLD","QLD","QLD"
"anrm_00000078","BE","BE_WNA","07","WNA"
Related Information
Address and Extended Address questions in supplier management questionnaires include a country/region
specific field. Once a respondent has chosen a bank country, SAP Ariba validates the answer in the address postal
code field and shows the appropriate error message for invalid answers.
Note
There might be a short delay between when you import postal code validation data and when those validations
take effect in supplier management questionnaires.
SAP Ariba provides default country specific postal code validations which can be downloaded using the Export
Country-Specific Postal Code Validations in Ariba Administrator. For more information, see Obtaining Existing
You can use the Import Country-Specific Postal Code Validations data import task to define postal code
validations. The task reads from a ZipCodeValidationMetaData.csv file, which includes the following fields:
e following example shows lines of the ZipCodeValidationMetaData.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
Country,CountryCode,ISO,Note,Regex,ZipFormat
United States,US,US,,^(^\d{5})$|^(\d{5}-\d{4}$)$,NNNNN, NNNNN-NNNN
U.S. Virgin Islands,VI,VI,U.S. ZIP codes. Range 00801 - 00851.,^(^\d{5})$|^(\d{5}-
\d{4}$)$,NNNNN, NNNNN-NNNN
Saudi Arabia,SA,SA,NNNNN for PO Boxes. NNNNN-NNNN for home delivery.,^(^\d{5}-\d{4})
$|^(\d{5}$)$,NNNNN-NNNN, NNNNN
Related Information
Default Syntax Validation for Postal Codes in Supplier Addresses [page 745]
When a user in the guided buying capability in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions searches for goods or services,
the search uses the standard 2-character ISO country codes in their ship-to addresses to identify and filter search
results based on qualified and preferred suppliers. However, suppliers are preferred or qualified based on the region
codes defined by the Import Region Codes data import task in Manage Administration Site Manager
Data Import Export .
If the configurable mapping feature (SM-20598) is enabled in your site, you use a separate Import Country Code
to Sourcing Region Code Mapping data import task to define mappings between the 2-character ISO country
codes used in guided buying and the region codes your site uses to identify preferred and qualified suppliers. If the
configurable mapping feature isn't enabled, SAP Ariba maps guided buying country codes to a standard list of ISO
3-chacter region codes. The configurable mapping feature (SM-20598) is suitable for sites that don't use standard
ISO 3-charcter region codes, and that therefore need to define mappings between guided buying country codes
and their own region code master data.
Note
To use this mapping master data in guided buying searches, you must also enable the parameter
PARAM_ENABLE_SM_INTEGRATION_ON_COUNTRYCODE in Admin Parameters Manage parameters .
You use the Import Country Code to Sourcing Region Code Mapping data import task to define
mappings between the 2-character ISO country codes used in guided buying supplier locations and
the region code master data used for preferred and qualified suppliers. The task reads from the
CountryToSourcingRegionMapping.csv file, which includes the following fields:
The following example shows lines of the CountryToSourcingRegionMapping.csv file, as well as the
mandatory header:
UTF-8
CountryCode,SourcingRegionCode
US,USA
Related Information
After you enter your data in the CSV files, you can import it using the data import tasks available from Site
Manager in Ariba Administrator.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to import data into a site.
Context
These steps are for importing data that doesn't require translation.
Procedure
1. Sign in to your site using your administrator user name and password.
The maximum number of objects that can be removed from the database at one time is 160,000. This number
is controlled by a system parameter. If this number is exceeded, a warning message appears.
The following table describes import operations. If a data import task doesn’t support a particular data import
operation, that operation isn't available.
Load Creates and modifies objects in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data
file doesn't already exist in the database, it's created. If an object in the data file already exists in
the database, it is modified using the value in the data file.
Create Creates new objects in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data file
already exists in the database, it isn't modified.
Update Only Modifies existing objects only in the database using values in the data file. If an object in the data
file doesn't already exist in the database, it isn't created. If you don't want to modify a particular
object, don't include it in the data file.
Deactivate Deactivates objects in the database based on objects in the data file. If you don't want to deacti-
vate a particular object, don't include it in the data file.
5. Enter the location of the relevant file, or click Browse to find and select the file.
6. Click OK to import your data, or click Cancel to exit without importing your data.
7. Click Refresh Status on the Data Import/Export page to view the current status of the data import.
Next Steps
For detailed status information, click the link in the Status column.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to import translation data.
Procedure
1. Sign in to your site using your administrator user name and password.
Next Steps
For detailed status information, click the link in the Status column.
• BrazilianPortuguese
• Bulgarian
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Finnish
• French
• German
• Greek
• Hungarian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Romanian
• Russian
• SimplifiedChinese
• Spanish
• Swedish
In sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and
Performance Management (new architecture), you always import supplier-related data in SM Administration.
Suppliers Suppliers in your site. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
formance
For details, refer to Supplier Data File For- SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
mat [page 130]. formance Management (new architec-
ture)
Caution SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Suppliers from sourcing Suppliers exported from SAP Ariba solu- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
tions in the formance
SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
SupplierOrganizationExport.
formance Management (new architec-
zip file. ture)
Only use this task to import the SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
SupplierOrganizationExport.
zip file. Don't import the CSV files it
contains individually.
Caution
Only use this data import to migrate
existing supplier organizations from
another SAP Ariba solution. Before
you use this task, make sure you're
aware of how to migrate suppliers
with the correct ERP vendor IDs
and address information.
Supplier contacts Supplier contacts, external users in sup- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
plier organizations who can be invited to formance
and submit external questionnaires. SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
For details, refer to Supplier Contact Data ture)
File Format [page 135]. SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
Supplier contacts from sourcing Supplier users exported from SAP Ariba SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
solutions in the formance
SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
NewSupplierUserExportCSV.cs
formance Management (new architec-
vfile. ture)
Only use this task to import the SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
SupplierOrganizationExport.
zip file. Don't import the CSV files it
contains individually.
Supplier qualification data Qualification and disqualification sta- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
tuses for specific combinations of com- formance
modities, regions, and departments. SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
In sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier ture)
Lifecycle and Performance, qualification SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
managers can also manage these sta- Guided buying capability
tuses using qualification and disqualifica-
tion projects with questionnaires and ap-
provals. Otherwise, applicable solutions
can only set these statuses using data
import.
Preferred supplier list data Preferred category statuses for specific SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
combinations of commodities, regions, formance
Purchasing org data The purchasing organizations associated Guided buying capability
with your suppliers.
Custom display names The custom labels you specify for regis- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
tration and qualification statuses. Only formance
buyer users can see these custom dis- SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
play labels. Supplier contacts on SAP
ture)
Business Network see default status la-
bels.
Primary supplier manager The internal users in your organization SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
who are most familiar with or responsi- formance
ble for particular suppliers. Primary sup- SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
plier managers can receive notifications
ture)
for expiring and expired modular ques-
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
tionnaires.
User matrix User or global user group assignments SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
to specific combinations of commodities, formance
regions, and departments. These assign- SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
ments in turn assign task owners or ap-
ture)
provers to projects or activities relevant
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
to those specific combinations. These as-
signments are also called buyer category
assignments.
Supplier Process Projects Import Process statuses for specific combina- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
tions of commodities, regions, and de- formance
Process project automatic status Rules that define the statuses to which SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
assignment rules formance
process projects are automatically as-
signed when their included modular
questionnaires meet the specified condi-
tions.
Risk Control Status Data Effectiveness of risk controls for specific SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
suppliers collected in tools or processed
outside of SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.
Risk Assessment Status Data Header-level data for risk assessments SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
or questionnaires maintained outside of
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.
S4 SM Migration Mappings between supplier profile ques- SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
tionnaire content and supplier registra- formance
tion questionnaire content, which are SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
used to manually migrate the content.
ture)
This data import is only applicable in
sites migrating from supplier organiza-
tions and supplier profile questionnaires
to the unified vendor model and supplier
registrations.
SPQ Migration Report Migration status for content migrated SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
from the supplier profile questionnaire to formance
Vendor Diversity Diversity types for specific suppliers, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
which designate the suppliers as diverse. formance
SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
For details, refer to Vendor Diversity Data formance Management (new architec-
File Format [page 170]. ture)
Guided buying capability
For guided buying, refer also to Classify-
ing Diverse Suppliers and Creating a Di-
versity Program/
Diversity Info Diversity types for use in designating SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
suppliers as diverse. formance
SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
For details, refer to Diversity Info Data formance Management (new architec-
File Format [page 169]. ture)
Guided buying capability
Internal supplier registrations Specific unregistered suppliers that you SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
want to designate as internally registered formance
without creating a registration project. SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
ture)
Supplier Risk Custom Fields Risk-related information for custom SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
fields.
You can download samples of all supplier-related data files from the Imports/Exports area of SM Administration.
On the dashboard, click Manage SM Administration to access this area.
Note
The sample files you download include a column for supplier name, which is included in exported data for
reference only. Do not include it in the data files you import. The exceptions to this rule are the name1 through
name4 columns in the file you import using the Suppliers data import task. Those columns must be included in
the imported file.
Tip
For information about importing internal supplier registration questionnaires in the separate Questionnaires
area of SM Administration, refer to Importing Supplier Registration Questionnaires [page 567].
User Matrix (Buyer Category Assignment) Data File Format [page 157]
Process project automatic status assignment rules Data File Format [page 164]
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Supplier/Customer Manager group to export supplier
data in Ariba Administrator.
Context
Existing SAP Ariba supplier data is exported in a SupplierOrganizationExport.zip file. That file
contains two CSV files: SupplierOrganization_Export.csv, which contains data on the suppliers, and
Caution
If you are migrating your existing supplier organizations and supplier profile questionnaires to the unified
vendor model and supplier registration questionnaires, see Migrating Suppliers to the Unified Vendor Model
before you attempt to import existing SAP Ariba supplier data in SM Administration. That guide contains
important information about how to migrate suppliers with the correct ERP vendor IDs and address state
information, as well as detailed information about how migration works and the order in which you should
perform migration steps.
Procedure
• If your site includes SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, on the dashboard, click Manage Core
Administration .
• If your site does not include SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, on the dashboard, click Manage
Administration .
Next Steps
After exporting the existing SAP Ariba suppliers from your site, you import them into the supplier database [page
127].
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group, Customer Administrator group, or the Supplier Risk
Manager and SM Ops Admin groups to import supplier data in SM Administration.
For customers who use guided buying, you must belong to both the Supplier/Customer Manager and SM Ops
Admin groups.
If you aren't importing suppliers for guided buying and your site includes existing SAP Ariba solutions with supplier
data, you must first obtain that data before importing it.
The suppliers referenced by supplier data files, such as supplier contacts and supplier factory data, must already
exist in the database before you import the files, either as a result of importing suppliers first or because they were
created manually in the user interface. The exception to this rule is for supplier qualification data and preferred
supplier list data, which offer an option to create the suppliers referenced in the file if they don't already exist.
However, if you're importing supplier data in SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions, the data in those files is
limited and importing supplier data first is recommended .
Context
You import all supplier data for suppliers exported from SAP Ariba cloud solutions in CSV files. There's no
restriction on file naming. Supplier data import supports the following encoding types for CSV files:
• UTF-8
• US ASCII
• ISO-8859-1
• IUTF-16BE
• UTF-16LE
• UTF-16
Unless otherwise specified, all supplier data imports add new records and update existing records. For example,
if you import supplier data with a new ERP vendor ID, the import operation adds the new supplier record to the
database. If you import supplier data with an existing ERP vendor ID and source system, but with a change to some
other data such as a different address, the import operation updates the existing supplier record with the new
address. If a data file contains an existing record with no changes, the import operation ignores that record.
Procedure
1. From the dashboard, navigate to SM Administration. Available paths depend on the groups to which your user
belongs.
• In sites that include SM Administration, members of the SM Ops Administrator, SM ERP Admin, or
Customer Administrator group can choose Manage SM Administration .
• Members of the Supplier Risk Manager group can access SM Administration from the SAP Ariba
Supplier Risk dashboard: choose the settings icon ( ), then choose Import data Link to SM
admin .
Members of the Supplier Risk Manager group must also be members of the SM Ops Administrator
group.
If you use this option, the preferred of qualified suppliers are created in the database with SM IDs but no
names. To display them correctly in the user interface, import complete data for them using the Suppliers or
Suppliers from sourcing data import option, specifying those SM IDs in the supplier data files. Importing the
suppliers first, rather than creating them from the preferred or qualified supplier data, is recommended.
5. Choose Choose File and navigate to the file you want to import.
6. Choose the encoding that the data file you want to import uses from the Encoding Type dropdown menu.
7. Choose Import.
Next Steps
Choose the Import summary tab to view the status of your data import. If your import contains any errors, choose
the View link to the right of the number of errors in the import to see or download error messages.
Tip
If you're using Microsoft Internet Explorer and you don't see any information in the Status column of the
Import Summary tab, adjust the document mode compatibility setting of your browser. To do so, right-click
anywhere in the browser window and choose Inspect element to display the inspection pane at the bottom of
the browser window. Choose the Emulation tab, choose 10 from the Document Mode dropdown menu, and
close the inspection pane.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Supplier/Customer Manager group to export supplier
data.
Context
You can export inactive supplier data to a comma-separated value (CSV) file. You can use the exported file to work
with offline in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel or import it into a third-party reporting tool.
Procedure
The CSV file is exported to the default download folder on your computer.
You use the Suppliers data import task to import suppliers into your site. The task reads from a CSV file that
contains the following fields:
line1 The first line of the supplier At least one of the follow- 125
address. ing fields is required: line1,
(SAP ERP maximum field
line2, line3, city, length is 60)
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
line2 The second line of the supplier At least one of the follow- 255
address. ing fields is required: line1,
line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
line3 The third line of the supplier At least one of the follow- 255
address. ing fields is required: line1,
line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
postalCode The postal code of the sup- At least one of the follow- 10
plier address. ing fields is required: line1,
line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
city The city of the supplier ad- At least one of the follow- 40
dress. ing fields is required: line1,
line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode
The state of the migrated sup- No. This field is ignored in sup-
stateName
plier organization from the or- plier data imports.
ganization stateName field.
countryCode The two-character ISO coun- At least one of the follow- 3 (minimum is 2)
try code of the country/region ing fields is required: line1,
for the supplier address. line2, line3, city,
state, postalCode, or
countryCode.
Either
taxIdentificationNum
berTypeCode or
countryCode is required.
countryCode is required
for country/region enrich-
ment in the SAP Ariba Sup-
plier Risk solution.
Note
Enriched corporate infor-
mation is only available
in the full SAP Ariba Sup-
plier Risk solution.
Unless otherwise indicated, the minimum length of required fields is 1. In sites integrated with SAP ERP, data sent
to SAP ERP is truncated based on the SAP ERP maximum field length.
The following example shows lines of a supplier CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
erpVendorId,masterVendorId,sourceSystem,name1,name2,name3,name4,phone,fax,line1,line
2,line3,postalCode,poBox,city,state,stateName,countryCode,taxIdentificationNumberTyp
eCode,partyTaxID,longPartyTaxID,dunsId,active,s4OrgSystemId
VDR100001,,SAP,ABC Company,,,,555-555-5555,555-555-5556,1234 Main
Street,,,12345,,Anytown,CA,,USA,02,AB1234,ABCD12345678910,987654321,TRUE,,
You can use multiple rows to add or update multiple different tax IDs for different countryCode values for the
same supplier. However, if you do so:
• All rows for the same supplier must include either erpVendorId or smVendorId or both. In other words,
all rows for the same supplier must use the same method for identifying the supplier.
For example, if the import includes 10 rows of tax IDs for the same supplier, and one row includes only
erpVendorId, the other nine rows must also include only erpVendorId. On the other hand, if one row
includes both erpVendorId and smVendorID, the other nine rows must also include both.
• If you're updating any existing country/region-specific tax IDs for a supplier, the import file must include
rows for all existing values for that supplier whether or not those rows contain updates.
• It's possible to import a supplier record with empty tax fields if countryCode is included. However, if the
import includes any tax data for a supplier, all rows for that supplier must contain required tax fields.
• The supplier data import doesn't support multiple-country taxes.
Failure to adhere to these rules can result in the creation of duplicate extended tax information for the supplier
or import errors.
Related Information
To specify multiple contacts for the same supplier, add a unique row for each contact.
You use the Supplier Contacts data import task to add supplier contacts to suppliers. It reads from a CSV file that
contains the following fields:
firstName The first name of the supplier contact. Either firstName or lastName is re-
quired.
lastName The last name of the supplier contact. Either firstName or lastName is re-
quired.
Note
This code must match the commod-
ity master data loaded in your SAP
Ariba strategic sourcing solutions
site.
Note
This code must match the region
master data loaded in your SAP
Ariba strategic sourcing solutions
site.
The following example shows lines of a supplier contact CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
erpVendorId,firstName,middleName,lastName,countryCode,telephone,mobileCountryCode,mo
bilePhone,email,type,locale,title,categories,region,active,timeZoneID,isPrimary
VND123456,Francine,Marie,Peugot,33,555-555-5555,,,[email protected],,fr,,4213,F
RA,TRUE,Europe/Paris,TRUE
Note
Although there's no limit to the number of contacts you can add to a supplier, a maximum of 1000 active
contacts per supplier is made available for searching, in no particular order or priority and with no guarantee
that one of those 1000 contacts is the primary contact. Only contacts that are made available for searching
show in lists of available contacts during questionnaire or sourcing event invitations and other workflows that
involve contact selection or can be used in supplier searches.
Note
If the process project feature (SM-16798) is enabled in your site, you can use this data import to update
existing qualifications to only Expired status. To add or update other qualification statuses, use the supplier
You use the Supplier qualification data import task to designate qualified suppliers. The task reads from a CSV file
that contains the following fields:
sourceSystem For existing SAP Ariba suppliers, if the Yes for existing suppliers.
SupplierOrganizationOrganiz
For suppliers that don't already exist in
ationIdPart_Export.csv file con- the database, if you check the Create
tains a Domain and Value entry for the supplier if required option during data
supplier, use the Domain in this field. If import, you can leave this field blank.
not, use SM. The supplier is added with the default SM
source system.
For suppliers imported from outside SAP
Ariba, use the sourceSystem speci-
fied in Supplier.csv.
Note
This code must match the commod-
ity master data loaded in your SAP
Ariba strategic sourcing solutions
site.
region The code for the region in which the qual- Yes
ification status applies. This code must
match the region master data loaded in
your site.
Note
If your organization uses guided buy-
ing, SAP Ariba maps country/region
codes in user ship-to addresses to
a standard list of ISO 3-character
region codes used for qualified and
preferred supplier statuses. If you
use other region codes, you must de-
fine custom mappings [page 115] be-
tween guided buying country/region
codes and preferred and qualified
supplier region codes.
Tip
If you're a guided buying customer,
make sure that users have a match-
ing ship-to country/region in the
user files in SAP Ariba Procurement
solutions.
Note
This code must match the depart-
ment master data loaded in your
SAP Ariba strategic sourcing solu-
tions site.
• NotQualified
• QualificationStarted
• InQualification
• PendingQualificationAppr
oval
• PendingResubmit
• QualificationRestricted
• QualificationRejected
• Disqualified
• Qualified
• Expired
• Cancelled
name1 The name of the supplier. Yes if you use the Create supplier if
required option during data import to
create suppliers based on the data in this
file. Otherwise, no.
To specify the same supplier as qualified for multiple categories or regions, add a unique row for each combination
of category, region, and supplier.
Note
To specify the same supplier as qualified for multiple categories or regions, add a unique row for each combination
of category, region, and supplier.
The following example shows lines of a supplier qualification CSV file and the mandatory header:
sourceSystem,vendorId,category,region,businessUnit,status,startDate,endDate,name1,re
qualificationEligibleDate,statusQualifier
SAP,VDR1000001,1412,USA,IT,Qualified,2017-02-01,2018-01-31,ABC Company,CREATE
SAP,VDR1000002,14,USA,HR,Disqualified,2017-02-01,2017-12-31,XYZ
Company,2018-01-01,UPDATE
To remove a supplier previously set as qualified and preferred, an administrator can remove the supplier by doing
the following:
• In the preferred supplier CSV file, set the active field to FALSE, or set an endDate value.
• In the supplier qualification CSV file, update the qualification status to Disqualified or Expired.
Note
In sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you can set qualification statuses for
a supplier either automatically using qualification data import or the Supplier Data API with Pagination,
or manually using qualification and disqualification projects. SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
is designed to maintain qualifications over the long term using projects, which have questionnaires and
workflows. Qualifications set using data import or the Supplier Data API with Pagination don't have associated
qualification or disqualification projects. Keep in mind the following behavior:
• If a qualification status was set using an approved qualification or disqualification project, you can't use
data import or the API to update it. If a supplier was qualified using a qualification project, you must
If you see an Unable to reach MDS or invalid code specified-[XXXX]error during data import, check
the following to ensure that your import is successful:
• The suppliers in the import file exist in the database. Click Suppliers Export to export the
Suppliers.csv file and look for the required supplier on the list.
• The commodity code domain is set appropriately in the Other Settings section of SM Admin.
• The data values in the file are active and enabled in SAP Ariba Buying (commodity code) and SAP Ariba
Sourcing(commodity code and region), including all the parents to the top of the commodity code and region
hierarchies.
When you have huge data volumes, you can choose the date range to export the Supplier qualification data for
that specific period based on your time zone. You can export and download the specific qualification data, instead
of exporting all the data.
You can choose the date range to export Supplier qualification data for a specific period. In SM Administration
Data import or export , you can choose the Supplier qualification data file type and choose the From and To
dates to export the qualification data for a specific period. Choose the same From and To dates to export data for
a specific day. The date fields are mandatory and you must enter a date to export the qualification data. The latest
date that you can choose for the To date is the current date. The default From date is 6 months from the current
date and the default To date is the current date.
To specify the same supplier as preferred for multiple categories, add a unique row for each combination of
category and supplier. Preferred category statuses aren't supported in multi-ERP integration landscapes.
You import data about your list of preferred suppliers using the Preferred Supplier list data file type and a CSV file
that contains the following fields:
Note
This code must match the commod-
ity master data loaded in your SAP
Ariba strategic sourcing solutions
site.
region The code for the region in which the sup- Yes
plier is preferred. This code must match
the region master data loaded in your
site.
Note
If your organization uses guided buy-
ing, SAP Ariba maps country/region
codes in guided buying user ship-to
addresses to a standard list of ISO 3-
chacter region codes used for quali-
fied and preferred supplier statuses.
If you use other region codes, you
must define custom mappings [page
115] between guided buying coun-
try/region codes and preferred and
qualified supplier region codes.
Tip
If you use preferred supplier data for
guided buying, make sure that users
have a matching ship-to country/re-
gion in the user files in SAP Ariba
Procurement solutions.
Note
This code must match the depart-
ment master data loaded in your
SAP Ariba strategic sourcing solu-
tions site.
Note
startDate is for information only.
It doesn't affect a supplier's prefer-
red status or show in the user inter-
face.
Note
endDate is for information only. It
doesn't affect a supplier's preferred
status or show in the user interface.
sourceSystem,vendorId,category,region,startDate,endDate,level,active
SM,VDR100001,4212,North America,,,1,TRUE
Note
In sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you can set preferred category statuses for
a supplier either automatically using preferred supplier data import or the Supplier Data API with Pagination,
or manually using preferred supplier management projects. Preferred category statuses set using data import
or the API don't have associated preferred supplier management projects. Unlike with qualification statuses,
there's also no restriction on using data import or the API to update preferred status for a supplier that has an
existing status based on a preferred supplier management project.
If your company decides to make a different supplier preferred for that category and region instead, an
administrator can change the supplier by making the following changes in a preferred supplier CSV file:
sourceSystem,vendorId,category,region,startDate,endDate,level,active
SM,VDR100001,4212,North America,,,1,FALSE
SM,VDR100002,4212,North America,,,1,TRUE
To remove a supplier previously set as qualified and preferred, an administrator can remove the supplier by doing
the following:
• In the preferred supplier CSV file, set the active field to FALSE, or set an endDate value.
• In the supplier qualification CSV file, update the qualification status to Disqualified or Expired.
Note
You can't use the preferred supplier data import to remove a preferred category status that's associated with
more than one commodity, more than one region, or more than one department. You can only use the import to
remove a preferred category status that's associated with a single commodity, region, and department value.
If you see the following error during import, Unable to reach MDS or invalid code specified-[XXXX],
check the following to ensure your import is successful:
• The suppliers in the import file exist in the vendor database. Click Suppliers Export to export the
Suppliers.csv file and look for the required supplier on the list.
• The commodity code domain is set appropriately in the Other Settings section of SM Admin.
• The data values in the file are active and enabled in SAP Ariba Buying (commodity code) and SAP Ariba
Sourcing(commodity code and region), including all the parents to the top of the commodity code and region
hierarchies.
Related Information
You import data about your list of preferred suppliers using the Supplier factory data file type and a CSV file that
contains the following fields:
Your company is divided into various purchasing organizations that do business with your suppliers..
Note
The purchasing organization data defined by this data import is for information only and isn't related to
purchasing organizations used for procurement or synchronized with an integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or
SAP MDG-S system.
You use the Purchasing organization data data import task to import the purchasing organizations associated
with your suppliers into your site. The task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
The following example shows lines of a supplier purchasing organization CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
erpVendorId,sourceSystem,purchasingOrganisationId,partyRoleCode,partyInternalID,defa
ultIndicator
VDR100001,SAP,1200,BA,DE1005,TRUE
You use the Custom display names data import task to import suppliers into your site. The task reads from a CSV
file that contains the following fields.
• Registration.Unknown
• Registration.NotInvited
• Registration.Invited
• Registration.InRegistrat
ion
• Registration.PendingAppr
oval
• Registration.PendingResu
bmit
• Registration.Registered
• Registration.Registratio
nDenied
• Qualification.Unknown
• Qualification.NotQualifi
ed
• Qualification.Qualificat
ionStarted
• Qualification.InQualific
ation
• Qualification.PendingQua
lificationApproval
• Qualification.PendingQua
lificationResubmit
• Qualification.Qualified
• Qualification.Qualificat
ionRejected
• Qualification.InDisquali
fication
• Qualification.PendingDis
qualificationApproval
• Qualification.Qualificat
ionRestricted
• Qualification.Disqualifi
ed
• Qualification.QualifiedW
ithException
• Qualification.Expired
• Disqualification.NotDisq
ualified
• Disqualification.InDisqu
alification
• Disqualification.Pending
DisqualificationApproval
• Disqualification.Restric
ted
• Disqualification.Disqual
ified
locale The ISO code for the language used for Yes
the displayName.
The following example shows lines of a custom display name CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
fieldName,locale,displayName
Registration.Invited,en,Onboarding Started
Restrictions
Only buyer user can view the custom display labels. The supplier user cannot view the custom display labels.
Primary supplier managers are the contacts within your company who either interface with or can answer
questions about a supplier.
Primary and alternate supplier managers do not have any role in supplier projects; they are for information only.
You use the Primary supplier manager data import task to import primary supplier managers into your site. The
task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
The following example shows lines of a primary supplier manager CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
erpVendorId,sourceSystem,primarySupplierManager
VDR100001,SM,ayang
Field Description
primarySupplierManager The user name of the buyer user who is the primary internal
contact for the supplier.
supplierName This field is solely to make the exported data easier to read,
by showing the supplier name alongside the primary supplier
manager data. If the field is present in the file you import (for
example, if you export your current data, update it in the ex-
ported file, and import the updated file without removing the
supplierName column), the import will succeed; however,
all data in the supplierName column is ignored in data im-
ports.
Note
Assignments to departments are only made in sites with the business unit matrix enhancement feature
enabled. If that feature isn't enabled in your site, department data in the user matrix data import file is ignored.
For example, you can assign the specific user John Smith to computer equipment in North America for the IT
department for the Project Owner project group. The supplier request template adds the Project Owner project
group to the approval flow of all supplier requests. When a user at your company submits a supplier request
indicating that the supplier provides computer equipment in North America for the IT department, John Smith
automatically becomes a member of the Project Owner project group for that request, and therefore becomes an
approver for it.
Or you can create a custom global user group called IT Category Managers and add users John Smith, Susan
Harris, Don Cortez, and Jane Yang to it. You can then assign the group to computer equipment in North America for
the IT department for the Project Owner project group. When a user at your company submits a supplier request
indicating that the supplier provides computer equipment in North America for the IT department, the IT Category
Managers user group becomes a member of the Project Owner project group for that request, and any user in the
IT Category Managers group can approve the request. Assigning a group rather than an individual user is useful
because if 1 user leaves the company, other members of the group are still assigned as approvers. You can add or
remove members of user groups at any time.
You can assign either an individual user or a global user group to a combination of commodities, regions,
departments, and project groups. You can also assign a user to only a region (by specifying the region and using
Note
• When you assign a user to a commodity or region in 1 level of the hierarchy, that user is also assigned to all
commodities and regions below it. For example, if you assign John Smith to North America, he's assigned
all 3 countries/regions in North America and to all cities and states in those countries/regions.
• If the current buyer category assignment (user matrix) data in your site doesn’t include an assignment that
exactly matches the commodities, regions, and departments in a project, a matching algorithm identifies
an assignment further up in the commodity, region, or department hierarchy and uses that assignment
instead. See the following information for a detailed explanation of how this matching works.
• When you assign a user to a project group, that group must also exist in the appropriate template.
• For prerequisites on supporting buyer category assignments in specific types of supplier management
projects, and other configuration details, refer to Buyer Category Assignments in Supplier Management
Projects [page 483].
You use the User Matrix data import task to specify user assignments to categories and regions. The task reads
from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
Field Description
commodityCode The code for the commodity to which to assign the user or
group. This code must match the commodity master data
loaded in your SAP Ariba site.
region The region to which to assign the user or group. This code
must match the commodity master data loaded in your SAP
Ariba site.
userName The user name of the user to which you're assigning commod-
ities, regions, departments, and project groups. Use this field
only for assignments to individual users. Leave it blank for
assignments to global user groups. Rows that contain values
in both the userName and groupUniqueName fields cause
import errors.
groupUniqueName The unique name of the global system or custom user group
to which you're assigning commodities, regions, departments,
and project groups.
Use this field only for assignments to global user groups. Leave
it blank for assignments to individual users. Rows that contain
values in both the userName and groupUniqueName fields
cause import errors.
projectGroup The name of the project group to which the user is assigned.
Note that this group must exist in the project; the assignment
doesn't automatically create it.
The following example shows lines of a user matrix CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
commodityCodeDomain,commodityCode,region,businessUnit,userName,groupUniqueName,proje
ctGroup,passwordAdapter,active
unspsc,All,North America,Corporate,tjones,,Legal,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
unspsc,4213,All,Corporate,ljenkins,,Project Owner,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
unspsc,All,Los Angeles,Corporate,grooney,,Project Owner,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
unspsc,All,San Diego,grooney,,Project Owner,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
unspsc,All,All,IT,,IT Category Managers,Project Owner,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
To assign a single user to multiple commodity, region, and department combinations, you must create separate
rows, one for each assignment. This example uses 2 rows to assign the same user, George Rooney, as project
owner for all commodities in Los Angeles and San Diego for the Corporate department.
You can use the active field to update assignments by deactivating the currently assigned user and assigning
another user in their place. For example, if Terry Jones leaves the company, and you can replace them with George
Smith by importing a user matrix CSV file with the following lines:
commodityCodeDomain,commodityCode,region,businessUnit,userName,groupUniqueName,proje
ctGroup,passwordAdapter,active
unspsc,All,North America,HR,tjones,,Legal,PasswordAdapter1,FALSE
unspsc,All,North America,HR,gsmith,,Legal,PasswordAdapter1,TRUE
If the current buyer category assignment (user matrix) data in your site doesn't include an assignment that exactly
matches the commodities, regions, and departments in a project, a matching algorithm identifies an assignment
1 42 EMEA Manufacturing
If a project has a commodity of 42, a region of Germany, and a department of Product Manufacturing, and
there's no buyer category assignment that exactly matches those values, the matching algorithm starts looking
for assignments higher up in the region hierarchy, since the region is the lowest-level value. If it doesn't find
any matches up to the highest level of the region hierarchy, it then starts looking for assignments higher up
in the department hierarchy, since the department is the second lowest-level value. However, if a project has
a commodity of 4213, a region of Western Europe, and a department of Product Manufacturing and there's no
exactly matching assignment, the matching algorithm starts looking for assignments that match 42, EMEA, and
Manufacturing, the next level up in all hierarchies.
When looking for assignments higher up in a hierarchy, the matching algorithm iterates through progressive
searches until it finds an assignment. These iterations can produce multiple matches at different hierarchy levels.
For example, say the user matrix (buyer category assignments) in a site include the following assignments:
For a project with a commodity of 42132489, a region of EMEA, and no department set (a department of 0), the
matching algorithm starts with those exact values and then, when it doesn't find a match, performs additional
searches progressively higher up the commodity hierarchy in the first iteration:
1 42132489 EMEA 0 No
In this case, since the available buyer category assignments all specify a department of All, and the project
department is 0, the matching algorithm doesn't find an assignment by looking higher up in the commodity
hierarchy and then in the region hierarchy. In a third iteration, it looks higher up the department hierarchy:
Based on the combined search created from these iterations, the matching algorithm identifies all 3 users (User A,
User B, and User C) for the buyer category assignment.
This data import task is only available in sites with the process project feature (SM-16798) enabled.
Importing a new process status for a supplier adds data such as qualifications to the supplier, and is useful for
migrating that data from other systems to SAP Ariba. Adding a process to a supplier by importing data for process
projects doesn't create a corresponding process project with questionnaires. Rather, it sets the specified status for
the supplier and adds the process to the Qualifications or Processes detail area of the supplier's profile. Users with
the appropriate permissions can cancel or renew it from there.
Importing a process status update changes the status of an existing process, whether or not it has a corresponding
process project. The updated status shows in the Processes detail area of the supplier's profile. If the process is
associated with a process project, the updated status also shows in the Process status area of the process details
page, and the actions that are possible in the project reflect the updated status. For example, if you use data import
to update a process project from an in-progress status to a pending decision status, the process decision-makers
can set a final status for the project whether or not the associated modular questionnaires are complete.
Note
If a process is associated with a project that's reached pending decision status, you can't use data import
to revert it to an earlier status. For example, you can't update a process that's pending decision back to in
progress. Once the process project has a final status such as approved, you can use data import to revert it
back to in progress or pending decision.
Importing a process status cancellation removes the process. Data import is the only way to cancel a process
that has a status corresponding to a decision state (Approved, Denied, or ConditionallyApproved). Canceling
a process removes it from the supplier's profile, search results, and data export of process status data. Unlike
You use the Supplier Process Projects Import data import task in SM Administration to import process statuses.
The task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
Note
This code must match the commod-
ity master data loaded in your site.
Note
This code must match the region
master data loaded in your site.
Note
This code must match the depart-
ment master data loaded in your
site.
expiryDate Whether to add or update the expiration Yes, if you want to add or update the expi-
ration date.
date for a supplier management process.
discontinue Whether to discontinue a supplier man- Yes, if you want to add a new discontin-
agement process. uation record, cancel an ongoing discon-
tinuation process, or update an existing
The value can be Y (discontinue) or N
discontinuation status.
(not discontinue).
Currently, only qualification processes
• Set this field to Y when you add
can be discontinued.
a discontinuation record, cancel an
ongoing discontinuation process, or
update the status of an existing dis-
continuation process.
• Set this field to N or leave it empty,
when you add a supplier manage-
ment process record.
• The supplier management process to be uploaded with the expiration date must be in the decided status
(approved or conditionally approved).
• The expiration date to be configured must be a current or future date.
• About reminder offset
The following example shows 1 line of a process status CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
vendorId,type,categoryIds,regionIds,departmentIds,materialIds,status,action,erpVendo
rId,sourceSystem,expiryDate,discontinue
S123456789,Prequalification,20,10,40,,Prequalified,new,V100000234,SAP,2022-02-20,N
The data export includes the same set of fields, but the action column is always blank.
Automatic process status assignment rules allow you to automatically assign final statuses to supplier
management process projects based on the statuses of their underlying modular questionnaires. Automatic
assignment replaces manual status decisions by process decision-makers in individual process projects.
You use the Process project automatic status assignment rules data import task to define these rules. This data
import task is only available in sites with the process project feature (SM-16798) enabled. The task reads from a
CSV file that contains the following fields:
Note
Different rules that define different
outcomes for the same process
type must all have different priorities
to ensure that there's never any con-
flict between rules.
an existing status.
• CANCEL to remove an existing sta-
tus.
Note
These values are case-sensitive.
The following example shows lines from a process project status assignment rule CSV file, as well as the mandatory
header:
namespace,name,conditionalExpression,outcome,description,priority,action
SMProcess,Prequal_All_Denied,type == 'Pre-qualification' && (questionnaires !
= null && questionnaires.?[status =='Denied'].size() ==
questionnaires.size()),Prequalification Denied,All questionnaires are denied,1,new
SMProcess,Prequal_All_Approved,type == 'Pre-qualification' && (questionnaires !
= null && questionnaires.?[status =='Approved'].size() ==
questionnaires.size()),Prequalified,All questionnaires are approved,2,new
SMProcess,Prequal_Cond_Approved,type == 'Pre-qualification' && (questionnaires !=
null && questionnaires.?[status =='Denied'].size()>1 && questionnaires.?[status
=='Approved'].size()>1),Conditionally Prequalified,Some questionnaires are approved
and some are denied,4,new
SMProcess,Prequal_One_Denied,type == 'Pre-qualification' && (questionnaires !=
null && questionnaires.?[status =='Denied'].size()>1 && questionnaires.?[status
=='Denied'].size() != questionnaires.size()),Prequalification Denied,At least one
questionnaire is denied,3,new
Related Information
Automatic status assignment rules for process projects use conditional expressions in Spring Expression Language
(SpEL) to determine the final status of a process project. These expressions define conditions based on the
process type and the statuses of the modular questionnaires included in the process project.
The following conditional expressions define some conditions that are typical for automatic status assignment in
process projects:
All approved
type == '<process type UniqueName>'
&& (questionnaires != null &&
questionnaires.?[status ==
'Approved'].size() ==
questionnaires.size())
All denied
type == '<process type UniqueName>'
&& (questionnaires != null &&
questionnaires.?[status ==
'Denied'].size() ==
questionnaires.size())
Note
• <process type UniqueName> in these expressions is always the UniqueName of the process type as
defined in your site's process type master data [page 90].
• The status in these expressions is always a modular questionnaire status, which can be Approved or
Denied. Currently, only these two statuses are supported.
Suppliers that achieve Registered registration status through this data import are automatically flagged as
internally registered. The data import changes suppliers' registration status to Registered but does not create
You use the Internal supplier registrations data import task to designate suppliers as internally registered. The
task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
The import only affects suppliers in Not Invited status registration status. Once a supplier has achieved at least
Invited registration status, you cannot set their registration status to Registered using this data import.
Tip
You can use the Suppliers data export to see SM vendor IDs and vendor.vendorInfo.name1 values for all
suppliers in your site.
The following example shows lines of a supplier internal registration CSV file, as well as the mandatory header:
UTF-8
smVendorId,name1
S10202900,Supplier 1
S10165792,Supplier 2
Restriction
The data import must only include new internal registrations and can only include the smVendorId and
name1 fields. Importing a file that includes the additional columns in the data export, vendorActive,
registrationStatus, registrationStatusId, and registrationSource, results in a success message
but does not successfully add data. Importing a file that includes existing internal registrations results in errors.
For this data import, always use the sample file to import new data sets that include only the smVendorId and
name1 fields.
The corresponding data export for Internal supplier registrations includes all of the internally registered suppliers
in your site, whether they were registered using the data import or manually in a registration project. The export
includes the following fields:
Note
• The Internal supplier registrations data export includes suppliers that were originally registered internally
but who were later invited to participate in their registrations and are therefore no longer flagged as
internally registered.
You can classify the suppliers based on multiple characteristics and support diversity through procurement to
encourage business with suppliers identified and verified as diverse.
The suppliers are segmented as diverse based on the definitions specific to the buyer organization. You can import
the diversity details and types using the Diversity Info and Vendor Diversity data files in the Data Import or
export tasks in SM Administration. The supplier diversity types are defined based on your requirements and must
be defined in the Diversity Info data file. The Vendor Diversity data file contains the supplier details and their
associated diversity types as defined in the Diversity Info data file.
Note
You must first import the Diversity Info data file and then import Vendor Diversity data file to classify the
supplier based in the diversity types.
Related Information
Diversity Info data is used to define the types of diversities to classify the suppliers.
You can specify the diversity types for suppliers and import list of diverse suppliers using the Diversity Info file, that
contains the following fields:
Restriction
Related Information
You can classify the suppliers based on the diversity types. You can import the list of suppliers using the Vendor
Diversity file type, which contains the following fields:
Note
This field is currently ignored during
data import and isn't included in the
exported Vendor Diversity data file.
smVendorId The ID that SAP Ariba assigns to the sup- Either erpVendorid or smVendorid
plier. The value in this field must be an is required.
existing SM vendor ID.
Note
The value in this field must match
the value in the name field in the
Diversity Info data file.
In solutions that include the classic supplier 360° profile, the Summary area of a supplier's profile includes any
diversityType, region, and supplierStory information defined for them in this data file. It doesn't include
url data. Diversity information currently isn't available in the supplier profile summary (NGSM-2959).
Prerequisites
The region code data import feature isn't available by default. To enable this feature, have your Designated Support
Contact log a service request. An SAP Ariba Customer Support representative will follow up to complete the
request.
To import or export region code data in Ariba Administrator, you must be a member of the Customer
Administrator group.
Context
Imported SAP region codes show in the Region dropdown menu of Extended Address questions. All other region
fields in your site use your site's region master data. In sites integrated with an SAP ERP system, you can obtain the
region code data from them. Otherwise, you can download region code data from your SAP Ariba site and edit it to
match your ERP system's data.
In new sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2312 release, default data is available. In all cases, after you upload your
own region code data, the corresponding file download includes the current data in your site.
Tip
The Extended Address Region menu only shows the region codes you import. It doesn't add them to your
site's existing region master data. Therefore, make sure that you import the full set of region codes you want to
use.
By default, these ERP region codes aren't available in Address questions in buyer-facing
questionnaires. To make them available, enable the self-service configuration parameter
Application.SM.UI.EnableERPRegionDisplayInSimpleAddress in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters .
• In the integrated SAP system, export the T005S and T005U tables to separate Microsoft Excel XLSX files.
• Download the T005S and T005U files as a ZIP file from your SAP Ariba site. Unzip the files and edit them as
needed.
2. Add both XLSX files to a ZIP file.
Note
After downloading and editing the files, if you zip them on a machine using Mac OS, the system adds a
hidden __MACOSX folder. The presence of this folder causes upload of the SAP region code ZIP file to fail. To
remove this folder, in Terminal, enter the following command from the ZIP file directory:
Results
You can monitor the status of your SAP region code upload and see any error messages on the Sap Region Upload
or Download Status tab.
After the upload is complete, users in your site who answer an Extended Address question (for example, when
filling out a supplier request) choose from among the uploaded SAP region codes for the Region field, and
that region code is stored in the corresponding vendor.addressExt.postalAddress.regionCode field. When
the supplier is synchronized with the integrated system, the supplier address information includes region codes
recognized by that system.
Next Steps
Make sure that your custom SAP region codes are correctly mapped to the country codes used for supplier
addresses on SAP Business Network. If your Extended Address questions are also mapped to SAP Business
Network supplier profile address fields and a supplier updates their address in their SAP Business Network profile,
that update is synchronized back to your site. Your site includes default mappings [page 664], but if you use
custom SAP region codes, you must maintain custom mappings using master data imports [page 111].
Default Fields and Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page 440]
This information is applicable if your SAP Ariba solution package includes both SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture) and SAP Ariba
Procurement solutions such as SAP Ariba Buying or SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing. Currently, you must import
ERP supplier data separately for procurement, using SAP Ariba Procurement solutions data import tasks, and for
supplier management, using data import tasks in SM Administration or ERP synchronization.
The SupplierIDs.csv file used by SAP Ariba Procurement solutions supplier organization data import tasks
can include two domains that are used in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management (new architecture):
For more information about supplier data import tasks in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, refer to the Common
Data Import and Administration for SAP Ariba Procurement Solutions.
Both SAP ERP and the unified vendor model that SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions use includes four
name fields, vendor.vendorInfo.name1 through vendor.vendorInfo.name4. By default, each field has a
maximum length of 35 characters, and they can form the full name of the supplier when concatenated.
By default, only the values in the vendor.vendorInfo.name1 field show in the user interface in SAP Ariba
solutions. When a supplier name is longer than 35 characters, the remaining portions of the name are truncated.
Some suppliers have multiple legal entities, each with the same name plus a suffix to differentiate it from the
others. If the portion of a supplier name that differentiated it from other related entities falls outside of the
vendor.vendorInfoname1 field because of length, it's difficult for users in SAP Ariba solutions to identify the
correct supplier in supplier searches, supplier profiles, and when adding suppliers to transactions such as events
and contracts.
An optional supplier full name feature, SM-14213, allows you to display full or long names for suppliers across SAP
Ariba solutions. It adds a separate vendor database field, vendor.vendorInfo.fullName, to store full supplier
names. By default, vendor.vendorInfo.fullName has a maximum length of 140 characters. Enabling this
feature also adds support for importing organization names of up to 140 characters in length using the Suppliers
from Sourcing data import in SM Administration. SAP Ariba must enable this feature in your site.
An additional optional feature, SM-36076, increases the maximum length of individual name fields
(vendor.vendorInfo.name1 through vendor.vendorInfo.name4) from 35 to 40 characters, and increases
the maximum length of vendor.vendorInfo.fullName from 140 to 160 characters. If SM-14213 is already
enabled in your site, an administrator can enable this additional feature using the self-service configuration
parameter Application.SM.Enable160CharacterSupportForFullName in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters . If you use the Apply Field Restrictions tool for adding or editing questions in project templates,
an administrator can also increase its default settings to 40 and 160 characters by enabling the self-service
configuration parameter Increase maximum size for name fields to 40 characters each in applied field restrictions
[page 780] in Intelligent Configuration Manager.
SAP Ariba trims any leading or following whitespace from full name values. Other SAP Ariba solutions then show
the value in this field as the supplier name.
Note
Currently, the supplier full name feature doesn't support supplier names in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
Note
Mapping to both the full name field and the numbered name fields in questionnaires isn't supported. Choose
which type of name data you want to collect from supplier management questionnaires, either the full name in
one field or different parts of the name in the four numbered fields, and map the name questions in the supplier
management questionnaires in your site accordingly. Collecting both types of name data can introduce errors
and distortions in supplier names.
SAP Ariba uses whatever type of name data you collect for a supplier to populate both types of name fields.
If a mapped question doesn't directly add full name data to the vendor.vendorInfo.fullName field
for a supplier, SAP Ariba automatically concatenates existing data in vendor.vendorInfo.name1 through
vendor.vendorInfo.name4 fields to populate it.
Note
Because of this automatic concatenation of values in numbered name fields, the supplier full name feature isn't
suitable for sites that use any of the numbered name fields to collect alternate names for suppliers. Since the
Dun & Bradstreet integration feature can use vendor.vendorInfo.name3 to collect a separate legal name
value, it can't be used in combination with the supplier full name feature.
If mapped questions, data import, or synchronization from an integrated ERP system don't directly add name data
to the numbered name fields for a supplier, but there's data in the vendor.vendorInfo.fullName field, SAP
Ariba automatically splits up that data and populates the numbered name fields with it as follows:
• If the full name is 35 characters or less, SAP Ariba adds the entire name to vendor.vendorInfo.name1.
• If the full name is between 36 and 70 characters, SAP Ariba adds the remaining characters above 35 to
vendor.vendorInfo.name2.
• If the full name is longer than 70 characters, SAP Ariba adds additional characters to the
vendor.vendorInfo.name3 and then vendor.vendorInfo.name4 fields in the same way.
SAP Ariba considers spaces when splitting names between numbered name fields, and omits final characters
that are spaces. For example, if the value in the vendor.VendorInfo.fullName field is Supplier ABCDEFG
Incorporated, Limited, SAP Ariba adds Supplier ABCDEFGHIJ Incorporated, (33 characters,
omitting the space after Incorporated,) to vendor.vendorInfo.name1 and Limited (seven characters) to
vendor.vendorInfo.name2.
The data split into individual numbered name fields are used for ERP synchronization and are included in supplier
data exports.
In sites that include SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, you must fulfill the following prerequisites before enabling
the full name feature:
• If you use the SAP Ariba integration toolkit to integrate your ERP system with SAP Ariba Procurement
solutions, you must implement an enhancement in your ERP system to send the full supplier name
(concatenating all numbered name fields) through the SAP Ariba integration toolkit. Currently, SAP Ariba
integration toolkit integration sends only the first name field.
Prerequisites
To use the Data Import/Export task in Ariba Administrator, you must be a member of the Customer
Administrator group.
Context
If your organization wants to address existing external contacts with family names first, you can contact SAP Ariba
support to enable the family name first feature. While it's enabled, the family name first feature reverses the order
in which all new supplier contact names show, but contact name data is unaffected in your database. Contact first
names are still stored in the contact.firstName field, and last names are stored in the contact.lastName
field. To show existing supplier contact names in reverse order after the feature is enabled, you must use the Data
Import/Export task in Ariba Administrator to update contact name data added before the feature is enabled.
For example, if you want an existing supplier named "John Doe" to show as "Doe John", you must update the
contact name data to be "Doe John" before enabling the feature. After the feature is enabled, if you create a new
supplier contact named "Jane Doe", the name shows as "Doe Jane".
Procedure
Next Steps
If you disable the family name first feature later and want to show supplier contact names as they were before
enabling the family name first feature, with family names shown last, repeat these data export and import steps.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions use global user groups to manage user permissions. Administrators can
add users to these groups when creating or editing them.
Administrators can also assign user groups to project groups for specific combinations of commodities, regions,
and (in sites with departments enabled) departments. These buyer category assignments (also called the user
matrix) dynamically give assigned users roles such as approver or task owner in projects that match those
combinations.
User Groups in Buyer Category Assignments (the User Matrix) [page 185]
Note
Before you set up supplier management users, they must be created in your site. Typically, enterprise users
are imported as master data as part of SAP Ariba's deployment of your site. Administrators can also create
and edit users. For details, see the Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba Strategic
Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions.
The following table provides a brief description of the user groups are pertinent to supplier management. For
complete details, see the Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management Group Descriptions.
Project Email Templates Administrator Customize the content of all project-related notifications.
Customer User Admin Create new users and add groups to existing users.
Supplier Qualification Manager Initiate and manage supplier qualification projects and disqual-
ification projects.
Preferred Supplier Manager Initiate and manage processes to designate preferred suppli-
ers.
SM Modular Questionnaire Manager Create and manage modular questionnaire projects. Users who
are also members of the Template Creator group can also
create and manage modular project templates.
SM Process Manager Create and manage process project templates, if they're also
members of the Template Creator group, in sites where the
flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled.
Sensitive Data Access View masked answers and attachments in supplier manage-
ment questionnaires.
SM Manual ERP Sync Manually synchronize new suppliers with an integrated SAP
ERP system.
Note
To preserve backward compatibility, all members of the
Supplier Registration Manager group as of the time of the
SAP Ariba May 2018 release were automatically added to
the SM Manual ERP Sync group so that they didn't lose an
existing permission. If you want to remove the permission
from any of those users, you can do so in Ariba Adminis-
trator either manually or using the Import Group/User
Relationships data import task.
SM Ops Administrator Import and export data and perform other administrative ac-
tions in SM Administration area, unlink supplier and supplier
user SAP Business Network accounts from your site, and ac-
cess the Advanced View of supplier management projects
when the Control access by group option is disabled.
SM Advanced View Access Access the Advanced View of supplier management projects
when the Control access by group option is enabled.
To set up supplier management users, either create new users or edit existing users, adding the relevant groups to
them.
Note
Membership in project groups can also grant permissions in individual supplier management projects. For
example, project owners typically have wide-ranging permissions in their projects, and members of project
groups with the Decision Maker role have permission to set final status in process projects. While global user
groups grant general permissions, project groups always grant permissions only in specific projects. In some
cases, users require a combination of global user and project group permissions for certain actions. Topics that
describe how to perform specific supplier management procedures include any global user or project group
prerequisites for those tasks.
Related Information
Adding Users
Use these steps to add individual users from Ariba Administrator as necessary.
Prerequisites
To add users to your site, you must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Customer User Admin group.
If you need to add many users, it's more efficient to run data import tasks.
Procedure
• Type: This field can be set to Enterprise User, Third Party Enterprise User (SAP Ariba), or Supplier User.
• User ID: A unique internal identifier for the user. For security reasons, this field can't contain an
apostrophe.
• Name: The display name for the user.
• Organization: Don't modify the value in this field.
• Business Email Address: The user’s business email address.
User email addresses are checked for validity. Valid email addresses be entered, even in test environments.
Invalid email addresses trigger an error message and must be corrected. By default, an email address
must include a valid, existing domain. (The domain name is the part of the email address that
appears after the @ sign.)SAP Ariba Customer Support can set a parameter to turn off the domain
portion of the validity check, in which case only syntax is checked. The name of the parameter is
Application.Base.EnforceEmailDomainCheck (set by SAP Ariba Support).
Note
If SAP Ariba Customer Support configured a set of valid email address domain names specifically for
your site, any domain you use in the Business Email Address field must match a domain in that set,
unless you select the Allow External Email Domain option (see the next item).
• Allow External Email Domain - Check this checkbox to allow an unapproved email address domain for this
user.
• Business Phone Number - The user’s business phone number.
• Business Fax Number - The user’s business fax number.
• Locale - The user’s default locale.
• Default Currency - The user’s default currency. Specify one of the currency codes defined in your SAP
Ariba solution.
• Timezone - The user’s time zone.
• Supervisor - The user’s supervisor.
5. On the Invitation tab, set your preference for user password generation and sign-in invitation:
• Check the checkbox if you want Ariba Administrator to generate a temporary password and send a sign-in
invitation message to the user immediately after you click Save.
• Clear the check box (the default) if you want to manually generate a temporary password before Ariba
Administrator sends a sign-in invitation message.
Results
If you allowed SAP Ariba to generate a temporary password for the user, the user receives the system-generated
email invitation containing a temporary password and instructions for signing in to SAP Ariba. When the user clicks
the URL in the invitation, the user is prompted to create a new password.
Related Information
Editing Users
You can modify existing users from Ariba Administrator.
Prerequisites
To edit users, you must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Customer User Admin group.
Context
If you need to edit many users at once, it's more efficient to run data import tasks.
Related Information
The data import adds each specified user or group to a specific project group in supplier management projects
that match the assigned commodities, regions, and (in sites with department enabled) department. In project
approval and To Do tasks, those groups can be approvers or task owners. Buyer category assignments therefore
dynamically add users (either explicitly or through user group membership) to individual tasks and approval flows
based on the project's commodities, regions, and departments. For details on buyer category assignment data, see
User Matrix (Buyer Category Assignment) Data File Format [page 157]. For details and an example of using buyer
category assignments to create a dynamic approval flow, see Commodity, Region, and Department Assignments
for Form and Questionnaire Approvals [page 501].
There are advantages to making buyer category assignments by user group. If you assign individual users, when
those users leave the company or change roles, you must update and reimport the user matrix data. If you assign
groups, any member in the group can approve or deny the task, and you can add or remove users from groups as
needed rather than updating individual assignments. Having a larger pool of potential approvers means that there's
less risk that individual projects can have approval nodes with no assigned approvers. Whether you define buyer
category assignments by group or user depends on how detailed you want to make the assignments and how you
want to manage user groups in general in your site.
For details on user groups and how to create custom groups, see Common Data Import and Administration Guide
for SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions use projects for creating suppliers, collecting detailed profile
information about them, and qualifying or preferring them. Projects are template-based and include questionnaires
and workflows.
SPM Project Templates in SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions That Use the Unified Vendor Model [page
195]
Template Upgrade for Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 206]
The following templates are single templates that define the workflow for all projects of that type in your site:
You can create multiple templates for the following project types to define different workflows for different projects
of the same type:
Note
In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, project creation from the supplier
qualification project template is disabled, and project creation from the supplier disqualification template
Supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects allow upgrade to the latest template version. If you
edit any of these other templates, only new projects created after the new template version is published reflect
those changes. While template upgrade isn't supported for process projects, it's supported for the modular
questionnaires included in them. Process renewals also always include the intake form and any additional modular
questionnaires referenced by existing or new external tasks in the currently published version of the template.
Templates for supplier management projects function in much the same way as project templates in other SAP
Ariba solutions: they have documents, tasks, project teams, and so forth. However, the way users experience the
projects created from these templates is different.
The category or supplier managers who manage these projects don't manage them as separate projects, or see the
classic project interface with its tabs for documents, tasks, team, and so forth. Instead, they work in the profiles
of individual suppliers. A supplier's profile includes all supplier management projects for the supplier except for
classic Supplier Performance Management (SPM) projects. The category or supplier manager assigned to the
supplier creates and manages projects from this profile: starting registration, qualification, and other projects,
sending and approving external questionnaires, filling out and submitting internal questionnaires, monitoring
approval flows, and so forth. They don't manage the project's team, upload additional documents, or perform
other activities associated with the classic project interface in other SAP Ariba projects.
These supplier management project templates are designed to support these special workflows and user
experiences. The classic project interface is available in the advanced view of the project. To see the advanced
view of a supplier management project, the Advanced View link for that project type must be enabled in your site
and you must have appropriate group membership permissions. For more information, see Managing Access to the
Advanced View of Supplier Management Projects [page 577].
Commodity, Region, Department, and User Combinations in Supplier Management Projects [page 189]
Related Information
SPM Project Templates in SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions That Use the Unified Vendor Model [page
195]
Supplier Management Project Template Import and Export [page 196]
Project Template Editing and Publishing [page 197]
Template Upgrade for Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 206]
Commodity, Region, Department, and User Combinations in Supplier Management Projects [page 189]
Documents in Supplier Management Projects [page 190]
Tasks in Supplier Management Projects [page 191]
Teams in Supplier Management Projects [page 194]
Project Advanced View
If departments are enabled in your site, templates use a combination of commodities, regions, and departments.
Commodity, region, and department combinations are used in the following areas of supplier management:
Related Information
Supplier management projects center around forms and questionnaires, which collect information about a
supplier. Therefore, each supplier management project template must include at least one survey document for a
form or questionnaire. Some projects support more than one survey document to create both internal and external
forms and questionnaires.
• Forms: for projects that need a basic set of information from a limited number of questions, you use the survey
document in the project template to create a form. Content in forms isn't numbered in the buyer view, but is
numbered in the supplier view on SAP Business Network.
For example, a supplier request is an initial process and that can involve having one of your company's sourcing
agents or buyers provide the name, contact information, commodities, regions, and other basic information for
the requested supplier. In this case, you create the supplier request by editing the default template survey to
set its type to Form and add the form content, such as questions.
• Simple questionnaires: for projects that need a larger set of information, you use the survey document in the
project template to create the simple questionnaire. Content in questionnaires is always numbered both in the
buyer view and in the supplier view on SAP Business Network.
For example, an external registration questionnaire typically involves a long set of questions to collect detailed
profile information about the supplier. You can create an external registration questionnaire by editing the
default template survey to set its type to Questionnaire and add the questionnaire content.
• Internal forms or questionnaires: some supplier management projects support additional survey documents
to internal respondents to supplement the information gathered in the project's external questionnaires.
For example, suppliers can fill out external registration questionnaires, but there's some supplier profile
information that can only be provided by internal users. You can create one or more additional survey
documents in the project and specify that they're internal.
• Dynamic qualification questionnaires: if you use supplier qualification projects to manage supplier
qualifications, those projects automatically assemble a dynamic external questionnaire using an empty survey
document and a set of questionnaire segments. These questionnaire segments are defined in separate content
documents that are targeted to specific commodity, region, and department combinations. Qualification
projects are only available in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
If you use process projects to manage supplier qualifications or miscellaneous lifecycle processes, those
projects automatically assemble a collection of applicable modular questionnaires based on the process's
combination of commodity, region, and department. Each modular questionnaire is its own project with its own
survey document. Depending on the characteristics of a modular questionnaire project, it can be reused in
multiple processes, or each process can create a new questionnaire project.
Forms and questionnaires in supplier management projects are always defined in the template. Suppliers fill out
and submit them on SAP Business Network, while internal respondents edit and submit them in the supplier's
profile. Unlike in other types of SAP Ariba projects, team members can't add documents to supplier management
projects.
Related Information
Supplier management projects are designed to use approval tasks on the template's survey documents to route
approvals for the project's questionnaires, and ultimately for the project itself. Approval flows are defined in
approval tasks.
Although some types of supplier management projects also support To Do tasks, the most important tasks for a
supplier management project are the approval tasks on the project's forms or questionnaires.
Approval flows in approval tasks are often constructed using site-wide user groups (such as Supplier Registration
Manager or Legal) and project groups (such as Project Owner or custom project groups). If you're using buyer
category assignments (the user matrix) to determine project group membership, you can create approval flows
and assign ownership of To Do tasks based on project groups. The tasks are then automatically assigned to the
users who are responsible for managing suppliers in specific categories, regions, and (in sites that use them)
departments. You can also use special field mappings on hidden questions in the project's questionnaire or form to
add approvers based on questionnaire answers.
Some supplier management projects also support To Do tasks on its forms or questionnaires. For example, you can
use a To Do task to make an internal registration questionnaire a required part of the new registration workflow. The
To Do task assigns completion of that internal questionnaire, and associated task, to the task owner.
Task owners and approvers complete these approval and To Do tasks in the supplier's profile. They can also
complete all project tasks outside of the supplier's profile by choosing Manage My Tasks on the dashboard.
In both cases, they complete tasks on a supplier management-specific task details page that shows information
about the associated form or questionnaire and the project's workflow.
In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, process projects themselves don't
contain any actionable tasks. They do contain external tasks, which specify the modular questionnaire types that
are applicable to the process. External tasks don't have task owners and don't require any actions to complete.
Approvals occur in approval tasks in the linked modular questionnaire projects rather than in the process project
itself. Final project status is determined by a manual or automatic decision-making process rather than by
completion of tasks.
Restriction
Working with tasks in supplier management projects isn’t supported in SAP Ariba mobile app.
Approval of forms or questionnaires is an important part of the workflow for most supplier management project.
Approval tasks in supplier management projects have some specific behaviors.
In some cases, approval tasks in supplier management projects have some important differences in behavior from
To Do tasks in other types of SAP Ariba projects.
Approval tasks in supplier management projects are always on forms or questionnaires. The approval task always
starts when its associated form or questionnaire is submitted. Completion of the final approval task in the project's
workflow approves the project. In most cases, denying a questionnaire in the project denies the project. In supplier
registration projects, whether or not an internal questionnaire approval affects the project's status depends on its
configuration.
Registration projects are the only type of supplier management project to support creating a new round of
an approval task after a denial. However, most approval tasks in most projects include a Request Additional
Information option. This option allows approvers to ask questionnaire recipients to update unsatisfactory answers
rather than denying the questionnaire. The option isn't available in approval tasks for registration questionnaire
updates, since denial of updates doesn't affect the supplier's registration status, and a supplier can continue to
submit updates to a registration questionnaire after denial.
If your site uses qualification and other process projects, they don't include approval tasks. Modular questionnaires
included in process projects have approval tasks. However, the process's final status is determined by a process
decision-maker or automatic decision assignment rather than by approval tasks.
Related Information
Supplier management projects can include To Do tasks. These To Do tasks behave in specific ways to help supplier
management workflows.
In some cases, To Do tasks in supplier management projects have some important differences in behavior from To
Do tasks in other types of SAP Ariba projects.
Automatic Start
To Do tasks in supplier management projects automatically start when the project meets specific circumstances. In
other types of SAP Ariba projects, task owners typically must manually start To Do tasks.
On an internal questionnaire, with no predecessors, and set to A user submits the internal questionnaire.
auto-complete
On an external questionnaire and with no predecessors The supplier submits the external questionnaire.
Since To Do tasks in supplier management projects start automatically, if a task owner is a project group, any
member of the group can complete the task. In other types of SAP Ariba projects, the project group member who
manually starts the task must also complete it.
Once a project group member completes the task, they show as the owner of the completed task.
If the To Do task restarts, ownership reverts to the project group assigned as the task owner and any member of the
group can complete the task again.
Visibility in My Tasks
To Do task owners can see their assigned tasks by choosing Manage My Tasks on the dashboard. By default,
the My Tasks area shows all incomplete tasks, both active and inactive. Since To Do tasks in supplier management
For example, if a registration project includes a standalone To Do task in the registration update phase, the task
starts when the registration starts (project creation). At that point, task owners see it in their My Tasks lists.
However, they can't complete it until the new registration is completed and the registration update phase starts,
activating the To Do task.
To Do tasks on internal questionnaires or forms in certain supplier management projects assign those
questionnaires or forms to the task owners. Task owners act on their assigned To Do tasks to edit the questionnaire
or form, and mark the task complete to submit it.
Related Information
Supplier management projects use teams to define who can work with and approve supplier management
questionnaires for specific suppliers. In process projects, teams also determine who can create a process and
manually set its status.
In other SAP Ariba projects, the user who creates the project is automatically a member of the Project Owner
group. However, supplier management project templates can be set up to dynamically add users to project groups
on the Team tab, including Project Owner, based on their assignments to categories and regions. In sites with
departments enabled, supplier management project templates can also add users to project groups based on their
assignment to departments.
Project groups can be approvers in approval tasks or owners of To Do tasks. In sites where the flexible process
framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, you use specialized Process Initiator and Decision Maker roles to
create project groups with permission to create or make status decisions about a process project created from the
template.
Buyer category assignments (the user matrix) ensure that each supplier management project automatically has
the correct team members based on the project's commodities, regions, and departments. If there's no exact
match, a flexible algorithm dynamically determines the closest match. This feature is especially useful in sites that
work with large numbers of individual commodity codes, because you don't have to assign a buyer user to every
low-level commodity code you use. The project automatically adds the user with the closest matching assignment
in the hierarchy to the project team. However, you can't use buyer category assignments to populate project groups
with the Process Initiator role in process projects.
Related Information
SPM projects use the classic SAP Ariba project infrastructure, meaning that they're not visible in supplier profiles
on the Supplier Management dashboard. They exist as individual projects and aren't tied to the supplier's
profile or linked to other supplier management projects. Supplier or category managers create them by choosing
Create SPM Project on the dashboard, and view them by searching for projects on the Home dashboard.
Project owners can add documents and tasks to the project and modify the project team.
SPM project templates don't include the following supplier management features:
• Buyer category assignments to project teams: To assign category or supplier managers to an SPM project
team, use team member rules instead.
• Supplier management by commodity/region/department combination: SPM projects evaluate performance
for an individual supplier. To show content based on the supplier's commodities, regions, and (optionally)
departments, you must do one of the following things:
• Add conditional content to a single template.
• Create separate templates for different commodity/region combinations, and rely on category or supplier
managers to choose the correct template when they create an SPM project for the supplier.
• Dynamic questionnaires: Content documents aren't available in SPM project templates. Each survey document
in the project acts as an independent survey, which participants must fill out separately.
For information on SPM project template setup, see the Project Template Guide and Configuring Supplier
Performance Management Reviews.
Related Information
When you import a template, SAP Ariba checks whether the supplier field mappings and max lengths in the
template content are valid. If not, the import fails.
Note
Once a registration or modular questionnaire project template is in use in your production site and has projects
created from it, updating it by reimporting it from the test site can replace the KI IDs of individual pieces of
content. Upgrading those projects to the latest template version can then replace existing content in individual
projects with "new" content identified by different KI IDs, causing loss of data in questionnaires. Exporting and
importing registration and modular questionnaire project templates is therefore most useful during the initial
template setup, before these templates are in use in your production site.
SAP Ariba creates and deploys the following supplier management project templates:
Importing a template overwrites any existing template that has the same identifier. Each of these project templates
has identical identifiers in all customer sites. Only one of each template can exist in a site, but each can be imported
to another site, overwriting the existing version. You can export these project templates from a test site to a
production site without modifying identifiers.
The following project types support the creation of multiple project templates:
• SM Modular Questionnaire
• SM Process Project (SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance only, in sites where the flexible process
framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled)
There's no default template for these project types. Instead, template creators with the appropriate permissions
create these templates from scratch, and each template automatically generates a unique identifier. If you have
a test site and a production site, you can create a template in the test site, then export it and import it into your
production site. The imported template in the production site retains the identifier from the test site. If you modify
the template in the test site and export it again, you can reimport it into the production site because the identifier is
the same.
Related Information
Modifying Template Upgrade Validation for Publishing New Template Versions [page 200]
Use these steps to create a new, draft version of a project template so that you can edit it.
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
To edit a template, the template status must be Draft. If you've published a template, you must create a new, draft
version of the template to edit. When you're done editing a template, you must publish the template to make the
changes affect subsequent projects created using the template.
Procedure
If you're a guided sourcing user (member of the Category Buyer group), choose Manage templates under the
Quick links section of the For You dashboard.
2. Locate the template you want to edit. Choose the template name and select Open.
3. Navigate to the Overview tab of the template.
To make the changes available to users creating projects, you must publish the new version of the template.
The following table describes how editing different types of templates affects existing projects created from those
templates.
• Knowledge projects Editing a template and publishing a new version doesn't affect any projects created with
previous versions of the template. When a user creates a project, the system copies tem-
• Sourcing projects (both full
plate data as it exists in the current template version. Any subsequent changes to the
and quick, including events)
template have no effect on projects already in existence.
• Contract requests
If a user creates a project from a template while you're editing it (you've created a new
• Supplier requests (both in-
template version but haven't published it), the system uses data from the last published
ternal and external)
version of the template.
• Supplier qualifications
• Supplier disqualifications
• Preferred supplier manage-
ment category status re-
quests
Note
Deleting predefined terms,
such as Price, Quantity,
and Extended Price, from a
sourcing request or sourcing
project template is not rec-
ommended. For more infor-
mation, refer to the following
topics:
• Deleting Predefined
Terms from Sourcing
Project Template
• Deleting Predefined
Terms from a Sourcing
Request Template
• Contract workspaces Editing a template and publishing a new version doesn't affect any contract workspaces
created with the previous version of the template by default. However, SAP Ariba Contracts
has an option for updating a contract workspace created from an updated template when
the project owner amends the contract workspace. If your site doesn't support upgrading
template versions in contract workspaces, contact SAP Ariba Customer Support.
• SPM projects Editing a template and publishing a new version updates all of the projects created with
the previous version of the template if you specify that you want to upgrade those projects
• Supplier workspaces
before you publish the new version of the template.
• Supplier registrations Editing a template and publishing a new version doesn't affect any projects created with
previous version of the template. Members of the SM Ops Administrator group can per-
• Modular supplier manage-
form a separate template upgrade operation to upgrade eligible projects created from
ment questionnaires previous versions of the template to the current version.
Supplier risk engagements Editing a template and publishing a new version doesn't affect any projects created with
previous versions of the template. Members of the Supplier Risk Manager group can make
specific engagement projects eligible for upgrade, and then project owners or other users
with the appropriate permissions can upgrade the eligible projects.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
When you publish a new version of a supplier registration or modular questionnaire template, by default, the
template upgrade validation system flags all differences in template documents that have the potential to cause
data loss. Changes that can result in data loss include removal of questions, removal of questionnaires, and
changing the answer type of an existing question.
If you encounter upgrade validation warnings and want to ignore them and publish your changes,you can modify
the following template properties:
Required content match (%) This property controls the percentage of content in template
survey documents that must match the content of the previ-
ous template version. The default value is 100.
Skip pre-publication validation? If set to Yes, this property ignores document matching and
content matching validation warnings and allows you to pub-
lish new template versions regardless of the changes you
make. The default setting, No, is the recommended setting.
Note
If you set the property to Yes, you can unintentionally lose
supplier response data.
Procedure
Note
SAP Ariba recommends keeping the default Skip pre-publication validation? property of No. If you set the
property to Yes, you can unintentionally lose supplier response data.
Related Information
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
View template details Actions Template View Details to view the name, description, version, status,
base language, rank, owner, access control, access control lock, conditions, tasks, and
Documents tab.
View the template’s history Actions Template View History to view and search the past actions per-
formed on the template, including the type of action and the user who performed the
action.
Edit the template properties attrib- Actions Template Edit Properties to edit the template name, description,
utes owner, process status, rank, access control, access control lock, and conditions.
Export the template to a ZIP file Actions Template Export Template to export various template components to
XML files in a ZIP file.
To deactivate a template so new Actions Template Inactivate . You can later Reactivate the template.
projects can't be created from it
Display all tabs in a project Actions Display Full View . The newly created template displays in compact
view. The view you use when publishing the template determines the initial view users
see in projects created from the template. Choose Actions Display Compact
View to return to the compact view.
Note
Templates for SAP Ariba Sourcing quick projects only use compact view.
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
Context
When you publish a template, any previous active version of that template changes to archive status. You can
create a new version from an archived version as a way to recover a previous version as the current draft.
Error messages alert you to issues that require attention in order to publish the template. You must fix any
validation errors in template documents or questionnaire content before you can publish the template.
During template publication, documents in supplier registration and modular questionnaire templates are also
validated automatically for template upgrade impact by default. The validation flags differences that have the
potential to cause data loss if projects on the previous template version are upgraded to the version you are
trying to publish. On the template Overview tab, you can set your own value for the Required content match (%)
property to alter the strictness of the validation, or set the Skip pre-publication validation? property Yes to skip
this validation entirely. However, SAP Ariba recommends keeping the Skip pre-publication validation? property
set to No. If you set the property to Yes, you can lose supplier response data after template upgrade to this version.
For details, refer to Modifying Template Upgrade Validation for Publishing New Template Versions [page 200]. After
publishing a new template version, Skip pre-publication validation? automatically resets to No.
Note
Documents don't have versions within a particular version of a template. However, if you edit a document in
a subsequent version of a template, the original version of the document is retained in the previous template
version.
Procedure
Note
If changes you've made to the current template version have generated validation errors and you're
concerned that they can cause data loss in existing projects after template upgrade, you can choose
Actions Revert on the Overview tab instead of publishing a new template version. Reverting
template versions undoes any changes you made, such as deleting a template document, and allows you to
create another new template version.
Related Information
Modifying Template Upgrade Validation for Publishing New Template Versions [page 200]
Reverting a Project Template [page 204]
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
You can create a new version of a project template from the contents of a previous version. The new version
becomes the most recent version of the template. Creating a new version of an older version reverts the template
to a previous version without losing its history.
Procedure
1. Open the project template. If the template state isn't Active, go to the Properties area and choose Actions
Publish .
The template must be in the Active state before you can create a new version.
2. Open the previous version of the template you want to revert to.
a. Open the Overview tab and scroll down to the Version History area.
b. Select the version that you want to use to create a new version, then choose Action Open .
3. On the Overview tab of the previous template version, go to the Properties area and choose Actions New
Version .
SAP Ariba copies the contents of the older template version and creates a new version in the Draft state.
4. On the Overview tab of the new template version, go to the Properties area and choose Actions
Publish .
Results
All projects that were created with previous versions of the template continue to use the version from which they
were created. When project owners amend the contract workspace created from the updated template, they can
Use these steps to revert a draft project template that's corrupted or doesn't open to the most recent published
template version and start over.
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
When the draft project template is corrupted or doesn't open, you can revert it to the most recent published
template version without opening it. You can then create a new draft and start editing again. When reverting to the
previous publish version, you lose all unsaved data and draft modifications.
If the template isn't corrupted and does open, you can also revert it to the previous published version from the
template's Overview tab.
Procedure
Note
The draft template is reverted to the previous published version. You can now create a new version and start editing
again.
Related Information
Currently, supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects are the only supplier management projects
that support template upgrade. Both of these project types support ongoing updates to questionnaires. With
registration projects, questionnaires are open to updates unless the registration is denied or a questionnaire
update is currently in approval. With modular questionnaire projects, you must enable the Always open rule in the
template's key questionnaire survey document to enable updates.
These projects remain open so that respondents can edit and resubmit questionnaires at any time after the initial
questionnaire is approved, including updating them to answer additional questions added in a template upgrade.
However, even if the project is otherwise closed, template upgrade allows recipients to revise their responses to
questionnaires and restarts any approval tasks associated with them on a one-time basis. This one-time, upgrade-
related update ensures that questionnaire data and approvals are consistent and match your current processes
regardless of when a recipient submitted the questionnaire.
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page
216]
Best Practices for Upgrading Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 219]
Related Information
You upgrade all eligible projects on one previous version of the template to the current published version in one
operation. You use separate upgrade operations to update the eligible projects on each previous version of the
template to the current published version. For supplier registration and external modular questionnaire templates,
upgrade operations include a notification option that allows you to alert suppliers to changes that affect them.
Internal users don't receive notifications of template upgrades.
Safeguards ensure that you can't upgrade projects that have active tasks to prevent the upgrade from disrupting
tasks with template changes while they're in progress. For a given previous version of the template, some number
of projects fewer than the total number created from that version are typically eligible for upgrade at a given time
because of task activity in some of the projects. Therefore, you typically perform an upgrade for a specific version
several times over a period of time until you've finally upgraded all of the projects on that version.
Template upgrade always upgrades projects directly to the current published version of the template. It's possible
to have some projects in your site that are multiple versions behind the current version of the template because
they weren't eligible for upgrade to previous versions when they were current. For example, if your current version
is 6, you can have a project on version 3 that wasn't eligible for upgrade to version 4 or 5 when they were current,
and is only now eligible for upgrade. In this case, the project is upgraded directly from version 3 to version 6.
The template upgrade operation automatically creates new projects and copies the data from the previous
projects, which it archives. The original project and each upgraded project all have unique IDs, but upgraded
projects are linked to their previous projects. The History tab in the advanced view of each upgraded project logs
the template upgrade with an entry labeled Upgraded to a new version of template. It doesn't show specific
details about which elements of the project were modified during the upgrade. However, information from previous
projects, such as previous questionnaire versions and previous project documents and tasks, is accessible in
various places in the supplier profile, questionnaire details pages, and advanced views of the projects.
Template upgrades can introduce significant changes to questionnaires in existing projects. Each upgrade
operation validates the projects that will be upgraded against the current template version and identifies
differences that can result in a loss of data in questionnaires after upgrade. If the validation identifies changes
that can cause loss of data and you still want to proceed with the upgrade (not recommended), you must enter the
justification.
Note
• If your site uses either of the following types of projects, they also support template upgrade, but they use
different upgrade processes with different functionality:
Supplier Performance Management (SPM) projects (only About Supplier Workspace and Supplier Performance
available in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle Management (SPM) Project Template Upgrades
and Performance)
Control-based engagement risk assessment projects (only About Template Upgrade for Engagement Risk Assess-
available in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk) ment Projects
In general, a supplier registration or modular questionnaire project is only eligible for template upgrade if none of
its tasks are currently active.
More specifically, a supplier registration or modular questionnaire project is eligible for upgrade if it meets the
following conditions:
• The supplier is active: Only projects associated with active suppliers are upgraded. Projects for deactivated
suppliers aren't included in upgrade operations, including in counts of eligible projects, even if they meet other
eligibility criteria.
• The project exists: For supplier registration projects, the project exists if the supplier has been invited to
register (either automatically, manually, or through mass invitation) or if the supplier has been migrated with
supplier profile questionnaire data. For modular questionnaire projects, the project exists if the questionnaire
has been sent to a recipient (either as a stand-alone questionnaire, as part of a process project, or as a risk
assessment).
• None of the project's tasks has started or all of its tasks have been completed: For projects that allow
updates and have tasks in both new and update phases, either none of the tasks in either phase have started,
all of the tasks in the new phase have been completed but none of the tasks in the update phase have started,
or that all of the tasks in both phases have been completed.
• Pending Resubmit
Note that denied projects show as eligible for upgrade. However, respondents can't update their questionnaires as
they can for approved projects that are upgraded.
Template upgrade creates a new registration or modular questionnaire project based on the current published
version of the template and copies the data from the previous project to it. This new, upgraded project shows in
the relevant area of the supplier's profile and in search results for projects of that type. Links in invitation emails to
suppliers automatically point to the new, upgraded project's questionnaires, and suppliers see the new, upgraded
questionnaires when filling out or updating them.
The new, upgraded project is treated as an updated version of the previous project. Questionnaire version histories
include all versions of the questionnaire from all previous projects. The previous project is archived and is
accessible if you view previous project versions in the supplier's profile or in project advanced view.
Even if the project template isn't configured to allow updates, upgrading registration projects Registered status
or modular questionnaire project in Approved status automatically reopens the project and restarts its tasks one
time. If the external questionnaires in the project haven't exceeded their due dates, questionnaire recipients and
form assignees can then update the upgraded versions of the project questionnaires and forms one time.
In either case, if the project doesn't allow updates, any updates made because of the upgrade are processed using
the tasks defined in the new workflow of the current published version of the template. If the template does allow
updates, any updates made because of a template upgrade are processed using the tasks defined in the update
workflow of the current published version of the template.
Template upgrade updates projects in Denied status. However, in this case, the projects don't reopen, and
recipients can't update answers. This behavior preserves the original answers that triggered the denial.
Questionnaires and Forms in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade [page 210]
Tasks in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 212]
Phases in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 213]
Teams in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 214]
Project Attributes, Dates, and Project-Level Conditions in Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template
Upgrades [page 215]
Template upgrade can modify the questionnaires or forms included in a supplier registration or modular
questionnaire project and their content.
Supplier registration projects support multiple internal and external questionnaires, and template upgrade can add
or remove questionnaires from a project in some cases.
Modular questionnaire projects support one key questionnaire, which can be internal or external, and can also
support multiple internal forms. Template upgrade can add or remove internal forms in some cases.
The following table describes how template upgrade modifies questionnaires or forms and their content in projects
that are eligible for template upgrade:
Adding a new external questionnaire survey document to a Adds the new external questionnaire to the registration project
registration project template if you choose the Include new questionnaires option and se-
lect the new questionnaire during the upgrade.
Adding a new internal questionnaire survey document to a Adds the internal questionnaire or form.
registration project template or a new internal form survey
document to a modular questionnaire project template
Removing an internal or external questionnaire survey docu- Removes the questionnaire or form. The questionnaire or form
ment in a registration project template or remove an internal and its answers are retained in the previous, archived versions
form in a modular questionnaire project template of those projects.
Adding, removing, or modifying a question or other piece of Adds, removes, or modifies the question or other piece of con-
content in a questionnaire or form tent in the questionnaire or form. If the content triggers a visi-
bility or editability condition, the change affects those pieces
of content triggered by the condition. For example, if a new
question includes a visibility condition, its addition can hide
another piece of content that was previously always visible.
Note
If the new version of the template removes a question that
is mapped to a field in the vendor database, the upgrade
removes the question from the questionnaire, but any pre-
vious answers stored in the mapped database field remain
after upgrade.
Adding, removing, or modifying a visibility or editability condi- Adds, removes, or modifies the condition.
tion
For both internal and external questionnaires and forms, if the recipient hasn't opened the questionnaire or form
yet before the template upgrade, they see the updated questionnaire or form when they first open it. If they've
opened the questionnaire or form before upgrade and are in the process of filling it out when the upgrade occurs,
the questionnaire or form loads the changes and they fill out the updated questionnaire or form before submitting
it.
If an internal questionnaire or form is approved before the template upgrade, internal users see the updated
questionnaire the next time they open it (for example, to revise their responses). If an external questionnaire is
approved before the template upgrade, the supplier sees the updated questionnaire the next time they open it and
choose Revise Response. They don't see updates when simply opening the approved questionnaire.
The notify option allows customer administrators to alert suppliers to update external questionnaires after an
upgrade. There's no notification for internal questionnaires or forms.
Parent topic: How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Related Information
Tasks in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 212]
Phases in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 213]
Teams in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 214]
Project Attributes, Dates, and Project-Level Conditions in Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template
Upgrades [page 215]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Template upgrade can add, remove, or modify tasks in supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects.
A supplier registration or modular questionnaire project is only eligible for template upgrade [page 208] if none of
its tasks have started or all of its tasks have been completed.
For eligible projects that use new and update phases, template upgrade only modifies the tasks in the new phase
in projects where none of the tasks in the new phase have started yet. Once all of the tasks in the new phase have
been completed, template upgrade only modifies tasks in update phases. It doesn't modify tasks in the new phase,
even if those tasks have been modified in the new version of the template, since that phase is a one-time process
and any updates that recipients make to the project's questionnaires and forms are handled by the tasks in update
phases.
If the project template doesn't use new and update phases, template upgrade modifies project tasks, and they
restart after upgrade so that recipients can make one-time updates.
The following table describes how template upgrade modifies tasks in eligible projects:
Adding a new approval or To Do task on No phase (if the project doesn't use Adds the task to all upgraded projects if
a new external registration questionnaire phases), new phase, or update phase you also add the questionnaire by choos-
survey document. ing the Include new questionnaires op-
tion and selecting the new questionnaire.
Applicable only to registration projects,
which support multiple external ques-
tionnaires.
Adding, removing, or modifying an ap- New phase Adds, removes, or modifies the task in all
proval or To Do task on an existing exter- projects that include that questionnaire.
nal questionnaire survey document. In projects that have completed the new
phase, the task is inactive. Projects that
don't include the questionnaire are un-
changed.
Adding, removing, or modifying an ap- New phase Adds, removes, or modifies the task in all
upgraded projects. In projects that have
proval or To Do task on an existing inter-
completed the new phase, the task is in-
nal registration questionnaire or modular
active.
questionnaire internal form survey docu-
ment. No phase or update phase Adds, removes, or modifies the task in all
upgraded projects.
Adding, removing, or modifying a stand- New phase Adds, removes, or modifies the task in all
alone To Do task (not associated with a upgraded projects. In projects that have
questionnaire) in the template. completed the new phase, the task is in-
active.
Parent topic: How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Related Information
Questionnaires and Forms in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade [page 210]
Phases in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 213]
Teams in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 214]
Project Attributes, Dates, and Project-Level Conditions in Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template
Upgrades [page 215]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Template upgrades can add, remove, or modify phases in supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects.
If you add new and update phases to a supplier registration or modular questionnaire project template, during
upgrade:
Parent topic: How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Questionnaires and Forms in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade [page 210]
Tasks in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 212]
Teams in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 214]
Project Attributes, Dates, and Project-Level Conditions in Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template
Upgrades [page 215]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Template upgrade can add, remove, or modify project teams in supplier registration and modular questionnaire
projects.
The following table describes how template upgrade modifies teams in supplier registration and modular
questionnaire projects:
Adding a project group member or role Adds the new project group member or role.
Removing a project group Removes the group only if they don't have any tasks assigned
to them. If a project group has one or more tasks assigned to it
in a project, template upgrade doesn't remove it.
Removing a project group member or role Removes the project group member or role.
Changing a project owner Modifies membership in the Project Owner group, if applica-
ble, if the group doesn't use buyer category assignments (team
member rules) to assign membership automatically.
Note
Template upgrade always overwrites any edits made to teams in individual projects with the latest template
team. For example, if someone adds members to the team of an individual project in the advanced view,
template upgrade removes those ad hoc additions and updates the group to the membership defined in the
template.
Related Information
Questionnaires and Forms in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade [page 210]
Tasks in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 212]
Phases in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 213]
Project Attributes, Dates, and Project-Level Conditions in Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template
Upgrades [page 215]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Supplier registration and modular questionnaire template upgrade resets some project dates, and can add,
remove, or modify project attributes and project-level conditions in upgraded projects.
Template upgrade applies changes to project-level conditions in eligible projects. It adds, removes, or modifies
conditions and modifies project content depending on those changes. For example, if you add a project-level
condition for legacy suppliers to a supplier registration project template and use it to hide an existing To Do task,
upgraded projects for legacy suppliers no longer show that task.
Template upgrade also applies changes to the project attributes defined on the Overview tab of the project
template, such as commodity, region, department, and questionnaire type for modular questionnaire projects.
Note
• Since template upgrade creates a new replacement project, it resets the project Start Date to the upgrade
date.
• Modular questionnaire projects can achieve a status of Expiring or Expired because of an expiration
date on the questionnaire project itself, or (optionally) because of an expiration date for a
certificate answer included in the project. By default, template upgrade resets the Expiring or
Expired statuses of modular questionnaires that are achieved from included certificate answers
to Approved after template upgrade. To retain the Expiring or Expired statuses of modular
questionnaire projects achieved through certificate answers after template upgrade, the parameter
Application.SM.MQ.KeepMQStatusIfExpiredViaCertificate, which is set by SAP Ariba Support,
must be enabled in your site.
,
Parent topic: How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Questionnaires and Forms in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade [page 210]
Tasks in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 212]
Phases in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 213]
Teams in Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrades [page 214]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Prerequisites
To upgrade supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects to the latest template version, you must be a
member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
Template upgrade is only available for supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects. Those projects
must be eligible for upgrade.
Context
Template upgrade of registration and external modular questionnaire projects includes an option to send a
notification to the supplier contacts for all projects included in the upgrade to inform them of changes that need
their attention. If you use the notification option, you can insert a specific message in these notifications to provide
details about the current upgrade.
Supplier registration projects can support multiple external and internal questionnaires. If the previous version of
the template included more than one external questionnaire, the upgrade sends a separate notification for each
external questionnaire. The notification references the questionnaire name, but otherwise uses the same text for all
of the external questionnaires included in the same upgrade operation.
For modular questionnaire projects, template upgrade sends a notification for external modular questionnaire
projects. It doesn't send notifications for internal modular questionnaire projects. It also doesn't sent notifications
to internal users assigned to internal forms in either external or external modular questionnaire projects.
Before starting the upgrade operation, you choose the type and title of the template. You only have one supplier
registration project template in your site, so when you choose the registration template for the upgrade, there's
Procedure
The Start upgrade tab shows a table with a row for each previous template version that is in use by at least
one project. Each row shows the total number of projects in the site that are still using that template version
and the number of those projects that are currently eligible for upgrade. To find details about eligible suppliers,
choose Export in the Supplier details column and export the supplier details for the template in each row.
Download the file from the Export supplier status tab.
6. Locate the template version that you want to upgrade to the currently published version and choose Upgrade.
The template upgrade validates the projects to be upgraded in this operation against the current template
version and identifies differences that can result in a loss of data in questionnaires after upgrade.
7. Perform one of the following actions:
Note
This setting only applies to new external registration questionnaires. It doesn't apply to new internal
registration questionnaires or new internal forms in modular questionnaire projects, which are added
automatically.
9. Optional: To notify primary supplier contacts that there are changes to external questionnaires that require
their attention, perform the following actions:
Tip
Results
All of the eligible supplier projects using that version of the template are upgraded to the currently published
version. Refer to How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page
209] for details on how upgrades modify project questionnaires, tasks, phases, teams, and conditions.
The upgrade can result in respondents revising responses to previously submitted or approved questionnaires.
In modular questionnaire projects that don't allow updates, recipients normally can't revise previously submitted
questionnaires. However, if the template upgrade modifies the content of a questionnaire in an approved project,
the upgrade operation reopens the questionnaire for a one-time update. The respondent can then revise their
responses and resubmit them, and the associated tasks restart once the revisions are submitted.
In modular questionnaire projects that do allow updates, recipients can update questionnaires at any time as long
as any previous updates are fully approved. The update process is defined by the project template's task setup.
Denied projects are also upgraded, but their primary supplier contacts aren't included in any notifications and
recipients can't update questionnaires.
In the Upgrade status tab, a table provides information about the estimated completion date, time, status, and
progress along with the rate at which the upgrade is progressing. You can refresh the table to view rate of upgrade
progress. You can also download a summary, which has the result of the template upgrade for individual projects
or view the validation errors shown earlier during the template upgrade in the validation report. If the template
upgrade progress is blocked, contact SAP Ariba Support.
The Export supplier status tab provides details about the status of the supplier details export, along with a
Download link to download the file.
As other projects using the same previous version of the template become eligible for upgrade, usually by being
finally approved or denied, you can repeat these steps until all projects on that previous version are upgraded.
Related Information
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Best Practices for Upgrading Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 219]
To optimize performance during upgrade of supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects to the latest
version of the template, SAP Ariba recommends the following:
Related Information
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Supplier request projects provide a templated workflow for creating new suppliers in your site. To set them up, you
configure a default project template.
There are two types of supplier requests, each of which has a separate project template:
• Internal requests, which people in your organization create in your site when they want to work with a new
supplier. Internal requests are always enabled and are the required mechanism for manually creating a new
supplier.
• External requests, which suppliers outside your organization submit when they want to introduce themselves.
External requests are an optional feature and must be enabled by SAP Ariba Support.
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template
[page 223]
Default Best Practice Content for the Internal Supplier Request [page 227]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting up the External Supplier Request Project Template
[page 231]
Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Request [page 234]
Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate Checks [page 237]
Internal users with the appropriate permissions create internal supplier request projects by choosing Create
Supplier Request , then submitting the internal supplier request form. The user who creates the internal request
is the explicit project owner as well as a member of the Project Owner project group. There are separate project
templates for external requests, which suppliers create by clicking a custom URL, and internal requests, which
your company’s users create in your site. The different types of request typically require different sets of questions,
and potentially different approval flows. The Create Supplier Request menu action always opens the default
survey document in the Supplier Request Template.
If your site uses the supplier request with Dun & Bradstreet integration, it also uses the default survey document
in theSupplier Request Template. In this case, the requester chooses Create Supplier Request with D&B
Lookup .
The supplier request process is designed to ask for basic profile information about the supplier: the supplier’s
name and address, the name of at least one contact, which commodities they supply and in what regions, and so
on. The internal supplier request can also ask for information that’s specific to your company’s processes, such as
the department that wants to use the supplier. These answers display in the Supplier request detail area of the
supplier profile.
The internal supplier request process is a one-time process. The requester can edit their submitted requests until
the supplier request is in the Pending Approval status. Approvers can edit submitted supplier requests while
approval is still in progress. After the request is finally approved, it can't be edited. If a request is approved,
the supplier is created based on its information, and that information is captured in the Supplier request area.
However, if you map a question in the supplier request to a vendor database field, and you also map a question
in a subsequent project (such as registration) to the same vendor database field, the later answer overwrites the
request answer in the database and shows in the subsequent questionnaire.
Deployment of your solution includes an internal supplier request project template with the following default
configuration, which includes a request survey document and an approval task. You must edit the template to
define your organization's specific processes.
Table 11: Initial Default Configurations for the Internal Supplier Request Project Template
In sites with the project template for the internal request in ver-
sion 2 or higher as of the SAP Ariba 2203 release, this survey
document is empty.
Tasks Approval for supplier request (an approval task for the in-
ternal supplier request form document with members of the
Project Owner group as approvers)
Team The default team has one project group, Project Owner, with
system user aribasystem and the Template Creator user
group as approvers.
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template [page
223]
Default Best Practice Content for the Internal Supplier Request [page 227]
Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate Checks [page 237]
Internal Supplier Requests [page 13]
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• Use the template's default survey document for the internal supplier request form or questionnaire and
create questions directly in the survey document. The supplier request project template doesn't support any
additional documents.
• You can add approval tasks in addition to the template's default approval task on the internal request survey
document and chain them together as predecessors, but don't add any other type of task to the template. The
supplier request project template only supports approval tasks on its single survey document.
Requirements
If the survey document in your internal supplier request project template has default content, required question
configurations are included in that content, and you can edit them as necessary. Otherwise, you must add them
from scratch. For more information, refer to Default Best Practice Content for the Internal Supplier Request [page
227].
• The following question configurations are required because they're necessary for creating the supplier in the
database once the request is approved:
Note
If your site uses the supplier full
name feature, use the
vendor.vendorInfo.fullN
ame mapping for all supplier name
questions in all of your supplier
management questionnaires. Don't
use mappings to any of the individ-
ual numbered name fields.
• If you want to use buyer category assignments (the user matrix) to add approvers to supplier requests, the
following question configurations are required:
• To include tax data in default duplicate checks during the internal supplier request workflow:
• The Tax answer type (SM-3891) must be enabled in your site.
• You must define metadata for country/region-specific tax ID fields. For details, refer to Country/Region-
Specific Tax ID Field Data Import [page 96].
• Your internal supplier request must include a Tax question mapped to vendor.taxExt (for a single
question) or vendor.taxExt[$index] (for a question in a repeatable section). To check against tax IDs
updated in a supplier registration questionnaire, that questionnaire must also use a Tax question with the
same configuration and mapping.
Default content includes a Tax question mapped to vendor.taxExt.
For more information, refer to Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate
Checks [page 237].
• If your site is integrated with Dun & Bradstreet, refer to Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet
Integration [page 586] for additional requirements.
• If you plan to integrate your site with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S, refer to Best Practices for
Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71].
In sites integrated with SAP MDG-S, these best practices, as well as specific, verified configurations for MDG-S
integration, are also included in Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
• SAP Ariba recommends using modular questionnaires for managing supplier certificates. You can include
certificate questions in internal supplier request project templates, but respondents are able to answer "Yes"
without providing details about the certificate. Modular questionnaires require details about a certificate
if the respondent answers "Yes". For more information, see Certificate Management Setup in Modular
Questionnaires [page 349].
• SAP Ariba recommends enabling auto-approval for approval tasks on internal supplier request if you plan to
have the requester also be the approver and if you don't need additional approvers.
• If you do set up an approval flow for the supplier request, it's editable while it's in approval. Who
can edit a supplier request while it's in approval is determined by the self-service configuration
parameter Application.SM.SupplierRequest.RestrictRequestEdit in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters . Refer to Reference of Configuration Parameters in SM Administration [page 791] for details.
• SAP Ariba recommends that you add no more than 500 pieces of content to an individual questionnaire.
Adding more than 500 pieces of content can cause performance to degrade progressively as you add more
content.
• The survey document in the supplier request project template is automatically internal, regardless of the value
you set for Specify questionnaire type.
• SAP Ariba also recommends asking for the supplier contact's locale based on the locale information in your
site. This locale information allows you to send the notifications and questionnaire content that match the
supplier contact's language. Ask for the contact's locale using master data as the acceptable answer value,
select Locale as the master data type, and map the question to contact.locale. This configuration is an
integration best practice.
• SAP Ariba's default time zone for supplier contacts is Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), but you can set a different
time zone with a question mapped to contact.timeZoneID. Valid time zone values are defined by master
data in your site.
• You can allow the requester to set the time zone with a question that has Acceptable Values set to Master
Data Value, Type of master data for answer set to Time Zone, and Visible to Participant set to Yes.
• You can set a default time zone with a question that has Acceptable Values set to Master Data Value,
Response Required? set to Not Required, Visible to Participant set to No, Type of master data for
answer set to Time Zone, and Initial Value set to your desired time zone. The initial value must be an exact
match to the master data value.
Note
• SAP Ariba defines time zone master data. You can't import custom time zone master data.
• When a supplier contact becomes public, they can set their own time zone.
• For private supplier contacts, users with appropriate permission can edit the supplier contact's time
zone.
• Although it isn't required, you can also ask a question for the contact's middle name and map it to
contact.middleName.
• If any of your questions involve sensitive data, you can mask the answers [page 467] so that only users with the
appropriate permissions can see them.
Related Information
If your site's internal request project template was in version 2 or higher as of the SAP Ariba 2203 release, it doesn't
include default content. You must add all content manually.
Note
Currently, default best practice question content is only available in English. To provide content in other
languages, you must add translations.
Answer Type
and Configura- Response Supplier Field
Section Name Description tion Required? Mapping Other Settings
General Supplier Supplier name The supplier's Text (single line Yes, Participant vendor.vend Max Length: 35
Information name. limited) Required orInfo.name
1
Supplier Main The supplier's The supplier's Extended Yes, Participant vendor.addr
Address address address. Address Required essExt.post
alAddress
Primary Sup- Supplier contact The supplier Text (single line Yes, Participant contact.ema Validation
plier Contact email address contact's email limited) Required il Pattern:
address.
^\w+(.\w+)*
@[a-zA-
Z0-9-]+?\.
[a-zA-Z]
{2,3}$
Validation
Pattern Error
Message:
Please enter in a
valid email for-
mat.
Supplier contact The first or given Text (single Yes, Participant contact.fir
first name name of the limited) Required stName
supplier con-
tact.
Supplier contact The last or fam- Text (single line Yes, Participant contact.las
last name ily name of the limited) Required tName
supplier con-
tact.
Supplier contact The locale of the Text (single line Not Required contact.loc
locale supplier con- limited with ale
tact. Master Data
Value specified
as the
Acceptable
Values and
Locale specified
as the master
data
Supplier contact The telephone Text (single line Not Required contact.tel
telephone num- number of the limited) ephone
ber supplier con-
tact.
None Supplier ac- The account Text (single line Yes, Participant vendor.vend Max Length: 4
count group group or mainte- Required orInfoExt.m
limited) with
nance profile aintenanceP Code
List of Choices
code for the rofileCode Delimiters: []
supplier. specified as the
Acceptable
Values and a de-
fined choice of
[KRED]
Vendor
int.number
assignment
Related Information
Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Request [page 234]
The external supplier request project template is only available in sites with the external supplier request feature
enabled. As part of external supplier request enablement, SAP Ariba Customer Support provides your organization
with an external supplier request URL specific to your site. Your organization can provide this URL to potential new
suppliers through specific outreach programs, by publishing it on a website, or through other means.
Suppliers create external supplier request projects by accessing the external supplier request URL and filling
out and submitting the external supplier request form. The system user aribasystem is the explicit owner of
external supplier request projects as well as the requester. If the request is approved, the supplier is created
in the database. The external supplier request URL always opens the survey document from the Supplier Self-
Registration Request Template.
There are separate project templates for external and internal supplier requests because each scenario typically
requires different forms and different approval flows. Internal users typically create internal supplier requests
because they're interested in working with specific new suppliers for specific reasons. Internal supplier requests
can prove internally focused information such as the reason for adding the supplier, the supplier's applicability to
specific organization processes, and so on. The types of suppliers who submit external supplier requests depend
on how your organization distributes the request URL. Suppliers can't provide internally focused information, and
it's often not desirable to show those questions to them. You can also ask suppliers a specific set of questions to
help you categorize them and identify their usefulness, but omit those questions for internal users to whom they're
not relevant. Furthermore, suppliers who submit external requests can warrant an additional degree of scrutiny, or
different types of scrutiny, during the approval process.
The external supplier request process is designed to ask for basic profile information about the supplier: the
supplier’s name and address, the name of a contact, and so forth. These answers show in the Supplier request
detail area of the supplier profile.
The external supplier request process is a one-time process. Approvers can edit submitted external requests while
approval is still in progress. If an external request is approved, the supplier is created based on its information,
and that information is captured in the Supplier request detail area. However, if you map a question in the
external supplier request to a vendor database field, and you also map a question in a subsequent project (such
as registration) to the same vendor database field, the later answer overwrites the external request answer in the
database and shows in the subsequent questionnaire.
Table 12: Initial Default Configurations for the External Supplier Request Project Template
In sites where the project template for the external request was
added before the SAP Ariba 2203 release and was in version 2
or higher as of that release, this survey document is empty.
In sites with the project template for the external request was
in version 1 as of the SAP Ariba 2203 release or was added
after that release, this survey document contains default best
practice content. For details, refer to Default Best Practice
Content for the External Supplier Request [page 234].
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting up the External Supplier Request Project Template [page
231]
About the Internal Supplier Request Project Template [page 221]
Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Request [page 234]
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• Use the template's default survey document for the external supplier request form or questionnaire and create
questions directly in the survey document. The external supplier request project template doesn't support any
additional documents.
• You can add approval tasks in addition to the template's default approval task on the external request survey
document and chain them together as predecessors, but don't add any other type of task to the template. The
external supplier request project template only supports approval tasks on its single survey document.
• Unlike registration and qualification questionnaires, which suppliers fill out on SAP Business Network, the
external supplier request is served directly in your site. The external supplier request URL allows suppliers to
access the external supplier request form in your site as guest users for this strictly limited purpose. Although
the external supplier request is supplier-facing, it isn't an external questionnaire served on SAP Business
Network, and it functions in the same way as an internal questionnaire does. Therefore, you can only use
question or other content configurations that are supported in internal questionnaires in the external supplier
request. You can't use question or other content configurations that are supported in external (supplier-facing)
questionnaires that suppliers answer on SAP Business Network but not in internal questionnaires.
• Questions of answer type Bank Account and Tax aren't supported in the external supplier request.
Requirements
If the survey document in your external supplier request project template has default content, required question
configurations are included in that content, and you can edit them as necessary. Otherwise, you must add them
from scratch. For more information, refer to Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Request [page
234].
• The external supplier request feature (SM-2861) isn't enabled by default and must be enabled by SAP Ariba
Support.
• The following question configurations are required because they're necessary for creating the supplier in the
database once the request is approved:
Note
If your site uses the supplier full
name feature, use the
vendor.vendorInfo.fullN
ame mapping for all supplier name
questions in all of your supplier
management questionnaires. Don't
use mappings to any of the individ-
ual numbered name fields.
• If you want to use buyer category assignments (the user matrix) to add approvers to supplier requests, the
following question configurations are required:
Helpful hints
• SAP Ariba recommends using modular questionnaires for managing supplier certificates. You can include
certificate questions in external supplier requests project templates, but respondents are able to answer
"Yes" without providing details about the certificate. Modular questionnaires require details about a certificate
if the respondent answers "Yes". For more information, see Certificate Management Setup in Modular
Questionnaires [page 349].
• Internal users who aren't approvers can't edit external supplier requests. Don't add questions intended for
internal users to external supplier requests; add them to the internal supplier registration questionnaire
instead.
Note
• SAP Ariba defines time zone master data. You can't import custom time zone master data.
• When a supplier contact becomes public, they can set their own time zone.
• For private supplier contacts, users with appropriate permission can edit the supplier request contact's
time zone.
• Although it's not required, you can also ask a question for the contact's middle name and map it to
contact.middleName.
• You don't need to publish the external supplier request survey document. Instead, simply publish the new
template version to activate your changes to the template's survey document.
• If any of your questions involve sensitive data, you can mask the answers so that only users with the
appropriate permissions can see them.
• In addition to SAP Ariba's default duplicate check on name, street address, city, state, country/region, postal
code, and D-U-N-S Number, you can specify additional questions in the internal supplier request for use in the
duplicate check. There are some configuration considerations and requirements [page 237] for both types of
duplicate check.
• If your site uses the external request by business unit feature, there are some specific requirements and
settings [page 236] for that feature.
• Keep in mind that once any supplier request is approved, its original information is permanently preserved
in the supplier's profile, even if the information in an underlying database field is updated (through ERP
synchronization or updates to a mapped SAP Business Network profile field, for example). On the other
hand, the supplier registration template supports ongoing updates to questions in both internal and external
(supplier-facing) questionnaires, including approvals for those updates and the ability to view previous answers
to external questionnaires during approval. Therefore:
• If you want to record the supplier's initial answer in its profile, ask the question in the external supplier
request.
• If you want to allow the supplier to update their answer, ask the question in an external supplier registration
questionnaire and configure new and updated registration phases in the supplier registration project
template.
• If you ask the same question in both the external supplier request and an external registration
questionnaire, and map it to the same vendor database field, the supplier's initial answer is added to
Related Information
External supplier request projects aren't available by default. They're only available in sites where the optional
external supplier request feature (SM-2861) is enabled. Enabling the feature adds the template for the external
supplier request to your site. If your site's external request project template was added before the SAP Ariba 2203
release and was in version 2 or higher as of that release, it doesn't include default content. You must add all content
manually.
Note
Currently, default best practice question content is only available in English. To provide content in other
languages, you must add translations.
Answer Type
and Configura- Response Supplier Field
Section Name Description tion Required? Mapping Other Settings
General Supplier Supplier name The supplier's Text (single line Yes, Participant vendor.vend Max Length: 35
Information name. limited) Required orInfo.name
1
Supplier Main The supplier's The supplier's Extended Yes, Participant vendor.addr
Address address address. Address Required essExt.post
alAddress
Primary Sup- Supplier contact The supplier Text (single line Yes, Participant contact.ema Validation
plier Contact email address contact's email limited) Required il Pattern:
address.
^\w+(.\w+)*
@[a-zA-
Z0-9-]+?\.
[a-zA-Z]
{2,3}$
Validation
Pattern Error
Message:
Please enter in a
valid email for-
mat.
Supplier contact The first or given Text (single line Yes, Participant contact.fir
first name name of the limited) Required stName
supplier con-
tact.
Supplier contact The last or fam- Text (single line Yes, Participant contact.las
last name ily name of the limited) Required tName
supplier con-
tact.
Supplier contact The locale of the Text (single line Not Required contact.loc
locale supplier con- limited with ale
tact. Acceptable
Values specified
as the Master
Data Value and
Locale specified
as the master
data
Supplier contact The telephone Text (single line Not Required contact.tel
telephone num- number of the limited) ephone
ber supplier con-
tact.
Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Request [page 234]
Default Best Practice Configuration for the External Supplier Registration Questionnaire [page 252]
Optional Feature Best Practices for Supplier Data Integration [page 65]
Best Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71]
External Supplier Requests [page 15]
About the External Supplier Request Project Template [page 229]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting up the External Supplier Request Project Template [page
231]
If your organization is divided into specialized or regional business units, suppliers can be more familiar with the
name and function of one of those business units than with your organization's overall name and function. For
example, you can do business in a country under a different name, or a variation of your organization's name.
External supplier request by business unit (SM-6380) isn't enabled by default. When it's enabled and set up in your
site:
• Suppliers choose the business unit to which they request to be added when filling out the external supplier
request. After they submit requests, the confirmation screen shows the name of the business unit instead of
your organization's name.
• Request approvals are routed to the appropriate stakeholders in the specific business units specified in the
external supplier requests.
• External supplier request notifications for both suppliers and approvers show the name of the business unit
instead of your organization's name.
Note
When this feature is enabled, requesters can only select one department value in both external and internal
supplier requests. This restriction allows you to route external requests to a specific business unit in your
organization. It doesn't apply to other supplier management questionnaires.
1. Import your business units as department master data: in the Ariba Administrator Site Manager Data
Import/Export task, use the Import Departments data import task to import your business units. For more
information, see Common Data Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Solutions
and SAP Ariba Supplier Management Solutions.
2. Ask suppliers to choose a business unit in the external supplier request: in the survey document in the
external supplier request project template, add a Department question and map it to matrix.Departments.
The presence of this question with this mapping in the external supplier request is required.
3. On the Conditions tab of the external supplier request project template, create a condition for each business
unit using a field match on the Departments field and specifying that the match is on a child of the selected
Related Information
Supplier requests include automatic, default duplicate checks based on the following information:
Name • vendor.vendorInfo.name1
• vendor.vendorInfo.fullna
me (if your site uses the optional
supplier full name feature [page 175]
(SM-14213))
• vendor.address.postalCod
e
Tip
If you previously used custom dupli-
cate check based on individual, map-
ped tax questions, you can adopt de-
fault duplicate check on tax IDs in-
stead. To do so, update the supplier
request to replace those individual
tax question configurations with the
prerequisite Tax question configura-
tion. Answers in new requests based
on this update are checked against
all previously collected tax data from
supported sources, including previ-
ous requests.
Note
• Default duplicate check using
Tax questions is only supported
in the internal supplier request
without Dun & Bradstreet inte-
gration. It's not supported in the
external supplier request, which
can't include Tax questions, or
in the D&B-integrated supplier
If you add questions with these field mappings to the internal or external supplier request, the answers are used in
duplicate checks.
You can use additional questions in the internal and external supplier requests for duplicate check using the Enable
duplicate check setting. Custom duplicate check can increase the probability of matching supplier requests to
existing duplicate suppliers by contributing additional variables to matching algorithms. When setting up questions
for use in custom duplicate checks, keep in mind the following considerations:
• There's no need to enable duplicate check manually on questions that are already used in default duplicate
check.
• You can only enable custom duplicate check for questions of answer type Text (single line limited), Whole
Number, Decimal Number, and Yes/No. These questions must be mapped to at least one vendor database
field.
• To avoid overly broad duplicate checks, enable no more than five questions for custom duplicate check.
• To avoid overly broad matching, make sure that any question you enable for custom duplicate check is likely to
yield a unique answer for each supplier, such as a national ID.
• The position of the question (top-level or nested within one or more sections) has no effect on custom
duplicate check.
• If your site uses both internal and external supplier requests, and you include the same custom duplicate
check-enabled question in both the internal and external requests, the vendor database field mappings for
both questions must be identical: they must have the same number of mappings, to the same fields, in
the same order. Otherwise, custom duplicate matching doesn't work properly. Identical mappings aren't a
requirement for questions used in the default duplicate check.
Note
• Duplicate checks are linked to specific supplier database field and match against questionnaire answers in
questions mapped to those fields. If you delete a question in one version of a template, and then readd it
in a subsequent version using same field mapping, duplicate check can match responses to the readded
question against stored response data from the deleted question.
• In sites integrated with SAP MDG-S, SAP Ariba recommends enabling the optional feature to validate
supplier requests in SAP MDG-S as a best practice. Default and custom duplicate checks in SAP Ariba only
match against other suppliers in the SAP Ariba database. Validation in SAP MDG-S provides an additional
step after duplicate check in SAP Ariba that allows you to match potential new suppliers against all types of
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template [page
223]
Tax Questions for Collecting Supplier Tax Information [page 419]
Address or Extended Address Questions for Collecting Supplier Address Information [page 412]
Default Fields and Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page 440]
Duplicate checks help prevent the creation of duplicate records for the same supplier in the database. After a
requester submits an internal supplier request, or a supplier submits an external supplier request, a duplicate
check matches its information to existing suppliers to identify potential duplicates.
The information in the request that contributes to the duplicate check depends on your site's configuration and
the setup of your organization's supplier requests. External supplier requests and duplicate check based on custom
questions are both optional features.
The supplier request duplicate check searches for existing suppliers in your site's vendor database, by a
combination of:
Matching is case insensitive. The duplicate check scores different matches based on predefined logic. The score
is expressed as a percentage between 0 and 100, with scores of 70% and above considered strong matches and
scores of less than 70% considered weak matches.
When the requester submits the supplier request (for internal requests only) and during supplier request approval
(for both internal and external supplier requests), the duplicate check displays the top 20 matching suppliers,
based on match score, in the following order:
The duplicate check popup includes information on which answers in the current supplier request match to existing
suppliers.
Restriction
• For default duplicate check on supplier D-U-N-S Number, name, and address, the duplicate check cleanses
the values in those fields and replaces newlines, white spaces, and ASCII punctuation with a single space
before matching values to existing suppliers. Because of this cleansing, a new supplier request with a
supplier name of "Supplier A, Ltd." matches an existing supplier name "Supplier A Ltd" but not an existing
supplier named "Supplier A, Ltd.".
• Default duplicate checks match against existing suppliers in the database regardless of how the
matching supplier information was added. Default duplicate check against tax IDs in supplier registration
questionnaires with the required configuration is only supported for answers added by questionnaire
recipients. It's not supported for answers added by registration questionnaire imports.
Custom duplicate checks match answers in internal or external supplier requests against mapped
answers from existing submitted supplier requests. They don't match against mapped data that originates
from sources outside of supplier requests, such as data import, ERP integration, or other types of
questionnaires.
• Duplicate checks don't match against denied supplier requests or inactivated suppliers.
Supplier registration projects provide a templated workflow for collecting and maintaining important profile
information about suppliers. To set them up, you configure a default project template. Supplier registration
projects support a number of optional elements such as multiple internal and external questionnaires and separate
workflows for new registrations and updates.
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Registration Project Template [page
246]
Configuration Considerations for Supporting Both Internal and External Registrations [page 251]
Default Best Practice Configuration for the External Supplier Registration Questionnaire [page 252]
Setting Up Reminders for Recipients to Complete Questionnaires in a New Registration [page 256]
Setting Up Different Workflows for New Registrations and Registration Updates [page 262]
Registration and Registration Update Statuses in Visibility and Editability Conditions [page 265]
Using Editability Conditions to Prevent Recipients from Updating Registration Questionnaire Answers [page
266]
Conditional Workflows for Manual and Mass Invited Registrations [page 267]
Streamlining the Registration Questionnaire for Legacy Suppliers Using Editability Conditions [page 268]
Question Mappings to Other Questions for Setting and Maintaining Associated Sets of ERP Profile Data [page
270]
The supplier registration project template must always include, at minimum, an external (supplier-facing)
registration questionnaire with an approval task. However, it supports:
• Internal questionnaires: one or more internal-facing questionnaires that users at your company fill out and
submit to maintain information about the supplier that’s specific to your organization’s business processes,
including ERP profile information.
• Multiple external questionnaires: one or more external (supplier-facing) questionnaires that suppliers fill
out and submit to provide information such as their locations, ability to provide various goods and services,
In the registration project, internal users can update internal questionnaires at any time as long as a previous
edit isn't currently in approval. Unlike other supplier management projects, the supplier registration project also
supports continuous updates to external questionnaires, and you can use separate phases in the template [page
262] to create different workflows for new registrations and registration updates. You can also always upgrade
supplier registration projects to the latest version of the template [page 216], ensuring consistency in supplier
profile data and registration processes for suppliers who registered at different times. These characteristics make
the questionnaires in the supplier registration project the ideal location for maintaining supplier profile information
that can change over time.
Any of the following methods can create a supplier registration project, depending on your site’s setup:
• Manual invitation: when a user with the appropriate permissions clicks Invite or Start internal registration
in the Registration detail area of the supplier profile and selects one or more available external registration
questionnaires to send. Manual invitations are typically used to register suppliers that were created manually
through supplier requests. In this case, the user who starts the registration is the explicit project owner.
• Mass invitation: when a customer administrator creates a mass invitation wave [page 554] to invite a number
of suppliers at once and chooses one questionnaire from the available external registration questionnaires.
Mass invitations are typically used to onboard your existing suppliers to SAP Ariba Supplier Management
solutions. These suppliers are typically already known to your company and are created in your site using data
import [page 127], migration, or replication from an integrated ERP system. For mass-invited suppliers, the
user who issues the mass invitation is the explicit project owner. The primary supplier manager must be part of
the Supplier Registration Manager group or SM Ops Administrator group to invite mass invite suppliers.
• Automatic invitation: when the self-service site configuration parameter Automatically start supplier
registrations (Application.SM.AutoStartRegistration) is enabled in your site. In this case, the owner
of the resulting supplier registration project depends on whether the request has a manual approval flow
configured for it:
• If the request has a manual approval flow, the final approver becomes the explicit project owner of the
resulting supplier registration project in all cases.
• If the request is automatically approved, the explicit project owner of the request also becomes the explicit
project owner of the resulting supplier registration project. For internal supplier requests, the owner is the
internal user who created the request. For external supplier request, the owner is always aribasystem.
This behavior applies whether or not the request workflow includes a step for validation in an integrated SAP
Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S) system.
• Automatic registration: when primary supplier contacts are added or imported for the very first time, or when
supplier requests are externally approved in an integrated SAP Master Data Governance for Suppliers (MDG-S)
system, and confirmed in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
Note
• Participate in a sourcing event: when a supplier with Not Invited registration status
attempts to participate in a sourcing event to which they've been invited, and the
site configuration parameter Set minimum registration status for event participation
It's important to keep these different creation scenarios in mind as you create external supplier registration
questionnaires and their approval flows. For example, if your company uses mass invitations, you can create a
separate questionnaire specifically for mass invited suppliers, or you can use conditions in the questionnaire you
use for all suppliers [page 267].
If a question in the supplier request and the question in any external or internal registration questionnaire
are both mapped to the same vendor database field, the registration invitation automatically prepopulates the
registration questionnaire with the answer from the request. The questionnaire respondent can choose to retain
the prepopulated answer or to change it.
Note
If a mapped question in the supplier request is hidden by a visibility condition at the time of request approval,
its data isn't prepopulated in registration questionnaire questions with the same mapping. However, if a
mapped question in the supplier request is hidden because Visible to Participants is set to No, its data is
prepopulated in registration questionnaire questions with the same mapping.
Both internal and external registration questionnaires show in the Registration detail area of the supplier profile.
By default, when a user submits an internal questionnaire, the questionnaire details page shows submitted answers
immediately, even if there's an approval flow for the questionnaire and it isn't yet approved. In sites that are
integrated with an SAP ERP system and that are configured to synchronize with the ERP before registration is
completed, mapped answers also synchronize immediately with the ERP system. There's an optional feature that
requires final approval of any internal questionnaire with approval tasks before synchronizing the mapped answers
to an integrated ERP system.
For external questionnaires, only approvers can see unapproved answers. After a questionnaire is approved, any
user who has permission to view the Registration area can see the answers.
Deployment of your solution includes a supplier registration project template with the following default
configuration, which includes an external questionnaire survey document and an approval task. You must edit
the template to define your company's specific processes.
Table 13: Initial Default Configurations for the Supplier Registration Project Template
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2203 release with a sup-
plier registration project template version of 1, this document
contains default best practice content. For details, refer to
Default Best Practice Configuration for the External Supplier
Registration Questionnaire [page 252].
Team The default team has one project group, Project Owner, with
system user aribasystem and the Template Creator user
group as approvers.
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Registration Project Template [page 246]
Setting Up Different Workflows for New Registrations and Registration Updates [page 262]
Registration and Registration Update Statuses in Visibility and Editability Conditions [page 265]
Using Editability Conditions to Prevent Recipients from Updating Registration Questionnaire Answers [page 266]
Conditional Workflows for Manual and Mass Invited Registrations [page 267]
Streamlining the Registration Questionnaire for Legacy Suppliers Using Editability Conditions [page 268]
Question Mappings to Other Questions for Setting and Maintaining Associated Sets of ERP Profile Data [page 270]
Supplier Blocking and Unblocking in Internal Registration Questionnaires [page 273]
Automatically start supplier registrations [page 763]
Set minimum registration status for event participation [page 787]
How Registration and Modular Questionnaire Template Upgrade Works [page 207]
Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Project Eligibility for Template Upgrade [page 208]
How Template Upgrade Affects Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects [page 209]
Upgrading Supplier Registration and Modular Questionnaire Projects to the Latest Template Version [page 216]
Default Best Practice Configuration for the External Supplier Registration Questionnaire [page 252]
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• The supplier registration project template only supports survey documents. Don't add any other type of
document to it.
• The supplier registration project template only supports To Do and approval tasks. Don't add any other type of
task to it.
• Tasks aren't supported for folders or documents within folders in supplier management project templates.
Don't add a task to a folder or document within a folder in supplier management project templates.
• You can specify an Allowed Commodity Level of between 0 and 10 on the template Overview tab. However,
since supplier management projects don't support commodity level restrictions in external questionnaires, this
setting doesn't restrict acceptable answers for suppliers choosing commodities in external questionnaires.
• Supplier management projects don't support recurring phases. If you add new registration and registration
update phases to the supplier registration project template, once a new registration is approved, the
registration update phase reopens automatically.
• Supplier management projects don't support the use of conditions to show or hide project documents in
individual projects based on specific circumstances. Supplier registration projects always include the survey
documents for the questionnaires that are selected at the start of the registration. The only way to add or
remove questionnaires from a registration project after it is created is through template upgrade [page 210].
• Make sure that the questions you create in supplier-facing questionnaires don't collect sensitive personal
information as defined in the Data clause in the SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass Supplemental Terms and
Conditions . SAP Ariba doesn't support collecting sensitive personal information for individuals, including
tax information (including tax IDs such as social security numbers) and bank information, in supplier
management questionnaires.
• Use of conditions on tasks in registration projects is supported but isn't a best practice and is subject to
restrictions, including the following:
• Conditions can add tasks to the project's workflow, but they can't remove a task once it has been added to
the project, even if the project no longer meets the applicable condition.
• Project completion requires completion of approval tasks on external questionnaires. It's not a good idea to
use conditions on tasks themselves to construct these required approvals, since these configurations can
result in external questionnaires with no approval tasks in projects that don't meet any of the configured
conditions, blocking project completion. Instead, SAP Ariba recommends creating conditional approval
nodes in unconditional approval tasks so that the required approval task is always present. If your site has
Requirements
• The supplier registration project template must contain at least one external survey document with an
associated approval task.
• Each external questionnaire you use must have an approval task. If you're using multiple external
questionnaires, create separate approval and (optionally) To Do tasks for each of them.
• If you want to require submission of an internal registration questionnaire as part of the new registration
workflow, but you don't want to require approval for it, create a To Do task on it. The To Do task ensures that the
task owner must submit the questionnaire to complete the registration. The To Do task isn't required for editing
the internal questionnaire, and is only necessary if your registration process requires it to be filled out.
If you create a To Do task to require completion of an internal questionnaire with the Supplier profile
questionnaire type in a new registration, make that To Do task the predecessor of another task that affects
the supplier's registration status, such as an approval task on an external questionnaire or a To Do or approval
task on an Internal questionnaire. That way, the To Do task must be completed before the registration can be
completed. Otherwise, since Supplier profile questionnaires don't affect registration status, once all approvals
for questionnaires that affect the registration status are completed, the registration automatically moves to
Registered or Registration Denied status whether or not Supplier profile questionnaire (which does not affect
registration status) has been submitted or approved, and it's no longer possible to complete its tasks in a new
registration.
Note that To Do tasks don't support multiple rounds, and once a registration is completed, tasks in the update
phase only start when a recipient submits an update to the associated questionnaire. If you don't use new
registration and registration update phases for tasks, To Do tasks only start once, during the new registration. If
you do use new registration and registration update phases, To Do tasks in the registration update phase start
once, with the first update of a related questionnaire, but don't start again for subsequent updates.
• Template validation prevents you from publishing a template that contains an approval task with both an
auto-approve setting and a defined approval flow. Therefore, you can't set up a conditional approval that
includes either auto-approval or an approval flow in a single approval task. Create separate conditional approval
tasks, one for auto-approval and another for the approval flow, instead.
• You can populate project groups in supplier registraton projects automatically using the user matrix (buyer
category assignments) [page 483]. For details on required questionnaire configurations to support buyer
category assignments, refer to Buyer Category Assignments in Supplier Management Projects [page 483].
• If your site is integrated with Dun & Bradstreet, refer to Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun &
Bradstreet Integration [page 588] for additional requirements.
• If your site has default best practice content for the external registration questionnaire, you can edit that
content to meet your requirements. Otherwise, you must add content to the template's default survey
document from scratch. For details, refer to Default Best Practice Configuration for the External Supplier
Registration Questionnaire [page 252].
• If you plan to integrate your site with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S, refer to Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73]. If your site includes default content
for the external registration questionnaire, that content is designed to meet integration best practices.
In sites integrated with SAP MDG-S, these best practices, as well as specific, verified configurations for MDG-S
integration, are also included in Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance.
• Use the template's default survey document and approval task to define an external (supplier-facing)
registration questionnaire. You can add additional survey documents with a questionnaire type of External
to create multiple supplier-facing questionnaires. Each of these questionnaires is treated separately: they
generate separate registration invitations and must have separate approval and To Do tasks. You can also
set up reminder notifications [page 256] for suppliers who have been invited to register and fill out the
questionnaire but have not yet submitted it.
• SAP Ariba recommends that you use modular questionnaire projects to collect certificate information
from suppliers rather than creating certificate questions in registration questionnaires. Collecting supplier
certificate information in modular questionnaires provides key benefits that are not available for certificates
collected in registration questionnaires, including expiration schedules, notifications at both the certificate and
questionnaire level, and the ability to search for suppliers by certificate type. For details, refer to Certificate
Management Setup in Modular Questionnaires [page 349].
Certificate questions in registration questionnaires include a detail field for Certificate Type that is a text
field to which respondents can supply any answer. In modular questionnaires, the Certificate Type field in
Certificate questions is read-only, since certificate types are defined using data import and specified in the
modular questionnaire project template. Certificate Type values are used as search filters in supplier search,
and free text answers in registration questionnaires that match existing certificate types defined for use in
modular questionnaires can create duplicate search filters.
• In sites where the internal registration feature is enabled, registration managers can either invite a supplier
to register or start an internal registration. In an internal registration, recipients in your organization complete
external registration questionnaires on behalf of the supplier, who is not involved in the registration at all. There
are some considerations to keep in mind [page 251] when setting up supplier registrations, since they might
start as internal registrations.
• You can use the questionnaire type setting to control whether approval or rejection of an internal questionnaire
affects the supplier's registration status. By default, in new registrations, the rejection of any approval task
on any questionnaire in a supplier registration project sets the registration's status to Denied and all of
the project's questionnaires close to further editing. After that, to complete the registration, a user with
the appropriate permissions must start a new round of the approval task or restart the registration. If you
set Specify questionnaire type to Internal for an internal questionnaire, this default behavior applies: if an
approver rejects the internal questionnaire in a new registration, the registration changes to Denied status.
However, internal questionnaires have a special questionnaire type, Supplier profile, that specifies that the
questionnaire's approval status does not affect the supplier's overall registration status.
The Supplier profile setting also specifies that the questionnaire is internal, and is useful in cases where
your company's registration process includes continuous internal updates. An approver can reject a particular
update during a new registration (meaning that its answers are not committed to the database) without
changing the supplier's registration status and closing the registration project to further action. Other internal
users then have the opportunity to submit different updates for approval or rejection while the new registation
is in progress.
Note
A Tax question in a repeatable section and an Extended Address question in an external registration
questionnaire are integration best practices [page 73].
• You can customize templates for email notifications to suppliers [page 530] to include approver comments
from approval tasks with the [TASK_COMMENT_TEXT] email token. By default, approver comments are not
included in those notifications.
• By default, registration invitation emails use a system email alias for the sender name, and suppliers might
not recognize the alias. There are two different options for adding a custom sender name to the "From" and
"Reply-To" fields of registration invitations. You can use either or both of these options:
• Custom default sender name [page 260] settings in survey documents for external questionnaires
allow you to configure a custom default sender name. This name is always used for registration
invitations sent through mass invitation, and is the only way to customize the sender name for those
invitations. To make this setting available, a customer administrator in your organization must set the
self-service configuration parameter Enable configurable default sender for supplier invitations [page
770] (Application.SM.EnableCustomSenderName) to Yes in Intelligent Configuration Manager.
• If the registration requester feature (SM-20904) is enabled in your site, the questionnaire invitation uses
the requester selected by the registration manager during the manual invitation workflow in the "From"
and "Reply-To" fields of the invitation for that questionnaire. If the registration manager does not choose a
requester for the registration, and you have also configured a custom default sender name for an external
registration questionnaire, the questionnaire invitation uses the custom default sender name instead. For
suppliers created from approved supplier requests, the default requester is the owner of the supplier
request project, who might be a person with whom the supplier already has a relationship. To have this
feature enabled in your site, contact SAP Ariba Support.
You can use the [CUSTOM_SENDER_NAME] email template token to insert the custom sender name or
registration requester into the subject or body of registration invitations as well. The [CUSTOM_SENDER_NAME]
token is only available in sites where the self-service configuration parameter Enable configurable default
Related Information
In external registrations, a registration manager invites a supplier to register, and the invited supplier contact
fills out and submits external registration questionnaires by creating or logging into an account on SAP Business
Network. Registration managers invite suppliers to register when they want to collect detailed profile information
directly from them.
In internal registrations, a registration manager starts a registration on behalf of a supplier and assigns
internal recipients to fill out and submit external registration questionnaires. Registration managers start internal
registrations when they want to onboard and work with a supplier that is low-volume or one-time, isn't tech-savvy,
is a government entity or third party, or that they otherwise want to register without requiring them to create an
account on SAP Business Network and complete external questionnaires.
Both types of registration use the same supplier registration project template. Keep the following considerations in
mind when setting it up:
• The supplier registration project template doesn't support creating conditional content or workflows based
on whether a registration is external or internal. Therefore, plan to use the same registration questionnaire
content and workflow for both types of registrations.
• When a registration manager invites a supplier to participate in a registration based on a previously approved
internal registration project, they can't add or remove questionnaires in the project. Therefore, plan to use the
same external registration questionnaires for both types of registrations.
• When making questions or other content required in questionnaires, make sure that both internal and external
recipients can fulfill those requirements.
• Attachments to answers in questionnaires edited by internal users have a maximum file size of 10 MB. This
limit applies to both internal questionnaires, such as the internal supplier request, and external questionnaires
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Registration Project Template [page 246]
Adding a Repeatable Section to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 386]
If your site's supplier registration project template was in version 2 or higher as of the SAP Ariba 2203 release, it
doesn't include default content. You must add all content manually.
Note
Currently, default best practice question content is only available in English. To provide content in other
languages, you must add translations.
Table 14: Default Best Practice Content for the External Supplier Registration Questionnaire
Answer
Repeatable Repeatable Type and Supplier
Section Pa- Section Question Configura- Response Field Other Set-
Section rent Name Name Name Description tion Required? Mapping tings
Supplier In- N/A Name: The suppli- Text (single Yes, vendor.v Max
formation er's name. line limited) Participant endorInf Length: 35
Required o.name1
Telephone Telephone Country The country Text (single Yes, vendor.a Max
numbers number code: code for the Participant ddressEx
line limited) Length: 3
supplier's Required t.teleph
with List of
telephone or one[$ind
mobile num- Choices
ex].numb
ber. specified as
erCountr
the
yCode
Acceptable
Values and
a defined list
of the fol-
lowing
choices:
• US (de-
fault)
• CA
• GB
• AD
• AE
• DE
• IN
• UK
• JP
• AU
• CH
• CN
None Bank ac- Bank ac- Bank ac- Country/ Bank Not vendor.b
counts count count: region-spe- Account Required ankInfo
cific ban de- s[$index
tails for the ]
supplier.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To enable registration reminders and edit notification templates for registration reminder in individual
questionnaires, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
To edit notification templates for registration reminders in Manage Administration Event Manager
Messaging Templates , you must be a member of the Customer Administrator group. These templates apply to
all questionnaires where notifications aren't individually customized.
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
edit its survey documents.
Context
In the supplier registration project template, due date settings in the survey documents for external questionnaires
allow you to configure reminders for questionnaire due dates in new registrations. These reminder settings
generate email notifications that are specific to supplier registrations.
If you configure reminders, SAP Ariba sends the following email notifications:
Internal (both internal and supplier profile) Default template survey document reminders, which are
shared with sourcing events.
Template creators can customize the messages for individual questionnaires in the Customize Messages area of
the Summary step in survey documents.
Configure reminders separately for each registration questionnaire for which you want to use them. Respondents
receive a separate notification for each questionnaire in their registration for which reminders are set up.
Note that you can also configure reminders for external questionnaires in other projects, such as supplier
qualifications and modular supplier management questionnaires. However, those reminders use the same email
notification templates as sourcing events.
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
3. Choose the external registration questionnaire for which you want to configure update reminders and choose
Action Edit .
4. In the Timing Rules area of the Rules step, for the due date, choose Reminder.
5. Choose Edit and specify at least one of following settings:
• Start reminders: Specifies when to send the first reminder. If you enter 0 in this field, no initial reminder is
sent. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number other than 0, the system sends
one reminder in total.
• Send reminders every: Specifies the frequency with which to send reminders in addition to the start and
last reminders. If you enter a number other than 0 for this setting, you must also set either the start
reminder, the last reminder, or both. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number
other than 0, the system doesn't send any reminders.
• Send last reminder: Specifies when to send the last reminder. If you enter 0 in this field, no final reminder
is sent. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number other than 0, the system sends
one reminder in total.
a. Choose OK.
6. After you've finished making all necessary changes to the supplier registration project template, publish the
new version.
Results
If a recipient hasn't submitted a registration questionnaire for which reminders are set up, they start receiving
those reminders at the intervals you specified.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To set up update reminders for external supplier registration questionnaires, you must be a member of the
Template Creator group.
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, to edit its
survey documents.
Context
In the supplier registration project template, update reminder settings in the survey documents for external
questionnaires allow you to define an update interval and specify when and how frequently to send suppliers
reminders to update the questionnaires. These settings only apply to external questionnaires. Update reminders
aren't supported for internal questionnaires. Registration update reminder emails are based on email notification
templates.
Configure update reminders separately for each external registration questionnaire for which you want to use
them. Suppliers receive a separate update reminder for each external questionnaire in their registration for which
reminders are set up.
The update interval you specify determines when periodic updates are due. For a newly completed registration, the
update intervals for all questionnaires with periodic reminders in the registration start when the overall registration
is finally approved and the supplier moves to Registered status. Subsequent update intervals for each individual
questionnaire start when the most recent update to the questionnaire is finally approved.
For example, if you specify an update interval of 365 days, the first update for a questionnaire is due 365 days after
the final approval of the new registration. If the supplier submits the first update before the end of the first update
interval and it's finally approved (for example on day 200), a new update interval starts for the questionnaire and
the second update is due in 365 days (565 days from the registration completion date).
If a supplier doesn't submit an update by the end of an update interval, a new update interval can't start and
they receive no further update reminders. If the supplier later submits an update on their own after the end of
the previous update interval, a new update interval starts at that point and the supplier receives the associated
reminder for the next update.
Tip
If you haven't enabled the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely setting for an external questionnaire, it
automatically closes to further updates in the amount of time specified by the self-service parameter Reopen
Procedure
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
3. Choose the external registration questionnaire for which you want to configure update reminders and choose
Action Edit .
4. In the Timing Rules area of the Rules step, choose Yes for Send reminders for periodic updates.
5. Specify the update interval.
6. Choose Reminder.
7. Choose Edit and specify at least one of following settings:
• Start reminders: Specifies when to send the first reminder. If you enter 0 in this field, no initial reminder is
sent. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number other than 0, the system sends
one reminder in total.
• Send reminders every: Specifies the frequency with which to send reminders in addition to the start and
last reminders. If you enter a number other than 0 for this setting, you must also set either the start
reminder, the last reminder, or both. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number
other than 0, the system doesn't send any reminders.
• Send last reminder: Specifies when to send the last reminder. If you enter 0 in this field, no final reminder
is sent. If this field is the only reminder field for which you specify a number other than 0, the system sends
one reminder in total.
a. Choose OK.
8. After you've finished making all necessary changes to the supplier registration project template, publish the
new version.
Results
In registration projects, registered suppliers receive email notifications reminding them to update the questionnaire
at the intervals and frequency you specified. These reminders show on the Event Messages tab in the advanced
view of individual registration projects. Note that to see the advanced view of a supplier management project,
the Advanced View link for that project type must be enabled in your site and you must have appropriate
group membership permissions. For more information, see Managing Access to the Advanced View of Supplier
Management Projects [page 577].
Prerequisites
The self-service site configuration parameter Enable custom sender name options
(Application.SM.EnableCustomSenderName) must be enabled in your site.
To specify a custom default sender name for an external registration questionnaire in the supplier registration
project template, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
Context
You can specify custom default sender names for the invitations to external registration questionnaires in their
survey documents in the supplier registration project template. The custom default sender name replaces the
generic system sender name in the following places in the "From" field in registration invitation notifications.
Depending on how a supplier is created and invited to register, the explicit registration project owner can be the
customer administrator who sent a mass registration invitation, the registration manager who manually invited
a supplier to register, or the supplier requester. In mass registration invitations, the sender name is likely to be
unfamiliar to the supplier and cause the supplier to ignore the invitation.
For mass or automatic registration invitations, the only way to specify a custom sender name is by using the
Sender name used for the 'From' and 'Reply To' fields in emails to participants setting in the Message Board
area of the Rules step in the survey documents for external questionnaires. The Other sender name you specify in
that setting is always the default custom sender name for the questionnaire.
Note
• If you specify an Other sender name for the Sender name used for the 'From' and 'Reply To' fields in
emails to participants setting, make sure that the Email address used for the ‘From’ and Reply To fields
in emails to participants setting isn't set to Owner email address.
Configure custom sender names separately for each external registration questionnaire for which you want to
use them. Suppliers receive separate questionnaire-level notifications for each external questionnaire in their
registration.
This setting applies only to those email notifications that you customize in individual questionnaire template
survey documents or in Event Manager Messaging Templates task in Ariba Administrator, which include
registration invitations and new registration reminders. It doesn't apply to email notifications that you configure in
the Project Manager Project Email Templates task, which include notifications of registration approval and
requests for additional information during approval. Those notifications continue to use the generic system sender
name.
Tip
You can use the [CUSTOM_SENDER_NAME] email template token, which is available for these message
templates, to insert the custom sender name you specify here into notification emails.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
3. Choose the name of an external registration questionnaire and choose Edit.
4. Choose Rules and navigate to the Message Board area.
5. For the Sender name used for the 'From' and 'Reply To' fields in emails to participants setting, choose
Other sender name.
6. Enter the custom default sender name you want to show in registration invitations for the questionnaire.
7. Choose Exit, then click Save and then exit.
Results
Once you publish the new version of the template, registration invitation notifications for the questionnaire show
the sender name you specified in the From" field by default.
Next Steps
To add this setting to existing registration projects, a customer administrator can upgrade those projects to the
latest template version.
Prerequisites
To add phases and tasks in the supplier registration template, you must be a member of the Template Creator
group.
Context
The supplier registration project template supports phases with special New Registration and Registration
Update settings to control the order in which the phases start and whether the tasks in a phase are one-time-only
(for new registrations) or recur (for every registration update). The New Registration phase starts one time,
immediately when the supplier is invited to register. Registration Update phases start again every time a supplier
updates a registration questionnaire.
Within the new registration and update phases, you can add separate approval and To Do tasks on the same
questionnaire survey documents to define their workflows in new and updated registrations. For example, for an
external registration questionnaire, you can set up an approval task with a full approval flow involving all relevant
stakeholders in the new registration phase, and an approval task with a more streamlined approval flow in the
update phase. The order in which tasks appear in a phase on the template Tasks tab doesn't affect the order in
which they start. You can chain the tasks in a phase together as predecessors to define the order in which they start
and create a workflow.
You can create multiple registration update phases to group tasks for different registration questionnaires, or you
can keep all update-related tasks in a single update phase. Regardless of how you organize update-related tasks,
when a supplier or internal user updates a registration questionnaire, that update only starts the tasks that are
associated with that questionnaire. After tasks for an individual external questionnaire update are completed,
approved answers are committed to the supplier database and synchronized to the integrated ERP system
regardless of the status of the overall update phase or of the other questionnaire tasks in it. Approval tasks on
Note
Questionnaire updates submitted using the Supplier Data API with Pagination only trigger approval tasks if set
to do so.
When setting up registration phases and their tasks, keep the following in mind:
• The use of phases is only supported in supplier registration and modular questionnaire projects. These phases
don't use the Subscribe For, Rank, or Predecessor settings. The new registration phase always proceeds
registration update phases, and a registration update phase always starts with submission of a questionnaire
for which it has tasks.
• If you use phases, make sure that all of the template tasks are inside either the new registration phase or an
update phase. If you use these phases in the registration project, adding tasks outside of them isn't supported.
• Make sure that the tasks you specify as predecessors are within the same phase. Don't make tasks in a phase
predecessors of tasks in a different phase.
• To Do tasks don't support multiple rounds. To Do tasks in both new and update phases start once and don't
start again after they've been marked complete, regardless of whether they're configured to start when a
predecessor task is completed.
• You can't apply conditions to registration phases. You can apply conditions to registration tasks, but keep in
mind restrictions and best practices [page 246].
Note
As part of setting up different workflows for new and updated registrations, you can also use editability
conditions [page 265] to make different questions either hidden or read-only.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Tasks tab.
3. Create a phase for new registrations by performing the following steps:
The new phase, indicated by the unstarted phase icon ( ), appears on the Tasks tab.
4. Move the registration template's default approval task and any other existing tasks that you want to use for
new registration by dragging and dropping them into the new registration phase. Add new tasks as needed.
If you're using two conditional approval tasks for the registration questionnaire to define different approval
flows for mass invited (legacy) and non-legacy suppliers [page 267], make sure that they're both in the new
registration phase.
The new phase, indicated by the unstarted phase icon ( ), appears on the Tasks tab.
6. Add an approval task for the registration questionnaire updates by performing the following steps:
a. On the Tasks tab, click the registration questionnaire and choose Create New Tasks Approval .
b. Enter a name for the task.
c. Define an approval flow or, if you want to automatically approve registration updates, choose Yes for Allow
auto approval.
d. Specify other settings for the task as needed and choose OK.
The new approval task is created on the Tasks tab outside of the phases.
e. On the Tasks tab, drag and drop the new approval task into the update phase.
7. Add other To Do or approval tasks to the phase as needed.
8. After you've finished modifying the supplier registration template, publish it.
Results
When a supplier is first invited to register, the new registration phase starts. Final approval of the new registration
automatically completes the new registration phase.
After registration phase is completed, submitting an update to a registration questionnaire starts only those tasks
in an update phase that are associated with that questionnaire. After those tasks are completed, respondents can
update the questionnaire again.
Related Information
A visibility condition hides content by default, and only shows it when the condition is met. Hidden content is
hidden from both suppliers and internal users. An editability condition makes an answer read-only by default, and
only allows participants to edit it when the condition is met. Read-only content is always visible to participants.
For example, if registration questionnaire contains questions requiring suppliers to agree to certain terms and
conditions, you can make those questions editable in new registrations but hide them in updates so that suppliers
can't change their answers later. Or you can create follow-up questions that only show when a supplier updates the
answers to certain questions.
The following table describes the status fields and values that you can use to build field match conditions for initial
and updated registrations:
Field Description
• No Choice
• Not Invited
• Invited
• In Registration
• Pending Approval
• Registered
• Registration Denied
• Pending Resubmit
Registration Update Status Conditions based on this field can be triggered by matches to
the following registration update statuses:
• No Choice
• Pending Approval
• Pending Resubmit
• Approved
• Denied
Note
Don't use project-level conditions on registration approval tasks to define different approval flows for initial
registrations and registration updates. Use registration phases instead.
Visibility Conditions for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469]
Using Editability Conditions to Prevent Recipients from Updating Registration Questionnaire Answers [page 266]
Setting Up Different Workflows for New Registrations and Registration Updates [page 262]
Prerequisites
To create project-level conditions and edit template survey documents, you must be a member of the Template
Creator or Customer Administrator group.
Context
Visibility conditions based on registration status can hide questions from suppliers who are updating the
registration questionnaire after their initial registration. However, if the question is hidden from the supplier during
the update, both the question and the supplier's original answer are also hidden from your company's internal
users when they review the supplier's registration.
If you apply an editability condition based on registration status instead, the questions and the supplier's initial
answers are visible to both suppliers updating the questionnaire and to your company's internal users. However,
the supplier can't change their initial answers.
By default, all questions are editable. If you apply an editability to the question, it's only editable when the condition
is met, and otherwise can't be edited.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. If the template doesn't already include a project-level condition for registered suppliers, create one by
performing the following steps:
a. Choose the Conditions tab.
4. Choose the external (supplier-facing) registration questionnaire survey document and choose Action
Edit .
5. Choose Content.
6. Add or edit a question that you don't want already-registered suppliers to be able to update.
7. For the Editability Conditions setting, choose none Select Condition Other .
8. To the right of the editability condition for new suppliers you created, Choose Select.
9. Continue to add or edit questions in the supplier registration questionnaire as needed and apply the new
supplier condition to any questions you don't want already-registered suppliers to be able to update.
Related Information
Registration and Registration Update Statuses in Visibility and Editability Conditions [page 265]
Suppliers that are created manually through approved supplier requests and are then invited to register individually
are typically unknown, and your main registration process is designed to collect complete information from them
and have them vetted by a full set of approvers. Mass registration invitations [page 554] are designed to quickly
bring a large number of suppliers into your site. These suppliers can be created by being imported from another
of your company's systems, in which case you already have some of their information. If you plan to use mass
registration invitations to onboard existing suppliers, you can create a separate, conditional registration process for
them in order to streamline the process.
• Create separate approval flows for legacy and nonlegacy supplier registrations. Conditions based on the Is
Legacy field don't work in approval flows, so you can't use them to create conditional approval flows in a
single approval task. However, you can create two separate approval tasks on the registration questionnaire
document and apply the conditions to the approval tasks.
• Show different questionnaire content to legacy and nonlegacy suppliers by applying visibility conditions in the
questionnaire survey document.
• Make some questionnaire content read-only for legacy or nonlegacy suppliers by applying editability conditions
in the questionnaire survey document.
Note
Content that is hidden from the supplier is also not visible to internal users. Hidden or read-only content also
continues to be hidden or read-only not only in new registrations but in all subsequent registration updates.
All suppliers who are invited to register through the mass invitation feature or are migrated from supplier
organizations are marked as legacy suppliers, while all suppliers that are invited to register following an approved
supplier request are marked as nonlegacy suppliers. The registration projects created for both sets of suppliers
automatically apply the conditions you create based on the Is Legacy field.
For more information about project-level conditions, refer to the Project Template Guide.
Related Information
Visibility Conditions for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469]
Editability Conditions for Controlling the Editability of Answers in a Form or Questionnaire [page 475]
Prerequisites
To create project-level conditions and edit template survey documents, you must be a member of the Template
Creator or Customer Administrator group.
All suppliers that are either migrated from supplier organizations or invited to register through the mass invitation
feature are marked as legacy suppliers, while all suppliers that are invited to register following an approved supplier
request are marked as nonlegacy suppliers. You can therefore use the Is Legacy field to create project-level
conditions to streamline the registration questionnaire for those known suppliers, since you already have some of
the information you otherwise use the questionnaire to collect from new suppliers.
Visibility conditions can hide questions from legacy suppliers and show them to new suppliers. However, if you
apply a visibility condition based on the Is Legacy field, the question and answer are also hidden from your
company's internal users when they review the registration questionnaires of legacy suppliers.
If you apply an editability condition for new suppliers instead, the questions (and any imported or migrated
answers) are visible to both legacy suppliers and to internal users who review the registration questionnaire.
However, the legacy suppliers can't edit them and can therefore skip them, even if they're required questions Any
imported or migrated answers are also visible. New suppliers, on the other hand, can edit the questions to answer
them, and must answer them if they're required.
By default, all questions in the supplier registration questionnaire and editable. If you apply an editability to the
question, it's only editable when the condition is met, and otherwise can't be edited.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier registration project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. If the template doesn't already include a project-level condition for new (nonlegacy) suppliers, create one by
performing the following steps:
a. Choose the Conditions tab.
b. Choose Add Condition.
c. Enter a name and description for the condition.
d. In the expression editor, choose All are true.
e. Choose the action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True, then choose Add Condition Field
Match .
4. Choose a survey document for an external registration questionnaire, then choose Action Edit .
5. Choose Content.
6. Add or edit a question that you want new suppliers to answer but legacy suppliers to skip.
7. For the Editability Conditions setting, choose none Select Condition Other .
Results
When you publish the template, new suppliers are able to edit and answer the questions to which you applied
the editability condition, and must answer required questions. Legacy suppliers can see the questions but can't
edit them and are able to skip them, even if they're otherwise required. In both cases, internal users reviewing the
registration are able to see the questions.
Note
As a best practice, SAP Ariba recommends managing company code and purchasing organization information
directly in the integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system. Setting or maintaining this data
in SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based on your specific
requirements.
This requirement is particularly the case for setting or maintaining a large number of company codes or
purchasing organizations using complex field mappings.
Mapping question values to other questions is designed to support maintaining ERP supplier profile data in SAP
Ariba in a specific scenario where a questionnaire respondent sets the initial details associated with a lookup key
field value for a supplier, and then they or another respondent updates the associated details in an internal supplier
registration questionnaire when necessary.
The question answers to which you map other question answers must themselves be mapped to the lookup key
field for an array class in the vendor database, such as vendor.roleExt.roleCode. The questions that you map
to the lookup key field question must be about detail fields in the same array class, such as vendor.roleExt.
To map question values to other questions, you use the following syntax in the Supplier Field Mapping field on the
Add Questions page:
vendor.arrayClass($answer.lookupKeyQuestionNumber).fieldName
lookupKeyQuestionNumber is always the number of the question on the survey document content table. For
example, the first question in section 4.1 is numbered 4.1.1.
Note
Questions are always numbered in the order in which they appear in the content table of template survey
documents, and inclusion in sections affects question numbering. Note that adding a new question ahead of
The following table shows the list of available array classes and lookup key fields for mapping:
vendor.bankInfos vendor.bankInfos.accountNumber
vendor.companyCode vendor.companyCode.companyCode
vendor.industrySector vendor.industrySector.industryClassificati
onSystemCode
vendor.purchasingOrg vendor.purchasingOrg.purchasingOrganisatio
nID
vendor.roleExt vendor.roleExt.roleCode
vendor.subRange vendor.subRange.vendorSubrangeCode
vendor.taxExt vendor.taxExt.taxIdentificationNumberTypeC
ode
vendor.text vendor.text.textTypeCode
vendor.vendorExtIdentification vendor.vendorExtIdentification.partyIdenti
fierTypeCode
vendor.vendorPCardIssuerAPIs vendor.vendorPCardIssuerAPIs.paymentCardIs
suerPartyInternalID
You can set up the questions that establish initial values between associated fields either in the supplier request or
the internal supplier registration questionnaire. These two scenarios require different mapping configurations for
the lookup key field question. For best practices on setting ERP- related data in the supplier request, refer to Best
Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71].
To set up the questions in the supplier request: You first create a question about the lookup key field, and then
map it to both the lookup key field and to itself:
vendor.arrayClass($answer.questionNumber).lookupKeyFieldName
This mapping establishes that the answer to the question is the value associated with any mapped detail questions.
vendor.arrayClass.lookupKeyfieldName
Tip
If you ask the questions that set the initial values in the internal registration questionnaire, consider putting
them in a section with a title makes that purpose clear, so that they're distinguished from the second set of
questions in the same questionnaire that update the values.
In both cases: Typically, you create a list of choices for the answers to the initial lookup key question, so that
questionnaire respondents must choose from a list of valid values. You can allow users to choose multiple answers
to this question.
Next, you create questions about detail fields in the same array class and map them to both the associated vendor
database field and the lookup key answer:
vendor.arrayClass($answer.lookupKeyQuestionNumberInRequest).differentFieldName
Typically, you also create lists of choices for the answers to these questions so that users must choose from lists of
valid values, specifying that respondents must choose only one value for each answer.
After the questionnaire is approved, these values display in the ERP data detail area of the supplier's profile and are
synchronized to the integrated ERP system.
Note
This configuration isn't a best practice for integration and SAP Ariba recommends against using it. For details,
refer to Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73].
Creating duplicate mapped questions in the supplier internal registration questionnaire allows internal respondents
to update the initial values set by the first set of questions. Internal respondents with the appropriate permissions
can edit the internal registration questionnaire at any time to update those values.
In the internal registration questionnaire, you first create a duplicate question about the lookup key field. However,
unlike in the initial set of questions, you don't map it to anything. The self-referential mapping in the initial question
associated the mapped detail answers with the lookup key answer, while the second question is designed simply to
specify which lookup key value has updated details. A separate mapping in the second lookup key question in the
internal registration questionnaire would allow a new respondent's answer to replace the original answer, which is
why you omit it in this case.
Next, you create duplicate questions about the detail fields in the same array class and map them to both the
associated vendor database field and the answer to the second lookup key question, the one in the current
questionnaire. Note that this number is typically different from the number you used to set up the related question
in the supplier request:
vendor.arrayClass($answer.lookupKeyQuestionNumberInRegistration).differentFieldName
Tip
If you ask the questions that set the initial values in the internal registration questionnaire, consider putting the
update questions in a section with a title makes that purpose clear, so that they're distinguished from the first
set of questions in the same questionnaire that set the initial values.
Note
• As a best practice, SAP Ariba recommends managing supplier blocking and unblocking directly in the
integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system. Managing supplier blocking and unblocking
in SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based on your specific
requirements.
The ERP data detail area of the supplier profile shows block indicators, including blocked indicators at
the purchasing organization and company code level, regardless of whether any supplier management
questionnaires in SAP Ariba have questions mapped to blockedIndicator fields.
• In sites where the supplier profile summary (NGSM-2959) is enabled, suppliers with a common
block (vendor.vendorInfoExt.commonBlockedIndicator set to true) show an Activity Status of
Blocked.
• At this time, SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions don't enforce supplier blocks in some cases.
For example, users can still invite blocked suppliers to sourcing events and create contracts for
blocked suppliers in solutions where those features are available. Suppliers with a common block
(vendor.vendorInfoExt.commonBlockedIndicator set to true) aren't included in guided buying
search results.
To set up supplier blocking and unblocking, you create Yes/No questions in the internal registration questionnaire
and map them to blockedIndicator fields in the vendor database. There are five types of blocks that you can set
up:
Use the answer type Yes/No for questions mapped to these fields.
Note
Your integration synchronization settings determine when a supplier in SAP Ariba is initially synchronized with
an integrated ERP system. Until that initial synchronization occurs, SAP Ariba don't receive or send blocked
indicators, and the supplier is only blocked or unblocked in SAP Ariba.
Note
• Setting deletedIndicators in an integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system.
SAP Ariba inactivates suppliers with the overall deletedIndicator set in integration messages from the
integrated ERP system. The ERP data detail area of the supplier profile shows deletedIndicators at
the purchasing organization and company code level, regardless of whether any supplier management
questionnaires in SAP Ariba have questions mapped to deletedIndicator fields.
• Setting the active flag to false in supplier data imports in SAP Ariba.
Managing supplier inactivation and reactivation in mapped questions SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires
thorough testing in your landscape based on your specific requirements.
To allow questionnaire respondents to flag suppliers for deletion, you create Yes/No questions in the internal
registration questionnaire and map them to deletedIndicator fields in the vendor database. There are three
deletedIndicators:
vendor.vendorInfoExt.supplierDeletedIndica Flags the supplier for overall deletion and inactivation. Profiles
tor of suppliers with this field set to true show an Inactive label.
vendor.purchasingOrg(purchasing Flags the supplier for deletion for a specific purchasing organi-
organization ID).deletedIndicator zation.
vendor.companyCode(company Flags the supplier for deletion for a specific company code.
code).deletedIndicator
To set up the internal registration questionnaire so that users can use it to set deletion flags, use answer type
Yes/No for questions mapped to these fields.
Note
Your integration synchronization settings determine when a supplier in SAP Ariba is initially synchronized with
the integrated ERP system. Until that initial synchronization occurs, SAP Ariba doesn't receive deletion flags set
in that system.
Related Information
Process projects provide a flexible framework that allows you to define custom qualification and other supplier
lifecycle processes to fit your organization's business processes. They allow you to tailor questionnaire content to
specific suppliers, to leverage and reuse modular questionnaires across different processes, and to create custom
processes for your specific supplier lifecycle activities.
Process qualifications and disqualifications (discontinuations) are a more customizable alternative to qualification
and disqualification projects. For more information about setting up those projects, refer to Supplier Qualification
and Disqualification Project Setup [page 311].
Comparison of Supplier Request, Registration, and Legacy Qualification Projects to Process Projects [page
278]
Transition from Legacy Supplier Qualification Projects to Qualification Process Projects [page 284]
About Supplier Qualification and SAP Ariba Sourcing Events [page 286]
Workflow for Setting Up Qualification and Miscellaneous Process Projects [page 289]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up Process Project Templates [page 293]
Conditional Commodity, Region, and Business Unit Questions in the Process Project Intake Form [page 300]
Enabling External Process Decision-Making Using the External Approval API for Sourcing and Supplier
Management [page 309]
Questionnaires
Selection Requests support one form. Information in the process intake form
determines which modular question-
Registrations support multiple internal
naires linked in the template are included
and external questionnaires, but their in-
in the project.
clusion in a registration isn't driven by
registration characteristics. Required modular questionnaires are au-
tomatically selected. The process initia-
The external qualification questionnaire
tor can also choose optional modular
includes segments based on qualification
questionnaires to include.
commodity, region, and department.
Reuse Each questionnaire is contained in its in- Modular questionnaires can be used as
dividual project. Recipients must provide stand-alone questionnaires as well as
information separately in each question- linked in multiple processes. Recipients
naire. provide information once in the modular
questionnaire and it shows in all linked
processes.
Certificate management Recipients must provide certificate infor- Modular questionnaires include certifi-
mation separately in each questionnaire. cate management features, including re-
There's no mechanism for generating re- minders and questionnaire expiration.
minders about expiring certificates, and Recipients provide a certificate once in
expiring certificates don't affect project the modular questionnaire and it's availa-
status. ble in all linked processes. Questionnaire
expiration can be linked to certificate
expiration, and expiring questionnaires
generate notifications to process owners
and decision-makers, who can request
updates and change the status of proc-
esses with outdated certificates.
Project infrastructure
Buyer category assignments (user ma- Supported for supplier requests, regis- Supported for both process projects and
trix) trations, and qualifications. their included modular questionnaires.
Approvals While approval tasks are on individual Each modular questionnaire in a process
project forms or questionnaires, all ap- project has an individual approval flow for
provals are tied to the overall project ap- data collection. There's a separate deci-
proval workflow. sion-making step for the overall process
project.
Project status Registrations and qualifications support Configurable statuses and display
custom display names. However, the un- names.
derlying status flow is defined by SAP
Ariba and isn’t customizable.
Template upgrade Supported for registration. Not sup- Supported for modular questionnaires,
ported for request or qualification. which are used in process projects. Proc-
ess renewals also include the intake
form and any additional modular ques-
tionnaires referenced by new external
tasks in the currently published version
of the template. Any questionnaires in-
cluded in a process project that are no
longer referenced by external tasks in the
currently published version of the tem-
plate remain in the process project.
Automated, rule-based project outcomes Each project requires manual approval. Data import for defining rules that au-
tomatically assign decisions to process
projects based on process type and the
approval statuses of included question-
naires.
Process types Lifecycle stages defined by SAP Ariba Supports a qualification lifecycle stage,
discontinuation lifecycle stage, and a
miscellaneous lifecycle stage that can be
tailored to unique, custom processes and
supplier types.
Qualification functionality
Qualification eligibility Supplier must have a registration status Supplier is eligible for process qualifica-
of Registered to be eligible for project- tion with any registration status, making
based qualification. it possible to qualify a supplier before
registering them and synchronizing them
to the vendor master in an integrated
ERP system.
Qualification matrix If there's an existing qualification for a Supports a separate qualification proc-
higher-level combination of commodities, ess of the same process type for every
regions, and departments, it's not pos- unique combination of commodity, re-
sible to separately qualify the supplier gion, and department. If there's an exist-
at a lower level in the same hierarchy ing process qualification for a higher-level
branches. combination of commodities, regions,
and departments, it's also possible to
separately qualify the supplier for lower
commodity, region, or department levels
in the same hierarchy branches.
Requalification Requalification of project-based qualifi- Process project owners can choose dif-
cations reopens the existing qualification ferent questionnaire content when re-
project with the same questionnaire. newing a process qualification.
Requalifications are only possible for ex- Process qualifications are eligible for re-
pired qualifications or disqualifications. newal at any time after the original deci-
sion is made, and it's possible to renew
a valid qualification to gather updated in-
formation and reassess the decision.
Disqualification Separate disqualification projects with in- Denied status can be set manually by a
ternal form and approval flow.
decision-maker or through data import
or API.
CSV status import Supported for qualification and for reg- Supported for process projects.
istrations (internal Registered status
only). Not supported for request or other
registration statuses.
ERP integration Uses the currently supported methods Uses the currently supported methods
for SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per- for SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
formance. formance. Synchronization of data from
the process intake form to an integrated
ERP system isn't supported. If your inte-
gration configuration specifies automatic
integration of new suppliers based on
qualification status, process qualification
status works the same way as legacy
qualification status to trigger initial syn-
chronization to the ERP system.
• The flexible process framework feature is only available in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance. It isn't available in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance
Management (new architecture).
• A customer administrator in your organization must enable the flexible process framework feature using the
following two self-service configuration parameters:
• Enable modular process framework [page 773] in Intelligent Configuration Manager (requires
membership in the Customer Administrator group).
• Application.SM.Process.EnableModularProcessFramework in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters (requires membership in the SM Ops Administrator group).
Remember
Always make sure both of these parameters have the same setting.
• To use departments in process projects, the business unit (department) feature must be enabled and
department master data must be loaded in your site.
• If your site also includes SAP Ariba Sourcing, there are some specific considerations and prerequisites related
to legacy versus process qualification and guided versus legacy sourcing events. Refer to About Supplier
Qualification and SAP Ariba Sourcing Events [page 286] for details.
Related Information
Transition from Legacy Supplier Qualification Projects to Qualification Process Projects [page 284]
Managing Configuration Parameters in SM Administration [page 817]
Qualification and Miscellaneous Supplier Management Process Projects [page 21]
Workflow for Setting Up Qualification and Miscellaneous Process Projects [page 289]
• There's no migration from legacy qualification projects to process qualification projects. This restriction means
that:
• There's no way to migrate data from questionnaires in legacy, dedicated qualification projects to the
modular supplier management questionnaires used in qualification process projects. Once the process
project feature is enabled in your site, requalifications based on legacy qualifications involve new
qualification process projects that don't include any data from the previous qualification, and recipients
must submit new process-based modular questionnaires to requalify. The questionnaire import in SM
Administration doesn't support importing data into modular questionnaires and can't be used to migrate
qualification data from legacy qualification questionnaires or external systems into process-related
modular questionnaires.
• Legacy qualifications and process qualifications have different status filters in supplier searches. Supplier
searches using Qualification status filters return results for legacy qualifications, while supplier searches
using Supplier process status return results for process qualifications. If your site includes both types of
qualifications, searches must use both filters to return complete results.
• Template upgrade for process projects isn't currently supported. However:
• Template upgrade for the modular questionnaire projects used in process projects is available.
• Process renewals always include the intake form and any additional modular questionnaires referenced
by new external tasks in the currently published version of the template. Any questionnaires included in
a process project that are no longer referenced by external tasks in the currently published version of the
template remain in existing process projects.
• Once process projects are enabled in your site, legacy qualifications are disabled and:
• Qualification managers can no longer create legacy qualification projects.
• Starting a requalification based on an existing legacy qualification project creates a new process
qualification project.
• Qualification managers can still create disqualification projects based on existing legacy qualifications.
• You can no longer use the Supplier qualification data import to define new legacy supplier qualifications
or update existing qualifications with any status other than Expired. Instead, you use the supplier
process [page 161] data import to set qualification statuses, which are mapped to standard SAP Ariba
qualification lifecycle statuses [page 94]. This new import can't create a process qualification if there's
a legacy qualification project that is in progress for the same combination of commodities, regions, and
departments.
Using the Supplier qualification data import to define new qualifications or update existing imported
qualifications to Expired status makes them eligible for renewal using process qualification. You can't use
this data import to update the status of legacy qualifications that are based on projects.
The process project feature doesn't disrupt legacy qualification projects that are in progress. Existing
workflows for these projects continue to work, and they can be completed as before.
• After a supplier is qualified using a qualification process project, a decision-maker for the qualification process
project can manually change its status, and you can also update the status using data import or an API client
application. Alternatively, you can disqualify existing qualification processes using a separate discontinuation
process project with unique workflow and process statuses.
• If you use a process project for qualification, the supplier's custom qualification status in the user interface
is determined by the associated process project based on mappings between process project states and
Note
Currently, sourcing events, contract workspaces, and the guided buying capability can't consume
qualification statuses if you have more than 1 process type with the Qualification lifecycle type.
• You can only create internal modular questionnaire projects as part of a process project. Stand-alone internal
modular questionnaires aren't supported.
• Synchronization of data in mapped questions in modular questionnaires to an integrated ERP system isn't
currently verified or certified by SAP Ariba. Synchronization of data from the process intake form to an
integrated ERP system isn't supported. If your integration configuration specifies automatic integration of new
suppliers based on qualification status, process qualification status works the same way as legacy qualification
status to trigger initial synchronization to the ERP system.
Related Information
Enabling the process project feature (SM-16798) in your site immediately disables creation of new projects from
the legacy supplier qualification project template.
If a supplier doesn't have a legacy qualification project in any status, the Qualifications detail area of their profile
only shows qualification process controls and qualification processes. The Qualifications detail area is only visible
in the profiles of registered suppliers.
If a supplier does have at least one legacy qualification in any status, the Qualifications detail area of their profile
includes two different tabs:
• Legacy qualifications, which show any legacy qualification and disqualification projects.
• Process qualifications, which shows qualification process controls and qualification processes.
Process qualification doesn't disrupt qualification activity that is in progress in legacy qualification and
disqualification projects, but for an entirely new qualification, you can only use a qualification process project.
During this transition:
Tip
Once the process project feature is enabled in your site, the legacy Supplier qualification data import is
disabled for most uses. However, you can still use it to update the statuses of imported legacy qualifications
to Expired. If a supplier has a legacy qualification that was created from a data import, updating its status to
Expired enables a process initiator to start a requalification (renewal) and create a process qualification for
the same combination of commodities, regions, and departments.
Note
Migration of data from legacy qualification projects to process qualification projects isn't supported. When
a qualification manager starts a requalification from a legacy qualification project, the resulting new process
qualification project starts from scratch.
If a supplier has a legacy qualification for a combination of commodities, regions, and departments, that
legacy qualification continues to determine the supplier's qualification status for that combination until there's
a qualification process with an approved, conditionally approved, or denied status for the same combination. At
that point, the qualification process becomes the source of the qualification status.
Sourcing events can use qualification status to determine supplier eligibility, and event managers see qualification
status when inviting participants and awarding events.
Classic sourcing Legacy qualification projects Classic sourcing can use leg- SAP Ariba doesn’t plan any
acy qualification statuses. further enhancements to the
use of either legacy or process
Process qualification projects Classic sourcing can use
qualifications in classic sourc-
process qualification statuses.
ing.
However, to function cor-
rectly, you can only create
one process type with the
Qualification lifecycle
type.
Guided sourcing Legacy qualification projects Guided sourcing can use leg- SAP Ariba doesn’t plan any
acy qualification statuses. further enhancements to the
use of legacy qualifications in
guided sourcing.
Process qualification projects Guided sourcing can use proc- If you need more advanced ca-
pabilities for supplier qualifica-
ess qualification status. How-
tion in sourcing events, SAP
ever, to function correctly,
Ariba recommends adopting
you currently can only cre- both guided sourcing and
ate one process type with process qualification.
the Qualification lifecy-
cle type.
Related Information
The overall workflow for a process project is defined by an SM Process Project template. Process projects include
the following elements:
Custom process types You define your own types of supplier management processes
by importing process type data in CSV files. When you define a
process type, you specify its lifecycle type, which can be:
Custom process statuses You define your own process statuses by importing process
status data in CSV files. You define a set of custom statuses for
each process type you use. The display names you define for
these statuses can match your organization's specific business
processes and terminology.
SM Process Project project type You use this project type to create templates for supplier man-
agement process projects. Like modular questionnaire project
templates, you can create multiple SM Process Project tem-
plates to define different processes, assigning each template
a different process type. One process type has one process
project template.
Process intake form The survey document in a process project template defines the
form that process project initiators fill out to create a project
from the template. Answers to questions you create in the in-
take form determine which of the modular questionnaires that
are referenced in the process project template are applicable
to an individual process project.
External tasks You create external tasks in process project templates to link
modular questionnaire types to the process.
Process initiator and decision-maker project groups You use specialized project groups to assign specific users the
ability to create or make status decisions for specific process
projects. These project groups provide a finer degree of control
over responsibility for individual processes than global user
group membership.
Currently, SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance supports one project template per process type. You
can have multiple qualification or miscellaneous process types. However, you can only define one discontinuation
process type, and that discontinuation process type is automatically associated with all qualification process
types. Statuses in process projects with the Qualification lifecycle type and their associated discontinuation
processes are all mapped to standard SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance qualification statuses
automatically. Therefore, if you create multiple Qualification process types to support multiple qualification
Related Information
Before you start setting up process projects, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with these elements. For details,
refer to Process Project Elements [page 287].
1. Import data definitions: Import the data definitions you need for setting up process project templates and
associated modular questionnaire project templates. You must be a member of the Customer Administrator
group to import data in Ariba Administrator.
1. Import process types [page 90].
2. Import process project statuses [page 92].
3. If you're creating new questionnaire types for use in process projects, import questionnaire types [page
80] for those questionnaires. You can perform this step in any order.
If you plan to score the modular questionnaires used in process projects and you haven't yet defined the
scoring band types [page 86] and categories [page 85] you want to use, import that master data as well
and make sure that their questionnaire types have an EvaluationType of Graded.
2. Set up modular questionnaires: Edit existing modular questionnaire project templates or create new ones as
needed and set them up for use in process projects [page 303]. Process projects can include both external
and internal modular questionnaires. You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Modular
Questionnaire Manager groups to create or edit modular questionnaire templates.
Modular questionnaires used in process projects have specific configuration requirements and considerations,
including:
• Questionnaire type
You add modular questionnaires to a process project by specifying the questionnaire type rather than
individual modular questionnaire project templates. Therefore, the questionnaire type you select here is
directly related to the questionnaire's availability in a process project.
Note
Make sure that each modular questionnaire project template that you want to add to a process project
template has at least one published version. You can't add a modular questionnaire project template in its
original version in Draft mode to a process project template.
3. Set up the process project: Set up the template for your process project. You must be a member of both the
Template Creator and SM Process Manager groups to create and edit process project templates.
1. Create the process project template and set its process type. [page 295]
2. Create the process project intake form. [page 297]
3. Add modular questionnaires using external tasks. [page 307]
4. Create the project groups for the process initiators and decision-makers. [page 301]
Note
You only create these groups for qualification and miscellaneous processes. You don't create them for
discontinuation processes.
Related Information
Before you start setting up process projects, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with these elements. For details,
refer to Process Project Elements [page 287].
To discontinue a supplier management process using a project, you must set up the discontinuation process by:
Note
The buyer administrator currently can configure only one discontinuation process type, which
automatically associates with all supplier management process types.
Except these points, the remaining template setup steps are the same as those for setting up any qualification
or miscellaneous process project. For details, refer to Workflow for Setting Up Qualification and Miscellaneous
Process Projects [page 289].
Related Information
Workflow for Setting Up Qualification and Miscellaneous Process Projects [page 289]
Modular Questionnaire Type Data Import [page 80]
Questionnaire Scoring Band Category Data Import [page 85]
Questionnaire Scoring Band Data Import [page 86]
About Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 327]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 330]
Creating Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 339]
Setting up Modular Questionnaires with Optional Internal Forms [page 341]
Scoring and Score Band Setup for Modular Questionnaires [page 351]
Process project templates have the project type SM Process Project. This project type is only available in sites with
the process project feature (SM-16798) enabled.
For qualification or miscellaneous processes, you can create multiple process project templates in your site, 1 for
each process type. Currently, you can only define one discontinuation process type, and you can create only one
discontinuation process project template for disqualifying all qualification processes. Discontinuation doesn't apply
to miscellaneous processes.
Process project templates are different from other types of supplier management project templates in the following
ways:
• Process project templates don't contain questionnaires and approval or To Do tasks themselves. Instead,
they use a specialized External Task type of task to reference modular questionnaire types, and the modular
questionnaire project templates associated with those questionnaire types define the questionnaires and tasks
that are part of the process.
Discontinuation processes are designed to be internal processes that only involve users in the buying
organization. To keep the discontinuation a strictly internal process, make sure that only internal modular
questionnaires are referenced in the external tasks of the discontinuation project template.
• The ability to create a process project is determined by membership in not only a global user group for the
project type but also a specialized project group. In addition to belonging to the SM Modular Questionnaire
Manager group, users must be members of a project group in the process project template that has the
Process Initiator role to create a process project from it.
• Unlike other supplier management projects, the final status of a process project isn't determined by the
completion of tasks in the project itself. Instead, it can be determined in any of the following ways:
• Manually: members of project groups with the Decision Maker role can set the final status of a process
project. Members of those groups can also update that status.
• Automatically: you can define rules [page 164] to automatically assign statuses to process projects based
on the statuses of the included modular questionnaires.
• Externally in another system, using the External Approval API for Sourcing and Supplier Management.
You can also set final statuses for a process project directly using data import or the Supplier Data API with
Pagination.
Internal users with the appropriate permissions create process projects by clicking the add icon ( ) in the
appropriate area of a supplier profile, filling out the intake form defined by the process project template survey
document, and choosing or confirming a list of available modular questionnaires, which can be required or optional.
A modular questionnaire is available in a particular process project if it both has a questionnaire type that is
references in an external task in the process project template and matches the process commodities, regions, and
departments specified in the intake form.
The process initiator who creates the process project is the explicit project owner and is identified as the process
owner in the user interface and in email notifications. Creating the process project automatically creates any
necessary modular questionnaire projects and makes the process initiator their explicit project owner as well. If the
process project includes existing modular questionnaire projects that are configured for reuse, they're linked to the
new process but their ownership remains unchanged.
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up Process Project Templates [page 293]
Creating Process Project Templates [page 295]
Initiators and Decision-Makers Setup in Process Projects [page 301]
Creating the Process Intake Form [page 297]
Setting Up Modular Questionnaire for Use in Process Projects [page 303]
Restrictions
• Process project templates don't contain any questionnaires of their own. Instead, they reference one or more
modular questionnaire types that link the process's questionnaires. They do require an intake form that
process initiators fill out to create a process project, and you create a survey document in the process project
template to define that intake form. Aside from the intake form survey document, don't add any other survey
documents, or any other type of document, to process project templates.
• Process project templates only support the following task configurations:
• External Tasks, which you use to add one or more modular questionnaire types to the process.
• One approval task on the process intake form, which you can use to enable status decision-making in
external systems [page 309] using the External Approval API for Sourcing and Supplier Management.
Don't add any other type of task directly to a process project template. Add any approval or To Do tasks that
you want to include in the process to the individual modular questionnaire project templates in the process
instead.
• Process project templates don't support any type of phases. Don't add any phases directly to a process
project template. You can use new questionnaire and questionnaire update phases in the individual modular
questionnaire project templates in the process to define new questionnaire and questionnaire update
workflows for individual questionnaires in the process instead.
• Don't set access control or apply conditions to process project templates to control who can create projects
from them and under what circumstances. Users don't explicitly create process projects, and can't answer
questions to meet conditions for project creation. You control who can create projects from a process project
template using project groups with the Process Initiator role instead.
Requirements
• The modular questionnaire project templates that define the components of your processes must have at least
one published version before you can add their questionnaire type to the process project template.
• Every process project template must contain exactly one survey document, which defines the intake form
that process initiators fill out to create projects from the template. Process initiators must use this form to
create process projects. The process intake form must include at least one mapped Commodity, Region, or
Department question. If you want the process to expire, the intake form must also include mapped questions
that define the process expiration schedule. Refer to Creating the Process Intake Form [page 297] for details.
• Every process project template must contain at least one External Task, and each External Task in the
template must specify a modular questionnaire type.
• When setting up modular questionnaire projects [page 303] and referencing them in a process project
template, make sure that regardless of the commodity, region, and department specified in the process
intake form, at least one modular questionnaire referenced by the process project template is available in
every project created from it. Process initiators can't create a process project if the commodities, regions, and
departments they specify in the intake form don't match at least one applicable modular questionnaire.
• You must set the process type for each process project template you create, and the process type you want
to use must be defined using the process type data import [page 90]. Note that each process type specifies
whether it's used for qualification or discontinuation, or is an individual (miscellaneous) process.
Note
Each process type can only be associated with 1 process project template.
• Your site must include definitions for process statuses [page 92] for each process type you use.
• When setting up qualification and miscellaneous process projects, you must create project groups with
Process Initiator and Decision Maker roles [page 297] on the process project template Team tab and you
must add members to Process Initiator groups directly in the project template. You can populate Decision
Maker groups outside of the template using buyer category assignments (the user matrix).
When setting up a discontinuation process project, you don't need to configure Process Initiator and Decision
Maker roles in the template. The process initiator and decision-maker groups configured in the qualification
process to be discontinued are reused in the discontinuation process project.
Helpful hints
• The process intake form only requires at least one mapped Commodity, Region, or Department question. If
you don't include a question for one of these matrix elements, the process project automatically defaults to the
values at the root level of the hierarchy. SAP Ariba recommends structuring the associated master data so that
it has an "All" root node at the top of the hierarchy and, to the degree possible, multiple levels of groupings.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator and SM Process Manager groups to create or edit process project
templates.
Process types [page 90] and their statuses [page 92] must be defined for your site.
Context
You must set the SM Process Type attribute for each process project template you create. A customer
administrator defines the process types in your site using data import. Each process type has a lifecycle type,
which can be qualification, discontinuation, or miscellaneous. Therefore, the process type you specify in the
process project template determines whether it's mapped to the qualification or discontinuation lifecycle stage or
is an independent process.
For qualification and miscellaneous process projects, only create one process project template per process
type. Processes are designed to support a 1:1 relationship between process types and process project
templates.
For discontinuation process projects, a site can only have one discontinuation process type and one associated
discontinuation process project template. The discontinuation process type maps to all qualification process
types in the site.
Only set the Commodity, Region, or Department attribute in a process project template if you aren't including the
related question in the process intake form [page 297]. Either the template attribute or the mapped question in the
intake form sets the commodities, regions, or departments for the resulting process project. If you want to set a
universal value for all projects, you can set them in the template.
Don't set access control or apply conditions to process project templates themselves. In process projects, the
ability to create a project from the template is controlled by a combination of membership in the SM Modular
Questionnaire Manager global user group and a project group in the template that has the Process Initiator role.
Access control or condition settings on the template itself aren't supported. Visibility and editability conditions in
the intake form are supported.
Procedure
2. On the Documents tab of the Templates area, choose Actions Create Template .
3. For project type, choose SM Process Project.
4. Enter a name and optional description for the new template.
5. Choose a language from the Base Language dropdown menu. The base language is the language in which you
plan to author the template's content and is shown to its users by default unless you provide translations.
6. Choose OK.
The new template opens on the Overview tab. It's in Draft status.
Next Steps
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Process Manager groups to edit and publish process
project templates.
Context
The process intake form opens automatically when a process initiator creates a new process project. The form
must include at least one mapped Commodity, Region, or Department question, and can include all three. The
process initiator chooses a combination of commodities, regions, and departments for the process and submits
the intake form. The list of modular questionnaires that are available in the process includes all of the modular
questionnaires with questionnaire types referenced by the process project template that match that combination.
The process intake form opens again when a process initiator renews an existing process project. Decision-makers
can also edit the intake form when making or updating a status decision for the process. After the process project
is first created, any Commodity, Region, and Department questions become read-only, but all other answers in
the intake form are editable.
If you want to enable the process to expire, the intake form must also include questions that set the expiration and
expiration reminder schedules for the process project.
In addition to required questions, you can also add questions for any other information you want to collect for the
process project itself, such as the reason for creating it.
Note
• Survey documents in process project templates have a default format of Form and a default questionnaire
type of Intake Form in the Supplier Management rules. Don't change these settings, which are required.
• Template survey documents contain a number of settings (timing rules, eligibility criteria, definitions,
participants, and so forth) that aren't relevant to process intake form. These settings are ignored in the
process intake form, which is always treated as an internal questionnaire.
• You can't add supplier field mappings with the vendor.* or network.*extension to questions in the
process intake form. Synchronization of data collected in the process intake form to an integrated ERP
system isn't supported.
Procedure
1. Open the process project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
Tip
The title of the intake form doesn't show on the intake form page during process creation or renewal, but it
does show in the dashboard My Documents list, the advanced view of the project, and other areas. Make
sure that the title you give the form makes sense in these contexts.
4. Optional: In the Description field, enter descriptive information about the survey. This information is only
visible in the template.
5. For Test Event, choose No.
6. Choose a language from the Base Language dropdown menu. The base language is the language in which you
plan to author the survey's content, and is shown to its users by default unless you provide translations.
7. Choose Create.
8. Navigate to the Content area.
9. Create at least one question with the following settings:
Commodity matrix.Categories
Region matrix.Regions
Department matrix.Departments
Tip
An answer to one of these questions is required for creating process projects. If a process initiator does't
select a value for one of these fields (either because the question is optional or because it's not present
You can also use conditions [page 300] to make the editability or visibility of any of these questions
conditional based on the answer to another of the questions.
If you set a Commodity, Region, or Department property in the template itself [page 295], don't create a
question for the same information in the intake form.
10. Optional: If you want to enable this process to expire, create the following two required questions so that
process initiators can create an expiration schedule:
Expiration frequency, which is a unit of time (days, • Answer Type: Text (single line limited)
The expiration frequency and expiration offset combine to create the expiration schedule. For example, an
expiration frequency of months and an expiration offset of 6 means that the process expires 6 months after its
first status decision is made.
11. Optional: If you have added questions to create the expiration schedule, create the following 2 questions so
that process initiators can specify the expiration reminder schedule for the process:
Expiration reminder frequency, which is a unit of time • Answer Type: Text (single line limited)
Expiration reminder offset, which is a whole number. • Answer Type: Whole Number
• Supplier field mapping:
project.Expiry.Reminder.Offset
The expiration reminder frequency and expiration reminder offset combine to create the expiration reminder
schedule, which determines not only when the system generates reminder notifications but also the amount
of time between the first process status decision and when the process moves to expiring status. For example,
an expiration reminder frequency of months and an expiration reminder offset of 5 means that the process
You don't have to add questions to allow the process initiator to specify an expiration reminder schedule. If you
add expiration schedule questions but don't add expiration schedule questions, the default reminder schedule
is 90% of the expiration schedule. For example, if the expiration schedule is 100 days, the process project
moves to expiring status on the 90th day.
12. Choose Exit to save your changes and exit the survey document.
Related Information
To edit the process intake form, you must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Process Manager
groups.
If you want a question to be visible or editable only when certain conditions are met, you can set Visibility or
Editability conditions for the question.
Example
If your organization wants to perform qualification only in the North America region, you can make the following
settings:
• For the region question, set North America as Initial Value and "Boolean"="true" as Editability
conditions.
• For the Boolean question, set "Boolean"="false" as Initial Value.
• For the commodity and business unit questions, set region=North America as Visibility Condition.
When the process initiator starts a qualification process, the intake form's region question has a default,
read-only answer of North America, and they can choose answers for the commodity and business unit
questions. After the Boolean is set to Yes, if the user changes the default region answer of North America to
another value, the commodity and business unit questions are hidden.
• Visibility Conditions for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469]
• Editability Conditions for Controlling the Editability of Answers in a Form or Questionnaire [page 475]
Note
The hidden question fields are filled with "All" by default and aren't shown in the process intake form when you
start a qualification project from a supplier's profile.
Related Information
Note
You don't need to set up initiator and decision-maker groups in the discontinuation process project template.
The groups configured in the qualification process project template are reused in the corresponding
discontinuation process project.
A user must be a member of not only the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager user group but also the
process project template's Process Initiator group to create a project from the template. Therefore, the presence
of a project group with the Process Initiator role is required in process project templates.
To set up process initiators, on the process project template Team tab, add one or more project groups, add the
Process Initiator role to them, then add members directly in the template. Since the process initiator requirement
is triggered before the creation of the project, you must define Process Initiator group membership directly in the
template. You can't use buyer category assignments (the user matrix) to add users to Process Initiator project
groups.
Tip
You can add individual users or global user groups as members. However, keep in mind that adding global user
groups provides more flexibility. With individual users, you must update the template every time you want to
Up until all of the modular questionnaires in a process project are approved or denied, process project statuses
are set automatically. After that point, when the process is ready for final status decision, members of a process
project's Decision Maker group can set its final status manually. Typically, process decision-makers are people in
your organization who are in a position to render final judgment about a process. You grant this permission using
one or more project groups with the Decision Maker role in process project templates.
To set up decision-makers, on the process project template Team tab, add one or more project groups and add the
Decision Maker role to them.
Since decision-makers act after the creation of the project, you can either add members directly in the template or
use buyer category assignments (the user matrix) to assign group membership dynamically. If you add members
directly in the template, all of the process projects created from it inherit that membership, meaning that the same
users are decision-makers for all of those process projects. If you use buyer category assignments, you can make
specific users decision-makers for processes based on their commodities, regions, and departments. Mapped
questions on the process intake form [page 297] set the commodities, regions, and department attributes for a
process during project creation, and buyer category assignments then add specific users to the project's Decision
Maker project group.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To create or edit modular questionnaire templates, you must be a member of the Template Creator and SM
Questionnaire Manager groups.
To add internal forms as well as the questionnaire survey document to a modular questionnaire project template:
• The feature for internal forms in modular questionnaire projects (SM-30222) must be enabled in your site.
• The Allow multiple internal forms property must be set to Yes on the Overview tab of the modular
questionnaire project template.
Context
Tip
Questionnaire type determines which questionnaires are included in process projects. Once you add an
external task that specifies a questionnaire type, all questionnaires of that type are potentially included in the
process. Plan the questionnaire types you want to use for process projects, defining new questionnaire types as
needed, and change the questionnaire types of existing modular questionnaire project templates that you don't
want to use in processes as needed. That way, when you specify a questionnaire type in an external task in a
process project template, the resulting process projects only include those modular questionnaires that you
want to use in processes.
All external modular questionnaires you use in process projects are also available as stand-alone
questionnaires. Modular questionnaire managers can invite suppliers to fill them out independently by
choosing Manage SM Modular Questionnaires on the dashboard. There's no way to prevent
the external modular questionnaires you use in process projects from being available as stand-alone
questionnaires.
Modular questionnaire projects that don't include internal forms contain one survey document, which is the
project questionnaire. You create this survey document and set timing and supplier management rules in it.
Modular questionnaire projects that do include internal forms contain multiple survey documents:
• A key questionnaire, which is the questionnaire set to the project's recipient. You create this survey
document and set timing and supplier management rules in it. Those settings control the project's
behavior, including whether it's internal or external, whether it can expire, and its status. This survey
document must have a format of Questionnaire.
For details, refer to Workflows with Internal Forms in Modular Questionnaire Templates [page 333].
Procedure
Property Description
Commodity, Region, and Department These properties determine when a modular questionnaire
that is referenced by external tasks in the process project
template is included in an individual process project.
Tip
You can use modular questionnaires for specific com-
modity, region, and department combinations to create
specific, targeted processes for those combinations.
However, keep in mind that process initiators can only
create a process if it includes at least one modular ques-
tionnaire. It's therefore important to make sure that the
set of modular questionnaires you plan to use in a proc-
ess project covers the entire range of possible combina-
tions.
Allow multiple internal forms (optional) If the feature for multiple internal forms in modular question-
naire projects is enabled in your site, setting this property
to Yes allows you to add one or more internal forms to the
template.
• If you're working with an existing template, edit the project or key questionnaire survey document.
• If you're creating a new template, create the project or key questionnaire survey document.
5. In the Rules area of the project or key questionnaire survey document, define the rules for the modular
questionnaire project, keeping in mind the following considerations that are specific to process projects:
Is questionnaire required? If you choose Yes, the modular questionnaire is always in-
cluded in process projects where it's available.
Specify questionnaire type Choose External for questionnaires you want to send to
external recipients. You can send external modular question-
naires to suppliers either as part of a process project or as
stand-alone modular questionnaires.
Always request updates when used in a process If you choose Yes and the questionnaire isn't either new or
in approval, creating or renewing the process automatically
sends the questionnaire recipient a request for an update.
In the list of applicable questionnaires for the process, the
Request updates toggle switch is automatically enabled and
can't be disabled.
Can expire? and Expiration schedule Expiring and expired questionnaires generate notifications
to the owners and decision-makers for the processes in
which they're included. The process owner can renew the
process to request updates. The expiration of modular ques-
tionnaires included in the process is a typical reason for
a process decision-maker to change a status decision. For
example, if a modular questionnaire that includes a critical
certificate expires, a decision-maker can change the status
of a qualification process from qualified to disqualified.
6. In the Content area of the questionnaire survey document, add or edit questionnaire content as needed.
7. Optional: In the Content area of the questionnaire survey document, set up scoring for the questionnaire.
To add a questionnaire type to a process project template, modular questionnaire templates of that type must
have at least one published version.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Process Manager groups to edit and publish process
project templates.
Process project templates don't support any type of task except External Task and one optional approval task
to enable external approval of modular questionnaires in the process and external decision-making for the
process itself. Users don't act on or complete external tasks. Instead, each external task references a modular
questionnaire type. You use external tasks to add modular questionnaires of that type to the process.
You add all of the questionnaire types that are applicable to a process to external tasks in its project template.
Modular questionnaires themselves are tied to specific combinations of commodity, region, and department based
on their template properties. When a process initiator creates a process, they specify the commodities, regions,
and departments to which it applies in the intake form. In the resulting process project, only the subset of modular
questionnaires that have the questionnaire type referenced by external tasks in the process project template and
that match that combination of commodities, regions, and departments specified in the intake form are available to
include in the process.
Note
External tasks include a number of settings that aren't relevant to their function, such as Owner and Due Date.
Don't specify values or change default values for any settings other than Title and Template. The Template
Type must always be SM Modular Questionnaire, the default value. Other settings can interfere with the
proper functioning of external tasks.
Procedure
1. Open the process project template. If it's not in Draft status, create a new version.
When adding modular questionnaires for discontinuation processes, note the following:
Discontinuation processes are designed to be internal processes that only involve users in the buying
organization. To keep the discontinuation a strictly internal process, you need to make sure that only internal
modular questionnaires are referenced in the external tasks of the discontinuation project template.
5. Choose OK.
Results
Specifying a questionnaire type in the external task makes all of the modular questionnaires associated with that
type potentially available in the process.
Prerequisites
If you haven't already done so, you must complete the prerequisites for creating applications using the External
Approval API for Sourcing and Supplier Management and develop a client application.
You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Process Manager groups to edit and publish process
project templates.
Context
For individual questionnaires, you enable external approval using the External Approval API for Sourcing and
Supplier Management with the External System Approval setting in the approval task on the questionnaire in the
modular questionnaire project template. For process projects, you can use the External System Approval setting
to enable external decision-making for the process itself.
A specific configuration in an approval task on the process intake form allows you to use these external
task references to enable external approval for while maintaining the link between the process project and its
questionnaires. You specify the external tasks for any modular questionnaire for which you want to enable external
approval as predecessors to the approval task on the intake form. With this configuration, final approval of the
predecessor modular questionnaires task triggers external system approval through the API client application.
Note
Approval tasks include a number of settings that aren't relevant for this particular use, such as Owner, Allow
auto approval, Due Date, and settings for specifying approvers. To ensure that the task enables external
Procedure
1. Open the process project template. If it's not in Draft status, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
3. Choose the survey document for the process intake form, then choose Actions Create New Task
Approval .
4. For External System Approval, choose Yes.
5. For Predecessors, perform the following actions:
a. Choose select.
b. Choose the external tasks for the modular questionnaires that must be approved or denied before external
decision-making is triggered. Choose at least one task to enable external approval.
c. For Start When Dependencies Complete, choose Yes.
d. Choose OK.
Results
Final approval or denial of the modular questionnaires that are included in a process project, and that are linked
to the process project by external tasks that are specified as predecessor of the approval task on the intake form,
trigger external decision-making for the process through a client application using the External Approval API for
Sourcing and Supplier Management.
While the external status decision-making is in progress, the Make decision button on the process details
page is locked and process decision-makers can't set the status manually. Once the external decision-making
is completed, the Make decision button is unlocked.
Related Information
Supplier qualification and disqualification projects provide templated workflows for qualifying and disqualifying
suppliers. Supplier qualification projects use one external questionnaire and optional, additional internal
questionnaires. Supplier disqualification projects use one internal questionnaire.
These topics describe how to set up qualifications using the supplier qualification and disqualification project
templates. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible process framework feature
(SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project Setup [page 276].
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Qualification Project Template [page
313]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Disqualification Project Template
[page 321]
This topic applies to qualifications using the supplier qualification project template, which uses one workflow and
one external questionnaire for all qualifications. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible
process framework feature (SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project
Setup [page 276].
The supplier qualification project template must always include an external (supplier-facing) qualification
questionnaire with an approval task. It can also include an internal questionnaire. Supplier qualifications are always
based on a combination of commodities, regions, and, if your site has the supplier management business unit
matrix enhancement enabled, departments. The external qualification questionnaire is a dynamic questionnaire
generated from two different types of template documents:
• An empty survey document, which functions as a vehicle for serving the qualification content. Approval and
other tasks are always on this empty survey document.
• Content documents, which define questionnaire segments for specific combinations of commodity, region,
and department.
Qualification managers create qualification projects in the Qualifications detail area of supplier profiles. In this
case, the qualification manager who starts a qualification is the explicit project owner and also a member of
the Project Owner project group. Suppliers can also be qualified through a data import. The qualification data
import doesn't create a corresponding qualification project. However, if the qualification expires, a qualification
Unlike request and registration projects, a supplier can have multiple separate qualification projects, each
for a different combination of commodity, region, and department. A supplier's qualifications and associated
questionnaires show in the Qualifications area. Only approvers can see unapproved questionnaires. After a
questionnaire is approved, any user who has permission to view the Qualifications area can see the answers.
There are two possible ways users can start a new qualification. Your supplier qualification project template
determines which method is used in your site.
• Static application page: by default, qualification managers starting a qualification are presented with a static
application page, where they specify the commodities and regions for the qualification. Submitting these
answers creates the qualification project. The page doesn't allow qualification managers to specify department
or expiration information for the qualification.
• Prequalification questionnaire: you can set up a prequalification questionnaire [page 316]. If you set one up,
qualification managers starting qualifications are presented with it rather than with the default application
page. If your organization uses departments in qualifications, you must set up a prequalification questionnaire.
You can also use it to specify an expiration date and a requalification eligibility date. If you don't use the
prequalification questionnaire but want to allow qualification managers to set expiration and requalification
eligibility dates, you must set up an internal questionnaire instead.
A qualification project closes after its final task is completed. However, if a qualification expires, a qualification
manager can initiate a requalification. When a qualification manager requalifies a supplier that was previously
qualified using a project (rather than through data import), the original qualification project reopens and all of its
tasks start again.
Deployment of your solution includes a supplier qualification project template with the following default
configuration, which includes an empty qualification questionnaire survey document and an approval task. You
must edit the template to define your organization's specific questionnaires and workflow.
Team The default team has 1 project group, Project Owner, with sys-
tem user aribasystem and the Template Creator user group
as approvers.
This topic applies to qualifications using the supplier qualification project template, which uses one workflow and
one external questionnaire for all qualifications. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible
process framework feature (SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project
Setup [page 276].
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• The supplier qualification project template only supports survey and content documents. Don't add any other
type of document to it.
• The supplier qualification project template only supports To Do and approval tasks. Don't add any other type of
task to it.
• Tasks aren't supported for folders or documents within folders in supplier management project templates.
Don't add a task to a folder or document within a folder in supplier management project templates.
• The supplier qualification project template supports one external questionnaire survey document. You define
the content of the external questionnaire in multiple content documents. The survey document itself must be
empty. Adding content to the external questionnaire survey document itself causes the questionnaire to fail
with errors.
• The supplier qualification project template supports multiple internal questionnaire survey documents. You
define the content of internal questionnaires in the survey documents themselves. They don't use content
documents. You can have internal surveys in addition to the prequalification questionnaire. However, note that
the project team is defined by commodity, region, and (optionally) department values set in either the static
application page for starting qualifications or the prequalification questionnaire, rather than an internal survey.
Requirements
• The supplier qualification project template must contain one external survey document with an associated
approval task.
• You must create a To Do task for each internal registration questionnaire survey document you add. The task
ensures that the correct internal users can edit the survey to fill it out.
• If you want to qualify suppliers based on department as well as commodity and region, you must use a
prequalification questionnaire. [page 316]
• If you want to qualifications in your site to expire, you must create a question with answer type Date and map
it [page 425] to project.ExpirationDate. If you want to allow a category or supplier manager to establish
a waiting period before an expired qualification can be requalified, add a second date question and map it
to project.RequalificationEligibilityDate. Depending on how you set up your supplier qualification
project template, you can add these questions in the prequalification questionnaire (if you use one) or in an
internal questionnaire (if you don't use the prequalification questionnaire).
• If your site is integrated with an SAP ERP system and configured to synchronize new suppliers automatically
to that ERP system based on qualification status, the external qualification questionnaire must include at least
one question that's mapped to a vendor database field. To ensure that this question is always present, make
sure to add it to a segment that's included in every external qualification questionnaire. For more information,
refer to Setting Up Initial Supplier Data Synchronization to the ERP System.
Helpful Hints
• Each qualification questionnaire segment content document is tied to specific commodities, regions, and
departments. You can apply visibility conditions [page 469] to show and hide additional questionnaire content
This topic applies to qualifications using the supplier qualification project template, which uses one workflow and
one external questionnaire for all qualifications. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible
process framework feature (SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project
Setup [page 276].
When you create a prequalification questionnaire in your site's qualification project template, it automatically
replaces the static application page as the first step in starting a qualification. The qualification manager who starts
a qualification fills out the prequalification questionnaire, and their answers determine the questionnaire segments
that are available for them to send to the supplier as part of the qualification questionnaire.
SAP Ariba recommends that you set up your own prequalification questionnaire instead of using the default static
application page. The prequalification questionnaire offers two distinct advantages:
• You can add Department as a third filter for qualification questionnaire content. The static application
page only allows qualification managers to select category and region as filters, but the prequalification
questionnaire supports filtering by the department master data in your site as well. Department data is only
used in qualifications if departments are enabled in your site.
• It provides a convenient way to set up qualification expiration. Mapped questions enable qualification
expiration. If you don't put them in the prequalification questionnaire, you must create a separate internal
survey in the qualification project for that purpose.
The prequalification questionnaire currently supports up to five questions: up to three questions to filter
questionnaire segments based on commodity, region, and department, and up to two questions on qualification
expiration. The answers to questions in the prequalification questionnaire are used to filter the questionnaire
segments that are available for the qualification and to set the expiration dates. They don't show anywhere in the
supplier profile, so don't use the prequalification questionnaire to ask for any other information.
Related Information
Use these steps to set up a prequalification questionnaire to set the commodity categories, regions, and
departments for the supplier qualification. The prequalification questionnaire can also define the qualification's
expiration date and the date on which the supplier is eligible for requalification for the same combination of
commodities, regions, and departments.
Prerequisites
To set up the prequalification questionnaire, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
To qualify suppliers by department, the departments feature must be enabled in your site.
Make sure that the content documents that define your qualification questionnaire segments have the appropriate
Commodity, Region, and (optionally) Department settings. If your qualification project setup is based on
commodity and region, and you're adding the prequalification questionnaire with departments to this existing
setup for the first time, makes sure that all the content documents that define qualification questionnaire
segments also have a Department setting. Adjust your questionnaire segment strategy as necessary, edit existing
content documents, and create new content documents to define segments that apply to department as well as
commodity and region.
Context
This topic applies to qualifications using the supplier qualification project template, which uses one workflow and
one external questionnaire for all qualifications. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible
process framework feature (SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project
Setup [page 276].
The supplier qualification questionnaire is assembled from a set of segments targeted to different commodities,
regions, and departments. In the supplier qualification project template, those segments are defined by a set of
separate content documents with commodity, region, and department settings.
The prequalification questionnaire is an initial form that qualification managers fill out when they start a
new qualification. The values they choose for commodity, region, and department define the list of available
questionnaire segments they can select to assemble a qualification questionnaire to send to the supplier. Only the
content documents that match all three values (or any values below them in a hierarchy) are shown as available
questionnaire segments.
The answers to questions in the prequalification questionnaire don't show anywhere in the supplier profile, so you
can't use it to collect other information. You can only use it to filter the list of available qualification questionnaire
segments and to optionally enable qualification expiration. Don't add any other questions besides the three
mapped filtering questions and (optionally) up to two mapped qualification expiration questions, because category
or supplier managers have no way to see the answers.
The specialized Qualification Request setting in the survey document for the prequalification questionnaire
ensures that the prequalification questionnaire always shows automatically when a qualification manager starts
a new qualification. This setting isn't available in the default template survey document, which forms the basis of
Currently, if you're using buyer category assignments (the user matrix) to assign ownership of and approvers for
qualification projects, the Commodity and Region values in the prequalification questionnaire are used for those
assignments. However, the Department value isn’t .
Procedure
1. Open the supplier qualification project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
The Is questionnaire required? setting has no effect on the prequalification questionnaire and is ignored.
5. On the Content page, add the following questions:
• For the category filter, create a question with answer type Commodity and enter matrix.Categories in
the Supplier field mapping field.
• For the region filter, create a question with answer type Region and enter matrix.Regions in the
Supplier field mapping field.
• (Optional) For the department filter, create a question with answer type Department and enter
matrix.Departments in the Supplier field mapping field.
• (Optional) To enable qualification expiration, create a question with answer type Date and enter
project.ExpirationDate in the Supplier field mapping field.
• (Optional) To specify a date before which an expired qualification can't be requalified, create a question
with answer type Date and enter project.RequalificationEligibilityDate in the Supplier field
mapping field.
6. Choose Exit to save the survey.
7. After you've finished editing the supplier qualification template, publish it.
Next Steps
It's important for the supplier qualification project template to include only one mapped qualification expiration
question and one mapped requalification eligibility question. If you're adding the prequalification questionnaire and
the current template already has an internal survey that already includes 1 or both of these questions, and you
decided to include them in the prequalification questionnaire instead, perform one of the following actions:
• If the internal survey includes other questions, edit it to delete the mapped expiration and requalification
eligibility question.
• If the internal survey was added solely to enable qualification expiration, and doesn't include any other
questions, remove it from the template.
Prerequisites
To remove an existing internal qualification survey, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
Context
This topic applies to qualifications using the supplier qualification project template, which uses one workflow and
one external questionnaire for all qualifications. For information about setting up qualifications using the flexible
process framework feature (SM-16798), refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process Project
Setup [page 276].
Template upgrade isn't supported for supplier qualification projects. Qualifications created before you published
the new version of the template with the deleted internal survey and To Do task still include that survey regardless
of when they're completed. Qualifications created after you published the new version don't.
To remove an obsolete internal survey from the qualification workflow, you must delete both the survey document
and associated To Do task from the supplier qualification template.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier qualification project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Tasks tab.
3. Choose the To Do task for the internal survey and choose Action View Task Details .
7. Choose the internal survey document and choose Action View Details .
Related Information
Supplier disqualification projects are only applicable if you manage qualifications using supplier qualification
projects. They aren't applicable if your site uses process projects for supplier qualifications.
The supplier disqualification project template must always include an internal disqualification questionnaire with
an approval task. Supplier disqualification is always an internal process. There's no external (supplier-facing)
disqualification questionnaire. Supplier disqualifications are always based on a combination of commodities,
regions, and, if your site has the supplier management business unit matrix enhancement enabled, departments.
Qualification managers create disqualification projects in the Qualifications detail area of supplier profiles. In this
case, the qualification manager who starts a disqualification is the explicit project owner and also a member of
the Project Owner project group. Suppliers can also be disqualified using a data import. The disqualification data
import doesn't create a corresponding disqualification project. Qualification managers can only start a manual
disqualification for a supplier based on an existing qualification. However, data imports can disqualify suppliers who
haven't been qualified previously.
As with qualifications, a supplier can have multiple separate disqualification projects, each for a different
combination of commodity, region, and department. A supplier's disqualifications and associated questionnaires
show in the Qualifications area. Only approvers can see unapproved questionnaires. After a questionnaire is
approved, any user who has permission to view the Qualifications area can see the answers.
Depending on how you set up the disqualification questionnaire, disqualifications in your site can take effect
immediately, or only after a specified phase-out period.
Deployment of your solution includes a supplier disqualification project template with the following default
configuration, which includes an empty disqualification questionnaire survey document and an approval task. You
must edit the template to define your company's specific processes.
Team The default team has one project group, Project Owner, with
system user aribasystem and the Template Creator user
group as approvers.
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Supplier Disqualification Project Template [page
321]
Supplier Qualification and Requalification Using Supplier Qualification Projects [page 26]
Supplier Qualification Data File Format [page 138]
Supplier disqualification projects are only applicable if you manage qualifications using supplier qualification
projects. They aren't applicable if your site uses process projects for supplier qualifications.
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• The supplier qualification project template only supports one survey document for one internal questionnaire.
Don't add any other type of document to it, and don't add any more survey documents beside the template's
default disqualification questionnaire.
Requirements
• The supplier qualification project template must contain one internal survey document with an associated
approval task.
• A disqualification is always tied to a previous qualification's commodities, regions, and departments, so
setting that data for the project is required. To do so, you must create commodity and region questions
in the disqualification questionnaire using the Commodity and Region answer types and mapping them
to the matrix.Categories and matrix.Regions fields in the supplier database. If your site has the
departments enabled and you also qualify suppliers by department, you must also add a question of answer
type Department and map it to matrix.Departments. These settings ensure that disqualifications use the
same commodity, region, and department data that is used for qualifications and preferred supplier levels.
Helpful Hints
• You can make the disqualification date-based and introduce a phase-out period in the following ways:
• If you add date questions to the disqualification questionnaire without mapping, they're for information
only.
• If there are no mapped date questions in the disqualification questionnaire, once the questionnaire is
approved, the supplier is immediately disqualified.
• If you create a date question and map it to project.DisqualificationDate, once the questionnaire
is approved, the supplier has Restricted status for a phase-out period until the date is reached, and is
then automatically disqualified on that date. This mapped question is the only way to achieve a restricted
qualification phase for the supplier before disqualification.
• If you create a date question and map it to project.DisqualifiedUntilDate, once the questionnaire
is approved, the supplier can't be requalified for the same commodities, regions, and departments until the
date is reached.
• SAP Ariba recommends that you add no more than 500 pieces of content to an individual questionnaire.
Adding more than 500 pieces of content can cause performance to degrade progressively as you add more
content.
Related Information
Preferred supplier management projects designate suppliers with one of five preferred category statuses defined in
your site.
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Preferred Supplier Management Template
[page 324]
The preferred supplier management project template must always include an internal (supplier-facing) category
status questionnaire with an approval task. Your company's preferred levels are defined in your site using
master data import, and up to five preferred levels are supported. Preferred designations are always based on
a combination of commodities, regions, and, if your site has the supplier management business unit matrix
enhancement enabled, departments.
Internal users with the appropriate permissions request a category status change for a specific combination of
commodities, regions, and departments in the Preferred details area of supplier profiles. In this case, the user
who requests the status change is the explicit project owner and also a member of the Project Owner project
group. Suppliers can also gain preferred levels through a data import. The preferred data import doesn't create
a corresponding preferred supplier management project. However, a user with the appropriate permissions can
always request a change for an existing preferred category status. In this case, the action of editing a preferred
category status creates a preferred supplier management project based on the supplier's previous, data import-
defined preferred levels, and the user who requests the change is the explicit project owner. Users can't manually
request a preferred category level for a combination of commodities, regions, and departments until the supplier
has been qualified for that combination.
As with qualifications, a supplier can have multiple separate preferred supplier management projects, each for a
different combination of commodity, region, and department.
Users can always request changes to existing preferred category levels to either upgrade, downgrade, or remove
a supplier's preferred status. A preferred supplier management project closes after its final task is completed.
When a user requests a preferred category status change for a supplier that was previously designated as preferred
through a project (rather than data import), the original preferred supplier management project reopens and all of
its tasks start again. If a supplier is disqualified for a commodity, region, and department combination for which it's
also preferred, the final approval of the disqualification automatically removes the corresponding preferred status
without reopening any associated preferred supplier management project.
Tasks Approval for category status change (an approval task for the
category status questionnaire survey document with members
of the Project Owner group as approvers)
Team The default team has one project group, Project Owner, with
system user aribasystem and the Template Creator user
group as approvers.
Related Information
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
• The preferred supplier management project template only supports one survey document for one internal
questionnaire. Don't add any other type of document to it, and don’t add any more survey documents beside
the template's default disqualification questionnaire.
• The preferred supplier management project template only supports To Do and approval tasks. Don't add any
other type of task to it.
• Tasks aren't supported for folders or documents within folders in supplier management project templates.
Don't add a task to a folder or document within a folder in supplier management project templates.
• Preferred category statuses aren't supported in multi-ERP integration landscapes.
Requirements
• The preferred supplier management project template must contain one internal survey document with an
associated approval task. If you don't want to require approvals for preferred category status changes, you can
set the task to auto-approve.
• A preferred category status is always tied to a previous qualification's commodities, regions, and departments,
so setting that data for the project is required. To do so, you must create commodity and region questions
in the category status questionnaire using the Commodity and Region answer types and mapping them to
the matrix.Categories and matrix.Regions fields in the supplier database. If your site has the business
unit matrix enhancement feature enabled and you also qualify suppliers by department, you must also add
a question of answer type Department and map it to matrix.Departments. These settings ensure that
preferred category status designations use the same commodity, region, and department data that is used for
qualifications and disqualifications.
Helpful Hints
• The preferred supplier management questionnaire is automatically internal-only, regardless of whether you set
Specify questionnaire type to Internal or External.
• For the question asking which preferred supplier level to use for the supplier, use your site's preferred supplier
level master data for acceptable answers and map the question to project.Level in the supplier database.
• SAP Ariba recommends that you add no more than 500 pieces of content to an individual questionnaire.
Adding more than 500 pieces of content can cause performance to degrade progressively as you add more
content.
Related Information
Modular questionnaire projects are designed to collect specific sets of information about suppliers in one place,
where it can be maintained in one place and reused where needed. They can be standalone questionnaires, or they
can be included in process qualifications or other lifecycle process projects.
Modular questionnaire project templates include a number of configuration options to support different workflows
and uses for the questionnaire, including:
• Ability to reuse the same questionnaire project in multiple contexts or to create a new questionnaire project for
each new use.
• Ability to allow updates to the questionnaire or to use it for one-time snapshot data collection.
• Optional internal forms to include information from internal stakeholders in the project and to aggregate
ratings from internal stakeholders.
• Features for managing supplier certificates.
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 330]
Setting Up Separate Workflows for New and Updated Modular Questionnaires [page 346]
Scoring and Score Band Setup for Modular Questionnaires [page 351]
Rating and Total Rating Question Setup for Internal Forms or Questionnaires [page 368]
Unlike other supplier management projects, you can create multiple modular supplier management templates in
your site, one for each questionnaire. These templates all have the project type SM Modular Questionnaire. You
specify the commodities, regions, and departments to which each template applies.
Each modular questionnaire project template must contain one questionnaire. If the template allows internal
forms, the required questionnaire is the "key" questionnaire and must have a format of Questionnaire. In either
case, you set a questionnaire type (external or internal). You can also specify an expiration schedule for the
questionnaire. This schedule is specific to the questionnaire itself, and operates independently of the expirations of
any of the certificates collected in the questionnaires.
Inviting suppliers to standalone question- Internal users with the appropriate per- External only
naire
missions can create standalone external
modular questionnaire projects outside
of other supplier management processes
Sending risk assessments In sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier External or internal
Creating or renewing a process project In sites where the flexible process frame- External or internal
Unlike registration projects, which collect basic profile information in one project, modular questionnaire projects
are designed to collect specific, limited sets of information, such as a certificate or set of related certificates,
or information that’s applicable to a specific risk area or domain. A supplier can have any number of modular
questionnaire projects. The Questionnaires detail area in a supplier's profile shows all external questionnaires,
internal questionnaires created in process projects, and their tasks. After a questionnaire is approved, any internal
user who has permission to see the Questionnaires area can see its answers. Internal modular questionnaires
created as risk assessments show on the engagement page of the control-based engagement risk assessment
Survey documents in modular questionnaire templates include an Always open setting. In modular questionnaire
templates that allow multiple internal forms, this setting is in the survey document for the key questionnaire. If this
setting isn't enabled, once the final task is complete, the project closes. If it's enabled, the project stays open and
recipients of external questionnaires and internal questionnaires created in process projects can update them on
a continuous basis. If you don't use phases for template tasks, all the project's tasks are for new questionnaires
and approval tasks reopen when the recipient submits an update. However, you can use phases to set up different
workflows for new questionnaires and questionnaire updates [page 346]. Internal modular questionnaires used as
risk assessments are used once per control-based engagement risk assessment project and never reopen.
There's no default modular questionnaire project template. Instead, you create these templates [page 339]
yourself.
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 330]
Creating Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 339]
Setting up Modular Questionnaires with Optional Internal Forms [page 341]
Setting Up Separate Workflows for New and Updated Modular Questionnaires [page 346]
Workflows with Internal Forms in Modular Questionnaire Templates [page 333]
Setting Up a Modular Questionnaire to Import Supplier Responses from the Human Rights Assessment on SAP
Business Network
For information that applies to all supplier management project templates, refer to General Best Practices for
Setting Up Supplier Management Projects [page 60].
Restrictions
• By default, modular questionnaire project templates only support one survey document. Only add one survey
document to a template unless you've enabled its Allow multiple internal forms property. This property is only
available if the feature for internal forms in modular questionnaires (SM-30222) is enabled in your site.
• Modular questionnaire project templates only support survey documents. Don't add any other type of
document to them.
Requirements
• By default, each modular questionnaire project template includes one questionnaire. To include one or more
internal forms in addition to this questionnaire:
• The feature for internal forms in modular questionnaires (SM-30222) must be enabled in your site.
A customer administrator in your organization can enable this feature using the following self-service
configuration parameters:
• Enable internal forms in modular questionnaires [page 772] in Intelligent Configuration Manager.
• Application.SM.MQ.EnableInternalFormsinModularQuestionnaires in SM Administration
Configuration Parameters .
These parameters must always be enabled or disabled together.
• You must set the template property Allow multiple internal forms to Yes.
• Each modular questionnaire project template must contain at least one survey document.
• In templates that allow internal forms, one survey document must have a questionnaire format of
Questionnaire, and that survey document must have an approval task on it.
• You must set the questionnaire type for each modular questionnaire project template you create, and therefore
your site must have questionnaire types defined for it. Your site's questionnaire types are defined using a
data import. In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, questionnaire type
determines which processes the questionnaire is included in.
• For most uses, you must set the Commodity and Region properties for each modular questionnaire project
template you create. If your site also uses departments for supplier management, you must also set the
Department property. Modular questionnaire projects are designed to apply to specific commodity, region,
and department combinations in most cases. If you leave any of these properties blank, it defaults to a value
of All. For modular questionnaires used in process projects, these properties are requires and determine which
specific process projects the questionnaire is included in.
Supplier request, qualifications, disqualification, and preferred supplier management projects are created by
submission of a questionnaire that can include commodity, region, and department questions. Stand-alone
modular questionnaire projects, however, are created via invitation, before a questionnaire is submitted. The
Helpful Hints
• For details on specific settings for modular questionnaires used in process projects, refer to Setting Up
Modular Questionnaire for Use in Process Projects [page 303].
• For details on specific settings for modular questionnaire projects that include internal forms, refer to
Workflows with Internal Forms in Modular Questionnaire Templates [page 333]
• Modular questionnaire projects without internal forms don't require any tasks, including approval tasks. If you
don't add an approval task on the project template survey document, the project is automatically approved
when the respondent submits the questionnaire. Modular questionnaires with internal forms require at least
one approval task on the key questionnaire.
• Suppliers can have many modular questionnaire projects. The project questionnaires and associated tasks
display in separate Questionnaire and Task tabs in the Questionnaires area. Make sure that the names you
give to tasks clearly associate them with the questionnaires to which they belong so that users can easily
identify the associations in the Questionnaires area.
• Modular questionnaire projects are useful for collecting certificate information from suppliers. For specific
guidance about setting templates up for certificate management, refer to Certificate Management Setup in
Modular Questionnaires [page 349].
Note
In modular questionnaire projects with internal forms, certificate management features are only supported
in the key questionnaire. They're not supported in the internal forms.
• For new questionnaires, the Due Date setting in the Timing Rules section of survey documents defines the
amount of time the recipient has to fill out the questionnaire after the invitation is sent. In templates for
modular questionnaire projects that include internal forms, this setting is in the survey document for the key
questionnaire.If the recipient doesn't fill and submit the questionnaire in that time, the questionnaire closes
and the recipient can no longer edit it. Requesting an update reopens the questionnaire so that the recipient
can edit it again. The default due date value is 30 days, but you can change that time period by editing the Due
Date field in the questionnaire survey document. This setting is ignored in internal questionnaires and internal
forms.
If you've set Always open to Yes for the questionnaire, once all of the tasks for a new questionnaire completed,
it automatically reopens so that the supplier can submit updates. Depending on your site's configuration, the
Due Date setting can also determine how long the questionnaire remains reopened for updates. For details,
see Supplier Form or Questionnaire Closing, Reopening, and Due Dates [page 372].
Related Information
If the internal forms in modular questionnaire projects feature (SM-30222) is enabled in your site, you can use
multiple forms in a modular questionnaire project template to organize how and from whom you collect the
information related to the questionnaire project. Each form in the questionnaire project workflow can have a
different recipient, specified as the owner of a related To Do task, and a different approval flow defined by a related
approval task. Approval of the key questionnaire at the end of the workflow completes it.
For example, if you have an internal audit that has several different components, different task owners can
complete forms related to the audit in the same internal modular questionnaire project. Or you can have an
external questionnaire asking a supplier to provide certain information, and include internal forms in the project so
that internal task owners can provide analysis or ratings of that information. In both cases, the key questionnaire
recipient completes the key questionnaire, and approvers can approve or deny the questionnaire project based
on the combined information from the forms and questionnaire. If the modular questionnaire is used in a process
project or an engagement risk assessment project, that approval or denial then factors into the status of the
associated project.
In this example, the key questionnaire in the modular questionnaire project is an external questionnaire for a
critical certificate. The template also includes two internal forms to allow two different departments to perform due
diligence on the certificate.
Once the modular questionnaire is sent to the external recipient, parallel To Do tasks start. Once the external
recipient has submitted the questionnaire, the task owners in the two different departments edit their internal
forms by acting on their tasks. Each internal form also has an approval task that has its To Do task as its
predecessor, and both form approval tasks are predecessors of the questionnaire approval task. Once both internal
due diligence forms are approved, the approval task for the key questionnaire starts, and approval or denial of
the key questionnaire determines whether the modular questionnaire project is approved or denied. If one of the
internal forms is denied first, the questionnaire project is denied.
By default, modular questionnaire project templates support no more than one survey document and only support
approval tasks on that survey document. If configured to allow internal forms, they instead support:
• Multiple survey documents. Only survey document per template can have a questionnaire format of
Questionnaire. Multiple survey documents can have a questionnaire format of Form.
• Both To Do and approval tasks on internal form survey documents.
• The recipient selected for the questionnaire project is the recipient of the key questionnaire (defined by the
template survey document with a questionnaire format of Questionnaire). In internal modular questionnaire
The following table describes the elements in the template of a modular questionnaire project that includes internal
forms:
Project-level setting The Allow multiple internal forms setting on the Overview tab
of the modular questionnaire project template determines if
the project can include one or more internal forms.
A survey document with a questionnaire format of The Questionnaire format specifies that the survey document
Questionnaire
is the key questionnaire in the project.
Survey documents with a questionnaire format of Form and a The Form questionnaire format specifies that the survey docu-
questionnaire type of Internal
ment: is part of the modular questionnaire project workflow
but doesn't define the characteristics of the project itself and
doesn't affect its status. The questionnaire type of Internal is
required for these forms.
You can add multiple survey documents with the Form ques-
tionnaire format and the Internal questionnaire type to a mod-
ular questionnaire project template that allows internal forms.
To Do tasks on internal forms Each form in the template can have a To Do task. These tasks
perform the following functions in new modular questionnaire
projects:
Approval tasks You can add approval tasks to the forms in the template if you
want to require their approval. If an internal form also has a To
Do task, make it the predecessor of the associated approval
task so that it starts when the To Do task has been completed
for new questionnaire projects.
Phases For questionnaires that allow updates, you can create both new
questionnaire and questionnaire update phases [page 346] for
tasks on both internal forms and the key questionnaire. Note
that To Do tasks in update phases only start once, for the first
update.
Note
• Using conditions to add internal forms to a modular questionnaire project based on project conditions isn't
supported. You can use project-level field mappings to trigger project-level conditions that add To Do tasks
to internal forms.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To create or edit modular questionnaire templates, you must be a member of the Template Creator and SM
Questionnaire Manager groups.
The Department attribute in modular questionnaire templates is only used in sites with the department feature
enabled. Otherwise, it's ignored.
The Allow multiple internal forms template property is only available if the feature for internal forms in modular
questionnaire projects (SM-30222) is enabled in your site.
If your site includes SAP Ariba Supplier Risk but not SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP
Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture), an administrator must enable
the self-service configuration parameter Enable modular questionnaire template creation in sites with a
basic supplier management entitlement (Application.SM.MQ.EnableMQCreationWithSMBasicConfig) in
Intelligent Configuration Manager.
Context
Set the Questionnaire Type attribute for each modular questionnaire template you create. A customer
administrator defines the questionnaire types in your site using master data import. In sites where the
You can also set the template's Commodity, Region, and Department attributes so that projects created from it
are applicable to a specific commodity, region, and department combination. For modular questionnaires used in
process projects, these settings are required and determine which specific process projects the questionnaire's
included in.
Don't set access control or apply conditions to modular questionnaire templates. Since users don't explicitly create
projects from them, access control or condition settings can interfere with the workflow by which users select the
questionnaires and send them to suppliers.
Procedure
2. On the Documents tab of the Templates area, choose Actions Create Template .
3. For project type, choose SM Modular Questionnaire.
4. Choose OK.
5. Enter a name and optional description for the new template. Template names can have a maximum of 255
characters and can't contain these special characters: \ / : ? “ < > | # + % &.
6. Choose a language from the Base Language dropdown menu. The base language is the language in which you
plan to author the template's content and is shown to its users by default unless you provide translations.
7. Choose OK.
The new template opens on the Overview tab. It's in Draft status.
Next Steps
Prerequisites
You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Questionnaire Manager groups to edit and publish
modular questionnaire templates.
To add internal forms as well as the questionnaire survey document to a modular questionnaire project template:
• The feature for internal forms in modular questionnaire projects (SM-30222) must be enabled in your site.
• The Allow multiple internal forms property must be set to Yes on the Overview tab of the modular
questionnaire project template.
Context
The properties of the modular questionnaire project template [page 339] to which you're adding a questionnaire
specify a combination of commodities, regions, and departments. The questionnaire that you set up is designed to
hold content that’s applicable to that combination.
If the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled in your site and you're setting up the modular
questionnaire for use in a process project, refer to Setting Up Modular Questionnaire for Use in Process Projects
[page 303].
Modular questionnaire projects that don't include internal forms contain one survey document, which is the project
questionnaire. You create this survey document and set timing and supplier management rules in it. Modular
questionnaire projects that do include internal forms contain multiple survey documents:
• A key questionnaire, which is the questionnaire set to the project's recipient. You create this survey document
and set timing and supplier management rules in it. Those settings control the project's behavior, including
whether it's internal or external, whether it can expire, and its status. This survey document must have a
format of Questionnaire.
• One or more internal forms, which are always submitted by internal users and are designed to supplement the
information in the key questionnaire. You create these survey documents but don't set most timing or supplier
management rules in them. These survey documents must have a format of Form and a type of Internal.
In general, modular questionnaire survey documents support the same types of content and question answer
types as the survey documents in other supplier management project templates, including the use of visibility
and editability conditions, supplier database field mapping, sensitive data masking, and other settings. However,
since one of the purposes of these questionnaires is to collect certificate information from suppliers, questions
of answer type Certificate and certificate sections in modular questionnaire project templates have specialized
settings to support certificate management. Certificate management features are only supported in the project's
key questionnaire. They're not supported in internal forms.
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, definitions, participants,
and so forth) that aren't relevant to modular questionnaire projects and are ignored. Only the timing rule and
supplier management settings on the survey's Rules page and the content on its Content page are used in
modular questionnaire projects. In modular questionnaire project templates that allow internal forms, you only
set timing and supplier management rules in the survey document for the key questionnaire.
Timing rules in modular questionnaires determine how much time a recipient has to fill out and submit the form
or questionnaire after being invited to do so. For external questionnaires, if you specify Yes for the Always open
setting in the supplier management rules, once the questionnaire is approved, it automatically reopens so that the
recipient can update it. If you specify Yes for the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely setting in the timing
rules, the reopened external questionnaire remains open indefinitely.
Procedure
1. Open the modular questionnaire template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
3. Create the project questionnaire or key questionnaire by performing the following steps:
Tip
Modular questionnaire titles show in lists of questionnaires that category and supplier managers can
send to suppliers and in supplier profiles, so make sure that the title you give the questionnaire
identifies its purpose clearly. If the project includes internal forms, the title you give to the key
questionnaire is the project or questionnaire name that shows in most areas of the user interface,
including in the supplier profile and in notifications.
c. (Optional) In the Description field, enter descriptive information about the questionnaire. This information
is only visible in the template.
d. For Test Event, choose No.
e. Choose a language from the Base Language dropdown menu. The base language is the language in which
you plan to author the questionnaire's content, and is shown to its users by default unless you provide
translations.
f. Choose Create.
g. On the questionnaire's Rules page, navigate to the Supplier Management rules and set the following rules:
Specify questionnaire format • In project templates that don't allow internal forms,
choose Form to create a questionnaire with an un-
numbered list of questions, or Questionnaire to cre-
ate a questionnaire with numbered questions.
• In project templates that allow internal forms, choose
Questionnaire to specify that the current survey
document is the key questionnaire in the project. This
setting is required.
Note
This setting is ignored in questionnaires created in
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk control-based engagement
risk assessment projects.
Specify questionnaire type Specify External for questionnaires that suppliers fill out,
or Internal for questionnaires that stakeholders in your
organization fill out. Internal modular questionnaires are
only supported in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk control-based
engagement risk assessment projects and in process
projects.
Reuse and Always request updates when used in a These settings are only applicable to modular question-
process naires used in process projects. Refer to Setting Up Modu-
lar Questionnaire for Use in Process Projects [page 303]
for details.
• (Optional) Edit the default due date. The due date affects how long new questionnaires remain open. It
doesn't affect how long reopened questionnaires remain open.
• (Optional) Enable reminders to the recipient as the due date approaches. If you set Always open to
Yes, after the questionnaire is approved for the first time, the due date determines only affects the
reminder schedule. The questionnaire never closes, and if the recipient doesn't update it by the due
date, the reminder schedule restarts and the recipient receives a new set of reminders on the next
dates in the reminder schedule.
• If you set Always open to Yes, choose a setting for Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely. Choose
Yes to keep an external questionnaire reopened indefinitely.
For details, refer to Supplier Form or Questionnaire Closing, Reopening, and Due Dates [page 372].
i. In the navigation pane on the left side of the page, choose Content.
j. Add questions and other content to the questionnaire as needed.
k. Choose Exit to save your changes and exit the questionnaire survey document.
4. Optional: Create one or more internal forms by performing the following steps:
The titles of Internal forms in modular questionnaire projects only show on the questionnaire details
page for the project. Other areas of the user interface show the project name defined in the key
questionnaire.
c. (Optional) In the Description field, enter descriptive information about the form. This information is only
visible in the template.
d. For Test Event, choose No.
e. Choose a language from the Base Language dropdown menu. The base language is the language in which
you plan to author the form's content, and is shown to its users by default unless you provide translations.
f. Choose Create.
g. On the questionnaire's Rules page, navigate to the Supplier Management rules and set the following rules:
Note
Don't add Certificate questions or certificate sections to internal forms. Certificate management
features aren't supported in internal forms. They're only supported in the project's key questionnaire.
i. Choose Exit to save your changes and exit the form survey document.
Next Steps
After you've created the questionnaire survey document and (optionally) one or more internal forms:
• Create at least one approval task for the questionnaire or key questionnaire survey document and configure
the approval flow:
• If the template doesn't allow internal forms, an approval task is optional. If you don't create one, projects
created from the template are automatically approved when the recipient submits or resubmits the
questionnaire.
• If the template does allow internal forms, at least one approval task on the key questionnaire is required
to enable completion of the project workflow. This approval task must be the final task in the workflow
created by all of the project's tasks.
You can also create multiple approval tasks for the questionnaire and chain them together as predecessors.
• (Optional) Create one or more To Do tasks for the questionnaire or key questionnaire survey document. If you
don't use phases, the To Do tasks in the project template apply only to new questionnaires.
• If the template includes internal forms, create To Do and approval tasks for those forms. Creating a To Do
task for an internal form allows you to assign editing that form to specific internal users in new questionnaire
workflows. For more details on tasks for internal forms, refer to Workflows with Internal Forms in Modular
Questionnaire Templates [page 333]
Related Information
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
About Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 327]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 330]
Creating Modular Questionnaire Project Templates [page 339]
Setting Up Separate Workflows for New and Updated Modular Questionnaires [page 346]
Certificate Management Setup in Modular Questionnaires [page 349]
About Modular Supplier Management Questionnaires in Control-Based Engagement Risk Assessment Projects
Supplier Form or Questionnaire Closing, Reopening, and Due Dates [page 372]
Workflows with Internal Forms in Modular Questionnaire Templates [page 333]
Project Owner Group and Capabilities
Prerequisites
To add phases and tasks in a modular questionnaire project template, you must be a member of the Template
Creator and SM Modular Questionnaire Manager groups.
Context
Whether or not a modular questionnaire requires an approval task depends on whether the project also includes
internal forms:
• If the template doesn't allow internal forms, an approval task is optional. If you don't create one, projects
created from the template are automatically approved when the recipient submits or resubmits the
questionnaire.
Questionnaire recipients can always update modular questionnaires set to Always Open, and internal form editors
can update internal forms in those projects while the project is active and associated To Do tasks allow editing. If
the modular questionnaire project template doesn't use phases, once a new questionnaire is approved, updating
the questionnaire or a form restarts the approval tasks associated with the update. It doesn't restart To Do tasks.
If you want to apply different tasks to questionnaire updates, you must create a new questionnaire phase and
a questionnaire update phase and add tasks to each phase to define separate workflows and approvals for the
different stages of the questionnaire's lifecycle.
Modular questionnaire project templates support phases with special New Questionnaire and Questionnaire
Update settings to control the order in which the phases start and whether the tasks in the phase are one-time-
only (for new questionnaires) or recur (for every questionnaire update). The New Questionnaire phase starts one
time, immediately when the recipient is invited to fill out the questionnaire. The Questionnaire Update phase starts
again every time the recipient updates the modular questionnaire.
Within the new questionnaire and questionnaire update phases, you add separate approval and To Do tasks on the
same questionnaire survey document to define the workflows for new and updated questionnaires. For example,
you can set up an approval task with a full approval flow involving all relevant stakeholders in the new questionnaire
phase, and an approval task with a more streamlined approval flow in the update phase. The order in which tasks
appear in a phase doesn't affect the order in which they start. When the phase starts, all of its tasks automatically
start unless they're predecessors of other tasks. You can chain the tasks in a phase together as predecessors to
define the order in which they start and create a workflow.
When setting up modular questionnaire phases and their tasks, keep in mind the following considerations:
• You can only add two phases to modular questionnaire projects: one with the New Questionnaire setting and
one with the Questionnaire Update setting. These phases don't use the Subscribe For, Rank, or Predecessor
settings. The new questionnaire phase automatically precedes the questionnaire update phase.
• Make sure that all of the template tasks are inside either the new questionnaire phase or the update
questionnaire phase. If you use these phases in a modular questionnaire project template, adding tasks outside
of them isn't supported.
• Make sure that the tasks you specify as predecessors are within the same phase. Don't make tasks in one
phase the predecessors of tasks in a different phase.
• You can't apply conditions to modular questionnaire tasks or phases themselves.
• To Do tasks are designed to be completed once and don't support new rounds. If you don't use phases, a
To Do task on a questionnaire or internal form in the modular questionnaire project starts once, when the
questionnaire project is new, and doesn't restart for any subsequent updates. If you add a To Do task to the
update phase, the task starts once, for the first update, and doesn't restart.
Procedure
1. Open the modular questionnaire project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Tasks tab.
3. Create a phase for new questionnaires by performing the following steps:
The new phase, indicated by the unstarted phase icon ( ), appears on the Tasks tab.
4. If you haven't already done so, add the approval and To Do tasks you want to use for new questionnaires, and
make sure that they're located inside the new questionnaire phase. On the Tasks tab, you can move tasks into
phases by dragging and dropping them.
5. Create a phase for questionnaire updates by performing the following steps:
The new phase, indicated by the unstarted phase icon ( ), appears on the Tasks tab.
6. Add any approval tasks and To Do tasks you want to use for questionnaire updates, and make sure that they're
located inside the questionnaire update phase.
7. After you've finished setting up the modular project template, publish it.
Results
When a questionnaire manager, process initiator, or the owner of the task for sending risk assessments first
sends the questionnaire to recipients, the new questionnaire phase starts. Final approval of the project or key
questionnaire in the modular questionnaire project completes the new questionnaire phase. After that, every time a
recipient updates the questionnaire or an internal form editor updates an internal form, associated approval tasks
in the update phase restart. Final approval of active tasks related to the update completes that recurrence of the
questionnaire update phase.
Related Information
A modular questionnaire can contain one or more questions of type Certificate, or certificate sections with
individual certificate questions, along with related noncertificate questions and other types of content.
In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, process projects (including
qualification processes) collect information in modular questionnaires, which can be reused in multiple processes.
In modular questionnaires, you can collect certificates once from recipients and then include them wherever
they’re applicable, rather than asking recipients to provide the same certificate in multiple questionnaires for
different types of projects.
Modular questionnaire project templates, and the certificate questions in their survey documents, include the
following features to support certificate management:
• Commodity, Region, and Department properties for the project template, which allow you to tie a certificate
or set of certificates to the specific combinations of commodity, region, and department to which they're
applicable. These properties also determine which process projects the modular questionnaire is available in,
and allow you to collect certificates that are relevant to specific combinations.
• Both a questionnaire type (in the template properties) and a certificate type (in the settings for certificate
questions), which allow you to differentiate between modular questionnaire projects that serve different
purposes, and to categorize the certificates they contain. Questionnaire type also determines which processes
a modular questionnaire is included in.
• Modular questionnaires support both Certificate questions, which include standard certificate detail fields,
and certificate sections, which include default certificate fields that you can customize. You can also add more
questions within the certificate section. You can define visibility and editability conditions for both standard
certificate fields and the additional questions in the certificate section.
• Expiration schedules and notification settings for both certificate questions (in question or certificate section
settings) and entire questionnaires (in the questionnaire survey document's Supplier Management rules).
Certificates always have expiration dates. Both Certificate questions and certificate sections in modular
questionnaire projects generate notifications for upcoming expirations (in the amount of time before the
expiration that you specify) and when the expiration date has passed. You can also configure the questionnaire
itself to expire when a certificate expires, in which case the questionnaire also generates notifications for
upcoming expirations (in the amount of time before the expiration you specify) and when the expiration has
passed. For both certificate and questionnaire expirations, you can also notify the supplier's primary supplier
manager and the members of the project owner group. Certificate expirations can update the status of the
entire questionnaire project to Expiring or Expired.
If the modular questionnaire is included in a process, expiring or expired questionnaires can prompt process
owners to request questionnaire updates and can impact decisions about process status. For example, if a
qualification process includes a questionnaire with a critical certificate, a process decision-maker can change
its status from approved to denied, removing a supplier qualification.
• By default, all detail fields in Certificate questions are required in external questionnaires. You can make all
detail fields except for Expiration Date and Attachment optional by enabling the self-service site configuration
parameter Require only attachment and expiration date for supplier certificates [page 785].
1. Defining questionnaire [page 80] and certificate [page 83] types in your site.
2. Creating templates for certificate-related modular questionnaire projects [page 339].
3. Setting up the questionnaires [page 341] in those templates and adding certificate questions [page 406] or
sections [page 391].
4. Defining an approval flow for each questionnaire using template approval tasks.
For certificates that are critical to your company in one way or another, SAP Ariba recommends creating
dedicated modular questionnaire project templates for each critical certificate, defining both a questionnaire
type and certificate type for each. Doing so gives each critical certificate its own approval flow, category,
region, and department combination, and project-level expiration status, and makes it available independently
for use in process projects. You can group multiple questions about related noncritical certificates in the same
modular questionnaire template. For that purpose, define a general questionnaire type for certificates or several
questionnaire types for broad categories of certificates, and a specific certificate type for each certificate.
Example
ABC Company company wants suppliers of chemicals to its German manufacturing department to have Certificate
X. A customer administrator at ABC Company therefore defines both a questionnaire type and a certificate type of
Certificate X. A template creator then creates a modular supplier management questionnaire project template
with Commodities of chemicals, Region of Germany, and Department of manufacturing, and questionnaire type of
Certificate X. In that project template, they can create a questionnaire survey document called Certificate
X Questionnaire for German chemical suppliers, enabling Always open but not enabling an expiration
schedule, since the certificate itself expires. They add a certificate question, Do you have certificate X?,
to the questionnaire, making it required, setting its certificate type to Certificate X, setting the expiration
reminder and the options to notify the primary supplier manager and project owners, and specifying that
the certificate expiration updates the questionnaire status. They then add an approval task that routes the
questionnaire's approval to relevant stakeholders for this particular certificate, such as category or supplier
managers who handle German chemicals, the German legal department, and so on.
Once the template creator publishes the template, a questionnaire manager or process initiator at ABC company
can send the questionnaire to its German chemical suppliers. Once a questionnaire project is approved, category or
supplier managers can see it in the supplier's profile and initiate actions such as changing the status of processes
that require the certificate. Notifications let both recipients and internal stakeholders know when a questionnaire
is about to expire or has expired, and recipients can update the questionnaire with more recent versions of the
certificate.
If ABC Company is also interested to know whether its French suppliers have Certificate X, but don't consider it
critical for any commodity or department, a template creator can add a question to a more general questionnaire
about multiple noncritical certificates in a separate modular questionnaire project template with Commodities of
All, Region of France, and Department of All, using a more general questionnaire type such as Certificates.
They can then add multiple certificate questions to the template survey document, including Do you have
certificate X?. In this case, they can set an expiration schedule for the questionnaire itself, but don't opt
to have any one of its certificates' expirations change the questionnaire status. Certificate expirations and the
Note
Certificate management features aren't supported in internal forms in a modular questionnaire project.
Certificates collected in Certificate questions and certificate sections in internal forms:
Always collect certificate information using Certificate questions or certificate sections in the key
questionnaire in the project, where certificate management is supported, rather than in internal forms.
Scoring reduces the need for subjective judgments and applies uniform criteria to the answers from all the
respondents who fill out a given modular questionnaire. Scoring and score bands provide approvers and other
stakeholders with guidelines and indicators of the desirability or acceptability of respondent answers.
In modular questionnaire scoring, pre-grades for individual questions combine with their importance and the
weight of their sections to produce numerical scores for the sections. Section scores roll up into an overall
numerical score for the questionnaire. Section and questionnaire scores are percentages that express how many
points the questionnaire answers earned out of the maximum number of possible points.
Every score falls within a scoring band, or grouping of scores. All scores within a band receive the same judgment
and the same label, such as "Good," "Average," or "Poor." Next to each score, a colored dot provides a visual
indicator of the band into which the score falls, and hover text identifies the band by name and shows its associated
score range.
• Defining scoring bands for your site: master data in your site defines:
• Whether the questionnaire type of the modular questionnaire supports scoring. Questionnaire type
data includes an evaluation type for each questionnaire type. You can only add scoring to a modular
questionnaire if its questionnaire type has an evaluation type of Graded.
• The scoring bands that you can use for a scored questionnaire. Scoring band category data defines
the categories or types of bands in your site. For example, you can define a Compliance category of
scoring bands, a Legal category, a Quality category, and so on. There's no limit to the number of band
categories that your site can use. Scoring band data defines all the different possible scoring bands in each
category, their names, and the colors of their indicators. For details, refer to Questionnaire Scoring Band
Category Data Import [page 85] and Questionnaire Scoring Band Data Import [page 86].
Note
If you enable section-level banding in a questionnaire, you must set up scoring bands for each of the
questionnaire's sections individually. Whether or not you plan to add scoring to an individual section and
its questions, you can only publish the modular questionnaire project template if all of its sections have
banding settings. Only sections with scoring show associated scoring bands, but the band settings are
required for all sections.
Note
• Scoring and section-level banding currently aren't supported for repeatable sections.
• If your site includes SAP Ariba Supplier Risk and you use modular questionnaires as assessments in
control-based engagement risk assessment projects, you can add scoring to those questionnaires, but
scores don't show on the engagement page and aren't used in control-based engagement risk assessment
projects.
• In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, process details pages show
overall scores and scoring band indicators for the questionnaires included in the process.
• In sites where the feature for internal forms in modular questionnaire projects (SM-30222) is enabled, the
overall score for the modular questionnaire project is the score for the key questionnaire (the template
survey document with a questionnaire format of Questionnaire) only. This overall questionnaire project
score shows in the Questionnaires detail area of the supplier profile, the questionnaire project details page,
and on the details pages for process projects that include the modular questionnaire. You can also retrieve
it using the /scores endpoint of the Supplier Data API with Pagination.
It's possible to set up scoring for internal forms, and those scores are available in the project advanced
view. But internal form scores don't contribute to the overall questionnaire score, don't show in
questionnaire detail pages, and aren't retrieved by the /scores endpoint of the Supplier Data API with
Pagination. You can set up self-assigned and aggregated ratings for internal forms; see Rating and Total
Rating Question Setup for Internal Forms or Questionnaires [page 368] for details.
Structural Considerations for Scoring Supplier Management Questionnaire Content [page 359]
Related Information
Scoring Points
The more scoring points you assign each piece of event or questionnaire content, the more that content
contributes toward the final score. There are two different types of scoring points, Weight and Importance, that
work together in score calculations for hierarchical content.
Weight
Weight is the relative level of importance of a section of content. It's used with the score you assign each response
and contributes to the overall score for each respondent.
Assign Weight points to “container” content types such as sections and event line items (for scoring purposes, a
line item “contains” its terms). Altering a section or lot’s Weight allows you to alter the Overall % for all the section
content.
For example, suppose that there are 30 scoring points assigned to a Car Performance section, and 70 to a Car
Financing section. (Assign a total of 100 scoring points to cause the Overall % to be equal to the number of
assigned scoring points).
For sections, the Overall % column shows how the section contributes to the overall score based in the following
formula:
Using the previous example to verify the Overall % of the Car Financing section, the numbers would look like
this:
• 70 / 100 = 70%
If you don't assign exactly 100 weight scoring points, it complicates the math. For example, if you assign 27 points
to the Car Performance section, and 88 points to the Car Financing section, the total of the weight scoring
points is 115. In this case, the Overall % of the Car Financing section is:
• 88/115 = 76.52%
Importance
Importance is the relative level of importance for individual pieces of content that require answers from suppliers
or other respondents, such as questions and event line item terms.
Assign each question or other piece of individual content between 0–10 Importance scoring points, with 10 being
the most important. Content to which you assign 0 scoring points doesn't count towards the score.
In the following graphic, question 1.2 has the highest importance with 10 Importance points, and question 1.1 is half
as important as question 1.2 with 5 Importance points.
>The Overall % of questions changes depending on how you weight the section they're located in. To calculate
the Overall % of the questions in the Car Performance section, first calculate their percentage within the Car
Performance section, and then multiply that by the Overall % of the Car Performance section. The formula for
the numbers in the example would be:
• (importance of question 1.1 (5) / total number of importance points in the Car Performance section (15)) *
overall % of Car Performance section (30) = overall % of question 1.1 (10%)
Written numerically:
The pre-grade you assign to a specific answer to a question determines the amount that the answer contributes to
the total score of the questionnaire relative to other answers to the same question.
When you pre-grade a question, you assign a grade to each possible answer to the question. You can only pre-grade
questions that have defined or quantifiable answers.
In percentage-based scoring, pre-grades are always percentage values between 0 and 100, with 0 being the lowest
and 100 being the highest grade. They specify the percentage of the question's available scoring points each
answer earns. That question-level scoring point calculation then rolls up into the calculation of both section-level
and overall questionnaire scores based on the question's importance and its section's weight.
In point-based scoring, pre-grades are always point values, which add up to section-level and overall questionnaire
scores. Point-based scoring is available in the engagement request and assessment questionnaires in legacy
engagement risk assessment projects and the engagement request inherent risk screening questionnaire in
control-bases engagement risk assessment projects in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk. It isn't available
in sourcing events or modular supplier management questionnaires.
You can only pre-grade questions that have defined or quantifiable answers.
Questions with defined answers include multiple choice and Yes/No questions. For example, you can't pre-grade a
question of type Text (single line limited) with no defined acceptable answers because a respondent can answer
with any possible text, and there's no way to quantify and grade such an answer. However, if you set the Acceptable
Values option to List of Choices for the question, so that the respondent must choose from a set of predefined
answers, you can pre-grade each answer. Yes/No questions automatically include two defined answers: yes and
no.
Questions with quantifiable answers include Whole Number, Money, and Date. Answers to these questions are
numerical quantities that can be calculated or, for dates, counted.
Related Information
To pre-grade questions with Yes/No answers, enable pre-grading and specify the pre-grades for the answers.
Pre-grading for Yes/No questions is based on the values you specify. For example, if you assign a pre-grade of 100
to a Yes answer, then it receives a grade of 100%.
To pre-grade Yes/No questions in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, map No or the Boolean false value first, or to the
left of the pipe character. For example, if the pre-grade values are No=0 and Yes=100, enter 0|100 in the Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet. If No=100 and Yes=0 then enter 100|0 in the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
Note
If you assign a pre-grade to one answer but choose No Grade for the other answer, and the participant
chooses the No Grade answer, the question generates a blank score as expected in classic sourcing events,
surveys, and supplier management questionnaires. Currently, in guided sourcing events, the No Grade answer
is automatically assigned a grade of 0, which contributes to section and overall scores.
To pre-grade questions with a predefined list of possible answers, enable pre-grading and specify the grades to
assign each available answer in advance.
For example,you might have a multiple choice question with four possible choices, A, B, C, and D. You assign A 0%,
B 50%, C 70%, and D 100%. Each possible choice can have an assigned grade between 0% and 100%.
Pre-grading for the answers to multiple choice questions is based on the values you specify.
Note
• If the question has the Allow participants to specify other value? option set to Yes, the other values
supplied by respondents cannot be pre-graded and therefore are not included in score calculations.
• If the question has the Allow participants to select multiple values? option set to Yes, the grade assigned
to each answer the respondent selects is included in the score calculation. In percentage-based scoring,
this option might contribute to a total score of over 100%.
Since questions that require numerical answers can receive answers that span a range of values, a calculation
assigns them a grade.
The calculation is based on three values you specify: From (a minimum possible value), To (a maximum possible
value), and Ideal (your preferred value). The calculation assigns the grade based on the answer's position relative
to those three values.
When pre-grading number and date questions, keep the following points in mind:
• The Ideal value must be a number between the To and From values.
• Negative numbers produce no special behavior. For example, assigning From= -5, Ideal=1, and To=10 results in
a pre-grade of 0% for -5, which ramps up to 100% for 1, and drops back down to 0% at 10.
• It is important to determine the range of likely answers to your question as accurately as possible and set the
To and From values accordingly. Setting the To and From values too closely together increases the likelihood
that more answers will fall outside of the range and be assigned a grade of 0%. If you set them too far apart,
a great many answers might qualify as nearer your ideal value than is accurate, rendering your results less
useful.
You can assign numeric values to all, one, or a combination of From, To, and Ideal values.
Assign From, To, and Ideal values to favor answers that are neither too great nor too small.
Assigned grades start at 0% for the From value, climb to 100% for the Ideal value, and descend again to 0% for the
To value.
For example, suppose that you're selecting a model of car to add you your company’s fleet. You don't want a car
that is too slow at top speed, but also one that has too much horsepower. In this case, you can assign the slowest
acceptable top speed in the From value to 100 MPH, the fastest acceptable top speed in the To value to 160 MPH,
and the ideal top speed in the Ideal value to 120 MPH.
In this example, assigned grades start at 0% for 100 MPH, climb to 100% for 120 MPH, and descend again to 0%
for 160 MPH.
Assign From and Ideal values without specifying a To value when you don't want to place a restriction on the
maximum value a respondent can provide for a question.
The assigned grade is 0% for answers less than or equal to the From value, rising to 100% for answers equal to or
greater than the Ideal value.
For example, you suppose that you're selecting a model of car to add to your company’s fleet. You want the car to
hold at least three passengers, ideally five passengers, with no upper limit. In this case, you assign a value of 3 to
the From value, a value of 5 to the Ideal value, and assign no value to To.
Assign Ideal and To values without specifying a From value when you don't want to place a restriction on the
minimum value a respondent can provide to a question.
The assigned grade is 0% for answers equal to or greater than the To value and rises to 100% for answers less than
or equal to the Ideal value.
For example, suppose that you're selecting a model of car to add to your company’s fleet. You want the car to cost
no more than $30,000, ideally $22,000, but without setting a lower limit. In this case, you assign a value of 30000
to the To value, a value of 22000 to the Ideal value, and assign no value to From.
In this example, the assigned grade is 0% for answers of 30000 or greater, and 100% for answers of 22000 and
less.
Assign an Ideal value but no From or To values when you want a single, specific answer.
The assigned grade is 100% for answers of the Ideal value and 0% for all other answers.
For example, suppose that you're selecting which model of car to purchase for your company’s fleet. You want it to
have a four-cylinder engine, no more, no less. In this case, you specify an Ideal value of 4, and leave the From and
To values empty.
In this example, the assigned grade is 100% for answers of 4, and 0% for all other answers.
Assign a From value but no To or Ideal values when you require a specific maximum threshold value, above which a
greater answer doesn't add value for you.
The assigned grade is 0% for answers less than the From value and 100% for all answers equal to or greater than
the From value.
For example, suppose that you're selecting which model of car to purchase for your company’s fleet. Your company
has a policy of only purchasing cars that have been in production for at least 10 years. Set the From value to 10, and
leave the To and Ideal values empty.
In this example, the assigned grade is 0% for answers less 10, and 100% for all answers equal to or greater than 10.
Assign a To value but no From or Ideal values when you require a specific minimum threshold value, below which a
lesser answer doesn't add value for you.
The assigned grade is 0% for answers greater than the To value and 100% for answers equal to or less than the To
value.
For example, suppose that you're selecting which model of car to purchase for your company’s fleet. In order to
purchase a car, your company requires it to be financed with a loan of 4% annual percentage rate (APR) or lower.
Set the To value to 4, and leave the From and Ideal values empty.
In this example, the assigned grade is 0% for answers greater than 4%, and 100% for answers equal to or less than
4%.
The hierarchical structure of the content in a supplier management questionnaire affects its scoring. Combining
questions outside of sections with questions in sections, or nesting sections within sections, produces specific
scoring behavior.
In supplier management questionnaires, the base level is the root or beginning of the hierarchical scoring structure.
Content in the base level has a number with no decimal points such as 1 or 2.
• Either the questionnaire has no sections and every question is at the base level, or the questionnaire has
sections and every question is in a section. You can only use weight points in scoring if the questionnaire has
sections. If the questionnaire includes both questions and sections at the base level, both contribute equally to
the maximum number of scoring points for the questionnaire, which can produce unexpected results.
• In questionnaires with sections, all sections are at the base level rather than nested. Only sections at the base
level contribute to the questionnaire's maximum number of scoring points, and the weights of nested sections
only apply to scoring within the section.
You can score questionnaires with more complicated structures, but keep these behaviors in mind if you do so.
Note
Currently, scoring is only supported for static sections. It's not supported for repeatable sections.
Related Information
Scoring is simplest when you place questions and event line items inside sections. Structuring content differently
(for example, placing a question outside of a section) can cause confusion about the resulting scores.
The base level is the root or beginning of the hierarchical scoring structure. Content in the base level has a number
with no decimal points. Content numbering with a decimal point (for example 1.2) indicates that the content is
nested inside a section.
For example, suppose that a questionnaire has Section 1 and Section 2, and also Question 3, a question
outside of any section, all at the base level. In this case, the Maximum points for content field doesn't equal the
sum of the Weight column, since the Maximum points for content field is the sum of all the scoring points in the
base level. Both Weight and Importance are scoring points.
In this example, Maximum points for content field is 7 rather than 2. There's a question at the base level, outside
of any section, and its Importance points are added into the Maximum points for content field.
The Overall % of any piece of content is calculated in relation to other content in the same hierarchical location.
Since there's a question at the base level, its Overall % is calculated in comparison to the Weight of the sections at
the same level. The total number of scoring points assigned in that hierarchical location is 7, five of which belong to
the question. So, the Overall % of each section is 14.29% (1/7) and the Overall % of the question is 71.43% (5/7).
Related Information
If you nest sections inside of other sections, the resulting scoring can produce unexpected results because
sections nested within other sections aren't scored with their parents.
For example, if you nest Section 2 within Section 1, the weight points of Section 2 don't count towards the
Maximum points for content field since they're not located in the base level. Only the weight points of Section 1
are located in the base level. The following screenshot illustrates this configuration:
The event or survey document indents Weight fields to illustrate the hierarchical scoring structure. For example,
since Section 1 is the only content located in the base level, it contributes all of the scoring points to that level
Use these steps to categorize the scores generated by a modular questionnaire into scoring bands, which group
and label scores for easier judgment. In the template, you can specify the scoring band category you want to use
and the range of questionnaire scores for each band in the category.
Prerequisites
To set up scoring bands for a modular supplier management questionnaire, you must be a member of both the
Template Creator and SM Modular Questionnaire Manager groups.
Scoring band category and scoring band data must be defined in your site.
The type of the modular questionnaire for which you want to set up scoring bands must have an evaluation type of
Graded.
To generate a numerical score that translates into a scoring band, you must also add scoring to the questions and
sections in the questionnaire survey document. You can add scoring to the questionnaire before or after setting up
scoring bands for it.
Context
Scoring bands are or grouping of scores. All scores within a band receive the same judgment and the same label,
such as "Good," "Average," or "Poor." Next to each score, a colored dot provides a visual indicator of the band into
which the score falls, and hover text identifies the band by name and shows its associated score range.
Enter Score From and Score To values define the score ranges for each band in the selected band category. Define
a range for every band in the category. The ranges you define must, in total, include every number from 0 to 100.
A band range goes from the Score From value up to, but not including, the Score To value. Except for the band
that starts at 0, the Score From value you specify must always be the same number as the Score To value of the
immediately lower band. For example, you can define a score range of 0-25 for band A and a score range of 25-50
for band B. Scores from 0 through 24 fall in Band A, but a score of 25 falls in band B.
The scoring bands you set up here always apply to the overall questionnaire score. By default, they also apply
all of the scores for individual sections in the questionnaire. If you enable section-level scoring for this particular
questionnaire, the scoring bands you set up here apply only to the overall questionnaire score, and you set up
scoring bands for each individual section separately.
1. If the modular supplier management questionnaire project template isn't in Draft status, create a new version
of it.
The Band Score Range setting shows all of the bands defined for the category you selected.
4. Enter a score range for each band in its Score From and Score To fields.
5. (Optional) To set up scoring bands at the individual section level, for Enable Section Level Band, choose Yes.
Results
When you publish the questionnaire project template with scoring bands and questionnaire scoring, whenever a
respondent submits a questionnaire created from it, their answers generate an overall score for the questionnaire.
To the left of the score, a colored band indicator and label identify the band into which the score falls based on the
scoring band setup for the questionnaire.
If you didn't enable section-level scoring bands for the questionnaire, the questionnaire band settings also apply to
section scores.
Next Steps
If you enabled section-level scoring bands for this questionnaire, set up scoring bands for each individual section.
Related Information
Scoring and Score Band Setup for Modular Questionnaires [page 351]
Adding Scoring to Modular Questionnaires [page 366]
Setting Up Scoring Bands for Modular Questionnaires [page 362]
Setting Up Scoring Bands for Individual Sections in Modular Questionnaires [page 364]
Use these steps to categorize and label scores for individual questionnaire sections in scoring bands, which group
and label scores for easier judgment. In the template, you can specify the scoring band category you want to use
and then define the range of section scores for each band in the category.
Prerequisites
To set up scoring bands for individual sections in a modular questionnaire, you must be a member of both the
Template Creator and SM Modular Questionnaire Manager groups.
Scoring band category and scoring band data must be defined in your site.
The type of the modular supplier management questionnaire for which you want to set up section-level scoring
bands must have an evaluation type of Graded.
Section-level scoring bands must be enabled on the template Overview tab. For details, refer to Setting Up Scoring
Bands for Modular Questionnaires [page 362].
Context
Scoring bands are or grouping of scores. All scores within a band receive the same judgment and the same label,
such as "Good," "Average," or "Poor." Next to each score, a colored dot provides a visual indicator of the band into
which the score falls, and hover text identifies the band by name and shows its associated score range.
Section-level scoring bands apply only to the current section. You can use them to:
• Apply different scoring band categories to different sections in the same questionnaire. For example,
you can apply a set of code of conduct scoring bands to a section of questions about compliance with your
organization's code of conduct, and a different set of regulatory compliance scoring bands to a section of
questions about compliance with legal regulatory requirements. The code of conduct band category can have
three bands: one for compliant scores, one for noncompliant scores, and one for undecided scores, all with
names specific to code of conduct agreement. You can then associate the scores corresponding to agreement
to your code of conduct with the compliant band, scores corresponding to provision of an alternative code
of conduct with the unknown band, and scores corresponding to lack of agreement with the noncompliant
band. This setup provides clear guidance about the answers to the code of conduct questions, but it's specific
to code of conduct questions. The regulatory compliance band category can have a larger number of bands
with more general names. By applying the most appropriate band category to each individual section, you can
provide more precise guidance to approvers and other stakeholders who need to evaluate its answers and
decide how acceptable they are.
• Define different scoring ranges for the same bands in different sections of the same questionnaire: For
example, you can apply a control effectiveness scoring band category with two bands (effective and ineffective)
to two different sections of questions about security controls. One section can contain questions about
optional controls, and you can define a score range of 20-100 for the effective band, indicating that a fairly
low score for this section is acceptable. The other section can contain questions about important or critical
You enter Score From and Score To values define the score ranges for each band in the selected band category.
Define a range for every band in the category. The ranges you define must, in total, include every number from 0 to
100. A band range goes from the Score From value up to, but not including, the Score To value. Except for the band
that starts at 0, the Score From value you specify must always be the same number as the Score To value of the
immediately lower band. For example, you can define a score range of 0-25 for band A and a score range of 25-50
for band B. Scores from 0 through 24 fall in Band A, but a score of 25 falls in band B.
The scoring bands you set up here apply only to this section.
You can only set up scoring bands for static sections. They're not supported in repeatable sections.
Note
If you've enabled section-level banding in a questionnaire, you must set up scoring bands for each of the
questionnaire's sections individually. Whether or not you plan to add scoring to an individual section and its
questions, you can only publish the questionnaire template if all of its sections have banding settings. Only
sections with scoring show associated scoring bands, but the band settings are required.
Procedure
1. Open the modular questionnaire project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. On the Documents tab, click the questionnaire survey document and choose Edit.
3. Click Content.
4. Perform one of the following actions:
• To set up scoring bands for an existing section, click the section and choose Edit.
• To add scoring bands to a new section, choose Add Section .
5. On the Band Category dropdown menu, choose the type of scoring band you want to apply to the
questionnaire score.
The Band Score Range setting shows all of the bands defined for the category you selected.
6. Enter a score range for each band in its Score From and Score To fields.
Results
When you publish the modular questionnaire project template with scoring bands and questionnaire scoring,
whenever a respondent submits a questionnaire created from it, their answers generate scores for each question
and section as well as the overall questionnaire. To the left of each section score, a colored band indicator and label
identify the band into which the section score falls based on the scoring band setup for the section.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of both the Template Creator and SM Modular Questionnaire Manager groups to add
scoring to survey documents in modular questionnaire project templates.
To group questionnaire scores into scoring bands and show color-coded indicators for those bands, band category
and band data must be defined in your site using data imports.
Context
Modular supplier management questionnaires calculate scores at the section level and those scores roll up to an
overall questionnaire score. You set up scoring bands with defined score ranges for the questionnaire. These bands
apply to section scores as well unless you set up scoring bands at the individual section level.
Modular questionnaires use percentage-based scoring. They don't support point-based scoring. Percentage-based
scoring uses question pre-grades together with question importance and section weight to calculate section and
overall questionnaire scores. Before you start scoring a modular questionnaire, it's important to understand how
pre-grades and scoring points work.
Procedure
1. Open the modular questionnaire project template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. On the Documents tab, choose the questionnaire survey document and choose Edit.
3. Choose Rules.
4. In the Bidding Rules area, make sure that Choose Scoring Type is set to Percentage Based Scoring and
Delegated.
Tip
The values you specify for section weights can be any numbers, but using numbers that add up to a total of
100 makes it easier to determine how your weight and importance settings contribute to the overall score
calculation for the questionnaire.
8. Choose an Importance value [page 354] of 1-10 for each question that you want to contribute to the
questionnaire score calculation, with 10 being the highest importance. Questions with an importance of 0
don't contribute to scores.
9. Pre-grade possible answers to questions with defined answers, such as number, date, multiple choice, or
Yes/No questions, by performing the following actions:
a. In the Pre-grade column, choose Yes from the dropdown menu.
b. For multiple choice and Yes/No questions, select a pre-grade percentage value 0–100 for each available
answer. For number and date questions, enter values in one, two, or all the From, Ideal, and To fields to
define the pre-grading for a range of possible answers.
10. Choose Update at any time to recalculate the Overall % for the current scoring configuration.
11. When you're finished adding scoring to the questionnaire, choose Exit, then choose Save and then exit.
Results
Once you publish the new version of the template and a respondent submits a questionnaire created from that
version, the questionnaire automatically calculates section and overall scores based on your settings. The overall
questionnaire score and scoring band indicator show in the Questionnaires detail area of the supplier profile.
In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, the process details page also
shows overall scores and scoring band indicators for questionnaires included in the process. Both the overall
questionnaire score and individual section scores and band indicators show on the questionnaire details page.
Related Information
Internal stakeholders of your organization can enter ratings in one or more internal forms or internal questionnaires
of a project. Ratings enable your organization to create a formal methodology by which you evaluate responses.
You use ratings to evaluate or "rate" the responses (on various parameters such as delivery, quality, service, price,
compliance, and so on). The final rating is a simple aggregation of all the individual ratings entered by internal users
in their respective internal forms or questionnaires.
These ratings can be configured as questions in internal forms or internal questionnaires and can be included as
part of a modular questionnaire project. The project can include external or internal survey questionnaires of type
Questionnaire in addition to one or more internal forms of type Form. For internal users to be able to assign ratings
to responses, you create or configure templates and include questions with a new answer type called Rating which
takes a numeric value.
You also configure a new answer type called Total Rating in an internal form or internal questionnaire of the project.
This non-editable field is automatically aggregated and populated in internal questionnaires or forms where it is
configured.
Note
Although you can configure the Total Rating field in any internal form or internal questionnaire of a project, SAP
Ariba recommends that you configure this field only in the "final" form, and not in any other form. The "final"
form is the one in which an approver of a questionnaire project chooses to approve or deny the project.
For example, you may want to gather information on certain aspects related to mandatory environmental
compliance, and this project may have several different components. Different internal users can complete forms
in the same internal modular questionnaire project. Or you can have an external questionnaire asking a supplier
to provide information, and include several internal forms in the project so that internal users can provide a rating
of that information. The Total Rating field, if configured in the final form, displays the aggregate of all the ratings
entered by previous task owners in their respective forms.
Ratings enable you to create a formal methodology by which you can evaluate your respondents' answers. You can
configure your internal forms to include questions that have an answer type of Rating.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator group to create modular supplier management questionnaire
templates.
1. Open the supplier modular questionnaire template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
• To add the question at the end of the questionnaire, choose Add Question .
• To add the question inside a non-repeatable section, select the section and choose Add Question in
the content table.
Note
Questions of answer type Rating are not supported in internal repeatable sections.
• To add a question inside or immediately after a section, select the section and choose Add
Question from the dropdown menu.
6. If you selected a location for the new question, choose Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
7. Choose Ratings from the Answer Type dropdown menu.
8. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
9. Specify the following settings for the question:
Response Required? Specifies whether or not you want to require the recipient to
answer the question. Options are:
• Not Required
• Yes, Participant Required: The recipient must answer
the question.
• Yes, Owner Required: Don't use this setting. In supplier
management projects, all internal and external ques-
tionnaire recipients are participants. There's no way to
satisfy an owner requirement, and using this setting
prevents recipients from submitting the questionnaire.
Reference Documents Choose Attach a file to attach a reference file to the ques-
tion. You can either upload the file from your local computer
or select it from your site’s library content. You can only
attach library content that you have permission to access.
Visible to Participant Specifies whether or not recipients can see the question.
Only choose No if you're setting up a hidden question that
triggers a conditional approval.
Max Rating Maximum value for the rating. Configure this field as a whole
numeric value between 1 and 100. For example, if you config-
ure this field as 50, task owners filling out forms can't enter
values greater than 50 for a rating question.
Rating Weight Configure this field as a whole numeric value between 1 and
100. This is a percentage value and determines the "weight"
Related Information
Ratings enable you to create a formal methodology by which you can evaluate your respondents' answers. You can
configure your internal forms to include questions that have an answer type of Total Rating. This field displays
an aggregate of ratings of all the internal forms in a questionnaire project. Although you can configure this field in
any internal form of a questionnaire project, SAP Ariba recommends that you configure this field only in the "final"
form. The "final" form is the one in which an approver of a questionnaire project chooses to approve or deny the
project.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator group to create modular supplier management questionnaire
templates.
Procedure
1. Open the supplier modular questionnaire template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
• To add the question at the end of the questionnaire, choose Add Question .
Note
Questions of answer type Total Rating are not supported in internal repeatable sections.
• To add a question inside or immediately after a section, select the section and choose Add
Question from the dropdown menu.
6. If you selected a location for the new question, choose Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
7. Choose Total Rating from the Answer Type dropdown menu.
8. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
9. Specify the following settings for the question:
Response Required? Specifies whether or not you want to require the recipient
to answer the question. The only option currently is Not
Required.
Reference Documents Choose Attach a file to attach a reference file to the ques-
tion. You can either upload the file from your local computer
or select it from your site’s library content. You can only
attach library content that you have permission to access.
Visible to Participant Specifies whether or not recipients can see the question.
Only choose No if you're setting up a hidden question that
triggers a conditional approval.
Total Rating Type Choose Sum. This is the only type available.
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions use forms and questionnaires to collect information about suppliers
from both internal stakeholders and the suppliers themselves.
Supplier management projects such as supplier requests and registrations uses template survey documents to
create forms and questionnaires. Supplier qualification projects (available only in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance) use template survey and content documents to create dynamic questionnaires with segments
targeted by commodity, region, and, in sites where department is enabled, departments.
Some supplier management projects with external questionnaires can also use survey documents to collect
information from internal stakeholders.
You can map questions in supplier management forms and questionnaires to specific fields in the vendor database
so that their answers are always stored in an appropriate database field. These mappings perform one of two
functions:
• Associating question answers with a specific database field. These mappings perform an important role in
creating supplier requests and in synchronizing supplier data to an integrated ERP system.
• Enabling certain project functionality, such as enabling qualifications to expire, transferring question answers
to project fields so that they can be used to create conditional approvals, or setting the project's commodities,
regions, and departments.
The timing rules of the template survey document for a supplier form or questionnaire include a Due date setting.
In external questionnaires, the due date defines how much time a supplier has to fill out and submit a new
questionnaire before it closes. The countdown to the due date starts when the supplier is invited to fill out the
questionnaire. The questionnaire closes either when the supplier has submitted the questionnaire or when the due
date is reached, whichever comes first. When the questionnaire is closed, the supplier can no longer edit it. The
questionnaire reopens automatically when:
All external questionnaires An approver requests additional information during the appro-
val process.
External qualification questionnaires and external registration A registration or qualification manager reinvites a supplier to
questionnaires in new registrations fill out the questionnaire because the supplier didn't respond
to the previous invitation by the due date.
External modular questionnaires • A category or supplier manager reinvites the supplier to fill
out the questionnaire because the supplier didn't respond
to the previous invitation by the due date.
• If the questionnaire allows updates, either the new ques-
tionnaire or a questionnaire update is approved.
Once a registration questionnaire or a modular questionnaire that allows updates has reopened, the supplier can
edit and resubmit it until it closes again. The questionnaire's configuration determines whether it remains reopened
indefinitely or closes again after a specific amount of time.
Questionnaires in registration and modular questionnaire projects include a Keep questionnaire reopened
indefinitely setting. If you specify Yes for this setting, every time the external questionnaire reopens, it remains
reopened indefinitely.
If the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely setting is set to No, the amount of time a questionnaire remains
reopened is determined by the self-service parameter Reopen period for supplier questionnaires [page 785]
(Application.AQS.RFX.ReopenIfClosedInterval). The default amount of time is 365 days, but your site
can use a different number of days. If the setting for the parameter is 0, the amount of time a reopened
questionnaire remains open is determined by the template survey document Due date setting instead. In this
case, make sure that the due date you set for the questionnaire anticipates not just the expected response
time for a new questionnaire but its expected update cycle. If the Keep questionnaire reopened indefinitely
setting is set to Yes, the questionnaire ignores the Reopen period for supplier questionnaires [page 785]
(Application.AQS.RFX.ReopenIfClosedInterval) parameter and remains reopened indefinitely.
For modular questionnaires, if Always open is set to Yes and you've enabled reminders, after the new questionnaire
is approved and it reopens for updates, the Due date setting determines when its reminder schedule resets. For
example, if you set a due date of 180 days, after the questionnaire reopens, it generates reminders relative to that
due date. If the recipient submits an update on day 50, the reminder schedule resets to 180 days. If the recipient
doesn't update the questionnaire by the due date, the reminder schedule resets to 180 days on the due date, but
the questionnaire remains open.
After a questionnaire has closed, it can only be reopened in one of the following ways:
• If the questionnaire is new and it has closed before the supplier responded to it for the first time, reinviting the
supplier to the registration or modular questionnaire reopens it.
• If the questionnaire has closed after reopening for updates, a project owner who also has permission to work in
the project advanced view must manually monitor and reopen the questionnaire.
To see the advanced view of a supplier management project, your site must be configured to show Advanced View
link for that project type.
Modular questionnaires can expire, but questionnaire expiration is a status change that indicates the current
validity of the questionnaire content. It's not related to whether or not the questionnaire is open or the
questionnaire due date. An expiring or expired questionnaire that is set to always open only closes if the supplier
doesn't update it before it due date. Otherwise, it remains open until the supplier submits an update.
Questionnaire respondents can add attachments to a supplier management questionnaire as a response to any of
the following questions:
In the first two cases, the attachment is a direct answer to the question. In the third case, the attachment is an
optional addition to the response and can be added with or without a comment.
When a supplier fills out an external questionnaire on SAP Business Network, the maximum allowable file size for
the attachment is determined by the configuration parameter Application.AQS.FileUploadMaxSize, which
has a default value of 100 MB. SAP Ariba Support sets this parameter in your site. This rule applies to both answers
to Attachment questions and attachments added with answers to other types of questions.
When an internal user provides a response in the buyer view of the questionnaire in your site, the maximum
allowable file size for the attachment is:
• 10 MB for questions with answer types of Attachment. There's also a limit of one file per attachment answer.
• 10 MB for additional attachments added to responses to questions of other answer types except for
Certificate, with a total limit of 25 MB for all attachments added to a single question. The following other
limits also apply:
• A maximum of five comments per question.
• A maximum of five attachments per comment.
For questions with an answer type of Certificate in both internal and external questionnaires, there's a limit of one
file for the certificate attachment, but no limit to its file size.
Note
These maximum file sizes are determined by where the questionnaire is edited, rather than whether the
questionnaire type is set to External or Internal in the template survey document. This distinction is important
for external registration questionnaires. The maximum file size a supplier can attach when editing an external
registration questionnaire on SAP Business Network during an external registration is determined by the
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, to edit an
existing survey document or create a new one.
Context
This topic describes the general procedure for creating a supplier form or questionnaire. There are more specific
topics that provide information about how to set up certain specialized supplier forms and questionnaires. Refer to:
• For qualifications using supplier qualification projects, Prequalification Questionnaire Setup [page 316], Setting
Up a Targeted Supplier Qualification Questionnaire [page 379] and Creating a Targeted Supplier Qualification
Questionnaire Segment [page 381].
• For modular questionnaires in general, Setting up Modular Questionnaires with Optional Internal Forms [page
341].
• In SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance sites where the flexible process framework feature
(SM-16798) is enabled, Creating the Process Intake Form [page 297] and Setting Up Modular Questionnaire for
Use in Process Projects [page 303].
• For modular questionnaires used as engagement risk assessments in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, About Modular
Supplier Management Questionnaires in Control-Based Engagement Risk Assessment Projects.
• For other questionnaires used in control-based engagement risk assessment projects in SAP Ariba Supplier
Risk, Considerations for Setting Up the Business Details Questionnaire in the Engagement Request,
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, definitions, participants,
and so forth) that aren't relevant to supplier management projects. These settings are ignored in supplier
management projects. Certain settings on its Rules page and the content on its Content page are used in
supplier management projects.
Depending on the project type for the form or questionnaire, you can use the following settings on the Rules page
of template survey documents:
Timing Rules Due date All external questionnaires Determines how much time
a supplier has to fill out and
Internal modular question- submit the form or question-
naires used in process naire before it closes. See
projects Supplier Form or Question-
naire Closing, Reopening, and
Due Dates [page 372] for
more information.
Reminder for the Due date Supplier registration Generates reminders to sup-
setting
pliers who haven't yet submit-
ted the questionnaire at the
times you specify relative to
the due date.
Supplier Management Specify questionnaire format All Specifies whether the survey
document is a form of ques-
tionnaire. Questionnaires are
numbered in the supplier view,
while forms are unnumbered.
Neither are numbered in the
buyer view regardless of this
setting.
Questionnaires in qualification
projects have a third option,
Qualification Request, which
specifies that the question-
naire is used to start supplier
qualifications.
Always open and Can expire? Modular questionnaire Refer to Setting up Modular
Questionnaires with Optional
Internal Forms [page 341].
Reuse and Always request Modular questionnaire (for Refer to Setting Up Modular
updates when used in a Questionnaire for Use in Proc-
questionnaires used in proc-
process ess Projects [page 303]
ess projects only)
Message Board Sender name used for the Supplier registration Specifies a default custom
'From' and 'Reply To' fields in sender name to use in the
emails to participants "From" and "Reply To" fields
in questionnaire-specific noti-
fications for external registra-
tion questionnaires. This set-
ting is only available if the
self-service configuration pa-
rameter Enable configurable
default sender for supplier
invitations is enabled in your
site.
Procedure
In supplier management projects, this setting specifies that the amount of time the respondent has to fill
out the form or questionnaire is counted starting when the project is created. Don't schedule the survey for
the future. Supplier management forms and questionnaires aren't designed to work with that setting.
b. For Due Date, choose Duration and specify a duration in days, such as 30 days.
The countdown to the due date starts when the invitation to the recipient is generated. For details about
the due date setting, see Supplier Form or Questionnaire Closing, Reopening, and Due Dates [page 372].
c. Specify Delegated where that option is offered.
7. In the Supplier Management area, perform the following actions:
• For Specify questionnaire format, choose Form to create a form or Questionnaire to create a simple
questionnaire.
• For Specify questionnaire type, choose Internal if people in your organization fill out the form or
questionnaire, or External if external people such as supplier contacts fill it out. For internal registration
questionnaires, choose Supplier Profile instead of Internal if you don't want approval or denial of the
internal questionnaire to affect the supplier's registration status.
• Set other supplier management rules based on the type of project in which you're creating the
questionnaire and its desired behavior, based on available options.
8. Choose Content.
9. Add content to the form or questionnaire. [page 385]
10. Click Summary.
Results
Once you publish the new version of the template, the form or questionnaire is available to users.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
edit its survey document.
Context
An empty survey document and content documents are used to create the external qualification questionnaire in
supplier qualification projects. If the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled in your site, you use
modular questionnaires instead. For more information, refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation
Process Project Setup [page 276].
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, definitions, participants,
and so forth) that aren't relevant to supplier management processes. These settings are ignored in supplier
management projects. Only the timing rule and supplier management settings on the survey's Overview page
and the content on its Content page are used in supplier management projects.
Timing rules for template survey documents are used in supplier-facing forms and questionnaires; they're ignored
in internal surveys. Timing rules determine how much time a supplier has to fill out and submit the form or
questionnaire. They survey is automatically closed once the supplier submits it.
Procedure
This setting means that the countdown to the due date starts when an internal user starts a qualification
and sends the qualification questionnaire to the supplier.
b. For Due Date, choose Duration and specify a duration in days, such as 30 days.
For more information on how timing rules affect how long a supplier has to answer an external
questionnaire before it closes, refer to Supplier Form or Questionnaire Closing, Reopening, and Due Dates
[page 372].
c. Specify Delegated where that option is offered.
Don't schedule the survey for the future or set a fixed duration. Supplier management forms and
questionnaires aren't designed to work with those settings.
7. In the Supplier Management area, perform the following actions:
The qualification questionnaire framework is now ready. The next step is to add content to it by creating
questionnaire segments [page 381].
Note
Don't publish the survey. Once you publish the new version of the template, your changes become active.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, in order to
create questionnaire segments.
If you plan to target questionnaire segments by department, the business unit supplier management matrix
enhancement feature must be enabled in your site, and you must set up a prequalification questionnaire [page
317] with a mapped department question. The default application page that category or suppliers use to start a
qualification doesn't include a department setting. The prequalification questionnaire replaces that page and allows
category or supplier managers to specify a department for the qualification as well as the commodity and region.
Context
Content documents are used as targeted segments in the external qualification questionnaire in supplier
qualification projects. If the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled in your site, you use modular
questionnaires instead. For more information, refer to Qualification, Miscellaneous, and Discontinuation Process
Project Setup [page 276].
Commodities, regions, and departments are hierarchical, ranging from high-level (general) to low-level (specific)
values in a hierarchy tree. A questionnaire segment is included in the questionnaire for qualifications at its
targeted level and also at any levels above or below it in its branch of the hierarchy. For example, if you create
a questionnaire segment targeted to the state of California in the United States, it’s included in qualifications where
the qualification manager selects a location within California as the region (lower in that branch of the region
hierarchy), or where the qualification manager selects the United States, North America, or all regions (higher up
that branch of the region hierarchy). However, it's not included in qualifications where the qualification manager
selects a different state such as Texas as the region (a different, parallel branch of the region hierarchy at the state
level).
To include a questionnaire segment in all possible qualifications that include a specific commodity, region, or
department, including any subdivisions of that commodity, region, or department, target it to that commodity,
region, or department. To include a questionnaire segment in all qualifications for all suppliers, choose All for
commodity, region, and department.
Note
If you edit content documents in your supplier qualification template and publish the changes, the sequence of
the content documents in future questionnaires isn't guaranteed.
Procedure
If the commodity, region, or department you want to specify doesn't appear on the menu, choose select more,
select a value, and choose Done. If you want to send the questionnaire segment to all suppliers, choose All
9. (Optional) To add more commodities, regions, or departments, choose add more to the right of the dropdown
menus and repeat the previous step.
10. Choose Create.
11. Add content to the questionnaire segment. [page 385]
12. Choose Done.
Prerequisites
You must be working with a new version of the template, so that the template itself is open for editing, to edit its
survey document.
Context
In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, qualification processes use internal
modular questionnaire projects to collect information from internal stakeholders. For details, refer to Setting Up
Modular Questionnaire for Use in Process Projects [page 303].
Internal questionnaires in supplier registration projects show in the Registrations detail area of the supplier profile.
In solutions that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, internal questionnaires in qualification
projects show in the details for individual qualifications, which you can view from the summary table in the
Qualifications detail area.
Note
Template survey documents contain a number of settings (supplier eligibility criteria, timing rules, definitions,
participants, and so forth) that aren't relevant to internal surveys. These settings are ignored in internal
surveys. Only the supplier management settings on the survey's Overview page and the content on its Content
page are used in internal surveys.
Procedure
• For Specify questionnaire format, choose Form to create an unnumbered form or Questionnaire to
create a numbered questionnaire.
• For Specify questionnaire type, choose Internal.
10. Choose Content.
11. Add content to the questionnaire. [page 385]
12. Choose Summary.
13. Choose Exit, then click Save and then exit
Results
Once you publish the new version of the template, the internal questionnaire is available to users.
Next Steps
To create an approval flow for the internal questionnaire, add one or more approval tasks to the survey document.
In some cases, a To Do task on the survey document is required to make it a required part of the project workflow or
to specify when it's submitted. For details, refer to Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the
Supplier Registration Project Template [page 246] or Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up
the Supplier Qualification Project Template [page 313].
Related Information
Adding Translations for Some Form and Questionnaire Content Fields [page 464]
A section is a container in which you organize other content, such as questions, requirements, or attachment. You
can nest sections within other sections.
Context
Sections are automatically numbered in their order of appearance, and the content inside them is numbered based
on the parent section number. For example, a section in a questionnaire segment can be numbered 1, and the 3
questions inside it numbered 1.1, 1.2. and 1.3.
Refer to the following topics for details about specialized types of sections:
• Repeatable sections: see Adding a Repeatable Section to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 386].
Repeatable sections are available only if your site has an active subscription to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture).
• Certificate sections: see Adding a Certificate Section with Customizable Certificate Fields [page 391].
If your solution includes SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and you manage supplier qualifications
using supplier qualification projects, top-level sections in questionnaire segments are useful for organizing content
in the final qualification questionnaire, which is assembled from multiple segments. If you nest all of the content
of a questionnaire segment inside a section, it's displayed and numbered together in the final assembled
questionnaire. If you don't, but the content of a previous questionnaire segment is nested in a top-level section,
the content of the current segment is added to and numbered with the previous segment's content in the final
questionnaire.
If you apply a condition to a section, that condition applies to all of the content in the section. Sections are therefore
useful if you have a series of questions that you want to show or hide based on the answers to other questions.
Related Information
A repeatable section is a container in which you organize other content. The questionnaire includes an instance of
the repeatable section and its content. Respondents can add as many repetitions as they need to provide multiple
sets of answers. It's useful for collecting bank account, tax, and other information for which there can be multiple
answers.
Prerequisites
To edit a supplier management template or its contents, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
For modular questionnaire projects, you must also be a member of the SM Modular Questionnaire Manager
group. For process projects, you must also be a member of the SM Process Manager group.
To edit a supplier management template or its contents, the template must be in Draft.
Adding and editing repeatable sections in internal questionnaires, including external questionnaires
in internal registrations, is disabled by default. If not already enabled in your site, a customer
administrator can enable this feature by enabling the self-service configuration parameters Enable
repeatable sections in internal questionnaires [page 776] in Intelligent Configuration Manager
Context
Note
• When setting up repeatable sections, where recipients edit the questionnaire is especially significant.
Repeatable sections behave differently, and have different requirements and restrictions, depending on
whether the questionnaire is supplier facing (edited by suppliers on SAP Business Network) or buyer-facing
(edited by internal users in your site). For most questionnaires, the Questionnaire type setting in the
template survey document, which specifies whether the questionnaire is internal or external, reflects where
the questionnaire is edited. However, the following exceptions apply:
• Since suppliers access the external supplier request in your site rather than through SAP Business
Network, it functions like an internal questionnaire.
• If your site uses internal registrations, internal recipients fill out external questionnaires in your site,
where they also function like internal questionnaires.
Repeatable section behaviors and restrictions that apply to internal questionnaires also apply to
external supplier requests and external registration questionnaires edited by internal recipients during
internal registrations.
• As a best practice, SAP Ariba recommends managing company code and purchasing organization
information directly in the integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system. Setting or
maintaining this data in SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based
on your specific requirements.
Repeatable sections are useful for collecting any type of information that involves a set of questions and for which
respondents typically have unknown multiple numbers of answers, such as supplier bank and tax details. For
example, if you add a question about supplier bank accounts in a repeatable section, the questionnaire recipient
can add repetitions for each supplier bank account.
You can nest repeatable sections in other repeatable sections to capture sets of information in a hierarchical
structure, up to a maximum of three layers.
In template survey and content documents, you use two pieces of content to create a repeatable section: a
repeatable section parent and the repeatable section itself. These pieces of content are always paired together,
with the repeatable section parent serving as an otherwise empty container for the repeatable section and its
content. You can only add a repeatable section inside a repeatable section parent, and you can only add content
such as questions in the repeatable section.
The repeatable section parent defines the overall section, and its name provides the section heading. Inside the
repeatable section parent, the repeatable section contains the questions and other content that repeats. The name
you give it defines the repeating unit. Both parent and section names appear in various user interface controls that
both suppliers and people in your organization use to view, add, or edit repeatable sections. Keep this usage in
mind when naming both the parent and the section in the template:
Repeatable section parent name; for example, Bank In the supplier view on SAP Business Network:
Accounts • In links for adding or editing repetitions of the section. For
example, Add Bank Accounts (1).
• As the title of the page for editing section content such as
questions, and for adding or removing section instances.
Repeatable section name; for example, Bank Account In the supplier view on SAP Business Network:
Keep in mind the following considerations for different questionnaire types when creating repeatable sections:
Nested repeatable sections You can nest repeatable sections in other repeatable sections to a maximum of three
layers. Fourth and lower layers don't show in the buyer view of questionnaires.
Rearranging content within a repeatable Dragging and dropping to rearrange the order of content in a repeatable section isn't
section supported in ay repeatable section. Plan the order of the content you want to add to
a repeatable section in advance. If you do need to rearrange content in a repeatable
section, you must delete it and readd it in the desired order.
Combining repeatable sections with You can add a repeatable section to a static section to group the repeatable content
static sections with other content in the section. Adding static sections inside repeatable sections
isn't supported regardless of where the questionnaire is edited.
Visibility and editability conditions In external questionnaires, use of visibil- In internal questionnaires, use of visibil-
ity and editability conditions with repeat- ity and editability conditions with repeat-
able sections and their content is only able sections and their content isn't sup-
supported in the following circumstan- ported.
ces:
Repeatable sections support both Tax and Bank Account questions regardless of
where the questionnaire is edited. However, as a best practice:
• Don't combine both Tax and Bank Account questions in a single repeatable
section. Add them in separate, top-level repeatable sections. Don't nest repeat-
able sections that contain Tax or Bank Account questions within other repeata-
ble sections.
• Don't include more than one "complex" answer type, such as Bank Account and
Extended Address, in a single repeatable section.
Comments and attachments Adding comments and attachments to Adding comments and attachments to
answers in repeatable sections is sup- answers in repeatable sections isn't sup-
ported in external questionnaires. ported in internal questionnaires.
Analytical reporting Questions and answers in repeatable sections aren't available in analytical reports
regardless of where the questionnaire is edited.
Note
Procedure
1. Open the supplier management template for editing. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Add or edit the template survey or content document to which you want to add the repeatable section.
3. At the bottom of the content table, choose Add Repeatable Section Parent .
4. Enter a title for the repeatable section parent.
5. (Optional) To apply a visibility or editability condition to the entire repeatable section, choose none and choose
an existing condition or create a new condition.
6. Click OK.
7. In the content table, click the repeatable section parent you created and choose Repeatable Section.
8. Enter a title for the repeatable section.
Note
Mapping repeatable sections to vendor database fields requires a specialized mapping syntax, and you can
only map repeatable sections to array fields, which support storing multiple answers in the same field.
Refer to Field Mapping for Repeatable Sections [page 427] for details.
11. When you're finished making your changes, publish the new version of the template.
Related Information
Prerequisites
Context
Certificate sections are supported only modular questionnaires and aren't supported in any other types of supplier
management questionnaires. You can create one or more certificate sections in a modular questionnaire. A
certificate section can be created in a normal section, or you can create a normal section in a certificate section.
You can customize the standard certificate fields and add more fields to a certificate section.
Only the standard fields in certificate sections show in the Certificates detail area of the supplier profile.
Additional custom questions that you add don't show there. You can see custom questions and answers in a
certificate section by opening the source questionnaire from the Certificates detail area.
• If the modular questionnaire project in which you want to collect certificate information allows internal forms,
add certificate sections only in the key questionnaire. In a modular questionnaire project template that allows
internal forms, the key questionnaire is the survey document with a questionnaire format of Questionnaire.
The key questionnaire is the only questionnaire in the project that supports certificate management. Internal
forms don't support certificate management features, so don't add certificate sections to them.
• The certificate type must be specified in the certificate section or added as a question within the certificate
section. If the certificate type is defined at the header level, mention the certificate type in the description of
the certificate section. During the initial certificate section creation, if a certificate type is defined at the header
level, the certificate type question isn't added in the section by default. When you edit the section and add a
certificate type at the section header, the existing certificate type-mapped question isn't removed.
• Make sure that the questions you create within the certificate section don't ask for sensitive personal
information as defined in the SAP Ariba Privacy Statement .
• SAP Ariba recommends that you don't nest certificate sections inside other certificate sections.
• You can't add a certificate question within a certificate section.
• You can't add a certificate section in a repeatable section.
Procedure
1. Open a modular questionnaire template for editing. If it isn't in Draft, create a new version.
2. On the Documents tab, click the document name, and choose Action Edit . Then, go to the Content tab.
3. Click Add in the lower left corner and choose Certificate Section.
On the displayed page, Certificate Section - is prefilled as a prefix in the Name field, and Enter certificate-
related information in this section is automatically populated in the Description field. You can edit these
fields as required.
4. Optional: Customize the certificate section name and description.
Note
The certificate section name can't contain the following special characters:
• Bracket ([ or ])
• Colon (:)
• Slash (/)
• Backslash (\)
• Question mark (?)
• Asterisk (*)
The following table lists the fields and their predefined values for Answer Type and Supplier field mapping:
Issuer certificate.issuer
Issuer ID certificate.issuerId
6. Customize the standard certificate fields as needed. For example, they're optional by default, but you can make
any of them required. You can also add initial answers or lists of choices and apply visibility conditions.
Note
• SAP Ariba recommends that you don't change the default field mappings or answer types. Changing
them doesn't generate error messages, but in some cases answers provided by respondents don't
show in the supplier's profile.
• The field names are bound with the mappings, so it's recommended you don't to change field names.
• If you delete any of the fields, the field name with an empty value is displayed in the Certificates detail
area of the supplier profile.
Tip
Text and date questions in certificate sections are available in analytical reports. However, since the
certificate name is in the section header, it isn't available in reports. Adding a text question for the
certificate name in the certificate section makes the name available in analytical reports as well. Certificate
type is also not available in analytical reports if it's at the header level, but is available if it's a text question
in the section.
These topics describe how to collect supplier information using questions in supplier forms and questionnaires.
Question Answer Types for Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 402]
Automatic Field Restrictions for Questions in Supplier Management Questionnaires [page 405]
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
Adding a Question About Integrated Master Data to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 410]
Address or Extended Address Questions for Collecting Supplier Address Information [page 412]
Bank Account Questions for Collecting Supplier Bank Information [page 414]
Code Delimiters for Associating Descriptive Questionnaire Answers with ERP or Other Codes [page 424]
A question is a content item that asks the respondent to provide some type of information. The answer type you
specify for a question determines the type of information and the format of the response.
Context
The Add Question page includes a number of settings (include in cost, access control, participant-specific initial
values, and so on) that aren't relevant to supplier management. These settings are ignored in supplier management
projects. Only the settings discussed in the following steps are used in supplier management projects. If you're
creating a Text (single line limited) or Text (single line) answer type question, you can optionally use the Apply
field restrictions button to have the system suggest a field validation pattern and maximum length based on the
default SAP ERP business partner configurations of the mapped field. The Apply field restrictions button isn't
available in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk engagement risk assessment and issue management projects.
• Answers for questions with the Whole Number answer type have a maximum value of 2147483647, making
it suitable for amounts but not for questions that have numerical answers that can exceed the maximum,
such as phone numbers. For questions with large numerical answers that aren't amounts, use Text (single
line limited) instead.
• Individual questions have KI ID numbers, which are unique identifiers, and the supplier responses that
duplicate checks match against are linked to KI IDs. Duplicate checks match question responses against
recorded supplier responses that are associated with that question's KI ID. As a result, if you delete and
re-create a question, duplicate check doesn't match responses to the re-created question against stored
response data from the deleted question.
Note
• Make sure that the questions you create in supplier-facing questionnaires don't collect sensitive personal
information as defined in the Data clause in the SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass Supplemental Terms
and Conditions . SAP Ariba doesn't support collecting sensitive personal information for individuals,
including tax information (including tax IDs such as social security numbers) and bank information, in
supplier management questionnaires.
• SAP Ariba doesn't support URL hyperlinks in the questionnaire content.
Procedure
• Select Add Question at the bottom of the content table to add the question to the end of the form
or questionnaire.
• Select the section to which you want to add the question and select Add Question at the bottom of
the content table.
• Click a section to add the question inside or after it and select Add Question from the pull-down
menu.
2. If you selected a location for the new question, select Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
3. Choose an answer type from the Answer Type dropdown menu. The answer type you choose determines the
other settings you can specify for the question.
4. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
5. (Optional) For answer types that allow acceptable values, on the Acceptable Values dropdown menu, perform
one of the following actions:
• To allow respondents to enter any value in the answer field, choose Any Value.
• For questions with answer type Text (single line limited) only, to force respondents to choose a value from
the master data loaded in your site, choose Master Data Value. At the bottom of the Add Question page,
choose a master data type from the Type of master data for answer dropdown menu.
Use of Locale, User, Group, and Supplier Preferred Level master data for acceptable answers is only
supported in internal forms and questionnaires. Use of integrated CompanyCode, Incoterms, and
PaymentTerms master data for acceptable answers is only supported in the supplier request and
internal supplier registration questionnaires.
• To force respondents to choose from a set of answers you predefine, select List of Choices. The default list
of choices is a dropdown menu where respondents select 1 value from the list. At the bottom of the Add
Question page, specify the following properties for your list of choices:
Allow participants to select multiple values? If you select Yes, the list of choices is a set of check boxes instead
of a pull-down menu, and respondents can select multiple values
to answer the question. If you allow multiple answers to a question,
you can't add it to reports.
Enter values and click Add to add choices to the list. Select a value
from the list and click Set Default to make it the default choice.
• For answer types that allow number ranges, to limit answers to a specific range of numbers, select Limited
Range. At the bottom of the Add Question page, add from and to values to define the range. For date
questions, select a relative range such as Last Week or This Year from the Range menu, or select Custom
and specify a fixed from and to date to define the range.
6. For decimal number, money, or percentage answer types, enter the number of decimal places; the default
number is 2.
7. Specify the following settings for the question; available settings depend on the answer type you selected:
Response Required? Specifies whether or not you want to require various respondents to answer the
question. Options are:
• Not Required
• Yes, Participant Required: in external-facing questionnaires, the supplier
must answer the question. In internal-facing questionnaires, the internal
recipient must answer the question.
• Yes, Owner Required: Don't use this setting. In supplier management
projects, all internal and external recipients who complete questionnaires
act as participants. There's no way to satisfy an owner requirement, and
using this setting causes recipients to be unable to submit the form or
questionnaire.
Tooltip Specifies a message to show in a popup that users open by clicking an infor-
mation icon next to the question. If you specify a tooltip, you can use the
Translations link to provide translations for it in languages other than your site's
primary language.
Note
The Tooltip field is available in supplier management questionnaires (re-
quest, registration, qualification, disqualification, preferred, and modular
questionnaires) and in engagement request questionnaires in the supplier
engagement risk assessment project.
Reference documents Click Attach a file to attach a reference file to the question; you can either upload
the file from your local computer or select it from your site’s library content. You
can only attach library content to which you have access.
Mask Attachments Specifies whether or not you want to mask attachments so that only the users
with the appropriate permissions can view or download them.
Note
The attachment masking setting isn't supported in supplier engagement risk
assessment and issue management projects.
Sensitive Data Mask Pattern If you want to mask the answer so that only users with the appropriate permis-
sions can view it, you can specify a masking pattern to mask all or part of the
answer.
Note
The data mask pattern setting isn't supported in supplier engagement risk
assessment and issue management projects.
Code Delimiters Specifies the characters that enclose the codes you associate with descriptive
answers in a list of choices. If you specify code delimiters, and then create a
list of choices that includes codes enclosed by those delimiters, that enclosed
information is the only part of the answer stored in a mapped database field.
Note
The code delimiters setting isn't supported in supplier engagement risk as-
sessment and issue management projects.
Visible to Participants Specifies whether or not suppliers can see the question in external question-
naires. This setting is ignored in internal questionnaires and in external question-
naires that buyer users edit in the buyer user interface, where all questions are
visible.
Participants can add additional Specifies whether or not respondents can add additional attachments and com-
comments and attachments ments to the question using an icon that opens an extra comment field and
attachment link.
Note
• Attachments in supplier management questionnaires can't include em-
bedded documents.
• Internal questionnaire recipients can't add comments or attachments to
questions in repeatable sections.
Max length Specifies the maximum character length for text questions. The length you spec-
ify must be shorter than the absolute maximum length of the question (255 for
Text (single line limited), 4000 for Text (single line), and unlimited for Text
(multiple lines) answers. Answers can't exceed the absolute maximum length for
an answer type regardless of the setting you apply in this field.
If you're mapping a question to a supplier database field and the question has
a Text (single line limited) or Text (single line) answer type, you can use the
optional Apply field restrictions button to automatically generate a suggested
maximum length. The Max Length setting helps to make sure that the answer
doesn't exceed the maximum length of that field. For mapped questions, the
length of the database field is the ultimate determiner of the stored answer
length.
Note
The maximum length setting isn't supported in supplier engagement risk
assessment and issue management projects.
Supplier field mapping If you want to map the question to a supplier database field, enter the field name.
You can also use project and matrix mappings in this field.
The optional Apply field restrictions button can help validate your supplier field
mapping entry. If it doesn't recognize a supplier field mapping, it suggests alter-
native field mappings. The feature can also suggest a Max length and Validation
pattern based on the supplier field mapping.
Note
Supplier engagement risk assessment and issue management projects don't
support mapping to supplier database fields. They support a specific set of
project and matrix mappings only. See the topics about setting up those
templates for details.
Search term If you want to turn the question into a filter for supplier searches, enter the filter
name.
Note
• You can only turn some answer types into search filters, and keep in
mind best practices for constructing effective search filters. Turning
questions into search filters isn't supported in supplier risk engage-
ments
• Search terms aren't supported in supplier engagement risk assessment
and issue management projects.
.
Validation Pattern and Validation If you want to specify that the answer must be provided in a specific format,
Pattern Error Message enter a regular expression to define that format. You can also enter an optional
custom error message that recipients see when they try to submit an answer
that doesn't fit the pattern.
If you're mapping a question to a supplier database field and the question has
a Text (single line limited) or Text (single line) answer type, you can use the
optional Apply field restrictions button to automatically generate a suggested
validation pattern.
Note
• Validation patterns aren't supported in supplier engagement risk as-
sessment and issue management projects.
• Note
Questions can't include both a validation pattern and an SAP Busi-
ness Network field mapping, since there's no way to apply the val-
idation pattern to a question answer synchronized from an SAP
Business Network profile field. Template validation prevents publi-
cation of any templates that include a question with both a valida-
tion pattern and an SAP Business Network field mapping.
Enable duplicate check Specifies whether or not the answer is used to identify duplicate suppliers during
the supplier request process. In both internal and external supplier requests,
questions mapped to name, street address, city, state, country/region, postal
code, and D-U-N-S Number fields are automatically used in duplicate check.
This setting allows you to specify additional questions to use in duplicate check.
This field is only available for Text (single line limited) questions in internal
and external supplier requests in sites with the custom duplicate check feature
enabled.
Tip
Only enable this setting for questions that are likely to yield unique answers
for each supplier. SAP Ariba recommends that you enable this setting for no
more than 5 questions total in an internal or external supplier request. Overly
broad duplicate checks result in a higher number of false positives.
Visibility Conditions Specifies the conditions under which suppliers and internal users at your com-
pany see the question. Click none and select an existing condition, or select
Create Condition to create a new condition. For details, see Visibility Conditions
for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469].
8. (Optional) To communicate your expectations of how you want respondents to answer the question, provide an
initial value by performing one of the following actions:
• For yes/no questions, select Yes or No as a default value, or select Unspecified if you don't want to provide
a default value.
Note
Setting initial values for questions that are hidden by default using visibility conditions isn't supported.
When the condition is met and the question shows, it doesn't include the initial value. If you're using the
initial value to set a default answer to a question, you can either:
• Set Visible to Participants to No instead of using visibility conditions, if you want to prepopulate the
answer with a fixed value and the recipient doesn't need to edit it. Submitting the questionnaire sets
the answer to the initial value in the hidden question.
• Make the question visible by default.
9. Click Done.
Related Information
Question Answer Types for Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 402]
Question Field Mapping [page 425]
Questions as Search Filters [page 421]
Automatic Validation of Question Answers [page 424]
Conditional Approval Flows Based on Questionnaire Answers [page 504]
Sensitive Data Masking in Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 467]
Code Delimiters for Associating Descriptive Questionnaire Answers with ERP or Other Codes [page 424]
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
Adding a Section to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 385]
Adding a Repeatable Section to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 386]
Adding an Attachment to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 466]
Adding a Requirement to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 463]
Field Mappings for SAP Business Network Supplier Profile Fields [page 449]
Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate Checks [page 237]
Automatic Field Restrictions for Questions in Supplier Management Questionnaires [page 405]
Adding a Question About Integrated Master Data to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 410]
Comments and Attachments in Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 374]
For each question you add to a supplier form or questionnaire, you specify an answer type that defines the type of
data you want in that field.
Text (single line limited) The answer field accepts a single line of text (numerical and
alphabetic characters) with no character returns and a maxi-
mum of 255 characters.
This answer type is the only one for which you can set master
data values as an acceptable answer.
Text (single line) The answer field accepts a single line of text (numerical and
alphabetic characters) with no character returns and a maxi-
mum of 4000 characters.
Note
When questionnaire recipients in different locales answer
Text (single line) questions, those answers are stored in
different, locale-specific database fields and treated as lo-
cale-specific values. If a recipient in locale A submits the
questionnaire and then a recipient in locale B updates it,
the updated answers in locale B are not treated as updates
to the answers in locale A in questionnaire version compar-
ison, and don't show to users viewing the questionnaire
in locales other than B. This behavior is not an issue for
questionnaires that are only submitted once, but can be
an issue in questionnaires that support updates. With the
Text (single line limited) answer type, answers are stored
in the same, locale-independent database field and treated
as comparable values regardless of the locale in which
they are provided. SAP Ariba therefore recommends using
Text (single line limited) rather than Text (single line) for
questions in questionnaires that allow updates.
Text (multiple lines) The answer field initially shows six lines of text and can be
expanded indefinitely with a vertical scroll bar and no character
limit.
Whole Number A whole number. For example, 20. Answers have a maximum
value of 2147483647. For questions with large numerical an-
swers that are not amounts, such as phone numbers or IDs,
use Text (single line limited) instead.
Decimal Number A decimal number. For example, 19.5. The default number of
decimal places is 2
Yes/No The answer field is a dropdown menu with Yes and No menu
items.
Note
• Use the certificate sections [page 391] or the
Certificate answer type [page 406] to ask for supplier
certificates.
• Attachments to answers in questionnaires edited by
internal users have a maximum file size of 10 MB. This
limit applies to both internal questionnaires, such as
the internal supplier request, and external question-
naires edited by internal users, such as external reg-
istration questionnaires edited by internal recipients
during internal registrations.
Certificate The answer field is a dropdown menu with Yes and No menu
items. Selecting Yes displays a Details link that allows re-
spondents to enter certificate information such as issuer, num-
ber, location, type, and effective and expiration dates, and to
upload a certificate file as an attachment. For more details, re-
fer to Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire
for Certificate Management [page 406].
Note
• SAP Ariba doesn't validate the details in certificate
answers (effective date, expiration date, and so on)
against associated certificate attachments.
• Certificate management features for Certificate
questions are only supported in modular question-
naire projects. Certificate questions only include ex-
piration settings modular questionnaire project tem-
plates. In modular questionnaire projects that include
internal forms, certificate management features are
only supported in the key questionnaire (the template
survey document with a format of Questionnaire).
They aren't supported in internal forms.
• Questions in certificate sections [page 391] are cus-
tomizable, and questions with supported answer
types, such as text and date questions, are availa-
ble in analytical reports on questionnaire responses.
Fields in Certificate questions aren't available in ana-
lytical reports.
Extended Address The answer is an extended set of address fields; the coun-
try/region fields use dropdown menus to allow users to select
from a list of available values. A limited number of fields, in-
cluding any fields with values, show by default in a Show Less
view. Users can click Show More to see the full set of fields.
Bank Account The answer field is a complete set of predefined bank account
fields. For details, refer to Bank Account Questions for Collect-
ing Supplier Bank Information [page 414].
Related Information
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
Adding a Question to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 394]
Default Fields and Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page 440]
Predefined Fields and Field Mappings in Bank Account Questions [page 447]
Country/Region-Specific Tax ID Field Data Import [page 96]
You can validate supplier field mappings and automatically add system-generated recommendations for validation
patterns and maximum field length when you're creating questions.
If the enhanced questionnaire configuration capabilities for increased ERP integration accuracy feature
(SM-12250) is enabled in your site, and the question has an answer type of Text (single line limited) or Text
(single line), you can use a tool to validate supplier field mappings and to generate recommendations for validation
patterns and maximum field length based on specified field mappings.
The Apply field restrictions option isn't available for questions with answer types other than Text (single line
limited) or Text (single line), or if an administrator in your organization has disabled it.
Related Information
One of the purposes of the modular questionnaire is to collect certificate information about suppliers. Questions of
answer type Certificate in modular questionnaire templates have special settings for certificate management.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator group to create modular supplier management questionnaire
templates.
Context
Questions of answer type Certificate in automatically include a set of predefined detail fields. Questionnaire
recipients see these fields when they choose a Yes answer for the question:
• Certificate Type, which you define in the question settings in the modular questionnaire template. Modular
questionnaire recipients can't edit this field.
Certificate Type is a search filter in supplier searches on the Supplier Management dashboard. When you
collect certificates in modular questionnaires, you specify a predefined Certificate Type for all answers to the
same Certificate question. In other types of supplier management projects, the Certificate Type field is a text
field and recipients can add any value to it, resulting in duplicate or confusing search filters.
• Issuer
Regardless of whether or not you make a Certificate question required, if a supplier answers Yes to the question,
they're required to provide answers in all of these fields except for Certificate Type. To make most certificate
fields in Certificate questions optional, a customer administrator in your organization can enable the self-service
configuration parameter Require only attachment and expiration date for supplier certificates [page 785]. When
this parameter is enabled, all Certificate question fields in external questionnaires are optional except for
Expiration Date and Attachment.
Tip
These fields are always included in every Certificate question and aren't customizable. You can customize
the fields your organization uses to collect supplier certificates by creating a certificate section [page 391]
instead. Certificate questions aren't available in analytical reports, but questions with supported answer types
in certificate sections, such as text and date questions, are.
A certificate answer inherits the commodity, region, and department of its modular supplier management
questionnaire.
You set the Certificate Type for each certificate question that you create. A customer administrator defines the
certificate types in your site through data import.
Questions of answer type Certificate in modular questionnaires are automatically mapped to the
vendor.certificate database field, and therefore don't include a Supplier Field Mapping setting. This mapping
ensures that certificates provided in answer to the question show in the Certificates detail area of the supplier
profile. This mapping is the only mapping that doesn't require the [$index] [page 427] syntax if the question is
in a repeatable section. Certificate questions in other types of supplier management projects aren't automatically
mapped, and you must manually map them to vendor.certificate.
The Add Question page includes a number of settings (access control, participant-specific initial values, and so on)
that aren't relevant to modular questionnaires. These settings are ignored in modular questionnaire projects. Only
the settings discussed in the following steps are used in modular questionnaire projects.
Note
• SAP Ariba doesn't validate the details in certificate answers (effective date, expiration date, and so on)
against associated certificate attachments.
• Attachments in supplier management questionnaires can't include embedded documents.
• If the modular questionnaire project in which you want to collect certificate information allows internal
forms, add Certificate questions only in the key questionnaire. In a modular questionnaire project template
that allows internal forms, the key questionnaire is the survey document with a questionnaire format of
Questionnaire. The key questionnaire is the only questionnaire in the project that supports certificate
management. Internal forms don't support certificate management features, so don't add Certificate
questions to them.
1. Open the supplier modular questionnaire template. If it's not in Draft, create a new version.
2. Choose the Documents tab.
• To add the question at the end of the questionnaire, choose Add Question .
• To add the question inside a section, select the section and choose Add Question in the content
table.
• To add a question inside or immediately after a section, select the section and choose Add
Question from the dropdown menu.
6. If you selected a location for the new question, choose Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
7. Choose Certificate from the Answer Type dropdown menu.
8. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
9. Specify the following settings for the question:
Response Required? Specifies whether or not you want to require the recipient to
answer the question. Options are:
• Not Required
• Yes, Participant Required: The recipient must answer
the question.
• Yes, Owner Required: Don't use this setting. In supplier
management projects, all internal and external ques-
tionnaire recipients are participants. There's no way to
satisfy an owner requirement, and using this setting
prevents recipients from submitting the questionnaire.
Note that for Certificate questions, even if you don't require
a response, if the supplier answers Yes, they must answer all
the detail questions.
Reference Documents Choose Attach a file to attach a reference file to the ques-
tion. You can either upload the file from your local computer
or select it from your site’s library content. You can only
attach library content that you have permission to access.
Visible to Participant Specifies whether or not recipients can see the question.
Only choose No if you're setting up a hidden question that
triggers a conditional approval.
Certificate Type Choose the applicable certificate type for the question.
Expiration schedule Specifies certain automatic actions that occur based on the
Expiration Date in the certificate answer. You can set the
following options:
• Specify the amount of time before the expiration date
when an automatic notification is sent to the supplier to
remind them to update their answer.
10. Optional: Provide an initial value as an example of how you want recipients to answer the question by choosing
Yes or No as a default value. If you choose Yes, you can choose Details and provide default certificate
information such as issuer.
Note
Setting initial values for questions that are hidden by default using visibility conditions isn't supported.
When the condition is met and the question shows, it doesn't include the initial value. If you're using the
initial value to set a default answer to a question, you can either:
• Set Visible to Participants to No instead of using visibility conditions, if you want to prepopulate the
answer with a fixed value and the recipient doesn't need to edit it. Submitting the questionnaire sets
the answer to the initial value in the hidden question.
• Make the question visible by default.
Related Information
You can create a master data question that asks respondents to choose from a list of answers that is automatically
populated by values from integrated master data such as company codes, purchasing organizations, payment
terms, and incoterms.
Prerequisites
Questions about integrated master data aren't supported in external questionnaires. They also aren't supported in
repeatable sections in internal questionnaires.
To create or edit questions in questionnaires in supplier management project templates, you must be a member of
the Template Creator group.
Your site must be configured for SAP material master data integration, and the material master data integration
must use the same business system ID for that integration must be the same business system ID that is specified
in the integration settings in SM Administration. You can only create an integrated master data question for a type
of master data that is loaded in your site. Currently supported types are company code, purchasing organization,
payment terms, and incoterms (the Purchase Org, Company Code, Payment Terms, and IncoTerms elements
in the integrated system). For details, refer to Topics About Managing SAP Material Master Data Integration.
Note
• As a best practice, SAP Ariba recommends managing company code and purchasing organization
information directly in the integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system. Setting or
maintaining this data in SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based
on your specific requirements.
• Questions about integrated master data currently aren't supported in integration landscapes that
consolidate master data from multiple ERP systems in SAP Master Data Governance (MDG).
Context
Integrated master data questions automatically populate answers with the current values from the integrated
master data. The answer dropdown menu shows the following master data fields:
Note
SAP Ariba automatically shows descriptions in the lan-
guage that matches a user's locale if available.
Some types of master data reference other master data. For example, purchase organization master data includes
a CompanyCodeUniqueName field to associate specific company codes with specific purchasing organizations. For
these types of master data, you can set up either of the following types of answer filters:
• Filters on specific related values: you can filter the list of available answers for a master data question so
that it only includes answers associated with a specific related master data value. For example, you can filter
a list of purchasing organization answers so that it only shows those values that are associated with a specific
company code.
• Filters based on answers to related master data questions: you can filter the list of available answers for a
master data question based on the answer to a related master data question. For example, you can filter a list
of purchasing organization answers so that it only shows those values that are associated with the company
code that the respondent selected as the answer to a previous question.
Procedure
• To add the question to the end of the form or questionnaire, choose Add Question at the bottom of
the content table.
• Select the section to which you want to add the question and choose Add Question at the bottom of
the content table.
• To add the question inside or after a section, click its name and choose Add Question .
2. If you selected a location for the new question, choose Add Inside to add the new question nested inside
section, or Add After to add it after the selected section on the same level.
3. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, choose Text (single line limited).
4. Enter the text for your question in the Name field.
5. On the Acceptable Values dropdown menu, choose Master Data Value.
6. On the Type of master data for answer dropdown menu, choose a type of integrated master data.
7. (Optional) To set up answer filters, perform the following actions:
a. For Filter list of answers?, choose Yes.
b. On the Filter column dropdown menu, choose the column in the master data file by which you want to
filter the list of answers.
c. In the Filter values field, either enter a static value or reference the answer to another question in the
questionnaire using the format ($answer.{QuestionNumber}).
8. Specify any other necessary settings for the question, including field mappings.
Related Information
Template survey documents in supplier management projects include Address and Extended Address question
answer types, which have special features that are designed specifically for collecting supplier address information.
By default, Address questions include basic address fields such as street, city, region, country/region, and postal
code. Extended Address questions include a larger set of fields such as house number, building, district, and PO
box that are useful for international and nonresidential addresses. Refer to Default Fields and Field Mappings in
Address Question Answer Types [page 440] for a complete list of fields and their database field mappings.
Collecting supplier addresses in an Extended Address question in the external registration questionnaire is an
integration best practice.
Note
For supplier request questionnaires that include Extended Address questions, respondents must provide an
answer in the Region field in order to submit the questionnaire.
The following table describes the functionality supported for each answer type:
Supports available field customizations, Minimal, with restrictions Yes, with restrictions
which SAP Ariba must configure for you
Enable additional street lines Shows the two additional Yes Yes
in supplier addresses street lines (Street 2 and
(Application.SM.Enabl Street 3) in the supplier view
eAdditionalStreetLin of external questionnaires on
es) SAP Business Network and in
project advanced view. Default
configurations include both
these fields, but they don't
show in these areas by default.
SAP Ariba supports customization of Address field labels and help text, which appears when users click the
information icon next to the field, for all fields except Street. However, these customizations only show in the
supplier view of external questionnaires on SAP Business Network. No customizations are supported in the buyer
view of internal or external questionnaires.
SAP Ariba supports the following customizations for Extended Address in both buyer and supplier views:
• Field labels and help text, which appears when users click the information icon next to the field.
• Which fields are included in Extended Address questions.
• Whether or not individual fields are required.
Restriction
Making any fields in Extended Address questions required prevents suppliers from saving any external
questionnaire that includes the question as a draft response. If an Extended Address question in the
questionnaire includes a required field, they must edit and submit the questionnaire in one step.
• Adding new fields to Extended Address questions. You can include or exclude the default fields, but you can't
add custom fields.
• Field length.
Related Information
Default Fields and Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page 440]
Adding a Question to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 394]
Question Answer Types for Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 402]
Enable additional street lines in supplier addresses [page 767]
Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73]
Prerequisites for Integrating Dun & Bradstreet with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 584]
Importing Custom Region Codes for Supplier Addresses [page 171]
Country/Region-Specific Postal Code Validation Data Import [page 112]
Enable additional street lines in supplier addresses [page 767]
Make Extended Address State/Province/Region Required Where Available [page 782]
Template survey documents in supplier management projects include a Bank Account question answer type,
which has special features that are designed specifically for collecting supplier bank information.
Bank Account questions include a set of predefined fields [page 447]. Using Bank Account questions in supplier
management questionnaires enables you to ask for bank details automatically without having to create a separate
question for each detail field.
Note
• Bank Account questions are designed for use in repeatable sections, and provide a way for recipients
to add any number of bank accounts to a questionnaire. You can't add a Bank Account question inside
a repeatable section and another Bank Account question outside of a repeatable section in the same
questionnaire. SAP Ariba recommends only adding Bank Account questions in repeatable sections.
The following configuration options control the behavior of certain fields in Bank Account questions:
Bank ID Bank ID is read-only, and SAP Ariba au- You can optionally define country/region-
tomatically generates bank IDs for sup- specific prefixes [page 99] to include in
pliers using sequential numerical values automatically generated bank IDs.
starting with 0000. Once SAP Ariba gen-
The following self-service parameters
erates a bank ID for a bank account,
control supplier bank ID generation:
its Country/Region field also becomes
read-only. • Define the length of supplier bank
IDs [page 765]
(Application.SM.BankIdSiz
e), which defines the maximum
length of automatically generated
bank IDs.
• Start automatically-generated sup-
plier bank IDs with 0001 [page 789]
(Application.SM.Initializ
eBankIDFromOne), which con-
trols whether automatically gener-
ated bank IDs for each supplier start
with 0000 (the default) or 0001.
Account Holder Name Account Holder Name is optional. The self-service configuration parameter
Make account holder name required in
Bank Account questions [page 781]
(Application.SM.AccountHolde
rNameMandatory) controls whether
this field is required or optional.
• Name These fields are visible and questionnaire The self-service configuration parameter
recipients can edit them.
• Bank Branch Hide bank master data fields in Bank Ac-
• Street count questions [page 779]
• City (Application.SM.HideBankMast
erFields) controls whether these
• State/Province/Region
fields are visible and editable, or hidden
• Postal Code
and therefore uneditable. If you maintain
this data in bank master records in an in-
tegrated ERP system, you can hide these
fields so that questionnaire recipients
can't provide conflicting answers.
• IBAN Number IBAN Number or a combination of Bank The self-service configuration parameter
Key/ABA Routing Number and Account
• Bank Key/ABA Routing Number
Number are required.
Enable country/region-specific visibility
• Account Number and optionality configurations for Bank
Account fields [page 769]
(Application.SM.EnableBankCo
mponentVisibility) controls
whether or not the visibility and optional-
ity of these fields are default behavior or
are defined by syntax validation data
[page 417] for those fields instead.
SWIFT Code SWIFT Code is visible. SAP Ariba Support can enable
SM-28926, an optional feature to hide
this field.
SAP Ariba validates Bank Account answers to ensure that there are values present in mandatory fields and SAP
Ariba performs syntax validation on some fields [page 417] using country/region-specific syntax data definitions in
your site, which you can customize.
When you add a Bank Account question to a questionnaire, keep in mind the following considerations:
• IBAN number and Account Number are always masked so that only users in the Sensitive Data Access
group can see the full numbers. By default, Bank Account questions use a masking pattern of (.*).(4),
which masks all but the last four digits of every IBAN or account number. You can edit or remove this masking
pattern, but if you remove it entirely, the default masking pattern of (.*).(4) still applies.
• Bank Account questions use the field mapping vendor.bankInfos (for individual questions) or
vendor.bankInfos[$index] (for questions in repeatable sections). This mapping stores answers in the
corresponding bank fields [page 447] in the supplier database and synchronizes them to those fields in any
integrated ERP system.
Otherwise, you don't apply settings to any of the individual fields in the question. For example, you can apply a
visibility or editability condition to the entire question, but can't apply visibility or editability conditions to individual
fields in the question.
Note
• Don't combine a Bank Account question with individual questions mapped to vendor.bankInfos fields
in the same questionnaire. Either use a Bank Account question or use individual mapped questions in a
single questionnaire.
• Integrations with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP MDG-S currently don't support bank account numbers
longer than 18 characters.
• Inactivating a supplier doesn't remove their data from your site, but does make it inaccessible. Reactivating
an inactive supplier restores their data. To permanently obfuscate a supplier's data in your site, including
bank account details, you can expire them.
Related Information
Predefined Fields and Field Mappings in Bank Account Questions [page 447]
Adding a Question to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 394]
Sensitive Data Masking in Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 467]
Define the length of supplier bank IDs [page 765]
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Marking a Supplier Managed in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information
and Performance Management (New Architecture) for Expiration [page 565]
Syntax validation for supplier bank account information helps ensure that the supplier bank account information
you collect in supplier management questionnaires only includes values that are valid in an integrated ERP system.
You can also control visibility and optionality of certain Bank Account fields using this data.
SAP Ariba automatically validates the answers in the IBAN, bank account holder name, account number, and bank
key or ABA routing number fields in Bank Account questions in supplier requests (both internal and external) and
registration, qualification, and modular supplier management questionnaires using syntax master data.
By default, bank account syntax validation uses default, country/region-specific data definitions. You can use data
import tasks to customize bank account syntax validation in your site.
If the self-service parameter Enable country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank
Account fields [page 769] (Application.SM.EnableBankComponentVisibility) is enabled in your site, the
visibility and optionality of the IBAN Number, Account Number. and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number fields are
also controlled by this bank syntax validation data.
Bank Control Key Default Bank Control Keys in Bank Ac- Import country/region-specific bank con-
count questions [page 617] trol key [page 102] master data to de-
fine custom values for this field. After a
respondent selects the bank country/re-
gion, they choose from the list of valid
bank key values you've defined for that
country/region.
IBAN Number Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Import country/region-specific IBAN syn-
Mandatory Flags for IBAN Numbers in
tax master data [page 104] for this field.
Bank Account Questions [page 618]
When a respondent submits a question-
naire, an automatic validation check de-
termines whether or not their answer is
valid for the selected bank country/re-
gion based on this master data.
Account Holder Name, Account Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Import country/region-specific syntax
Number, and Bank Key/ABA Routing Mandatory Flags for Account Holder
master data [page 107] for these fields.
Number Names, Account Numbers, and Bank
When a respondent submits a question-
Keys in Bank Account Questions [page
628] naire, an automatic validation check de-
termines whether or not their answers
are valid for the selected bank coun-
try/region based on this master data.
Respondents who provide invalid answers see error messages informing them of the required syntax for their
answers based on the syntax validations you've defined for them and are unable to submit questionnaires with
invalid answers for those fields.
Related Information
Template survey documents in supplier management projects include a Tax question answer type, which has
special features that are designed specifically for collecting supplier tax information.
Note
Make sure that the questions you create in supplier-facing questionnaires don't collect sensitive personal
information as defined in the Data clause in the SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass Supplemental Terms and
Conditions . SAP Ariba doesn't support collecting sensitive personal information for individuals, including
tax information (including tax IDs such as social security numbers) and bank information, in supplier
management questionnaires.
Tax questions automatically include an initial field for country/region. Once the respondent chooses the country/
region , the question displays the tax ID fields for that country/region, which are defined in your site using a
metadata file import [page 96]. The CSV file that defines your tax ID fields also allows you to specify which tax
ID fields show for each country/region, including validation patterns, sample values that display in validation error
messages, and mappings to different tax number fields in the vendor database. Sites deployed after the SAP Ariba
2211 release include default data for tax ID fields. Refer to Default Country/Region-Specific Tax ID Field Data [page
646] for details.
Using Tax questions in supplier management questionnaires enables you to automatically ask for those country/
region-specific tax IDs instead of having to create a separate conditional question for each individual tax ID in each
country/region/ in the questionnaire.
In internal supplier requests, Tax questions that meet configuration prerequisites are used in the default duplicate
check. This duplicate check can run against tax data collected and updated in Tax questions in supplier registration
questionnaires as well. Refer to Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate
Checks [page 237] for details.
All tax ID fields for the chosen country/region are required by default. To allow respondents to submit a blank
answer for a tax field, you can define a validation pattern of (^$) in your tax metadata CSV. To both allow blank
answers and ensure that if the supplier does answer the question, their answer must have a valid format, you can
place the (^$) pattern at the beginning or end of an existing validation pattern, separated by a pipe character (|).
For example, either of the following patterns allows the supplier to submit either a blank answer or an answer with a
length of 10: (^$)|(^\d{10}$) or (^\d{10}$)|(^$).
Tax questions currently don't support the collection of personal tax information as defined in your site's tax
metadata file. They only support the collection of organization-level tax information.
When you add a Tax question to a supplier management questionnaire, keep in mind the following considerations:
• Tax questions are designed for use in repeatable sections. Since suppliers can have multiple tax IDs in
one or more countries/regions, you can include Tax questions in repeatable sections in external (supplier-
facing) questionnaires. You can also include them in internal (buyer-facing) questionnaires, including external
questionnaires in internal registrations, if internal repeatable sections are enabled in your site. The SAP Ariba
Since validation patterns are defined in your tax metadata CSV file, you don't specify them when adding or editing a
Tax question.
In supplier profiles, the answers to Tax questions automatically show in the ERP data detail area.
For most countries/regions, SAP Ariba automatically maps each tax number or ID field to its corresponding
taxIdentificationNumberTypeCode. Refer to the reference information for supplier tax field mappings for
exceptions to this rule [page 437].
Inactivating a supplier doesn't remove their data from your site, but does make it inaccessible. Reactivating an
inactive supplier restores their data. To permanently obfuscate a supplier's data in your site, including tax details,
you can expire them.
Related Information
Adding search terms to a question in a supplier management questionnaire makes that question a filter in supplier
searches. Users can then filter their supplier searches based on answers to the question.
Template creators can define questions as search terms in survey and content documents in the following projects:
To turn a question into a filter in supplier searches, you add text to the Search Term field on the Create Question
page. Before you start adding search terms to questions, it's important to understand how they show on the
supplier search page.
The search term text you enter becomes the name of the search filter. Users can choose it from a list of available
filters to add it to their searches. Once the filter is added to the search, it shows alongside search results on the
search page, together with permanent search filters such as Category, Region, and Registration status. If you use
List of Choices as the acceptable answer type, those choices become filter options that users can check.
For example, if you create a question with answer type Text (single line limited), choose List of Choices for
the acceptable answer, enter Search Term Text in the Search Term field, and add First choice, Second
choice, and Third choice as answer choices, the search filter looks like this on the search page:
When turning questions into search filters, keep the following considerations in mind:
• Search terms can be up to 50 characters long, but shorter terms display better on the search page.
• Make sure the search terms you use accurately and briefly describes the filter and is unique. Users performing
supplier searches need to understand what the filter does when they add it to their searches based on the
search terms/filter name. Keep in mind that all search filters appear in a single list of available filters with no
indication of which project or questionnaire they came from. For example, there'ss no way for users to tell if a
search filter came from a question in the supplier request, an external questionnaire in a registration project, or
an internal questionnaire in a registration project.
• There's no limit to the number of questions you can turn into search filters. However, using search terms for
only a limited number of strategic questions keeps the list of search filters that users can add to a search
manageable.
The following table describes the question answer types that support search terms and the way the resulting filters
work:
Table 20: How Search Filters Work for Each Answer Type
• Text (single line limited) None A field into which users enter text. The
• Text (single line) search only includes suppliers whose an-
swers include that text.
Text (multiple lines) n/a A field into which users enter text. The
search only includes suppliers whose an-
swers include that text.
• Whole Number None or Limited Range From and To fields where users can enter
• Decimal a range of numbers by which to filter the
• Money search.
Date None or Limited Range From and To fields with calendar icons
where users choose date range by which
to filter the search.
• Quantity
Limited Range From and To fields with calendar icons
where users choose date range by which
to filter the search.
Turning questions with "complex" answer types such as Attachment, Certificate, Address, Extended Address,
Tax, and Bank Account into search filters isn't supported at this time. The search page includes permanent search
filters for certificates.
You also can't turn questions of type Commodity, Region, or Department into search filters, but there's no reason
to do so since search page includes permanent search filters for commodity category and region and (in sites
where it's enabled) department.
You can turn questions of type Text (single line limited) with either no acceptable answers or a list of choices into
search filters. You can't do so for Text (single line limited) questions with acceptable answers set to use master
data values at this time.
Related Information
Adding Translations for Some Form and Questionnaire Content Fields [page 464]
Code delimiters provide a mechanism for providing descriptive answers to questions but saving those answers as
codes, so that users who aren't familiar with various internal codes can easily provide those required codes as
answers.
Code delimiters are useful in sites integrated with an ERP system, which require valid code values for some fields.
Users who answer supplier management don’t have to have all of your ERP system’s codes memorized. They can
select a descriptive answer, and the associated code is automatically stored in the mapped vendor database field
and synchronized with the integrated ERP system.
You use the following two question settings to create associations between codes and answers in supplier
management questionnaires:
• The Code Delimiters field in questions of type Text (single line) and Text (single line limited), where you
define the characters that enclose codes in question answers; for example, () or [].
• List of choices answers that use the code delimiters. Once you've defined your code delimiters, you create a list
of choices as the acceptable answers to the question. For each choice, you include both a descriptive answer
and the associated code, enclosed by the delimiters.
You then map the question to the appropriate vendor database field. Only the portion of the answer enclosed by
code delimiters is stored in the mapped database field and synchronized with the ERP system. Therefore, you can
provide whatever description you like while satisfying the ERP system’s requirement for a valid code in that field.
Related Information
Adding a validation pattern to a question defines the format of the answer. Respondents who provide answers that
don't use the format you specify see an error message and are unable to submit the form or questionnaire until
they correct the problem.
For example, you can make sure that an answer includes only numbers, or only uppercase letters; more precisely,
you can make sure that answers include exactly nine numbers, or two uppercase letters followed by a dash (-)
followed by four numbers. Validation patterns help to ensure the quality of your supplier data by making it much
more likely that you get the correct answer the first time the respondent submits the form or questionnaire.
You don't have to rely on individual approvers noticing incorrect or incomplete answers and requesting additional
information during the approval process if you use them.
You define the validation pattern using a regular expression, which is a sequence of characters that defines the
pattern. Regular expressions use standard text strings and syntax to define patterns to which matching text must
conform. There are a number of websites on the Internet that can help you understand, formulate, and test regular
Note
Questions can't include both a validation pattern and an SAP Business Network field mapping, since there's no
way to apply the validation pattern to a question answer synchronized from an SAP Business Network profile
field. Template validation prevents publication of any templates that include a question with both a validation
pattern and an SAP Business Network field mapping.
You can provide a custom error message in the related Validation Pattern Error Message field. If you don't
provide a custom error message, a generic error message shows the expected format instead. You can also provide
translations for these error messages in all of the languages enabled in your site by clicking the Translations
link to the right of the Validation Pattern Error Message field. An individual user's locale setting in their profile
automatically determines which translation they see. If you don't provide translations, users in all locales see the
error message in the original language in which you created it (the base language). You must be a member of the
Translator group to provide translations.
However, regular expressions can also define more complex validation patterns. For example, an answer that must
use seven numbers in the format XXX-XXXX, would use the regular expression ^[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{4}$ as the
validation pattern.
Example
In a supplier registration questionnaire, you can ask for the employer identification of suppliers in the United
States. U.S. employer identification numbers are 9-digit codes in the format XX-XXXXXXX. To specify this format,
you enter ^\d{2}\-\d{7}$ in the Validation Pattern field. You can also add something like Your employer
identification number must be in the format XX-XXXXXXX in the Validation Pattern Error Message
field.
Mapping specific questions in template forms and questionnaires to specific supplier database fields ensures that
the values entered for that content are written to those specific supplier database fields or enables specific project
functionality.
For example, a supplier request form needs to ask for the supplier's name. You create this field by adding a
question, titled something like Supplier Name:, to the form. If you don't map the question to a supplier database
field, the answer is stored in the database as a value associated with the question. However, if you map the question
to the vendor.vendorInfo.name1 field, the answer is stored in the database as the supplier's name.
Most questions don't need to be mapped. However, any question answer in a supplier request or registration
questionnaire that you want to synchronize with the ERP system must be mapped to a supplier database field. For
best practices and verified mappings for integration, refer to:
• Best Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71]
• Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73]
In some cases, mapping is required; for example, a supplier request form must include mapped questions for
the supplier's name and the supplier contact's name and email address. If your site is integrated with Dun &
Bradstreet, there are also specific mapping requirements [page 593].
In questionnaires, the questions you map to vendor database fields are automatically prepopulated with any
current data from the database in most cases. Respondents can update the data by editing the prepopulated
answers. This behavior doesn't occur in the supplier request, since the supplier isn't created in the database yet,
but does occur in supplier registration questionnaires, including external questionnaires. Suppliers filling out a
registration questionnaire on SAP Business Network see prepopulated answers to mapped questions if there's
data available for them. Answers to questions mapped to matrix fields (matrix.Categories, matrix.Regions,
and matrix.Departments) provided in one questionnaire aren't automatically added to other questionnaires,
however.
Use of custom fields isn't a best-practice, verified scenario for integrations. If you map a question to a custom field
in the vendor.businessPartnerGenericCustomField or vendor.supplierGenericCustomField class,
that field is automatically created in the SAP Ariba supplier database. Replicating a supplier from an integrated ERP
system with data in custom fields in those classes also creates those fields in the SAP Ariba supplier database.
However, this scenario is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based on your specific
requirements.
You can store multiple values in the same database field for fields in array classes. However, those mappings
typically require special syntax. For example, repeatable sections [page 386] allow you to ask for multiple sets of
answers to the same questions. Questions in repeatable sections require a special mapping syntax [page 427].
SAP Ariba also supports a number of field mappings that enable specific functionality in projects or in supplier
profiles. These field mappings include mappings for supplier contacts, certificates, and projects fields. They're only
used in SAP Ariba and aren't related to integration.
Note
Use of spaces in mapped field names isn't supported. SAP Ariba database and project
mappings don't include spaces. Mapped custom field names also can't include spaces. For
example, vendor.businessPartnerGenericCustomField.FieldName is supported syntax, but
vendor.businessPartnerGenericCustomField.Field Name isn't.
Related Information
When you create a questionnaire with mapped questions that have additional requirements, you must include
questions mapped to corresponding supplier database fields. Otherwise, the response data of the initial mapped
question is not included in the XML integration message when synchronizing to your ERP system.
Questions that are mapped to the following initial field mappings require another question mapped to the
corresponding field mapping in order to synchronize to your ERP system.
vendor.roleExt.roleCode or vendor.vendorInfoExt.maintenanceProfileCod
vendor.vendorInfoExt.numberRangeIntervalBu e
sinessPartnerGroupCode
If you don't set required values for related fields in separate mapped, questions, set them as default values [page
512].
Related Information
You can map questions in repeatable sections to supplier database fields in array classes, which support storing
multiple values for the field. Mappings for repeatable sections use a special syntax that defines the section as an
index for the questions it contains.
It's a good idea for the structure of nested repeatable subsections to reflect the structure of the database fields to
which you want to map them. Inside a top-level repeatable section for the class, nest repeatable subsections for the
subclasses and add questions to about subclass fields in those nested subsections.
The syntax for mapping repeatable sections and their nested repeatable subsections is as follows:
Mapping questions in repeatable sections to fields that store single values isn't supported except for the
vendor.certificate field, which you can use to map Certificate questions in repeatable sections in external
questionnaires. You can use the [$index] syntax to map questions in repeatable sections to any vendor database
field in the following array classes:
• vendor.bankInfos
• vendor.companyCode
• vendor.contact
• vendor.industrySector
• vendor.purchasingOrg
• vendor.roleExt
• vendor.subRange
• vendor.taxExt
• vendor.taxGrouping
• vendor.text
• vendor.vendorExtIdentification
• vendor.vendorPCardIssuerApis
Restriction
Users in the SM ERP Administrator and SM Ops Administrator groups can download a complete list of available
supplier database field names by clicking Manage SM Administrator on the dashboard, navigating to the
Default field values area, and downloading the Default_properties_sample.csv file.
Related Information
The following list of common supplier database field names is useful for mapping between a piece of form or
questionnaire content and a supplier database field that will be synchronized with an integrated system.
Users in the SM ERP Admin group can download a complete list of available supplier database field names by
clicking Manage SM Administrator on the dashboard, navigating to the Defaults area, and downloading
the Default_properties_sample.csv file. Note that this file contains list of all fields in the vendor database,
and not all fields are supported for integration. For the field mappings supported for integration, refer to Best
Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71] and Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier
Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73].
There are also specialized project field mappings that are used internally in SAP Ariba to enable specific project
behavior or functionality. Those fields are not synchronized with an integrated system.
Note
Either this field or vendor.vendorInfo.fullName
is required in supplier request forms.
vendor.vendorInfo.name4 A third alternate name for the supplier, or the name of a suppli-
er's parent company.
Note
The following fields are important ID fields for suppliers. Once a value is added to any of these fields in the
database, if you add a question mapped to it to a questionnaire and a respondent removes the value, the value
is removed in the questionnaire but not in the database:
• vendor.vendorInfo.erpVendorId
• vendor.vendorInfo.anId
• vendor.vendorInfo.dunsId
• vendor.vendorInfo.sourceSystem
• vendor.vendorInfo.s4OrgSystemId
Field mappings for supplier contacts are only used in SAP Ariba.
• Field mappings for supplier contacts are only supported in supplier requests. After the request creates the
supplier in the SAP Ariba database, you can manage a supplier's contacts either manually in their profile or
using data import.
• Information you maintain about supplier contacts in your site, including question answers mapped to
contact fields, is never synchronized to the supplier's SAP Business Network account. Suppliers and
supplier contacts always maintain their own information about themselves on SAP Business Network.
contact.firstName The first name of the supplier contact, the person to whom the
registration questionnaire invitation is sent by default.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
contact.middleName The middle name of the supplier contact, the person to whom
the registration questionnaire invitation is sent by default.
contact.lastName The last name of the supplier contact, the person to whom the
registration questionnaire invitation is sent by default.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
Note
This field is required in supplier request forms.
Note
This field is recommended in supplier request forms.
contact.locale The locale of the supplier contact. Map a question that uses
master data of type Locale as the acceptable answer value to
this field.
Note
This field is recommended in supplier request forms.
Note
This field is recommended in supplier request forms.
Related Information
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting Up the Internal Supplier Request Project Template [page
223]
Restrictions, Requirements, and Helpful Hints for Setting up the External Supplier Request Project Template [page
231]
Default Supplier Request Duplicate Checks and Setting Up Custom Duplicate Checks [page 237]
Best Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71]
certificate.expirationDate The expiration date of the certificate. Questions with this map-
ping are only supported in certificate sections.
Related Information
Project Fields
Table 21:
Project type Field Name Description
Preferred supplier management project.Level The preferred supplier status level for the
supplier.
Related Information
The following table includes some common individual fields for supplier addresses. Two specialized answer types,
Address and Extended Address, include a default set of fields and field mappings [page 440] and are a useful
alternative to creating individual address questions. Use of Extended Address questions for collecting supplier
address information is a best practice for integration.
vendor.address.languageCode The ISO language code for the language of the supplier's ad-
dress.
Related Information
Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73]
Default Fields and Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page 440]
Address or Extended Address Questions for Collecting Supplier Address Information [page 412]
The following table includes some common individual fields for supplier tax information. A specialized answer type,
Tax, includes a predefined set of tax fields with country/region-specific validation patterns. Use of Tax questions for
collecting supplier tax information is a best practice for integration.
vendor.taxInfo.taxAuthorityPartyID An identifier for the tax authority to which the supplier reports.
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber1 A set of unique identifiers for the taxes to which the supplier is
subject, as defined by each country/region's tax authority.
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber2
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber3
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber4
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber5
vendor.taxExt An identifier for the tax which the supplier is subject to, as
defined by each country/region's tax authority. The Extended
Tax Information section in the ERP data area of the supplier's
360° profile displays the tax information defined with this map-
ping.
Note
For most countries/regions, SAP Ariba automatically maps each tax number or ID field to its corresponding
taxIdentificationNumberTypeCode. For example, a vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber1 is mapped to a
taxIdentificationNumberTypeCode of 1. The following are country/region-specific exceptions to this rule:
Corresponding
taxIdentificationNumberTyp
Country/Region code Field eCode
DE vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber1 2
vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber2 5
vendor.taxInfo.taxAuthorit 1
yPartyID
CN vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber5 0
vendor.taxInfo.vatRegistra 0
tionNumber
AR vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber1 1A
Related Information
The following table includes some common individual fields for supplier addresses. A specialized answer type,
Bank Account, includes a set of predefined fields with automatic mappings [page 447], as well as syntax
validation, and is a useful alternative to creating individual bank account questions. Use of Bank account questions
for collecting supplier bank information is a best practice for integration.
Note
Integrations with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP MDG-
S currently don't support bank account numbers longer
than 18 characters.
vendor.bankInfos.bankType The type of the supplier bank account; for example, checking.
vendor.bankInfos.validFrom The date from which the supplier bank information is valid.
Related Information
Predefined Fields and Field Mappings in Bank Account Questions [page 447]
Country/Region-Specific Bank ID Prefix Data Import [page 99]
Best Practices for Setting Up Supplier Registration Questionnaires For Integration [page 73]
Country/Region-Specific Bank Control Key Data Import [page 102]
Country/Region-Specific Validation Syntax, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account IBAN Number
Data Import [page 104]
Country/Region-Specific Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Holder Name,
Account Number, and Bank Key or ABA Routing Number Data Import [page 107]
Address Fields
For the Address question answer type, you use the vendor.address field mapping to map the underlying fields
to vendor database fields all at once using one question. The corresponding SAP Business Network mapping is
network.legal.address. You can also map individual text questions to these vendor database fields. Unless
otherwise noted, all fields are text fields and transmit string data to any integrated ERP system.
Note
Some types of customization [page 412] of Address questions are supported. Most address fields that show
in the supplier view of external questionnaires on SAP Business Network can have different labels and hint text
from the default fields listed here.
For the Extended Address question answer type, you use the vendor.addressExt.postalAddress field
mapping in order to map the underlying fields to vendor database fields all at once using 1 question. The
corresponding SAP Business Network mapping is network.legal.addressExt.postalAddress. You can also
map individual text questions to these vendor database fields. Unless otherwise noted, all fields are text fields and
transmit string data to any integrated ERP system.
Some types of customization [page 412] of extended address questions are supported. The fields you see in
Extended Address questions, and their inclusion in the Show Less or Show More can be different from the
defaults listed here.
PO Box w/o No. (single field) vendor.addressExt.po Yes (Show More view) n/a (Boolean value)
stalAddress.poBoxIDV
isibleIndicator
Related Information
Questions with the Bank Account answer type include a set of predefined fields. You cannot edit these individual
fields.
Bank Branch
Street
City
State/Province/Region
Account Holder Name This field doesn't support special charac- vendor.bankInfos.accountNam
ters. e
Related Information
Bank Account Questions for Collecting Supplier Bank Information [page 414]
Make account holder name required in Bank Account questions [page 781]
Define the length of supplier bank IDs [page 765]
Hide bank master data fields in Bank Account questions [page 779]
Enable country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank Account fields [page 769]
Mapping questions to SAP Business Network supplier profile fields established a connection so that when a
supplier updates their profile on SAP Business Network, the update is pushed to mapped vendor database fields in
your site.
Note
• SAP Ariba hasn't verified all available SAP Business Network field mappings or all possible uses of SAP
Business Network field mappings. You are responsible for testing and verifying your particular use of SAP
Business Network field mappings.
• Questions can't include both a validation pattern and an SAP Business Network field mapping, since there's
no way to apply the validation pattern to a question answer synchronized from an SAP Business Network
profile field. Template validation prevents publication of any templates that include a question with both a
validation pattern and an SAP Business Network field mapping.
If a supplier has a connected SAP Business Network account, their supplier profile automatically includes a link to
their SAP Business Network profile. However, data from an SAP Business Network profile field isn't automatically
linked to the corresponding field in the vendor database. You can create the link by mapping a question in a supplier
Note
If you map a question in an internal or external registration questionnaire to both an SAP Business Network
supplier profile field and a vendor database field, after a supplier is registered, the supplier registration project
treats any update to the SAP Business Network profile field as an update to the questionnaire that contains the
mapped question. The profile field update restarts any approval tasks for updates to the questionnaire, as well
as any registration update phases associated with those approval tasks.
Example
This mapping connects the question to the designated name field in the vendor database and to the Legal Name
field in the supplier's SAP Business Network profile.
A requester creates a new supplier request and enters Company A for the supplier name. The supplier
request is approved, and a supplier record is created in your site with a value of Company A in the
vendor.vendorInfo.name1 field. At this point, the supplier is still private (not linked to an SAP Business
Network account).
A registration manager then invites the supplier to register. The mapped name question in the external registration
questionnaire is automatically prepopulated with the existing value from the request, Company A. The supplier
contact submits the registration questionnaire without changing that answer and the registration is approved.
Responding to the registration invitation linked the supplier record in your site to the supplier's SAP Business
Network account, and they're now public.
Later, someone in the supplier's SAP Business Network account updates the Legal Name field in their profile to
Company A, Inc.. The vendor database name field is then automatically updated with that value, and is updated
with any subsequent changes that the supplier makes to the Legal Name field in their SAP Business Network
profile.
Note that the SAP Business Network supplier profile includes both Name and Legal Name fields. In this example,
the template creator has chosen to use the more precise Legal Name value for the supplier's name in SAP Ariba
Supplier Management solutions.
Note that if you don't have registration update approvals configured, the update is automatically pushed to your
site. Updates that suppliers make to the registration questionnaire itself trigger the registration update process,
and if a supplier enters one value in a profile field and a different value for a question mapped to the same profile
field, the value in the profile field overwrites the value in the question.
All SAP Business Network supplier profile fields are text strings unless otherwise noted. Map them to questions of
answer type Text (single line) or Text (single line limited).
Note
SAP Ariba hasn't verified all available SAP Business Network field mappings or all possible uses of SAP
Business Network field mappings. You are responsible for testing and verifying your particular use of SAP
Business Network field mappings.
Supplier Fields
NetworkId network.org.anId
Note
This description has a maximum length of 100 characters.
Website network.legal.address.url
Address ID network.legal.address.addressType
Address 1 network.legal.address.line1
Address 2 network.legal.address.line2
Address 3 network.legal.address.line3
City network.legal.address.city
State network.legal.address.state
Province network.legal.address.province
Region network.legal.address.region
Country/Region network.legal.address.countryCode
PO Box network.legal.address.poBox
Address network.legal.address
Note
This field mapping is the SAP Business Network equivalent
of the vendor.address vendor mapping for Address
type questions. For more information about the corre-
sponding vendor database field, see Default Fields and
Field Mappings in Address Question Answer Types [page
440].
Note
This field mapping is the SAP Business Network equiva-
lent of the vendor.addressExt.postalAddress
vendor mapping for Extended Address type questions.
For more information about the corresponding vendor da-
tabase field, see Default Fields and Field Mappings in Ad-
dress Question Answer Types [page 440].
Note
Suppliers specify one or more UNSPSC commodity cate-
gories in this field. Map to this field in a question that ei-
ther has the Commodity answer type or uses commodity
master data for acceptable answers.
Note
Suppliers specify one or more regions in this field. Map to
this field in a question that either has the Region answer
type or uses region master data for acceptable answers.
Industries network.org.industries
Note
Suppliers choose one or more values from a pre-defined
list for this field.
Note
Suppliers choose from a list of number ranges for this
field. Those number ranges consist of 4 separate pieces of
data: minimum number, minimum number currency, maxi-
mum number, and maximum number currency; for exam-
ple, $100K to $1M USD. You must use multiple, comma
separated mappings in a question to capture this data, but
you don't have to use all of the mappings; for example, to
pull only the maximum annual revenue data, map the
question to
"network.corporate.annualRevenueMax,
network.corporate.annualRevenueMaxCurre
ncy".
Note
Suppliers choose 1 value from a pre-defined list for this
field.
Note
Suppliers choose a value from a pre-defined list for this
field.
Note
Suppliers choose a value from a pre-defined list for this
field.
Tax ID network.legal.taxId
VAT ID network.legal.vatId
Note
Suppliers upload a file attachment for this field.
Note
Suppliers upload a file attachment for this field.
Note
Suppliers choose a date from a calendar chooser for this
field.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers choose Yes or No.
Map it to a question with the Yes/No answer type.
Note
Suppliers choose one or more pre-defined values for this
field.
Note
This field supports a lengthy description. Map it to a ques-
tion with the Text (multiple lines) answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't . Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't . Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't . Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't . Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't . Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type. Mapping for the certification type
options for this field aren't supported.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the
option checked or they don't . Map it to a question with
the Yes/No answer type. Mapping for the different minor-
ity-owned business types for this field is supported, but
mapping for certification type options for this field isn't
supported.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
Unlike the other minority-owned fields, this field is a text
field where suppliers specify a minority not included on the
list.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This field is a Boolean value; suppliers either have the op-
tion checked or they don't. Map it to a question with the
Yes/No answer type.
Note
This data is derived from the account settings of the
main supplier contact in the Ariba Network for Suppliers
account.
Note
This data is derived from the account settings of the
main supplier contact in the Ariba Network for Suppliers
account.
Note
This data is derived from the account settings of the
main supplier contact in the Ariba Network for Suppliers
account.
Email network.contacts.email
Phone network.contacts.telephone
Fax network.contacts.fax
Address 1 network.contacts.line1
Address 2 network.contacts.line2
Address 3 network.contacts.line3
City network.contacts.city
State network.contacts.state
Province network.contacts.province
Region network.contacts.region
Country/Region network.contacts.countryCode
PO Box network.contacts.poBox
Related Information
Field Mappings for SAP Business Network Supplier Profile Fields [page 449]
In general, the updates a supplier makes to their profile on SAP Business Network are synchronized with mapped
questions in various supplier management forms, questionnaires, and internal surveys within minutes unless
there's an approval or update pending, in which case they're held until the pending action is completed.
Note
SAP Ariba hasn't verified all available SAP Business Network field mappings or all possible uses of SAP
Business Network field mappings. You are responsible for testing and verifying your particular use of SAP
Business Network field mappings.
There are several variations on this general rule for specific projects. For example, a supplier request doesn't
contain information from a supplier's SAP Business Network account because the supplier isn't connected
to that account yet. A supplier becomes public when there's a link established between the supplier's SAP
Business Network and your site through the supplier's response to your first invitation to a sourcing event or
a questionnaire, such as a registration invitation. After that point, information in the supplier's SAP Business
Network profile is synchronized to mapped fields in the supplier's database record, but the Supplier request detail
area of the supplier profile preserves the original request information. After the supplier submits the registration
questionnaire, SAP Business Network profile information is also synchronized to mapped questions in registration
internal questionnaires unless an internal questionnaire editor is editing it. If an internal registration questionnaire
is in edit mode, profile information is held until the edits are submitted, at which point it's synchronized.
Since the registration questionnaire is supplier-facing, and can be configured to use an initial registration phase
and a registration update phase with separate approvals, the synchronization of SAP Business Network profile
information with mapped registration questionnaire answers depends on the registration's status. The following
table describes how SAP Business Network profile information synchronizes with the registration questionnaire at
various stages in the registration workflow:
Registration Status: In Registration Once the supplier has accepted the invitation, logged into SAP
Business Network, and saved but not submitted a draft ques-
tionnaire, updates to mapped profile fields are synchronized
to the supplier-facing, draft questionnaire. Unless the supplier
edits them, they're then submitted as answers to the question-
naire.
Registration Status: Pending Approval After the supplier has submitted the questionnaire, any up-
dates they make to mapped SAP Business Network profile
fields are held. No updates are synchronized with the registra-
tion questionnaire while it's in approval. Approvers review and
approve or deny the registration based on the answers the
supplier provided at submission.
Registration Status: Registration Denied If an approver denies the registration, no updates that the sup-
plier made to mapped SAP Business Network profile fields af-
ter submitting the registration questionnaire are synchronized
with the questionnaire. In your site, the questionnaire retains
the answers the supplier provided at submission, which can be
the basis for the denial, for auditing purposes.
Registration Status: Pending Resubmit If an approver requests additional information before approv-
ing or denying the registration, the supplier can edit the draft
questionnaire again, and updates to mapped SAP Business
Network profile fields are synchronized to the supplier-facing,
draft questionnaire. Unless the supplier edits them, they're
then submitted as answers to the questionnaire.
Registration Status: Registered After the registration is approved, any updates a supplier
makes to mapped SAP Business Network profile fields are
synchronized to the registration questionnaire within minutes.
Registration Update Status: Pending Approval After the supplier has submitted a questionnaire update, any
updates they make to mapped SAP Business Network profile
fields are held. No updates are synchronized with the registra-
tion questionnaire while the update is in approval. Approvers
review and approve or deny the updated registration based on
the answers the supplier provided at submission.
Registration Update Status: Denied If an approver denies the registration update, no updates that
the supplier made to mapped SAP Business Network profile
fields after submitting the registration questionnaire update
are synchronized with the questionnaire. In your site, the ques-
tionnaire retains the answers of the previous, approved version
of the questionnaire.
Registration Update Status: Pending Resubmit If an approver requests additional information before approv-
ing or denying the updated registration, the supplier can
edit the draft questionnaire again, and updates to mapped
SAP Business Network profile fields are synchronized to the
supplier-facing, draft questionnaire. Unless the supplier edits
them, they're then submitted as answers to the questionnaire
update.
Registration Update Status: Approved After the registration update is approved, any updates a sup-
plier makes to mapped SAP Business Network profile fields
continue to be synchronized to the registration questionnaire
within minutes.
SAP Ariba encrypts certain database fields, including fields in the SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions
unified vendor model, to provide an additional layer of protection for sensitive data.
If you map a question in a supplier management questionnaire [page 425] to an encrypted database field, the
answer is encrypted.
SAP Ariba Uses 256-bit AES encryption with Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) to apply a double layer of
encryption using keys that are specific to your site. The following fields in the vendor database are encrypted using
this method:
• vendor.taxInfo.vatRegistrationNumber
• vendor.bankInfos.accountName
• vendor.bankInfos.accountNumber
• vendor.bankInfos.bankAccountExternalID
• vendor.bankInfos.bankAccountStandardID
• vendor.bankInfos.bankInternalID
• vendor.bankInfos.bankStandardID
• vendor.bankInfos.controlKey
• vendor.bankInfos.id
• vendor.bankInfos.substituteBusinessPartnerBankDetailsID
• vendor.taxExt.countryCode
• vendor.taxExt.longPartyTaxID
• vendor.taxExt.partyTaxID
• vendor.taxExt.taxIdentificationNumberTypeCode
• vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber1
• vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber2
• vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber3
• vendor.taxInfo.taxNumber4
The shared secret used for authentication is also encrypted using this method.
Related Information
A requirement is a statement that communicates your expectations or other information to suppliers and internal
stakeholders.
Context
Procedure
• Select Add Requirement at the bottom of the content to add a new requirement to the end of the
questionnaire.
• Select the section before or inside of which you want to add the requirement and select Add
Requirement at the bottom of the content table.
• Click a section to add the requirement inside or after it and select Add Requirement from the
pull-down menu.
2. If you selected a section for the new requirement, select Add Inside to add the new requirement nested inside
the section, or Add After to add it after the section on the same level.
3. Add a descriptive name for the requirement in the Requirement field.
4. Click Attach a file to attach a reference file to the requirement; you can either upload the file from your local
computer or select it from your site’s library content. You can only attach library content to which you've
access.
5. Select whether or not suppliers can see the question from the Visible to Participants pull-down menu.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To edit project templates you must be a member of the Template Creator group. To add translations to form or
questionnaire content fields, you must also belong to the Translator group.
Context
You can provide translations for the names of all supported content types in supplier forms and questionnaires. For
questions with answer types that support these features, you can also provide translations for the Search Term
and Validation Pattern Error Message fields.
You can provide translations for each of the languages that are enabled in your site. The translation fields include
the same formatting controls as the original fields, so you can also duplicate the formatting.
Note
When you provide a translation for the Name field of a question, that translation applies only to the name itself.
There is no way to translate pre-defined answers that involve lists of choices, and attached files are always in
• Create a piece of content in each language, rather than creating a single piece of content in the base
language and providing translations. For each piece of language-specific content, the choices in the list of
choices and the attached documents must be in that language.
• Use either visibility conditions based on region or region-specific questionnaire segments to make sure
that the content for each language only displays for the region corresponding to that language.
Note that this way of providing translated content is less precise, because it is not based on individual user
locale settings; for example, if you add French content that is visible to suppliers in Switzerland, it is shown to
Swiss users who specify either French or German as their language.
Tip
If you are providing translations for content names, you can add translations for all of the content names
in a template survey document in one place by choosing Actions Translate on the content table of
the survey document. You must add translations for other supported fields while adding or editing individual
questions, and you can also add translations for the name this way.
Procedure
Results
When a respondent with a locale for one of the translation languages you have provided views the supplier form or
questionnaire, it shows the matching translated content.
Note
If you are signed in as a user with one locale but acting as a user with a different locale when editing a
questionnaire, the buyer-facing view of a questionnaire shows content corresponding to the locale of your
sign-in session rather than the locale of the user you are acting as. This behavior occurs not only in internal
questionnaires such as the internal supplier request and internal registration and qualification questionnaires,
but also in external registration questionnaires in internal registrations, where an internal recipient edits the
questionnaire in the buyer-facing view.
An attachment in a form or questionnaire is a document file that provides additional information to respondents. It
is an independent content item to which you can apply visibility conditions.
Prerequisites
To edit a supplier management template or its contents, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
For modular questionnaire projects, you must also be a member of the SM Modular Questionnaire Manager
group. For process projects, you must also be a member of the SM Process Manager group.
To edit a supplier management template or its contents, the template must be in Draft.
Context
When you add an attachment to the a questionnaire, use its description to communicate the format of the attached
file and your expectations for its use by respondents.
You can add document files either from your local computer or from the Sourcing Library to supplier questionnaire
attachments.
You can't set visibility conditions on attachments initially when you add them as standalone attachments. However,
when you edit any attachment you added this way, you can set visibility conditions on them and add reference
documents at that time.
Note
• In addition to standalone attachments, you can also attach files to questions, requirements, and other
pieces of content.
• The attachment masking setting isn't supported in supplier risk engagement projects or issue projects.
Procedure
• Select Add Attachments from Desktop at the bottom of the content table. Click Browse, navigate
to the file you want to attach on your local computer, and click Open. Click Add More to add up to 10 files
as attachments at the same time.
• Select Add Attachments from Library at the bottom of the content table. Search for the project
or library content you want to attach, select the files, and click OK. You can only attach library content to
which you have access.
2. Enter a description for each file.
• Select whether or not suppliers can see each attachment from the Visible to Participants pull-down
menu. Selecting No creates an attachment that is only visible to internal users.
• Limit access control to the file to specific sets of users.
4. Click Done.
Next Steps
You can apply settings such as visibility conditions by editing the newly created attachment. Settings are only
available when the attachment is in edit mode. You can also mask attachments so that only the internal users with
the appropriate permissions can view or download them.
Related Information
Visibility Conditions for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469]
Sensitive Data Masking in Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 467]
Adding a Requirement to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 463]
Adding a Requirement to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 463]
Adding a Repeatable Section to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 386]
Adding a Question to a Supplier Form or Questionnaire [page 394]
Adding a Certificate Question to a Modular Questionnaire for Certificate Management [page 406]
Comments and Attachments in Supplier Forms and Questionnaires [page 374]
Masking sensitive data allows you to control who can view it. Internal users can't view or edit sensitive data unless
they have specific permissions.
Members of the Sensitive Data Access group View masked answers and open masked attachments in all
questionnaires they're authorized to see in the user interface.
Internal recipients filling out or updating external registration If the self-service configuration parameter Enable
questionnaires on behalf of suppliers in internal registrations questionnaire recipients in internal registrations to see and
edit otherwise masked answers is enabled, view and edit
masked answers in their assigned external questionnaires
without membership in the Sensitive Data Access group,
Supplier contacts See an icon next to questions with defined masking patterns
and attachments with masking settings indicating that ability
to view their answer is restricted in their customer’s system.
Data isn't masked for suppliers, but only the supplier contact
who is asked to fill out the questionnaire can view or edit it.
Masked data is never visible in exported questionnaire CSV files or downloaded integration message XML.
For questions of type Text (single line) and Text (single line limited), you can use the Sensitive Data Mask
Pattern field to define a data masking pattern using a regular expression, which is a sequence of characters that
defines the pattern. Users who don’t have permission to view masked data see an asterisk (*) in place of each
masked character.
Regular expressions use standard text strings and syntax to define patterns. The masking pattern you define
specifies how to mask the answer by enclosing the part of the pattern you intend to mask with parentheses. For
example, you can mask all of an answer, all but the last four characters, and so forth. There are a number of
websites on the Internet that can help you understand, formulate, and test regular expressions.
The following example regular expressions define some common masking patterns:
(.*) Masks the entire answer. The answer Bob Smith is masked as
********.
(\d*)[0-9]{4} Masks all numbers up to the last four. The answer 123456789 is masked as
*****6789.
([0-9-]+)[0-9]{3} Mask all numbers and dashes except last The answer 123-456-789 is masked as
3 numbers. ********789.
[0-9]{3}(\d*)[0-9]{3} Masks all numbers except for the first The answer 123456789 is masked as
three and last three numbers. 123***789.
[^0-9]*([0-9]+) Masks all numbers to the end of the an- The answer ABC-1234 is masked as ABC-
swer. ****.
Unless you're masking the entire answer in a generic way, you must know the format of the answer before you can
construct a regular expression that masks it exactly the way you want. You can use validation patterns to define
and enforce the format of the answer and ensure that your masking pattern masks the answer correctly.
For attachment content, questions of type Attachment, and all questions that support attaching reference
documents or allowing suppliers to add attachments to their answers, you can use the Mask Attachment
dropdown menu to restrict who can open the attachment. Depending on whether you're providing the attachment
or allowing the supplier to do so, or both, you can have some or all of the following options:
• None: No attachments associated with the current content are masked. None is the default setting.
• Reference Documents: Reference documents attached to the current content are masked.
• Participant Documents: Documents that the respondent has attached to the current content are masked.
• All: all attachments associated with the current content are masked.
Note
Certificate attachments in Certificate questions, and in mapped attachment questions in certificate sections,
aren't masked regardless of masking settings.
Related Information
You can create two types of visibility conditions: basic and advanced.
• Basic visibility conditions [page 472] are based on the answer to one question.
• Advanced visibility conditions [page 473] allow you to combine the answers to multiple questions to create
conditional expressions based on logical operators (AND, OR, and NOT). You can stack and nest expressions,
but take care that the logic in an advanced condition doesn’t contain contradictions.
When you create either type of condition, keep in mind the following considerations:
• For forms and most types of questionnaires, all respondents see the single form, and visibility conditions based
on region can be useful for displaying content dynamically based on answers. However, if you manage supplier
qualifications using qualification projects, the external qualification questionnaire is assembled from content
document segments that are targeted to specific commodities, regions, and (optionally) departments. It's
therefore important be aware of all of your existing segments and the commodity, region, and department
settings you've applied to each segment. Only apply visibility conditions based on commodity, region, or
department in segments where it makes sense.
For example, if you have a questionnaire segment that applies to all regions, and other questionnaire segments
that target specific geographical areas, you can use visibility conditions for specific states, regions, or cities to
show content based on more granular region values. Add conditional questions that only applies to Parisian
suppliers to the questionnaire segment targeted at France.
• When the visibility condition isn't satisfied, the content to which the visibility condition is applied can only be
seen when you edit the questionnaire and not in the view mode.
• You can't create conditions based on questions with the answer type Text (multiple lines) or on the "complex"
answer types Address, Extended Address, Bank Account, and Tax. You can create conditions based on
questions of any other answer type. For questions of answer type Certificate, you can create conditions based
on the initial Yes or No answer, but not on certificate detail fields. You can create conditions based on answers
to questions in certificate sections.
• If you set a visibility condition for content in external (supplier-facing) questionnaires, make sure that the
question that triggers the condition is visible to participants.
• In internal supplier management questionnaire such as the internal supplier request, you can create questions
based on Locale master data, but you must specify field matches to locale codes rather than locale names.
Members of the Customer Administrator group can export the locale codes used in your site using the Export
Locale (CSV) data export task in Manage Administration Site Manager Data Import/Export ,
where they're listed in the UniqueName field of the exported CSV file.
• Internal questionnaires in supplier request, registration, qualification, disqualification, preferred supplier
management, modular questionnaire, and process projects support visibility conditions based on the following
answer types:
• Text (single line limited)
• Text (single line)
• Whole Number
• Decimal Number
• Percentage
• Money
• Quantity
• Date
• Yes/No
Note
Best Practices
• For better maintenance, SAP Ariba recommends using limited number of visibility conditions in a
questionnaire.
• SAP Ariba doesn't recommend collecting purchasing organization, company code, bank, and tax information in
questionnaires with visibility conditions.
For more information, refer Supplier Blocking and Unblocking in Internal Registration Questionnaires [page
273] and Question Mappings to Other Questions for Setting and Maintaining Associated Sets of ERP Profile
Data [page 270] .
Related Information
Conditional Workflows for Manual and Mass Invited Registrations [page 267]
Registration and Registration Update Statuses in Visibility and Editability Conditions [page 265]
Use these steps to create basic visibility conditions, which are based on answers to a single question.
Prerequisites
Create the question on which the condition is based before you can create the condition.
Context
The content to which you've applied a visibility condition is hidden from respondents unless they supply an answer
that fulfills the condition. At that point, the page refreshes and the conditional content appears. If a participant
changes an answer so that the condition is no longer fulfilled, the content disappears and any existing answers
aren't retained.
Note
You can't create conditions based on questions of answer type Text (multiple lines) or the individual fields in
questions of answer type Bank Account, Address, Extended Address, or Tax. You can create conditions based
on the initial Yes or No answer for Certificate questions, but not on individual certificate detail fields. You can
also create conditions on questions in certificate sections.
Procedure
1. Use an existing question or create a new question on which to base the condition.
2. On the content table, perform one of the following actions:
• For questions with numerical answer types (including date and money), enter a From and To value to
create a range of values.
• For questions with text answer types, enter a string of text that must match participant answers exactly to
satisfy the condition.
• For questions with Yes/No answer types, select either Yes, No, or Either.
• For questions with a defined list of answer values that are specific to the question, select the answer from
the dropdown menu.
• For questions with answers that must be selected from a list of site-wide values (such as commodity), click
select and select the values that participants’ answers must match in order to satisfy the condition.
7. Click OK.
Next Steps
Now, you can apply the condition to form or questionnaire content. When you're creating or editing the content, for
Visibility Condition, click none and choose from the list of available conditions.
Prerequisites
Create the questions on which the condition is based before you can create the condition.
Context
The content to which you've applied a visibility condition is hidden from respondents unless they supply an answer
that fulfills the condition. At that point, the page refreshes and the conditional content appears. If a participant
changes an answer so that the condition is no longer fulfilled, the content disappears and any existing answers
aren't retained.
Note
You can't create conditions based on questions of answer type Text (multiple lines) or the individual fields in
questions of answer type Bank Account, Address, Extended Address, or Tax. You can create conditions based
on the initial Yes or No answer for Certificate questions, but not on individual certificate detail fields. You can
also create conditions on questions in certificate sections.
1. Use an existing question or create a new question on which to base the condition.
2. Perform one of the following actions:
• Click Undefined and select the question on which you want to base the condition from the list of options,
then specify the content match that fulfills the condition.
• To enclose an expression within an expression, click the expression and select it. The new expression is
added to its left.
• To add a condition in parallel to another condition, click the expression to its left, then select the question
or formula from the list of options and specify the content match that fulfills the condition.
• To nest a set of conditions with an expression inside another expression, add a condition to the first
expression, then select Content Match for the condition and select the expression. The new expression is
added to the left of the condition, but within the first expression.
7. Continue adding nested conditions and expressions as needed.
8. Click OK.
Next Steps
Now, you can apply the condition to form or questionnaire segment content. When you're creating or editing the
content, for Visibility Condition, click none and choose from the list of available conditions.
Expression Definition
All of An advanced expression that can include multiple expressions used for conditions that require all
expressions to match (AND). You can use the All of expression to make a condition true under
specific, layered circumstances.
For example, you can create an All of expression with two content matches: Are you Woman Owned
Enterprise Certified? = Yes and Are you Small Business Certified? = No. This condition is true for any
supplier that is Woman Owned Enterprise Certified but is not Small Business Certified. You can use
this condition to display specific content for suppliers with that combination of certifications.
Any of An expression that is true if one or more of the expressions defined in it are true (OR).
For example, if you define an Any of condition with four questions in it, that condition is true if the
participant’s answer matches the answers you define as content matches for at least one, or as
many as all four, of those four questions.
None of An expression that is true only if none of the expressions defined in it are true (NOT).
For example, you can create a None of expression with content matches to four different regions
where you have manufacturing plants for questions that ask participants if they have shipping cen-
ters close to those regions. You can use this condition to display content to suppliers who answered
No to all of those questions, and therefore might not be able to fulfill your shipping requirements.
Editability conditions function much like visibility conditions and are supported in for the same answer types.
You can create them based on answers to other questions, or based on the specific characteristics of a project.
As a best practice, it is recommended not use editability conditions for mandatory questions in a questionnaire,
because you cannot submit the questionnaire if the condition is not satisfied.
To create an editability condition based on the answer to another question, follow the procedure for creating a basic
or advanced visibility condition, then apply it to a question using the Editability Conditions setting rather than the
Visibility Conditions setting.
To create an editability condition based on a project characteristic, create a project-level condition; for more
information, see the Project Template Guide. The basic steps for creating project-level conditions and visibility
conditions are the same. However, you create project-level conditions on the template Conditions tab and use field
matches based on project-level attributes such as status, owner, or other fields.
You can use editability conditions in survey content documents in any supplier management project template.
However, they're useful in external questionnaires in the supplier registration project template, where you can use
them to:
• In sites where the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) is enabled, you can use editability conditions
on commodity region, and department questions in the process intake form to set default answers.
Related Information
Visibility Conditions for Showing or Hiding Content Based on Answers [page 469]
Creating Basic Visibility Conditions in a Form of Questionnaire [page 472]
Creating Advanced Visibility Conditions in a Form or Questionnaire [page 473]
Streamlining the Registration Questionnaire for Legacy Suppliers Using Editability Conditions [page 268]
Using Editability Conditions to Prevent Recipients from Updating Registration Questionnaire Answers [page 266]
Conditional Commodity, Region, and Business Unit Questions in the Process Project Intake Form [page 300]
Example: Creating a Dropdown Menu with Predefined Answer Values [page 476]
Example: Automatically Rejecting Answers That Don't Fall Within a Limited Range [page 477]
Example: Creating a Question That's Only to Visible Suppliers with Green Certifications [page 479]
Example: Asking About Preferred Category Status Using Master Data Values [page 480]
This example shows sample steps for adding a question and providing a list of choices for the answer. The supplier
form or questionnaire shows those choices in a dropdown menu, and the respondent selects an answer from the
menu.
Prerequisites
Lists of choices are only available for questions with one of the following answer types:
Procedure
This example shows sample steps for adding a question with a limited range answer to a form or questionnaire. Any
answers that fall outside that range are rejected. The respondent can only submit the questionnaire successfully if
they provide an answer within the defined range.
Prerequisites
Limited ranges are only available for questions with one of the following answer types:
• Whole Number
• Decimal Number
• Date
• Money
• Percentage
Context
For questions with answer type Date, you can limit answers relative to the current date or specify a fixed (custom)
date range. For example, you can require that the respondent’s answer are in the current year, current month,
previous fiscal quarter, and so forth.
Procedure
• For number ranges, enter numerical values in the From and To fields.
• For date ranges, choose a value from the Range dropdown menu, or choose Custom and specify a fixed
date range.
5. Specify other settings for the question and click Done.
This example shows sample steps for creating a Certificate question. The Certificate answer type includes fields
that allow respondents to provide effective and expiration dates, issuer, and other details.
Procedure
When the supplier chooses Yes to provide a certificate and clicks the Details link, a window opens up. The supplier
can enter issuer, effective and expiration dates, certificate numbers, and other details, as well as uploading the
certificate as an attachment.
Any certificates a supplier uploads in response to a question of type Certificate are shows on the Certificates
detail area in the supplier's profile.
This example shows sample steps for how to use visibility conditions to create a question that's only visible to
suppliers who are certified green.
Procedure
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Add Question .
b. Enter a name for the question, such as Are you certified green?.
c. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, choose Certificate.
d. For Visible to Participant, choose Yes.
e. In the Supplier field mapping field, enter vendor.certificate.
f. Specify other settings for the question and click Done.
2. Create a condition based on a yes answer to the green certificate question:
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Edit Conditions .
b. On the Edit Conditions page, click Add.
c. In the Create Condition window, enter a name for the condition, such as Show for green certified.
d. For the expression, click Undefined and select your green certification question.
e. Select Yes for the content match.
f. Click OK, then click Done.
3. Create a question that will only show when a supplier Yes to your certification question:
a. Below the content table for the form or questionnaire segment, choose Add Question .
b. Enter a name for the question, such as Please provide your company's sustainability
policy. You can add it as an attachment..
c. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, select Text (multiple line).
d. For Visible to Participant, choose Yes.
e. For Participant can add additional comments and attachments, choose Yes.
a. For Visibility Conditions, click none and select your green certified condition.
b. Click Done.
Context
This question is useful in category status forms in preferred supplier management projects, where internal users
can request changes to the preferred status of the qualified suppliers they work with.
Procedure
Results
Users answering this question select from the supplier preferred levels defined in your site's master data on a
dropdown menu.
Project groups and their members define who can perform key activities in supplier management and engagement
projects, such as owning tasks or approving questionnaires.
Project Groups and Team Members for Project Templates [page 481]
Using Buyer Category Assignments to Add Team Members to Project Groups [page 485]
You add project groups and team members to a project template in one of 4 ways, depending on the type of project
and whether you want the membership to be static or dynamic:
Note
While you can specify that project owners can edit project groups in supplier management and engagement
risk assessment projects, many of the users who work with those projects can't access the advanced view,
which is the only way to access the project's Team tab. Only users who can access the advanced view of
those projects can edit their project groups, regardless of whether they're project owners and the groups in the
project allow project owners to edit them.
• To see the advanced view of a supplier management project, the Advanced View link for that project
type must be enabled in your site and you must have appropriate group membership permissions. The
advanced view isn't available for preferred supplier management projects.
• To see the advanced view of an engagement risk assessment project, you must have the appropriate group
membership permissions.
To specify members of the Project Owner group that are inherited by projects created from a template, you must
use the method for automatically populating project groups that is supported for the project type. Depending on
the project type, that method can be either buyer category assignments or team member rules.
Members manually added to a Project Owner group from a template’s Team tab aren't inherited by any projects
created from that template. Manually adding members to the Project Owner group for a template grants those
users Project Owner rights for that template only.
Tip
You can use a parameter to authorize an exception for control-based engagement risk assessment projects.
See Allow engagement Project Owner groups to inherit project group membership from the template.
Note
In supplier management, control-based and legacy engagement risk assessment, and issue management
projects, the user who creates the project (by requesting a supplier or engagement, inviting a supplier to
register, and so on) is the initial project owner in most circumstances. With supplier registration projects,
project ownership depends on whether the project was created manually, automatically, or through mass
invitation. Control-based engagement risk assessment and issue management projects support changing the
project owner after project creation.
Managing Access to the Advanced View of Supplier Management Projects [page 577]
Buyer Category Assignments in Supplier Management Projects [page 483]
About Team Member Rules Files
Strategic Sourcing and Supplier Management Group Descriptions
Retrieving Project Team Details by Using the Sourcing Project Management API
Adding Users in a Project Group by Using the Sourcing Project Management API
Updating User Information in a Project Team by Using the Sourcing Project Management API
Updating Project Groups by Using the Sourcing Project Management API
Buyer category assignments automatically add project team members when a supplier management project is
created. They're the only way to add team members to the Project Owner group from a template, since individual
users added to a template's Project Owner group aren't inherited by any projects that are created from the
template.
• User matrix data, which an administrator in your organization imports into your site as a CSV data file [page
157]. The file assigns either individual users or global user groups to project groups for specific commodities,
regions, and departments.
• Template project groups with the Use commodity and region assignments setting enabled. Importing user
matrix data doesn't automatically create the project groups it references. Default template project groups such
as Project Owner don't use user matrix data to assign team membership by default. You must create or edit
the project groups referenced in your site's user matrix data and enable the assignment setting [page 157] so
that the user matrix data adds team members to them.
Buyer category assignments are always based on a combination of commodity and region. The combination can be
general (all commodities or all regions), narrow (solid-fiber cardboard crates or London), or anywhere between in
the commodity and region hierarchies. When a supplier management project is created, it checks to see if there are
users assigned to the supplier's commodity code and region.
If your site has the department feature enabled, buyer category assignments are based on a combination of
commodity, region, and department. The assignments work the same way with your company's department
hierarchy as they do with commodity and region hierarchies.
For details on how specific project commodities, regions, and departments translate into buyer category
assignments, refer to User Matrix (Buyer Category Assignment) Data File Format [page 157].
Supplier management projects must meet the following prerequisites to use buyer category assignments:
Supplier request (internal or external) The request must include questions based on commodity, re-
gion, and (if your site uses them) department master data that
are mapped to matrix.Categories, matrix.Regions,
and matrix.Departments.
• They're applied only based on commodity, region, and department, which are the most common metrics by
which companies organize their supplier management processes.
• They apply to all supplier management projects in a site, meaning:
• A single source of assignment data. A template creator must upload team member rules files to each
individual project, but a customer administrator can upload and maintain buyer category assignments for
all supplier management projects in a single CSV file.
• Continuity of team membership across the entire supplier lifecycle. Since assignments apply to all supplier
management projects in a site, the same category or supplier managers and other team members manage
the same suppliers across all related supplier management projects.
• They provide more flexibility: team member rules assign users to projects based on exact matches to a field
value, while buyer category assignments also look for matches above the specified value in a hierarchy if there
are no exact matches.
Restriction
In solutions that include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, buyer category assignments aren't supported in engagement
risk assessment projects or issue management projects, and aren't applied to the modular questionnaire
projects that are created by sending risk assessments.
Related Information
Project Groups and Team Members for Project Templates [page 481]
Using Buyer Category Assignments to Add Team Members to Project Groups [page 485]
User Matrix (Buyer Category Assignment) Data File Format [page 157]
User Groups in Buyer Category Assignments (the User Matrix) [page 185]
Prerequisites
Commodity and region assignments work automatically in supplier qualification, disqualification, and preferred
supplier management in the project groups that are configured to use them. They only work in request
Buyer category assignments are supported in the following types of supplier management projects:
For restrictions and prerequisites for specific project types, refer to Buyer Category Assignments in Supplier
Management Projects [page 483].
Commodity, region, and department assignment data (the user matrix) must be imported into your site in order for
users to be added to project groups based on those assignments.
To use buyer category assignments to add members of the Project Owner group, you edit the Project Owner group
to apply the assignments to it and make sure that the system user aribasystem is a member of the group.
Procedure
1. Open a supplier template for editing. If the template status isn't Draft, create a new version so that you can edit
it.
Related Information
You define the approval process for a supplier form or questionnaire in an associated approval task.
Commodity, Region, and Department Assignments for Form and Questionnaire Approvals [page 501]
Editing Approval Flows with the Approval Process Diagram [page 495]
Template authors can also specify a simple set of parallel or serial approvers directly in the Approvers or Reviewers
field. This method provides a simple way to specify approvers but doesn't include all the functionality provided by
the approval rule editor.
Note
• In supplier management projects, if you've set Allow auto approval to Yes in an approval task, don't
add any approvers to it. Template validation prevents publication of supplier management projects
that includes any approval tasks that both are set to auto-approve and include approvers. Supplier
management projects are:
Serial approvers are assigned consecutively in the order they appear in the approval flow diagram (from left to
right). SAP Ariba does not activate a node in a flow (assign a task to the approver in the node) until the preceding
approvers (approvers to the left in the approval flow) have submitted approvals or reviews. In the following approval
flow, SAP Ariba first assigns the task to user AAA. After AAA submits his or her approval, SAP Ariba assigns the
task to user BBB.
Parallel approvers are assigned simultaneously. SAP Ariba assigns the task to the approvers at the same time. In
the following approval flow, SAP Ariba assigns the task to users AAA and BBB at the same time.
An approval flow can contain a combination of both parallel and serial approvers.
When you add a group to an approval (or review) flow, SAP Ariba can either:
• Expand the group (and any subgroups) and insert each user as a parallel approver (or reviewer) in the approval
flow. Each user receives notification about the task. All users in the group are needed to approve (or review)
the document. After all users in the group approves (or reviews) the document, the approval flow moves to
successive approvers.
• Insert the group as a single unit in the approval flow. All users in the group receive notification about the task.
Any one user in the group is sufficient to approve the task (or move to the next approver in a serial flow).
The behavior when you add a group to an approval flow is determined by the method you use to add the approver.
• If you add a group using the graphical approval flow editor, the pane for adding an approver contains the option
All approvers need to approve? If you select No, SAP Ariba inserts the group as a single unit in the approval
flow. If you select Yes, SAP Ariba expands the group and inserts each user as a parallel approver. The default
value is No.
• If you add a group as an approver directly in an editable Approvers or Reviewers field in a task window for a
serial or parallel approval flow, SAP Ariba does not expand the group.
• If the group was inherited from an approver lookup table file in the template, SAP Ariba does not expand the
group.
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Procedure
1. Create or open a project template. If the status is not Draft, create a new version as described in Creating a
New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 198].
2. If the task does not already exist, select the appropriate document and click Create New Task Review ,
Approval, or Negotiation. The system opens a window to create the task.
If the task already exists, click the task name and click Action View Task Details . In the task area, click
Actions Task Edit .
• Specify a simple set of parallel or serial approvers directly in the Approvers or Reviewers field. Select
Parallel or Serial for the approval flow type, then use the pull-down menu in the Reviewers or Approvers
field to add approvers without using the approval rule editor. See Restrictions When Specifying Approvers
in the Approvers or Reviewers Field [page 490] for restrictions.
• Open the approval rules editor. In the window for a new task or task without an approval flow, navigate to
the Approvers or Reviewers field, then click one of the following:
Note
If you select Parallel or Serial for the approval flow type and use the approval rule editor to add
approvers, the system changes the approval flow type to Custom.
If you have a Custom approval flow and change the approval flow type to Parallel or Serial, the system
removes all customization data from the approval flow, including:
• Any condition for each rule.
• Any rule that uses an approver lookup table file.
• The Required Approver or Watcher option. All approvers become required approvers.
• The title, description, and reason for each approver.
If the approval rule flow type is parallel or serial, template authors can specify a simple set of parallel or serial
approvers directly in the Approvers or Reviewers field, with the following restrictions:
• The approval flow can contain either parallel or serial approvers, but not both parallel and serial approvers.
• You cannot add any watchers to the flow.
• You cannot specify any conditions for the approvers.
• You cannot use approval rule lookup tables.
• You cannot move approvers in the flow.
• If you specify multiple serial approvers, you must add the approvers in order from last to first; the last reviewer
you specify will be the first approver in the approval flow.
• If you select a group as an approver, there is no option to expand the group and require all users in the group to
approve (or review) the document. Only one user in the group is needed to approve (or review) the document.
After one user in the group approves the document, the approval flow moves to successive approvers. If you
want to require all users in a group to approve a document, you must add the group using the approval rule
editor.
• You cannot use the Add Launch Approver or Add Contract Approver action to conditionally add the Sourcing
Approver or Contract Approver group to an approval flow. See Specifying Actions to Add Approvers and Groups
[page 499] for additional information.
Related Information
• Approval Process Diagram. Add rules here or select a rule to see the condition and action.
• Approval Rule Editor. Specify or view the condition that triggers the action (add users or groups) for the rule
selected in the diagram. It contains the following sections:
• Condition: Specify a condition for the action. If you always want the action to occur, use the default
condition (an empty All Are True condition).
• Action. Specify or view the action taken when the condition is met. The action specifies if approvers are
added by selecting individual users or groups using a drop-down menu or by using an Approver Lookup
Table.
• Parameters. Specify parameters for the rule selected in the diagram. If you are not using an Approver Lookup
table, use the drop-down menu to select the users or groups to add to the approval flow.
The approval rules for a given task are shown in the Approval Process Diagram. Each approval rule consists of:
• A condition.
The condition in an approval rule contains one or more references to conditions defined for the template.
• An action.
The action adds specified approvers to the approval flow. If the condition is met, then the system performs the
action and adds the specified approvers to the approval flow.
Creating a condition is optional; if you do not create a condition, the default condition (an empty All Are True
condition) always evaluates to true and the action always occurs.
In this example, the approval process diagram has the rule Over $100M. The rule Over $100M is highlighted and
the editor shows the condition and action for this rule: if the template condition Contract Amount Over $100M
is true, the system takes the action to add the user Max Olson to the approval flow.
1. Add one or more approval rules, which are shown in the approval process diagram. For information about
working with the approval process diagram, see Editing Approval Flows with the Approval Process Diagram
[page 495].
2. (Optional) Specify a condition for each approval rule. The condition contains references to template conditions.
The approval rule editor includes a feature that enables you to define a template condition if one does not
already exist. For information about working with conditions, see Working with Approval Rule Conditions [page
496].
3. Specify an action for each approval rule to add approvers. For information about adding approvers, see Adding
Approvers in the Approval Rule Editor [page 499].
Related Information
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
You can create a simple approval rule without using an approval rules table. Each approval rule adds one approver
or group of approvers to the approval flow.
Procedure
1. Create a new task in a template or edit an existing template task from the View Task Details page.
2. Select the approval flow type and click the corresponding approval flow icon (such as ).
• Add Approvers: adds one or more individual users, groups, or project groups.
• Add Group: adds one global group.
• Add Project Group: adds one project group.
• Add Contract Approver: adds the Contract Approvers global group if the required conditions are met. For
more information, see Specifying Actions to Add Approvers and Groups [page 499].
• Add Launch Approver: adds the Sourcing Approver global group if the required conditions are met. For
more information, see Specifying Actions to Add Approvers and Groups [page 499].
• Add Supervisor. Adds the supervisor of a project user field (such as the Owner field) to the approval flow
using notification profiles. The rule can also be “chained” to repeatedly add supervisors.
7. Specify the appropriate parameter values for the approvers as follows:
• All users in group have to approve: This field is present only if you are adding a global group or project
group to the approval flow. If selected, the system expands the group and adds each user in the group
as an individual parallel node in the approval flow. Each user in the group must approve (or review) the
document.
• If the All users in group have to approve option is not selected, the system adds the group as a single
entity in the flow and only one user in the group is needed to approve (or review) the document. After any
one user in the group approves the document, the approval flow moves to successive approvers.
• Approval required: If selected, the approver must approve or review the document associated with the
task (this is the default value). If this option is not selected, the approver is added as a watcher. A watcher
cannot approve the task but can view the task and the approval flow.
• Approving Group, Approver(s) to be added to the flow, or ProjectGroup to be added to the flow: Select
the group or users to be added.
• Reason: Reason for adding the approvers. This field is optional. By default, the text you specify in this field
is included in email notifications sent to approvers.
8. To add additional approval rules to the flow, go back to the Approval Process Diagram and click the action
triangle button ( ) where you want to add the node in the flow.
The new node is highlighted in green to indicate that the contents of the Approval Rule Editor apply to this
node.
9. Click Done.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Context
Each box, or node, in an approval flow represents an approval rule. Approval rules are processed in order from left
to right. When the system creates an approval flow from the approval rules, it evaluates the condition for each rule
and adds the approvers specified in the action for the rule.
Nodes in an approval flow have action triangle buttons ( ) you can click to add or move nodes . To delete an
approval rule, click the “X” button ( ).
Procedure
1. Open the approval flow editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 489].
2. To add an approval rule:
a. Click the area in the approval flow where you want to add the approver (or reviewer).
• If there are no approvers in the approval flow, click Add Initial Approver to add an approver. This
button is available only when there are no approvers.
• If you are adding a serial approval rule to a flow with existing rules, click the action triangle button ( )
where you want to add the approval rule.
• If you are adding a parallel approval rule to a flow with existing rules, click the left-most action triangle
button ( ) in the flow.
b. Choose Add Serial Rule or Add Parallel Rule.
c. To specify where the parallel rule or flow should connect back into the main approval process, click a blue
target ( ). (If there is only one position possible, the position is selected for you.)
d. In the approval rule editor below the diagram, enter a title and description for the new rule.
3. To move an approval rule:
a. Click the left or right triangle action button ( ) beside the approval rule you want to move.
b. Choose Move Rule.
The updated diagram shows the new position of the moved rule.
4. To delete an approval rule:
a. Click the “X” button ( ) on the approval rule you want to delete.
b. Click OK when prompted for confirmation.
Next Steps
• (Optional) Specify a condition for this rule (Approval Rule Conditions [page 496]).
• Add approvers.
Related Information
Note
Specifying a condition for an approval rule is optional. If an approval rule has no condition defined, the system
always performs the action specified for that rule.
A condition for an approval rule consists of components. The components can be:
• References to a condition, which are references to a condition defined for the template. The approval rule
editor also enables you to create a template condition and add a reference to the new condition.
• Subconditions, which contain a set of condition components that are evaluated together with a series of logical
operators. Subconditions enable you to build conditions with multiple components.
• Document field matches, which evaluate to true or false depending on field values in document forms.
Note
In project types that support approver lookups, you can also define conditions and actions based on an
approver lookup table. Supplier management projects don't support approver lookup tables.
A condition in an approval rule always contains at least one subcondition. In its simplest form, an approval rule
condition consists of a subcondition that contains a reference to a template condition. For example, you could have
the following condition expression:
Note
All condition expressions start with a subcondition, even if the only additional component is a field match or a
reference to a condition.
Related Information
References to a Condition
When you choose to add a reference to a condition, the system opens a window with a chooser for conditions
already defined in the project template and a Create Condition link you can click to open the condition editor and
create a new condition for the template. For more information about the condition editor, see Defining Approval
Rule Conditions [page 498].
Subconditions
Subconditions enable you to group and evaluate a set of condition components as a whole.
• All Are True. For this subcondition to be true, all the condition components that it contains must be true.
Conceptually, the All Are True subcondition places AND operators between the condition components in the
set.
An approval condition can contain multiple subconditions (and components). You add condition components from
left to right in the condition builder. The components are evaluated in the opposite direction—from right to left.
Context
Use the condition builder in the approval rule editor to define the condition for an approval rule.
Procedure
1. Open the approval flow editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 489].
2. In the approval process diagram, select the rule for which you want to build a condition.
3. Click the action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True. All conditions must start with a subcondition even
if you plan to add only one other condition component. The default initial subcondition is All Are True. If you
want to change the subcondition type, scroll down to the Change To area and choose the new type. For more
information on subcondition types, see Subconditions [page 497].
To create a new template condition or to add a reference to a project template condition, click the action
triangle button next to All Are True, then click Reference to Condition.
The system opens a pane with a Reference to Condition field and a Create Condition link.
To use an existing project template condition, click the arrow button next to the Reference to Condition field. A
chooser opens with the existing project template conditions.
To create a new project condition, click Create Condition. You can also use this link to define a document field
condition..
4. Enter a name for the condition, such as RegionIsEMEA.
5. Enter a description for the condition.
6. All conditions start with the subcondition All Are True. If you want to change the subcondition type, click the
action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True, then select a type under Change To, such as None Is True.
7. To add a field match, click the triangle button next to All Are True, then click Add Condition Field
Match .
A field match builder opens. Click Select. A pull-down menu opens with project fields commonly used for field
matches.
Depending on the data type for the field, the system displays a pull-down menu with acceptable values, a
selection pane, or data entry pane. Enter or choose the value, set of values, or range of values (as applicable)
that you want to match.
If a field can have multiple values, the system displays a selection pane. Clicking Select opens a chooser that
enables you to specify a set of multiple values for the field match. The condition will be true if any of the field
values in the set are matched. To create a condition that is true if all of the specified field values are matched,
you must create a condition expression with the All of operator and multiple field matches, where each field
match specifies a single value.
11. Continue adding condition components as necessary.
12. Click OK.
Related Information
Condition Expressions
Guidelines for Defining Conditions
Defining Approval Rule Conditions with Document Fields
Prerequisites
To create or edit project templates, you must be a member of the global Template Creator group or the Templates
project’s Template Creators team group. To create or edit a modular supplier management questionnaire project
template, you must also be a member of the global SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group. To create or edit
a supplier management process project template, you must also be a member of the global SM Process Manager
group.
Procedure
1. Open the approval rule editor as described in Creating or Editing Approval Rules [page 489].
2. In the Approval Process Diagram area, select the rule (node) for which you want to add approvers.
• Add Approvers and Groups: Specify a user, global group, or project group from the Action pull-down
menu.
You can also use this option to add the supervisor of a project user field (such as the Owner field) to the
approval flow. This action can also be “chained” to repeatedly add supervisors.
• Use Approver Lookup Table: Use an Microsoft Excel XLS lookup table to determine which approver to add
based on project field values. For example, you could have an approver lookup table that lists commodity
codes and specifies which approver to add for each code.
5. If you selected Add Approvers and Groups, navigate to the Action pull-down menu and select the type of
approver you want to add:
Note
For supplier management project approval flows, only add project groups. In the case of a missing approver
in a supplier management project approval flow, the add missing approver tool only works when the
missing approver is in an empty project group. It does not support adding approvers to other approver
categories.
6. Select the appropriate parameters and approvers. Complete the fields as follows:
Related Information
Prerequisites
This example assumes that the following commodity, region, and project group assignment data is loaded in the
site:
Project Owner,801116,unspsc,USA,ljenkins,PasswordAdapter1
Human Resources,8011,unspsc,USA,tjones,PasswordAdapter1
Human Resources,8011,unspsc,Canada,ayang,PasswordAdapter1
Global Services,80,unspsc,All,rbarney,PasswordAdapter1
• Larry Jenkins (ljenkins) to the Project Owner project group for all temporary personnel services (UNSPSC
code 801116) in the United States. Larry Jenkins is a category manager for temporary labor and manages all
temporary labor suppliers in the US.
Context
In this example, a category manager must approve the supplier registration; if it's for a temporary labor supplier,
a human resources representative must approve the registration in parallel; after that, all registrations for services
are sent serially to the global services department for final approval.
Procedure
1. Open the Supplier Request Template. If the status isn't Draft, create a new version as described in Creating a
New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 198].
2. Since Human Resources and Global Services aren't default AribaSAP Ariba groups, create them by performing
the following steps:
The Project Owner group is always included in projects, so you don't have to add it manually. However, make
sure that the aribasystem system user is a member of the group; it's a requirement for adding users to the
Project Owner group dynamically.
3. Create conditions for the temporary labor and management and business professionals and administrative
services commodities by performing the following steps:
a. On the Conditions tab, click Add Condition.
b. Enter a name for the condition, such as Temporary Labor Services, and a description, such as
Applies when the commodity is temporary labor services.
c. Click the action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True and choose Add Condition Field Match .
A new, untitled approval node appears on the graph in parallel to the Project Owner node.
b. Click the new rule to select it.
c. In the Approval Rule Editor area, enter a name for the node, such as Human Resources, and a
description, such as Adds a member of the Human Resources department to the approval
flow for temporary labor suppliers.
d. In the Condition area, click the action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True and choose Add
Condition Reference to Condition .
e. On the Reference to Condition dropdown menu, choose Search more, then click the Select button to the
right of the Temporary Labor Services condition.
f. Click OK.
g. In the Action area, for Type, choose Add Approvers and Groups.
h. From the Action dropdown menu, choose Add Project Group.
i. Make sure that All users in group have to approve is not selected. In this scenario, only the user in
the project group who is assigned to the specific supplier registration commodities and regions needs to
approve the registration.
j. Select Approval Required.
k. For ProjectGroup to be added to the flow?, on the dropdown menu, choose Search more. Click the
Select button next to Human Resources, then click Done.
l. For Reason for the specified approver(s) to be added to the flow , enter a reason such as A Human
Resources representative must approve requests related to temporary labor.
8. Next, add a serial node for the global services representative with a condition on the management and
business professionals and administrative services commodity by performing the following steps:
a. In the Approval Process Diagram area, click the action triangle button ( ) to the right of the Project
Owner approval node and choose Add Parallel Rule.
A new, untitled approval node appears on the graph in parallel to the Project Owner node.
b. Click the new rule to select it.
c. In the Approval Rule Editor area, enter a name for the node, such as Global Services, and a
description, such as Adds a member of the Global Services department to the approval
flow for management and business professionals and administrative services
suppliers.
Results
When you publish the template, and a supplier of temporary labor services in the United States submits a
registration questionnaire, the following actions occur in that supplier registration project:
• Category manager Larry Jenkins is added to the Project Owner group for the supplier registration and
becomes the project owner, receives a notification to review the registration, and approves or denies it.
• At the same time, human resources representative Theresa Jones is added to the Human Resources group
for the supplier registration, receives a notification to review the registration, and approves or denies it.
• Regina Barney is added to the Global Services group for the supplier registration and receives a
notification to approve it.after both Larry Jenkins and Theresa Jones have approved it . This approval or denial
is final.
Alan Yang isn't added to the Human Resources group for the supplier registration because the assignment to
temporary labor services in Canada means that there's no match for this supplier registration.
Supplier management projects include six specialized project-level fields (with project field mappings) that allow
you to create conditional approval flows based on answers to questions:
You use these field mappings in hidden questions to set numeric values between 1 and 5 in these project fields, and
then use them to trigger the conditional approval flow.
Note
• There can be only one of each available combination of field mapping and initial value present a single
questionnaire. For example, there can only be one question mapped to project.LegalApprovalLevel
with an initial value of 2 in a single registration questionnaire. For qualification questionnaires assembled
from content document questionnaire segments, the assembled questionnaire can only contain one of
each available combination of field mapping and initial value total. If different content documents with
the same mapping and initial value combination are included in the same qualification questionnaire, the
conditions built on that combination don't function correctly in that questionnaire.
• In most project workflows, approvers can request additional information, and questionnaire recipients can
then update answers while the questionnaire is in approval. The way that edits to the answers that trigger
conditional approvals update the approval flow depend on which project-level fields are involved. Edits that
change the value set for the same field update the approver in that node. Edits that change which field
a value is set for add a separate approval node in parallel rather than updating the existing node, which
remains in the approval flow.
For example, if the previous answer sets the Finance Approval Level field to 1 and an update sets the
Finance Approval Level field to 4, the approver associated with 1 is removed from the node and replaced
by the approver associated with 4. However, if the previous answer set the Finance Approval Level to 1 and
an update sets the Line of Business Approval Level to 1 instead, the approver associated with Finance
Approval Level = 1 remains in the approval flow, and a parallel node with the approver associated with Line
of Business Approval Level = 1 is added.
The high-level workflow for adding project groups to an approval flow based on answers to a question is as follows:
1. (Optional) If you want to add users to the project group dynamically, perform the following steps:
• Set up buyer category assignments so that users are added to the project group you want to use in the
conditional approval flow based on the supplier's characteristics.
• On the project's Team tab, add the project group you want to use in the conditional approval.
2. In the form or questionnaire, create the question on which you want to base the conditional approval flow. Make
sure that the question you create either uses a list of choices or master data value for the acceptable answer,
or has an answer type of Yes/No or Date. These configurations ensure that possible answers are limited to a
specific set of values that you can use to define a condition.
3. Create a simple visibility condition with a content match to the previous question and specify the answer that
you want to use to trigger the conditional approval flow.
4. Add another question under the previous question with the following settings:
• For Answer Type, choose Whole Number.
• For Response Required?, choose Not Required.
• For Visible to Participant, choose No. This setting is only supported in external questionnaires answered
by suppliers. It doesn't hide questions from buyer users in your site.
With this configuration, when a supplier enters the answer specified in the questionnaire visibility condition, the
hidden question is activated, but it's not visible. The hidden question adds the specified initial value to the mapped
project-level field, which triggers the project-level condition. The project-level condition adds the specified project
group to the approval flow, and the buyer category assignments or team member rules add specific users to the
project group, where they become approvers for the supplier.
This process describes the simplest configuration using a single hidden question to trigger conditional approval.
You can use multiple hidden questions and project conditions to create more complex conditional approvals. For
example, if you have a question with a list of choices defined for its acceptable answers, you can use multiple
hidden questions to define a unique initial value for each choice. You can then create a separate project condition
for each hidden question value to define a different conditional approval flow for each possible answer to the
question.
Since there are six specialized project-level fields, and you can use each of them to trigger five separate conditions
(using numbers 1 through 5), you can create up to 30 separate approval conditions in total.
Related Information
This example shows sample steps for setting up a question with answers that set values in a project field. You can
use those answers to trigger conditional approval nodes in an approval task for the questionnaire.
Prerequisites
This example assumes that you're using buyer category assignments to assign specific users to the Legal
Approvers project group based on region.
Context
This example uses a question in the external supplier request questionnaire asking suppliers to agree to your
code of conduct. If the supplier answers yes, you don't need to change the approval flow for the external supplier
request. However, if the suppliers answers no, you require them to upload their own code of conduct, and you want
to add a member of your legal department to the approval flow so that they can review and approve it before the
external supplier request goes to any other approvers. You use the Legal Approval Level project field in a hidden
question to set up the conditional approval.
Procedure
1. Open the external supplier request project template. If the status isn't Draft, create a new version as described
in Creating a New Version of a Template and Enabling Editing [page 198].
2. On the Documents tab, click the external request and choose Edit.
3. Create the question about your code of conduct by performing the following steps:
a. In the content area of the external request, select the code of conduct question, then click Add
Question .
b. On the Add Question page, choose Add After.
c. Enter a name for the question, such as Please attach your own code of conduct.
d. On the Answer Type dropdown menu, choose Attachment.
e. On the Response Required dropdown menu, choose Yes, Participant Required.
f. On the Visible to Participant dropdown menu, choose Yes.
g. On the Participant can add additional comments and attachments dropdown menu, choose Yes.
h. For Visibility Conditions, click none and choose the condition you just created based on a No answer to
the first code of conduct question.
i. Click Done.
6. Create a hidden question that sets a value of 1 for the Legal Approval Level field by performing the following
steps:
A new, untitled node appears to the left of the Project Owner node.
f. In the Approval Rule Editor area, enter a name for the node, such as Legal, and a description, such as
Adds a member of the legal department to the approval flow if the supplier does
not agree to our code of conduct and uploads their own instead.
g. In the Condition area, click the action triangle button ( ) next to All Are True and choose Add
Condition Reference to Condition .
h. On the Reference to Condition dropdown menu, choose Search more, then click the Select button to the
right of the Requires legal review condition.
i. Click OK.
j. In the Action area, for Type, choose Add Approvers and Groups.
k. From the Action dropdown menu, choose Add Project Group.
l. Make sure that All users in group have to approve is not selected. In this scenario, you only need one user
from the legal department to approve the request.
m. Select Approval Required.
n. For ProjectGroup to be added to the flow?, on the dropdown menu, choose Search more. Click the
Select button next to Legal Approvers, then click Done.
o. For Reason for the specified approver(s) to be added to the flow , enter a reason such as A legal
representative must approve all codes of conduct submitted by suppliers.
10. Click Done.
Results
When you publish the template, and a supplier answers No to your code of conduct question, the following actions
occur in the external supplier request project:
• The No answer makes your follow-up question, requiring the supplier to attach their own code of conduct when
they submit the request, visible.
• The No answer activates the hidden question, which sets the value of the project's Legal Approval Level field to
1.
To enable external approval of an SAP Ariba project approval task, set External System Approval to Yes. With this
setting, the external approval API can process approval, denial, or request for additional information with the task.
Keep the following considerations in mind when configuring approval in this task and any related tasks:
• Make sure that any approval task configured for external approval isn't also set to auto-approve. These two
settings are incompatible.
• SAP Ariba recommends that you include only one approval node in tasks that allow external approval. To
combine external and SAP Ariba approvers for a single document, use separate approval tasks and chain them
together as predecessors.
• Within an approval node in a task configured for external approval, at least one of the available approvers must
also be a user in the external system. To process an external approval correctly, the approving external user
must match an existing SAP Ariba user who is an approver in that node.
In SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, there's also an optional feature to validate supplier requests in an
integrated SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) system, which creates a system-generated "external" task in the
workflow for the supplier request. That feature and its external task aren't related to API-based external approvals.
Depending on your SAP Ariba solution package, you have several options for integrating your site with an SAP ERP
system..
For information about setting up supplier data integration with an SAP system, refer to:
SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA SAP Integration Suite, Managed Gateway SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
for Spend Management and SAP Busi- formance
ness Network Configuration Guide SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
ture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
SAP MDG Integrating SAP MDG-S with SAP Ariba SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance formance
SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
ture)
SAP Ariba Supplier Risk
SAP S/4HANA Cloud using SAP Master About Supplier Data Integration with SAP SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Per-
Data Integration S/4HANA Cloud Using SAP Master Data formance
Integration SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new architec-
ture)
Note
Sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk without SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture) only support unidirectional integration
of supplier data from the ERP system to SAP Ariba Supplier Risk. This integration allows you to replicate
suppliers from your ERP system to SAP Ariba Supplier Risk for risk activities. Synchronization of updates from
SAP Ariba to the ERP system isn't supported in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk-only sites.
For bidirectional integration in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture):
• In configurations that include MDG-S, integration options enable validation of supplier requests in MDG-S
before the supplier record is created in the SAP Ariba supplier database and approval in MDG-S of updates to
supplier data in registration questionnaires.
• For information on best practice configurations in SAP Ariba, refer to:
• General Best Practices for Integration [page 61]
• Optional Feature Best Practices for Supplier Data Integration [page 65]
• Site Configuration Best Practices for Integration [page 70]
• Best Practices for Setting Up the Supplier Request for Integration [page 71]
Most of these best practices are designed to help replication of updated supplier data from SAP Ariba to the
integrated ERP system and aren't applicable to sites that only include SAP Ariba Supplier Risk.
Enabling Email Notifications with Daily Summaries of Integration Failures [page 524]
Integration and Exception Monitoring for Supplier Data with SAP Cloud ALM [page 525]
When Updates from an Integrated ERP System Are Pushed to External Registration Questionnaires [page 526]
A default properties data import allows you to specify initial values for fields in the vendor database. You set default
values by importing a CSV file that defines them.
There are several situations for which it's useful to set default values:
• To supply initial values for fields that are required in the integrated ERP system: Setting default values
ensures that required fields are populated with initial values when a supplier created in SAP Ariba is first
synchronized to an integrated ERP system. They're especially useful if you synchronize new suppliers before
registration or you don't plan to include mapped questions for some ERP-required fields in questionnaires. For
example, you can set a default role code for the supplier because it's a requirement in the ERP and you don't
want to rely on the requester or approver providing that information in the supplier request.
• To set initial default values in questionnaires: When suppliers are created in SAP Ariba by replication from
the ERP system, initial versions of questionnaires don't overwrite blank values from the integration message
with default answers configured in the template. They remain blank. You can set default values in data import
to prepopulate questionnaires for suppliers created this way with the same default values that are defined in
the template under other circumstances.
• To set default values in one field based on the value in another field: If the value in
field A is always dependent on the value in field B, setting the default value for field
A conditionally based on the value in field B [page 517] ensures that the data in field
A is always correct. For example, you can set default vendor.roleExt.roleCode and
vendor.vendorInfoExt.numberRangeIntervalBusinessPartnerGroupCode based on the account
group (vendor.vendorInfoExt.maintenanceProfileCode) selected in the supplier request.
You can then set up questions with a list of predefined choices for answers, where each answer matches
a value in a condition field. You can also use condition fields that are associated with master data such as
countries/regions or departments. When a questionnaire recipient chooses answers that match a defined
condition, those answers set the associated default value.
You can define simple defaults, defaults based on lookup keys, and conditional defaults in the same
Default_properties.csv file.
• Default_properties_sample.csv, which has the names of all of the fields for which you can
set defaults in the name column. The file also has a value column, and you can use the
sample to construct your Default_properties.csv file. The file includes a name/value pair setting
vendor.vendorInfoExt.categoryCode to 2.
• Default_properties_special_names.csv, which has a number of SAP Ariba-specific variables you can
use to set default field values. For example, if you set a field default to ${current.date}, when the supplier
data is sent to an integrated ERP system, the field value is set to the current date. SAP Ariba provides variables
for system information (current date, user names) and supplier management information (commodity, region,
department, preferred level, qualification status).
Tip
Using variables to set initial default field values is a useful way of ensuring that information that is included
in the SAP Ariba data model, but not in the default ERP data model, is synchronized to the ERP system after
supplier creation. This information is often set automatically in SAP Ariba (for example, ANID) rather than
included in mapped questions in questionnaires.
For example, you can use variables to send the supplier ANID and ACM ID to generic custom fields in the
ERP system as described in this example [page 514]. However, note that use of custom fields for this
purpose requires customization in the ERP system and is a work-around that requires thorough testing in
your landscape based on your requirements.
Note
• SAP ERP systems use a category code of 2 for business partner objects that are suppliers. SAP Ariba
always sets this default value.
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2205 release, the following values are set in the initial default
configuration:
name,value,vendor.vendorInfoExt.maintenanceProfileCode
vendor.roleExt.roleCode,FLVN01,KRED
vendor.vendorInfoExt.releasedIndicator,TRUE
vendor.vendorInfoExt.categoryCode,2
vendor.vendorInfoExt.reconciliationPeriodCounterValue,1
vendor.vendorInfoExt.numberRangeIntervalBusinessPartnerGroupCode,0001,KRED
These default values represent minimum best practices and requirements for integration. For more details,
including recommended settings for specific SAP systems, refer to General Best Practices for Integration
[page 61]
• Default_properties.csv and Default_properties_special_names.csv set initial default values
in vendor database fields for suppliers created directly in SAP Ariba. They don't set default values for
suppliers created by replication from the ERP system.
Default_properties.csv
Default field values specify the initial values set for supplier fields. You import default field values in the Default
field values area of SM Administration using Default_properties.csv.
Field Description
name The name of the field. To obtain the list of valid field names, export the sample file from the Default field
values area of SM Administration.
value The default value to set for the field. This value can be a concrete value or a variable.
To obtain the list of SAP Ariba-specific variables, export the sample file from the Default field values area
of SM Administration.
You can also construct a variable based on any field in the vendor model using the syntax $
{complete.Field.Name}. For example, ${vendor.vendorInfo.anId}. The sample default
field values file includes the complete field names for all fields in the vendor model in the name column.
When you import default field values by using the Default_properties.csv file, SAP Ariba checks whether the
field names and values in the file are valid. If not, the import fails.
The following example shows lines of the Default_properties.csv file that define simple defaults:
name,value
vendor.vendorInfoExt.categoryCode,2
vendor.companyCode.generalLedgerAccountReferenceID,33001
vendor.addressExt.email.validityPeriodStartDate,${current.date}
vendor.supplierGenericCustomField.ZS4ID,${vendor.vendorInfo.s4OrgSystemId}
The final value in this example automatically sets supplier ACM IDs in a custom field and, for suppliers created
in SAP Ariba from an approved supplier request, sends those ACM IDs to the integrated ERP system in the initial
synchronization. If the self-service configuration parameter Application.SM.Vendor.SyncAcmIdToERP is enabled
in Manage SM Administration , newly generated ACM IDs for other types of suppliers (such as suppliers
created from data import or replication from the ERP system) are also automatically included in updates sent to
the ERP system . However, use of custom fields for this purpose requires customization in the ERP system and is a
work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based on your requirements.
Tip
SAP Ariba recommends against default values configurations that associate specific
vendor.vendorExtIdentification.partyIdentifierTypeCode values with specific index positions
in the vendor.vendorExtIdentification array and then use those positions to populate the
businessPartnerID field with the value in a variable field. For example, this default value configuration isn't
recommended:
vendor.vendorExtIdentification[0].businessPartnerID,${feildName}
Supplier DUNS IDs are typically mapped to BUP001, which can change the array index. The potential for
different array index arrangements can cause issues with default values configurations that depend on specific
index positions. Instead, SAP Ariba recommends directly setting default business partner IDs for specific party
identification type codes to the value in a variable field using this configuration:
vendor.vendorExtIdentification(BUP002).businessPartnerID,${feildName}
You can also use the file to define default values for detail fields in an array class based on the value in the lookup
key field [page 515] and default values for one field conditionally based on values on other, unrelated fields [page
517].
Caution
Don't set default values for any of the database fields in the vendor.contacts class. Default values in these
fields aren't supported and can cause errors during supplier creation.
Related Information
A specific syntax in the default field values CSV data import file allows you to define default values based on the
values in associated lookup key fields for some types of supplier data. When a user submits a questionnaire with a
lookup key value, the associated default field values are automatically added to the supplier record.
You can dynamically set default field values for some fields based on the value specified in an associated lookup
key field. You can only set defaults for fields that are in the same class as the lookup key field using this method.
The syntax for creating these definitions in the default field values CSV file is:
vendor.lookupKeyFieldName(lookupKeyFieldValue?).defaultingFieldName,defaultFieldValu
e
SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions support setting defaults based on associated lookup key values for
most vendor database fields of type array, which can store multiple values for the same supplier in the same
database field.
The initial lookup key field value is set through a question in a supplier management project. This question must
specify a list of choices as acceptable answers, and that list of choices must correspond to the lookup key field
values you use to define the default field values in the CSV file. The question must also be mapped to the lookup
key field.
Although template creators can set up the questions that set these default values in any supplier
form or questionnaire in any supplier management project template (request, registration, qualification,
disqualification, preferred supplier management, or modular questionnaire), the types of data involved are
almost always known and used by only internal users at your company. Internal users can always update
answers in the internal questionnaire in the registration project, while questionnaires in other projects
are closed after they're submitted. In sites integrated with an SAP ERP system, updates from the ERP
are automatically pushed to the supplier request and both internal and external supplier registration
questionnaires. Therefore, SAP Ariba recommends that you create the questions that trigger defaults in the
internal registration questionnaire or the supplier request.
The following table lists the classes of vendor database fields that you can use to set default field values based on
lookup key fields:
vendor.bankInfos vendor.bankInfos.accountNumber
vendor.companyCode vendor.companyCode.companyCode
vendor.industrySector vendor.industrySector.industryClassificati
onSystemCode
vendor.purchasingOrg vendor.purchasingOrg.purchasingOrganisatio
nID
vendor.roleExt vendor.roleExt.roleCode
vendor.subRange vendor.subRange.vendorSubrangeCode
vendor.taxExt vendor.taxExt.vendor.taxExt.taxIdentificat
ionNumberTypeCode
vendor.text vendor.text.textTypeCode
vendor.vendorExtIdentification vendor.vendorExtIdentification.partyIdenti
fierTypeCode
vendor.vendorPCardIssuerAPIs vendor.vendorPCardIssuerAPIs.paymentCardIs
suerPartyInternalID
Note
As a best practice, SAP Ariba recommends managing company code and purchasing organization information
directly in the integrated SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S system. Setting or maintaining this data
in SAP Ariba is a work-around that requires thorough testing in your landscape based on your specific
requirements.
In the user interface, the data in most of these fields is displayed on the ERP data detail area of supplier profiles.
You can add up to three more columns to the default properties data import file to define default field values based
on the values in other fields. When a respondent submits a questionnaire with values that meet a condition, the
associated default value is automatically added to the supplier record.
You can dynamically set default field values for any field based on the values in up to three other fields, which
function as conditions. To do so, you add up to three columns in the default field values CSV file, specifying the
condition field names as the headers for those columns. You then use parentheses to define the default value to set
for each set of conditional values:
name,value,conditionField1,conditionField2,conditionField3
defaultingFieldName(defaultValue),defaultValue,condition1,condition2,condition3
For example, can assign role codes and business partner group codes automatically based on a supplier's account
group:
name,value,vendor.vendorInfoExt.maintenanceProfileCode
vendor.roleExt.roleCode(FLVN01),FLVN01,KRED
vendor.roleExt.roleCode(FLVN01),FLVN01,LIEF
vendor.vendorInfoExt.numberRangeIntervalBusinessPartnerGroupCode(0001),0001,KRED
vendor.vendorInfoExt.numberRangeIntervalBusinessPartnerGroupCode(0002),0002,LIEF
In this example, if the supplier's account group is KRED, its role code is automatically set to FLVN01 and its
business partner group code is automatically set to 0001.
The condition values are set through questions in a supplier management questionnaires. These questions must
have defined sets of answers, whether as lists of choices or master data. The answer set must correspond to the
condition values you use to define the default field values in the CSV file. The questions must also be mapped to the
condition fields.
In this example, a template creator can create a question of type Text (single line limited) in the supplier request
and enter vendor.vendorInfoExt.maintenanceProfileCode in the Supplier Field Mapping field. They can
define a list of choices based on the account group codes in an integrated ERP system since those values are
defined in site master data. This configuration causes the question's answers to set the associated default field
values.
The three condition fields in the default field values CSV file can function either together or independently. You
can use each supported condition column to set an unrelated default for a separate field, or you can use all three
condition columns together to set the default for the same field. If you don't want to use a condition for a particular
field, leave that condition column blank for that row.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To view the Integration status area, you must be a member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
Supplier data integration between your site and an SAP ERP system must be established. For more information,
refer to Supplier Data Integration with SAP Systems [page 511].
To see information about supplier synchronization, reprocess unsuccessful synchronizations, and include
synchronization information in integration status export, an administrator must enable one or both of the following
self-service parameters in SM Administration:
Context
If your site is integrated with an SAP ERP system, view and manage inbound and outbound integration messages in
the Integration status area of SM Administration. In this context:
• Inbound messages are sent from the ERP system to your SAP Ariba site.
• Outbound messages are sent from your SAP Ariba site to the ERP system.
In both inbound and outbound message queues, SAP Ariba retains Success, Failure, and Ignored messages for
365 days in production sites and 180 days in test sites from the timestamp of message creation in SAP Ariba.
Integration messages are automatically deleted after their retention period has elapsed.
When you replicate suppliers from an ERP system to your SAP Ariba site for the first time, the suppliers
in the inbound integration messages are synchronized to sourcing, where an ACM ID is generated for them.
This synchronization is required to work with the supplier in all SAP Ariba applications. In sites where the
partitioned supplier data feature (SM-30017) is enabled, the system also creates the specified supplier objects
(common supplier, partitioned supplier, remittance location, supplier location) and synchronizes them to SAP
Ariba Procurement solutions such as SAP Ariba Buying. This synchronization is required to work with the supplier
for procurement activities such as creating requisitions. Updates from the ERP system can trigger additional
synchronizations.
Reprocessing allows you to correct synchronization errors cased by timeouts or other non-data-specific issues
without requiring rereplication of the supplier data from the ERP system.
Note
This column shows a status of Not applicable in the fol-
lowing cases, which don't trigger a sourcing synchroniza-
tion:
Supplier Type The type of the supplier object synchronized to SAP Ariba Pro-
curement solutions, which can be:
Buying Sync The status of the supplier's synchronization to SAP Ariba Pro-
curement solutions such as SAP Ariba Buying. When synchro-
nization is completed successfully, this column shows a status
of Completed.
Processing status indicates that the data has been sent suc-
cessfully but that synchronization is still in progress. If syn-
chronization fails at this point, the Processing status updates
to a View errors link. You can use this link to view error de-
tails and address them before initiating resynchronization or
reprocessing.
Procedure
The area shows the most recent integration messages by default, and the Status column shows the status of
each message in the table.
3. Optional: Perform one or more of the following actions to look for specific messages:
Results
If you exported search results to a CSV file, the file always includes information about direction, time range, status,
and type filters at the beginning of the export file. It also includes filter information for SM Vendor ID, UUID, or
ERP Vendor ID if applied. The following example shows both basic filter information and information for all three of
these additional filters in a site where both sourcing and procurement synchronization information are enabled:
Direction: Inbound
Time Range: 2023-05-02 09:21:46 to 2023-05-02 10:21:46
Status: Processing
Type: BusinessPartnerSUITEBulkReplicateRequest_Out
SM Vendor Id: S1034562
UUID: 1159a0b2-bfe3-485b-96a1-55f39b77a937
ERP Vendor Id: 123456
direction,creationDate,updatedDate,status,type,smVendorId,erpVendorId,messageUuid,re
latedUuid,sourcingSync,supplierType,buyingSync
If the current search results include more than 10,000 records, the exported CSV file also includes the total number
of results and a message about what's included in the exported file at the beginning, above the filter information.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To view ERP integration messages and manage schema validation errors, you must be a member of the SM Ops
Administrator group.
To ignore schema validation errors, the enhanced ERP integration error handling feature must be enabled in your
site.
Context
SAP Ariba automatically validates outbound integration messages against the default SAP business partner
WSDL before queuing them for synchronization to the integrated SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA system, and blocks
messages with schema validation errors from the queue so that they don't fail XML validation in the ERP and block
the synchronization queue.
If the business partner data model in your ERP system differs from the default SAP business partner model,
and SAP Ariba identifies a schema validation error that isn't relevant to your ERP system, you can ignore the
error. Once you ignore a schema validation error, SAP Ariba marks it as ignored in all subsequent outbound
integration messages. Outbound messages that have no schema validation errors or that only have ignored errors
are automatically queued for synchronization to the ERP system.
You can only ignore schema validation errors at the element level and the data type level, but you can't ignore
errors at the level of specific violations of maximum field length, minimum field length, and regular expression
patterns for an element and data type. For example, if you ignore a maximum length error for the address
element FirstLineName of data type LANGUAGEINDEPENDENT_MEDIUM_Name, SAP Ariba ignores all maximum
field length, minimum field length, enumeration, regular expression pattern, and other validation errors for both the
element FirstLineName and the data type LANGUAGEINDEPENDENT_MEDIUM_Name.
If you ignore an SAP Ariba schema validation error, but the error also fails ERP XML validation, you can stop
ignoring the error. Once you stop ignoring a schema validation error, SAP Ariba again automatically blocks the
outbound integration messages in which it occurs.
For information on configuring bidirectional integration using SAP Ariba cloud integration or SAP Integration
Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network, see the integration configuration
documentation for those tools.
Procedure
Tip
To manage outbound schema validation errors, search for outbound messages and show only messages
with potential XML errors.
The Schema validation errors tab of the error details page shows all errors for the message, including both the
active errors that blocked the message from the synchronization queue and any ignored errors. The Ignored
errors tab shows errors all the errors that are currently ignored in your site.
5. Perform one of the following actions:
• If the error also causes a corresponding error in the ERP system, correct it in the supplier data.
• If the error isn't relevant to the ERP system business partner configuration, select it and click Ignore. Note
that each schema validation error generates two entries on the Schema validation errors tab: one for the
element and the other for its data type. To successfully ignore a validation error, you must select both
entries before clicking Ignore.
• If the error is currently ignored but has caused previous synchronization failures in the ERP system, click
the Ignored errors tab, select the error, and click Stop Ignoring.
Any validation errors that you ignored are also ignored in all subsequent outbound integration messages in which
they occur. Any validation errors that you stopped ignoring block all subsequent outbound integration messages in
which they occur.
Next Steps
If you corrected or ignored validation errors, you can resynchronize the supplier to the ERP system manually in the
ERP data detail area of their profile to generate a new outbound integration message.
Related Information
Enabling Email Notifications with Daily Summaries of Integration Failures [page 524]
Prerequisites
To enable email notifications of integration errors and to receive those notifications, you must be a member of the
SM ERP Administrator group.
Context
Integration failure email notifications contain the SM vendor ID and name of every supplier associated with a failure
confirmation message from the ERP system in the previous 24 hours. The notifications are sent daily at 1am PST.
Clicking the link in the notification opens the sign in page for your SAP Ariba site.
Enabling integration failure summary notifications enables them for all members of the SM ERP Administrator
group. Individual users within that group can disable the notifications in the email preferences in their user
accounts.
Results
All members of the SM ERP Administrator group receive daily integration failure notifications.
Related Information
This integration and exception monitoring uses the Integration Event Monitoring Query API for Procurement.
This REST API enables SAP CALM to monitor BP REQUEST IN and BP REQUEST OUT integration message
flows between SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions and SAP S/4HANA Cloud. CONFIRMATION IN,
CONFIRMATION OUT, and key mapping messages aren't sent to or monitored in SAP CALM.
Note
In SAP CALM, integration messages for supplier data are shown within the sourcing services rather than in
separate services.
For more information on setting up this API for integration monitoring, see the documentation for this API.
Integration and exception monitoring needs to be set up on SAP CALM. For more information, see the Integration &
Exception Monitoring page for SAP Ariba.
If a supplier is already synchronized with an integrated ERP system, updates from an integrated ERP system are
always committed to the supplier record in the database. SAP Ariba also immediately pushes those updates to
mapped questions in any internal questionnaires. SAP Ariba pushes updates from an integrated ERP system to
mapped questions in external questionnaires as follows:
Status when ERP update occurs ERP update pushed to questionnaire? Update behavior
New questionnaires:
Registration: Not Invited N/A The project hasn't been created yet, and
therefore there's no questionnaire to up-
date.
Questionnaire updates:
Registration update: Pending Approval No Approvers see and approve or deny the
answers submitted by the supplier, even
if updates received from the ERP system
in the meantime conflict with those an-
swers.
Note
• These update scenarios apply only to data received from an integrated ERP system. They don't apply to
data imported in SM Administration.
• SAP Ariba doesn't push updates from the ERP system to external registration questionnaires that are in
approval. If there's a discrepancy between data received from the ERP while the questionnaire is in approval
and the current answers in the questionnaire, approval of the questionnaire overwrites the ERP data.
Various activities in supplier management projects generate notifications to interested parties. You can customize
these notifications to match your organization's terminology and business processes.
There are two different types of notifications for supplier management projects:
• Project-level notifications, which you manage in the Project Manager Project Email Templates task in
Ariba Administrator. These notifications are sent to stakeholders when a user creates a supplier management
project, needs to complete a To Do or approval task, and when other project-related activities occur.
• Questionnaire invitations to suppliers, which you manage in the Event Manager Messaging
Templates task in Ariba Administrator. (External supplier management questionnaires share some basic
infrastructure with sourcing events.) These notifications are sent to suppliers and invite them to respond to
your questionnaire. Registration questionnaires also include a reminder notification.
Note
Supplier management projects only support event messages that are specific to the supplier management
project: invitations to registration, qualification, and modular questionnaires and, for registration projects
only, a reminder to complete the external registration questionnaire. They don't support any general event
messages, including event end date reminders.
The Project Email Templates task includes a specific set of project-level notification templates that are tailored
to supplier management workflows. There are also standard, generic notifications for projects and tasks that you
can apply to supplier management projects. This section describes the notifications that are specific to supplier
management projects. For details on generic project-level notifications, see Managing Project Email Notifications.
Tip
Supplier management questionnaire approval tasks use the specific approval task notification templates for
each supplier management project type in addition to the generic notifications for all approval tasks. For
example, there are specific notifications for approval tasks for supplier registration questionnaires. You can
customize these generic notifications or disable them altogether.
Tip
• By default, notifications for approval tasks don't include any comments that approvers add during
the approval process. You can add those comments to approval task notifications using the
[TASK_COMMENT_TEXT] email token.
• Notifications sent to suppliers must always clearly identify your company as the sender. You
can use the [SYSTEM_CORPORATE_NAME] email token (in project-level email templates) or the
[SPONSOR_CORPORATE_NAME] email token (in questionnaire invitations) to automatically insert your
company's name into the notification.
Related Information
You customize project-level email templates using the Project Manager Project Email Templates task in
Ariba Administrator.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator or Customer Administrator group to edit email templates in
survey documents in project templates.
You must be the project owner to edit email templates in survey documents in individual projects, and the event
owner to edit email templates in individual sourcing events.
Context
Note
Notifications sent to suppliers or other third parties must always clearly identify your company as the sender.
You can use the [SYSTEM_CORPORATE_NAME] email template token (in project-level email templates) or the
[SPONSOR_CORPORATE_NAME] email template token (in assessment invitations) to automatically insert your
company's name into the notification.
Procedure
Tip
• If you are editing a notification that is already associated with a specific project type, this option is not
available.
5. Make changes or additions to the text and add formatting to meet your needs.
6. (Optional) Add or remove email template tokens. To remove email template tokens, delete the text and the
square brackets.
7. (Optional) Add any translations.
8. Click Save to save the edited template.
9. Click Done to exit the email template editor.
You can delete a customized email template for a specific project type and revert to the default email template.
Prerequisites
Context
You can delete customized email templates for a specific project type. You cannot delete default email templates
for specific project types, or customized email templates used for all applicable project types. If you delete an email
template for a specific project type, the system immediately reverts to the email template used for all applicable
project types for that event.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator group to customize event messages.
To include your company's logo in registration questionnaire invitations, an administrator in your organization
must enable the self-service site configuration parameter Use custom logo and footer for emails sent to
suppliers (Application.EnableCustomEmailLogoAndFooter) and upload the logo on the Custom Email tab
of the Customization Manager Branding Settings task in Ariba Administrator. Refer to the Common Data
Import and Administration Guide for SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Solutions and SAP Ariba Supplier Management
Solutions for details.
Context
Supplier management questionnaires share some underlying infrastructure with sourcing events, including
email notifications that are associated with a questionnaire survey document rather than a project (event
messages). Event messages include external questionnaire invitations and, for external registration questionnaires,
reminders. Customize these notifications using the Event Manager Messaging Templates task in Ariba
Administrator. Although you can also customize event messages in individual template survey documents for
external questionnaires, SAP Ariba recommends using the Messaging Templates task. You can use this task to
customize supplier invitations for external registration, qualification, and modular questionnaires.
Suppliers answer questionnaires by logging into Ariba Network for Suppliers, filling out the questionnaire, and
submitting their answers. If the supplier doesn't already have an Ariba Network for Suppliers account, they must
create one at this time.
The external questionnaires in supplier management projects use the following two email notification templates for
supplier invitations:
• Publish Event; Invitation for participants, which is sent to suppliers who have already registered with Ariba
Network for Suppliers.t
• Invitation for participants who have not used Ariba before, which is sent to suppliers who haven't registered
with Ariba Network for Suppliers, and includes information about the registration requirement.
Note
These questionnaire invitations and the registration reminder are specific to supplier management and are the
only event messages supported in supplier management projects. General event messages, including end date
reminders, aren't supported.
In sites created after the SAP Ariba April 2018 release, registration invitation templates automatically include the
following three tokens:
• SUPPLIER_REG_DEADLINE, which displays the deadline by which the supplier must respond to the invitation
before the temporary password generated by the invitation expires.
• RECIPIENT_NAME, which specifies the name of the invited recipient.
• PASSWORD_URL, which automatically renders as a link that the invited contact can click to create a new Ariba
Network for Suppliers account.
The SUPPLIER_REG_DEADLINE and RECIPIENT_NAME tokens aren't available in sites created before the SAP
Ariba April 2018 release.
Tip
Make sure that when you complete your customized invitations, the invitation for existing suppliers still
includes the [SITE_URL] email token, which is automatically rendered as a link that the invited supplier
contact can click to log into their existing Ariba Network for Suppliers account, and that the invitation for new
suppliers still includes the [PASSWORD_URL] email token. The supplier contact must use one of these links to
access your questionnaire.
Procedure
Related Information
Email template tokens are placeholders for information provided by the system when the email generated from
the template is sent. Information can come from project field values, information about a task or phase, or be
generated by the system for the email message itself, such as the recipient’s email address.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Template Creator or Customer Administrator group to edit email templates in
survey documents in project templates.
You must be the project owner to edit email templates in survey documents in individual projects, and the event
owner to edit email templates in individual sourcing events.
Context
Email template tokens are delimited by square brackets ([ ]). For example, the text [Workspace.Title] is an
email template token that the system replaces with the workspace or project title (name) when it sends an email
message generated from the email template.
Note
Notifications sent to suppliers or other third parties must always clearly identify your company as the sender.
You can use the [SYSTEM_CORPORATE_NAME] email template token (in project-level email templates) or the
[SPONSOR_CORPORATE_NAME] email template token (in assessment invitations) to automatically insert your
company's name into the notification.
When you add an email template token in the next step, the system inserts the email template token in the
first set of empty square brackets. If there are no empty square brackets, the system places the email template
token at the end of the Content or Subject field; you can cut and paste the token to another area after it is
inserted.
3. Perform one of the following actions:
• To add an email template token to the subject line, to the right of the Subject field, click Add Email
Template Token.
• To add an email template token to the body of the email, below the Content field, click Add Email
Template Token.
The system opens a Choose an Email Template for the Content or Choose an Email Template for the
Subject window with folders that contain the email template tokens available for the specific message and area
(subject or content).
4. Perform the following actions:
• Click the expand arrows next to a folder name to display the email template tokens.
• Click the cue tip next to the email template token to display more information.
• Click Select to add the selected email template token.
5. Click OK.
The translated text added to email notification templates is linked to locales and the system substitutes the
translated text when sending email notifications to users in the given locale.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the Translator or Customer Administrator groups to add translated text to email
templates
Procedure
The system opens a page that contains translation fields for each locale available in SAP Ariba solutions.
3. Enter your translated text in the field that corresponds to its language..
4. Click OK.
Notifications Related to Modular Supplier Management Questionnaires in Sites That Use Process Projects
[page 548]
Notifications Related to Certificate Questions in Modular Supplier Management Questionnaires [page 550]
Related Information
• Fyi: <supplier name> has started the registration process with <buyer name>
Sent to the internal user who submitted the request for the supplier who is now in registration.
• Fyi: <supplier name> has submitted registration info with <buyer name>
Sent to the registration project's team members.
• Confirmation: registration submitted for approval
Sent to the supplier who submitted the registration questionnaires.
• Action needed: Approve supplier registration with <buyer name>
Sent to the users in the registration questionnaire approval flow once it's their turn to approve the
questionnaire.
• Approved: Supplier registration with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier who submitted the registration questionnaires.
The following notifications are defined by event messaging templates in Event Manager Messaging
Templates and in individual questionnaire survey documents in the supplier registration project template:
• For registrations that invite the supplier to fill out external questionnaires:
• Invitation: Register to become a supplier with <buyer name>
Sent to the person specified as the supplier's business contact in the supplier request or the supplier
self-registration (for automatic invitations) or the supplier contact invited to register (for manual
invitations). Suppliers receive a separate instance of this notification for each external questionnaire in
their registration. This notification is sent both for new registrations where the supplier is invited to register
and for existing internal registrations to which the supplier is invited to participate.
• Action needed: Complete your registration for <buyer name>
Sent to suppliers who haven't yet submitted an external registration questionnaire that has been set
up to issue reminders at the times specified in its due date reminder settings in the template survey
document. Suppliers receive a separate instance of this notification for each external questionnaire in their
registration that they have not yet submitted and that has been set up to issue reminders.
There are two templates for both these notifications: one for suppliers who are new to SAP Ariba, which
contains a link for registering on SAP Business Network before opening the questionnaire, and one for
suppliers who already have SAP Business Network accounts, which contains a link for logging into their
account and opening the questionnaire.
If the self-service configuration parameter Enable configurable default sender for supplier invitations is
enabled in your site, you can use the [CUSTOM_SENDER_NAME] email template token to insert the custom
sender name or, if the feature for specifying a requester during registration invitations (SM-20904) is also
enabled in your site, registration requester into both of these notifications.
• For internal registrations, where internal users complete registration questionnaires on behalf of the supplier:
• Action needed: Submit a registration questionnaire for <supplier name>
Sent to the internal user who has been specified as the recipient of an external registration questionnaire in
an internal supplier registration.
These are the only event messages supported for supplier registration projects.
Related Information
Process: Sent to supplier <process initiator> from Sent to the primary supplier N/A
primary user when a process
<buyer name> invites you to contact when a new process
requires suppliers to update
participate in this process: project or process renewal in-
one or more modular
questionnaires. <process project name> cludes one or more external
modular questionnaires that
supplier recipients must fill
out or update. The notifica-
tion includes a list of the appli-
cable modular questionnaires,
an overview of the process
project, and the message that
the process owner entered
when creating the process
project.
Process: Sent to internal <process initiator> invites Sent to each recipient of an in- I have been asked to
user when a process requires update one or more modular
you to participate in this ternal modular questionnaire
a user to update one or more questionnaires in a process
process: <process project in a process project when they
modular questionnaires. project.
name> must fill out or update a ques-
tionnaire. The notification in-
cludes a list of the applica-
ble modular questionnaires,
an overview of the process
project, and the message that
the process owner entered
when creating the process
project.
Process: Sent to all decision Action needed: Provide Sent to the members of A process project for which
makers when a process is I am a decision maker
decision for this process the process project's project
pending decision. requires a decision.
completed for <supplier groups with the Decision
name>: <process project Maker role when a process
name> project has been completed
and requires a final status de-
cision.
Process: Sent to process Reminder: Decision maker Sent to the process project A process project I own
owner when a process is requires a decision.
has to provide decision for owner when a process project
pending decision.
the <process project name> has been completed and re-
process completed for <sup- quires a final status decision.
plier name>
Process: Sent to decision Process update: <name Sent to the members of A decision for a process
makers when a decision is project for which I am a
of decision-maker who last the process project's project
made or updated. decision maker has been
updated process status> groups with the Decision
made or updated.
changed the decision for this Maker role when a decision-
process completed for <sup- maker has updated the proc-
plier name>: <process project ess status decision.
name>
Process: Sent to invited Process update: <buyer Sent to the supplier pri- N/A
suppliers when a decision is
name> changed the status mary contact when a decision-
made or updated.
for <process project name> maker has set or changed the
status of their process project.
Process: Sent to the process Reminder: <expiring or ex- Sent to the members of
owner and decision maker
pired status> questionnaire the process project's project
when a questionnaire is
<expiring modular question- groups with the Decision
expiring or has expired.
naire project name> for <sup- Maker role when one of
plier name> the modular supplier manage-
ment questionnaires in a proc-
ess is expiring or has expired.
Process: Sent to supplier Your <process project name> Sent to the supplier primary N/A
when a process is expiring.A
with <process project owner> contact when a process has
modular questionnaire in a
expires onA modular ques- reached its scheduled expira-
process for which I am an
owner or decision maker is tionnaire in a process for tion reminder date.
expiring or has expired. which I am an <future expira-
tion date>
Process: Sent to the For your information: Sent to the process owner N/A
process initiator when the process has been when the background job for
bulk process creation is created: [Workspace.Title] process creation for multiple
completed. for supplier(s). suppliers is completed.
Process: Sent to process <process project name> for Sent to process project own- A process project I own or
owner and decision maker am a decision maker for is
<supplier name> expires on ers and members of the proj-
when a process is expiring. expiring.
<future expiration date> ect's project groups with the
Decision Maker role when
a process has reached its
scheduled expiration reminder
date.
Process: sent to suppliers Your <process project name> Sent to the primary supplier N/A
when a process has expired.
with <process project owner> contact when a process has
expired today reached its expiration date.
Process: Sent to process <process project name> for Sent to process project own- A process project I own or
owner and decision maker am a decision maker for has
<supplier name> expired ers and members of the proj-
when a process has expired. expired.
today ect's Decision Maker project
group when a process has
reached its expiration date.
Process: Sent to internal FYI: This process for <sup- Sent to the process project A process project I own has
users when a process has been cancelled.
plier name> has been owner when a process project
been cancelled.
cancelled: <process project has been cancelled after mod-
name> ular questionnaires were sent.
If all associated modular ques-
tionnaires are approved and
the process project is pending
a decision, this notification is
also sent to members of the
project's project groups with
the Decision Maker role.
Process: Sent to supplier Process update: <buyer Sent to the primary supplier N/A
users when a process has
name> has cancelled this contact when a process has
been cancelled.
process: <process project been cancelled after modular
name> questionnaires were sent.
Related Information
Notifications Related to Modular Supplier Management Questionnaires in Sites That Use Process Projects [page
548]
SAP Ariba sends notifications for various activities related to supplier qualification projects.
• Action needed: Fill out qualification questionnaire to become a qualified supplier with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier's main contact once a category or supplier manager has launched a new qualification.
• Fyi: <supplier name> has submitted qualification info with <buyer name>
Sent to the user who submitted the request for the supplier who is now in qualification.
• Fyi: <supplier name> has started a qualification process with <buyer name>
Sent to the qualification project's team members.
• Action needed: Review qualification for <supplier name>
Sent to the users in the qualification questionnaire approval flow once it's their turn to approve the supplier
qualification.
The following notification is defined by event messaging templates in Event Manager Messaging Templates
and in the survey document in the supplier qualification project template:
• Action needed: Fill out qualification questionnaire to become a qualified supplier with <buyer name>
Sent to the supplier contact invited or reinvited to the qualification.
There are two templates for this notification: one for suppliers who are new to SAP Ariba, which contains a link
for registering on SAP Business Network before opening the questionnaire, and one for suppliers who already
have SAP Business Network accounts, which contains a link for logging into their account and opening the
questionnaire.
These are the only event messages supported for supplier qualification projects.
Related Information
• Action needed: Approve new category status for <supplier name> in <category>
Sent to the users in the preferred supplier category status change request approval flow once it is their turn to
approve the status change.
Related Information
Related Information
SAP Ariba sends notifications for various activities related to modular supplier management questionnaires.
Note
The notifications described in this topic are general modular questionnaire notifications. Enabling the process
project feature (SM-16798) adds a parallel set of notification templates [page 548] and, when there's a
process-related notification, deactivates the general template for the same notification. Whether or not a
modular questionnaire is included in a process project, it uses these process-related notification templates
where they're available, and the general notifications where there's no parallel process-related notification.
Process-related notifications include information about the associated process project if applicable.
The following notifications are defined by event messaging templates in Event Manager Messaging
Templates and in the survey document for the key questionnaire in modular questionnaire project templates:
There are two templates this notification: one for suppliers who are new to SAP Ariba, which contains a link
for registering on SAP Business Network before opening the questionnaire, and one for suppliers who already
have SAP Business Network accounts, which contains a link for logging into their account and opening the
questionnaire.
These are the only event messages supported for modular questionnaire projects.
Note
Modular questionnaires include a set of general email notification templates [page 547]. Enabling the process
project feature (SM-16798) adds this parallel set of notification templates and, when there is a process-
related notification, deactivates the general template for the same notification. Whether or not a modular
questionnaire is included in a process project, it uses these process-related notification templates where
they are available, and the general notifications where there is no parallel process-related notification. Process-
related notifications include information about the associated process project if applicable.
SM Questionnaire - Sent Action needed: <task name> Sent to internal users when An approval task for
to approver when internal an internal modular
the approval node to which
modular questionnaire has questionnaire is assigned to
they have been assigned for
been submitted and process me and process projects are
projects are enabled. an internal modular question- enabled.
naire becomes active.
SM Questionnaire - Sent to Action needed: <task name> Sent to internal users when An approval task for
approver when an external an external modular
the approval node to which
modular questionnaire has questionnaire is assigned to
they have been assigned for
been submitted and process me and process projects are
projects are enabled. an external modular question- enabled.
naire becomes active.
SM Questionnaire: Sent FYI: Action no longer needed Sent to internal users when A modular questionnaire for
to approvers when a which I am an approver was
for <task name> a process cancelation results
questionnaire is cancelled cancelled when its process
in the cancelation of a mod-
as part of a process project was cancelled.
cancellation. ular questionnaire for which
they're an approver.
SM Questionnaire - Sent Reminder: complete Sent to internal and external A questionnaire to which I
to internal or external have been assigned is due
questionnaire from <buyer questionnaire recipients who
recipients to remind them and process projects are
name> by <questionnaire due haven’t yet submitted a ques-
to complete a questionnaire enabled.
and process projects are date> tionnaire.
enabled.
Note
If the modular question-
naire is set to Always
open, once the new ques-
tionnaire is approved, the
questionnaire reopens for
updates. The due date
here is the date on which
the reminder schedule
restarts if the recipient
doesn't submit an update
by that time.
SM Questionnaire - Sent Action needed: Provide Sent to internal and external An approver has requested
to internal or external more information about a
additional information to questionnaire recipients when
recipients when they need questionnaire I submitted
<buyer name> an approver has requested ad-
to resubmit questionnaire and process projects are
information and process ditional information about a enabled.
projects are enabled. questionnaire during approval.
SM Questionnaire - Your <questionnaire name> Sent to internal and external A modular questionnaire
Sent to internal or I submitted is expiring
with <buyer name> expires questionnaire recipients when
external recipients when a and process projects are
on <scheduled expiration a questionnaire is expiring.
questionnaire is expiring enabled.
and process projects are date>
enabled.
SM Questionnaire - Your <questionnaire name> Sent to internal and external A modular questionnaire
Sent to internal or I submitted has expired
with <buyer name> has questionnaire recipients when
external recipients when a and process projects are
expired a questionnaire has expired.
questionnaire has expired enabled.
and process projects are
enabled.
SAP Ariba sends notifications for various activities related to individual certificate questions in modular supplier
management questionnaires.
• Your <certificate type> with <buyer name> expires on <certificate expiration date>
Sent to the supplier contact before the certificate's expiration date. The supplier specifies the expiration date in
the answer to the certificate question, and a template creator in your site specifies the amount of time before
the expiration date this notification is sent in the settings for the certificate question.
• Your <certificate type> with <buyer name> has expired
Sent to the supplier contact when the certificate expiration date they provided has passed.
• <certificate type> of <supplier name> in <modular questionnaire project template title> expires on
<expiration date>
Sent to the internal user who sent the questionnaire that includes the certificate before the certificate's
expiration date. A template creator in your site can specify that this notification also be sent to the primary
supplier manager and members of the Project Owner group in the settings for the certificate question; the
template creator also specifies the amount of time before the expiration date this notification is sent. The
supplier specifies the expiration date in the answer to the certificate question.
• <certificate type> of <supplier name> in <modular questionnaire project template title> expired on
<expiration date>
Sent to the internal user who sent the questionnaire that includes the certificate question when the certificate's
expiration date has passed and the supplier has not updated and resubmitted the certificate with a later
expiration date. A template creator in your site can specify that this notification also be sent to the primary
supplier manager and members of the Project Owner group in the settings for the certificate question. The
supplier specifies the expiration date in the answer to the certificate question.
Related Information
SAP Ariba sends the following notifications related to supplier management project template upgrades.
Note
Project owners of supplier registration projects can be category or supplier managers who are otherwise
unfamiliar with underlying project architecture and versioning. The default text in this notification assumes
familiarity with project architecture and versioning. SAP Ariba recommends customizing that text to make
sure that the recipients understand why it was sent and making the customization specific to supplier
registration projects.
Related Information
SAP Ariba sends supplier management-specific notifications for some project tasks.
The following task notification is sent only for approval tasks in supplier request, registration, qualification,
disqualification, preferred supplier management, and modular questionnaire projects:
• One or more tasks in <supplier management project name> are missing approvers
Related Information
• Action needed: Integration confirmation failure messages for supplier data on <date>
Sent to members of the SM ERP Administrator group at approximately 1am PST every day with a list of the
SM vendor IDs and names of every supplier associated with a confirmation failure message received from an
integrated ERP system in the previous 24 hours.
• For your information: <duplicate supplier name> has been inactivated as a duplicate supplier
Sent to supplier managers in sites integrated with SAP MDG-S when, after a registration or qualification
activity that triggers initial replication of the supplier to MDG-S occurs, MDG-S identifies that supplier as
a duplicate, at which point SAP Ariba automatically inactivates the duplicate supplier. The registration or
qualification status that triggers initial replication to MDG-S is determined by the site's integration settings. If
the replication occurs after a registration status change, the recipients of this notification are the supplier's
primary supplier manager and the registration project owner. If the replication occurs after a qualification
status change, the recipient of this notification is the supplier's primary supplier manager.
This notification is only applicable in sites where validation of supplier requests in MDG-S is not enabled.
When request validation in MDG-S is enabled, replication occurs during the supplier request approval process
instead, and matching to duplicate suppliers in MDG-S generates a separate notification that is specific to the
supplier request [page 538].
• Added Contact details of [RECIPIENT_NAME] for [SUPPLIER_NAME]
Sent to supplier contacts when they're added to the relevant SAP Ariba buyer applications.
An email template is created for sending such external email communication. The template contains a default
message stating that the supplier contact's details such as first and last names, email addresses, and other
information can now be processed by your organisation. You can customize this template to include your own
content. Only newly created supplier contacts receive email notifications. However, the system doesn't verify if
the communication was successfully delivered.
Email content: Hello [RECIPIENT_NAME], You have been added as a contact for [SUPPLIER_NAME] in
the buyer organisation [REALM_NAME]. Your details such as first and last names, email addresses, and
Mass registration invitations automatically invite all specified suppliers to register with your organization in
one operation. They provide a convenient way to onboard sets of suppliers without requiring individual manual
invitations.
Mass invitations are a useful tool for onboarding large numbers of suppliers to SAP Ariba. You define separate
waves or groups of suppliers and upload a list of suppliers to include in each wave. You can then monitor the waves
to see how many suppliers have responded to the invitation and submitted registration questionnaires, and follow
up where necessary.
Note
Mass registrations invitations always start external registrations and send invitations to supplier contacts.
Mass registration invitations aren't supported for internal registrations.
You can choose to establish a fulfillment relationship in addition to a sourcing relationship with suppliers that you
invite to register using a mass invitation. The presence of a value in the setTransactionRelationship column
of the MassInvite.csv flags the supplier for automatic establishment of both relationships simultaneously once
they meet all prerequisites.
Supplier registration projects include an Is Legacy field. If a supplier is invited to register using a mass invitation,
they're flagged as a legacy supplier. You can use this setting to create different registration processes for legacy and
nonlegacy suppliers.
Integration settings also allow you to control how the registration data generated by mass invitation waves
is synchronized with an integrated ERP system. For more information, refer to Controlling the Ongoing
Synchronization of Data from Suppliers in Mass Registration Waves.
Related Information
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group to issue mass registration invitations.
Every supplier in the mass registration wave must have at least one supplier contact. For all of the suppliers in the
mass registration wave that have primary supplier managers, the primary supplier managers must all be members
of either the Supplier Registration Manager or SM Ops Administrator group.
The supplier registration project template in your site must be set up and published.
Caution
Sending registration invitations for a mass invitation wave creates a supplier registration project for every
supplier in that wave. Before you start sending mass invitations, make sure that your organization's supplier
registration project template is finalized and published. While you can upgrade existing supplier registration
projects to the latest version of the template, it can take multiple days to upgrade a large number of projects
on the same template version. Starting mass invitation waves using a finalized project template means that
the registration projects for mass-invited suppliers include your organization's complete current questionnaires
and workflow from the start, and you only need to perform template upgrades for subsequent changes.
To specify the list of suppliers to include in a mass registration invitation wave, you must add their ERP vendor IDs
to a CSV data import file for mass registration. These suppliers must already exist in your site.
Context
Suppliers created individually through approved supplier requests cab be invited to register individually, either
automatically or manually depending on your site's configuration. However, when you're getting started with SAP
Ariba Supplier Management solutions, or whenever you create a large number of suppliers using data import or
ERP synchronization, supplier mass registration allows you to automatically send invitations to a specified list of
suppliers.
Importing supplier data creates the suppliers in the database with Not Invited status. When you import supplier
preferred or qualification data, the suppliers are associated with specific commodities and regions and have a
preferred or qualified status, but still have the Not Invited status because they haven't completed the registration
process. When a requester in your organization creates a supplier request and it's approved, the supplier is created
in the database with Not Invited status. Any supplier with Not Invited status can be included in a mass registration
invitation.
You can create distinct waves of invitations to onboard suppliers in a controlled way. For example, you can invite the
suppliers from one region in the first wave, another region in the second wave, and so forth. Waves have end dates,
but they're for informational purposes only. The invitations are all sent after you import the list of suppliers and
If your site uses multiple external registration questionnaires, you can choose which questionnaire to use for the
wave. You can only send one questionnaire in a registration mass invitation. Once a registration project is created,
the only way to add more questionnaires to it is through template upgrade.
Procedure
• To create a new invitation wave, select Create new wave from the Choose a wave dropdown menu and
enter a name for the wave.
• To use an existing wave, select it from the Choose a wave dropdown menu
4. Specify an end date for the wave by choosing the calender icon ( calender icon) and selecting a date.
5. Choose Browse file and navigate to the CSV file that contains the list of suppliers you want to include in the
current mass registration invitation wave.
6. Choose Upload spreadsheet
The Summary area shows the results of your upload. If your file contained errors, it shows you the number of
suppliers with missing contacts, invalid vendor IDs, and the number of suppliers that are already registered.
Choose Download all errors to download a list of all errors in the file.
7. If your file contained errors, correct them and then choose Re-upload to upload the corrected file from the
same location.
8. Optional: If your site uses multiple external registration questionnaires, select a questionnaire from the
Choose the questionnaire to send dropdown menu.
9. Choose Send invitation.
Results
Next Steps
Use the Track history tab to monitor the progress of mass registration invitation waves. Once the current wave has
achieved the results you want, you can create additional waves of mass registration invitations as needed.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group to monitor the progress of mass registration invitations in SM
Administration.
Context
The Track history tab displays the name of the invitation wave, the number of suppliers invited in the wave, the
date the invitation was issued, and the number of suppliers in the wave with approved registrations.
From there, you can download a CSV file that contains your history of mass registration invitations. The CSV file
includes important additional information: a list of all of the suppliers invited in each wave, including their ERP
vendor IDs, and their current registration status. This file shows the suppliers in the wave who have been invited or
successfully registered, who are in the process of registering, or who have had their registrations denied. You can
provide this file to interested parties in your company, such as category or supplier managers who can't access SM
Administration, so that they can follow up on stalled registrations and perform other necessary actions.
Procedure
Related Information
If you want to assign primary and alternate supplier managers to the suppliers in an invitation wave, you must
import the data file that defines managers for those suppliers before importing the mass invitation data. Primary
supplier managers are for information only. If any suppliers in the invitation wave don't have a primary or alternate
supplier manager, the administrator who sends the mass invitation is assigned as the primary supplier manager.
The mass registration data import task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
Related Information
Mass modular questionnaire invitations automatically invite all specified suppliers to respond to a modular
questionnaire in one operation. They provide a convenient way to allow sets of suppliers to respond to modular
questionnaires without requiring individual manual invitations.
You can invite a large number of suppliers to respond to a modular questionnaire by defining separate waves or
groups of suppliers and uploading a list of suppliers to include in each wave. You achieve this by uploading a CSV
file that contains the list of suppliers you want to include in the current mass modular questionnaire invitation
wave. You can also monitor the progress of these mass invitations.
You create distinct waves of invitations to send modular questionnaires to several suppliers in a controlled manner.
For example, you can invite suppliers from one region in the first wave, another region in the second wave, and
so forth. Waves have end dates, but they're for informational purposes only. The invited suppliers can fill out the
modular questionnaire as long as it's still open, regardless of the end date of the wave. You can't schedule waves in
advance.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group to issue mass modular questionnaire invitations.
Every supplier in the mass modular questionnaire wave must have at least one supplier contact. For all of the
suppliers in the mass modular questionnaire wave that have primary supplier managers, the primary supplier
managers must all be members of the SM Ops Administrator group.
The modular questionnaire project template in your site must be set up and published.
Caution
Sending modular questionnaire invitations for a mass invitation wave creates a modular questionnaire project
for every supplier in that wave. Before you start sending mass invitations, make sure that your modular
questionnaire project template is finalized and published.
To specify the list of suppliers to include in a mass modular questionnaire invitation wave, you must add their ERP
vendor IDs to a CSV data import file. These suppliers must already exist in your site.
In addition to inviting supplier contacts to fill out stand-alone modular questionnaires by navigating to Manage
SM Modular Questionnaires , you can now send a single modular questionnaire to at most 10000 supplier
contacts by uploading a CSV file in Manage SM Administration Mass Invite .
You can create distinct waves of invitations to send modular questionnaires to several suppliers in a controlled way.
For example, you can invite the suppliers from one region in the first wave, another region in the second wave,
and so forth. Waves have end dates, but they're for informational purposes only. The invitations are all sent after
you upload a CSV file with the list of suppliers and click Send Invite. The invited suppliers can fill out the modular
questionnaire as long as it's still open, regardless of the wave end date. You can't schedule waves in advance.
Procedure
• To create a new invitation wave, select New wave from the Choose a wave dropdown menu and enter a
name for the wave.
• To use an existing wave, select it from the Choose a wave dropdown menu
5. Specify an end date for the wave by choosing the calender icon ( calender icon) and selecting a date.
6. Choose Choose file and navigate to the CSV file that contains the list of suppliers you want to include in the
current mass invitation wave.
7. Choose Upload spreadsheet.
The Summary area shows the results of your upload. If your file contained errors, it shows you the number of
suppliers with missing contacts, invalid vendor IDs, and so on. Choose Download all errors to download a list
of all errors in the file.
8. If your file contained errors, correct them and then choose Re-upload spreadsheet to upload the corrected file
from the same location.
9. If your site uses multiple external questionnaires, select a questionnaire from the Choose the questionnaire to
send filter popup.
10. Choose Send invitation.
Results
The modular questionnaire invitation is sent to all suppliers in the current wave.
Use the Track history tab to monitor the progress of mass modular questionnaire invitation waves. Once the
current wave has achieved the results you want, you can create additional waves of mass invitations as needed.
Prerequisites
You must be a member of the SM Ops Admin group to monitor the progress of mass modular questionnaire
invitations in SM Administration.
Context
The Track history tab displays the name of the invitation wave, the number of suppliers invited in the wave, the
date the invitation was issued, and information on "Integration Blocked Until" date.
From there, you can download a CSV file that contains your history of mass modular questionnaire invitations.
The CSV file includes important additional information: a list of all of the suppliers invited in each wave, including
their ERP vendor IDs, and their current registration status. This file shows the suppliers in the wave who have been
invited to respond to the modular questionnaire. You can provide this file to interested parties in your company,
such as category or supplier managers who can't access SM Administration, so that they can follow up on
modular questionnaire projects if required, and perform other necessary actions.
Procedure
• To update the data on the tab (for example, to show a newly created wave), choose Refresh.
Related Information
If you want to assign primary and alternative supplier managers to the suppliers in an invitation wave, you
must import the data file that defines managers for those suppliers before importing the mass invitation data.
Primary supplier managers are for information only; if any suppliers in the invitation wave don't have a primary or
alternative supplier manager, the user who sends the mass invitation is assigned as the primary supplier manager.
The mass modular questionnaire data import task reads from a CSV file that contains the following fields:
Related Information
Administrators can perform a variety of tasks to manage suppliers, such as inactivating or reactivating them,
importing registration questionnaires, and canceling qualification projects.
Managing Access to the Advanced View of Supplier Management Projects [page 577]
Correcting Questionnaire, Task, and Registration Status Synchronization Errors [page 578]
Inactivation doesn't hard delete suppliers. Inactivation is a more permanent action than a block, but is reversible.
Inactive suppliers:
• Are no longer visible in supplier search results, including searches for available participants for sourcing events
and available suppliers for contract creation.
• Can't be edited or worked with. Supplier profiles for inactive suppliers become read-only, and users can
no longer edit internal registration questionnaires or initiate processes such as registration, qualification, or
preferred supplier management. Users also can't edit existing preferred levels. Tasks associated with those
projects also become read-only and users can no longer complete them.
You can reactivate an inactive supplier. Reactivating the supplier restores all of their data and makes them available
for transactions again.
Supplier inactivation and reactivation can occur in several different ways in SAP Ariba:
• A customer administrator can use the Suppliers data import/export task to import a supplier data in a CSV file
with the active column set to TRUE (active) or FALSE (deactivated). Blank values in this column are assumed
to be TRUE.
Note
Before inactivating a supplier using data import, inactivate their contacts using the same active flag using
the Supplier contacts data import/export task.
• If a supplier is marked with a delete indicator in an integrated SAP ERP system, and the supplier has already
been synchronized with the ERP, SAP Ariba Supplier Management solutions automatically inactivates that
supplier. If the delete indicator is removed in the integrated ERP system, SAP Ariba reactivates the supplier.
Note
If your site is integrated with an SAP ERP system, your integration synchronization settings determine when a
new supplier in SAP Ariba is initially synchronized with SAP ERP. Until that initial synchronization occurs, SAP
Ariba can't receive or send the delete indicators that inactivate or reactivate a supplier.
To permanently obfuscate a supplier and all their related data in your site, and and make them eligible for data
purge, you can expire them after inativating them.
Related Information
Use these steps to view or reactivate inactive suppliers. You can view and manually reactivate suppliers in SM
Administration.
Prerequisites
To view and manually reactivate inactive suppliers in SM Administration, you must be a member of the SM Ops
Administrator, SM ERP Administrator, or Customer Administrator group.
Context
Typically, companies make suppliers inactive when they no longer want to do business with them for one reason
or another. Users can't add inactive suppliers to sourcing events or contracts, and can't initiate processes for
qualification and preferred designation for them. However, inactive suppliers remain in the database and retain
existing registration information, unexpired qualifications, and preferred supplier designations. If your company
decides to start doing business with a supplier again, you can reactivate them.
Results
Reactivated suppliers show up once more in search results, and users can edit them, add them to sourcing events
and contracts, and initiate qualifications and preferred supplier designation processes for them.
Prerequisites
To expire a supplier, you must be a member of the Data Protection Officer group.
All contacts associated with the supplier must be inactivated. To inactivate supplier contacts, import their data
using the Supplier contacts data import in SM Administration with the active field set to FALSE.
Context
In sites that include SAP Ariba Buying or SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing, this topic is only applicable if the support
for partitioned supplier feature (SM-30017) is enabled and you manage supplier data in SM Administration. If you
Caution
Expiring a supplier is a permanent operation. You can reactivate an inactive supplier, but there's no way to
restore an expired supplier.
Procedure
Results
After the suppliers are marked for expiration, supplier contacts show as Supplier User Marked for Deletion and
suppliers show as Supplier Marked for Deletion.
After all transactions associated with the supplier are purged, the supplier is permanently obfuscated in the
database.
It's possible to see an inactive supplier's profile, which shows an Inactive label, but an expired supplier is removed
from the user interface.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To import supplier registration questionnaires, you must be a member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
To export a template registration questionnaire from the supplier registration project template, you must be a
member of the Template Creator group.
The questionnaire you want to import must be included in the currently published version of the supplier
registration project template.
The supplier must have an existing registration project, either through migration or because a registration manager
has started an internal or external registration.
Context
No answer validation Questionnaire import doesn't validate an- Members of the Template Creator group
swers. The import ignores answers with can export the questionnaire from the
invalid formats and doesn't provide any supplier registration project template.
error messages. For example, if you im- The exported template questionnaire in-
port a questionnaire with a Date question cludes information about the answer
with an invalid date format, or a Whole type of each question, its content ID
Number question with a text answer, or a (KI_ID), and a pipe-separated ( | ) list of
question with a pre-defined list of choices valid answers for questions with pre-de-
with an answer that doesn't match any of fined lists of choices. You can use this
those choices, the import ignores the in- information to add answers in the correct
valid answer and the field remains blank. format to the questionnaire import CSV
file.
No safeguards against overwriting exist- Questionnaire import doesn't perform 1. In the template of the questionnaire
ing answers
selective updates. The import updates import file, delete the columns for
all questions in the import file with all any questions you don't plan to up-
the values in the import file, including date at all. Only questions that are
blanks. The import doesn't generate any present in the import file are up-
warnings or require any confirmations dated. Removing those questions
when those imported values overwrite avoids the risk of overwriting their
existing answers. existing answers with blank values.
2. Make sure that you add all exist-
As a result, if you import a file with a
ing answers for all of the remaining
blank value for a question that has an
questions in the import file, not just
answer in the current version of the
the answers you want to update. You
questionnaire in the supplier's profile,
can obtain the existing answers for
the import overwrites the existing an-
a questionnaire by viewing the ques-
swer with a blank with no warning.
tionnaire in the Registration detail
area of the supplier's profile and ex-
porting it from the questionnaire de-
tails page.
Note
The export on the questionnaire
details page includes each ques-
tion's content number, name,
and answer, but the content
number isn't the same as the
KI_ID specified in the import file.
You must manually match the
questions in the questionnaire
export to the headers in the
questionnaire import template
and transfer answers between
the files so that the import in-
cludes existing answers instead
of overwriting them with blank
values. The template question-
naire export referenced in the
restriction about answer valida-
tions includes both question
names and KI_IDs and can serve
as a reference for matching.
Only updates some types of answers Questionnaire import doesn't support None
updates for the following:
Updates questionnaires that are in active Questionnaire import can update a ques- Mitigation steps depend on how and why
approval tionnaire again while approvals for the
you're using the questionnaire import.
previously submitted answers are still in
They can include:
progress. The imported update creates
a new version of the questionnaire but • Reserving the questionnaire import
doesn't interrupt or restart any in-prog-
for only the most necessary circum-
ress approval tasks. This behavior can
stances and for one-time updates of
create a situation where different approv-
ers in different parts of the approval flow supplier profiles. For example, you
are approving different versions of the can use questionnaire import to add
questionnaire with different answers in information obtained in external sys-
the same approval round. tems to the supplier profile as a one-
time operation when you start on-
boarding the supplier.
• Verifying that a particular question-
naire import doesn't interfere with
current activities in affected regis-
tration projects.
• Creating a dedicated internal regis-
tration questionnaire with no tasks
that you use exclusively to import
data from other systems into sup-
plier profiles, separate from the
questionnaires you use to manage
data collection from internal and ex-
ternal questionnaire recipients.
The Questionnaires workspace in SM Administration includes a download for a template of the questionnaire
import file. The questionnaire import includes the following fields:
<question title> (<question KI_ID>) The question title and its content ID No
(KI_ID).
The questionnaire import file only needs
The import file includes a separate field
to include fields for the questions you
of this format for each question in the
want to update.
questionnaire, including questions that
are initially hidden by visibility conditions. Tip
Note Since fields for individual questions
aren't required, remove any ques-
To import answers to questions to tions you don't plan to update at all
which a visibility condition is applied, from the import template. For the
you must also include the answer remaining questions, it's important
to make sure that you include all
that satisfies the condition in the im-
existing answers in the import to
port.
avoid overwriting existing answers
with blank values.
Procedure
Results
The Import Summary tab shows the progress and status of the data import. However, remember that in some
cases the data import shows as successful when it hasn't updated questionnaire data, such as when you import
data for a questionnaire that isn't supported or when the import includes invalid answer values.
The import creates a new version of the questionnaire, which shows as the current version in the version history
on the questionnaire details page. If the questionnaire was in active approval when you imported the update, the
previously submitted answers become the previous version of the questionnaire and are indicated as approved in
version history even though approval is still in progress.
Next Steps
To verify that the import has successfully updated all the answers you wanted to update, navigate to the
Registration detail area of individual supplier profiles and view those questionnaires.
Prerequisites
To view the Reports workspace and download the vendor onboarding report, the SM Reports feature must be
enabled. Contact SAP Ariba support to enable this feature.
To download the vendor onboarding report, you must be a member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
Note
The supplier registration information in this report is also available in the following places:
• The Supplier Onboarding Progress data snapshot in Manage Supplier data snapshots . Supplier
data snapshots are available to users with a wider range of permissions. For more information, refer to
Creating a Supplier Data Snapshot.
Context
The vendor onboarding report shows the latest status for each supplier registration and qualification along with the
date when that status was updated. Data for qualifications includes the commodity, region, and department of the
qualification; qualifications are only available in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. You can download
the report as a comma-separated values (CSV) file, the default export delimited, or choose from other common
delimiters such as the semicolon (;). When you generate the report, you specify a range of dates up to a maximum
range of 3 months to include suppliers with records last updated in that date range, then schedule the report to
run. After it has finished running, you can download it to the location of your choice and either open it or transfer it
to a third-party system for processing.
Since the report includes status update dates, but you specify a date range for supplier records last updated when
generating it, you can use the report to see onboarding progress for suppliers with specific levels of activity. For
example, if you generate a report for suppliers with records that were last updated more than 6 months ago, it
includes all registration and qualification status changes for those suppliers, even if those status changes occurred
outside the report date range. You can then further filter the report by statuses and status update dates to identify
stalled registrations and qualifications.
For example, you can use the report to see all of the registrations in Invited status where the registration invitations
(indicated by the change from Not Registered to Invited status, the last status change) were issued more than 3
months ago and follow up with those suppliers. Or you can see all of the registrations with a change to Pending
Approval status in the last 3 months to identify registrations that haven't been approved or denied in a timely
fashion and that can indicate internal bottlenecks in your organization's approval processes.
The Reports workspace shows previously generated reports and their date ranges, allowing you to generate a new
report with a starting date right after the end date of the previous report. Currently, the only report available in this
workspace is the vendor onboarding report.
Procedure
• On the CSV Delimiter dropdown menu, select the value delimiter to use in the report file.
• Enter a name for the report file in the Report name field.
4. For the From and To dates, use the calendar and time choosers to specify the start and end dates and times to
include suppliers with records last updated in that date range in the generated report.
5. Choose Schedule.
Prerequisites
To cancel an in-progress qualification project, you must be a member of the SM Ops Administrator group.
Have a supplier's SM Vendor ID to search for and cancel their in-progress qualification projects. SM Vendor IDs are
available in supplier profiles and in the Suppliers data export in SM Administration.
Context
This topic applies to qualification projects. If your site uses process projects for qualification, process initiators can
cancel eligible process projects in a supplier's profile.
When a qualification manager starts a qualification for a specific commodity, region, and department, SAP Ariba
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance creates a qualification project for that combination. If an approver denies the
qualification, the qualification project with that commodity, region, and department combination remains in the
supplier's profile and prevents creation of a qualification for the same combination.
You can cancel an existing qualification project that is in Qualification Started, In Qualification, Pending
Qualification Resubmit or Pending Qualification Approval qualification status by deleting the qualification
project. Once the qualification is deleted, a qualification manager can create a new qualification project for the
same combination of commodity, region, and department.
Note
Qualification statuses set by data import aren't associated with qualification projects, and can only be canceled
using a data import that updates their qualification status to Cancelled.
Results
The qualification is now canceled and the underlying qualification project is flagged as deleted in the database,
meaning that:
• The qualification no longer shows in the supplier's profile, on the Supplier Management dashboard, or in
supplier search results.
• Approvers attempting to access the qualification approval page using links in notification emails, or attempting
to submit approvals, see a message letting them know that the qualification has been canceled.
• Suppliers attempting to access or submit the qualification questionnaire on SAP Business Network can no
longer access the questionnaire and see a message letting them know that the qualification is canceled.
• Qualification managers can start new qualifications based on the same commodity, region, and department
combination as the previously canceled qualification.
If the canceled qualification is the only one that had been started for the supplier, the supplier's overall qualification
status reverts to Qualification Not Started.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To manage access to the Advanced view link in supplier management projects, you must be a member of the SM
Ops Administrator group.
Context
The Advanced view link allows users with the appropriate permission to edit project components such as tasks
and the team. Some of the most common uses of the advanced view include:
• Adding approvers to approval flows. Some organizations find it useful to provide project owners with the
flexibility to add approvers to approval tasks on questionnaires, or to the project groups that are already
defined as approvers. These ad hoc edits can handle cases where the template-defined approval flow doesn't
include all relevant stakeholders.
• Reopening closed questionnaires. If a recipient doesn't respond to an external questionnaire by the time its due
date is reached, it automatically closes and is only editable again if reopened manually. Manually reopening the
questionnaire in advanced view is the only way to make it editable again in this situation.
You can enable or disable the advanced view for the following types of supplier management projects:
Registration On
Qualification On
Supplier Request On
Disqualification On
Process Off
Your advanced view configuration for a project type applies to all projects of that type in your site. You can't enable
or disable the Advanced View link in individual projects.
Procedure
Results
If you've enabled the advanced view for a project type, users with the appropriate permission see the Advanced
View link on project pages.
Related Information
Prerequisites
To manually synchronize status, questionnaire data, task data, and questionnaire answers, you must be a member
of the SM ERP Administrator or Customer Administrator group, as well as a group that has permission to work in
project advanced view.
Advanced view must be enabled for the project type where the synchronization error occurred.
The following manual synchronization tasks allow you to correct synchronization errors for some supplier
management project data by manually resynchronizing it:
Sync Status Manually synchronizes supplier registra- This synchronization addresses situa-
tion status.
tions where a supplier's current regis-
tration status shows accurately on the
Home dashboard, in sourcing events,
and on SAP Business Network, but isn't
updated in their profile or in supplier
search and doesn't trigger ERP synchro-
nization, if applicable.
Sync Questionnaire Data Manually synchronizes answers in map- This synchronization addresses field-
ped questions to the supplier database.
mapping synchronization errors, where
answers in mapped questions don't show
in supplier profiles and aren't synchron-
ized to an integrated ERP system.
Sync Task Data Manually synchronizes data for project This synchronization addresses situa-
tasks.
tions where task owners or approvers
have completed task actions, but the
tasks become stuck or revert to their pre-
vious state.
Note
Manual task synchronization is only
available for tasks associated with
forms or questionnaires.
Sync Questionnaire Answers Manually synchronizes questionnaire an- This synchronization addresses situa-
swers that are applicable to search.
tions where current answers aren't used
in supplier searches.
Procedure
1. On the Supplier Management dashboard, open the profile of the supplier with the synchronization error.
2. Navigate to the project where the synchronization error is occurring.
For example, for a registration status synchronization error, navigate to the Registration detail area. For a
task synchronization error in a modular questionnaire, navigate to the Questionnaires detail area and view
questionnaire details.
3. Choose Advanced View ( ).
4. In the project advanced view, perform one of the following actions:
• To synchronize registration status, or all project questionnaire data, task data, or questionnaire answers,
on the Overview tab, choose Actions and then the synchronization task you want to start.
• To synchronize questionnaire data, task data, or answers for a specific questionnaire, on the Documents
tab, choose the form or questionnaire associated with the synchronization error, then choose the
synchronization task you want to start.
The synchronization tasks that are available depend on the project type and circumstances.
Results
If the supplier is eligible for automatic ERP synchronization that was previously blocked by synchronization
errors, manual questionnaire data synchronization generates a new integration message with the resynchronized
questionnaire data.
Manual task synchronization moves the task or tasks associated with the questionnaire to the correct status and
triggers any further task actions configured for them.
Related Information
Managing Access to the Advanced View of Supplier Management Projects [page 577]
Project Advanced View
Dun & Bradstreet integration allows you to leverage D&B supplier data during the supplier request and registration
workflows. It requires requesters to search for potential new suppliers in the D&B database and automatically
includes D&B data in supplier profiles.
Dun & Bradstreet integration is available in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. It integrates SAP
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance with third-party provider Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) to retrieve data for
select fields from D&B Worldbase Marketing Plus with Linkage product using D&B's Data Integration Toolkit (DIT -
https://toolkit-api.dnb.com ). This integration enables you to use D&B supplier data to:
• Require requesters in your organization to search for potential new suppliers in the D&B database during
the internal supplier request process. This requirement ensures that all new suppliers created in SAP Ariba
Supplier Lifecycle and Performance either have D-U-N-S numbers or are approved for an exception.
• Include other D&B data in supplier profiles. With D&B integration, the request process adds basic D&B data
such as address to the supplier request. After the supplier request is approved, SAP Ariba pulls additional from
D&B and adds it to the SAP Ariba vendor record and, based on your configuration, to supplier registration
questionnaires.
D&B integration automates inclusion of this standard and verified data in supplier profiles, eliminating the need
for category or supplier managers to manually enter not only D-U-N-S numbers, but other detailed supplier data
maintained by Dun & Bradstreet. You choose which D&B data to include in the supplier profile by adding mapped
questions to the internal supplier request and registration questionnaires in your site's supplier management
project templates.
Note
• Involves only the Worldbase Marketing Plus with Linkage and the Data Integration Toolkit product.
• Supports the use of integrated Dun & Bradstreet data in internal supplier requests and both internal and
external (supplier-facing) supplier registration questionnaires. It doesn't support the use of D&B data in
external supplier requests.
• Pulls additional data from Dun & Bradstreet and adds it to D&B-integrated vendor database fields after
approval of a supplier request based on a D&B supplier. There's currently no way to update the data after
this point.
• Isn't recommended if your site is integrated with SAP MDG-S and you validate new supplier requests in
MDG-S. SAP Ariba hasn't verified that feature in combination with D&B integration.
Workflow for Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 582]
Prerequisites for Integrating Dun & Bradstreet with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 584]
Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 586]
Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 588]
Deletion of Dun & Bradstreet Data from Your Site [page 593]
1. An administrator in your organization configures the feature with your Dun & Bradstreet Data Integration
Toolkit user ID and password.
2. A template creator updates the internal supplier request project template in your site to include:
• Questions mapped to the vendor database fields required for D&B supplier lookup, as well as any other
mapped D&B fields that you want to include in the request. See the separate Dun & Bradstreet field
reference Excel file for reference.
• Questions asking the requester to explain why they need an exception to the D-U-N-S number requirement
if they don't see the supplier they're requesting in the D&B search results.
The template creator publishes the new version of the template.
3. A template creator updates internal and external questionnaires in the supplier registration project template in
your site to add mapped questions for D&B data and publishes the new version of the template.
4. A requester at your company creates an internal supplier request by choosing Create Supplier Request
with D&B Lookup on the dashboard, or creates a supplier instead of selecting an existing supplier when
inviting suppliers to a sourcing event. The D&B search page opens.
5. The requester performs one of the following actions on the D&B search page:
• Enters the supplier's D-U-N-S number, if they know it or can obtain it from the supplier before submitting
the request.
• Enters other information, such as name and address, that can be used to look up an existing supplier in the
D&B database.
This step can include requesting suppliers to create a Dun & Bradstreet account to obtain a D-U-N-S number if
they don't already have one.
6. SAP Ariba searches the integrated D&B database using the specified search criteria and displays a list of
matching suppliers to the requester. This search is in principle free of D&B charges unless there's an abuse of
the customer agreement.
7. One of the following two scenarios occurs:
• If the requester recognizes a supplier from the D&B search results as the supplier they wanted to request,
they select the supplier and choose Next. The supplier request form defined by your site's template opens
with the mapped D&B questions automatically populated with basic D&B data. By default, the requester
can't edit this information. Questions with mapping to fields that are pulled from D&B after request
approval are automatically hidden to prevent the requester from entering data that's overwritten by the
subsequent D&B data pull. The D&B exception-related questions added in Step 3 are also automatically
hidden. The requester fills out the rest of the request and submits it.
If the self-service configuration parameter Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using
Dun & Bradstreet lookup (Application.SM.IsExtendedAddressSectionEditableForDNBLookup)
Related Information
Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 581]
Prerequisites for Integrating Dun & Bradstreet with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 584]
Configuring Dun & Bradstreet Integration in Your Site [page 584]
Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 586]
Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 588]
For integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you must have licensed Dun & Bradstreet's
Worldbase Marketing Plus with Linkage and Data Integration Toolkit, the product must be activated, and you must
have a user ID and password for the Data Integration Toolkit. Your agreement with Dun & Bradstreet must allow you
to access the D&B service from your SAP Ariba cloud service and receive data from your D&B account in your SAP
Ariba site. SAP Ariba assumes no responsibility for the D&B service or support for that service. All materials or data
you receive from the D&B service are considered Customer Data or Customer Materials under your agreement
with SAP. The feature enabling access to this external service can be removed from the SAP Ariba cloud service
by SAP Ariba with advanced notice to you (or immediately to protect SAP's interest in case of a security, system
integrity, or intellectual property infringement concern).
To configure Dun & Bradstreet integration in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, you must be a member
of the SM Ops Administrator group.
To add mapped questions in internal supplier requests and registration questionnaires to support Dun & Bradstreet
searches, you must be a member of the Template Creator group.
Your site must use the Extended Address rather than Address answer type to collect address information about
suppliers, and the extended address configuration in your site must include the following fields, which are required
for D&B integration:
• House No./Street/Suppl.
• Street 2
• Postal Code/City
• Country/Region
Dun & Bradstreet integration with supplier addresses occurs only in extended address fields (which have field
names that start with vendor.addressExt.postalAddress). Integration with regular address fields (which
start with vendor.address) isn't supported.
If you want an integrated SAP ERP system to consume D&B data stored in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance custom vendor database fields, which start with the vendor.supplierGenericCustomField
extension, you must customize your integration.
Prerequisites
Note
As an SAP Ariba customer, when you configure D&B integration in your site, you have the following
responsibilities:
• You are fully responsible for having an agreement with D&B that allows you to access the D&B service from
the SAP Ariba cloud and receive data from your D&B account in your SAP Ariba cloud site.
• You are responsible for setting up and managing the D&B license key.
• You are responsible for paying D&B fees based on your agreement with D&B.
• You must notify SAP Ariba promptly if you see a problem with how the feature is obtaining records from
D&B (for example, if it generates too many payable D&B searches)
• Support for D&B services is only provided by D&B.
• D&B data is considered as "Customer Owned Data" under SAP Ariba agreements.
If you don't agree to these responsibilities, you should not enable and configure the D&B integration feature.
To set up Dun & Bradstreet integration, you must be a member of the SM Ops Administration group.
You must have licenses to Dun & Bradstreet's Worldbase Marketing Plus with Linkage and Data Integration Toolkit,
the products must be activated, and you must have a user ID and password for the Data Integration Toolkit. Your
agreement with Dun & Bradstreet must allow you to access the Dun & Bradstreet service from your SAP Ariba
cloud service and receive data from your Dun & Bradstreet account in your SAP Ariba site.
Before you set up Dun & Bradstreet integration, set up your internal supplier request (required) and supplier
registration questionnaires (optional) to support integration.
Context
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance stores your Dun & Bradstreet Data Integration Toolkit user name
and password in encrypted database fields, which only retain the currently submitted values.
Procedure
Results
The Config page records the timestamp when you added your credentials and your user name. The page doesn't
show your credentials after you submit them. Your SAP Ariba site is now integrated with your Dun & Bradstreet
products. Supplier request creation now includes an initial search for the requested supplier in the Dun &
Bradstreet database, and if the request is approved, the supplier's profile includes the additional set of D&B data.
Next Steps
You can update your Dun & Bradstreet credentials at any time by entering new user name and password values and
choosing Submit, or delete your credentials by choosing Delete.
To allow requesters to edit Extended Address fields when creating and submitting supplier
requests, a member of the Customer Administrator group can enable the self-service configuration
parameter Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using Dun & Bradstreet lookup
(Application.SM.IsExtendedAddressSectionEditableForDNBLookup) in Intelligent Configuration
Manager.
Related Information
Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 581]
Workflow for Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 582]
Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 586]
Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 588]
Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier Request and Registration Questionnaires
[page 589]
Supplier Request Project Setup [page 221]
D&B integration is designed to enforce a requirement that all suppliers added to your site's supplier database via
approved internal supplier requests either have D-U-N-S numbers or go through an exception process. Requesters
Add questions the D&B fields that are required for looking up complete D&B data, as well as any optional fields you
want to use, to the supplier request. See Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier
Request and Registration Questionnaires [page 589] for a list of required and optional fields.
Setting Up Questions About Exceptions for Requests That Aren't Based on a D&B Supplier
For supplier requests that aren't based on a D&B supplier, create one or more questions asking the requester about
the exception. For example, you can create a text question with a list of predefined reasons for the exception. For all
exception-related questions, enter vendor.external.exception.reason in the Supplier field mapping field.
Tip
If you group your D&B exception questions in a section that only includes questions mapped to
vendor.external.exception.reason, all of those questions are hidden in requests based on D&B
suppliers. However, the section heading is still visible and shows as an empty section. You can avoid
showing an empty section in requests based on D&B suppliers by adding other content not mapped to
vendor.external.exception.reason to the section as well.
Considerations for Approval Flows in Supplier Requests That Use D&B Data
The initial D&B lookup that a requester performs before creating a D&B-integrated supplier request doesn't
incur D&B charges. After a request based on a D&B supplier is approved, a second search populates additional
D&B-integrated fields in the supplier database with data from D&B Worldbase Marketing Plus, and D&B usage
charges can apply to this search. It's a good idea to make sure that the final approvers you specify for supplier
requests that use D&B data are users who can be responsible for making judgments in which D&B charges can be a
factor.
Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier Request and Registration Questionnaires
[page 589]
Field Reference for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 593]
Supplier Request Project Setup [page 221]
If your site uses D&B integration, your internal or external supplier questionnaires can include questions mapped
to D&B fields. See Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier Request and Registration
Questionnaires [page 589] for a list of D&B-integrated fields. If a supplier was created from a request based on a
D&B supplier, those fields are automatically populated with data from D&B.
Tip
To avoid having questionnaire recipients overwrite D&B data with their edits, make them read-only using
editability conditions.
In addition to showing in registration questionnaires, data from D&B-integrated fields shows in supplier profiles.
Related Information
Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 581]
Field Mappings for Dun & Bradstreet Questions in the Internal Supplier Request and Registration Questionnaires
[page 589]
Field Reference for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 593]
Supplier Registration Project Setup [page 242]
Note
• Unless otherwise noted, the questions listed in this section should use a answer type Text (single line
limited).
• For complete details on SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor database fields used in D&B
integration and their corresponding fields in the D&B data model, see Field Reference for Dun & Bradstreet
Integration [page 593].
• Due to legal requirements, D&B data pulls for suppliers in Germany require a mandatory reason code.
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance automatically includes a reason code of 3 ("Credit Check –
Ongoing Business Connection") without any field configuration on your part.
Questions with the following field mappings are required in the supplier request and use free D&B lookup services.
Approval of supplier requests that include these fields do not incur usage charges for D&B Worldbase Marketing
Plus with Linkage. You can also include them in internal or external supplier registration questionnaires.
Exception for requests not matched to an vendor.external.exception.r You can use this mapping for one or more
existing D&B supplier eason questions that define an exception proc-
ess for requests that don't match an ex-
isting D&B supplier.
The following ERP vendor fields are automatically populated with data from D&B when the supplier request is
approved. You can also include them in internal or external supplier registration questionnaires and in the supplier
request for the D&B exception case. For complete details on SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor
database fields used in D&B integration and their corresponding fields in the D&B data model, see Field Reference
for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 593].
Number of employees vendor.supplierGenericCusto Use the Number answer type for this
mField.numberOfEmployees question.
Year established vendor.supplierGenericCusto Use the Number answer type for this
mField.yearEstablished question.
Out of business? vendor.supplierGenericCusto Use the Yes/No answer type for this
mField.outOfBusiness question.
To delete D&B data from standard vendor database fields, you must overwrite the field values provided by D&B
with different field values in your SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance site.
To delete D&B data that is stored in custom SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance vendor fields that begin
with the extension vendor.supplierGenericCustomField, your Designated Support Contact must request
deletion of D&B data stored in a dedicated D&B table.
At that point, SAP Ariba runs a select query to identify the to-be deleted items and shares the results with you.
After your confirmation, these records are deleted.
You're responsible for deleting impacted D&B data that was synchronized to and then stored in an integrated ERP
system.
Visibility/Editabil-
D&B DIT Data ity in requests for
Element/DIT Tag Existing D&B Sup- Required in Sup-
SAP Ariba Field Mapping Name D&B Data Package pliers plier Request?
Related Information
Dun & Bradstreet Integration with SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance [page 581]
Internal Supplier Request Setup for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 586]
Supplier Registration Questionnaire Set up for Dun & Bradstreet Integration [page 588]
Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using Dun & Bradstreet lookup [page 771]
Exclude vendor.vendorInfo.name3 from Dun & Bradstreet lookup in supplier requests [page 778]
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management
(new architecture) include some optional features that aren't enabled by default.
Table 26:
ID Feature Description Enablement
External approval of supplier External approval of supplier Adds a final step in the sup- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
creation creation enable, then enable in integra-
plier request approval proc-
tion settings
ess for validating approved re-
quests in SAP MDG-S. If SAP
MDG-S returns a replication
message that references an
existing supplier, SAP Ariba
marks the requested supplier
as a duplicate, hides it in the
user interface, and redirects
the requester to the matched
supplier instead. SAP Ariba
Note
Use of this feature to-
gether with supplier re-
quest Dun & Bradstreet
integration (SM-7213)
hasn't been verified
and isn't currently recom-
mended. Either use exter-
nal approval of supplier
creation or Dun & Brad-
street integration, but not
both.
External approval for up- External approval for updates Adds a final step in the ap- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
dates to supplier data in SAP to supplier data in SAP Ariba proval process for updates enable, then enable in integra-
Ariba to information in mapped tion settings
questions in supplier registra-
tion questionnaires where SAP
Ariba sends an approval re-
quest to SAP MDG-S and only
updates the supplier record
if the update is approved in
SAP MDG-S. SAP Ariba rec-
ommends that this feature al-
ways be enabled in sites inte-
grated with SAP MDG-S.
SIPM to SM Migration Mode Supplier management migra- Provides tools for migrating Contact SAP Ariba Support to
tion tools enable
supplier organizations, users,
and the supplier profile ques-
tionnaire to suppliers, supplier
contacts, and supplier regis-
tration questionnaires in the
unified vendor model using
manual file import and export.
SIPM to SM Auto Migration Supplier management migra- Provides an automatic, one- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
Mode enable
tion tools: auto-migration click tool for migrating sup-
plier organizations, users, and
the supplier profile question-
naire to suppliers, supplier
contacts, and supplier regis-
tration questionnaires in the
unified vendor model. In some
cases, migration of supplier
profile questionnaires can still
involve manual steps.
SM-2861 External supplier request Provides a method for new Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
(supplier self-registration) suppliers to introduce them-
selves to you by clicking a
custom URL and filling out a
dedicated external supplier re-
quest form. Suppliers access-
ing this custom URL must
complete a ReCAPTCHA ver-
ification before the external
supplier request opens to pre-
vent malicious automated at-
tempts to repeatedly access
the external supplier request
("bot spamming").
SM-3049 Support for questions based Adds the ability to create mas- Configure in the supplier re-
on additional types of master
ter data questions in supplier quest and internal registration
data
management questionnaires questionnaires [page 410]
based on company code,
purchasing organization, pay-
ment terms, and incoterms
master data from an inte-
grated ERP system. The list
of possible answers for these
questions is populated directly
from integrated master data,
eliminating the need to man-
ually maintain answers that
match the current data in the
ERP system.
Note
As a best practice, SAP
Ariba recommends man-
aging company code and
purchasing organization
information directly in the
integrated SAP ERP, SAP
S/4HANA, or SAP MDG-S
system. Setting or main-
taining this data in SAP
Ariba is a work-around
that requires thorough
testing in your landscape
based on your specific re-
quirements.
SM-3492 Enhancements to the work- Specifies that when an ap- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
flow for requesting additional prover requests additional in-
information during approval formation, only the current
node of the approval task
restarts. By default, when
an approver requests addi-
tional information, the appro-
val task restarts from the be-
ginning, generating a new ap-
proval graph and discarding
any manually added approvers
in approval nodes that were
missing approvers. When this
feature is enabled, the current
approval task restarts at the
active node and retains ap-
provers manually added to no-
des that were missing approv-
ers.
SM-4994 Sync internal questionnaires Requires that updates to in- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
on approval enable
ternal registration question-
naires be finally approved
before mapped answers are
committed to the database
and synchronized to an inte-
grated ERP system. By de-
fault, they're committed to the
database and synchronized to
the ERP system when the in-
ternal questionnaire update is
submitted.
SM-5060 Access to classic Supplier Allows you to measure sup- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
Performance Management plier performance using clas-
projects sic SPM projects, which exist
as stand-alone projects and
aren't linked to other supplier
management processes.
SM-5144 Assigning fulfillment and Allows you to establish a fulfill- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
sourcing relationships to sup- ment relationship with a sup-
pliers plier as they register for any
event, establish a sourcing re-
lationship with a supplier as
they register for SAP Business
Network, or establish a fulfill-
ment relationship with a sup-
plier after a sourcing relation-
ship has already been estab-
lished.
SM-5116 Status tracker for supplier Displays registration invitation Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
management email notifica- email delivery status so that
tions category or supplier manag-
ers can resend invitations that
have bounced or that haven’t
been answered promptly.
SM-5590 Bank component in supplier Uses the Bank Account ques- Bank Account Questions for
Collecting Supplier Bank Infor-
management questionnaires tion answer type, which in-
mation [page 414]
cludes a predefined set of
mapped fields, for collecting
supplier bank information.
SM-6129 Modular supplier manage- Enables separate, template- Set up modular questionnaire
project templates [page 327]
ment questionnaire based modular questionnaires
for collecting specific sets of
information from suppliers.
SM-6182 Customer-configurable dupli- Enables template creators to Configure in the supplier re-
quest [page 237]
cate checks in supplier re- specify questions in internal
quests and external supplier requests
to be used in checks for dupli-
cate suppliers.
SM-6752 Supplier certificate manage- Enables a specialized certif- Set up certificate manage-
ment in modular question-
ment icate question in modular
naires [page 349]
supplier management ques-
tionnaires for the collection
of supplier certificate informa-
tion.
SM-6316 External approval API Enables External Approval API Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
for Sourcing and Supplier
Management access for ap-
proval tasks and process sta-
tus decisions in supplier man-
agement projects.
SM-6380 Business unit-specific notifi- Allows you to import business Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
cations in supplier request units as department master
process data and display the business
unit name rather than your
company's name in the exter-
nal supplier request and re-
lated notifications to suppliers
and approvers.
Note
When this feature is ena-
bled, requesters can only
select one department
value in both external
and internal supplier re-
quests. This restriction al-
lows you to route exter-
nal requests to a specific
business unit in your or-
ganization. It doesn't ap-
ply to other supplier man-
agement questionnaires.
SM-6908 Override supplier via integra- By default, once a supplier Contact SAP Ariba Support to
tion toolkit becomes public (has a con- enable
nected SAP Business Network
account), they take owner-
ship of common supplier pro-
file fields such as name and
address and maintain them
in their SAP Business Net-
work account profile. If you
migrated from supplier organ-
izations and supplier users
to the unified vendor model
and are still using an existing
SAP Ariba integration toolkit
or SOAP web service API in-
tegration to update a limited
set of supplier profile fields,
including name and address,
this feature allows those up-
dates for both public and pri-
vate suppliers.
SM-7213 Supplier management Dun & Integrates SAP Ariba Supplier Contact SAP Ariba Support to
Bradstreet integration Lifecycle and Performance enable
with third-party provider Dun
& Bradstreet to automate in-
cludes of standard and veri-
fied Dun & Bradstreet data in
supplier profiles.
SM-7917 Configure output fields for Adds the ability to config- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
supplier data API ure which fields are included enable
in output for the Supplier
Data API with Pagination
vendorDataRequests
endpoint.
SM-12249 Enhancements to ERP inte- Blocks any integration mes- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
enable
gration error handling and er- sages with validation errors in
ror display for supplier data the outbound ERP integration
message queue and provides
tools that allow customer ad-
ministrators to ignore errors
that don't apply to their ERP
configuration.
SM-12250 Enhanced questionnaire con- Adds validation for supplier This feature is enabled by
default. Disable or enable it
figuration capabilities for in- field mapping data and a user
in Intelligent Configuration
creased ERP integration accu- interface tool to generate sug-
Manager [page 766].
racy gested field restrictions when
you create questions with
text answer types in question-
naires.
SM-14213 Support for displaying full Adds a Contact SAP Ariba Support to
supplier names longer than 35 enable
vendor.vendorInfo.fu
characters
llName database field with a
maximum length of 140 char-
acters for storing supplier
names. The value in this field
shows in other SAP Ariba solu-
tions such as SAP Ariba Buy-
ing solutions, SAP Ariba Con-
tracts, and SAP Ariba Sourc-
ing.
SM-14271 Organization updates in data- When SAP Ariba Supplier Life- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
sync job enable
cycle and Performance or
SAP Ariba Supplier Informa-
tion and Performance Man-
agement (new architecture)
is not enabled in a site, for
public suppliers, updates to
SAP Business Network com-
mon supplier profile fields
automatically synchronize to
supplier organizations. When
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance or SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Per-
formance Management (new
architecture) is enabled in a
site, however, that synchro-
nization isn't automatic by
default. Instead, you control
synchronization of individual
SAP Business Network profile
fields using field mappings
[page 449].
SM-16798 New modular process frame- Introduces a new, flexible Enable in Intelligent
work for qualification and cus- Configuration Manager [page
process project framework
tom supplier lifecycle proc- 773] and SM Administration
that allows you to define cus-
esses [page 791] in your site and
tom qualification and other then set up process projects
supplier lifecycle processes [page 289]
to fit your organization's busi-
ness processes.
SM-16802 Ability to remind suppliers to Adds configuration options Configure in external regis-
submit periodic registration that allow you to remind sup- tration questionnaires [page
updates pliers to update registration 258]
questionnaires at periodic in-
tervals so that those question-
naires always contain current
information.
SM-16887 Improved user experience for Improves the way internal Contact SAP Ariba Support to
internal questionnaires with enable
questionnaires process condi-
visibility conditions
tion triggers and show con-
ditional content so that re-
spondents no longer have to
wait for conditional content to
load when they fill out internal
questionnaires.
Note
When this feature was in-
troduced in the SAP Ariba
2008 release, it was au-
tomatically on for all cus-
tomers. That enablement
model has been updated,
and it's currently disabled
by default.
SM-17591 Display new supplier contact Displays new supplier contact Contact SAP Ariba Support to
names with family names first names in the reverse order enable
in the new supplier 360° pro- of how they're created. This
file applies to all areas that sup-
plier contact names are dis-
played, including external noti-
fications.
SM-17808 Make most fields in Makes all Certificate question Enable in Intelligent
Certificate questions optional fields, except for Expiration Configuration Manager [page
Date and Attachment, op- 785] in your site.
tional.
SM-18117 Ability for buyer to config- Adds a new template-level set- Enable in Intelligent
ure sender name in invitation ting that allows template cre- Configuration Manager [page
emails ators to specify a custom 770] in your site and then con-
sender name for external reg- figure in external registration
istration questionnaires. This questionnaires [page 260]
custom sender name replaces
the generic system alias in the
"From" field in new registra-
tion invitations and invitation
reminders.
SM-18305 New email notifications for Adds new email notification Configure in external regis-
supplier registration remind- templates for reminding sup- tration questionnaires [page
ers pliers to complete their regis- 256]
trations. These templates in-
clude language that is specific
to supplier registrations and
links to registration question-
naires.
SM-20598 Configurable mappings be- Adds a new master data map- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
tween guided buying ship-to ping import that allows you enable, then enable the
addresses and preferred and to define mappings between ENABLE_SM_INTEGRATIO
qualified supplier regions ship-to address country/re- N_ON_COUNTRYCODE pa-
gion codes used in guided rameter in guided buying.
buying and the region code
master data used for prefer-
red and qualified suppliers so
that guided buying searches
can identify the appropriate
preferred and qualified suppli-
ers regardless of the region
codes you use.
SM-20904 Ability to specify requester Adds a new step in manual Contact SAP Ariba Support to
when inviting a supplier to reg- registration invitations where enable
ister registration managers can
choose the requester for the
registration, such as an in-
dividual in your organization
with whom the supplier is
familiar or already has a
relationship. The requester's
name shows in the "From"
field of registration invitations.
SM-21278 Ability to search for suppliers Adds a new search filter to the Enable in SM Administration
based on the risk information search page allowing you to [page 791] in your site.
filter suppliers based on their
risk level.
SM-23086 Sync questionnaire data be- Synchronizes registration Contact SAP Ariba Support to
fore status questionnaire answers to the enable
supplier's 360° profile after fi-
nal approval of a new registra-
tion but before the supplier
moves to Registered status.
With this order of operations,
if the synchronization fails
because of invalid answers,
the registration remains in
Pending Approval status and
the final approver can request
additional information to fix
invalid answers. This feature is
only applicable if SM-4994 is
also enabled in your site.
SM-28926 Hide SWIFT Code in Bank Hides the SWIFT Code field Contact SAP Ariba Support to
Account in Bank Account questions. enable
Since this field is mapped
to an external ID field in in-
tegrated SAP ERP systems,
inclusion of SWIFT codes in
bank account information sent
to the ERP system can cause
errors if questionnaire recipi-
ents add the same code for
more than one bank account
(for example, if a supplier
adds multiple accounts with
the same bank).
SM-30016 Support for supplier data in- Adds support for supplier Contact SAP Ariba Support to
tegration with SAP S/4HANA data integration between SAP
enable
Cloud Ariba applications and SAP S/
4HANA Cloud using SAP Mas- For details, refer to About
ter Data Integration (MDI) Supplier Data Integration with
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Using
SAP Master Data Integration.
SM-30017 Support for partitioned sup- Adds support for the parti- Contact SAP Ariba Support to
plier data for SAP Ariba Pro- tioned supplier data used in
enable
curement solutions SAP Ariba Procurement sol-
utions, such as supplier lo- For details, refer to About Par-
cations, remittance locations, titioned Supplier Data.
currency, account type, and
payment methods.
SM-30222 Support for workflows with in- Adds support for workflows Enable in Intelligent
ternal forms in modular ques- that include one or more Configuraton Manager [page
tionnaire projects internal forms and To Do 772] and SM Administration
tasks in addition to the main [page 791] in your site and
questionnaire in both internal then configure in individual
and external modular ques- modular questionnaire project
tionnaire projects. You can templates [page 333].
use these internal forms and
associated To Do and appro-
val tasks to create question-
naire workflows that not only
collect information from the
main questionnaire recipient
but also allow internal stake-
holders to provide supplemen-
tary information or analysis,
or affirm actions performed in
other systems.
SM-34253 Ability to enable Department Adds business unit (depart- Enable in SM Administration
[page 791] in your site.
as third dimension in supplier ment) as a third dimension
management along with commodity and re-
gion in buyer category assign-
ments, qualifications, disqual-
ifications, preferred supplier
management, and modular
supplier management ques-
tionnaire projects.
SM-33647 Support for repeatable sec- Adds support for repeata- Enable in Intelligent
tions in internal question- ble sections in internal ques- Configuration Manager [page
naires tionnaires, including external 776] and SM Administration
questionnaires answered by [page 791] in your site.
internal recipients in internal
registrations.
SM-34928 Ability for requesters and ap- Adds the ability for requesters Enable Extended Address ed-
provers to edit supplier ad- and approvers to edit fields in iting in supplier requests us-
dresses in supplier requests Extended Address answers in ing Dun & Bradstreet lookup
with Dun & Bradstreet lookup supplier requests that use Dun [page 771] in Intelligent
& Bradstreet lookup. The ini- Configuration Manager.
tial D&B lookup populates the
request with address informa-
tion from D&B, and by default
none of this information is ed-
itable.
SM-35073 Ability for questionnaire recip- Adds the ability for the in- Enable questionnaire recipi-
ients in internal registrations ternal recipients of external ents in internal registrations
to see and edit otherwise questionnaires in registrations to see and edit otherwise
masked answers on behalf of suppliers to see masked answers [page 775]
and edit answers that are oth- in Intelligent Configuration
erwise masked, even if they're Manager.
not members of the Sensitive
Data Access group.
SM-36076 Support for supplier names up Adds support for supplier Enable in SM Administration
to 160 characters in supplier names up to a total of 160
[page 791] in your site.
field names characters by increasing the
maximum size of the This feature requires the
vendor.vendorInfo.na supplier full name feature
me1 through (SM-14213) as a prerequisite.
vendor.vendorInfo.na
me4 fields from 35 to 40
characters each and the
vendor.vendorInfo.fu
llname field from 140 to 160
characters. With this enhance-
ment, name fields in the sup-
plier database now synchron-
ize up to 40 characters per
name field with integrated
SAP S/4HANA and SAP Mas-
ter Data Integration (MDI) sys-
tems, where the four name
fields each support a 40 char-
acter maximum.
SM-22896 and SM-41138 Include empty elements SM-22896 includes elements Contact SAP Ariba Support to
of type String, Code, and enable
CashDiscountTermsCod
e that have null values as
empty elements in integration
messages sent to the inte-
grated ERP system. SM-41138
includes empty elements of
type Len20Description
(such as
SpecificationDescrip
tion elements) that have null
values as empty elements in
outbound integration mes-
sages.
NGSM-2959 New Supplier Profile Sum- This feature introduces a new Enabling the Supplier Profile
mary Summary in Your Site [page
profile summary for suppliers
53]
in SAP Ariba Supplier Man-
agement solutions. It provides
an enhanced user experience
that leverages the latest SAP
capabilities, including a new
Operational Score panel with
data from integrated SAP S/
4HANA operational KPIs if
available. All of the data that
was previously available in the
classic supplier 360° profile is
also available in the new pro-
file summary.
Note
This feature is only sup-
ported in sites that in-
clude SAP Ariba Sup-
plier Lifecycle and Per-
formance or SAP Ariba
Supplier Risk. It isn't sup-
ported in sites that in-
clude SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Perform-
ance Management (new
architecture) without one
of those other solutions.
You can configure the behavior of certain fields in Bank Account, Tax, and Extended Address questions using data
imports. SAP Ariba provides default data to define default configurations.
Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for IBAN Numbers in Bank Account Questions [page
618]
Default Syntax Validation, Visible, and Mandatory Flags for Account Holder Names, Account Numbers, and
Bank Keys in Bank Account Questions [page 628]
Default Syntax Validation for Postal Codes in Supplier Addresses [page 745]
A bank control key specifies the type of the supplier bank account, such as savings or checking. Different countries
can have different bank control keys. Bank Account questions include a Bank Control Key field and a country/
region field for the bank address. Once a respondent has chosen a country or region, the Bank Control Key
dropdown menu shows the bank control keys defined in your site.
You can use the Import Country-Specific Bank Control Key and Import Country-Specific Bank Control Key
Translations data import tasks to define custom, country or region-specific bank control keys [page 102].
CTRL007 3 Loan US
CTRL009 1 FUTSU JP
CTRL010 2 TOUZA JP
CTRL011 4 CHOCHIKU JP
Related Information
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Country/Region-Specific Bank Control Key Data Import [page 102]
The International Bank Account Number (IBAN) is a system for identifying bank accounts across national borders.
This system uses a specific syntax that includes a country code, check digits, and other bank information. In sites
You can use the Import Country-Specific Bank IBAN fields data import task to define custom, country-specific
IBAN syntax [page 104].
Default data for visible and mandatory flags (the IBANMandatory and IBANVisible fields) is only available if
the self-service parameter Enable country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank Account
fields [page 769] is enabled in your site. In this case, the default data for these fields differs depending on whether
your site was deployed before or after the SAP Ariba 2203 release. If this parameter is disabled, those fields are
empty and are ignored during data import.
Note
If you edit default values, make sure that either IBAN Number or both Account Number and Bank Key/ABA
Routing Number are visible and required for every country/region.
Default Data for Sites Enabled After the SAP Ariba 2203 Release
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2203 release, when country/region-specific visibility and optionality are
enabled, the IBAN Number field is automatically visible and required for countries/regions that have default IBAN
syntax validation data. IBAN Number is automatically hidden and optional for countries/regions not included in
the default data. Corresponding default data for account number and bank key or routing number [page 628]
makes those fields visible and required for those countries/regions instead.
Table 28:
AL AL2!n8!n16!c 28 AL\d{10}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{16}
AD AD2!n4!n4! 24 AD\d{10}[A- Y Y
n12!c Z0-9]{12}
AT AT2!n5!n11!n 20 AT\d{18} Y Y
AZ AZ2!n4!a20!c 28 AZ\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{20}
BH BH2!n4!a14!c 22 BH\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{14}
BE BE2!n3!n7!n2! 16 BE\d{14} Y Y
n
BA BA2!n3!n3!n8! 20 BA\d{18} Y Y
n2!n
BR BR2!n8!n5! 29 BR\d{25}[A-Z] Y Y
n10!n1!a1!c {1}[A-Z0-9]
{1}
BG BG2!n4!a4!n2! 22 BG\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n8!c {4}\d{6}[A-
Z0-9]{8}
CR CR2!n3!n14!n 21 CR\d{20} Y Y
HR HR2!n7!n10!n 21 HR\d{19} Y Y
CY CY2!n3!n5! 28 CY\d{10}[A- Y Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
CZ CZ2!n4!n6! 24 CZ\d{22} Y Y
n10!n
DK DK2!n4!n9!n1! 18 DK\d{16} Y Y
n
DO DO2!n4!c20!n 28 DO\d{2} Y Y
[A-Z0-9]
{4}\d{20}
EE EE2!n2!n2! 20 EE\d{18} Y Y
n11!n1!n
FI FI2!n6!n7!n1! 18 FI\d{16} Y Y
n
FR FR2!n5!n5! 27 FR\d{12} Y Y
n11!c2! [A-Z0-9]
{11}\d{2}
GE GE2!n2!a16!n 22 GE\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{2}\d{16}
DE DE2!n8!n10!n 22 DE\d{20} Y Y
GI GI2!n4!a15!c 23 GI\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{15}
GR GR2!n3!n4! 27 GR\d{9}[A- Y Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
GT GT2!n4!c20!c 28 GT\d{2}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{24}
HU HU2!n3!n4!n1! 28 HU\d{26} Y Y
n15!n1!n
IS IS2!n4!n2!n6! 26 IS\d{24} Y Y
n10!n
IE IE2!n4!a6!n8! 22 IE\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n {4}\d{14}
IL IL2!n3!n3! 23 IL\d{21} Y Y
n13!n
IT IT2!n1!a5!n5! 27 IT\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n12!c {1}\d{10}[A-
Z0-9]{12}
JO JO2!n4!a4! 30 JO\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n18!c {4}\d{4}[A-
Z0-9]{18}
KZ KZ2!n3!n13!c 20 KZ\d{5}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{13}
KW KW2!n4!a22!c 30 KW\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{22}
LV LV2!n4!a13!c 21 LV\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{13}
LB LB2!n4!n20!c 28 LB\d{6}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{20}
LI LI2!n5!n12!c 21 LI\d{7}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{12}
LT LT2!n5!n11!n 20 LT\d{18} Y Y
LU LU2!n3!n13!c 20 LU\d{5}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{13}
MK MK2!n3!n10! 19 MK\d{5} Y Y
c2!n [A-Z0-9]
{10}\d{2}
MT MT2!n4!a5! 31 MT\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n18!c {4}\d{5}[A-
Z0-9]{18}
MR MR2!n5!n5! 27 MR\d{25} Y Y
n11!n2!n
MU MU2!n4!a2!n2! 30 MU\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n12!n3!n3!a {4}\d{19}[A-
Z]{3}
MD MD2!n2!c18!c 24 MD\d{2}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{20}
MC MC2!n5!n5! 27 MC\d{12} Y Y
n11!c2!n [A-Z0-9]
{11}\d{2}
ME ME2!n3!n13! 22 ME\d{20} Y Y
n2!n
NL NL2!n4!a10!n 18 NL\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}\d{10}
NO NO2!n4!n6!n1! 15 NO\d{13} Y Y
n
PK PK2!n4!a16!c 24 PK\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{16}
PS PS2!n4!a21!c 29 PS\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{21}
PL PL2!n8!n16!n 28 PL\d{26} Y Y
PT PT2!n4!n4! 25 PT\d{23} Y Y
n11!n2!n
QA QA2!n4!a21!c 29 QA\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{21}
RO RO2!n4!a16!c 24 RO\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{16}
LC LC2!n4!a24!c 32 LC\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{24}
SM SM2!n1!a5!n5! 27 SM\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n12!c {1}\d{10}[A-
Z0-9]{12}
ST ST2!n8!n11! 25 ST\d{23} Y Y
n2!n
SA SA2!n2!n18!c 24 SA\d{4}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{18}
RS RS2!n3!n13! 22 RS\d{20} Y Y
n2!n
SC SC2!n4a!2n! 31 SC\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
2n!16n!3a! {4}\d{20}[A-
Z]{3}
SK SK2!n4!n6! 24 SK\d{22} Y Y
n10!n
SI SI2!n5!n8!n2! 19 SI\d{17} Y Y
n
ES ES2!n4!n4!n1! 24 ES\d{22} Y Y
n1!n10!n
SE SE2!n3!n16! 24 SE\d{22} Y Y
n1!n
CH CH2!n5!n12!c 21 CH\d{7}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{12}
TL TL2!n3!n14! 23 TL\d{21} Y Y
n2!n
TN TN2!n2!n3! 24 TN\d{22} Y Y
n13!n2!n
TR TR2!n5!n1! 26 TR\d{8}[A- Y Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
UA UA2!n6!n19!c 29 UA\d{8}[A- Y Y
Z0-9]{19}
AE AE2!n3!n16!n 23 AE\d{21} Y Y
GB GB2!n4!a6!n8! 22 GB\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
n {4}\d{14}
VG VG2!n4!a16!n 24 VG\d{2}[A-Z] Y Y
{4}\d{16}
Default Data for Sites Enabled Before the SAP Ariba 2203 Release
In sites deployed before the SAP Ariba 2203 release, when country/region-specific visibility and optionality are
enabled, the IBAN Number field is automatically visible but optional for countries/regions that have default IBAN
syntax validation data. IBAN Number is automatically hidden and optional for countries/regions not included in
the default data. Corresponding default data for account number and bank key or routing number [page 628]
makes those fields visible but optional for all countries/regions.
These default values for Visible and Mandatory flags prevent unexpected changes to the behavior of Bank
Account questions after the introduction of these fields. However, if you don't change any of the default values in
these fields, the system applies the default requirement of either IBAN Number or a combination of Bank Account
and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number instead to ensure that questionnaire recipients must enter a bank account ID
for each bank.
Table 29:
AL AL2!n8!n16!c 28 AL\d{10}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{16}
AD AD2!n4!n4! 24 AD\d{10}[A- N Y
n12!c Z0-9]{12}
AT AT2!n5!n11!n 20 AT\d{18} N Y
AZ AZ2!n4!a20!c 28 AZ\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{20}
BH BH2!n4!a14!c 22 BH\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{14}
BE BE2!n3!n7!n2! 16 BE\d{14} N Y
n
BA BA2!n3!n3!n8! 20 BA\d{18} N Y
n2!n
BR BR2!n8!n5! 29 BR\d{25}[A-Z] N Y
n10!n1!a1!c {1}[A-Z0-9]
{1}
BG BG2!n4!a4!n2! 22 BG\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n8!c {4}\d{6}[A-
Z0-9]{8}
CR CR2!n3!n14!n 21 CR\d{20} N Y
HR HR2!n7!n10!n 21 HR\d{19} N Y
CY CY2!n3!n5! 28 CY\d{10}[A- N Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
CZ CZ2!n4!n6! 24 CZ\d{22} N Y
n10!n
DK DK2!n4!n9!n1! 18 DK\d{16} N Y
n
DO DO2!n4!c20!n 28 DO\d{2} N Y
[A-Z0-9]
{4}\d{20}
EE EE2!n2!n2! 20 EE\d{18} N Y
n11!n1!n
FI FI2!n6!n7!n1! 18 FI\d{16} N Y
n
FR FR2!n5!n5! 27 FR\d{12} N Y
n11!c2! [A-Z0-9]
{11}\d{2}
GE GE2!n2!a16!n 22 GE\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{2}\d{16}
DE DE2!n8!n10!n 22 DE\d{20} N Y
GI GI2!n4!a15!c 23 GI\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{15}
GR GR2!n3!n4! 27 GR\d{9}[A- N Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
GT GT2!n4!c20!c 28 GT\d{2}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{24}
HU HU2!n3!n4!n1! 28 HU\d{26} N Y
n15!n1!n
IS IS2!n4!n2!n6! 26 IS\d{24} N Y
n10!n
IE IE2!n4!a6!n8! 22 IE\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n {4}\d{14}
IL IL2!n3!n3! 23 IL\d{21} N Y
n13!n
IT IT2!n1!a5!n5! 27 IT\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n12!c {1}\d{10}[A-
Z0-9]{12}
JO JO2!n4!a4! 30 JO\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n18!c {4}\d{4}[A-
Z0-9]{18}
KZ KZ2!n3!n13!c 20 KZ\d{5}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{13}
KW KW2!n4!a22!c 30 KW\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{22}
LV LV2!n4!a13!c 21 LV\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{13}
LB LB2!n4!n20!c 28 LB\d{6}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{20}
LI LI2!n5!n12!c 21 LI\d{7}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{12}
LT LT2!n5!n11!n 20 LT\d{18} N Y
LU LU2!n3!n13!c 20 LU\d{5}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{13}
MK MK2!n3!n10! 19 MK\d{5} N Y
c2!n [A-Z0-9]
{10}\d{2}
MT MT2!n4!a5! 31 MT\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n18!c {4}\d{5}[A-
Z0-9]{18}
MR MR2!n5!n5! 27 MR\d{25} N Y
n11!n2!n
MU MU2!n4!a2!n2! 30 MU\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n12!n3!n3!a {4}\d{19}[A-
Z]{3}
MD MD2!n2!c18!c 24 MD\d{2}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{20}
MC MC2!n5!n5! 27 MC\d{12} N Y
n11!c2!n [A-Z0-9]
{11}\d{2}
ME ME2!n3!n13! 22 ME\d{20} N Y
n2!n
NL NL2!n4!a10!n 18 NL\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}\d{10}
NO NO2!n4!n6!n1! 15 NO\d{13} N Y
n
PK PK2!n4!a16!c 24 PK\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{16}
PS PS2!n4!a21!c 29 PS\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{21}
PL PL2!n8!n16!n 28 PL\d{26} N Y
PT PT2!n4!n4! 25 PT\d{23} N Y
n11!n2!n
QA QA2!n4!a21!c 29 QA\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{21}
RO RO2!n4!a16!c 24 RO\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{16}
LC LC2!n4!a24!c 32 LC\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}[A-Z0-9]
{24}
SM SM2!n1!a5!n5! 27 SM\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n12!c {1}\d{10}[A-
Z0-9]{12}
ST ST2!n8!n11! 25 ST\d{23} N Y
n2!n
SA SA2!n2!n18!c 24 SA\d{4}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{18}
RS RS2!n3!n13! 22 RS\d{20} N Y
n2!n
SC SC2!n4a!2n! 31 SC\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
2n!16n!3a! {4}\d{20}[A-
Z]{3}
SK SK2!n4!n6! 24 SK\d{22} N Y
n10!n
SI SI2!n5!n8!n2! 19 SI\d{17} N Y
n
ES ES2!n4!n4!n1! 24 ES\d{22} N Y
n1!n10!n
SE SE2!n3!n16! 24 SE\d{22} N Y
n1!n
CH CH2!n5!n12!c 21 CH\d{7}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{12}
TL TL2!n3!n14! 23 TL\d{21} N Y
n2!n
TN TN2!n2!n3! 24 TN\d{22} N Y
n13!n2!n
TR TR2!n5!n1! 26 TR\d{8}[A- N Y
n16!c Z0-9]{16}
UA UA2!n6!n19!c 29 UA\d{8}[A- N Y
Z0-9]{19}
AE AE2!n3!n16!n 23 AE\d{21} N Y
GB GB2!n4!a6!n8! 22 GB\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
n {4}\d{14}
VG VG2!n4!a16!n 24 VG\d{2}[A-Z] N Y
{4}\d{16}
Related Information
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Country/Region-Specific Validation Syntax, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account IBAN Number
Data Import [page 104]
You can use the Import Country-Specific Bank validation fields data import task to define country/region-specific
syntax for these fields, and in some cases you can also define visibility and optionality for them. Bank account
field validation definitions include fields where you specify which check rule to use during syntax validation using
a number between 1 and 8. For details on defining custom, country-specific syntax validation for these fields and
the check rules that correspond to these numbers, see Country/Region-Specific Syntax Validation, Visibility, and
Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Holder Name, Account Number, and Bank Key or ABA Routing Number Data
Import [page 107].
Default data for visible and mandatory flags (the AccountNumberMandatory, BankKeyMandatory,
AccountNumberVisible, and BankKeyVisible fields) is only available if the self-service parameter Enable
country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank Account fields [page 769] is enabled in
your site. In this case, the default data for these fields differs depending on whether your site was deployed before
or after the SAP Ariba 2203 release. If this parameter is disabled, those fields are empty and are ignored during
data import.
Note
If you edit default values, make sure that either IBAN Number or both Account Number and Bank Key/ABA
Routing Number are visible and required for every country/region.
Default Data for Sites Enabled After the SAP Ariba 2203 Release
In sites deployed after the SAP Ariba 2203 release, when country/region-specific visibility and optionality are
enabled, the Account Number and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number fields for countries/regions that use IBAN
Number are optional and hidden by default. Corresponding default data for IBAN numbers [page 618] makes the
IBAN Number field visible and required for those countries instead. Account Number and Bank Key/ABA Routing
Number are visible for countries/regions that don't use IBAN numbers, and IBAN Number is optional and hidden
by default.
Table 30:
Accou
ntHol Accou Accou Accou Accou
derNa ntHol ntHol ntNum Accou Accou BankK ntNum BankK Accou
Count meChe derNa derNa berCh ntNum ntNum eyChe BankK BankK berMa eyMan ntNum BankK
ryCod ckRul meReg meSiz eckRu berRe berSi ckRul eyReg eySiz ndato dator berVi eyVis
e e ex e le gex ze e ex e ry y sible ible
AD 5 60 5 15 N N N N
AE 5 60 1 11 N N N N
AF 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
AG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
AI 5 60 1 12 Y Y Y Y
AL 5 60 5 15 N N N N
AM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
AO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
AQ 5 60 1 15 Y Y Y Y
AR 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
AS 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
AT 5 60 2 11 4 5 N N N N
AU 5 60 8 9 3 7 Y Y Y Y
AW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
AX 5 60 Y Y Y Y
AZ 5 60 1 11 N N N N
BA 5 60 1 11 N N N N
BB 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BD 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BE 5 60 3 14 3 3 N N N N
BF 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BG 5 60 3 10 7 8 N N N N
BH 5 60 1 11 N N N N
BI 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BJ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BL 5 60 Y Y Y Y
BM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BN 5 60 Y Y Y Y
BO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BQ 5 60 Y Y Y Y
BR 5 60 1 15 2 9 N N N N
BS 5 60 Y Y Y Y
BV 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BY 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
BZ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CA 5 60 5 10 5 10 Y Y Y Y
CC 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CD 5 60 Y Y Y Y
CF 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CG 5 60 Y Y Y Y
CH 5 60 5 18 2 7 N N N N
CI 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CK 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CN 5 60 Y Y Y Y
CO 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
CR 5 60 5 15 N N N N
CV 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CW 5 60 Y Y Y Y
CX 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
CY 5 60 1 11 N N N N
CZ 5 60 5 18 5 4 N N N N
DE 5 60 2 14 4 8 N N N N
DJ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
DK 5 60 2 10 5 4 N N N N
DM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
DO 5 60 1 11 N N N N
DZ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
EC 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
EE 5 60 2 14 4 2 N N N N
EG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
EH 5 60 Y Y Y Y
ER 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
ES 5 60 4 10 4 8 N N N N
ET 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
FI 5 60 1 18 1 11 N N N N
FJ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
FK 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
FM 5 60 Y Y Y Y
FO 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
FR 5 60 3 11 4 10 N N N N
GA 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GB 5 60 1 8 1 6 N N N N
GD 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GE 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
GF 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GG 5 60 Y Y Y Y
GH 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GI 5 60 1 11 N N N N
GL 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GN 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GP 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GQ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GR 5 60 1 11 N N N N
GT 5 60 1 11 N N N N
GU 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
GY 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
HK 5 60 1 12 1 3 Y Y Y Y
HM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
HN 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
HR 5 60 1 11 N N N N
HT 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
HU 5 60 1 17 4 8 N N N N
ID 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
IE 5 60 5 15 N N N N
IL 5 60 1 11 N N N N
IM 5 60 Y Y Y Y
IN 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
IO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
IQ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
IS 5 60 5 15 N N N N
IT 5 60 1 12 4 10 N N N N
JE 5 60 Y Y Y Y
JM 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
JO 5 60 1 11 N N N N
JP 5 60 2 7 4 7 Y Y Y Y
KE 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KG 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
KH 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
KI 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KN 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KR 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KW 5 60 1 11 N N N N
KY 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
KZ 5 60 4 12 5 15 N N N N
LA 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
LB 5 60 1 11 N N N N
LC 5 60 1 11 N N N N
LI 5 60 5 18 5 15 N N N N
LK 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
LR 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
LS 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
LT 5 60 5 15 N N N N
LU 5 60 5 15 5 8 N N N N
LV 5 60 5 15 N N N N
LY 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MA 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MC 5 60 5 15 N N N N
MD 5 60 1 11 N N N N
ME 5 60 N N N N
MF 5 60 Y Y Y Y
MG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MH 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MK 5 60 N N N N
ML 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MM 5 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MN 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
MO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MP 5 60 Y Y Y Y
MQ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MR 5 60 1 11 N N N N
MS 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MT 5 60 1 11 N N N N
MU 5 60 1 11 N N N N
MV 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
MX 5 60 5 10 6 4 Y Y Y Y
MY 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
MZ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NA 5 60 2 17 4 6 Y Y Y Y
NC 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NE 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NF 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NI 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NL 5 60 4 10 1 11 N N N N
NO 5 60 4 11 1 4 N N N N
NP 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
NR 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NU 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
NZ 5 60 2 14 1 6 Y Y Y Y
OM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PA 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PE 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
PF 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
PG 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
PH 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PK 5 60 5 15 N N N N
PL 5 60 5 11 N N N N
PM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PN 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PR 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
PS 5 60 N N N N
PT 5 60 2 11 4 8 N N N N
PW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
PY 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
QA 5 60 1 11 N N N N
RE 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
RO 5 60 1 11 N N N N
RS 5 60 N N N N
RU 5 60 4 18 5 15 Y Y Y Y
RW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SA 5 60 1 11 N N N N
SB 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
SC 5 60 1 11 N N N N
SE 5 60 1 11 8 4 N N N N
SG 5 60 5 10 5 10 Y Y Y Y
SH 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SI 5 60 1 11 N N N N
SJ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SK 5 60 5 10 5 10 N N N N
SL 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SM 5 60 5 15 N N N N
SN 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
SO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SR 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SS 5 60 Y Y Y Y
ST 5 60 1 11 N N N N
SV 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
SX 5 60 Y Y Y Y
SZ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TC 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TD 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TF 5 60 Y Y Y Y
TG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TH 5 60 1 15 5 15 Y Y Y Y
TJ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TK 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TL 5 60 N N N N
TM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TN 5 60 1 11 N N N N
TO 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TR 5 60 5 15 N N N N
TT 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
TV 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TW 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
TZ 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
UA 5 60 5 18 4 8 N N N N
UG 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
UM 5 60 1 1 Y Y Y Y
US 5 60 6 17 6 9 Y Y Y Y
UY 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
UZ 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
VA 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
VC 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
VE 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
VG 5 60 5 15 N N N N
VI 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
VN 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
VU 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
WF 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
WS 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
YE 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
YT 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
ZA 5 60 2 17 4 6 Y Y Y Y
ZM 5 60 1 11 Y Y Y Y
ZW 5 60 5 15 Y Y Y Y
Default Data for Sites Enabled Before the SAP Ariba 2203 Release
In sites enabled before the SAP Ariba 2203 release, when country/region-specific visibility and optionality are
enabled, the default values for Visible and Mandatory flags prevent unexpected changes to the behavior of
Bank Account questions after the introduction of these fields. However, if you don't change any of the default
values in these fields, the system applies the default requirement of either IBAN Number or a combination of Bank
Account and Bank Key/ABA Routing Number instead to ensure that questionnaire recipients must enter a bank
account ID for each bank.
Table 31:
Accou
ntHol Accou Accou Accou Accou
derNa ntHol ntHol ntNum Accou Accou BankK ntNum BankK Accou
Count meChe derNa derNa berCh ntNum ntNum eyChe BankK BankK berMa eyMan ntNum BankK
ryCod ckRul meReg meSiz eckRu berRe berSi ckRul eyReg eySiz ndato dator berVi eyVis
e e ex e le gex ze e ex e ry y sible ible
AD 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
AE 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
AF 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
AG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
AI 5 60 1 12 N N Y Y
AL 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
AM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
AO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
AQ 5 60 1 15 N N Y Y
AR 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
AS 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
AT 5 60 2 11 4 5 N N Y Y
AU 5 60 8 9 3 7 N N Y Y
AW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
AX 5 60 N N Y Y
AZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BB 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BD 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BE 5 60 3 14 3 3 N N Y Y
BF 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BG 5 60 3 10 7 8 N N Y Y
BH 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BJ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BL 5 60 N N Y Y
BM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BN 5 60 N N Y Y
BO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BQ 5 60 N N Y Y
BR 5 60 1 15 2 9 N N Y Y
BS 5 60 N N Y Y
BV 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
BZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CA 5 60 5 10 5 10 N N Y Y
CC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CD 5 60 N N Y Y
CF 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CG 5 60 N N Y Y
CH 5 60 5 18 2 7 N N Y Y
CI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CK 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CN 5 60 N N Y Y
CO 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
CR 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
CV 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CW 5 60 N N Y Y
CX 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
CZ 5 60 5 18 5 4 N N Y Y
DE 5 60 2 14 4 8 N N Y Y
DJ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
DK 5 60 2 10 5 4 N N Y Y
DM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
DO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
DZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
EC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
EE 5 60 2 14 4 2 N N Y Y
EG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
EH 5 60 N N Y Y
ER 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
ES 5 60 4 10 4 8 N N Y Y
ET 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
FI 5 60 1 18 1 11 N N Y Y
FJ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
FK 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
FM 5 60 N N Y Y
FO 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
FR 5 60 3 11 4 10 N N Y Y
GA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GB 5 60 1 8 1 6 N N Y Y
GD 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GE 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
GF 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GG 5 60 N N Y Y
GH 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GL 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GP 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GQ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GT 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GU 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
GY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
HK 5 60 1 12 1 3 N N Y Y
HM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
HN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
HR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
HT 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
HU 5 60 1 17 4 8 N N Y Y
ID 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
IE 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
IL 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
IM 5 60 N N Y Y
IN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
IO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
IQ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
IS 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
IT 5 60 1 12 4 10 N N Y Y
JE 5 60 N N Y Y
JM 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
JO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
JP 5 60 2 7 4 7 N N Y Y
KE 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KG 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
KH 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
KI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
KZ 5 60 4 12 5 15 N N Y Y
LA 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
LB 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
LC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
LI 5 60 5 18 5 15 N N Y Y
LK 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
LR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
LS 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
LT 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
LU 5 60 5 15 5 8 N N Y Y
LV 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
LY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MC 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
MD 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
ME 5 60 N N Y Y
MF 5 60 N N Y Y
MG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MH 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MK 5 60 N N Y Y
ML 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MN 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
MO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MP 5 60 N N Y Y
MQ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MS 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MT 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MU 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MV 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
MX 5 60 5 10 6 4 N N Y Y
MY 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
MZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NA 5 60 2 17 4 6 N N Y Y
NC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NE 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NF 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NL 5 60 4 10 1 11 N N Y Y
NO 5 60 4 11 1 4 N N Y Y
NP 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
NR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NU 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
NZ 5 60 2 14 1 6 N N Y Y
OM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PE 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
PF 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
PG 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
PH 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PK 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
PL 5 60 5 11 N N Y Y
PM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PR 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
PS 5 60 N N Y Y
PT 5 60 2 11 4 8 N N Y Y
PW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
PY 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
QA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
RE 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
RO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
RS 5 60 N N Y Y
RU 5 60 4 18 5 15 N N Y Y
RW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SB 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
SC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SE 5 60 1 11 8 4 N N Y Y
SG 5 60 5 10 5 10 N N Y Y
SH 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SI 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SJ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SK 5 60 5 10 5 10 N N Y Y
SL 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SM 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
SN 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
SO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SR 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SS 5 60 N N Y Y
ST 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SV 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
SX 5 60 N N Y Y
SZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TD 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TF 5 60 N N Y Y
TG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TH 5 60 1 15 5 15 N N Y Y
TJ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TK 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TL 5 60 N N Y Y
TM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TN 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TO 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TR 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
TT 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
TV 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TW 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
TZ 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
UA 5 60 5 18 4 8 N N Y Y
UG 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
UM 5 60 1 1 N N Y Y
US 5 60 6 17 6 9 N N Y Y
UY 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
UZ 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
VA 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
VC 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
VE 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
VG 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
VI 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
VN 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
VU 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
WF 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
WS 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
YE 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
YT 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
ZA 5 60 2 17 4 6 N N Y Y
ZM 5 60 1 11 N N Y Y
ZW 5 60 5 15 N N Y Y
Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Information [page 417]
Country/Region-Specific Syntax Validation, Visibility, and Optionality for Supplier Bank Account Holder Name,
Account Number, and Bank Key or ABA Routing Number Data Import [page 107]
You can edit this sample data to meet the requirements of an integrated ERP system and ensure that the tax
information you collect from suppliers is valid. Use the Export Country-Specific Tax Fields data export task to
export this sample data. After editing the sample data, use the Import Country-Specific Tax Fields data import
task to customize your tax field configurations [page 96].
Note
This sample data is associated with your site's base language. The default TaxName values are in English and
require editing if your site's base language isn't English.
Make sure that the questions you create in supplier-facing questionnaires don't collect sensitive personal
information as defined in the Data clause in the SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass Supplemental Terms and
Conditions . SAP Ariba doesn't support collecting sensitive personal information for individuals, including
tax information (including tax IDs such as social security numbers) and bank information, in supplier
management questionnaires.
Table 32:
US Yes 6 US: US
Employer ID
Number6
Related Information
By default, these ERP region codes aren't available in Address questions in buyer-facing
questionnaires. To make them available, enable the self-service configuration parameter
Application.SM.UI.EnableERPRegionDisplayInSimpleAddress in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters .
If you import custom SAP region codes from T005S and T005U tables to populate the region field in Extended
Address, you can customize these mappings [page 111].
PrevANStateCo PrevERPRegion
UniqueName CountryCode ANStateCode ERPRegionCode de Code
You can use the Import Country-Specific Postal Code Validations data import task to define custom, country/
region-specific syntax validation for postal codes [page 112] in Ariba Administrator.
The following table describes SAP Ariba's default postal code validation master data:
AO Angola AO
AG Antigua and AG
Barbuda
AW Aruba AW
BS Bahamas BS
BZ Belize BZ
BJ Benin BJ
BM Bermuda BM
BO Bolivia BO
BQ "Bonaire, BQ
Sint
Eustatius and
Saba"
BW Botswana BW
BF Burkino Faso BF
BI Burundi BI
CM Cameroon CM
CF Central CF
African
Republic
TD Chad TD
KM Comoros KM
CG Congo CG
(Brazzaville)
CD Congo, CD
Democratic
Republic
CK Cook Islands CK
CI Ivory Coast CI
CW Curacao CW
DJ Djibouti DJ
DM Dominica DM
TL East Timor TL
GQ Equatorial GQ
Guinea
ER Eritrea ER
FJ Fiji FJ
TF French TF
Southern and
Antarctic
Territories
GA Gabon GA
GM Gambia GM
GH Ghana GH
GD Grenada GD
GY Guyana GY
HM Heard and HM
McDonald
Islands
HK Hong Kong HK
IE Ireland IE
KI Kiribati KI
KP "Korea, KP
North"
LY Libyan Arab LY
Jamahiriya
MO Macau MO
MW Malawi MW
ML Mali ML
MR Mauritania MR
NA Namibia NA
NR Nauru NR
NU Nieu NU
QA Qatar QA
RW Rwanda RW
KN Saint Kitts KN
and Nevis
SC Seychelles SC
SL Sierra Leone SL
SX Sint Maarten SX
SB Solomon SB
Islands
SR Suriname SR
SY Syria SY
TG Togo TG
TK Tokelau TK
TO Tonga TO
TV Tuvalu TV
UG Uganda UG
AE United Arab AE
Emirates
VU Vanuatu VU
YE Yemen YE
ZW Zimbabwe ZW
JM Jamaica NN ^(^\d{2}$)$ JM
Related Information
A number of supplier management features and functions are optional. Their availability in your site is controlled by
site configuration parameters.
The parameters that control behavior of certain features and functions in your site can be either support-enabled
or self-service:
Self-Service Site Configuration Parameters for Supplier Management in Intelligent Configuration Manager
[page 761]
This parameter also controls the date displayed by the supplier registration deadline
(SUPPLIER_REG_DEADLINE) token in notifications sent to suppliers.
Specifies whether, in solutions where you have migrated from supplier organizations
and supplier users to the unified vendor model, and plan to use an existing SAP
Ariba integration toolkit or SOAP web service integration to continue to update
suppliers in the unified vendor model after migration, the vendor push task enabled by
Application.SM.VendorPushTaskEnabled pushes data in the supplier organization
CorporateAddress.PostalAddress.State field to the vendor.address.state field
(which has a maximum size of 2 characters) or the vendor.address.stateName field
(which has a maximum size of 6 characters) in the unified vendor model.
The default setting, No, means that supplier organization state data is pushed to
vendor.address.stateName. If you migrated your supplier organizations without the
Consider state as stateName option enabled, supplier organization address state data
was migrated to the vendor.address.state field. Disabling this parameter means that
the vendor push task pushes updates to the same field.
Application.SM.ITKImportProfileInSM (set by SAP Ariba Support)
Specifies whether or not, in solutions where a customer has migrated from using the
supplier profile questionnaire to supplier registrations in the unified vendor model, and
has configured mappings between supplier profile questionnaire content and supplier
registration questionnaire content, extended profile data imported using SAP Ariba
integration toolkit or SOAP web service integration is synchronized from the now-inactive
This default behavior is designed to preserve one bank account or tax ID per supplier so
that their removal does not cause integration errors with ERP systems that require bank
account or tax data. It only occurs for the deletion of the final instance of a repeatable
section. Deletion of all other instances up to the final instance are synchronized to the
supplier management application and then to the integrated ERP system. The bank
account or tax details in the final deleted instance remain visible in the ERP data detail
area of the supplier's profile and continue to be included in integration messages sent to
the ERP system, and there is a mismatch between the data in the supplier management
application and the supplier view of the questionnaire.
Setting this parameter to Yes also removes the deleted repeatable section instance from
the supplier's profile and synchronizes the deletion to the integrated ERP system.
Application.SM.VendorContactPushTaskEnabled (set by SAP Ariba Support)
Specifies whether or not supplier user data is synchronized from the classic supplier
organization model or SAP Ariba Procurement solutions common suppliers to supplier
contacts in the new unified vendor data model used by SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and
Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new
architecture) solutions. The synchronization occurs for a limited number of fields and is
performed by the SMVendorContactPushScheduledTask. The default value, No, means
that supplier user data is not synchronized.
• Your site includes SAP Ariba Supplier Risk but does not include either SAP
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information and
Performance Management (new architecture), and you maintain supplier user data in
supplier organization profiles.
If you have enabled this task to support a migration cut-over period after the initial
automatic or manual data migration but do not meet one of the above circumstances,
SAP Ariba recommends disabling it after migration is finally complete.
Application.SM.VendorPushTaskEnabled (set by SAP Ariba Support)
Specifies whether or not supplier data is synchronized from the classic supplier
organization model or SAP Ariba Procurement solutions common suppliers to the new
unified vendor data model used by SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP
Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture) solutions.
The synchronization occurs for a limited number of fields and is performed by the
SMVendorSyncScheduledTasks scheduled task. The default value, No, means that
supplier data is not synchronized.
• Your site includes SAP Ariba Supplier Risk but does not include either SAP
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier Information
and Performance Management (new architecture), and you maintain supplier
organizations.
• Your solution includes SAP Ariba Procurement solutions and your configuration
expects updates to common suppliers in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions to be
pushed to SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance or SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management (new architecture).
• You have completed supplier organization migration to the unified vendor model,
and you plan to continue using either theSAP Ariba integration toolkit or
SOAP web service integration to send updates from an integrated ERP system
to supplier organization profile fields after supplier migration is completed.
In this case, the parameters Application.SM.ITKImportProfileInSM and
Application.SM.IsStateCodePopulatedInS4 might also be applicable.
If you have enabled this task to support a migration cut-over period after the initial
automatic or manual data migration but do not meet one of the above circumstances,
SAP Ariba recommends disabling it after migration is finally complete.
Application.SM.MQ.KeepMQStatusIfExpiredViaCertificate
Retains Expired or Expiring statuses of modular questionnaire projects that are achieved
through certificate expirations after template upgrades. This parameter is disabled by
The following configuration option can only be set by SAP Ariba engineering. Contact SAP Ariba Support if you
want this option enabled in your site.
skipBlankAnswersDuringMassInvite
By default, if a buyer mass invites a supplier to register, creating a registration project, if
there are any optional questions in the external questionnaires that have vendor database
field mappings where the database field is a blank value, and then the buyer adds answers
to the questions through a method such as questionnaire import and again mass invites
the supplier to the registration, those existing answers are overwritten by blank values
from the mapped vendor database fields. Required questions and questions with no vendor
database field mappings retain prepopulated answers. Setting this parameter to true skips
resetting answers to optional questions that are mapped to vendor database fields with
blank values to those blank valuess so that they also retain prepopulated answers when the
supplier is reinvited.
These parameters apply to supplier management in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture).
For information about how to manage parameters, refer to the Intelligent Configuration Manager Administration
topics.
Automatically synchronize supplier users from SAP Business Network [page 763]
Disable field restrictions for field mappings in supplier management questionnaires [page 766]
Enable API updates for external modular questionnaires with any status [page 768]
Enable country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank Account fields [page 769]
Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using Dun & Bradstreet lookup [page 771]
Enable modular questionnaire template creation in sites with a basic supplier management entitlement [page
774]
Enable questionnaire recipients in internal registrations to see and edit otherwise masked answers [page 775]
Enable enhanced filtering and pagination for standalone modular questionnaires [page 777]
Enable ratings and total ratings in internal forms or questionnaires [page 777]
Exclude vendor.vendorInfo.name3 from Dun & Bradstreet lookup in supplier requests [page 778]
Hide bank master data fields in Bank Account questions [page 779]
Hide timestamps in external supplier request names in project search [page 780]
Increase maximum size for name fields to 40 characters each in applied field restrictions [page 780]
Make account holder name required in Bank Account questions [page 781]
Override existing source system with SAP domain values during vendor push [page 783]
Prepopulate process qualifications with request or registration commodities, regions, and departments [page
784]
Remove blank DUNS IDs in supplier data synchronization from supplier management to sourcing [page 784]
Require only attachment and expiration date for supplier certificates [page 785]
Specify the Web Assistant JavaScript template URL for supplier management [page 789]
Use custom logo and footer for emails sent to suppliers [page 790]
Related Information
Specifies whether to start supplier registrations automatically (automatically create supplier registration projects)
on approval of supplier requests.
ID Application.SM.AutoStartRegistration
Default value No
The default value, No, means that a category or supplier manager must manually invite the supplier to register,
either individually or in a mass invitation wave, after the supplier request is approved. Setting this parameter to
Yes automatically sends the registration invitation email to a supplier as soon as the supplier request is approved
without requiring a manual invitation.
This parameter is only applicable in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management(new architecture) solutions, which include supplier registration
projects.
Note
If the feature for validating supplier requests in SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) is enabled, MDG validation
is the final step in the supplier request workflow. In such a case, or when primary supplier contacts are added
or imported for the very first time, you can ensure that supplier registrations are started automatically by
enabling the configuration parameter Application.SM.AutoStartRegistrationWhenPrimaryContactAdded in
Manage SM Administration Configuration Parameters .
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Specifies if new supplier users in SAP Business Network profiles are automatically synchronized with existing
supplier organizations in your site.
ID Application.AOD.EnableAdditionalSupplierUserDataSync
This parameter specifies whether or not new supplier users in supplier SAP Business Network accounts are
automatically synchronized with existing suppliers in your site. If this parameter is set to Yes, the new users are
added to your site as new supplier contacts.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Creates the initial version of internal supplier management questionnaires that include prepopulated answers when
the internal recipient submits the questionnaire for the first time rather than when the project is created.
ID Application.SM.CreateInitialVersionOfInternalQuestionnaireOnSubmission
The default value of Yes means that version 1 is created when an internal questionnaire editor first submits an
internal supplier management questionnaire that includes prepopulated answers, rather than when the project is
created. For example, if a registration project includes one internal questionnaire, that questionnaire is created
when the registration starts and the registration project is created. When this parameter is set to Yes and the
questionnaire includes prepopulated answers, it's not assigned an initial version of 1 until an internal questionnaire
editor submits it. Then, when an internal questionnaire editor next updates the questionnaire, its version updates
to 2.
Setting this parameter to No means that when the project is first created, internal questionnaires with
prepopulated answers are assigned an initial version of 1 immediately. When an internal questionnaire editor
submits the questionnaire for the first time, its version updates to 2. Then, when an internal questionnaire editor
next updates the questionnaire, its version updates to 3.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Specifies the length, in characters, of automatically-generated supplier bank IDs. An automatically-generated bank
ID combines a country or region-specific prefix, defined by master data, and an automatically generated number.
The maximum length is 4 characters.
ID Application.SM.BankIdSize
Default value 4
SAP Ariba automatically generates supplier bank IDs as sequential numerical values and, optionally, a country
or region-specific prefix, with a maximum combined length defined by this parameter. For example, if you set
this parameter to 4 and you do not define country or region-specific prefixes, SAP Ariba generates sequential,
numerical bank IDs starting at 0000 up to a maximum of 9999 per supplier. If you set this parameter to 4 and
define 3-character country or region-specific prefixes such as EUR and USD, SAP Ariba generates sequential bank
IDs such as EUR0 through EUR9 and USD0 through USD9.
The related parameter Start automatically-generated supplier bank IDs with 0001
(Application.SM.InitializeBankIDFromOne) specifies whether the automatically-generated IDs start with
0000 (the default) or 0001.
If you use country or region-specific prefixes for bank IDs, make sure that the value you set for this parameter is
at least one character longer than those prefixes so that automatically-generated bank IDs include at least one
number.
This parameter is only applicable in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management(new architecture) solutions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.EnableSupplierFieldMappingRestrictions
Name Disable field restrictions for field mappings in supplier management questionnaires
Setting this parameter to Yes enables feature SM-12250, which adds the Apply field restrictions tool to
pages for adding and editing questions in supplier management project templates. Template creators adding
questions with answer types of Text (single line limited) or Text (single line) can add a field mapping to the
Supplier Field Mapping field and then choose the Apply field restrictions button. The tool provides system-
generated suggestions for validation patterns and maximum field lengths based on default SAP business partner
configuration for the mapped field. Setting this parameter to No disables this feature by removing the Apply Field
Restrictions button from the page for adding or editing questions. If your integrated ERP system uses business
partner configurations that differ from the defaults, setting this parameter to No prevents template creators from
using suggested validation patterns and maximum field lengths that aren't necessarily valid for your integration.
By default, the Apply field restrictions tool sets a maximum field length of 35 characters for individual name fields
(vendor.vendorInfo.name1 through vendor.vendorInfo.name4) and, in sites with the supplier full name
feature (SM-14213) enabled, 140 characters for the vendor.vendorInfo.fullName field.
If your site has enabled both the full name feature and the feature for increasing maximum length of individual
name fields to 40 characters and the full name field to 160 characters (SM-36076), you can make suggestions
generated by the Apply field restrictions tool match these increased lengths by also enabling Increase maximum
size for name fields to 40 characters each in applied field restrictions [page 780].
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.HideSMProjectViewAsParticipantAfterEventPublish
Default value No
By default, internal users who can access the advanced view of a supplier management project can open a
questionnaire in the project on the Documents tab and use the View as Participant option to edit it as if
they were the recipient. To disable this option and prevent internal users with advanced view access from
editing questionnaires, set this parameter to Yes. This parameter's settings don't affect the ability of customer
administrators to act as supplier or internal users to edit questionnaire responses if necessary.
In SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, this setting is only applicable to modular questionnaires.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.EnableAdditionalStreetLines
Default value No
In supplier management questionnaires, default configurations of the Address and Extended Address questions
include not only a main field for street address (line 1), but two additional street address lines (Street 2 and Street
3). Street 2 and Street 3 automatically show in internal questionnaires such as the internal supplier request and
internal registration questionnaires. By default, they do not show in the supplier view of external questionnaires in
supplier SAP Business Network accounts or in project advanced view. Suppliers can only add or update address
information for the main street address field.
If your configuration of Address or Extended Address questions includes Street 2 and Street 3, setting this
parameter to Yes shows those fields in supplier view so that suppliers can add or update that information in
external questionnaires as well. It also enables those fields in project advanced view.
The fields included in Address and Extended Address and questions can be customized. By default, both
questions include Street 2 and Street 3 fields, but your site's configuration can vary.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables API updates to external modular questionnaires with any status, including questionnaires that are
currently editable by the supplier. By default, API client applications can only update external modular
questionnaires with specific statuses.
ID Application.SM.MQ.AllowUpdateResponseOnAllStatusFromAPI
Name Enable API updates for external modular questionnaires with any status
Default value No
The default setting for this parameter, No, means that client applications can't use the /answers endpoint of
the Supplier Data API with Pagination to update external modular questionnaires with Not Responded, Pending
Submission, or Pending Resubmission status. Questionnaires with these statuses are editable in the supplier view
on SAP Business Network. Setting this parameter to Yes removes this restriction and allows client applications to
use the /answers endpoint to update external modular questionnaires with any status.
For example, when this parameter is enabled, a client application can prepopulate a modular questionnaire with
data from an external system such as an ERP system immediately after a modular questionnaire manager or
process initiator has invited the supplier to fill it out,while it's still in Not Responded status. The invited supplier
contact sees the propopulated answers and can verify them and update them as needed when submitting the
questionnaire for the first time.
The Supplier Data API with Pagination /answers endpoint always allows updates to internal modular
questionnaires with any status regardless of the setting of this parameter.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
This parameter enables you to configure certificate sections in supplier management questionnaires.
ID Application.SM.CustomizableCertificateSectionSupport
The default value of False means that certificate section can't be added in the internal and external modular
supplier management questionnaire template. Setting this parameter to True provides option to add a certificate
section in the modular supplier management questionnaire template.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables configuration of the visibility and optionality based on bank country/region of some fields in Bank Account
questions, such as bank key, account number, and IBAN number.
ID Application.SM.EnableBankComponentVisibility
Name Enable country/region-specific visibility and optionality configurations for Bank Account fields
Default value No
Bank Account questions, which collect supplier bank information, include a set of predefined fields. By default, all
of those fields are visible. Either IBAN Number or a combination of Bank Key/ABA Routing Number and Account
Number is required for all countries/regions.
• Adds default data to the Visible and Mandatory fields for IBAN Number, Bank Key/ABA Routing Number,
and Account Number in bank syntax validation data files and reads any values present in those columns
during data imports.
For Bank Key/ABA Routing Number and Account Number, these columns are in the
BankValidationMetaData.csv file that defines country/region-specific syntax validation for account
numbers and bank key or ABA routing numbers. [page 107].
For IBAN Number, these columns are in the BankIBANMetaData.csv file that defines country/region-specific
syntax validation for IBAN numbers [page 104].
• Bases visibility and requirements for these three fields on this bank syntax validation data.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables a setting in template external registration questionnaires where template creators can specify a default
sender for registration invitations. This sender shows in the “From” fields of registration invitation emails unless
overridden by requester selection during manual registration invitations.
Default value No
When this parameter is set to Yes, the Message Board area of the Rules step in survey documents in the supplier
registration project template includes a setting, Sender name used for the 'From' and 'Reply To' fields in emails
to participants, that template creators can use to specify a custom sender name such as a supplier onboarding
group for email notifications to suppliers related to registration invitations.
This parameter is only applicable in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management(new architecture) solutions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.IsExtendedAddressSectionEditableForDNBLookup
Name Enable Extended Address editing in supplier requests using Dun & Bradstreet lookup
Default value No
In the supplier request with Dun & Bradstreet lookup, the lookup prepopulates fields in the Extended Address
question with address data from D&B, which isn't always complete. By default, when this parameter is disabled, all
of of the fields in the supplier request that are populated by the D&B lookup are read-only, including all Extended
Address fields except for Region.
When this parameter is enabled, the requester and the users who have permission to edit a supplier request during
approval can edit all fields in Extended Address questions to add missing information in required fields or to make
corrections. Edited address information isn't overwritten by subsequent D&B data pulls, and it's synchronized to
integrated ERP systems and to supplier registration questionnaires that include corresponding mapped address
questions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.MQ.EnableInternalFormsinModularQuestionnaires
Default value No
This parameter is one of two required settings that enable or disable support for internal forms with associated
To Do and approval tasks in modular questionnaire projects (SM-30222). You set it in Intelligent Configuration
Manager. The other required setting is the Application.SM.MQEnableInternalFormsinModularQuestionnaires
parameter in SM Administration Configuration Parameters . Always enable or disable both parameters
together.
Internal forms are a way of collecting information in modular questionnaire projects that is additional to or
supplements the information provided by the questionnaire project recipient in the key or main questionnaire.
You can use these internal forms and associated To Do and approval tasks to provide supplementary information or
analysis, or affirm actions performed in other systems.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.InternalRegistrationEnabled
This parameter is one of two settings that control the availability of the internal registration feature, where buyers
can complete registration projects on behalf of suppliers, in your site. You set it in Intelligent Configuration
Manager. The other required setting is the Application.SM.InternalRegistrationEnabled parameter in SM
Administration Configuration Parameters . Always enable or disable both parameters together.
The default value of Enable internal supplier registrations is Yes, meaning that the internal registration
feature is enabled by default. Setting this parameter to No and making a corresponding change to
Application.SM.InternalRegistrationEnabled in SM Administration SM Administration disables internal
registration in your site, meaning that buyers can't complete registration on behalf of suppliers.
Caution
If you want to disable internal registrations, SAP Ariba recommends doing so before any internal registrations
are created in your site. Disabling this feature prevents completion of any internal registration projects that are
in progress and removes the mechanism for inviting suppliers to participate in completed internal registrations.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.Process.EnableModularProcessFramework
Default value No
This parameter is one of two required settings to enable the modular process framework feature
(SM-16798) in your site and is set in Intelligent Configuration Manager. The other required setting is the
Application.SM.Process.EnableModularProcessFramework parameter in SM Administration > Configuration
Parameters. Always enable or disable both parameters together.
Process projects provide a flexible, repeatable framework that allows process initiators to create different
supplier management processes for different types of suppliers using different combinations of modular supplier
Caution
Enabling the flexible process framework feature (SM-16798) in your site immediately disables creation of new
projects from the legacy supplier qualification project template and introduces other restrictions to legacy
supplier qualifications and disqualifications. If you manage supplier qualifications using supplier qualification
and disqualification projects, only enable this feature when you're prepared to transition to process
qualifications. For details, refer to Transition from Legacy Supplier Qualification Projects to Qualification
Process Projects [page 284].
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.MQ.EnableMQCreationWithSMBasicConfig
Name Enable modular questionnaire template creation in sites with a basic supplier management
entitlement
Default value No
This feature enables the SM Modular Questionnaire project type in the Templates area in sites that have a basic
supplier management entitlement for core supplier management features. You must be a member of both the
Template Creator and SM Modular Questionnaire Manager group to create modular questionnaire templates.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.EnableOBOUserCanViewOrEditMaskData
Name Enable questionnaire recipients in internal registrations to see and edit otherwise masked answers
Default value No
By default, internal recipients of external questionnaires in internal registrations also required membership in
the Sensitive Data Access group to view and edit masked answers in those questionnaires. Membership in the
Sensitive Data Access group allows a user to see masked data in any questionnaire they can view.
Enabling this parameter allows the internal recipients of external questionnaires in registrations on behalf of
suppliers to see and edit answers that are otherwise masked, even if they're not members of the Sensitive Data
Access group. Masked answers can be prepopulated data from other sources such as an ERP system, or they
can be answers that the recipient previously provided and for which an approver has requested more information.
Enabling this parameter allows internal recipients to complete internal registrations on behalf of suppliers by
updating those answers in their assigned questionnaires without granting them access to sensitive data in all
questionnaires.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.RepeatableSectionsInInternalQuestionnaires
Default value No
This parameter is one of two required settings for enabling or disabling the ability to create and
edit repeatable sections in internal questionnaires, including external supplier registration questionnaires
in internal registrations. You set it in Intelligent Configuration Manager. The other required setting
is the Application.SM.RepeatableSectionsInInternalQuestionnaires parameter in SM Administration
Configuration Parameters . Always enable or disable both parameters together.
Suppliers can always add or edit repeatable sections in external questionnaires on SAP Business Network.
However, by default buyer users can only view repeatable sections added or edited by suppliers. Enabling these
parameters allows internal questionnaire editors, including the recipients of external questionnaires in internal
registration questionnaires, to add or edit repeatable sections as well.
If you allow internal registrations and at least one of your external registration questionnaires includes a repeatable
section, make sure to enable these parameters to that internal recipients can answer those questions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables enhanced filtering and pagination in the workflow for sending standalone modular questionnaires.
ID Application.SM.MQ.EnableStandaloneMQEnhancement
Name Enable enhanced filtering and pagination for standalone modular questionnaires
Default value No
This parameter is one of two required settings to enable enhanced filtering and pagination in the workflow
for sending standalone modular questionnaires, and is set in Intelligent Configuration Manager. The other
required setting is the Application.SM.MQ.EnableStandaloneMQEnhancement parameter in SM Administration
> Configuration Parameters. Always enable or disable both parameters together.
Setting this parameter to Yes allows for content in the standalone external modular questionnaire list to:
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables internal stakeholders to enter ratings and total ratings in internal forms or questionnaires.
ID Application.SM.MQ.EnableRatingandAggregationInInternalForms
Default value No
Setting this parameter to "Yes" enables internal stakeholders of your organization to enter ratings in one or more
internal forms or internal questionnaires of a project. It also enables them to view the final ratings. A final rating is a
simple aggregation of all the individual ratings.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
ID Application.SM.ExcludeName3FieldFromDnB
Name Exclude vendor.vendorInfo.name3 from Dun & Bradstreet lookup in supplier requests
Default value No
By default, the supplier request with D&B lookup must include a question mapped to
vendor.vendorInfo.name3, it's automatically prepopulated with D&B data if available, and it's read-only. The
request automatically concatenates the values in vendor.vendorInfo.name1 and vendor.vendorInfo.name3
fields to show in the user interface and synchronize to an integrated ERP system. However, if the
vendor.vendorInfo.name3 value populated by the D&B lookup is identical to the vendor.vendorInfo.name1
value selected or added by the requester, the resulting concatenated name can be confusing to users and can
synchronize inaccurate name data to the ERP system.
• The vendor.vendorInfo.name3 field isn't included in the D&B lookup, and therefore isn't populated with
D&B data.
• The vendor.vendorInfo.name3 question is optional in the supplier request. If it's included, the requester
can edit the question to add a value.
• Only the vendor.vendorInfo.name1 field is shown in the user interface and synchronized to an integrated
ERP system. Since this field has a maximum length of 35 characters, any remaining characters are truncated.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.HideBankMasterFields
Default value No
Bank Account questions, which collect supplier bank information, include a set of predefined fields that are
visible by default. This parameter controls whether some of those fields are hidden, and therefore uneditable, in
questionnaires in your site. When set to Yes, it hides the following fields:
• Name
• Bank Branch
• Street
• City
• State/Province/Region
• Postal Code
These fields are considered bank master data and are typically maintained with bank master records in an
integrated ERP system. Hiding these fields avoids confusion for questionnaire recipients who don't know these
details and prevents them from entering answers that conflict with the ERP bank master records. This parameter's
default setting, No, means that the predefined bank master data fields in Bank Account questions are visible and
questionnaire recipients can edit them.
These fields are visible in the ERP data detail area of the supplier profile even when hidden in questionnaires.
If you have existing suppliers with Bank Account data, when you enable this parameter, questionnaire recipients
can no longer see bank master data they previously added.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Hides the timestamps in the names of external supplier requests in project search results. These timestamps
reflect the server time zone rather than the time zone where the request was submitted.
ID Application.SM.ExcludeDateInSupplierRequestTitle
Default value No
By default, when you search for external supplier request projects using project search on the Home dashboard,
search results include a "submitted on" timestamp in the supplier request project name. Other types of supplier
management projects, such as registrations and modular questionnaires, don't include this timestamp in project
search results. The timestamp in search results reflects the time the external supplier request was submitted in the
server time zone, while the project history for the external supplier request shows the timestamp in the time zone
of the submitting supplier. If you don't find the timestamps in project search results useful, or if they confuse users
in your site, you can hide them by setting this parameter to Yes.
Note
Setting this parameter to Yes hides timestamps in the names of external supplier requests created after the
parameter is enabled. It doesn't hide timestamps in the names of external supplier requests created before the
parameter was enabled.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Increases the maximum field size settings for questions mapped to vendor.vendor.Info.name1
through vendor.vendorInfo.name4 from 35 to 40 characters each, and the setting for
vendor.vendorInfo.fullName to from 140 to 160 characters, in question configurations that use the Apply
Field Restrictions validation tool. Keep this parameter enabled if name fields in an integrated ERP system also
have 40 character maximum lengths (160 total), or disable it if the ERP system’s name fields have a 35 character
maximum length (140 total).
ID Application.SM.Enable160CharacterSupportForFullName
Default value No
The Apply Field Restrictions validation tool on pages for adding or editing questions in supplier management
project templates validates field mappings and suggests values for ERP-related settings such as maximum length.
By default, it sets a maximum length of 35 characters for individual name fields and 140 characters for the full
name field. These default settings are appropriate in sites integrated with SAP ECC, where name fields have the
same maximum lengths.
Enable this parameter to increase maximum length settings to 40 for individual name fields and 160 for the full
name field if your site meets the following conditions:
• The supplier full name feature (SM-14213) is enabled. It's disabled by default.
• Name fields in an integrated ERP system such as SAP S/4HANA or SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) have
a maximum length of 40 characters.
• The support for supplier names of up to 160 characters feature (SM-36076) is enabled. It's
disabled by default and its availability is controlled by the self-service configuration parameter
Application.SM.Enable160CharacterSupportForFullName in SM Administration Configuration
Parameters .
• The Apply Field Restrictions tool for question configuration (SM-12250) is enabled. It's enabled by default
and its availability is controlled by the self-service configuration parameter Disable field restrictions for field
mappings in supplier management questionnaires in Intelligent Configuration Manager.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Makes the Account Holder Name field required in Bank Account questions.
ID Application.SM.AccountHolderNameMandatory
Default value No
If you have existing suppliers with Bank Account data when you enable this parameter, questionnaire recipients
must add any missing account holder names when updating the questionnaire.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Makes the State/Province/Region field in Extended Address questions required when there is state/province/
region data available for the selected country/region. When there isn’t any state/province/region data available for
the selected country/region, the field remains optional. This parameter is only applicable in sites that don’t have a
field customization to make the State/Province/Region field required.
ID Application.SM.AddressExtRegionCodeMandatory
Default value No
In Extended Address questions, the State/Province/Region field is a dropdown menu populated by your site's
region master data. Enabling this parameter makes the State/Province/Region field required if there's region
master data available for the selected country/region, and optional if there isn't data available. This setting requires
questionnaire recipients to provide a state/province/region answer where possible, but doesn't block them from
submitting the questionnaire with an empty answer if there's no value to select.
This parameter isn't applicable in sites that have a field customization to make the State/Province/Region field
required. The field customization makes the field required in all circumstances. If you want to use this parameter
to control the required behavior of the State/Province/Region field instead, request SAP Ariba Support to remove
the customization.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
ID Application.SM.OverridesourceSystemDuringVendorPush
Name Override existing source system with SAP domain values during vendor push
This parameter is applicable in sites that use data import, SOAP web service integration, or SAP Ariba integration
toolkit file transfer to add suppliers to their site and then use the vendor push task enabled by the site configuration
parameter Application.SM.VendorContactPushTaskEnabled (set by SAP Ariba Support) to push that data
to the supplier management database. If your supplier data load process adds suppliers first and adds organization
IDs for suppliers later, depending on timing, the vendor push task can add the new suppliers to the supplier
management database before their organization IDs are added. In this situation, the suppliers are added with an
SM source system. The default setting for Override existing source system with SAP domain values during
vendor push means that when you update those suppliers to add organization IDs in the SAP domain, the vendor
push task updates their source systems from SM to SAP in the supplier management database.
This parameter is only applicable in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management(new architecture) solutions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Automatically prepopulates intake forms for a supplier's process qualifications with the commodities, regions, and
departments from their supplier request or registration.
ID Application.SM.PropagateMatrixDimensionToProcessQualification
Name Prepopulate process qualifications with request or registration commodities, regions, and
departments
Default value No
This paremeter automatically prepopulates intake forms for a supplier's process qualifications with the
commodities, regions, and departments from their supplier request or registration. If the supplier has both a
request and registration with this data, the registration data is used.
Related Information
Removes blank or empty DUNS IDs from sourcing supplier organization records during supplier data
synchronization if the field is blank or empty in the corresponding supplier management record. By default,
synchronization doesn’t remove DUNS IDs from supplier organizations even if the corresponding supplier
management field is blank or empty.
ID Application.SM.ResetDunsInVendorPullTaskIfValueIsEmpty
Name Remove blank DUNS IDs in supplier data synchronization from supplier management to sourcing
Default value No
Enable this parameter to ensure that when a D-U-N-S number is removed from the supplier record through
removal of an answer to a supplier management questionnaire, ERP data synchronization, or a data import in SM
Administration, the new blank value is synchronized to the supplier organization and common supplier. Otherwise,
the supplier organization and common supplier records retain the previous value.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
ID Application.AQS.RFX.ReopenIfClosedInterval
If the value for this parameter is 0, the amount of time that a reopened questionnaire remains open is determined
by the template survey document Due date setting instead. If the document Keep questionnaire reopened
indefinitely option is set to Yes, the questionnaire ignores the Reopen period for supplier questionnaires
parameter and remains reopened indefinitely.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.RequireCertificateAttachmentAndExpirationOnly
Name Require only attachment and expiration date for supplier certificates
The default value of False means that all the certificate fields are mandatory and the supplier must enter values
in all the fields. The certificate detail fields are required if a supplier answers Yes to a certificate question. The
certificate detail fields are not required if a supplier answers No to a certificate question.
Note
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
The system automatically sends an email notification when a supplier contact is added to the relevant SAP Ariba
solutions.
ID Application.SM.SendEmailNotificationOnAddingSupplierContacts
Name SendEmailNotificationOnAddingSupplierContacts
Default value No
When this parameter is enabled, an email notification is automatically sent to newly added supplier contacts
informing them that their contact details have been added to the system. However, the system doesn't verify if the
communication was successfully delivered.
Note
Supplier contacts added through Manage Administration Supplier and Customer Manager Users
don't receive email notifications when they're added.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
ID Application.SM.RoomIDFieldMaxLength
Default value 10
Extended Address questions include a set of predefined answer fields, including a Room field. The corresponding
mapped vendor.addressExt.postalAddress.roomID field in the supplier database has a maximum field
length of 10 characters. However, the question field allows answers of up to 20 characters. The default setting
of this parameter, 10, ensures that Room answers in mapped Extended Address questions synchronize to the
database without causing errors. Since those errors can prevent successful submission of questionnaires such as
the supplier request, SAP Ariba recommends against changing this default setting.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
ID Application.SM.MinimumRegistrationStatusForEventAccess
Default value 0
Suppliers who are below the minimum status can be invited to events, but can't access them until they've achieved
the minimum status. The restriction applies to suppliers who have been qualified for the event commodities,
0 or Not Invited Suppliers who haven't yet been invited There are no automatic registration invi-
to register can participate in sourcing tations.
events.
1 or Invited Suppliers must have already been invited If the person who invites a Not
Invited supplier to participate in an
to register to participate in sourcing
event is a member of both the
events. However, they don't need to sub-
Event Administrator and Supplier
mit registration questionnaires to partici- Registration Manager groups, the sup-
pate in events. plier is invited to register at the same
time automatically, and their registration
2 or Pending Approval Suppliers whose registration is pending status changes to Invited. Otherwise, the
approval or who are already registered supplier must be invited to register sepa-
can participate in sourcing events. They rately.
Note
• Event templates have a supplier eligibility rule based on registration status. That rule governs whether or
not suppliers can be invited to an event. This parameter governs their ability to participate after invitation.
• Changes to this parameter's setting apply only to participants invited to events after they're made.
This parameter is only applicable in sites that include SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture), which use supplier registration projects.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enables the use of the Web Assistant for supplier management features.
ID Application.SM.WebAssistantJSTemplate
Name Specify the Web Assistant JavaScript template URL for supplier management
If you have a valid SAP Enable Now license, the template you specify with this parameter definesthe behavior
as well as the look and feel of the SAP Companion in-application help in supported supplier management user
interface pages in your site. You can modify the configuration for your site in Enable Now Manager and then update
this parameter with the configuration template.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Specifies that the bank IDs automatically generated for suppliers start with 0001 rather than 0000.
ID Application.SM.InitializeBankIDFromOne
Default value No
For supplier bank accounts collected in Bank Account questions, SAP Ariba automatically generates unique,
sequential IDs. Automatically generated bank IDs consist of sequential numerical values and, optionally, a country/
region-specific prefix. By default, these automatically generated bank IDs start with 0000. If you set this parameter
to Yes, they start with 0001 instead.
The related parameter Define the length of supplier bank IDs (Application.SM.BankIdSize) controls the
length of the automatically-generated IDs. You can also define country/region-specific bank ID prefixes using a data
import.
This parameter is only applicable in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Performance Management(new architecture) solutions.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
When this parameter is set to Yes, the Custom Email tab appears in Ariba Administrator under Customization
Manager Branding Settings . In addition to the SAP Ariba logo and footer, the custom logo and footer that you
set in this tab appear in emails. When this parameter is set to No, only the SAP Ariba logo and footer appear in
emails.
ID Application.EnableCustomEmailLogoAndFooter
Name Use custom logo and footer for emails sent to suppliers
Default value No
You must be a member of the Customer Administrator or Event Administrator group to customize the invitations
sent to suppliers.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
Enable the use of the Web Assistant (SAP Companion) for supplier management features.
ID Application.SM.EnableWebAssistantForSupplierManagement
When you set this parameter to Yes, SAP Companion, which is used to provide in-application help, is enabled for
supplier management. Setting the parameter to No disables this in-application help.
A member of the Customer Administrator group sets this parameter in the Intelligent Configuration Manager
workspace.
Related Information
These parameters apply to supplier management in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance and SAP Ariba
Supplier Information and Performance Management (new architecture).
In guided buying sites, the navigation path is Manage SM Admin Configuration Parameters .
Table 33:
Parameter category Parameter name Default setting Description
Note
To set the ACM ID for sup-
pliers, your site must use
custom fields to store
ACM IDs through an im-
ported default properties
configuration [page 512]
where a generic custom
field such as
vendor.supplierGe
nericCustomField.
ZS4ID is set to $
(vendor.vendorInf
o.s4OrgSystemId).
The integrated ERP sys-
tem must have a custom
implementation for the
corresponding custom
field. This parameter only
sends the ACM ID to the
integrated ERP system if
these configurations are
in place.
Note
Along with the con-
figuration parameter,
you must also enable
the Enable internal
supplier registrations pa-
rameter in Integration
Configuration Manager
to ensure the functionality
in available in your site.
Caution
If you want to disa-
ble internal registra-
tions, SAP Ariba rec-
ommends doing so
before any internal
registrations are cre-
ated in your site.
Disabling the feature
prevents completion
of any internal regis-
tration projects that
are in progress and
removes the mecha-
nism for inviting sup-
pliers to participate
in completed internal
registrations.
Note
Along with this config-
uration parameter, you
must also enable the ex-
isting Automatically start
supplier registrations pa-
rameter in Intelligent
Configuration Manager
to ensure the functionality
in available in your site.
Note
Enabling or disabling this
parameter requires a cor-
responding change to
the Enable enhanced fil-
tering and pagination for
standalone modular ques-
tionnaires [page 777] pa-
rameter in Intelligent
Configuration Manager.
Always enable or disable
both parameters together.
Note
Enabling or disabling this
parameter requires a cor-
responding change to the
Enable modular process
framework [page 773]
parameter in Intelligent
Configuration Manager.
Always enable or disable
both parameters together.
Note
Enabling or disabling this
parameter requires a cor-
responding change to the
Enable internal forms in
modular questionnaires
[page 772] parameter in
Intelligent Configuration
Manager. Always enable
or disable both parame-
ters together.
Caution
Only disable this parame-
ter together with the Use
Internal Format for ERP
Vendor Id feature, which
also adds leading zeros to
outbound ERP vendor IDs.
This feature must be dis-
abled by SAP Ariba Sup-
port.
ID configured in SM
Administration integration
settings in ERP search calls
for material master data. If
left blank, the ERP Business
system ID in integration set-
tings is also used for material
master data search.
Business partner key mapping Application.SM.BPKM.KeyM 147 Specifies the type code for
appingTypeCodeForBP
business partners in your site.
This type code is used during
business partner key mapping
synchronization from an inte-
grated ERP system.
Business partner key mapping Application.SM.BPKM.KeyM 888 Specifies the object schema
appingObjectSchemaCodeFo
code for business partners in
rBP
your site. This schema code
is used during business part-
ner key mapping synchroniza-
tion from an integrated ERP
system.
Business partner key mapping Application.SM.BPKM.KeyM 889 Specifies the UUID object
appingObjectSchemaCodeFo
schema code for business
rBPUuid
partners in your site. This
code is used during business
partner key mapping synchro-
nization from an integrated
ERP system.
Business partner key mapping Application.SM.BPKM.KeyM 266 Specifies the type code for
appingTypeCodeForSup
suppliers in your site. This
type code is used during busi-
ness partner key mapping
synchronization from an inte-
grated ERP system.
Business partner key mapping Application.SM.BPKM.KeyM 892 Specifies the object schema
appingObjectSchemaCodeFo
code for suppliers in your site.
rSup
This schema code is used dur-
ing business partner key map-
ping synchronization from an
integrated ERP system.
• PartnerFunction, to
set a supplier's vendor
type based on partner
function. Use
Application.SM.BPKM.M
ainVendorPartnerFuncti
onCodes,
Application.SM.BPKM.O
rderingPartnerFunction
Codes, and
Application.SM.BPKM.R
emittancePartnerFuncti
onCodes to specify the
partner function codes
that determine each ven-
dor type.
• All, to specify that all
suppliers are considered
main vendors (common
suppliers).
Note
All is the default setting
for this parameter. To con-
vert inbound vendor ob-
jects to remittance loca-
tions or supplier locations
where appropriate instead
of creating common sup-
pliers for all of them, use
the PartnerFunction
setting and related pa-
rameters.
Note
This setting isn't applica-
ble in sites that include
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecy-
cle and Performance and
SAP Ariba Supplier Infor-
mation and Performance
Management (new archi-
tecture) where the sup-
port for partitioned sup-
pliers feature (SM-30017)
is enabled. SM-30017
doesn't currently support
multi-ERP configurations.
It's only applicable in SAP
Ariba solution landscapes
where the supplier master
data used in guided buy-
ing is created and main-
tained directly in SAP
Ariba Procurement solu-
tions.
Note
Along with the configura-
tion parameter, you must
also enable the Enable
improved user experience
for internal questionnaires
with visibility conditions
parameter in Integration
Configuration Manager
to ensure the functionality
in available in your site.
Note
Enabling or disabling this
parameter requires a cor-
responding change to
the Enable repeatable
sections in internal ques-
tionnaires [page 776] pa-
rameter in Intelligent
Configuration Manager.
Always enable or disable
both parameters together.
Note
The Business Activity
and Summary areas are
only available in the clas-
sic supplier 360° profile.
They aren't available in
the supplier profile sum-
mary (NGSM-2959).
Note
The Business Activity
and Summary areas are
only available in the clas-
sic supplier 360° profile.
They aren't available in
the supplier profile sum-
mary (NGSM-2959).
Note
This parameter is only ap-
plicable in sites where the
partitioned supplier data
feature (SM-30017) is en-
abled.
Caution
Make sure that your con-
figuration here matches
the length of name fields
in the integrated ERP sys-
tem. Mismatch between
maximum length of name
fields in SAP Ariba and
the integrated ERP sys-
tem can result in inconsis-
tencies or loss of data.
User or administrator inter- Application.SM.UI.NewSuppli False Enables the feature for the
face er360Profile
new supplier profile summary
Feature enablement (NGSM-2959). Enabling this
parameter is only one step
in the workflow for configur-
ing this feature. For the com-
plete workflow, see Enabling
the Supplier Profile Summary
in Your Site [page 53].
Note
The supplier profile sum-
mary is only supported
in sites that include SAP
Ariba Supplier Lifecycle
and Performance or SAP
Ariba Supplier Risk. It isn't
supported in sites that in-
clude SAP Ariba Supplier
Information and Perform-
ance Management (new
architecture) without one
of those other solutions.
Related Information
The configuration parameters in SM Administration control some specific supplier management functionality.
Administrators can modify the values for these configuration parameters without having to raise a case with SAP
Ariba Support. Use this procedure to manage configuration parameters.
Prerequisites
Context
You modify parameter values to enable or disable functionality controlled by the configuration parameters. For
more information about specific parameters, refer to Reference of Configuration Parameters in SM Administration
[page 791].
Procedure
• To see the parameter's description or modify its current value, choose Edit. If you're modifying a value,
choose or enter the new value and choose Save.
• To restore the parameter's default value, choose Reset.
Related Information
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