If your business is growing, chances are you’ve considered a procurement platform. Investing in a tool to manage procurement and encourage supply chain collaboration is a big step for companies who have a large supplier network or are finding their procurement system can’t keep up with business growth. SAP Ariba is the one solution that helps your company meet your ERP challenges while offering digital collaboration opportunities for a huge B2B network with millions of suppliers and trading partners all over the world.
SAP Ariba supplier network is powerful, but complex
But here’s the thing – implementing SAP Ariba and guiding all your suppliers onto the platform are not easy things to do. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that no two suppliers are the same, so it requires a lot of hand-holding and deep knowledge of the SAP Ariba environment and their processes. And, not all suppliers have staff who can easily navigate the complexities of enterprise software.
Historically, support struggles to provide end-to-end supplier enablement programs specific to your customer. They do not have industry or localised knowledge and the support staff don’t have knowledge of SAP ERP and periphery processes. It’s not unusual for suppliers to become frustrated, or even angry, when all they want to do is figure out how to work within your new system.
Your business can quickly get bogged down
Here’s another thing to consider – the more efficient you are in onboarding all your suppliers, the quicker you begin to see the business benefits and true potential of the Ariba platform. You have to ask yourself, do you want to continue the ongoing struggle to support all existing and future suppliers as they sign on to your SAP Ariba procurement system? Or, would you rather let someone with expertise in enablement strategies and customer support wrangle your SAP Ariba supplier enablement project into submission while your staff focuses on your core business?
Getting Ariba supplier enablement support probably makes a lot more sense. The quicker you can roll out your SAP Ariba network deployment project, the quicker you can get back to building your business.
What does an SAP Ariba supplier enablement program entail?
An efficient rollout requires five different stages to ensure your system is implemented quickly and efficiently and your trading partners receive the support they need.
Discovery – Research our SAP Ariba environment and processes and work in collaboration with you to develop an enablement strategy.
Supplier identification – Analyse your current suppliers and develop a plan to bring them all on as efficiently as possible. A smart tactic is to focus on high-volume suppliers first, and group suppliers for maximum efficiency.
Outreach – Identify supplier e-commerce contacts, make contact with each SAP Ariba Network Deployment Lead(s), and liaise between the two to provide a faster, more effective path to success.
Testing/Onboarding – Support all supplier-side activities for onboarding including system access, account administration, and troubleshooting any problems they have getting started. Help your suppliers test the SAP Ariba system from their side.
Go live/Support – Support and communicate the switchover to SAP Ariba and provide ongoing support for you and your suppliers to look for improvements and efficiencies and manage upgrades.
What capabilities should you look for in a partner for SAP Ariba supplier support?
If you’re running a business with a large number of suppliers, you’ll want to ensure your partner is well-equipped to handle your project. Here are things to consider:
- Where is your ERP partner located and how many time zones do they cover?
- Does your ERP partner have support personnel in the areas where your suppliers are located?
- Is there a service level agreement (SLA) clearly outlining who handles your supplier support, based on time zone and region?
- Do they have previous experience onboarding customers of a similar or larger size to your company?
- Are communications with your supplier tailored specifically for them and their region or are you getting an ‘out of the box’ experience?
DyFlex is an expert at SAP Ariba supplier enablement
DyFlex Solutions has a long, successful history with SAP ERP, in fact, we’re an SAP Gold Partner. We have developed an SAP Ariba Supplier Enablement Support program to guide businesses through a detailed rollout strategy. Our experience with global companies and Australian companies like CBH Group has given us the experience to know exactly how to expertly and efficiently manage your SAP Ariba suppliers.
Not only can we partner with you to develop a strategy for onboarding all your suppliers, DyFlex helps you implement the strategy and provides ongoing support for all your procurement and supply chain issues.
- We provide Level 1 Supplier Support for account set-up and management, trading relationship acceptance, and transactional processing issues.
- Our communications with your suppliers are localised by region and supplier category.
- Our SLAs are focused on three primary regions:
- US/Canada is supported by the Sydney office
- Europe/South Africa is supported by the Perth office
- Asia Pacific is supported by a combination from the Perth and Adelaide offices
Get in touch with DyFlex if you’d like help managing your SAP Ariba supplier enablement process.
What part of the SAP Ariba supplier onboarding process have you found the most challenging?
This article is sponsored by DyFlex Solutions
