PSL upload in AGB connected to Peoplesoft

[smita_pise]

1. Introduction

Purpose

Preferred supplier data is used to designate preferred suppliers in the guided buying feature for SAP Ariba Buying, and SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing, and in SAP Ariba Supplier Risk, and for suppliers that were created outside of SAP Ariba in SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance. You configure your suppliers so users can order from their catalogs and request non-catalog items. Supplier data must be entered into Supplier Management (SM) before it becomes available in SAP Ariba guided buying. Suppliers are listed as qualified or preferred suppliers on guided buying requests based on the user's chosen commodity-region combination.

Benefits of having Preferred Supplier list

1. Improved decision making: Effective procurement decision making is data-driven and putting together a preferred supplier list is no exception. Your list should improve access to supplier information for your business and make purchasing easier for them.


2. Ensures best value and cost savings: A preferred supplier list will ensure your suppliers deliver the best value for your organisation in terms of price, quality, financial stability and contract performance. As you’ll be buying more from preferred suppliers, your purchasing power will be greater, and you will be able to negotiate better prices and save money.


3. Efficiency: Procuring goods and services can be time-consuming, especially when you need to undergo a tender process, collect bids from potential suppliers and negotiate contract terms. Buying goods and services is therefore much quicker and easier for business departments, as these steps have already been carried out centrally. Departments can instead focus on their primary purpose rather than administrative procurement tasks.


4. Reduces risk: There are several risks relating to suppliers that can be mitigated by using a preferred supplier list when managing your supply chain. Your list will identify your critical suppliers whose goods or services are essential to your organisation. You can then monitor their performance closely to ensure they are delivering on their contractual obligations. Your critical suppliers should provide higher service levels as their commitment to your business will be greater, and they will have a better understanding of it. If you decide your reliance on certain suppliers is too great, you can look to diversify and spread the risk across several suppliers. If your due diligence unearths issues with suppliers’ financial stability, you can replace them with more stable organisations.


5. Better control: Having a preferred suppliers list increases the control you have over procurement. Building relationships with these suppliers increases accountability, and you’re more likely to receive an improved quality of service. Communication will also be optimised, reducing the chance of misunderstandings occurring.

 

2. Pre-requisite for PeopleSoft

• Parent child realm combination: If there is no Parent Child realm combination (i.e. only one realm is present), the supplier data needs to be manually loaded in SM Admin.


• Parameter SM.Vendor.PsoftVariantIds in SM Admin: This parameter specifies a comma-separated list of realm IDs for any procurement sites in your SAP Ariba configuration that use PeopleSoft variant. This setting enables procurement sites with the PeopleSoft variant to use supplier data such as addresses and qualified or preferred statuses, and is required for those sites.


• Region code: The guided buying capability in SAP Ariba Buying solutions uses the standard 2-character ISO country codes in ship-to addresses, but suppliers are preferred or qualified based on region code master data in your site. Mapping between these codes allows guided buying searches locate the correct preferred and qualified suppliers. When a user in the guided buying capability in SAP Ariba Buying 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 is not enabled, SAP Ariba maps guided buying country codes to a standard list of ISO 3-character region codes. The configurable mapping feature (SM-20598) is suitable for sites that do not use standard ISO 3-character region codes, and that therefore need to define mappings between guided buying country codes and their own region code master data. A Service Request (SR) would be required in order to enable this feature.


• Parameter PARAM_ENABLE_SM_INTEGRATION_ ON_COUNTRYCODE in Guided Buying: This parameter determines whether searches use ship-to address country codes to find qualified selectable. If set to true, supplier searches use country codes in ship-to addresses to filter for qualified or preferred suppliers. This parameter must be set to true in sites where the optional feature for configurable mapping between guided buying ship-to countries and preferred and qualified supplier regions (SM-20598) is enabled.

 

3. Detailed steps for Preferred Supplier setup in AGB

3.1 Import Region codes

Since the region code is not in ISO 3-character format, we have to load this task.

Go to Manage-> Administration-> Site Manager-> Data Import/Export-> Import Region Codes. Upload this file with your custom region code.

Region code upload

3.2 Import Country Code to Sourcing Region Code Mapping

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 following example shows lines of the CountryToSourcingRegionMapping.csv file, as well as the mandatory header:

UTF-8

CountryCode,SourcingRegionCode

US,AMER

GB,EMEA

Country Code to Sourcing Region Code upload

3.3 Define Preferred Supplier Levels

Preferred supplier levels indicate the degree to which your organization prefers one supplier over another for a given category, region, department, or any combination of those three groups.

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"). Suppliers with a level of 0, or no level, aren't considered as preferred.

1. Go to Manage -> Administration -> Site Manager -> Data Import/Export.


2. Build a Preferred Supplier level worksheet in Excel. (Note: You can run the Export Preferred Supplier Levels task and use that Excel file as your template)


3. Run the Import Preferred Supplier Levels task.

Preferred Supplier Levels upload

3.4 Configure Supplier data

When SLP is not used by your client, you must manually load the supplier data in SM Admin.

1. Go to Manage -> SM Admin -> Data Import/Export.


2. Select File type as Suppliers from dropdown.

    

Supplier upload path

      3. Build a Supplier data worksheet in Excel. (Note: You can run the Export task and use that Excel file as your template)

4. Select the file from your Desktop location and upload it using Upload.

               

Supplier Import

      5. Once the file has been uploaded, you can check the status in Import Summary.

 

3.5 Configure Supplier Qualification data

Defines which suppliers are qualified for guided buying. Suppliers need to be qualified in order to show up as a suggested supplier when users create non-catalog requests. Additionally, when guided buying users request quotes, suppliers need to be qualified in order to show up in the list of available suppliers. You can mark suppliers as qualified for specific categories (commodity codes) and regions (3-letter country codes).

1. Go to Manage -> SM Admin -> Data Import/Export.


2. Select File type as Supplier Qualification data from dropdown.

       

Supplier Qualification upload path

       3. Build a Supplier Qualification data worksheet in Excel. (Note: You can run the Export task               and use that Excel file as your template)

4. Select the file from your Desktop location and upload it using Upload

     

Supplier Qualification Import

        5. Once the file has been uploaded, you can check the status in Import Summary

           

Import Summary

3.6 Configure Supplier Preferred data

Recommends suppliers to users during the following processes:

• Requesting a non-catalog item


• Creating a request for quote


• Browsing for an item on a landing page

You can recommend suppliers to users based on category (commodity codes) and region.

Pre-requisite:  You need to mark a supplier as qualified for a category and region before you can       mark them as preferred for that same category and region.

1. Go to Manage -> SM Admin -> Data Import/Export.


2. Select File type as Preferred Supplier list data from dropdown.

         

Preferred Supplier list upload

       3. Build a Preferred Supplier list data worksheet in Excel. (Note: You can run the Export task             and use that Excel file as your template)

4. Select the file from your Desktop location and upload it using Upload.

5. Once the file has been uploaded, you can check the status in Import Summary.

 

4. Conclusion

This setup provides a detailed overview of the end-to-end configuration required to setup Preferred Supplier within SAP Ariba integrated with PeopleSoft.

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