How to load Spend data in SAP Ariba Category Management

[DevPalanimuthu]

Once you have configured Ariba Category Management solution, next step is to load spend data where category managers can view the spend data while creating Category planning or monitoring the categories.

Pre-requisites:

• You must have configured SAP Ariba Category Management
• You must have completed onboarding Procurement Data Warehouse (PDW)
• You must be Spend data loader administrator.
• You must have enabled Spend Data loader.

Before you load Spend data, it is important to find out if customer use Ariba Spend Analysis or not.

If customer use Ariba Spend Analysis:

For Test instance:

Spend data can be extracted from Ariba Spend Analysis prod and loaded into Test. See below high level steps involved:

1. Work with Spend Analytics (SA) lead and extract Star schema export from Ariba Spend Analysis Production.
2. Work with SA Lead and obtain list of ACT codes used in Ariba Spend Analysis
3. Load ACT codes using custom domain.  Refer blog how to load Taxonomy in CatMan
4. Map ACT codes to Purchasing Category.
5. Convert star schema files into SDL file format and load them CatMan Test

Note:

Currently Spend Data loader supports only one source – Enhanced Source System or ESS. If customer has multiple sources for Spend Data then pick a source that has highest spend information (for testing purposes only).

For Prod instance:

1. ACT codes are pre-loaded (no action required).
2. Map ACT codes to Purchasing Category
3. Request SA lead to run switch schema to trigger data ingestion to PDW.

Tip – In step 2, Export ACT-Purchasing category mapping from CatMan test instance and move ACT-Purchasing Category mapping from custom tab to ACT tab and

If customer does not have SAP Ariba Spend Analysis:

For Test instance:

1. Customers do not need ACT codes if they are not using Ariba Spend Analysis
2. Load customer spend classification codes using custom domain.
3. Map spend classification codes to Purchasing Category taxonomy.
4. Prepare Spend Data in SDL file format and load in Test (ensure Invoice and PO has spend classification codes reference)

For Prod instance:

1. Similar to Test configuration (repeat the same steps for Prod)

Understanding data model:

Before we start learning about loading data, let’s go thru few key concepts that are important.

What is Dimension?

Dimension tables store records that are standard, slow to change, and shared across transactions. Most part, they are master data. For example:

• Company Site
• Account
• Cost Center

What is Fact?

Fact tables store specific types of records that are constantly accumulating or changing. Most part, they are transactional data. For example:

• Purchase Order
• Invoice

What is Lookup key?

A row in a table (Source) references the data in another table (Remote) by using lookup keys as required columns. The Source table does not need to include any other data than those lookup keys.

For eg:

Cost Center Dimension can refer Company code dimension

Invoice Fact can refer Company Site or Cost Center or Supplier dimension

How does Dimension, Facts and Lookup keys are connected?

Below picture shows the connection between Dimension and Facts using Lookup keys.

Prepare Spend data files:

Step 1: Reference the spend data loader schema at https://help.sap.com/docs/categories/spend-data-loader-guide/spend-data-loader-schema-reference

Step 2: Follow below steps to download SpendData loader schema files (CSV) from Spend Data Loader

1. Login to Spend Data Loader application.
2. Click on UI Card “Source System Management”
3. On the next screen click on first row
4. Click on text “Download Schema”. Spend Data loader will download the schema files in zip format that contains following files.
   • Account.csv
   • Commodity (enriched).csv
   • Company Site.csv
   • Contract.csv
   • Cost Center.csv
   • ERP Commodity.csv
   • Invoice.csv
   • Part.csv
   • Purchase Order.csv
   • Supplier.csv

Step3: Once you download the files, prepare Spend data using SDL files formar and load them in following order one at a time (csv or zip format):

1. Company Site.csv
2. Commodity (enriched).csv
3. Account.csv
4. Cost Center.csv
5. ERP Commodity.csv
6. Part.csv
7. Supplier.csv
8. Contract.csv
9. Invoice.csv
10. Purchase Order.csv

Note: During upload, allowed file size is 15mb max. If your file is larger than 15mb then break that into smaller files and load them.

Step4: If any errors encountered during the load, Summary log will be available for download.  Fix the errors and load them again. 

Note: SDL has functionality where you can download data files that are previously uploaded upto 30 days.

Once Spend data is loaded successfully, CatMan will show Spend during Category Planning or Monitoring Phase.

During Category Planning: 

In SAP Analytics Cloud: