SAP Business Network 2108 Release - What's New?

[arunthiyagaraja]

This blog post provides an overview of key innovations in the  2108 Release of SAP Business Network Solutions.

On August 20 , 2021, we released  exciting new SAP Business Network innovations for our customers .In the 2108 Release the vision continues based on the foundation laid down in the 2105 release back in May.

Let me share some of the key highlights from the SAP Business Network 2108 Release:-

 

Standard Account improvements for Suppliers 

The Standard account experience has been improved to allow navigation to document details pages from all workbench tiles. On document pages, Standard account users can now perform actions based on their permissions. Previously, Standard account users could only access document details pages from payment-related workbench tiles; order- and invoice-based workbench tiles did not link to document details.

Now, Standard account users can click the document number link on any workbench tile to navigate to document details. Standard account users can perform actions on documents based on their permissions. With this feature, Order ,Invoice and Payment related tiles allow navigation to the document details page, as well as performing document related actions, as opposed to having to perform these actions via email.

New Additions to Transaction Workbench for Suppliers

A new tile to manage Advance Shipment Notification (ASN) creation called  Items to Ship has been added to the supplier workbench, allowing suppliers to create online ship notices more quickly and efficiently.

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   • Increased capability for filtering and searching for applicable items.
   
   
   • Standard fields for filtering, including shipping-centric default values for applicable status-related fields, presents a more action-oriented default view while also allowing flexibility to reveal hidden items for further review.
   
   
   • Enhanced filters specifically for the Items to Ship tile include Transport Terms and Storage Locations.
   
   
   • New actions include Create Ship Notice via single or multi-select.
   
   
   
   

SAP Supplier Financing 

SAP Ariba Supplier Financing leverages the digital footprints created on Ariba Network to reduce friction for MSMEs (Micro, Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises) in pursuit of financial health. It’s a self-service solution that enables small businesses that seek suitable working capital financing by simply consenting to access their data. They are then  provided with a list of pre-qualified offers at competitive terms from multiple online funders/lenders.

The suppliers may select one or more pre-qualified offers to complete the full due diligence and on boarding formalities with the funder/lender; which will be covered under separate terms of use and financial agreements of that specific funder/lender. During the term of the financial agreement between the two parties, the solution will also automate exchange of the Ariba Network transaction data with the chosen lender/funder to simplify the lending/funding process.

 





 

Service Procurement

Support for orders containing both material and lean-service items in the SAP S/4 HANA , SAP Fieldglass and Ariba Network integration scenario
With this feature, orders containing both material and lean-service items are supported in the Service Procurement with Ariba Network and SAP Fieldglass (4R2) integration scenario. It also supports multi-line service entry sheets and associated invoices. Suppliers will be allowed to create ship notices and service sheets in SAP Fieldglass for mix orders, allowing support for receipts processes of both material and lean-service line item types, creating a single, consolidated invoice.

Asset Intelligence Network Innovations - Collaborative Maintenance and Service

• Integration with SAP Fieldglass: Service Providers (suppliers) and maintenance planners (Buyers) can now collaborate on planned and actual Work Request / Notification and Work Order processes for Plant Maintenance use cases. This includes:
  
  
  
  • Displaying the SoW (Statement of Work) details from Fieldglass that are associated with a particular work order header and operation
  
  
  • Displaying the Worker details associated with a particular Work Order header and operation via SoW
  
  
  • Unidirectional navigation from SAP Asset Intelligence Network to SAP Fieldglass for further details on the SoW and worker details
  
  
  
  

 

• Integration with SAP Spatial Cloud Services: Sharing details on where work is planned and performed with a common geographical map improves usability and alignment between trading partners. Users can now display contextual geographical information of the work order and operations with a flexible mapping service that allows various styles and mapping technologies to be deployed.

Logistics Business Network Innovations

• Carriers can now start to submit their carrier invoices through a new API, which rounds-off the API enablement for the end-to-end processing of road freight orders.


• Carriers and partner networks can start to report actual transport related carbon emission data to their shippers through the public, unified tracking API. This provides standardized, REST-based APIs to enable tracking of the carbon footprint created by the transport of goods:
  
  
  
  • Monitoring shipments in execution
  
  
  • Receiving data related to a shipment's carbon footprint, such as actual distance, actual means of transport, or actual carbon emissions related to shipment execution, from the logistics service provider or the visibility provider
  
  
  
  


• Solution owners in material traceability can now better manage their own network, by specifying access rights for their n-tier supply chain network.

Supply Chain Collaboration Innovations:

IES Subcontracting Process Integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and Ariba Network: As part of Subcontracting with Ariba Network (5I2), the buyer on SAP S/4HANA Cloud can send subcontracting purchase orders along with component information from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to subcontracting vendors on Ariba Network through SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway.  Component information includes detailed information about subcontracting components, used to manufacture finished goods. Some of the key details include Subcontracting Component ID, Component Description, Component Quantity and Unit of Measure.

Planning Collaboration support for multiple views :This feature allows buyers to create views, referred to as custom views  for planning processes and set conditions for them. Prior to this feature, only one view, the standard view, was available for all items in a planning process. This capability greatly Increases planning collaboration efficiency by:
• Defining multiple planning views to fit specific business needs for trading partners.
• Assigning the most appropriate view to each planning record to drive improved accuracy of response from Suppliers.
This ensures easier adoption for suppliers by minimizing errors and improving communication
between trading partners.

Quarterly time series for planning and forecast collaboration 
This feature adds the Quarterly time series granularity to the existing Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly time series granularities for planning and forecast collaboration. Forecast commitments can be made using any of these time series granularities from both the user interface and Excel files.

Subcontract Process Enhancements :This feature adds functionality to exclude from a flipped component receipt any components that were already received, thus preventing duplicate receipts for a component. This feature also adds more search capabilities for stock transport orders and adds carrier information to the details page of a component ship notice.

 

Supply Chain Shipment Risk Prediction

This new innovation functions with SAP Logistics Business Network, intelligent insights option:

• Visualize global shipments along your supply chain on a real-time monitoring map


• Leverage externally provided supply-chain risk-and-threat data to predict risks for your planned shipments or shipments in execution


• Optimize business results using out-of-the-box integration with externally provided supply-chain risk-and-threat data at low implementation costs


• Make adjustments to optimize shipping performance and reduce losses based on predicted risks and real-time execution information

Supplier Insights

On-time payment rate KPI and benchmarking widgets 

The On-time payment rate KPI and benchmarking widgets allow suppliers to compare the performance of their customers to the aggregate performance of the network by supplier region, buyer industry, and performance quartile.

SAP Analytics Cloud Enhancements for Ariba Network Buyers

This feature enhances the purchase order and invoice overview stories

• With the addition of Company Code, Purchasing Group, Purchasing Organization, System ID, and Vendor ID dimensions.


• Users can choose to view data related to either the number of documents or total amounts in relation to these dimensions.


• New Stories added to provide comprehensive view of additional transactions like Order Confirmations and Ship Notices in the Ariba Network

 

The above summarizes the key innovations for 2108 ,We hope you enjoy the new capabilities in this release .Thanks for reading the blog post and Stay tuned! To learn more about SAP Business Network visit http://sap.com/businessnetwork

For further questions and feedback related to the blog, please check the Q&A area and feel free to post your questions in the link with the tag Ariba Network or SAP Logistics Network or SAP Asset Intelligence Network.