Whether you have a few or thousands of products, publishing electronic catalogs on Ariba Network can help you maximize sales and improve order accuracy.
Note that in order to create and maintain catalogs, you must have an Ariba Network enterprise account.
Before you start creating your catalog, below are a couple of tips to ensure a smooth (and error-free!) process later on:
- Use the Excel catalog templates available. Once you’re logged into your Ariba Network portal, click on the Help Center and search for “catalog templates”.
- Check to see if your customers have specific validation rules – your catalog might not be accepted if it doesn’t meet your customers’ criteria. Go to Company Settings, then Customer Relationships. Find the customer you want to create a catalog for and go to the actions menu to see if they have any catalog validation preferences.
- Ariba Network validates the syntax and semantics of your catalog files – make sure all fields are present and formats for numbers and text are followed. The catalog templates will have a description and requirements for each field.
Creating and publishing your catalog:
- Click the Catalogs tab on your dashboard
- Click Create Standard to create a standard catalog and access the Ariba Network catalog wizard
- Enter a unique catalog name and a brief description
- Classify the products and services in your catalog
- Choose who should see your catalog
- Private: Only specified customers can see your catalog – use this option if you have contract prices with certain customers (check the boxes for the customers you want to share your catalog with)
- Public: All customers can see your catalog
- Click Next to advance to the Content page
- Click Browse to choose a catalog file to upload
- Click Validate and Publish
- If your catalog status says Validated, then your catalog is error-free
- If your catalog status says Published, then your catalog has been validated and published
- If your catalog status says Errors Found by, then you need to revise your catalog and fix the content that violated syntactic validation rules, standards-based semantic validation rules, or a customer’s catalog rules
What Happens After Your Catalog Is Published?
- Ariba Network will notify your customer by email that new catalogs are available
- Your customer’s purchasing site will download and approve the catalogs for use
- Buyers will browse your catalogs and initiate purchase requisitions, which are routed through their organizations for approval
- Once the requisitions are approved, the purchasing site will automatically send purchase orders to you through Ariba Network
