Indirect procurement with SAP Ariba Buying

Full visibility from purchase requisition to invoice.

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When people buy around procurement

Your business units order wherever it's fastest, not where it's right. Past the negotiated catalogue and past the policy. This maverick buying wastes money you had already negotiated.

Without a clear process, every team and every country organisation buys as it pleases. In the end, nobody knows who is ordering what, and on which terms.

Then there are the systems: one for the requisition, one for the approval, one for the invoice. Every jump between them breaks the process and costs your procurement team half a day of clean-up.

One process. One system. Full control.

SAP Ariba Buying brings your indirect procurement together in a single process, from requisition to invoice approval. Everything runs directly in SAP.

We guide your people to the negotiated catalogue with a simple, intuitive process. Compliance and approval rules apply automatically along the way.

What we set up for you in SAP Ariba Buying

  1. Guided Buying

    Everyone orders for themselves.
    No training needed.
    We connect your negotiated catalogues and marketplaces such as Amazon Business or Würth. Service catalogues, for example from workshops, can be mapped in the system too. And anything not listed in a catalogue? Your users find it via the spot-buy function.

  2. Transparency

    You see everything. You control everything.
    Approval workflows, budget checks and policy checks run automatically within the process. You keep track of open approvals, orders and delivery dates.

  3. Integration

    Requisition and invoice on a single track.
    Ariba Buying runs end to end, right through to invoice approval, and connects with SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA, no data jumping between systems. Order and invoice match, with no rework.

Success Stories

Your benefits

Your procurement team wins back time

An end to maverick buying

Compliance and approval rules are guaranteed

Implemented by the 8× Procurement Partner of the Year

Profile picture: Lena Holder

Bring your operational procurement into one process and see what that looks like in your SAP environment.

Book your initial consultation now!

Lena Holder
Head of Demand Marketing Operations
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Questions and answers

What's the difference between SAP Ariba Buying and Guided Buying?

Buying is the complete operational process. Requisition, approval, order, through to invoice.
Guided Buying is the guided interface within it, built for occasional buyers. You use Guided Buying as part of Buying.

Does SAP Ariba Buying work with our existing SAP?

Yes. Ariba Buying connects with SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA. Order and invoice run in one flow. There is no second system alongside.

How long does implementation take?

That depends on your catalogue sources, approval rules and backend connection. In the initial consultation, we'll give you an honest range not a wishful number.

Is there real substance behind the "AI", or is it just a label?

In current-gen, AI is already running in production, with the solution from our partner Lhotse. Read more in the story with our customer Abraxas. Or take Nebo (Negotiation Bot), our own development: it automates price negotiations across the entire long tail. All the small-value items where personal negotiation simply isn't worth the effort. The release of SAP Ariba Buying in next-gen is currently on SAP's roadmap. In next-gen SAP Ariba, AI functions are built in natively.

Do we need to spend a long time training our people?

No. Your employees move through Guided Buying as intuitively as through the shopping apps they know from everyday life. Only your procurement team needs a little more onboarding for workflows and reporting.

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