These days, procurement specialists aren’t the only ones doing the buying for companies anymore. That’s why it’s essential to have a simple, streamlined process available for casual buyers outside the procurement department. Luckily, SAP Ariba Guided Buying provides a useful and intuitive process for both the casual buyer and the specialist.
This article explains what Guided Buying is, some of its features, and the benefits of integrating it with the rest of your SAP Ariba procurement solutions.
What is SAP Ariba: Guided Buying?
Guided Buying is an intuitive experience available at no additional cost with SAP Ariba Buying and SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing. It’s a marketplace where buyers and suppliers can come together to streamline the buying process and eliminate the need to use different systems.
Employees can follow guidelines set up by your procurement department so they can easily purchase goods and services without needing to request support.
Features of SAP Ariba: Guided Buying
Guided Buying provides a host of features to streamline your procurement processes. Here’s a breakdown of key capabilities:
Help Community
The SAP Ariba Guided Buying help community provides targeted educational content to users, making it easier for them to collaborate efficiently during their purchasing process.
Instant Feedback
Employees know if they’ve violated a purchasing or budget policy while shopping rather than finding out after a request is submitted. You can set rules that allow them to proceed or require a different purchase.
Internal Collaboration
Guided Buying gives instant access to the category expert in that user’s purchasing unit based on where the user is located and what they’re buying.
Persona-based Dashboards
The guided buying capability can be flexibly configured to align forms, permissions, and system behavior for each user, presenting them with customized tiles and categories to streamline purchasing.
Savings
Greater compliance, easier supplier collaboration, and better cost savings mean more dollars that can be allocated to strategic organizational initiatives.
Simplicity
Intuitive screens and a single gateway for completing any buying request makes low-cost, high-volume requests completely self-service.
Supplier Management
Integration with other SAP Ariba solutions facilitates both supplier management and collaboration on one-off purchases. It also allows you to select preferred suppliers and request quotes via the Ariba Network.
Benefits of SAP Ariba: Guided Buying
SAP Ariba Guided buying brings value to customers in many ways. Here are some of the top benefits you will experience:
- Users can complete any procurement request through a single gateway.
- Provides smart guidance to steer users to preferred suppliers and the correct items, increasing compliant spend and ensuring the work within contractual and corporate policies.
- Allows self-service collaboration with suppliers for tactical spend and increased savings.
Integration with SAP Ariba Procurement Solutions
If you’d like to further enhance the power of Guided Buying, we suggested integrating it with other SAP Ariba procurement and sourcing solutions. Doing so will help automate the purchasing process and allow you to further capitalize on those efficiencies. Here are just a few of the capabilities of these integrations:
Catalogs
Loading supplier catalogs into SAP Ariba Procurement solutions makes it easier for users to search for goods and make purchases.
Spot Buy
Integrating Guided Buying and Spot Buy in SAP Ariba Procurement solutions will allow users to search and buy non-sourced goods.
Tactical Sourcing
By integrating with SAP Ariba Sourcing, users can request quotes from suppliers through the Ariba Network and select preferred suppliers when creating ad hoc requests.
Getting Started with SAP Ariba: Guided Buying
Guided Buying gives employees a simple way to buy. Thanks to persona-based dashboards and intuitive screens, non-specialist buyers can be trusted to purchase from preferred suppliers while adhering to processes and policies. Employees will love the experience, and you’ll love the compliance and savings.
If you’re ready to see what integrating Guided Buying with other SAP Ariba procurement and sourcing solutions can do for your business, we’ve got you covered. Our US-based SAP consulting team can help your organization get started with Guided Buying or any other SAP solution needs you may have.
Contact us today for more information.
