Do you or your organization us the Envelope Bidding functionality in Ariba Sourcing?  We are looking to enhance it somewhat and I wanted to share the requirements with customers that do use it.  If you do, join the Sourcing OnDemand Group in Exchange.  http://exchange.ariba.com/groups/ondemand-sourcing  That is a private group, you will need to request admission on that page and I will let you in when I verify you are a current customer.  Thanks!  David Morel Sr. Product Manager, Ariba Sourcing

Hi all,

I try to identify the best group / profile to give to specific Ariba users.

These users are inside customers (engineers) for our indirect buyers.

So they could provide support to our buyers to set up some events, answer to suppliers questions during events.

Is there any group to give them? We dont want to consider them as buyers (License consuming).

Thank you for your help

Hello All,

I am working on the task of  Integrating Ariba Sourcing on demand application with SAP ECC system.

From Connect.ariba.com , i am able to find below NetWeaver XI/PI design packages (.tpz files) for P2P modules only  by take reference of the pdf "Ariba Procurement Solutions Integration Guide for SAP".

XI7_1_ARIBA_ONDEMAND_ER_INVOICE_12s2_of_ariba.com.tpz

XI7_1_ARIBA_ONDEMAND_INVOICE_12s2_of_ariba.com.tpz

XI7_1_ARIBA_ONDEMAND_PURCHASEORDER_12s2_of_ariba.com.tpz

XI7_1_ARIBA_ONDEMAND_RECEIPT_12s2_of_ariba.com.tpz

XI7_1_ARIBA_ONDEMAND_REMITTANCE_12s2_of_ariba.com.tpz

But i need similar NetWeaver XI/PI design packages (.tpz files) as above for Purchase requisitions,Sourcing Projects,Sourcing Events, Supplier users and Award results of Ariba Sourcing module to do integration with SAP ECC system.

Please assist me how to get the NetWeaver XI/PI design packages (.tpz files) for Ariba Sourcing module.

Thanks,

Dileep.K

Ariba Consultant

L&T Infotech,India

I have multiple tasks in my sourcing projects which start in a sequence or sometimes in parallel. For eg. Some of the tasks could be bidder list approval, RFP publication, Bid Receipt, Techno - Commercial Evaluation, Negotiations, Award.

Now I am interested in looking at the time spent on different segments of the project. For eg. RFP Publication to Award, Techno-Commercial Evaluation to award. etc.

In order to calculate such durations, I basically need to find the difference between the task end dates or process end dates of the tasks/processes. However, I have not figured out how to find difference between 2 date fields in order to calculate the duration between them.

Appreciate your help

Anoop

Looking for tips or templates for an Office Furniture RFP.  How do you bid hundreds of items and keep everyone "apples" to "apples."  Any feedback would be appreciated.

In terms of functionality, what are the differences, if any, between a 'forward auction' and a 'percentage index auction with upward (or discount) bidding'?

Hi,

I am working on a client site implementing Sourcing. We have designed the Templates to use Subprojects, but a questions has arisen to Can the Title/Name be populated from Project to Subproject and subsequently down to the RFX and Contract workspace.

The issue is that as this is quite a complicated setup Project Setup>Subproject>Event>Contract - the user is having to enter the same data multiple times, trying to make the process more efficient and for the user not having to remember which project they are in.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Lars

Hello!

I have searched the Ariba website and exchange, but can not find any demo's of a Reverse Auction (video or podcast).  If anyone has one available, cleansed of their company data (or a mock version), I would appreciate if you could share/send to me.  I don't have access to the recording capability to do it myself.

FYI - this demo will be used for internal selling only (procurement professionals and buyers) on how auctions work.

Thank you in advance!

Jaclyn

Ariba function DFS (desktop file sync) helps to make it easy to work with files offline. However it names the folder for each project like WS12345678. This means that when you are involved in several projects finding files off-line is confusing and time consuming as the folder naming does not reflect the name of the project. The folder should instead have names of individual projects making it easier to work offline. Do post if in agreement.

Hello, we have the OnDemand Solution.  I have a couple questions regarding table functionality:

1 - Data Tables - We would like to collect supplier reference data in one question.  For example, we would like the supplier to provide 3 references (each reference has their own row), and each column would have different data (Company Name, Contact Name, Address, Telephone Number, Email Address, etc).  Is there any functionality within ProSource to enable this to occur as a data table within a question?  I do not see the ability to construct data collection tables such as this, as I've seen with other software.  Would we need to create this as an attachment and have the supplier complete the information offline and submit at the question level?

2 - Pricing Tables - We would like to collect information regarding supplier financial statements.  Essentially, we would like them to be able to list their income statement and balance sheet with components for the past 3 years and another instance for the past 3 quarters.  We would like to aggregate this so that their inputs would auto-calculate other ratios (i.e. gross profit margin, net profit margin, debt-to-equity, etc).  I do not believe that the current pricing functionality is designed for this.  Otherwise, we may need to again list an attachment question.  Does anyone have other insights?

Thanks,
Aaron

I have been tasked with trying to implement the use of more reverse auctions within our organization.  We have held many forward auctions but we seem to meet a lot of resistance around reverse auctions.  I'm reaching out the Ariba community for some feedback on the usage of auctions. Below are some of my questions:

1)   1)  On average how many eAuctions do you hold in a month?

3    2)  When implementing the use of eAuctions did you experience resistance from others in your Procurement dept? Suppliers? Business Partners?

           If yes, how did you overcome this in order to receive buy-in from these different parties?

4)   3)  How do we increase the number of eAuctions?

5)   4)  How do you determine what goes to eAuction? Do you auction both product and services?

6)   5)  Do you generally hold an RFP before going to eAuction?

7)   6)  How do you open your eAuctions for?

8)   7)   From your experience what do you feel is the key to a successful eAuction?

9)   8)   In terms of savings how successful do find eAuctions?  Can you estimate how much more you’ve saved since implementing eAuctions?

Th

I would like to know if it is possible to monitor the supplier activity much more in detail during a running event.

In a previous version of Ariba we had much more activity information about the supplier during a running event, e.g. downloaded attachment, preparing response, saved response, etc.

The current Ariba version only gives in the “Log” tab supplier activity like “Access the event” or “Exit the event”.

Is there more detailed information possible in the current Ariba version?   

We have been running auctions for over a decade now, but we have never done an auction, where suppliers would have confirmed knowledge on who is competing.

Why not, is what we have been thinking lately…? We are currently discussing 2 categories, where we have auctions scheduled:

§  Energy / Electricity (for a German site)

§  Standard Software

We would like to share our thoughts and in return receive some feedback from the experts in this forum:

ð  Have you done this before, what was your experience, why have you opted not to do it, what pros/cons do you see for buyers/suppliers in specific contexts, prerequisites and exceptions?

#    If we decide to go along with this, we will share some anonymous supplier feedback and experience by revisiting this posting in a few weeks/months.

In many categories suppliers already have a high probability of being able to guess the competitive framework

            e.g. in Hardware Auctions, where you would show ranking information and have 3 or 5 suppliers (guess who?)

            e.g. in Office Supply Auctions (depending on your geographical approach) (guess who?)

            e.g. many more categories, where supplier markets are not very broad (depending on context): oil - fleet - telephony - steel – auditing - ..

            in some auctions it may also be a little unfair as the incumbent may be known to competing suppliers, and the incumbent is likely to keep bidding but does not have a clue against whom (agree?)

Potential supplier’s standpoint

Before each auction event we discuss with our clients, if display of rank and/or best price and/or all prices would be the smartest choice.

While in most cases specific details must be thoroughly reviewed for a recommendation >see another posting [not published yet]

ü  we have learned from a magnitude of supplier responses, that suppliers do favor more transparency/visibility over less

ü  likewise many times there is fear of unethical behavior e.g. including some global suppliers – we feel uncertainty about competition is a great threat to suppliers.

(In many cases they have much less competitive intelligence, than they assume to have and of course a lot less than they would love to have..)

==== CONS - Reasons for NOT providing supplier names ====

Threat:              Suppliers may use this information to engage in a mutual agreement with some key competitors

                        Agree on minimum pricing

                        Agree on allocation of lots/items, products/services and locations/countries

                        Agree on mutual criticism (joined forces) of challenging standard contract template, price-escalation-clause, length of fixed pricing among many other terms etc.

Threat:              Suppliers may object to this procedure as their pricing is confidential and will not want to participate under those terms.

                        Quite likely, that it may also depend on which companies would be competing.

                        Existing company policy

Threat:              Suppliers may disagree with the companies involved in the competition

                        Subjective view on each companies standing (sorry, but competition is never fair e.g. companies from completely different revenue clusters, etc.)

                        Subjective view on each companies capabilities/quality (arguable discussion may be raised from high quality suppliers, but in the end the buyer needs to have least quality requirements filled)

Threat:              Suppliers, who are new entrants to a market may dislike becoming visible to competition as they are still enjoying their “below radar status”

Threat:              Suppliers may get distracted too much and rather focus on which competitor is bidding what price, which would in turn lift their concentration off their rank and/or best price.

==== PROS - Reasons for providing supplier names ====

Strength:          Additional insights may positively influence bidding behavior of suppliers

1. e.g. if a major supplier who is known for very low/no market share in a certain branch or country, competing suppliers may be enticed to provide even more aggressive pricing to prevent them from gaining entrance (strategic bid)

Opportunity:     Suppliers may gain more trust from an event, knowing who is competing.

Opportunity:     Suppliers may derive more value from an open event, when seeing this is an open benchmark practice with their peers for a specific client/demand type.

Opportunity:     Suppliers may have greater lessons learned, when completing a loss analysis after the event.

==== SWOT Analysis on providing supplier names ====

Strength:         Drive competition from an anonymous event by making “enemies” a visible target.

Weaknesses:   Pricing and Competition is known.

Opportunity:    Raise willingness to engage on price concessions in the light of direct “A”-competitors.

Threats:           This level of transparency places additional pressure on the buyer.

==== Prerequisites ====

A first set of potential/generic prerequisites:

ü  critical mass of suppliers, e.g. +20 potential competitors – in order to prevent prior consultation (which may be cured by additional time pressure e.g. small time frame in total and only displaying supplier names during the short time frame of the auction)

ü  contractual and pricing terms are detailed/fair and leave (close to) no room for interpretation.

ü  crystal clear item spex / SoW.

ü  comparable capabilities in terms of company and offering – as much as possible; if suppliers have a different opinion on this, there will likely arise some discussions.

ü  non strategic, non secret commodity, suppliers and pricing.

ü  not compromising on suppliers’  internals – e.g., if you require a special certification from your suppliers you will by serving this information to competition (in case they did not know ..)

For our 2 categories (Electricity&Standard Software) we had to answer ‘YES’ on all prerequisites mentioned above.

==== Introducing an Open Auction to Suppliers ====

As always, communication is key to presenting this method to the market.

How do you feel about the following options –> we would want to leave room for comments and leave us with flexible options?

Options for embedding this idea in the communication to the market and/or receiving feedback from the market:

(1)   With the official project invitation we may want to communicate this to suppliers as given.

Clear communication

  No feedback mechanism except reasoning opt-out by suppliers (unfortunately there would be less flexibility when we would like to return to a “normal auction”)

(2)   With the official project invitation we may want to ask suppliers their view on an open auction.

Feedback mechanism in place

  Providing the option to vote “no”

Currently I personally value a version of (2), but potentially not providing a hard “no” option to suppliers.

Let us assume, that suppliers may vote in favor for this approach at a ratio of 50:50.

As a “workaround” we might want to share competitors’  aliases within the 50% only.

The result would then be an interesting open benchmarking for those 50% and a blind dive for the other 50%, which would in turn not be an open auction anymore.

==== Empirical Study ====

Classical Auctions many times provide information about participating bidders e.g.:

o    English Auctions at Sotheby’s, Christies and alike are room auctions, but bidders may be scarecrows

o    Dutch Auctions (for flowers)

Auction for allocation of UMTS spectrum /frequency blocks in Germany and UK – those auctions however are set-up slightly different, but competition seems obvious; in those events however lots of cooperations have joined forces (reducing initial interest from 12 to 5 bidders consortia)

·         http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/vohra/ftp/umtsauction.pdf

·         http://money.cnn.com/2000/08/17/europe/german_umts/index.htm

Hi,

Could you please let me know what is the average percentage of savings through Ariba RFP and also let me know where can I find the supporting documents.

Thanks,

Murali

Hi,

Are there any security setting that we need to be aware of changing when responding to and uploading an Excel file in Ariba? My question is specifically focused on the trust center protected view settings

Best,

Nancy

Do you or your organization us the Envelope Bidding functionality in Ariba Sourcing?  We are looking to enhance it somewhat and I wanted to share the requirements with customers that do use it.  If you do, join the Sourcing OnDemand Group in Exchange.  http://exchange.ariba.com/groups/ondemand-sourcing  That is a private group, you will need to request admission on that page and I will let you in when I verify you are a current customer.  Thanks!  David Morel Sr. Product Manager, Ariba Sourcing

Is there a way to use predecessor project information in a full project? We touched quickly on this subject during the advanced training class at the user conference, but only in the context of quick projects.

If not, is there a way to use a suppliers response to populate the next step (document) in a full project?

How are people currently managing this?      Will we be given the opportunity to perform this within the event in the future release?

I'm looking for some information on using the online scoring piece of the Ariba Sourcing module.  We're having a hard time convincing some of our users that it's meaningful piece of the tool to use.  We receive  a lot of feedback from users saying it takes too long and it's too complicated etc.  I'm looking for information to help support the usage of online scoring such as:

1) criteria around when to use it vs not using it

2) how do you convince people to use it?

3) on average what % of your events is being scored online?

Thank you!

Hi,

Is there a way to generate a wsdl file if you do not have access to Integration Manager or is there a need for a permission to have an access on Integration Manager? I have seen a sample on how to generate a wsdl file in downstream using Integration Manager. TIA