1. Ariba
Collaborative
Knowledge Requisitioning
Nuggets
Services likely account for half of your total spending, if not more. Still, they're hard to
define, hard to see, hard to centralize, and thus, hard to control. Even so, you gotta find
a way. Otherwise, you'll keep missing out on a sizable source of savings. The good
news is that simply recognizing the problem probably puts you out in front of your
competition, and halfway to a solution.
Collaborative Requisitioning is a new feature in 10s2 that can be used with Procure To
Pay, Procure To Order, Ariba Procurement Content, and Services Procurement
Solutions.
Important to note: Any customer that has Procure to Pay (P2P), Ariba
Procurement Content (APC) or Procure to Order (P2O)
will get this automatically.
In this week’s Knowledge Nugget we will explore:
• Dynamic Collaboration: This feature enables buyers to request proposal from
suppliers on an ad-hoc basis when procuring goods and services items without have to
re-negotiate the catalog or contract price. Buyers can also send proposal requests to
other suppliers dynamically and then accept a suitable proposal that meets their needs
during the purchasing process.
• N Bids and a Buy: In some organizations, if a requisition meets certain pre-defined
criteria, it is required that the buyer negotiate with a minimum number of suppliers and
receive their bids before completing before completing the purchasing process.
• Quick Enablement Collaboration Request: This feature enables buyers to For More Info:
negotiate with supplier who are not members of Ariba Network and do not possess Ariba
Network IDs (ANID) or whose suppliers are not available in the Ariba procurement
solution. For more in depth
information
consult the
Ariba
Procurement
Solutions 10s2
Release Guide on
Ariba Connect

2. Collaborative Requisitioning
A collaborative requisition is a requisition in which a buyer can negotiate with one or more suppliers before placing an
order. A collaborative requisition has three phases: pre-collaboration, collaboration and post-collaboration. These phases
are identified in an approval flow by the begin collaboration and the end collaboration nodes.
Pre-Collaboration Phase
In the pre-collaboration phase, the requisition goes through any required approvals before the collaboration process in
initiated. When all required approvers in the pre-collaboration phase have approved the requisition, the collaboration phase
starts. Once the collaboration phase starts, a Collaboration tab is added to the requisition that displays the status of the
requests sent to the suppliers along with other details.
Ins ide Story Headline
Collaboration Phase
During the collaboration phase, a collaboration request is created for each invited supplier and supplier location for that
item, and then sent to them on Ariba Network. A supplier views the collaboration request in their Inbox on Ariba Network,
reviews the details, and responds either by declining the request or by submitting a proposal, which contains the details of
how they will fill the request.
When sending a proposal, suppliers will be able to edit the following field values:
• Description
• Quantity
• Price
• Supplier Part Number
In case of a catalog item, only the supplier associated
with the item will be able to view and edit the Supplier
Part Number field value. Other suppliers will see a blank
field where they can enter a value.
• Supplier Auxiliary Part ID
In case of a catalog item, only the supplier associated
with the item will be able to view and edit the Supplier Auxiliary Part ID field. Other suppliers will see a blank field
where they can enter a value.
• Additional non-standard fields for configurable items.
Suppliers will also be able to add catalog or non-catalog items to the requisition including punchout items. The supplier
needs to specify the commodity code when adding a non-catalog item.
After suppliers submit their proposals, users can review them on the Collaboration tab of the requisition in the Ariba
procurement solution. Users can further negotiate a proposal or send questions to the suppliers using the message screen
on the Collaboration tab. Suppliers can send messages back and respond with additional or amended proposals. When a
proposal is satisfactory, users can accept that proposal. The information from the accepted proposal is merged into the
requisition, and the requisition is sent for final approvals.
Post Collaboration
After you review the proposals sent by the suppliers and accept a suitable proposal, collaboration completes. Once
collaboration is complete, the requisition passes through any required additional approvals. When all required approvers in
the post collaboration phase have approved the requisition, the purchase order is generated and sent to the supplier.

3. Dynamic Collaboration
Spot Buy
This feature enables buyers to request proposals from suppliers on an ad-hoc basis when procuring goods and services
items without having to re-negotiate the catalog or contract price. Buyers can also send proposal requests to other
suppliers dynamically and then accept a suitable proposal that meets their needs during the purchasing process.
For example, buyer LexCorp may have negotiated with supplier Stark Enterprises to supply item XYZ at a discounted
price of $100 per unit. If LexCorp wants to order 10,000 units of item XYZ, they can request from Stark Enterprises an
additional discount dynamically without having to re-negotiate the catalog price of item XYZ. LexCorp can also
collaborate with multiple suppliers by sending collaboration requests to multiple suppliers and receive their proposals.
This ensures that LexCorp receives multiple proposals and can then select the best deal for the purchasing project. This
feature also allows collaboration with suppliers on items associated with a contract. Buyers can request proposals from
suppliers when procuring contracted items without having to review the contract. This is applicable to item-level, catalog-
level, commodity-level and supplier-level contracts. For example, buyer LexCorp may have a contract with supplier
Stark Enterprises to supply item XYZ at a contracted price of $100 per unit. If LexCorp wants to order 10,000 units of
item XYZ, LexCorp can request from Stark Enterprises an additional discount dynamically without having to review the
contract.
Collaborative Configuration of Complex Items
When procuring partial items or items whose specifications are not completely defined, buyers may require inputs from
the supplier to complete the required specifications of the item. This feature enables buyers to dynamically collaborate
with the supplier(s) in completing the required specifications of a complex catalog or non-catalog item. Suppliers can
also add suitable items to the collaborative requisition that might meet the buyer’s requirements. To add items to a
collaborative requisition, suppliers punchin to the Ariba procurement solution and view the catalogs. However, they will
be able to view and add only those catalog items that belong to them or those that do not have a supplier specified. The
suppliers will also be able to add punchout items to the collaborative requisition.
For example, buyer B wants to procure a pipe from supplier S. If B does not know about the available pipes and their
prices, B creates a non-catalog item for a pipe with the required specifications or adds a partial item to the requisition.
The supplier S then proposes a pipe, its specifications and price. B can then accept the proposal or request additional
proposals. B can also collaborate with multiple suppliers at the same time to ensure they receive a proposal that best fits
their requirement.
Enabling Dynamic Collaboration
This feature is enabled by default in the Ariba procurement solution. However, to use the feature, users must be added
to the Dynamic Collaboration User group. The option to choose to collaborate with multiple suppliers when editing a line
item will be visible only to users belonging to the Dynamic Collaboration User group.

4. N Bids and A Buy
In some organizations, if a requisition meets certain policy terms, it is required that the purchasing agents collaborate
with a minimum number of suppliers and receive their bids before completing the purchasing process. With this feature
you can enforce collaboration on a requisition based on certain policy terms.
For example, you can specify a policy that all purchasing agents must collaborate with a minimum of three suppliers if
the requisition amount exceeds $1000 for an item of commodity code 8012. To enforce this, you define a N Bids and a
Buy policy where you specify the minimum number of suppliers that need to be invited for collaboration, the field(s) that
this policy is based on and the terms of the policy.
You can specify a policy based on a number of fields available in a requisition, for example:
• Requisition Amount
• Purchasing Unit
• SET ID (PeopleSoft only)
• Company Code
• Common Commodity Code
• Partitioned Commodity Code
• Line Item Type (Catalog / Services / Non catalog items)
You can also specify if violations of the policy are allowed. For example, you can specify if purchasing agents can still
submit requisitions if they do not invite the minimum number of suppliers or not.
Note: The N Bids and a Buy policy can be enforced when procuring both goods and services items. In a requisition
containing multiple line items, you can specify whether the line items must be grouped based on the policy attributes.
When line items are grouped, the policy is applied on the total amount of the grouped line items. You configure the N
Bids and a Buy policy attributes in a policy lookup table (a CSV file). The lookup table contains data related to the fields
that the policy is based on, the terms of the policy and the group that is responsible for enforcing the policy.

5. Quick Enablement Collaboration
The Quick Enablement Collaboration Request feature enables buyers to collaborate with suppliers who are not members
of Ariba Network and do not possess Ariba Network IDs (ANID) or suppliers whose ANIDs are not available in the Ariba
procurement solution. This feature is similar to the Quick Enablement Purchase Order feature.
The steps involved in the Quick Enablement Collaboration Request process are as follows:
1. A user adds a supplier whose ANID is not available in the Ariba procurement solution to the collaborative requisition.
2. The collaborative requisition is sent to the Ariba Network during the collaboration phase.
3. Ariba Network creates a private account for this supplier and generates an Ariba Network private ID.
4. The supplier receives an email invitation from Ariba Network and clicks the link provided in the email to start the
registration process.
5. If the supplier is not yet registered, they can accept the invitation by completing the registration process.
6. If the supplier is already registered, they can accept the invitation and combine their new relationship request with
their existing account.
7. Once registered, an ANID is created and the supplier gains immediate access to the account.
8. The supplier can then punchin to the Ariba procurement solution to view and respond to the collaboration request.
Note: Private IDs are unique per supplier location. You can view private IDs for supplier locations by using the
Suppliers task in the Supplier Manager workspace in Ariba Administrator. For information on using the Supplier
Manager workspace, see the Ariba Procurement Data Import and Administration Guide.
Email Notifications
When you choose to collaborate with
suppliers who are not members of the
Ariba Network, the collaboration request
is routed to those suppliers through Ariba
Network by an email notification which
includes an invitation to log in and
complete the registration process.
During the collaboration phase of the
requisition, email notifications are sent to
the suppliers and the buyers respectively
when suppliers send proposals and the
buyer responds to them.
Changes to Existing Functionality
The collaboration request is sent to
suppliers even if they are not members of
the Ariba Network and the
following status is displayed in the
Collaboration tab of the collaboration
request:
Request Sent - Waiting For Response