Buyers and sellers can use SAP Ariba Discovery to find new sources of supply or to find new leads, respectively.

As a Buyer

As a buyer, the buying organization can use SAP Ariba Discovery to find new sources of supply by following three simple steps (as seen in the figure below):

1 Create a Posting

The buyer creates a supplier discovery post describing what the organization is looking for. SAP Ariba Discovery automatically sends the posting to high-quality sellers who are a good match to be a source of supply for the product or services that the buying organization is looking for.

The buyer can create the supplier discovery posting directly in SAP Ariba Discovery or via a sourcing event such as an auction or RFx event.

If you want to create supplier discovery posting, log in directly to SAP Ariba Discovery and click on Posting. Buyers can then create a posting by clicking on Create Posting. Buyers can log in to SAP Ariba Sourcing and click Create – Quick Quote Posting or Supplier Research Posting on the dashboard to access SAP Ariba Discovery. From within a sourcing event, in the event monitoring page, click the Discovery Supplier tab. Click the link at the top of the page to access SAP Ariba Discovery.

2 Review Proposals

Matched suppliers who are interested in participating will respond to the posting with quotes by logging in to SAP Ariba Discovery and responding to matched leads. The buyer accesses SAP Ariba Discovery as described earlier and clicks on Postings in SAP Ariba Discovery. The buyer can see all the postings he has created. By clicking into an individual posting, the buyer can access responses to the posting from the participating sellers.

If the supplier discovery posting was created from within a sourcing event in SAP Ariba Sourcing, the buyer can directly access the responses to the posting from the Discovery Supplier tab within the SAP Ariba Sourcing event by clicking on Action – View Responses.

3 Make a Selection

The buyer can review responses to individual postings as described previously and short-list or award business to a seller. The buyer can also review the seller’s profile and ratings on SAP Ariba Discovery before deciding on the winning seller. After a winning seller is selected, a notification is sent to the winning seller. The other sellers who participated in the post will also be sent a notification that another seller has been awarded business.

Buyers can also manage their supplier discovery postings by accessing the postings on SAP Ariba Discovery and editing the post. Changes made to the posting are republished. Notifications are sent to sellers to resubmit their responses based on the changes, if they have already submitted responses. The buyer can also choose to delete a posting as necessary by the buying organization before the posting is awarded. Sellers participating in the posting will be notified via an email.

As a Seller

As a seller, the selling organization can drastically expand its reach and build new customer relationships using SAP Ariba Discovery by following three simple steps (as seen in the figure below).

1 Register

Register your selling organization for free on SAP Ariba Discovery. Enter information on commodities that your organization can supply and the geographical locations that are covered.

2 Receive Leads

Suppliers with matching commodities and territories included in a buyer’s supplier discovery posting will automatically receive an email with the new lead.

3 Discover New Relationships

Selling organization can choose to respond to new leads, giving them an opportunity to build new relationships and grow their business. Based on the responses from the sellers, the buying organization decides which seller best suits their need and awards business to the selling organization.

Editor’s note: This content was originally posted on the SAP PRESS Blog and has been adapted from a section of the book SAP Ariba by Rachith Srinivas and Matthew Cauthen. Used with permission of SAP PRESS. All rights reserved.