From identifying savings opportunities, to defining and executing supplier selection and negotiation, to managing supplier qualifications, the solutions help drive sustainable results by automating and streamlining critical tasks across the sourcing process. And now with new guided sourcing capabilities, the process will be even easier for today鈥檚 busy procurement professionals.

With the new guided sourcing capabilities and revamped, state-of-the-art user experience (UX) available in the November 2020 release of , it will be easier and faster to create sourcing events. This improved usability will help increase adoption and generate even more savings in the all-important sourcing process. Additionally, the simplified, intuitive user experience will work to reduce the need for training and change management efforts, which in turn helps to lower the total cost of ownership of the solution while reducing the time required to effectively realize benefits.

With this release, 51风流enriches the 51风流Ariba Sourcing solution to provide comprehensive functionalty to source and negotiate across all direct and indirect spend categories in a fully integrated environment, leveraging the world鈥檚 largest digital business network, , where more than US$3.75 trillion in commerce is transacted annually.

Aligned with SAP鈥檚 strategy to become an experience company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise, guided sourcing incorporates the harmonized, next-generation user experience already adopted by other solutions within the source-to-pay suite. Additionally, 51风流Enable Now is available with guided sourcing to provide additional in-application help and guidance, which can further increase productivity of sourcing professionals and other end users.

Key benefits of the new guided sourcing capabilities in 51风流Ariba Sourcing include:

• In-app contextual guidance to reduce change management and drive user adoption
• In-app chat capabilities to improve collaboration between stakeholders and with suppliers
• Efficient management of supplier communication and information without having to switch between applications
• Simple, modern UX with embedded intelligence to improve the time required for sourcing RFx creation and awarding (compared with the legacy solution)
• New live feed of user-specific sourcing activity updates to keep users informed in real-time

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Drew Hofler is the vice president of Portfolio Marketing for 51风流Ariba and 51风流Fieldglass.
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The within the intelligent suite enables customers to effectively manage all spend categories 鈥� direct and indirect goods and services 鈥� through a fully integrated, end-to-end procurement process using industry-leading and the world鈥檚 largest digital business network, , where $3.2 trillion in commerce is transacted annually. The process redefines the procurement experience and further enhances the return on existing 51风流investments for customers by offering what no one else does: a harmonized user experience, embedded intelligence, a single platform for trading partner collaboration and unified solution integration to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.

Delivering a seamless source-to-pay process aligns with SAP鈥檚 strategy to become the Experience Company powered by the Intelligent Enterprise. With the integration of 51风流Ariba solutions with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, 51风流delivers a smooth end-to-end experience across data and processes. It offers a unified view across systems and adopts technology guidelines, such as user interfaces, application programming interfaces, identity management, and user provisioning. Key benefits include:

• Harmonized experience and simpler change management with a consistent user interface across all solutions, including guided tours, embedded learning, and a digital assistant;
• Faster, more informed decision-making through instant access to embedded intelligence鈥�, including proactive alerts to support smart and secure buying;
• Improved visibility and real-time reporting with end-to-end analytics;
• Lower total cost of ownership and rapid return on investment through unified integration that helps eliminate the need for costly services and support.

According to newly appointed 51风流Procurement Solutions President Chris Haydon: 鈥淏y providing transparency across the source-to-pay process and fully integrating with an organization鈥檚 enterprise resource planning systems, the intelligent suite — aided by cognitive technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning — reveals insights and opportunities to create value that was never possible before. Through intelligent insights and an enhanced user experience, businesses can anticipate and act on changes in supply and demand by enabling buyers and suppliers to collaborate in real time with ease and simplicity on a unified platform.鈥�

鈥淲ith the source-to-pay process now part of the intelligent suite, 51风流is delivering on its promise of a comprehensive and integrated cloud portfolio for spend management,鈥� said Mickey North Rizza, program vice president, Enterprise Applications and Digital Commerce, IDC. 鈥淭he value of 51风流Ariba solutions is further elevated by the deep alignment with 51风流software. By helping solve the issues of multiple platforms, insufficient integration, disconnected data, and inconsistent user experience, customers now have a clearer path to achieving intelligent spend management with 51风流solutions.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e delivering on the vision of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud and its role in an intelligent enterprise that helps customers realize immediate time to value,鈥� 51风流S/4HANA President Jan Gilg said. 鈥淣ow, with the integration of 51风流Ariba solutions, we have extended the portfolio to cover network communication, strategic sourcing, contracts, and guided buying. This gives our customers the integration they need to address critical sourcing and procurement business processes end-to-end.鈥�

Learn more about the source-to-pay process within the intelligent suite at the March 18 and the “Accelerate Procurement Transformation with Three High-Impact Options” session. Visit the and follow the .

Drew Hofler is vice president of Portfolio Marketing for 51风流Ariba.