What is SAP Ariba Central Procurement?

It's a procurement command center that provides control over requisitioning, purchasing, sourcing, and contracts through a single user interface. Data is unified and procurement processes are orchestrated across multiple ERP systems—without the cost or complexity of changing them.

• Native integration with SAP ERP, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP Ariba solutions
• Standard APIs for third-party ERP integration
• A clear view of requisitions, orders, spending, and payments
• Global control and visibility while transacting in local ERP systems

Key benefits

Achieve companywide visibility

Orchestrate core procurement activities from a single, centralized command center and provide visibility into purchasing processes based on roles and permissions.

Gain a clear view of spending

Get a comprehensive and accurate view of demand, requisitions, orders, and spend, supporting compliance, more-effective negotiations, and demand aggregation.

Improve productivity

Reduce redundancy and bring global consistency to key steps of the procurement process without disrupting day-to-day work and systems within each business unit.

Reduce procurement costs

Efficiently aggregate company-wide demands to leverage purchasing power and ensure compliance with globally negotiated contracts, preventing value leakage.

Guard against market fluctuations

Implement index-based contract pricing to mitigate risks from commodity market volatility.

Enforce policies and best practices

Effectively enforce supply-assurance policies and sustainability best practices through centrally governed contracts.

Streamline supplier engagement

Leverage a center-led model to effectively manage strategic relationships, driving cost savings and fostering innovation.

Mitigate talent risks

Organize for economies of skill by deploying scarce talents on high-impact categories and strategic activities.

Accelerate S/4HANA transformation

Realize short-term savings to fund your ERP transformation program.

Key features

All-in-one command center

• Centralize compliance, process control, approval workflows, and document output using a single procurement command center
• Deliver global control and visibility while transacting in local back-end systems​
• Manage procurement responsibilities centrally

Unified requisitioning experience

• Free up purchasers’ time by reducing repetitive tasks through a powerful automation framework
• Create requisitions centrally for all connected back ends using the guided buying capability in SAP Ariba solutions
• Harmonize workflows for approvals, confirmations, and returns

Central demand aggregation

• Aggregate and bundle requisitions to take advantage of better volume pricing
• Create and publish central RFQs from external PRs
• Generate follow-on back-end POs or central contracts from quotations

Enterprise contract orchestration

• Negotiate and monitor global contracts for legal entities across your enterprise
• Orchestrate operational contracts for direct and indirect materials company-wide and distribute details to back-end ERPs for local execution
• Enable contract distribution at a header or line-item level

Central analytics

• Monitor the health of your procurement process for continuous process improvement
• Track central purchase contract consumption and global spend
• Drill down to get a quick and accurate look at operational details and monitor requisition metrics, such as cycle times and touchless rates