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Sep 12
SAP Ariba SNAP! FAQs

SAP Ariba Snap Frequently Asked Questions

By Procurement No Comments

As one of only eight companies in North America that have the ability to implement SAP Ariba Snap solution that is targeted at mid-market companies, we at Premikati, Inc. have compiled a list of frequently asked questions and their answers to help you decide if your organization is ready to take the next steps into solving your procurement obstacles and meeting your business objectives.  

Overview and Key Differentiators:

What exactly is SAP Ariba Snap and how does it differ from standard SAP Ariba?

Snap is an implementation of SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing and encompasses the critical elements of a procurement foundation at a minimum of complexity.

What is the process of implementation?

Premikati, Inc. is able to take your business live with SAP Ariba Snap in under 12 weeks. You will get best practices on Day 1 out-of-the-box which can be adjusted during implementation and over time.  In order to maximize the return on investment, we recommend that SAP Ariba’s Spot Buy marketplace be turned on immediately.  We want you to be transacting in 2 weeks or less!

(See more about the incredible SAP Ariba Spot Buy Marketplace!)

Supplier enablement of the initially targeted suppliers are performed by Premikati.  This is a critical aspect of the successful implementation and has been fully integrated into the implementation process.  We train your team so you can be self-sufficient as you add suppliers over time.

Spot Buy:

Does the SAP Ariba Spot Buy Marketplace come with SAP Ariba Snap?

Yes, Spot Buy is included and can be ready for transacting early in the implementation process.

One great thing about Spot Buy is that you can control content by commodity. For example, the administrator has the ability to toggle on and toggle off what content your users are allowed to see.  In addition, approval workflows and cost center information can be added to any purchase.  These are unique value props to Ariba Marketplace. You choose the content for your users, no matter the number or location – a feature that NO competitor has.

Do users in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, UK, Germany, and Australia have access to Spot Buy content immediately or is that limited to the US only?

The marketplace is growing fast! SAP Ariba Snap has up to 60 million SKU`s from sustainable, and vetted suppliers. It is available for users in US, Canada, UK, and Germany today.  Mercateo is the marketplace provider for EMEA.  Recently, SAP Ariba signed agreements with Mercado Libre that will make the marketplace available in Latin America.

Guided Buying:

Does Guided Buying come with SAP Ariba Snap, and if so, can you configure other categories to the guided buying landing page?

Yes, Guided Buying is included. While you can easily add additional categories that are specific for your business, with Snap you get pre-built categories with content and forms for:

  • IT & IT Services
  • Office Supplies
  • Advertising & Printing
  • Marketing Services
  • Financial Services
  • Legal & HR Services
  • Facilities / Maintenance
  • Travel

(See more about SAP Ariba’s Guided Buying)
 

Technical:

How do approval processes work? What do they look like?

You will receive SAP Ariba’s best practice approval workflow out-of-the box. You can approve via the application, via email, or by mobile device.  Approval workflows have tons of flexibility. There are parallel approvals to accelerate process. There is a concept of a watcher, and user approval groups.  Out of the box approvals include role, dollar value, special situation. This helps to minimize the need to build customizations.

How does Ariba & ERP’s integrate? Is there a standard set of integration scenarios for each process within Procure-to-Pay that no special development is needed if SAP best practices are followed?

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of Snap is the pre-determined flows, processes, and approvals out of the box. The structure is both robust and complete, essentially eliminating the need for customized integration. There are few instances where the custom integration justifies both the up front and ongoing maintenance costs.  With SAP software, there are 170 native integration points. The number of integrations is 8x of any competitor and covers the entire Source-to-Settle process.

Does this apply to non-SAP customers as well?

Yes. Ariba Snap is ERP Agnostic and will deploy in <12 weeks. 42% of Ariba customers are non-SAP.

Essentially all ERP systems can now be integrated to Ariba.

Are analytics provided? If so, how is reporting presented and managed?

Yes, analytics are provided which are focused on the P2P lifecycle.  As part of Snap, SAP Ariba has provided end to end capabilities to support the entire procure to pay process.  All of the basics are reported on (approvals, spend by categories, invoices exceptions, accruals, etc.) It is possible to set it up to have a weekly report sent to your stakeholders directly from the tool, or you may download in Excel.  Additionally, any data element captured can be reported with an unlimited number of customized reports that your team can create easily.

 

Upgrades:

If our company outgrows SAP Ariba Snap, do we have to redeploy/repurchase SAP Ariba?

Absolutely not!  SAP Ariba Snap is the same full Buying and Invoicing solution deployed at Large Enterprise customers but the focus is on the features and functionality that are critical to growing businesses and deploy only those features.  If you need additional features in the future, these are already included in your license and you can toggle them on at any time.

The beauty of SAP Ariba Snap is that it is a solution that is built to grow in complexity as your business matures. With implementation, we start with the key foundations that will give you the fastest time to value in key spend categories.  Once the foundation is set you can add those features and functionalities that best meet your needs while minimizing cost and operational risk.

What does SAP Ariba Snap cost?  Is the price determined by Spend Volume? by PO? Or transactions? Or connections?

Pricing is done by volume of Spend and the of the number of documents (PO and Invoices per year). Unlimited users are allowed so everybody in your company to have flexibility to access the tool without additional cost.

  

My Suppliers:

What is the process for suppliers to join the Ariba Network?

Suppliers can join the network at discovery.ariba.com but they are also invited to the Ariba Network from the buyer in their Ariba site. This can be done as an invitation or when a PO is sent to supplier prompting the invitation. Suppliers are considered customers too. SAP Ariba has used many UX principles to dramatically ease supplier interaction on the network.

What are the fees for Suppliers with SAP Ariba Snap?

Your suppliers can transact for free on the Ariba Network. They have the ability to send PO`s, Invoices, Order Confirmations, Ship Notices, and more. (Learn more about Light Enablement from SAP Ariba) 

Why should we buy SAP Ariba instead of a competitor’s product? Here are a few highlights:

  • Fast time to value (<12 weeks)
  • Best practices built in
  • Access to Spot Buy marketplace (content engine) that you control by commodity
  • UPGRADE Path without having to “upgrade”!!!
  • Local Resources – local language support and real-delivery expertise
  • Integration is simple and easy
  • Commercial flexibility i.e. Unlimited users and low subscription price
  • Suppliers can transact for free on the Ariba Network via Light Enablement

 

About PREMIKATI

Founded in 2009, Premikati, Inc. is a WBENC certified woman-owned Supply Chain Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firm, providing cost savings and financial, contractual and supplier risk mitigation services to purchasing organizations for mid and large enterprises while leveraging best-in-class purchasing processes and technology. Premikati has partnered with SAP and is one of only five companies globally to have been granted the most exclusive partnership level with SAP Ariba, as a BPO Partner.

Sep 12
Ariba Snap procurement implementation

Procurement with a Purpose – SNAP! Implementation

By Procurement No Comments

Marisol Buchanan, CEO of Premikati, Inc., had the pleasure to speak in NYC at SAP Ariba’s Business with a Purpose Summit – along with Step Up for Students (SUFS) COO, Anne White.  The challenges faced by SUFS and and solutions of implementing SAP Ariba’s Guided Buying and SNAP! tools are highlighted below.

The Problem

At a high level, Premikati had been tasked with giving parents and guardians access to their children’s scholarship funds AND providing easy access to the things they are allowed to buy including tuition, provider services and school supplies.

If we asked to partner on this project a few years ago it would have been very difficult from a change management perspective and we would not have recommended Ariba due to the complexity and all of the massive capabilities of the software, which is a good thing for large corporations but rather confusing for a basic consumer who may not even know what the word “Procurement” or “advance ship notice means”.

The Solution

Now, through the innovations made by SAP Ariba to the user interface and adding Guided Buying, along with the simplicity of SAP Ariba SNAP!, the implementation end user training has been drastically simplified.

This is imperative considering the landscape of the situation:

We have:

  • 100,000 families
  • not using corporate devices with standard operating systems
  • limited access to email
  • low user experience with business support technology like WebEx for training
  • multiple languages
  • many families with multiple children
  • 2000 schools which now are “Suppliers” who have limited experience with “e-Invoicing”

With this said, Premikati, Inc. has developed a robust and creative Change Management Strategy.  In addition to standard business communication vehicles, we are leveraging social platforms such as text messaging, YouTube, Facebook and twitter to engage and interact with these families in a way that easy and common for them.

So, essentially, we are taking complex procurement technology and best in class business processes and applying them in a way to make a positive impact on families, because that is what really matters.  That is truly procurement with purpose.

Sep 12
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing Tips

SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing Tips

By Procurement No Comments

Having been an SAP Ariba customer, employee, and now SAP Ariba BPO partner, I have seen many of the pain points of the implementation of this module.

Granted, this list is only three of the major roadblocks we at Premikati have come across, and there are many more challenges that are company specific that we will address via this medium in the near future.

Alas, for now – let’s hit the top 3:

1. Have a solid change management strategy and plan.  

When initiating a top down project, without buy-in, you are at risk for people not adopting the new processes, technology, and communications.

This lack of buy-in decreases your early adoption level and end user acceptance of the new technology and processes – therefore diminishing your success and what should be – a rapid ROI.

2. Develop a strategic supplier on boarding wave plan.

Start with matched SAP Ariba Network suppliers. They are already transacting over the network making for an easy connection.

Next, remember the 80/20 rule. Let’s get the suppliers you do the highest spend with on immediately. This will allow for quick visibility and spend control for the majority of your purchase orders.

Your next target should be strategic commodities.

As far as tail spend, remember that SAP Ariba Spot Buy will revolutionize the way you have dealt with the tail spend that everyone struggles with and should have been “turned on” immediately and effortlessly.

3. Develop a strong compliance message for your suppliers.

Require all suppliers to receive PO’s and submit invoices through the Ariba Network. With Light Enablement, the historical complaints about fees are simply invalid.

Companies who follow this recommendation experience quicker supplier enablement which in turn allows for increased visibility and control of your company’s spend.

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Premikati is a certified Woman Owned Management Consulting and Legal Process Outsourcing firm, and an SAP Ariba Silver Partner, that is specifically tailored to Procurement and Supply Chain.

Sep 12
Contract management from Ariba for $30K

Contract Management from Ariba for $30K?

By Procurement No Comments

When a company decides it has a need for a Contract Management software, the first step is generally to send out an RFI/RFP. A number of weeks and many pages of responses later, the field is generally narrowed to a couple of contenders. Then comes the demos… The team watches each vendor demonstrate their technology, usually with fairly little difference between them. Reporting, templates, clause libraries, redlining, and electronic signatures are usually the top things that everyone wants to see.

At the end of the day, since most of the top tools can all accomplish the same things, two factors typically make the decision. 1) The one that the team deems most “user friendly” and 2) price.

Once implementation is underway, the team starts to realize that they simply aren’t ready with templates and a clause library. Creating those from scratch takes a considerable amount of effort, particularly from an already overburdened legal team. They also realize that redlining might not work quite as easily as it was shown in the demo. These two items are then pushed off to a Phase II (which often never occurs) and the system is basically used as a repository.

The software vendors typically do not have different “levels” of their software at different price points. If you want a “repository only” solution, you would need choose a lower cost, less sophisticated software, effectively eliminating a progression path towards those features such as templates, clause libraries, and redlining that can be beneficial as your organization matures.

With Premikati recently becoming a BPO Partner of SAP Ariba, we have opened up a new set of options.

Premikati can now purchase and operate the SAP Ariba Contract Management Professional software on your behalf. We have two paths, one for Enterprise customers, and another for companies below $500MM in annual revenue.

First, for the Enterprise. Premikati can purchase an individual realm to operate on your behalf. Frankly, our status as a BPO Partner enables us to buy it at a significantly lower price point that you can. Our team will own and operate the system on your behalf, performing Contract Administration Services and, of course, all of the system administrative functions as well. This allows your team to focus its energy on more strategic opportunities, not the tactical day to day activities of keeping track of contracts. When you consider the total cost of ownership, you will be hard pressed to find a service/solution that provides more value for the price.

For companies below $500MM in revenue, we have a whole new way of thinking. 

Since we realize that initially you most likely only need a “repository” with reporting and the ability to do electronic signatures, that is all you are going to pay for.

Depending on a variety of factors, our pricing starts as low as $30K for an annual subscription that includes Contract Administration Services and all system administration.

Implementation is similarly value priced starting at $25K with a Go-Live in as little as two weeks.

This is still for the full version of the Ariba Contract Management Professional system although integration with other systems is not available in this situation. However, during your maturation as an organization, both in revenue and sophistication, we can always move you over to an Enterprise realm with ease and no downtime.

______________________________________________________________________

Premikati is a certified Woman Owned Management Consulting and Legal Process Outsourcing firm, and an SAP Ariba Silver Partner, that is specifically tailored to Procurement and Supply Chain.

Aug 21
Premikati Marketplace

What is the Premikati Marketplace?

By Procurement No Comments

The Premikati Marketplace is everything you’ve been dreaming about to streamline your purchase request to order process and better manage the relationship with your suppliers. Procurement software leader, SAP Ariba™, and Premikati together have designed a solution for the SMB space providing SAP® Ariba Buying as a BPO service – reducing monthly costs and the need for implementation all together. This is the same software used by Fortune companies around the world, and is supported by Premikati’s team of procurement experts. 

Everything You Need In One Place

Stop wasting resources on inefficient purchases from uncontracted suppliers. Earn back your cash and control by shopping tens of millions of products through our intuitive interface that functions with the same familiarity as personal, online shopping. Our B2B marketplace offers non-sourced goods all on a single, simple platform. 

Find products for a variety of needs, including: 

  • Office Supplies
  • Electrical & Test Equipment
  • Technology & Accessories,
  • Facilities & Maintenance
  • MRO & Industrial
  • Other Goods

Want to Add Your Own Suppliers?

We can do that for you!

You have the option to use both the Premikati Marketplace catalog as well as your own contracted catalogs with your favorite suppliers.

The Premikati team will work with your suppliers to get them onboard and transacting!  There are hundreds of suppliers already on the Marketplace offering thousands of goods and services.  Adding your own specific suppliers will add a bit more cost and implementation time.

The Name of The Game Is Savings… And Our Customers Are Winning

The Premikati Marketplace helps your business save in every way. 

Save time by integrating a single platform to meet all your needs into your buying process. Save cash by finding new savings opportunities in our trusted array of affordable, high-quality suppliers. Save your sanity by gaining visibility and control over your business’s purchasing with features like user access and spend controls, price thresholds, and easy-to-manage reporting.

Plus, you can expect to find price savings on average of 8-10%, and as high as 35% by reducing tail spend, rebate savings of around 1% on typical Premikati purchases, and process savings of days or weeks simply by making the switch.

The Premikati Marketplace utilizes a prime, subscription-based approach that leaves your business richer—in time, money, and data—every step of the way. 

Without All The Technobabble And Wait Times

Opt out of overly-complex purchasing solutions that require you to hire a whole tech team just to keep it running after lengthy implementation periods. Opt in to the Premikati Marketplace for 24-hour turnaround on implementation—start to completely finished. And, while you don’t need any IT Systems Admin, and there’s no technical implementation to delay your growth, we do offer free help desk support. However, our platform is so easy to use that we won’t mind if you call the help desk just to chat—our help desk folks are getting lonely in all that silence. 

Healthy, Efficient Supply Chain

Vendor management and the supply chain process should work for your business, not against it. Streamline your processes with the Premikati Marketplace to ensure you’re getting the best deals, using your time wisely, and giving your business its best opportunity to grow to its fullest capacity. Our SAP Ariba backed, compliance-ready, procure-to-pay purchasing platform is the measurable, manageable, and convenient way to find trustworthy suppliers, control ad-hoc spending, and keep your data clear and close at hand. Plus, it starts as little as $500 month. 

Do you want to find out more about the Premikati Marketplace or learn more about how to strengthen your supply chain for free—from our experts to yours? Join any of our e-learning webinars with industry expert, Ryan Matthes, Senior Vice President of Global Procurement at Premikati, Inc. And if you’re ready to dive into the Premikati Marketplace, you can start your subscription here through our sales team. 

Aug 21
Premikati inc, SAP Gold PArtner

Why Procurement is the Best Job in the World

By Procurement No Comments

When you pass someone on the street and mention procurement as a career, you’re likely to get blank stares and maybe even snores from the uninitiated. In reality though, procurement professionals have a whole host of opportunities to find joy and gratitude in their jobs as well as chances to make a real difference in the world. What makes this job so great? 

Friends In High Places… And All Places

When you’re in procurement, you’re constantly talking to people both in and outside of your company. You have the opportunity to form connections with suppliers all over the world (which can, in turSAP Procurement Softwaren, lead to even more opportunities) as well as folks from all manner of department within your own company. Procurement pros regularly interface with marketing, finance, PR, and everybody in between. If you play your cards right, this can result in real, meaningful interpersonal relationships just as it can career opportunities.

The Coolest Tech in the World

Procurement and technology go together like peanut butter and jelly. Especially at top, enterprise-level companies, the technology utilized in procurement departments can be staggering. Even in small and mid-sized businesses, though, it’s likely you’ll get to work with cool new tech like artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. This type of tech can be used for things like accurate supply and demand planning.

The Nomad Life If You Want It

Procurements pros can go literally anywhere if they’re good at their jobs. Have you always wanted to take the plunge and move to Costa Rica? France? Cambodia? There will be jobs ready and waiting to utilize your skills. Additionally, as with many other professions, lots of procurement workers are opting for the remote-work route, letting them work from coffee shops and shared workspaces in a new city every day of the week.

Life-Saving Superheroes

From avoiding environmental catastrophes brought on by poor human ethics to providing aid in the event of national disasters, procurement professionals are in the lineup to help save the world. In procurement, you get to help decide to utilize sustainable, environmentally- and socially-healthy suppliers over the ones who cut corners, pollute the planet, and take advantage of people through forced labor and other similarly heinous actions.

In the same vein, procurement pros step in too when humanitarian aid is needed, like in the event of hurricanes in Haiti.

Job Makers

We all know someone who has been passing resumes to everyone who will stop long enough to take one, but who still doesn’t have a job. It’s just the state of the economy sometimes, when skills and job openings don’t align, or the money simply isn’t there. By working in procurement, you get to help create jobs, allowing more people to sustain themselves and their families. In procurement, you impact business at a core level, opening opportunities to create more, sustainable, dignified jobs for the people who are happy to fill them.

Make Money, Spend Money

The name of the game in procurement is to spend other people’s money. You get the opportunity to learn all sorts of tactics for managing money, saving, budgeting, etc.—skills that can carry over to your personal financial life as well.

Speaking of personal finance, this is a job after all. In procurement, you can expect to get paid with some reliability and have a reasonable amount of job security. Luckily, procurement pros also tend to see decent raises and a growth in their value over time as they learn new skills—they may be less likely to stagnate on the income scale compared to other professions. And, with all your procurement skills, you’ll know how to negotiate and manage your money to get every bit of value out of each dollar you earn.

Are you a procurement professional who loves your job? Do you want to connect with suppliers who will make your day even brighter all the while getting great deals on the purchases you make for your business? Check out the rest of Premikati site!

Aug 01
Costs of Your Supplier Relationships

What are the Real Costs of Your Supplier Relationships?

By Procurement No Comments

Summary: Supplier relationships can be costly in terms of both money and time investments, and can also be rife with risk. Many businesses are turning to B2B marketplaces in order to lower cost and risk alike and instead focus on collaborative relationships, strategic partnerships, and innovation. 

When you’re in business, you have to form relationships with suppliers in one way or another in order to get the job done. However, the way you go about building supplier relationships can make all the difference to your bottom line as well as the innovative potential of your business. When seeking out suppliers and a way to interact with them, it’s important to be aware of the actual cost of the relationship, the risks involved by doing business with them, and the alternatives you have at hand.

What Are The Costs Of Your Supplier Relationships?

When it comes to supplier relationship management, the whole ordeal can be costly if you let it get out of hand. If you have too many suppliers, you risk high costs, confusion, and overcomplication in other areas of business which rely on these supplies, like production. Too few suppliers, and you’re in an “all your eggs in one basket” situation which rarely leads to good things in business or in life.

According to a study by The Hackett Group in 2012,

“It costs roughly $700-$1,400 in internal costs (i.e., labor, outsourcing, technology and related overhead) to source each supplier, set it up in internal systems, transact with it and manage the relationship on an ongoing basis.”

Among the reasons to consolidate suppliers cited in the study, is that added buying power with each supplier can lower your cost of purchase as well as your supplier management costs.

Even beyond money, dealing with paperwork manually, fixing invoice errors and discrepancies, and communicating with suppliers over inquiries costs companies about 6500 hours a year—and you can bet that they are paying someone for each and every one of those hours.

What Are The Risks Of Working With Your Supplier?

Trust, transparency, and longevity are all valid concerns when contemplating the risks of working with suppliers. Contract management alone can be a hefty ordeal, especially if you find yourself dealing with a subpar supplier, since contract renegotiation can be a long and arduous process.

Each supplier you manually add to your supply base also results in a cadre of compliance risks. How do they safeguard their data? How does their preceding supply chain look—are they reliable? Are they utilizing corrupt practices somewhere down the line like forced labor, poor work conditions, or even human trafficking? Without a process in place alongside the skill and man-hours to verify each of your suppliers compliance standards as well as consistent checks to ensure their standards are regularly updated and maintained, you run the risk of severe ethical and reputational harm to your business.

When business neglect to regularly analyze their supplier lists and consolidate where it’s relevant to do so, spend visibility also suffers. Companies may pass along orders to vendors sheerly out of convenience, desire, or cost with little further rationale—all of which can lead to costly situations down the line. Being able to monitor and have full visibility into your company’s spend is vital to healthy, low-risk supplier relationships.

Why Are More Companies Looking To B2B Marketplaces For Their Suppliers?

The middle ground between too many and too few suppliers is paring down to focus on your key suppliers and nurturing those relationships. Similarly, employing the necessary services to validate the compliance of your suppliers can save you many dollars and headaches throughout the course of your business. Both of these reasons are why many companies are turning to B2B marketplaces to source their suppliers.

B2B marketplaces enable buyers to home in on key suppliers, increase spend visibility, lower overhead costs of SRM, and allow businesses to focus on the more important aspects of having supplier relationships and with far fewer worries. Instead, businesses can spend their time developing collaborative, strategic relationships and key partnerships in order to boost innovation and profit for everyone involved.

One well-known supporter of building strong, collaborative supplier relationships as a driver of innovation is Toyota. Approximately 15% of Toyota’s suppliers can be classed as “strategic potential or actual co-developers.” They are sure to invest additional time and resources in these suppliers through activities such as attending R&D shows to spur discussion about new technologies.

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