SAP Ariba for Indirect Procurement at Umicore

SAP Business Network is a dynamic, digital marketplace where buyers and suppliers collaborate on procurement and supply chain transactions. SAP Business Network is an online platform to facilitate the relationship customer-supplier. It allows to quicklier exchange knowledge and information with your trading partners while nurturing long-term relationships.

SAP Ariba is a leader in the spend management space and has a broad supplier base already using the SAP Business Network to transact business. They have a proven tool which is easy to use and meets Umicore‘s needs for E-connected solutions. It also has the benefit of eliminating manual handling and ensures that our suppliers information exchange is up-to-date and accurate to support Umicore’s digital transformation journey.

Registration and adoption of the SAP Ariba Network is required to transact with Umicore for all indirect suppliers. In case of questions or remarks related to this new platform, please reach out to ariba.supplier.support@umicore.com.

• Being part of a large Ariba B2B community/network could offer new business opportunities within but also outside of Umicore
• Enhancement of supplier collaboration
• Procurement related communication with Umicore through one platform
• Free of charge to participate in sourcing events over the SAP Ariba Network
• Simplified sourcing process
• Easy transfer of data
• Increased correctness by matching PO and invoice
• Increased visibility on invoicing status and goods-receipt
• Ability to integrate SAP Business Network with ERP system to boost automation for suppliers with high yearly PO volume
• Respond to increasing demand for participation on the SAP Business Network, as demand grows from other Belgian customers

The start of interaction over the SAP Business Network with Umicore begins with an invitation email. Either you will be contacted to participate in a sourcing event, complete a supplier questionnaire or certification or will be sent an interactive Purchase Order. As of that moment, you will be asked to communicate and provide information related to the received document to Umicore via the SAP Business Network.

You can register on the SAP Ariba Network via two different channels:

1. upon receival of an Umicore invitation email
2. via the https://supplier.Ariba.com website

For more details on how to register on the SAP Ariba Network, please consult the Supplier support on “Registration on the SAP Ariba Network”. 

If you already have an SAP Ariba supplier account, you could use this account to interact with Umicore. There is no need to create a new account.

When receiving the invitation email for a sourcing event, certification or an interactive purchase order, you can log-in with your existing account details for the first time to connect with Umicore. Umicore proposals, questionnaires and purchase orders will automatically transfer to your existing SAP Ariba account.

Suppliers don’t need to download anything. An Internet connection and a web browser are the only requirements. If you are a supplier user, go to https://supplier.ariba.com and click Supported browsers and plugins at the bottom right of the page to access a list of currently supported browsers click Supported Browsers.

Since February 2022, Umicore Belgium buyers are using the SAP Ariba Network for sourcing activities with their suppliers. Additionally, questionnaires and certifications are also needed to be submitted via the SAP Ariba Network.

Since February 2023, Umicore Olen^(*)  will use the SAP Business Network to transmit all purchase orders to their indirect suppliers. It is expected from the suppliers to send the order confirmations and invoices over the SAP Business Network as well. 

^{(*) The other Belgian sites of Hoboken, Brussels and Bruges will switch to the SAP Business Network as from June 2023}

Please download this manual to change your preferred language in the SAP Ariba user interface and for your email notifications.

When you log in to the SAP Ariba Network, your account's ANID number appears under the account settings icon in the top right. It is also visible at the bottom of every page, to the right of your company's name.

A trading relationship invitation begins with an email sent by your customer and directed to either the ANID number of an existing account or a link to set up a new account. This email is an invitation to connect with your customer enabling you to start receiving orders and/or submitting invoices on the SAP Ariba Network. Only the account administrator can click to use an existing account when establishing a trading relationship.

To accept the trading relationship request:

1. Click the link in the email that says click here to proceed.
   The invitation link then asks you to create new account or use existing account. Select the option which best reflects your situation.
   
   
2. Once logged in, click account settings icon > settings > customer relationships > see your customer under your current relationship
   
   
3. If necessary, select any pending trading relationships and click approve.

To view your trading relationships, follow these instructions:

• Click account settings icon > settings > customer relationships
• View your pending, current, and rejected relationships under each corresponding heading.

Via the below links you can register to re-watch the summits from earlier this week:

English Summit

Dutch Summit

French Summit

Login to your SAP Ariba account on supplier.ariba.com and go to Settings > Network Settings > Electronic Order Routing. Under New Orders make sure that the routing method is set to Email and you checked the box “Attach pdf version of the document”.

If you can’t locate the interactive email please search for the domain “@ansmtp.ariba.com” across your folders, including spam & junk folders.

Ask your IT department to whitelist the domain “@ansmtp.ariba.com” to ensure that you receive all SAP Ariba system generated messages and future notification.

Check your mailbox for messages from your IT (Information Technology) department highlighting ‘on hold’ messages from the SAP Ariba domain name.

For incorrect quantity: On the SAP Business Network, go to “Create Order Confirmation”, select “Update Line Items”, enter Quantity and click on “Details” to change the pricing if necessary.

For incorrect pricing: please reject your purchase order on the SAP Business Network and provide your updated pricing in the comment section or contact the purchasing agent on the Purchase Order.

On the Umicore Supplier Zone, detailed instructions on how to create an invoice on the SAP Business Network are available. If these instructions does not suffice, please consult the supplier information portal from SAP Ariba.

Invoices are rejected either:

• Automatically by your customer's invoicing rules
• Manually by your customer

The rejection happens when the invoice violates invoicing requirements established by your customer.
To review the reason for invoice rejection:

1. Click Outbox > Invoices in the upper-left of your home page.
2. Click the invoice number hyperlink.
3. The invoice rejection notes appear across the top of the Detail and History tabs of the invoice.

If you understand the invoice rejection reason, you can edit and resubmit the invoice to your customer for payment. If you need more clarification, contact your customer. Your customer has the most accurate information on how to correct your invoice.

The cXML document generated on Business Network becomes the only official and legal document. A readable copy of this document is also available in PDF format. This PDF will have nevertheless the indication 'copy'. For each electronic order sent via Business Network, the only valid document from a legal point of view is the electronic invoice via Business Network in cXML format. A PDF is always available as a readable copy. Besides, the invoices received from other ways will be rejected (except during the transitional period).

Umicore allows invoices to be back-dated up to 7 days in the exceptional cases. Invoice back-dated more than 7 days will be rejected. Keep this in mind at the turn of the year to avoid invoicing in January for the Order submitted in December.

If your invoice line items follow the “verleggingsregeling”, please select 0% VAT and include “Verlegging van heffing” in the description field on why you are using 0% VAT.

There are no initial costs when enrolling to the SAP Ariba Network. When creating a new SAP Ariba account, you will automatically create a free Standard account. However, you do have the possibility to upgrade your account to an Enterprise account if preferred.

^{More information about the difference between a standard and enterprise account (+ potential fees) can be found on the supplier support "Account creation and configuration" on our supplier zone}

In this phase of the Umicore SAP Ariba program, it is sufficient for all suppliers to create a free Standard account, where no charges will be applied.

• The SAP Ariba Help Center can support suppliers with account-related questions or technical issues. The Help Center is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.​
• Content related questions can be tackled by the Umicore contact person.​
• All other questions should be directed to ariba.supplier.support@umicore.com.​

Yes. SAP Ariba created a playlist of How-to videos for suppliers.

You can consult them via this link: How-to for SAP Ariba Network Suppliers

Umicore-specific information on the SAP Ariba Network can be found on our supplier zone. For additional information provided by SAP Ariba, please use the links below:

• Set up your SAP Ariba Network account
• Respond to an RFP/RFI
• Find New Customers
• Learn more about Selling
• Learn more about Fulfillment
• Learn about accounts and pricing

Instructions on how to navigate to the SAP Ariba Help Center and how you can use the knowledge database to resolve issues can be found in the Supplier guideline "How to navigate in the SAP Ariba Help Center" on our Supplier Zone.

Yes. For more details on how to contact the SAP Ariba Network support team, please consult the Supplier guideline “Call the SAP Ariba Help Center” on our Supplier Zone.

This problem can have a couple root causes:

• You are already logged into your existing account and clicked on the link in the email.
  IMPORTANT: the system considers this as a second login attempt. You must either click on the link and log in from there or log in to your account and then navigate to the SAP Ariba Network dashboard.
• You already have an SAP Ariba site open in another window or tab. Close that other session and try logging in again.
• You received a certificate error in your browser during a previous attempt to connect to the SAP Ariba Network via https://supplier.ariba.com. Clear your browser's cookie history. Close your browser and try logging in again.
• In case the above mentioned didn’t work, you can reach out to the SAP Ariba Help Center.

In case you have multiple ANIDs (Ariba Network IDs) and you need a way to manage them, please watch this Quick guide on what an ANID is and how to maintain multiple accounts.

To update your account, you will first need to log-in via https://supplier.ariba.com. By clicking on the icon on the top right corner displaying your initials, you can update the account information, company profile and account settings. More detailed information on how to configure your account according to your needs, can be found on the Account Administration webpage of SAP Ariba.