Ariba Network Integration for SAP Business Suite

The Ariba Network Integration for SAP Business Suite is a non-modifying add-on for SAP ERP systems, which is required to connect SAP ERP systems to Ariba Network. The add-on enables your SAP ERP system to send and receive messages in Ariba-supported format, that is, cXML.

An additional middleware between SAP ERP and Ariba Network is supported, but it is not necessarily required.

The following figure shows the system landscape for connecting SAP ERP to Ariba Network:

                                  Fig 1:System Landscape for the Add-On

The add-on supports the following message types:

• OrderRequest
• ConfirmationRequest
• ShipNoticeRequest
• InvoiceDetailRequest

The following figure shows the message flow between SAP ERP and Ariba Network:

                                  Fig 2: Message Flow Between SAP ERP and Ariba Network

Order Request:

Purchase Orders (PO), PO changes and PO cancellation can be submitted to Ariba Network. There are 
no limitations regarding purchase order types. However, only the following purchase order item types are supported:

• Standard items
• Third-party items
• Limit items

The cXML order types (regular and blanket) are derived from the purchase order item types. The standard items and third-party items of a purchase order should not be created with limit items of a purchase order. We need to configure a purchase order type which allows standard items and third-party items and a purchase order type which allows only limit items.

Order Confirmation:

The following table shows the combinations of Ariba Network confirmation statuses that are supported:

                                     Fig 3: Combinations of AN-Supported Confirmation Statuses

Ship Notice Request :

Only new ShipNoticeRequest messages are processed, and updates are currently not supported.

Invoice:

The following are the types of Invoices:

• Standard Invoice 
• Invoice cancellation 
• Line-level credit memo