Get ahead and transition to the new Guided Sourcing UX for your SAP Ariba Sourcing solution today!
As technology advances and customer needs evolve, SAP continues to innovate to improve its products. This year, customers using the classic sourcing UX in SAP Ariba Sourcing need to transition to the newer Guided Sourcing capability, their latest and most advanced UX.
Support for the classic UX in SAP Ariba Sourcing will no longer be available by the end of Q1 2025.
Guided Sourcing offers enhanced functionality and an impressive future development roadmap
Guided Sourcing not only delivers a next generation user interface that provides a streamlined and intuitive user experience for managing strategic sourcing processes and RFx events, but also brings innovative new capabilities that deliver even greater value for users.
Due to the removal of support for the Classic UX version, any future developments will also only be made available to Guided Sourcing users.
New functionality highlights:
Essential things to consider in your migration plan
With any system or solution migration, it’s always recommended to look at it from a broader perspective than simply a technical upgrade. Ignoring the People and Process elements will potentially limit the enhanced capability on offer, as well as undoubtedly leading to issues post go-live.
1. Improve Adoption
Take this opportunity to drive increased adoption of your SAP Ariba Sourcing solution across your users. Rolling out a new version is an ideal time to refresh your processes and to re-engage with your user groups to address any issues they have been experiencing in order to drive increased and more effective usage.
2. System & Process Changes
The new Guided Sourcing solution introduces new ways of working, and so consideration needs to be made as to who is best placed to implement these changes, as well as who needs to be involved in the process. For example, RFP templates require updating, new Category Buyer permission added, and Custom Field Layouts reviewed.
3. Increasing User Groups
The new improved UX and enhanced intuitive usability of the solution opens the opportunity to extend the user groups to other individuals in your organization. Whilst traditionally usage has been limited to internal sourcing desks or a small number of key people, you now have the option to roll this out to a broader set of individuals, increasing the number of sourcing events that can be run.
4. Training & Learning Content
When rolling out a new software solution or simply introducing new functionality and ways of working, it is important to involve end users in the process to ensure their training needs are met. Any existing learning content will also need to be reviewed and updated, including an in-application support tools you may have introduced, such as SAP Enable Now.
Our Rapid Deployment Model with an Emphasis on Delivering Speed to Value
Fast track immediate value and results through our rapid deployment model. Our comprehensive implementation approach ensures that your organizational requirements are effectively translated to a rapid, predictable, cost-effective solution, delivering value in weeks, not months.
Depending upon the complexity of your existing solution and the additional support you require, we have developed two implementation models, however these can be flexed according to your individual needs.
Package 1 – Standard Implementation (8-Weeks)
Package 2 – Complex Implementation (10-Weeks)
Enhance Your In-Application Support With SAP Enable Now
As part of their drive to improve user adoption across the solution, the new Guided Sourcing capability is natively integrated with SAP Companion – the digital adoption layer of SAP’s browser-based applications.
As a concept, Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) such as SAP Companion are an invaluable tool to support post go-live adoption goals. Through a combination of proactively pushing communications such as Help Topics, Guided Tours, What’s New and Learning, they provide a combination of valuable on-the-job learning, and ensuring system users are aware of changes to their systems and ways of operating.
However, the current ‘out of the box’ SAP Companion solution presents some challenges:
SAP Companion Content is Generic
SAP Companion only provides generic in-application support content. Many organizations often customize their solution design to match their in-house processes, and so the generic support content could easily confuse users, or worse still, provide them with incorrect instructions.
SAP Companion is Either On or Off
SAP Companion is either fully activated or switched off for each specific application. There is no in-between option where you can specify which elements you would like to be enabled and which parts you don’t; so you may be in a position to where you are forced to disable it as some content is not relevant, even though some elements would be useful.
How we can help…
The good news is that the standard content is built into a tool called SAP Enable Now (SEN), and this content can be amended or added to, so your users get tailored in-application help and guidance when they need it. To do this, your organisation will need to purchase SEN licences for the relevant user population.
As an SAP SEN Partner, excelerateds2p can provide you with comprehensive and tailored in-application support in three simple steps:
Provide you with the SEN licences to enable content to be updated/added
Set up your SEN environment across SAP Ariba Sourcing
Build your tailored learning content to replace and/or complement the generic content
Got any questions? Contact Us
To find out more about how we can help support your migration to SAP Ariba Guided Sourcing, please complete the form opposite and one of our consultants will get in touch with you by return.