The SAP Ariba Guided Buying is a simple, easy-to-use user interface where users search for goods and services in a consumer-like way. Guided buying is for both casual users (who make infrequent purchases) and functional buyers (who purchase goods and services for their departments). Guided Buying configurations are only possible via the Admin section which is not accessible to all users. A user needs to belong to either the Customer Administrator or Customer Catalog Manager group to make the necessary configurations in Guided Buying.

Here below are the most common configurations possible in Guided Buying.

1. Logos, Pictures, and Search Banner Images

Logos, pictures, and search banner images allow organisations to customize and brand their Guided Buying site. Images for tiles on landing pages can be imported to guide users to the right categories.

❖ Recommended Logo Dimension: 125 pixels wide by 28 pixels high

❖ Recommended Search Banner Image Dimension: 1920 pixels wide by 200 pixels high

❖ Recommended Landing Page/Tile Image Dimension: 300 pixels wide by 225 pixels high

You can manage images via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Image.

2. Landing Pages and Tiles

A landing page is a customizable page that contains clickable tiles. Using customized tiles, along with category-specific images, users find the items or services they need faster. When users sign into Guided Buying, they're brought to the home landing page. For optimum usability, SAP suggests limiting the number of tiles displayed on each page to twelve (12). Landing pages and tiles can be managed directly via the UI in Guided Buying or using JSON or Excel files.

You can manage landing pages and tiles via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Landing pages.

3. Guided Buying Footers

The footer of the Guided Buying home page contains Policy, Guidance and Contacts. The texts in each section need to be configured while setting up Guided Buying. It is also possible to add website URLs in addition to the texts.

You can manage Guided Buying footers via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Landing pages → Manage using UI.

4. Guided Buying Parameters

Guided buying parameters can be set to determine how specific processes and functions work in Guided buying. For example, the Guided Buying parameter –REQUSITIONING_TITLE_FOR_LINE_ITEMS determines whether the short description for the first line item on a request automatically populates in the Title field of the request. As there are many Guided Buying parameters, organisations need to define which Guided Buying parameters will help optimize their procurement process.

You can manage parameters via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Parameters.

5. Guided Buying Announcements

In Guided Buying, organisations can create announcements for users to communicate any business or technical news, such as scheduled maintenance, new available suppliers, or changes to procurement policies. Announcements are displayed in a rotating carousel in a wide tile on the home page when users sign in, with each one presented for five seconds. When users click one, a modal window displays containing more information.

You can manage announcements via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Landing pages → Manage using UI → Manage announcements.

6. Designing and Managing Forms

The forms builder provides a fast and flexible way to extend procurement processes. It is possible to design a form using a drag-and-drop interface and configure the widgets' conditions without writing any code. After you design forms in your test site, you can migrate them to your production site, which saves you the time of having to create them again in production.

You can design and manage forms via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Forms.

7. Guided Buying Ad hoc Classifiers

You can configure a list of commodity codes that users can select when they create non-catalog requests. A filtered list makes it easier for users to know what to choose, while also allowing your organization to control the commodities available for these requests. You must enable the Guided Buying parameters – ENABLE_TREE_MENU_CHOOSER and ENABLE_ADHOC_CLASSIFICATION to use the Adhoc Classifiers. Also, the list of the allowed commodity codes needs to be defined and uploaded.

You can manage the ad hoc commodity file via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Adhoc classifiers for commodity codes.

8. Guided Buying Policies

Policies are set up to customize the behaviour of Guided Buying when users perform specific actions. Policies ensure consistent compliance for all purchases and help users understand the right process to follow. These built-in policies decrease the need for users to read procurement manuals. While setting up policies, you can configure information messages, warnings, and errors related to different scenarios that occur during the creation of a request.

Guided Buying Policies include Supplier and Touch Policy, Validation Policy, Supplier Selection Policy and Commodity Code Mapping Policy.

You can manage policies via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin →Policies.

9. Guided Buying Team Buying and Receiving

Guided Buying allows users to collaborate when purchasing and receiving. Users and administrators create teams of users who work together to create RFQs, requisitions, and receipts for a common organizational goal. Teams in Guided Buying are separate from teams in the SAP Ariba Procurement solution and vice versa. The following Guided Buying parameters must be set to use Team Buying and Receiving – PARAM_ENABLE_TEAM_BUYING, PARAM_ENABLE_TEAM_RFQ and PARAM_DISABLE_USER_TEAM_MANAGEMENT.

You can manage Team Buying and Receiving via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Manage teams.

10. Guided Buying Help Community

The Guided Buying help community provides the framework for your organization to publish help resources to your users within Guided Buying. Users can expand and collapse the help community panel on the right side of each page, meaning that they don't need to leave Guided Buying to get the information they need.

NB: SAP Ariba will deprecate the Guided Buying help community in a future release. At that time, SAP Companion/SAP Enable Now will be the only help system for Guided Buying.

11. Guided Buying Translations

It is possible to create translations for texts used in setting up Landing Pages and Tiles, Footers, Policies, Forms, Ad hoc Classifiers and Announcements. However, please note that only a limited number of languages are available for translations in Guided Buying.

You can manage translations Landing Pages, Tiles, Footers and Announcements via Guided Buying Home Page → Admin → Translation.

NB: Translations for Policies, Forms and Ad hoc Classifiers are managed in their respective Admin sections.

During the design phase of SAP Ariba Guided Buying implementation, requirements for the above configurations need to be defined and gathered in order to properly set up the Guided Buying.

Reference(s): Guided Buying Administration

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