Sourcing of Requirements 

Use
The Sourcing application provides you as the purchaser with all sourcing-relevant information. As the
purchaser or the person responsible for the relevant role, you have a comprehensive range of options
in the Sourcing application to enable you to determine the most suitable source for a requirement. The
Sourcing functions serve the following purposes:
Process requirements (for example, create local purchase orders, bid invitations or contracts)
Provide information to support your decision-making when determining sources of supply

Integration
Sourcing integrates the following applications among others:
SAP Bidding Engine
For more information, see SAP Bidding Engine
SAP Business Information Warehouse(SAP BW)
Sourcing supports the following Enterprise Buyer scenarios:
Local procurement
Classic scenario
Extended classic scenario
Sourcing also handles external requirements (not SAP APO requirements) that come from
processes outside Enterprise Buyer.
For more information, see Procurement of External Requirements.
You can link vendor directories from commercial providers with SAP Enterprise Buyer via the Open
Partner Interface (OPI) and transfer partner data as sources of supply.
For more information, see:
The SAP Service Marketplace under <http://help.sap.com/instguides>  mySAP
SRM
The path in the Supplier Relationship Management Implementation Guide (IMG): SRM
Server  Master Data  Define External Web Services (Catalogs, Vendor Lists etc.).

Prerequisites
The requirements processed in Sourcing have already been approved.
You have determined if and under what conditions the system accepts requirements into Sourcing
(for example, only for items without a source of supply).
See the path in the IMG: SRM Server ® Sourcing ® Define Interactive Sourcing for Product
Categories

If Sourcing is switched off, which is the default setting in the standard, the system
creates purchase orders in the local scenario for all requirements; these are incomplete
if the source of supply is missing.
For the requirement history, you have set up the logical system of your SAP Business Information
Warehouse (as of BI Content 3.3 Add-On).
In order to incorporate certain evaluations, you have set these up in Customizing.
See the path in the IMG: SRM Server ® Cross-Application Basic Settings ® Define Logical
Systems and Template Names for BW Reports

Features
Functions for Processing Requirements
Worklist and Search
 On the initial screen, you can find an overview of all approved requirements for which the
purchasing group of the logged on user is responsible, and for which there is usually not yet a
source of supply.
Filter the requirements display
You can control whether only a specific product category that appears in the worklist is
to be displayed or if all product categories are to be displayed.
Remove requirements from the worklist using (Complete Item)
If the requirement originates in Enterprise Buyer, the requestor receives an e-mail with
possible reasons for the removal, for example, because a product cannot be obtained in
sufficient quantity.
If the requirement is a planned external requirement, the planning system receives a
notification that the requirement has been dealt with and will not be processed further in
Enterprise Buyer.
Find requirements by criteria

Depending on the entries made, the search also finds requirements from other
purchasing groups in your purchasing organization. You can assign such a requirement
to your purchasing group.
Using the flag Intended for Grouping, you can search for requirements that the system
has grouped automatically to create a purchase order.
Work Area
You can select relevant requirements from the overview (individually or all at once), you can
add these to the work area, and remove them. Requirements that you return to the worklist are
available to other purchasers immediately. You can use other functions to process the
requirements that you have selected in your work area, for example, to create follow-on
documents:
Hold
You can save requirements in the work area in order to process them later.
Requirements that you have held also appear in the worklist of the other members of
your purchasing group. When you leave the application, other purchasers can then
process these requirements.
Propose Sources of Supply
You can have the system propose any existing sources of supply. Enterprise Buyer
determines the source of supply with the lowest price. See Assigning Existing Sources
of Supply.
Change Requirements
From the columns of the work area, you can use hyperlinks to access areas where you
can change the relevant data, as long as you have the necessary authorizations. For
requirements that have been created locally, you can use the change options that are
available for shopping carts, however, you cannot add any new items. For example, you
can change product, quantity, desired delivery date, goods recipient, or account
assignment. The system notes changes in the Change History.

The system does not start new approval workflows for requirements that have been
changed.
You can only display external requirements and assign a source of supply to them.
Document Preview
You go to the document preview before the document is actually created. It contains, for
example, all purchase orders that Enterprise Buyer is to create for the selected
requirements. In the preview you can enter a short text that identifies the document.
Use Vendor from External Directory
You can have the system propose a vendor from an external system.
 Group Requirements
You can have the system automatically group requirements and create a purchase order
for the grouping. In the Sourcing application you can manually submit requirements for
grouping.
For more information on automatic grouping of requirements, see Assigning Existing
Sources of Supply.
Create Purchase Order
You can create local purchase orders for the requirements in the work area.

The system creates separate purchase orders for requirements with different goods
recipients, even if the items contain the same vendor.
If you order a requirement (for example, with a quantity of 10) and then reduce the
ordered quantity in the purchase order (for example, to 4), the system creates a
requirement in the Sourcing worklist with a quantity still to be procured, the
difference between the original and the new quantity (6 in this case).
Create Purchase Contract
You can create a purchase contract for selected requirements. You go first to the
document preview.

The system creates a purchase contract for each vendor and ordering organization. With
the appropriate configuration, you can also create backend contracts from the Sourcing
application. For more information, see the Configuration Guide for the Business
Scenario Strategic Sourcing.
You can complete and release the contract using the application Process Contracts. In
SAP Bidding Engine you can negotiate the details of a purchasing contract as part of a
bid invitation. For more information, see Processing Contracts
Create Bid Invitations
You can create a bid invitation for the selected requirements. You go first to the
document preview.
The bid invitation that you create in Sourcing can only be processed in the SAP Bidding
Engine.
As a result of the bid invitation, you can create a purchase order (or a contract) in
Enterprise Buyer and then you use this to procure the requirement.
Create an Auction
You can create an auction for the selected requirements.

Once you create a purchase order or a contract for a requirement, the requirement no
longer appears in Sourcing. If you create a bid invitation or an auction via SAP Bidding
Engine, the requirement remains in Sourcing.
Decision-Supporting Functions
Supplier Data
You can branch to vendor master data and see in the list of sources if the vendor is included in
the vendor list.
Contract Data
You can branch to the contract details from all Sourcing areas (worklist, search, work area,
sourcing proposal).
Catalog Integration
You can branch to the catalog for requirement items that originate from a catalog.
Requirement History and Vendor Evaluation
Enterprise Buyercontains the following Sourcing-specific evaluations from SAP Business
Information Warehouse (as long as you have SAP BW connected):
 A requirement history that displays summed data on purchase order, confirmation and
invoice items for all vendors that cover the product category of the selected
requirements
An evaluation for vendor assessment that contains key figures on the reliability of vendors
as far as quantity, dates and prices are concerned. You can find further evaluations that
are modified for your role via the Enterprise Buyer side menu under Evaluations.

Activities
Start Sourcing Application
...

In the side menu, choose Sourcing ® Sourcing.

Remove Completed Requirements from Worklist
...

In the requirements overview, find the completed item and under Actions, choose (Complete Item).
The system removes the selected line from the overview.
Copy Requirements to Work Area
...

Choose requirements from the worklist or use the search and then select items to be transferred.
Choose Add to Work Area.
Return Requirements to Worklist
...

Select the items in the work area.

Choose Remove from Work Area.
Assign Requirements to a Purchasing Group
...

Select items from other purchasing groups in the search results.

Choose Assign to me.
As long as an item remains unprocessed, it appears in the worklist of your purchasing group.
Process Requirements
...

Process requirements that are in the work area (remove entries that you wish to exclude). You
have the following options:
1. Create Purchase Order
2. Create Bid Invitations
3. Creating Contracts
4. Propose Sources of Supply
Enterprise Buyer determines sources of supply and assigns these. See also Assigning
Existing Sources of Supply.
The system opens the document preview in which you can use checkboxes to check the
selection of documents to be processed. (There is no preview with the sourcing proposal.)
Make the actual posting (for example, with Create Purchase Order).
Once you have created a purchase order or a contract, all related requirements disappear from
the work area.
Call Up Decision-Supporting Information

The following activities are some examples:

...

Carry out one or more of the following activities for selected requirements:
Display Contract Details
Click on the hyperlink in the Contract column in the requirements overview in the worklist or
search results.
Display Detail Data from the Vendor Master
Click on the hyperlink in the Vendor Name column in the worklist or search results.
 Display Requirement History
In the work area under Actions choose (Requirement History).
Evaluate Key Figures for Vendor Evaluation
Choose Propose Sources of Supply and on the subsequent screen, choose the function
Display Vendor Evaluation.
See also:
Processing Purchase Orders
Strategic Reports
Extended Classic Scenario
 

SAP Bidding Engine 

Use
SAP Bidding Engine is part of the solution mySAP Supplier Relationship Management.
Purchasers can use SAP Bidding Engine to create and process bid invitations and live auctions for
products and services. Bidders can use SAP Bidding Engine to submit bids in response to these bid
invitations and auctions.
You can make SAP Bidding Engine available for the following composite roles:
        Purchaser
        Operational purchaser
        Strategic purchaser
        Purchasing assistant
        Bidder
 
Role assignment is not delivered. To incorporate SAP Bidding Engine into the side menu, you need to
adjust the roles. See Adjusting Roles in the Business Configuration Guide: Strategic Sourcing. For
more information on the individual business scenarios, see SAP Service Marketplace at
service.sap.com/instguides ® mySAP SRM).
 

Integration
SAP Bidding Engine is integrated with the Sourcing application of the purchaser and the contract
processing function in SAP Enterprise Buyer. It can also be integrated with SAP Enterprise Portal,
SAP Supplier Self-Services, SAP Business Information Warehouse, mySAP Product Lifecycle
Management, product catalogs, contracts, and external requirements.
 

Features
The documentation for SAP Bidding Engine is organized according to information that is important for
purchasing activities and information that is important for bidding activities.
See also:
        Sourcing of Requirements
        Processing Contracts
 Assignment of Existing Sources of Supply 
Use
SAP Enterprise Buyer automatically determines existing sources of supply for requirements. As the
strategic purchaser or employee responsible for sourcing, you can have the system propose sources
of supply and assign them to an item.
You can use a report that enhances automatic sourcing with the grouping of requirements. We
recommend using this report and, only in exceptional cases, the manual assignment of a source of
supply.
The system provides the following starting points for the sourcing proposal:
The item overview of the purchase order (only in change mode)
For more information, see Purchase Order Processing.
The purchaser’s Sourcing application
For more information, see Sourcing of Requirements.
The vendor list
This shows the source of supply only for informational purposes; no transfer occurs here.
For more information, see Vendor List.

Prerequisites
You have created sources of supply. These could be:
Contract items in Enterprise Buyer
Vendor-specific prices
For this, you have created Product Linkages in the SRM System with vendor-specific prices via
the SAP Menu Master Data ® Products ® Process Products.
Entries in the vendor list of Enterprise Buyer
In Customizing you have assigned product categories to which the system is to automatically group
requirements and you have scheduled report BP_SC_TRANSFER_GROUPED to run periodically.
For more information, see the Supplier Relationship Management Implementation Guide (IMG):
SRM Server ® Sourcing ® Define Interactive Sourcing for Product Categories.

Features
Sourcing Criteria
During the Sourcing operation, the system checks the requirement for the validity of specific sourcing
criteria.
Primary criteria
The system checks automatically whether the criteria in the contract match those in the
requirement. Sources of supply without matching primary criteria are not proposed for
assignment. In the standard the following criteria are relevant.
The product must be identical in the requirement and the contract.
The product category must be identical in the requirement and the contract.
The vendor must be identical in the requirement and the contract.
Procurement takes place for the same company with which the contract exists.
The purchasing organization responsible for the requirement is authorized to use the
contract.
The location specified in the requirement is release-authorized for the contract.
The goods recipient has not been deleted and has not been excluded from a goods delivery
for this contract.
For more information on excluding goods recipients in contracts, see Processing
Contracts.
Secondary sourcing criteria
 These are additional customer-specific criteria that you can define for your company. You can
only apply secondary criteria to contracts that fulfill the primary criteria. However, you can
manually select sources of supply that do not fulfill all the secondary criteria. You can display to
what extent the source of supply does not match the criteria.
Display Sources of Supply
For the selected items, the overview of the sources of supply found displays general data and key
figures on the vendors, such as
Current purchase order value
The total value of all selected contract items for this vendor (or vendor-dependent prices).
Best purchase order value
At a glance, you can identify the total of the cheapest items for suggested vendors. This is
particularly helpful if several vendors have the same coverage (for example, 100 %). It helps
you see immediately which vendor offers the best price.
The percentage share of the sourcing items that the vendor can supply.
Detail Display in Multiple Views
Enterprise Buyer displays details on possible vendors in an overview tree that the purchaser can sort
in the following ways using tabs:
By requirement item for each of the vendors found
According to contract items for each of the vendors found
According to requirement items
If you call up the source of supply proposal from the purchase order, this view is not available.
Assigning Sources of Supply
In the overview tree, you can transfer sources of supply using checkboxes. You have the following
options:
You can select one source of supply for each requirement.
This also applies to items whose price equals 0.
Have the system automatically determine and select for each vendor the cheapest contract item or
product linkage for an item (see Comparing Prices below)
Displaying Vendor Evaluation
The purchaser/person responsible for sourcing can run a SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP
BW) evaluation for the selected vendor. This displays key figures on reliability regarding quantities,
delivery performance and price. Using average values concerning purchase order value and the
number of purchase order items, you can better assess the quality of the vendor. For more
information on vendor assessment, see the documentation on SAP BW.

Depending on the application that sourcing calls up, you can use your own BW
evaluations with other key figures in addition to the standard evaluations.
See the path in the IMG: SRM Server ® Cross-Application Basic Settings ® Define
Logical Systems and Template Names for BW Reports
Comparing Prices
Enterprise Buyer automatically determines for a vendor and required item, the cheapest contract item
or product linkage and highlights it in color. The purchaser can thus easily identify and select the best
conditions.
Updating the Purchase Order Value
After selecting suggested sources of supply, you can have the system recalculate the total of all
currently assigned items at the touch of a button.
Automatic Grouping of Requirements
Report BP_SC_TRANSFER_GROUPED groups requirements with status Held and assigned
(automatically or manually) source of supply and attempts to combine the requirements in large
purchase orders for each vendor. The requirements must belong to product categories that you have
assigned using the appropriate Sourcing option in Customizing.

If requirements have the same vendor but different purchasing organizations, then you
cannot combine them in a single purchase order.

Activities
...

Choose Propose Sources of Supply. Choose the option to display sources of supply, for example,
those that fulfill primary and secondary sourcing criteria.
On the upper part of the screen, the system displays an overview of vendors that have been
used as sources of supply.
Use to flag one or more lines in the overview of sources of supply found (vendors).
To display the corresponding prices, choose Compare prices.
On the lower part of the screen, the system displays an overview tree of the requirement items
found.
To change the sorting of the display, for example, to display all contract items for the found
vendors, choose the tab Contract Items per Vendor.
In order to display a list of the unfulfilled secondary criteria for a source of supply, choose
(Detail). The list of variances appears above the overview tree.
To also display those sources of supply that fulfill the primary criteria but not the secondary
criteria, choose the option Fulfill at least primary Sourcing criteria.
In order to have the system automatically determine and select the best source of supply in each
case, use to manually select single relevant entries or check (Flags best source of supply
<vendor or contract>) for one or more vendors in the vendor tree.
To display the value of all currently selected items, select Update purchase order value.
If necessary, deselect items that you do not want to include in the list.
To deselect all, choose (Deselect all).
To check if a vendor has a good record on quantity, delivery date, and price reliability, choose
Display Vendor Evaluation.
Choose Copy Changes and Back.
The system transfers the selected source of supply into the calling application:
1. If the sourcing proposal is called from the purchase order, the system takes the selected
item with the assigned source of supply into the purchase order.
2. If the sourcing proposal is called from Sourcing, the system takes the items into the
Sourcing work area so that you can carry out further sourcing activities (for example,
Create Bid Invitation).
3. If the sourcing proposal is called from the vendor list, then there is no data transfer. The
source of supply proposal simply provides information and there is no obligation to use
the sources proposed.
See also:
Processing Contracts
 

Vendor List 
Use
Users can use a vendor list when they search for sources of supply for their purchases. This vendor
list is compiled by the purchaser for certain products or product categories and contains vendors and
backend contracts. When the Open Partner Interface is connected, sourcing can be extended to cover
external vendor lists too.

Integration
The vendor list is integrated into all SAP Enterprise Buyer applications that contain a vendor search
help and in which you can display sources of supply, such as:
        Shop
        Shop with Value Limit
        Sourcing

Prerequisites
The number range for the vendor list has been defined in Customizing. For more information, see the
Implementation Guide (IMG) for Supplier Relationship Management under SRM Server ®Cross-
Application Basic Settings ® Number Ranges ® Define Number Ranges for Vendor List.
 
Carry out the following settings in Customizing:
        For the Shop and Shop with Limit applications, you can specify that only the vendor list is to
be used or that the entries from the vendor list are displayed in an extra column in the original
source of supply list. In Enterprise Buyer on an Exchange, this setting is company-specific.
See the path in the IMG: SRM Server ® Sourcing®Define Sourcing via Vendor List Only.
        You can use a Business Add-In to define detailed criteria for display of the vendor list.
See the path in the IMG: SRM Server ® Business Add-Ins ® Sourcing® Define Sourcing via
Vendor List.
 

Features
Purchasers compile vendor lists for their purchasing organization (or a different one) on the basis of
vendor evaluations, vendor master data, and contracts.
Vendor lists can be created for products or for product categories. Product vendor lists take
precedence over product category vendor lists. Using hierarchically assigned product categories (for
example eCl@ss or UNSPSC) you can create a vendor list for a subtree of a product category
hierarchy. This vendor list is valid for several product categories.
The following functions are available:
        Release
Enterprise Buyer only displays released vendor lists in the applications.
        Hold
        Check
        Refresh
        Display sources of supply
Possible sources of supply in the vendor list are:
        Vendors
        Backend contracts
You have the following options:
         Assign vendors that belong to the purchasing organization selected on header level.
         Deactivate individual vendors or backend contracts within a vendor list. These are then no
longer shown in the applications.
         Search for contracts directly in the backend system using the input help, and transfer these
from there.
        Edit documents
In change mode, you can append internal notes, vendor texts, or other attachments to the
vendor list on header and item level.
Activities
As purchaser, you compile vendor lists for your purchasing organization. You can use vendor
evaluation reports, vendor master data, and contracts as the basis for these.
Creating vendor lists for products or product categories
...

       1.      Under Business Partner, start the application Process Vendor List.
       2.      Enter the following data:
Vendor list type
Purchasing organization
Product category and/or product
       3.      Choose Create.

       4.      Enter the vendors that you want to include in the vendor list.

You can use the search help. You can also search for vendors in external lists and transfer
these to Enterprise Buyer. If necessary, enter existing contracts, items, and backend systems.
If you set a vendor to Inactive, it is not displayed when you use the vendor list.
       5.      Hold the vendor list or release it.
You can only release it if at least one active item exists.
Searching for and processing of vendor lists
...

       1.      Under Business Partner, start the application Process Vendor List.
       2.      During processing, the following search criteria are available to you:

        Purchasing organization

        Product category

You can use the wildcard character * when searching for product categories in order to
search product category hierarchies too.
        Product

The following additional criteria are available to you in the advanced search:
        Description

        Time frame

        Vendor

        Status

        Created by me

If you work in Enterprise Buyer on an Exchange, the search automatically contains the
criterion Company. In this way, only those sources of supply are displayed that were
evaluated by the purchaser of the respective company.
       3.      Select the number of the vendor list that you want to process. You can display the vendors
in the list by selecting .
       4.      Process the vendor list and save your changes.

       5.       

Evaluating vendors
You can evaluate the vendor in the detail view via the symbol. The system then displays a
questionnaire that you can complete and then send. The data can then be evaluated using the SAP
Business Information Warehouse. For more information, see Vendor Evaluation.
       6.       

 
See also:
        Assigning Existing Sources of Supply.
        Sourcing via the Vendor List.