The Future of Buying: SAP Ariba Buying (Buying 360)

These days, business buyers need to think very differently about how they buy, who they buy from, and the impact of their buying decisions. But there are other factors at work, requiring a more elevated buying experience.

Imagine a procurement tool, that understands your preferences and role within the company, offering a personalized, predictive, and sustainable buying experience. SAP Ariba Buying is such a procurement tool. Once you’re logged in, your purchases and orders are seamlessly arranged based on your previous transactions and tailored to your preferences. It’s not just about what you need; it’s about what you need before you even realize it.

Elevating the Guided Buying Experience for Today

The guided buying capability in SAP Ariba solutions remains the platinum standard for purchases of goods and services. The Buying 360 capability is the latest step in this evolution.

Built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), Buying 360 ensures seamless integration within the SAP solutions. This robust integration enhances the procurement process, making it more targeted, strategic, and efficient.

Buyers are directed to goods and services, based on their role and the organization’s procurement and sustainability policies. This helps to make procurement more targeted and strategic. Additionally, integration between further SAP Ariba solutions and SAP S/4HANA enables a seamless fulfilment experience by converting purchasing requests into purchase orders and then tracking the fulfilment process.

A More Flexible, Personalized Buying Experience

The buying 360 capability is built using SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) services, to make it highly flexible.

The new capabilities leverage artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent recommendations, and machine learning. This creates a holistic view of what the buyer is purchasing and how the purchase stacks up against their organization’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.

With the buying 360 capability, SAP Ariba Buying and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition can deliver a buying experience, that is personalized for individuals and their roles. As soon as the user logs on, they are greeted with a clean and friendly user interface. They are directed to goods and services, based on their role and their organization’s procurement and sustainability policies.

Predictive Recommendations

Leveraging AI and machine learning, the buying 360 capability offers intelligent recommendations, to help users make informed decisions for their role. The user interface is designed, that these recommendations are displayed, at the right time and the right place. For example in catalogs, in contracts, in the marketplace, or even as a spot quote, using automation to reduce the manual work required of buyers. We add more and more functionality, that will help buyers to make purchases, that comply with the procurement and sustainability policies of their business.

Here are some of the predictive capabilities:

• “Recommended for You”: Guided buying is extremely helpful for buyers, who know what they’re looking for. But sometimes they need more information. The buying 360 capability understands the user’s role and the roles of their peers, and it uses AI and algorithms, to determine what people in similar roles, have ordered to make recommendations.
• “Intelligent Search”: The buyer types a search term and our Intelligent Search 3.0 sorts, through connected marketplaces and supplier catalogs, the best options. This helps provide relevant entries, that have been sorted and personalized to their role.
• “Also Bought Together”: After the buyer selects the item they want, the system displays other items their colleagues purchased with that item. These are chosen based on previous shopping carts with the help of a powerful machine learning algorithm.

Environmentally Aware Buying Decisions

As the needs and priorities of business evolve, so will the guided buying capability. Today, organizations are being challenged to balance cost savings, against the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. To help them, we are designing enhancements for future releases to provide sustainability information, including carbon footprint, packaging footprint, and energy consumption.

The Future of Buying

While the buying of yesterday was just about price and policy, future purchasing also needs to be personalized to the user, predictive to reduce manual effort and done with an eye on sustainability.

The buying 360 capability represents the next wave in the evolution of guided buying services from SAP. As we roll out these new capabilities, we will continue to focus on the individual and their buying needs, the organization and its objectives, and the ESG aspirations of both with a holistic, 360-degree view of the purchasing process.