SAP Ariba Integration with FNMS

[AlanBenger]

Has anyone interfaced Flexera to SAP Ariba for purposes of capturing software purchases for FNMS? I'd be interested if any one has investigated either: 1) Logical capture points of when the SAM team should be notified and involved in the process 2) Any work done on catagorisation and catagories that SAM should be notifed or involved 3) Expereince with integration between the 2 systems and any success in moving the data capture for things such as entitlements and or coverage periodis up the chain in the process.

[BradAkers]

@AlanBenger , 

I have many customers that use Ariba for obtaining purchase order information. It is important to note this depends on the quality of data inside Ariba. For example, we need fields such as Description, PO Number, Line Number, Quantity, SKU, and Unit Price. Normally instead of relying on a notification model of purchases, a business adapter would be scheduled to run against the Ariba data set and collect new POs ever week or so. I hope this helps. 

[AlanBenger]

Thanks @BradAkers . We will definately look at a business adapter direct connect, good input on the fields and completely agree with Data quality poiunt - Data Quality and coverage is the foundation of any good SAM function. My question is then more an operating model question on experience with integrationg the SAM function ealier in the sourcing life cycle so we can have input on terms and conditons etc. Thoughts?

[ChrisG]

These are good questions touching on the flow of procurement data through an organisation. Here are a few thoughts:

• Often entry of procurement data about software into Ariba (or whatever procurement system is in place) is done by many people who are widely spread throughout a large organisation. People entering PO information will often fail to appreciate many of the complexities that SAM practitioners have to deal with, or what sort of data they need. As such, having clear policies, practices, education and governance processes in place can help control the quality of data that is entered on POs.
• As @BradAkers has commented, fundamental properties that a software asset manager will be looking for to understand what has been purchased include:
  • A clear and precise description identify exactly what has been purchased
  • A SKU (if the software publisher uses SKUs)
  • Accurate quantity information
  • Accurate start and end date information for subscriptions, maintenance and the like
  • Information about who the purchaser is so that they can be contacted for further information
  • Information identifying the type of purchase (software license, maintenance, subscription, etc)
• I suggest the best point in time to bring purchase information into FlexNet is generally when the PO has been approved. This is the point when a software asset manager can reasonably go ahead and start to model an entitlement or whatever else is appropriate for the purchase. If the procurement system reliably tracks receipt of software (rather than just approval of the PO) then that may be a slightly better time to get the data since there is no guarantee that an approved PO will actually be placed on the vendor, but it is likely hard to get reliable and timely receipt information out of the procurement process for software.
• For categorisation of purchases, if you can get an indication out of the procurement system that a purchase is related to software then you are doing well. For extra points, having software purchases further categorised as "license", "subscription", "maintenance" or "upgrade" would be great - but the distinctions between these different concepts will often be too subtle and lost on people doing data entry into the procurement system, so it will often be up to the software asset manager to assess the type of purchase to this level.
• In terms of the implementation of integrations with Ariba that I have seen, these are often done via some sort of intermediate data store: a process would be put in place to regularly export relevant data from Ariba into a file format or database, and then a FlexNet business adapter configured to import the data from that location.

Hope that helps!

[mfranz]

Also catalogues may be used to support the software procurement process and improve its related data. Especially in larger companies with a high standardization rate, this would help to buy only SKU's which have been approved beforehand. This would also fall in line with the software lifecylyce where software can only be bought after being checked and approved by SAM/license management (which would include all the properties menetioned by @ChrisG  and more).

[Lucmuel]

Hi Alan,

have you gotten any further on this subject? I am facing a similar problem. Do you have an update for me?

Kind regards

Lucas