Choosing and Using Your Account Administrator

The account administrator plays a crucial role in helping suppliers effectively use Ariba Supplier Network (Ariba SN). Understanding the account administrator's responsibilities and privileges-and selecting the right person for the job-can help maximize the value of your Ariba SN account. The following answers to frequently asked questions should help make this process easy and straightforward.

Q: What does the account administrator do?
A: The account administrator is the organization's Ariba "power user," controlling not only who can log in to the Ariba SN account but also which areas of service users can access. The administrator does this by creating user roles, which can be fine-tuned with a high degree of granularity to align with individual job responsibilities. A wide range of permissions enables specific users to perform activities such as catalog management, customer administration, contract review, order processing, invoice creation, and more.

The administrator manages customer relationships in various ways, including setting advanced configuration options that specify policies to inform clients about the way your company conducts business, designating technical options for routing methods, and determining the users responsible for responding to particular types of customer inquiries.

As the individual responsible for overall user maintenance, the account administrator can add or remove users, delete or create user logins when someone leaves or is hired, redefine user roles, and reset passwords at any time. The administrator is the primary resource for resolving any problems users may have and also serves as the main point of contact between Ariba and the rest of your organization.

Q: How can I find out who my account administrator is?
A: To identify your account administrator, contact Ariba support as described at https://connect.ariba.com/asnsupport/.

Q: How is the account administrator assigned?
A: By default, your account administrator is always the first person who registers on Ariba SN using the Data Universal Numbering System (D-U-N-S®) number for your company. This may occur in response to a buyer's invitation-which means the account administrator is inadvertently "chosen" by the buyer—or through walk-up Ariba SN registration by an individual employee. As a result, the person initially designated as the account administrator is not always the best or most appropriate choice.

Q: What steps are required to select a new account administrator?
A: Changing the person serving as account administrator is quite simple. First, the current administrator must give the new administrator the username and password to access the administrator account. The new administrator should then log in, select "Configuration" at the left side of the page, and update all personal information associated with the account (changing the username and password to ensure account security). Finally, the new administrator will want to assure that the account is set up properly, adjusting the company profile and any technical settings or account preferences as needed.

If the original account administrator's username and password are unavailable for any reason, the new administrator may contact customer support at supplier.ariba.com for assistance. Help with updating and managing your Ariba SN account is available from customer support as well.

To learn more about the Ariba SN account administrator function, log in at supplier.ariba.com, select either "Documentation" or "Help", and review chapter two of the Ariba SN Account Management Guide.