There’s a better way to do what you’ve always done
Take procurement beyond the basic process and recreate the entire experience to guide users to the best choices in the least amount of time. Applying innovations within SAP Ariba procurement software and solutions, you can:
- Rethink the experience to get the process out of the way – Remove obstacles that can distract users, improving the buying experience while intelligent technologies do more of the work for your team.
- Link all spend categories together, all around the world – Tackle direct, indirect, and services spending in every market, managing it all in one place while automatically adapting to individual market requirements.
- Create deeper, dynamic collaboration, end to end – Remove barriers between your teams and trading partners to securely share data, get insights, and manage workflow over SAP Business Network for a more efficient procurement process and greater cost control.
Procurement Software and Solutions
When you use SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing for procure to pay, and SAP Ariba Catalog for procurement content, you can employ innovative capabilities and services for a seamless procurement process.

SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing is a best-in-class, easy-to-use procure-to-pay solution that helps companies effectively manage all spend-related processes and ensure negotiated savings reach the bottom line.
More about procure-to-pay
SAP Ariba Catalog
SAP Ariba Catalog defines, validates, and enriches catalog content with enterprise-grade content management tools and gives employees a simple way to get what they need.
More about procurement catalogs
SAP Ariba Buying
Choose this solution to automate your procure-to-order process and integrate with your back-end system to let your ERP handle invoice and payment processing.
SAP Ariba BuyingProcurement Resources






Frequently Asked Questions
-
What is e-procurement, and what are its benefits?
E-procurement is the process of requisitioning, ordering, and purchasing goods and services online. E-procurement is short for electronic procurement. Procurement solutions connect buyers and suppliers and open the lines of communication between the two, facilitating interactions such as bids, purchase orders, and e-mails.
The benefits of e-procurement deliver costs savings by enhancing your ability to:
- Acquire products or services at the best-possible price and at the best-possible time
- Exert greater flexibility and control over every aspect of the purchasing process
- Reduce maverick spend by keeping more spend under management
- Control inventory through greater visibility and tracking
- Accelerate processes to shorten purchasing cycles and reduce delivery times
- Automate procurement workflows to free procurement teams to focus on more-strategic activities
-
What are the four main processes of procurement project management?
The four main processes of procurement project management are:
-
Selecting goods and services
-
Enforcing compliance and order management
-
Receiving and reconciliation
-
Invoicing and payment
-
-
What is the difference between purchasing and procurement?
The difference between purchasing and procurement is that purchasing is the act of buying goods or services while procurement involves everything that happens before, during, and after receiving the goods and services. Purchasing is one of the many tasks managed by a procurement professional, often using procurement software. Procurement teams often use procurement solutions for identifying specific needs, vendor selection and management, strategic planning, and working with finance teams to fulfill payments and close contracts.
In procurement, the most important consideration is value whereas cost is key in purchasing. Furthermore, procurement focuses on building long-term relationships with vendors, with purchasing focusing more on transactions.
-
What is indirect procurement?
Indirect procurement is the sourcing of goods and services that are used by a business to operate. These goods and services are consumed by internal business stakeholders rather than external customers.
-
What is direct procurement?
Direct procurement is the is the process of requisitioning, ordering, and purchasing goodsthe raw materials needed to make the products that are sold by the business to its customers.
Explore SAP Technology and Innovation
Customize Your Solutions
Enhance your source-to-pay processes with APIs, intelligent forms, and intelligent configuration management. Unlock the full value of your SAP Ariba solutions by integrating them with your existing back-end solutions and ERP.
Review platform capabilitiesExplore Solution Road Map
Log in to review the SAP Road Map Explorer and learn of scheduled innovations that may help you plan and implement your digital transformation.
Log in now