C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing Interview Questions

The C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing exam is intended to assess your understanding of the fundamental skills required for the SAP Ariba Sourcing Associate Application Consultant role. The C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing test verifies that you have a thorough understanding of the subject matter as well as the technical skills required to serve as a mentor on a project team. To help you prepare for the C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing interview we have curated expert level questions:

Can you explain the purpose of SAP Ariba Sourcing and its features?

SAP Ariba Sourcing is a cloud-based procurement solution that helps organizations streamline and automate the sourcing process. Its purpose is to help organizations achieve cost savings, increase operational efficiency, and improve supplier relationships.

Some key features of SAP Ariba Sourcing include:

1. Sourcing Project Management: Helps to plan, execute, and monitor sourcing projects from start to finish.
2. Supplier Management: Facilitates supplier discovery, qualification, and performance management.
3. Spend Analysis: Provides visibility into an organization’s spending patterns and supplier performance.
4. Contract Management: Enables the creation, management, and renewal of contracts with suppliers.
5. RFX (Request for Proposal) Creation and Management: Automates the creation and management of RFPs.
6. Auction Management: Helps organizations conduct and manage reverse and forward auctions.
7. Contract Compliance: Facilitates contract compliance management to ensure that suppliers adhere to agreed-upon terms.

How do you approach creating a sourcing strategy?

Creating a sourcing strategy involves several steps, including:

1. Spend analysis: Analyze the organization’s spending patterns and identify areas where cost savings can be achieved.
2. Supplier analysis: Evaluate the current supplier base, including supplier performance, capacity, and cost.
3. Category analysis: Identify the key categories of spend that the organization needs to focus on, based on factors such as spend volume, supplier dependency, and strategic importance.
4. Sourcing objectives: Define the organization’s sourcing objectives, such as reducing costs, improving supplier performance, or reducing risk.
5. Sourcing tactics: Determine the sourcing tactics to be used to achieve the sourcing objectives, such as competitive bidding, supplier consolidation, or sole sourcing.
6. Implementation plan: Develop a detailed implementation plan, including timelines, resource requirements, and risk management.
7. Performance measurement: Establish metrics to measure the performance of the sourcing strategy and make adjustments as needed.
8. Continuous improvement: Continuously review and improve the sourcing strategy to ensure that it remains effective and aligns with the organization’s changing needs.

Can you walk us through a sourcing event you managed in SAP Ariba Sourcing?

Here’s a step-by-step explanation of a sourcing event that could be managed in SAP Ariba Sourcing:

1. Project creation: Create a new sourcing project in SAP Ariba Sourcing and define the project scope, including the category of goods/services to be sourced, the timeline, and the key stakeholders.
2. Supplier identification: Identify potential suppliers using SAP Ariba Sourcing’s supplier discovery and qualification tools.
3. RFX creation: Create a Request for Proposal (RFP) using SAP Ariba Sourcing’s RFX creation tools, including the RFP template, questions, and evaluation criteria.
4. Supplier responses: Send the RFP to the selected suppliers and manage their responses, including clarifications, changes, and negotiations.
5. Evaluation and award: Evaluate the supplier responses using SAP Ariba Sourcing’s evaluation tools and award the contract to the winning supplier.
6. Contract creation: Create a contract in SAP Ariba Sourcing, including the terms and conditions, pricing, and delivery schedule.
7. Contract execution: Execute the contract, including the management of any changes, extensions, or renewals.
8. Supplier performance management: Monitor and evaluate the supplier’s performance using SAP Ariba Sourcing’s supplier performance management tools, including scorecards, KPIs, and feedback.
9. Project closure: Close the sourcing project in SAP Ariba Sourcing and capture lessons learned for future reference.

This is a general overview of a sourcing event in SAP Ariba Sourcing, and the specific steps and details may vary based on the organization’s needs and requirements.

How do you handle contract management in SAP Ariba Sourcing?

SAP Ariba Sourcing provides a comprehensive contract management capability that allows organizations to create, manage, and monitor contracts with suppliers. Here’s a general overview of the contract management process in SAP Ariba Sourcing:

1. Contract creation: Create a new contract in SAP Ariba Sourcing, including the terms and conditions, pricing, and delivery schedule.
2. Contract execution: Execute the contract, including the management of any changes, extensions, or renewals.
3. Contract compliance: Ensure that the supplier adheres to the agreed-upon terms and conditions by monitoring contract compliance using SAP Ariba Sourcing’s contract compliance management tools.
4. Contract renewal: Automate the renewal process for contracts that are up for renewal, including the negotiation of new terms and conditions.
5. Contract closure: Close the contract when it is no longer needed and archive it for future reference.
6. Contract reporting: Generate reports on contract performance, including spend, supplier performance, and contract compliance.

SAP Ariba Sourcing’s contract management capabilities allow organizations to efficiently manage the entire contract lifecycle, from creation to closure, ensuring that contracts are executed in compliance with the agreed-upon terms and conditions.

How do you use SAP Ariba Sourcing to manage supplier relationships?

SAP Ariba Sourcing provides several tools and capabilities to help organizations manage their supplier relationships, including:

1. Supplier discovery and qualification: Find new suppliers and evaluate their capabilities, including their experience, references, and financial stability.
2. Supplier performance management: Monitor and evaluate supplier performance, including delivery performance, quality, and cost.
3. Supplier feedback and communication: Provide feedback to suppliers on their performance and communicate with them on an ongoing basis to foster strong, long-lasting relationships.
4. Supplier scorecards: Use scorecards to measure supplier performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and track improvement over time.
5. Supplier collaboration: Collaborate with suppliers to drive innovation, reduce costs, and improve delivery performance.
6. Supplier risk management: Monitor supplier risk, including financial stability, sustainability, and ethical behavior, and manage that risk through supplier risk management tools.

SAP Ariba Sourcing helps organizations build strong supplier relationships by providing a comprehensive set of tools and capabilities for supplier discovery, qualification, performance management, collaboration, and risk management. By using these tools, organizations can improve supplier performance, reduce costs, and drive innovation.

Can you explain how you use SAP Ariba Sourcing to analyze spend data?

SAP Ariba Sourcing provides several tools to help organizations analyze spend data, including:

1. Spend analysis: Analyze spend data to identify areas of cost savings, improve sourcing strategies, and manage supplier relationships.
2. Spend visibility: Improve spend visibility by integrating spend data from multiple sources, including contracts, invoices, and purchase orders.
3. Category spend analysis: Analyze spend data by category to identify areas of high spend, supplier concentration, and opportunities for cost savings.
4. Supplier spend analysis: Analyze spend data by supplier to identify opportunities for cost savings, improve supplier performance, and manage supplier relationships.
5. Market intelligence: Use market intelligence tools to analyze market trends, benchmark prices, and identify new suppliers.
6. Savings tracking: Track savings achieved through sourcing initiatives and identify areas for future cost savings.

SAP Ariba Sourcing provides a comprehensive set of tools and capabilities for spend analysis, including spend visibility, category spend analysis, supplier spend analysis, market intelligence, and savings tracking. By using these tools, organizations can improve their understanding of their spend data, identify areas for cost savings, and drive improved performance and results.

How do you ensure data accuracy in SAP Ariba Sourcing?

To ensure data accuracy in SAP Ariba Sourcing, organizations can follow these best practices:

1. Data governance: Implement data governance policies and procedures to ensure data accuracy and consistency.
2. Data validation: Validate data inputs to ensure that they are accurate and complete before they are entered into the system.
3. Data reconciliation: Reconcile data between SAP Ariba Sourcing and other systems, such as ERP systems, to ensure data consistency and accuracy.
4. Data cleansing: Cleanse data periodically to remove duplicates, correct errors, and ensure data accuracy and completeness.
5. Data quality checks: Perform regular data quality checks to identify and correct data errors and ensure data accuracy.
6. Data security: Implement data security measures to ensure that data is protected from unauthorized access, alteration, or theft.

By implementing these best practices, organizations can ensure the accuracy and integrity of their data in SAP Ariba Sourcing, which is critical to the success of their sourcing initiatives. Additionally, by ensuring data accuracy, organizations can improve the accuracy of their spend analysis, supplier performance management, and contract management processes.

Have you worked with SAP Ariba Sourcing integration with other systems?

SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with other systems, including:

1. ERP systems: SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with ERP systems, such as SAP S/4HANA, to provide a single source of truth for sourcing data.
2. Supply chain management systems: SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with supply chain management systems, such as SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration, to improve supply chain visibility and performance.
3. Procurement systems: SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with procurement systems, such as SAP Ariba Procurement, to provide a comprehensive procurement solution.
4. Contract management systems: SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with contract management systems, such as SAP Ariba Contract Management, to provide a complete contract management solution.
5. Analytics and reporting systems: SAP Ariba Sourcing can be integrated with analytics and reporting systems, such as SAP Ariba Analytics, to provide advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.

Integrating SAP Ariba Sourcing with other systems can provide organizations with a comprehensive, integrated solution for sourcing, procurement, and contract management. By integrating with other systems, organizations can improve data accuracy, reduce manual data entry, and improve the efficiency of their sourcing processes.

Can you discuss a complex sourcing scenario you faced and how you solved it?

A complex sourcing scenario could be a situation where an organization needs to source multiple products from multiple suppliers with conflicting requirements, such as cost, quality, delivery time, and sustainability. This can be challenging as the organization needs to find a balance between the conflicting requirements to meet their own needs while also satisfying the needs of their suppliers.

To solve this complex sourcing scenario, the organization can follow these steps:

1. Define requirements: Clearly define the requirements for the products, including cost, quality, delivery time, and sustainability.
2. Supplier assessment: Assess potential suppliers based on their ability to meet the requirements and select a shortlist of suppliers.
3. Request for proposals (RFPs): Send RFPs to the shortlisted suppliers and request detailed proposals, including cost, quality, delivery time, and sustainability information.
4. Evaluation: Evaluate the proposals from the suppliers based on the requirements and select the best proposal.
5. Negotiations: Negotiate with the selected supplier to agree on a final contract, including terms and conditions for cost, quality, delivery time, and sustainability.
6. Contract management: Manage the contract with the supplier to ensure that they deliver the products as agreed and meet the requirements.

By following these steps, the organization can find a balance between the conflicting requirements and ensure that they source the products they need while also satisfying the needs of their suppliers. Additionally, by using a structured approach, such as RFPs and evaluations, the organization can ensure that they make informed decisions and minimize the risk of making a poor sourcing decision.

How do you stay current with the latest SAP Ariba Sourcing updates and features?

To stay current with the latest SAP Ariba Sourcing updates and features, individuals can follow these steps:

1. Read the SAP Ariba Sourcing documentation: SAP regularly updates its documentation to reflect the latest features and functionality. Reading the documentation is a great way to stay current with the latest updates.
2. Participate in SAP Ariba Sourcing user groups and forums: SAP Ariba Sourcing has a large community of users who share their experiences and knowledge. Participating in user groups and forums is a great way to stay up-to-date with the latest information and best practices.
3. Attend SAP Ariba Sourcing events: SAP regularly hosts events, such as webinars, conferences, and user group meetings, to share the latest information and best practices with its users. Attending these events is a great way to stay current with the latest updates and features.
4. Take advantage of SAP Ariba Sourcing training opportunities: SAP offers a range of training opportunities, including online courses, classroom training, and certification programs, to help individuals stay current with the latest updates and features.
5. Stay informed about SAP Ariba Sourcing product roadmaps: SAP provides product roadmaps that show the direction of the product and the planned updates and features. Staying informed about the product roadmap is a great way to stay current with the latest updates and features.

By following these steps, individuals can stay current with the latest SAP Ariba Sourcing updates and features and ensure that they are using the product to its full potential.

1. What exactly is the Ariba system?

SAP Ariba is a Palo Alto, California-based American software and information technology services company. In 2012, it was purchased for $4.3 billion by the German software company SAP SE.

2. What exactly is Ariba’s business network?

Ariba is the creator and provider of the Ariba Network, a cloud-based B2B marketplace where buyers and suppliers can find and do business on a single networked platform.

3. What is Ariba’s sales pitch?

According to Ariba, the benefits include “simplified connection, huge gains in process efficiency, better visibility and status into critical orders, deliveries, invoicing, payments, and other vital business commerce operations.” Simplicity will be the watchword in the future. Consumer-driven commerce (e.g., Amazon, eBay) and Ariba’s commerce network will be extolled by Ariba (and now SAP) executives.

4. Why does a Spot Quote differ from a standard Ariba Discovery response?

Buyers utilise Ariba Sourcing to establish a Spot Quote event and purchase order in their ERP back-end system. Because a seller’s answer is routed through Ariba Sourcing rather than Ariba Discovery when they get a Spot Quote RFQ from Ariba Discovery, the user experience changes from a regular Discovery response.

5. Why is budgeting important for any organisation, and how will the Ariba procurement solution help in this situation?

A budget is established for any sector of an organization so that their day-to-day operations or businesses run smoothly. And, after the budget has been authorised, anything that has to be purchased or procured must, by definition, be within the budget. As a result, ERP systems can help you keep track of this data, but they can’t help you spend less on the proper deals. The same data should be included into the Ariba procurement solution once the budgets have been assigned and all of the information has been recorded into a SAP ERP system.

6. What are the main benefits of the Ariba procurement solution?

The following are the key features of the Ariba Procurement solution:

• Technology
• Community
• Capabilities

7. What are the products of Ariba?

Ariba sells separate “business commerce” products for Ariba network buyers and sellers. Here are a few examples:

• Buyers—Spending Visibility, Sourcing, Contract Management, Procure-to-Pay, T&E, and Supplier Management
• Sellers—”Discovery Service” (for locating new buyers), Contract Management for Sales, Order, and Catalog solutions

8. What are the primary advantages of the Ariba procurement solution?

The following are the primary advantages of the Ariba procurement solution:

• With a simple OCI integration, you can unlock the value of an ERP solution.
• Can increase user adoption Can expand spend coverage
• When it comes to compliance, it has a lot to offer.

9. What are all of the features available in the SAP Ariba solution?

The following are the features available in the SAP Ariba system:

• Supply chain collaboration
• Spend analysis
• Procurement
• Spend analysis
• Invoice Management
• Supplier discovery
• Ariba exchange
• Contract management etc

10. What are the advantages of SAP Ariba?

SAP Ariba is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to cooperate and compete more efficiently. Installation does not demand the purchase of any expensive gear or software, nor does it necessitate any user updates. Companies may easily access it through a user-friendly interface on a multi-tenant platform, regardless of their location or browser. It may also be integrated with any current ERP or back-office system, allowing users to share procedures and interact with trading partners for more competitive company transactions.

11. What exactly is Ariba Discovery?

Ariba Discovery is the world’s largest and most trusted business commerce network, bringing together over one million sellers and US$5 billion in annual business postings.

12. How does the installation of the Ariba procurement solution take place?

Since it is a cloud-based solution, there are no high hardware and software costs. Furthermore, there are no upgrade costs associate with the user’s perspective. All that is required is to pay the require price for the tool and then begin using it with the help of an intuitive user interface.

13. Could you please tell us about the budget checks in the Ariba procurement solution?

Although the budget check feature is available in the Ariba procurement solution, it is not enable by default for all customers while the system is being configure. Once this feature is enable, the Ariba procurement software will be able to check the budget for each and every purchase made at the customer’s location.

14. Is it possible to write test cases without any domain training, without any documentation, and only with the help of the build screen?

Yes, test cases may be written on the screen, but only the test cases’ pleasant flow can be written. To write behavioural testing, you must first grasp the software’s precise functionality, which may be obtained in a manual or learned through training.

15. How does Ariba fit into sap’s changing cloud strategy?

The SAP cloud application story is divided into four parts: money, people, customers, and suppliers. (Business ByDesign is a subcategory in its own right.) Ariba will be the core of the “suppliers” category, just as SuccessFactors is the core of the “people” segment. Ariba will also serve as a new “business network” category, connecting suppliers, customers, and partners as part of SAP’s enterprise cloud strategy (i.e., applications, platform, infrastructure).

16. What SAP Ariba Reporting options are available?

SAP Ariba includes reporting options and features in all modules, as well as upstream, downstream, sourcing, procure-to-order, procure-to-pay, and others. In this article, we’ll go over SAP Ariba Reporting Options in greater detail. Previously, we had to perform SQL queries to retrieve the required data; however, the need to write SQL queries is no longer necessary thanks to the simple reporting interface.

17. Describe the SAP Ariba Configurable Workflow.

SAP Ariba provides an easy-to-use workflow design for your company that does not require any external configuration. Although you can modify the rules using the specified settings, workflow builder makes it simple to build, test, and deploy workflows. This article will go over SAP Ariba Configurable Workflow in greater detail.

18. Where can I find the log files?

The logical node name is included in various log files for Ariba Buyers, which may be found in BuyerServerRoot/logs in SAP Ariba. metrics-Nodel.csv, for example. Administrators may see and download log files using the Log Files task in Ariba Administrator.

19. Describe the SAP Ariba Mapping Workbooks.

SAP Ariba Mapping Workbooks are Ariba-supplied sample files that are use for data inbound and outbound transactions between SAP Ariba Procurement Solutions and SAP ERP. During the outbound data transaction, data is transformed from XML file format to XML format and then fed into Ariba Procurement Solution. Similarly, before being submitted to the SAP ERP system, data for inbound data transactions is transformed from cXml to XML file format.

Since mapping workbooks are only sample files, they can be customized to meet the needs of the business. Depending on the organization’s needs, the mapping of fields between Xml and cXml can be customize.

20. Explain the SAP ERP Transports process in terms of SAP Ariba.

You must download and import SAP ERP transports to your Procurement Solution in order to integrate SAP Ariba Procurement Solution with SAP ERP. The installation procedure is the same for both first-time and upgrade installations. When adding transports to the import queue, you must specify a target client. The target client must define as the transports containing both client-dependent and client-independent configurations. To indicate the target client, use the T-code STMS (SAP Transport Management System). The Readme.txt file contained in the ZIP file downloaded from connect.ariba.com contains instructions for installing the transport.

21. Explain the C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing Integrating Transactional Data concept.

Transaction data is a type of business document that is create from master data such as material master data and vendor master data and is update on a daily basis. Transaction data includes daily transaction details and production details.

22. Explain the process of SAP Ariba Master Data Integration.

The core data for any business organization is master data, which rarely change over time. It is extremely important in the business process. The organization’s master data includes products, employees, suppliers, and customers.

23. Explain the process of SAP Ariba Master Data Integration.

The core data for any business organization is master data, which is rarely changes over time. It is extremely important in the business process. The organization’s master data includes products, employees, suppliers, and customers.

24. Describe how to configure the SAP Ariba Procurement Solution.

Users can update the details of their orders in Ariba Procurement Solution. For this purpose, the SAP ERP and SAP Ariba systems should receive information in the same manner. Both systems, for example, must have the same receiving tolerance.

To set the receiving tolerances, configure the following settings in the system parameters:

• Procure.OverReceivingOperator
• Procure.OverReceivingPercentage
• Procure.OverReceivingQuantity
• Procure.OverReceivingValue
• Procure.UnderReceivingOperator
• Procure.UnderReceivingQuantity
• Procure.UnderReceivingValue
• Procure.UnderReceivingPercentage

25. What are the advantages of SSO Architecture?

• Security Control: SSO can be combine with multi-factor authentication (MFA), or users can use portable authentication devices (such as RSA Secure ID) to gain access to the Ariba Network.
• User Experience: SSO eliminates the need for multiple logins. Users are authenticate to Ariba Network when they login to their Corporate Network.
• Account Management: If a user leaves the organisation, Ariba automatically revokes their access to the Ariba Network.
• It works in conjunction with RBA (Risk-Based Authentication): SSO in conjunction with RBA provides insight into user behaviour. Security teams can monitor unusual user behaviour, such as multiple login failures, and it also allows them to block the user account in the event of a security breach.

26. Describe the Ariba Network Permissions.

Ariba Network grants users various permissions to access various areas of the Ariba Network user interface. Permissions are organize into roles, with each role containing at least one permission. This article will go over all of the Ariba Network Permissions.

27. Describe the C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing Network User and Role Management.

Administrators and users have distinct roles in the Ariba Network. As an administrator, you help your company run smoothly by providing administrative support. Admins’ responsibilities also include:

• The administrator role is automatically associate with the username and login information entered during registration. Administrators, on the other hand, have the ability to reassign the role to other users.
• Account registration, configuration, and administration
• Creation of users and roles
• Troubleshooting account login issues
• As the primary point of contact for users
• Users are assign different roles base on their job responsibilities. Each user is responsible for keeping their profiles – personal user information – up to date in the Ariba system.

28. Describe SAP ARIBA – Account Configuration.

SAP Ariba enables you to access and configure new accounts, as well as set email notifications, electronic orders, invoice routing, and other account configurations for new suppliers.

29. How to create notifications?

SAP Ariba gives you the option of selecting the source email address for which you want to receive notifications as well as the destination email address for which you want notifications to be followed upon.

• Navigate to the “Notifications” tab to configure notifications.
• You can enter three email addresses separated by commas for each notification here (,).

30. Explain the key features of C_ARSOR_2108 – SAP Ariba Sourcing.

Ariba’s characteristics are as follows:

• SAP Ariba connects to the world’s largest supplier and vendor network, enhancing business partnerships with the right partners.
• It connects an organisation with the right vendor and provides transparency of vendor details and the procurement process, resulting in a clear and error-free business transaction.
• SAP Ariba enables users to connect with various suppliers in order to meet their needs and manage their supply chain.
• SAP Ariba integrates easily with other SAP ERP solutions such as SAP ECC and S/4 HANA.