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Procedure

Potential suppliers can register on your company's Web site to indicate their interest in providing products. After a potential supplier has submitted the registration request, one or several of the approval workflows described below start, depending on how your system is configured.

After the supplier business partner data has been created, you can start various activities, such as promoting the supplier or collecting further information using the supplier qualification process. If you always want to start a supplier qualification after a potential supplier has been approved, you can automate this process.

Standard Registration Approval Workflow

You use the standard registration approval workflow if you want to approve a supplier registration request involving approvers who may be working in a shared services center. In detail, the sequence is the following:

  1. The registration request is sent to all users who have the Approver (/SRMSMC/APPROVER) role.

  2. The approvers can review the registration request and can approve or reject the potential supplier.

  3. If the registration is approved, supplier business partner data is created in SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management.

  4. The potential supplier is informed by e-mail about the approval or rejection of their registration request.

For this workflow, the ROS Approval Workflow (48000001) template can be used. If multiple approval levels are required, you must use the ROS Approval Workflow (Extensible) (48000009) template and adapt it to your requirements.

As a follow-on step, you can enable the purchasing category assignment workflow.

Purchasing Category Assignment Workflow

If suppliers have assigned themselves to a product category on the Supplier Registration page, the purchasers for whom the supplier is relevant receive a work item that allows them to assign their purchasing category to the supplier business partner.

For this workflow, the Supplier-PuCat Assignment Workflow (48000006) template can be used. If multiple approval levels are required, you must use the PuCat. Assign. Approval WF (Extensible) (48000013) template.

One-Step Registration Approval Workflow with Purchasing Category Assignment

You use the registration approval workflow with integrated purchasing category assignment if you want to approve a supplier registration request in a single step, involving only category managers. In detail, the sequence is the following:

  1. The registration request work item is directly forwarded to the inbox of all purchasers for whose purchasing categories the supplier is relevant.

  2. The purchasers can review the registration request and approve or reject the potential supplier.

  3. If one of the purchasers has approved the registration, the system creates business partner data for the potential supplier. It also assigns the purchasing category (or categories) for whom the purchaser is responsible to the supplier.

  4. The potential supplier is informed by e-mail about the approval or rejection of their registration request.

  5. The other purchasers for whom the supplier is relevant can then also assign their purchasing categories to the supplier.

Note Note

  • For this approval workflow it is mandatory that suppliers specify a product category when filling out the registration request.

  • The approval workflow template ROS Approval with Purch. Cat. Assignment (48000031) is required. This template is not extensible.

  • If none of the purchasers approves the supplier, the registration of the supplier is rejected.

End of the note.
Automated Sending of Qualification Questionnaire

If your company wants to collect more information from potential suppliers than is covered in the supplier registration, settings can be made in Customizing that a qualification questionnaire is automatically sent to the suppliers when their registration has been approved and their business partner data created. This qualification questionnaire is based on a qualification template created for this purpose.

More Information

Required Roles

Depending on the tasks you have to perform, you have been assigned the following roles:

Task

Required Roles

Approving or rejecting registration requests

Approver (/SRMSMC/APPROVER)

Approving or rejecting registration requests for specific purchasing categories and assigning suppliers to purchasing categories

Category Manager (/SRMSMC/CATEGORY_MANAGER)

For information about the roles required for suppliers on the sell side, see Registering as a Supplier.

Required Business Functions

SLC, Supplier Registration (Buy Side) - (SMC_SUPPL_REG_BFW_1)

SLC, Supplier Registration (Sell Side) - (SMC_SUPPL_REG_OFW_1)

If qualification questionnaires are sent automatically after registration approval, the following business functions are also required:

SLC, Supplier Qualification (Buy Side) - (SMC_SUPPL_QUA_BFW_1)

SLC, Supplier Qualification (Sell Side) - (SMC_SUPPL_QUA_OFW_1)

Customizing

The activities in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management under   Buy Side   Supplier Registration   are relevant.

If you use the supplier registration approval workflow with purchasing category assignment, the following activity in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management under   Sell Side   Supplier Registration   is also relevant: Maintain Customer Settings for Supplier Registration

If qualification questionnaires are sent automatically after registration approval, the following activities in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management under   Buy Side   Supplier Qualification   are also relevant:

  •   Automated Supplier Qualification   Activate Automated Sending of Supplier Qualification  

  •    Business Add-Ins (BAdIs)   Implementing Automated Supplier Qualification  

Note that, instead of sending out qualification questionnaires, you can also use the extensibility concept to display customer-specific fields on the registration user interface. For more information, see SAP Help Portal at http://help.sap.com/slc   <release>   Configuration and Deployment Information   Configuration Guide   Extending the User Interface by Adding Customer Fields  .

Approval Workflow

For technical information about the variants available for the approval workflow in supplier registration, see Supplier Registration Approval.