Ariba E-tendering Vendor Guidance

Ariba Guidance Documents

• Access Event Invitation & Log Into Solicitation Event (Accessible Version)
• Log-on Issues (Accessible Version)
• Frequently Asked Questions (Accessible Version)
• Vendor Awareness to Award Process Flow (Accessible Version)

Ariba Guidance Videos

• How to Navigate the Ariba E-Tendering Platform While Submitting a Bid
• Log Into a Solicitation Event (Video)
• Vendor Awareness to Award Process Flow (Video)
• Manage Existing Accounts (Video)

1) ISSUES WITH ARIBA NETWORK IDS (ANIDS): WHAT DOES THIS ERROR MESSAGE BELOW MEAN?

Error message: “Your company has already connected with this buyer company using a different account and Ariba Network ID (ANID) than the one you are trying to log into. To connect with this buyer company, you need to log into the already connected account. Please contact your company's account administrator and request that they create you as a new user under ANID (ANID).”You are receiving the above error because the username you are attempting to use is associated with an ANID that does not match the ANID currently connected to your company's profile that was invited to the event, which indicates that your organization has more than one ANID.

If you believe you already have a username associated with the connected ANID, please refer to your company's account administrator to confirm the correct username to use.

If you do not have a username associated with the connected ANID, please follow the steps below to create a new username and access the event:

• On the Log-In page click Register Now
• Uncheck the box next to Use my email as my username
• Create a username that is different than your existing username
  • Usernames are not required to be valid email addresses, but they do have to look like them.
  • If your email is first.lastname@company.com, use first.lastname1@company.com
• Enter a new password in the New Password and Confirm Password fields.
  • This password must be a minimum of eight characters with at least 1 number.
  • You can use the same password as your existing account.
  • Review the Terms of Use and SAP Ariba Privacy Statement and select the box next to each indicating your acceptance.
• Click Register

The event should now appear for you.

Additional Information:

To optimize navigation between multiple user accounts, you can link your user IDs and switch easily between your user accounts:

1. Click your name in the upper right corner of the Home page.
2. Choose the Link User IDs option.

2) HOW CAN I PARTICIPATE IN AN ARIBA E-TENDERING BID REQUEST AFTER RECEIVING THE EMAIL INVITATION, AND HOW CAN I REGISTER FOR THE SAP ARIBA SOURCING EVENT IF I DO NOT YET HAVE AN ACCOUNT IN THAT SYSTEM?

Supplier will receive an invitation email from Ariba when they are invited to a specific event (RFQ/RFP/ITB). Supplier is advised to check the spam/junk folders in case the email is not received in the inbox. Open the invite and click on “Click here” hyperlink which will take you to Ariba log-in page. If you are an existing supplier with the United Nations and have been invited to previous events, enter the username and password to log-in, this will directly take you to the event.

If you are a new supplier to the United Nations but have an account in Ariba, kindly follow the steps provided in the first question.

If you are a new supplier and do not have an account in Ariba, you need to register first. Follow the steps below for registration:

• In the Ariba log-in page, click on Register Now link and enter your username (username will be same as your email address)
• Enter a new password in the New Password and Confirm Password fields.
  • This password must be a minimum of eight characters with at least 1 number.
• Review the Terms of Use and SAP Ariba Privacy Statement and select the box next to each.

Note: Suppliers can access Help Centre from the home page even without logging in to Ariba.

3) HOW CAN I SEND A MESSAGE VIA ARIBA FOR AN EVENT IN PENDING SELECTION STATUS?

Log-in to your event, click on Event Messages from top left of the screen under Event Details. This will open the message board in a live event. You can enter your message and attach any files and click the send button.

Note: Suppliers will not be able to send messages for an event with a ‘Completed’ status.

4) THE LINK IN THE INVITATION EMAIL HAS EXPIRED. HOW CAN I LOG-IN TO ARIBA PORTAL WITH A DIFFERENT LINK?

The link in the invitation email expires within 24 hours after you have accessed the solicitation. For subsequent login, click on the below URLs: 
http://proposals.seller.ariba.com or http://supplier.ariba.com

Please bookmark the link for future use.

5) IS THERE ANY SIZE LIMITATION WHEN ATTACHING A FILE?

Yes, the maximum size allowed to attach is 100MB per file. If the file size is more than 100MB, kindly compress the file size and upload as a zipped folder. 
Note: Suppliers can attach any number of files which exceeds more than 100MB in total.

6) I HAVE ANOTHER COLLEAGUE WHOSE SUPPORT IS REQUIRED TO PREPARE OUR COMPANY’S RESPONSE TO A PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY. CAN I SET-UP HIS/HER ACCOUNT IN ARIBA EVEN THOUGH THE ORIGINAL INVITATION WAS NOT ADDRESSED TO HIM/HER?

Yes, you can set up his/her account in Ariba under the same Ariba Network ID (ANID), however, the new contact will be able to access the tender only after their account is approved by the United Nations. Please do email the event management team aribae-tendering@un.org if you have added a new contact to the event. After approval, the United Nations team will add the contact to the solicitation.

7) WHERE CAN I FIND THE EVENT THAT I AM INVITED TO?

You can access a sourcing event to which you have been invited via two ways:

1. Through the invitation email the Buyer sends
2. By going to the Proposals page (click app drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the application and select Ariba Proposals and Questionnaires).

From the dashboard, you can find the event that you have been invited to (Status - Open).

8) WHY CAN'T I FIND AN EVENT?

There are several reasons you may not be seeing a sourcing event your company was invited to. Below are various scenarios that may apply:

1. Did you receive an event invitation in your email inbox?
   Buyers invite suppliers to events by selecting each participant, so there is a chance that only one person from the company received an invitation. Only those who are invited to the event will have access. If you would like to request an invitation for yourself or additional people from your organization, you will need to contact aribae-tendering@un.org. It is also a common user error to have a typo in the email address field. Please doublecheck the email address and if there is a typo the buyer will need to edit it.
2. Did you log in to the correct account?
   You might have more than one SAP Ariba account. If you have multiple accounts, make sure you are logged into the account that was invited.
3. Do you have permissions to see the page?
   To view your organization's Ariba Sourcing events, questionnaires, and Ariba Contract Management contracts, documents, and tasks, sub users need to have the permission Access Proposals and Contracts assigned. If you do not have the correct permissions, please contact your administrator. You can find the administrator's contact information by clicking your initials in the upper-right corner of the page and selecting Contact Administrator.
4. Is your user activated? Is your profile approved?
   It is possible that your user or organization profile is deactivated which will restrict your access to Ariba. If your organization profile on the buyer's site is Rejected, you will not be able to register. If it is Unapproved you will be able to register but may not participate in sourcing events. You must contact your Buyer to approve the organization profile.
5. Are you on the SAP Ariba Sourcing solution?
   If you see Ariba Discovery, Ariba Contract Management, or Ariba Network in the upper-left corner of the application, you are currently accessing another app within your SAP Ariba Commerce Cloud account and will not see the event here. Click the app drop-down in the upper-left corner of the application and select Ariba Proposals & Questionnaires. This action will take you to the SAP Ariba Sourcing platform and show any events to which you have been invited. You may need to switch to the relevant buyer by clicking More... and selecting the correct buyer.
6. Is the event in Open status?
   In the top right corner of your screen the status will be displayed. If there is a countdown timer, then the event is published/open. If it is Closed, Paused, Pending Selection it is no longer open and the bidding process has closed.
7. Are you locked out of the event?
   You will not see the event on your dashboard if the buyer has locked your account from the event. Check your email to see if you were notified of being locked out of the event. In this instance, please contact aribae-tendering@un.org to gain access.
8. Are you directed to a blank page when you click on an event within your account?
   Security features on your computer might cause a blank page when accessing an event. Use the following steps to resolve this issue:
   1. Check the URL on the blank or black page.
   2. If the URL starts with HTTP, change this to HTTPS.
   3. Navigate to the new page.
   4. Accept any security warnings that appear in your browser.
   5. Ad Blockers can also cause this issue.
   6. Check to see if an ad blocker is installed, such as AdBlock Plus and uBlock.
   7. If one is installed, disable it, and load the page again
   8. If neither of these options help, try to log in using a different browser.

9) I AM GETTING THE BELOW SECURITY WARNING (REFER TO SCREEN SHOT) WHEN I LOG-IN TO ARIBA. WHAT SHOULD I DO?

The warning suggests that you may have logged in to Ariba from another laptop/desktop/mobile phone other than the one you had logged earlier, hence discrepancies in the IP address. Go to your browser internet setting and clear temporary files and cache. Close the browser and open again to access Ariba portal.

You can access a sourcing event to which you have been invited via two ways:

• Through the invitation email the Buyer sends
• By going to the Proposals page (click app drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the application and select Ariba Proposals and Questionnaires).
• From the dashboard, you can find the event that you have been invited to (Status - Open).

10) HOW DO I ADD USERS TO MY COMPANY'S ARIBA NETWORK SUPPLIER ACCOUNT? HOW CAN I CREATE A SUB-USER?

If you are the account administrator, you can add users with the following steps:

1. To add users to the account, you must first create at least one role. You can assign multiple users to the same role or create a separate role for each user.
2. To create a role:
   1. In the upper-right corner of the application, click [your initials] > Settings and select Users.
   2. Under the Manage Roles tab, click.
   3. Enter a Name for the role.
   4. Select the appropriate permissions using the check boxes.
   5. Click Save.
3. To create a user:
   1. In the upper-right corner of the application, click [your initials] > Settings and select Users.
   2. Click the Manage Users tab.
   3. Click the icon.
   4. Enter the user's information (Username, Email Address, First Name, Last Name and Phone).
   5. Select a role in the Role Assignment section.
   6. Assign a customer (All customers or Select Customers).
   7. Click Save.
4. After you have created the user, the user receives an email with the username and a temporary password. The user must access the account and change the password when logging in for the first time.
5. If any sub users were created their own account through a sourcing invitation they received from a Buyer, you will need to approve them by following the directions below:
   1. In the upper-right corner of the application, click [your initials] > Settings and select Users.
   2. Click Manage Unapproved Users.
   3. Select the users to approve.
   4. Click Approve.
   5. Click Save.

11) I NEED TO CONTACT ARIBA HELPDESK FOR ASSISTANCE EVEN THOUGH ACCOUNT IS SET UP IN ARIBA AND STILL HAVING ISSUE TO ACCESS.

You can contact the Ariba Helpdesk team by email aribae-tendering@un.org and provide the event Doc ID in Ariba (for example: Doc638070532) as a reference to get assistance.

12) I HAVE LOST THE INVITATION E-MAIL WHICH CONTAINED THE SUPPLIER REGISTRATION INVITE LINK FROM THE UNITED NATIONS. HOW CAN I ACCESS MY SOURCING ACCOUNT IN THE SAP ARIBA MODULE PROPOSALS AND QUESTIONNAIRES?

Please reach out to the sourcing contact (the Buyer) and request for another invitation e-mail to be resent from Ariba.

13) TROUBLESHOOTING FOR SUPPLIER ACCESSING ARIBA WEBSITE / RECEIVING ARIBA EMAIL

Please follow the below steps and refer to the browser troubleshooting guide:

1. Reach out to your internal IT department whitelist the following email domain @ansmtp.ariba.com.
2. This domain is configured for all automatic Ariba notifications. Once whitelisted, the messages should stop filtering to spam.
3. Review vendor Job Aids found on UNGM Knowledge Center.
4. If all above still fails, kindly contact Ariba Technical tea