SAP Spend Management: How Ariba, Concur, and Fieldglass Work Together

We first wrote this post after SAP Spend Connect Live in October 2023. The event itself is history; what SAP showed there still describes how its spend management portfolio fits together. So we have turned the recap into a primer.

SAP’s spend management covers three kinds of company spending: procurement (SAP Ariba), travel and expenses (SAP Concur) and external workforce (SAP Fieldglass). SAP Business Network connects them to suppliers, and S/4HANA connects them to finance.

TL;DR: Ariba handles sourcing, contracts, buying, supplier management and invoices; Concur handles travel and expenses; Fieldglass handles contractors and services. SAP Business Network links buyers and suppliers for orders and invoices, and the integration with S/4HANA posts everything into finance without rekeying. You do not need all three: start where your biggest uncontrolled spend is. For the procurement side, see our Procurement (Ariba) page.

What did SAP announce at Spend Connect Live 2023?

Three announcements from October 2023 are still relevant (SAP News):

• SAP Spend Control Tower, an analytics layer across procurement, travel and external workforce, planned for the first quarter of 2024.
• SAP Ariba Category Management, generally available since August 2023, for category strategies and savings plans.
• Generative AI in procurement, starting with Joule in SAP Ariba Sourcing and a “Supplier 360” view for risk and sustainability information.

SAP summed up its strategy with the line “Everything procurement at SAP is now SAP Ariba”. Since then SAP has increasingly sold the procure-to-pay side under the SAP Business Network name, which is why our solution page is called SAP Business Network for Procurement (formerly SAP Ariba).

What does SAP Ariba handle?

Ariba covers the full procurement cycle.

Sourcing. Tenders, auctions and supplier evaluation. Procurement teams run bidding events, compare offers on price and non-price criteria (delivery reliability, certifications, sustainability) and award contracts. Suppliers already on the network can be invited without building each relationship from scratch.

Buying. Requisitions, approvals, purchase orders and goods receipts. A request runs through the approval workflow, becomes an order sent electronically to the supplier and is matched against receipt and invoice.

Contract management. A central repository for supplier contracts, with alerts when spend exceeds agreed volumes or a renewal date approaches. This is where off-contract spend becomes visible.

Supplier management. Onboarding, qualification, performance and risk. Suppliers maintain their own profile, certificates and sustainability data on the network.

Invoice management. Three-way matching of invoice, order and goods receipt. Discrepancies are caught before payment rather than during month-end.

What do Concur and Fieldglass add?

SAP Concur manages travel and expenses. Travel policy is enforced at booking rather than after reimbursement. Receipts are captured by phone and read automatically, mileage and per diems are calculated, and out-of-policy items are flagged before approval. The analytics show spend by department, traveller and supplier, which helps when negotiating hotel and airline rates.

SAP Fieldglass manages external workforce spend. Contingent workers are requested, sourced, managed and paid in one process with rates, hours and contract terms. Statement-of-work projects are tracked by milestone and budget. Compliance data such as certificates, insurance and work permits is kept per worker, which regulated industries cannot do without.

How does SAP Business Network connect it all?

SAP Business Network is the supplier connectivity layer, with millions of connected companies.

For buyers: find suppliers, send orders electronically, receive structured invoices and monitor supplier risk through one standard connection instead of an EDI project per supplier.

For suppliers: receive orders, submit invoices and maintain catalogues and certificates in one place, for all their customers on the network. Register once, trade with any connected buyer.

Across categories: the Spend Control Tower combines data from procurement, travel and external workforce into one view of total spend, with savings opportunities and policy compliance.

How does spend management connect to S/4HANA?

The value of spend management shows up in finance. The integration of Ariba, Concur and Fieldglass with S/4HANA gives you:

Budget checks at requisition. A purchase request checks available budget in S/4HANA before it proceeds, not after the invoice arrives.

Automatic postings. Goods receipts and approved invoices create accounting entries in S/4HANA. No rekeying, fewer reconciliation items at month-end.

Payment. Approved invoices flow to S/4HANA and are paid in your standard payment run.

Expense reimbursement. Approved Concur reports create payables for employee reimbursement.

This is where our work sits. Spadoom implements S/4HANA Public Cloud as the finance and purchasing core and connects it to SAP Business Network for Procurement, with the same team that runs the customer side. For suppliers who also need to share forecasts and inventory, see Supply Chain Collaboration and our overview of SAP’s supply chain portfolio. Why one team for ERP and the neighbouring systems matters is explained in our comparison of partners for cloud ERP and CRM.

FAQ

Do I need all three products (Ariba, Concur, Fieldglass)?

No. Each runs on its own. Most companies start where the largest or least controlled spend sits, which is usually procurement and therefore Ariba or the procurement functions of SAP Business Network. Concur follows when travel and expenses are significant, Fieldglass when contractors and external services make up a material share of cost.

Can Ariba work without S/4HANA?

Yes. Ariba and SAP Business Network connect to other ERP systems through standard interfaces and middleware. With S/4HANA and ECC, SAP provides prepackaged integration, which shortens the project and reduces the mapping you have to maintain yourself.

What is the difference between Ariba and procurement in S/4HANA?

S/4HANA covers operational purchasing: requisitions, purchase orders, goods receipts and invoice verification. Ariba adds sourcing events, contract management, supplier management and the network connection to suppliers. Many companies use both: S/4HANA for the day-to-day purchase and Ariba for strategic sourcing and supplier collaboration.

How long does an Ariba implementation take?

It depends on scope. A single process such as guided buying or supplier invoicing on the network is a project of weeks to a few months. Full source-to-pay with sourcing, contracts, buying and invoicing takes longer, and supplier onboarding often sets the pace more than the software does. Plan supplier enablement as its own workstream.

What is the SAP Spend Control Tower?

An analytics layer that SAP announced at Spend Connect Live 2023. It brings spend data from procurement, travel and external workforce into one view, so finance and procurement can spot savings, policy breaches and risks across categories rather than per system.