Help and Contact

Procurement

Ariba account troubleshooting

A handy guide to help you through any errors you may encounter with your SAP Ariba account, including registering, email notifications, account information, permissions and access.

Common issues with registering your supplier account

Duplicate username

You can access your existing account or create a new user account with a unique username by deselecting the ‘use my email as my username’ box under the ‘email’ field.

Your username does not need to match your email address. It only needs to have the @ symbol and does not have to be a valid email address.  

Duplicate D-U-N-S (Data Universal Numbering System) number

You can leave the DUNS Number field empty during registration, or contact the admin of the account that already uses the same ANID number. 

Account already merged when registering with an existing account

This occurs when you try to link to Severn Trent with an account that is already used on our site. You can contact us to find the linked account and deactivate any duplicates. Or, you can create a new account. 

Different username and password when registering with an existing account

This can occur if you try to link to Severn Trent with an account that is different from the accounts used by others in your company. You can try to find the existing account by contacting your colleagues and/or the buyer. Or, you can create a new account. 

Issue connecting to the sourcing server

If you experience this error repeatedly, it means there is a conflict between information in the registered account, and information on our site. We might have some of your account information stored in a different account. contact Ariba customer support to review the possible conflicts. 

Email notifications

Email notifications are not being received

If you are not receiving emails from SAP Ariba, first verify that your email address is correct and that your notification settings are configured properly.

If all of the above is correct, check with your local IT department to determine if there are any filters on your email server that are blocking emails from SAP Ariba.

If needed, your IT department can also whitelist SAP Ariba's IP addresses and the following email domains:

  • @smtp.mn1.ariba.com
  • @smtp.mn2.ariba.com
  • @ansmtp.ariba.com
  • @eusmtp.ariba.com  

Also make sure the TLS (Transport Layer Security) version is 1.2 and above.  

If the problem persists, then it may mean the attachments included in the notification are too large (preventing the email from being received).  

Username and password errors

Username and password pair was not found

You may get this error message as you entered an incorrect username or password. You might also receive this message in the following scenarios:  

  • Your password contains part of your username
  • Your browser is automatically filling in an invalid character or the incorrect username/password 
  • You entered a username that is not currently valid for your account
  • You entered an incorrect password
  • You are not using a certified browser
  • Your cookies have not been cleared

The username and password entered has already merged to another Ariba sourcing user account

The above message means the username you are attempting to use is already connected to an existing user in our sourcing site, and a duplicate user has been created and invited to this sourcing event by Severn Trent.  

To solve this issue, please provide us with your ANID number and the username you'd like to use, and we will confirm if the ANID provided is matching the ANID of your profile.  

Alternatively, you can create an alternate username from the same ANID that is connected to your profile by Severn Trent by clicking ‘sign up’ through the event invitation.

Your new username will need to be different than any existing username currently in the Ariba system, and it will maintain the same ANID.  

User already exists

If the user already exists and you need to enter a different username, this means the username you are entering is already associated with an Ariba network or Ariba sourcing supplier account.

You will still be able to register a new user account, but the new username will need to be unique to satisfy Ariba's system requirements.  SAP Ariba requires that all usernames be formatted like an email address, but they do not have to be a valid email address.

For example if your username was example@ariba.com and it was not accepted, you can try using example1@ariba.com.  

Unable to use existing username and password to accept an event invitation

You may be unable to use your existing username and password to accept an event invitation. This may be due to the invitation link you are clicking could have expired.

If you have already connected your account to the customer that invited you, you can log in to your account.  

You could also receive this message if your organization profile from the customer side is connected to ANID and the Ariba user ID you are trying to log in from is not the same Ariba user ID that is associated with the event.

Ask the project owner of the event to use “send username” for the invited contact. You will need to provide Severn Trent with your ANID number to confirm if the ANID from our side is the same as the ANID of your account.  

Suppliers can access the events from only one ANID.  

Account and profile

Company already connected with a buyer company using a different account and Ariba Network ID (ANID)

When trying to register to view a sourcing event you may get the above error message. This means the username you’re trying to use is associated with an ANID that does not match the one currently connected to your company's profile, which indicates that your organisation has more than one ANID.  

All you need to do is provide us with your ANID number and the username you'd like to use, and we will confirm if the ANID provided is matching that of your profile at Severn Trent.  

Suppliers can access the events from only one ANID

Your user account has not been approved by the buyer

When accessing your SAP Ariba sourcing dashboard you may receive the above message for two reasons:

  1. We have not approved your user account or organisation  
  2. Your username has been edited, which can break the connection with us

To resolve this issue check with us to verify the approval of your user account / organisation. You must also ensure your username matches the username originally set up in Severn Trent's site if you changed the username and we confirmed your approval.

Company profile error message

If you receive the message 'company profile has errors please correct them', you can click go to company profile to make updates. Alternaitvely you can:

  • Login to your Ariba account as the account administrator
  • In the upper-right corner of the application, click your initials > settings and select company profile
  • Under the basic tab, edit your company name and address if necessary
  • Under the business tab, check that your tax ID is entered within the tax information section
  • Click save on all pages when changes are made before going to the next tab

 

Permissions and access

Permission to access a page

When you click on proposals or contracts from the solution navigator you may get a message saying you do not have the appropriate permissions to access this page.

If you are a sub-user, contact your account administrator to begin collaborating with customers through Ariba sourcing and Ariba contracts. In the upper-right corner of the application, click your initials > contact administrator to view your admin's information.  

If you are the account admin, ensure your role has the permission ‘access proposals and contracts’. In the upper-right corner of the application, click your initials > settings and select company settings. Click users and then click on the administrator role.

The administrator has all permissions and cannot be edited. Confirm with the buyer if your email address /contact is invited to the event and is approved  If you do not see the access proposals and contracts permission, contact SAP Ariba customer support.

Unable to access an event with the username given by Severn Trent

You do not have to use the username we may have provided in the event invitation you received. When your contact was created in our supplier database, a user ID field was required for us to complete to act as a placeholder ID until you successfully accept the invitation with your own username.

The placeholder user ID entered is the username displaying in the email invitation. If you click the link in the email to access the event, you should be given an option to sign up for a new user account or login with an existing user.

Choose whichever of these options applies to you, and you will then be able to control what username is connected to Severn Trent’s event.  

Severn Trent can send you the username by using the “send username”, only If you managed to connect your Ariba account to their event previously, you should receive an official email from Ariba with the user details afterwards.  

If you are taken to a login page instead of a page to sign up or login, check the unable to use existing username and password to accept and invitation under usernames and passwords section above.

You could receive an error saying the link has expired when trying to access a sourcing event as invitation links are designed for one time use only and they will expire after they have been used successfully.  

If you have successfully accessed the event before, you can simply sign into your Ariba Sourcing dashboard.

If you have not accessed the event and are receiving this error, the link you are clicking is broken. In this case, you will need to contact the project owner to request a new invitation email.  

Contact us

If you have any further questions that are not included on this page, please contact supplierenablement@severntrent.co.uk and we will be happy to help.