Collaborative Operational Procurement covers the purchase of goods and services for indirect (maintenance, repair, and operations) and direct (production) materials.

With SAP SRM, the process is decentralized, but the purchasing organization centrally creates the controls that manage the process, roles, and sourcing objectives.

You use roles to assign the activities that internal employees or external business partners perform in a business scenario. You can use contracts to control spend and enforce compliance at individual plant locations. SAP SRM integrates operational procurement with planning, maintenance, project, and order-processing systems to requisition and source materials for key business processes.

This section outlines the various functions within Operational Procurement, including:

• Self-Service Procurement
• Services Procurement
• Plan-Driven Procurement