C_ARSUM Ariba Supplier Management Practice Question
Why must a supplier be 'Qualified' before they can be added to a Sourcing project in an organization using SAP Ariba SLP?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse the Supplier Request phase with the Qualified phase, assuming that initial contact or basic registration is sufficient authorization to invite a vendor into competitive sourcing events.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
To ensure that only vetted suppliers participate in sourcing.
Requiring qualification before sourcing is a key risk management control. It ensures that only suppliers who have been pre-vetted for quality, financial stability, and legal compliance can participate in competitive bidding. This prevents the organization from spending time and resources on sourcing events with suppliers who might later be found ineligible, thereby safeguarding the integrity of the procurement process and ensuring that all participants meet established corporate standards before engagement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
To automatically apply a 10% discount on all bids.
Why it's wrong here
Qualification is about vetting and compliance, not pricing. Applying automatic discounts would be a misuse of the qualification status. Commercial terms and discounts are negotiated within the sourcing event itself through bidding, not through the administrative status assigned during the supplier lifecycle qualification process.
- ✓
To ensure that only vetted suppliers participate in sourcing.
Why this is correct
The primary goal of the qualification process is to establish that a supplier meets specific internal business requirements before they are involved in sourcing activities. This process mitigates risk by ensuring that the sourcing team only invites entities that have already passed preliminary vetting and background checks.
- ✗
To reduce the number of bidders in a sourcing event.
Why it's wrong here
Qualification is not intended as a tool for restricting the number of bidders. Its purpose is to ensure the quality and reliability of the bidders present. Reducing competition would be counterproductive to the goals of a sourcing event, which aims to maximize value through competitive pressure from vetted suppliers.
- ✗
To allow the supplier to pay their own registration fees.
Why it's wrong here
Registration fees are a separate commercial arrangement between the supplier and the platform provider. They are unrelated to the qualification status within the client's internal SLP workflow. Qualification is focused on business readiness, not the financial status of a supplier's account with the Ariba network service provider.
About these practice questions
This C_ARSUM question is part of Courseiva's 250-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official SAP exam blueprint
This C_ARSUM practice question is part of Courseiva's free SAP certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the C_ARSUM exam.