ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT

Procurement Release 12.1 (through 12.1.3)

Prepared by EBS Product Management & Strategy

Last Updated: Version:

April 14, 2010 3.0

Copyright 2010 Oracle Corporation All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents

1. 2.
2.1.

Disclaimer Introduction
Purpose of Document

1 2
2

3.
3.1.

New and Changed Features in Procurement

Oracle iProcurement
3.1.1. Overview 3.1.2. Release 12.1.1 3.1.2.1. Change Management for Internal Requisitions 3.1.3. Release 12.1.2 3.1.3.1. In-line Commodity Classification

3
3
3 3 3 3 3

3.2.

Oracle iSupplier Portal

3.2.1. Overview 3.2.2. Release 12.1.1 3.2.2.1. Dispute Resolution for G-Log Invoices 3.2.2.2. AP/AR Netting 3.2.2.3. Products and Services Search 3.2.2.4. Business Classification Recertification 3.2.2.5. Third Party Payments 3.2.3. Release 12.1.3 3.2.3.1. Work Confirmation Correction

4
4 4 4 4 4 5 5 5 5

3.3.

Oracle Procurement Contracts

3.3.1. Overview 3.3.2. Release 12.1.1 3.3.2.1. Structured Terms Authoring in Repository Contracts 3.3.2.2. Secure Enterprise Search 3.3.2.3. Deliverable Payment Holds 3.3.3. Release 12.1.2 3.3.3.1. Author Individual Clauses in Microsoft Word 3.3.3.2. Project Manager Dashboard for Maintenance of Procurement Deliverables

5
5 6 6 6 6 7 7 8

3.4.

Oracle Purchasing
3.4.1. Overview 3.4.2. Release 12.1.1 3.4.2.1. PO and Requisition Mass Update 3.4.2.2. Enable All Sites for Global Contract Purchase Agreements 3.4.2.3. FPDS-NG Integration 3.4.3. Release 12.1.2 3.4.3.1. Purchase Order Pricing Enhancement 3.4.3.2. Project Security within Oracle Purchasing 3.4.3.3. Procurement Web Services Purchasing 3.4.4. Release 12.1.3 3.4.4.1. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration 3.4.4.2. Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) Integration

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9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 11 11 11
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Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

3.5.

Oracle Services Procurement

3.5.1. Overview 3.5.2. Release 12.1.1 3.5.2.1. Time Reporting and Contractor Assignment Flexibility 3.5.3. Release 12.1.2 3.5.3.1. Oracle Projects Work Confirmations

11
11 12 12 12 12

3.6.

Oracle Sourcing
3.6.1. Overview 3.6.2. Release 12.1.1 3.6.2.1. Two Stage Evaluation of RFP 3.6.2.2. Two Stage RFQ Surrogate Bids 3.6.2.3. Supplier Response PDF 3.6.2.4. Enhanced Spreadsheet Support 3.6.2.5. Countdown Clock 3.6.2.6. Price Tier Enhancements 3.6.2.7. Cost Factor Enhancements 3.6.3. Release 12.1.2 3.6.3.1. Earnest Money Deposit 3.6.4. Release 12.1.3 3.6.4.1. Requester Field in the Sourcing Header 3.6.4.2. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) in Oracle Sourcing Header

12
12 12 12 13 13 13 15 15 15 15 15 16 16 17

3.7.

Oracle Sourcing Optimization

3.7.1. Overview 3.7.2. Release 12.1.1 3.7.2.1. Sourcing Optimization Enhancements 3.7.2.2. Price Tier Optimization 3.7.2.3. Supplier Incentives

18
18 18 18 19 19

3.8.

Oracle Spend Classification New Product

3.8.1. Overview 3.8.2. Release 12.1.2 3.8.2.1. Integration with Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6 3.8.2.2. Knowledge Base Creation and Incremental Updates 3.8.2.3. Multiple Knowledge Bases 3.8.2.4. Easy to Use User Interface 3.8.2.5. Export and Import to Excel 3.8.2.6. Ability to Classify Data into Multiple Taxonomies 3.8.2.7. In-line Commodity Classification

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19 20 20 20 20 21 21 21 21

3.9.

Oracle Supplier Hub New Product

3.9.1. 3.9.2. Overview Release 12.1.1+

22
22 22

3.10.

Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management New Product

3.10.1. Overview 3.10.2. Release 12.1.1+ 3.10.2.1. 360 Supplier View 3.10.2.2. Supplier Search 3.10.2.3. Supplier Profile Management (including Self-Service) 3.10.2.4. Extended Supplier Profile 3.10.2.5. Registration and On-Boarding of New Suppliers 3.10.2.6. Qualification Management 3.10.2.7. Compliance and Profile Audits 3.10.2.8. Performance Evaluation 3.10.2.9. Supplier Notifications

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23 23 23 24 24 24 24 25 25 26 26

3.11.

Oracle Supplier Network

3.11.1. Overview 3.11.2. Version 5.0

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26 27

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3.11.2.1. 3.11.2.2. 3.11.2.3.

Consolidated Hub Administration Production Routing Controls UTF-8 Support

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Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

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1.

Disclaimer
This Release Content Document (RCD) describes product features that are proposed for the specified releases of the Oracle E-Business Suite. This document describes new or changed functionality only. Existing functionality from prior releases is not described. It is intended solely to help you assess the business benefits of upgrading to the specified release of the Oracle E-Business Suite. This document in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information that is the exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential material is subject to the terms and conditions of your Oracle Software License and Service Agreement, which has been executed and with which you agree to comply. This document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced or distributed to anyone outside Oracle without prior written consent of Oracle. This document is not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in planning for the implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle. Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all features described in this document without risking significant destabilization of the code.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

2.

Introduction
2.1. Purpose of Document
This Release Content Document (RCD) communicates information about new or changed functionality introduced in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and subsequent 12.1.x Release Update Packs and off-cycle patches. For your convenience, features are organized by product, and then by the release in which they first became available. Release 12.1.1 was the first generally-available release of Release 12.1. Features released in an off-cycle patch on Release 12.1.1, but before Release 12.1.2, are designated as Release 12.1.1+. Features released in RUP2 of Release 12.1 are designated as Release 12.1.2, and so on. Existing functionality in Release 12.0, Release 12.0.x Release Update Packs (RUPs), or prior releases is not described in this document. For a complete overview of all functionality included in prior releases, this document should be read in conjunction with the Release 12 and Release 12.0.x RUP RCDs. These RCDs can be found in My Oracle Support Document 404152.1 Release Content Documents for E-Business Suite Release 12 and 12.0.x Release Update Packs.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

3.

New and Changed Features in Procurement

3.1.

Oracle iProcurement
3.1.1. Overview
Oracle iProcurement is the self-service requisitioning application that controls employee spending. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.

3.1.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.1.2.1. Change Management for Internal Requisitions In Release 12.1.1, processing for internal orders has been enhanced to offer additional and better-coordinated change management capabilities. Now, quantity or date information can be updated by either the Requesting or Fulfillment organization and the updates will be accurately reflected on both the internal requisition and the internal sales order. In addition, support is now provided for the cancellation of internal transfer requests. All of these changes will now be visible throughout the planning, purchasing and order fulfillment workbenches. A requester can update Quantity and Need-By Date of an approved internal requisition. If desired, tolerances can be set for automatic approval of updates made to the internal requisition. Many new synchronization features are provided. Quantity and Need-By Date changes on the internal requisition line are automatically propagated to the internal sales order and vice versa. Cascading of an internal sales order Schedule Ship/Arrival date with the internal requisition is may be controlled through a profile option. Cancellation of an internal requisition/line will automatically cancel the corresponding internal sales order/line and vice versa. And finally, the urgent flag on the internal requisition line will flow onto the internal sales order line as the shipment priority, based on a profile option setting.

3.1.3.

Release 12.1.2
3.1.3.1. In-line Commodity Classification At times, requesters may need to order off catalog and create a Non-Catalog Request. When requesters describe the purchase, there is a high likelihood of it not being classified into an existing commodity hierarchy. This increases misclassification of spend information, contract leakage, lower compliance and internal controls. In R12.1.1 onwards, requesters creating Non-Catalog Requests will have the option of category being predicted for the purchase being made. After the requester clicks on Add to Cart they will be able to view a suggested best fit category with a list of categories that could be alternate possibilities. The same window can also be used to parse the complete Category hierarchy. This approach uses the Oracle Spend

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

Classification in real-time to assess the category of what the requester is ordering. The requester merely picks the purchasing category and continues checking out. This capability allows even unstructured requests to be categorized appropriately, aiding downstream spend analysis. This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Spend Classification.

3.2.

Oracle iSupplier Portal

3.2.1. Overview
Oracle iSupplier Portal is the enterprise application that structures all supplier communication through a secure, Internet-based portal. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.

3.2.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.2.2.1. Dispute Resolution for G-Log Invoices In situations where suppliers include sundry charges on a G-Log invoice, it is not uncommon for the buying organization to hold the invoice in order that the buyer can review any discrepancies between the invoice and the original Purchase Order. Depending on the nature of the additional charges, the buyer and supplier may negotiate a compromise and adjust the invoice accordingly. When such disputes occur, it is important that the supplier is able to log and track all activities for a particular invoice. To better help suppliers in these situations, new fields have been added to the View Invoice page so that the supplier can see the original value for their invoice and the reason for the discrepancy. 3.2.2.2. AP/AR Netting It is a common business practice in many industries to both purchase products or services from a trading partner and sell products or services to the same trading partner. In cases like this companies often offset payable and receivable invoices so that only the net difference is paid or received. This saves you and your trading partners the expenses associated with making multiple payments. The new feature will give iSupplier Portal users visibility into the AP/AR netting activity, so they can easily see which invoices will be paid standalone, which invoices will be offset against receivable transactions, and which groups of invoices will be paid by a single payment. On the View Invoices and Payments pages, if a particular invoice has been netted, the users will be able to see the Netted Amount and the Reckoning Currency. Furthermore, the users will be able to drill down to the Netting Report, which will show all transactions that are a part of the netting batch. 3.2.2.3. Products and Services Search A new search tool has been added to the Products and Services section of the Supplier Profile to make it much easier for suppliers and administrators to find and select the

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

goods or services categories that identify a supplier's capabilities. This is especially useful for those customers that have an extensive Products and Services hierarchy with many thousands of individual categories from which to choose. The new feature is available within both the Profile Management pages for existing suppliers and the prospective supplier registration flow. 3.2.2.4. Business Classification Recertification For those businesses required to track the business classification details of their suppliers, it has always been a challenge to keep this information up to date to the satisfaction of auditors. Now, a recertification tool has been added to the Business Classification section of the Supplier Profile that tracks the "Last Update" date for the supplier's classification details and allow administrators to schedule reminder notifications to be sent to each supplier as this information becomes due. This feature significantly reduces risk and administrative burden for buying organizations because they will no longer need to manage the recertification process manually. 3.2.2.5. Third Party Payments Third party payments help parties engaged in business set off their liabilities without directly paying them. This reduces the direct funds movements and enables transactions to be settled easily. When customers are making payments from their Payables system, there might be instructions from the supplier to make payment to a different party (Third Party). In that case the remittance of the payment has to be made to the Third Party. Establishing Third Party Payment relationship can be done from iSupplier Portal. Suppliers can add a new relationship and find and update existing relationships.

3.2.3.

Release 12.1.3
3.2.3.1. Work Confirmation Correction At times, there may be a need to correct a previously approved work confirmation in order to adjust a payment to a supplier. This capability enables a buyer to reduce the scope of the original work confirmation, when an error is made during data entry for the work confirmation. Work Confirmation Correction is possible via Purchasing Professional Buyers Work Center and iSupplier Portal internal view. Buyers can be granted the additional authority to make corrections as needed. Buyers that are granted this authority will be able to make corrections to approved Work Confirmation.

3.3.

Oracle Procurement Contracts

3.3.1. Overview
Oracle Procurement Contracts is the enterprise application that creates and enforces better purchasing contracts. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts supply management costs.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

3.3.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.3.2.1. Structured Terms Authoring in Repository Contracts The Contracts Repository module enables customers to easily manage all their contracts online. It provides basic contract management capabilities and global, secure visibility to key stakeholders. Users can create Repository contracts by capturing key attributes about the contract (like contract party, dates, amount, etc.) and manage the document files associated with the contract. Users can also track key deliverables and contract expiration. With Release 12.1.1, users can now author structured terms and conditions while creating a Repository contract. These terms are based on standard templates, clauses and policies defined in the contract terms library. Users can also use the Contract Expert feature to bring in additional clauses that may be required based on the business terms of the particular contract. The contract can then be printed for signature, or exported to Microsoft Word for redlining/collaboration with the external party. The deviations report functionality will provide a quick overview of all policy violations in the contract. Structured terms authoring promotes standards based contract authoring and reduces the overall time-to-contract. Risk associated with non-standard contracts is also mitigated by ensuring approvers have visibility to all policy violations. 3.3.2.2. Secure Enterprise Search Business and legal users sometimes wish to locate contracts containing a certain word or phrase. Oracle Procurement Contracts now leverages Oracles Secure Enterprise Search to better search against procurement, sales, and repository contracts. Business and legal users can perform full-text queries in conjunction with structured data queries. Secure Enterprise Search provides flexibility to match user entered keywords to search both structured text, such as contract terms, and unstructured text, such as text contained in attached documents. Additional structured contract attributes may be used to further refine the search, and include: contract number, contract name, supplier/customer/party name, contract status, start date, and end date. Unstructured data/text search functionality requires licensing of Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES). 3.3.2.3. Deliverable Payment Holds Engineering and Construction (E&C) firms have unique requirements regarding subcontractor management, subcontractor payment, and customer billing. Pay When Paid is a payment term common in this industry, where sub-contractors are not paid until the customer pays the general contractor. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to require subcontractors to maintain specified insurance coverage and other work related certifications. The general contractor frequently reserves the right to withhold payments to subcontractors until proof of insurance or proof of certifications has been provided. The following features enable users to track such requirements and to automate the payment hold process. This feature requires additional products to be licensed for full functionality described below, including Financials and Services Procurement. 3.3.2.3.1. Payment Hold Deliverables

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

Tracking insurance and certification requirements is often a cumbersome and manual process. Deliverables will be used to track these requirements. Initiate Payment Holds functionality will provide users the ability to initiate payment holds on all future invoices when a deliverable approaches its due date or when a deliverable becomes overdue. For example, a subcontractor may be required to be licensed yearly. To ensure that licensing happens, the buyer or project manager can define a deliverable to hold all payments if the subcontractor fails to renew his license. 3.3.2.3.2. Payables Integration In Release 12.1.1, new hold and release reasons are seeded in Oracle Payables. A PO Deliverable hold can be placed on all supplier invoices that are matched to a purchase order that has a deliverable with payment hold terms and is nearly due or is overdue. Releases may be automatic or manual. A concurrent process automates the release of PO Deliverable Payment holds. The process is submitted automatically when the user updates the Due Date for a deliverable that is within the defined payment hold terms. Project managers can also use the Subcontractor Payment Management Workbench to manage Deliverables. A Payment Hold Status and Payment Indicator allow users to quickly see whether all deliverables have been met and determine whether payments can be made to the subcontractor. Project managers can override the automatic payment holds caused by overdue purchase order deliverables. 3.3.2.3.3. Support for Pay When Paid Scenarios Many construction firms adhere to a Pay when Paid policy for subcontract agreements, in order to manage cash flow for a project. Specifically, construction companies will hold the payment of subcontractor bills until the construction firm has been paid by the owner. Now, a Pay when Paid payment term may be specified for a subcontract to automatically result in the placing of holds on all subcontractor invoices under that subcontract until the corresponding customer payment is received. A new Subcontract Payment Controls workbench allows the project manager to manage these holds, with visibility into both the customer invoices and the associated subcontractor invoices. Alerted by workflow notifications once the customer payment is received, the project manager can then choose to automatically or manually release the corresponding subcontractor invoices. The associations between the customer invoices and the subcontractor invoices may be automatically maintained based on the billing of project expenditures in the case of a cost-plus contract, or manually maintained for fixed price contract scenarios.

3.3.3.

Release 12.1.2
3.3.3.1. Author Individual Clauses in Microsoft Word Legal clauses are typically managed in Word documents. Organizations using Oracle EBusiness Suite for their enterprise contract management need to be able to create and update clauses using a rich text editor such as Microsoft Word.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

With 12.1.2, users can directly create and edit the clauses in Microsoft Word leveraging additional formatting features. Importing clause text from Microsoft Word and exporting clause text to Microsoft Word for edit have been incorporated into both the Contract Terms Library and the Contract Authoring Flow. The following formats will be preserved as defined in Microsoft Word:

Bold, italic, text color, and underlines Standard bullets available in Word Numbering schemes (roman numerals, alphabets, numbers) and their indents including hanging indents List items with non-numbered text between them Indent and tabs (Tab spacing/width is determined based on style sheet information) Line spacing Text alignment (left, right, and center justification) Table formatting
Hyperlinks, page breaks, and symbols defined in Unicode

This feature requires Microsoft Word Professional 2003 or 2007. 3.3.3.2. Project Manager Dashboard for Maintenance of Procurement Deliverables A new feature in Release 12.1.1 provided support for the tracking and monitoring of subcontract deliverables that place automatic holds on subcontractor invoices in the case of non-compliance. For example, if a subcontractor fails to provide their insurance certificate in a timely fashion per the subcontract terms, holds are automatically placed on incoming invoices based on the contractual deliverable. Upon complying, the hold is released. Also in 12.1.1, a new Payment Controls Workbench in Oracle Projects allows the project manager to view a checklist of all subcontract deliverables to assist in evaluating the subcontractor status prior to releasing monthly progress payments. Project managers are frequently responsible for subcontractor management. In 12.1.2, the Payment Controls Workbench has been enhanced to allow project managers to directly update subcontract deliverables. A project manager with proper security privileges can update existing deliverables or define new deliverables to track future subcontractor obligations. A project manager can also apply payment holds even when the Pay when Paid attribute has not been checked. This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Projects.

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

3.4.

Oracle Purchasing
3.4.1. Overview
Oracle Purchasing is the application for procurement professionals that streamlines purchase order processing while strengthening policy compliance. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts supply management costs.

3.4.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.4.2.1. PO and Requisition Mass Update Oracle Purchasing includes a new capability to mass update buyer, approver, and deliverto person information in Purchase Orders (PO) and preparer, requester and approver information on requisitions to streamline the process of maintaining organizational changes. A new program, Mass Close of Purchase Document, allows users to mass close Purchase documents. The Mass Close functionality applies to Purchase Orders that have been fully processed i.e. batch processing has completed, but are not in the closed status as well as for Purchase Orders that the user needs to manually close. The program is applicable to Standard Purchase Orders, Blanket Purchase Agreements, Planned Purchase Orders and Contract Agreement and Blanket Releases 3.4.2.2. Enable All Sites for Global Contract Purchase Agreements A new feature Enable All Sites in Global Contract Purchase Agreement has been introduced to allow Contracts to be referenced from any of the valid supplier sites while creating standard PO and requisitions. This allows broader use of GCPA, such as for suppliers with many valid sites in a single master agreement. Additionally, a profile option has been added to allow a Requisition or Standard Purchase Order to reference a GCPA from any of the Supplier Sites while the GCPA is being amended. By default, the profile option is set to No to preserve current behavior. 3.4.2.3. FPDS-NG Integration Most U.S. Federal Government agencies must track and report their contract activity in a variety of ways, including publishing certain contract activity to the Federal Procurement Data System Next Generation (FPDS-NG). Oracle Purchasing Release 12.1.1 provides support for integration with FPDS-NG by ensuring that required contract and vendor data elements are captured in the system and that submission data passes all required FPDSNG validations.

3.4.3.

Release 12.1.2
3.4.3.1. Purchase Order Pricing Enhancement Oracle Purchasing has extended its integration with Advanced Pricing to provide greater granularity and flexibility in pricing orders and agreements. The extended integration

Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

also provides greater transparency to the means by which a price has been determined for orders and agreements. Oracle Purchasing users can now: View the pricing modifier information for a purchase order and/or Global Blanket Purchase Agreement line and view the pre-calculated price adjustments applied by the price engine. Manually enter a price modifier, change modifier rate, and recalculate the price. Query existing manual modifiers and apply them to a Purchase Order and Global Blanket Purchase Agreement unit price. Change the modifier rate and apply changes to PO or Global Blanket Purchase Agreement Line.

These new features provide an accurate view of pricing information to the buyer, increased flexibility for buyers to price an order, and streamlined supplier communication on prices. 3.4.3.2. Project Security within Oracle Purchasing It is common in project-centric industries like Engineering and Construction for buyers to be assigned to projects rather than to commodities or item categories. Buyers only have authority to transact on behalf of the projects to which they are assigned. To help enforce this business rule, project level security is being introduced in Oracle Purchasing. When the new security option is enabled, procurement users will only be allowed to view and update procurement documents that are related to a project on which the user has an active role. This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Projects. 3.4.3.3. Procurement Web Services Purchasing This feature exposes business logic contained within user forms through Java APIs. These web services are cataloged in the Oracle Integration Repository and can be browsed though Oracle Integration Repository Browser Interface under the respective product family node. By clicking on the Business Entity in the Integration Repository, you can view a full description, a list of web services for that business entity along with the description of the web service. The description of parameters can be viewed from the xsd definition of the service available via the generated wsdl. As part of 12.1.2, the following web services are provided for Purchasing: Purchase Order: Cancel Purchase Order, Create Purchase Order, Delete Purchase Order, Approve Purchase Order, Query Purchase Order, and Update Purchase Order Requisition: Create Requisition, Delete Requisition, Query Requisition, and Update Requisition. Note that these support requisitions in iProcurement as well as Purchasing.

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3.4.4.

Release 12.1.3
3.4.4.1. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration Oracle Landed Cost Management gives organizations financial visibility into their extended supply chain costs including transportation, handling fees, regulatory duties and taxes and helps them to determine the landed cost of the material for transactional purposes. This allows organizations to have better control over procurement costs, maximize profits, increase competitiveness, and ensure that complex trade activities are compliant with regulatory mandates This integration allows purchasing users to simulate the Landed Costs at the creation time of purchase orders, allowing better procurement decisions based on the estimated Landed Cost of the items.

3.4.4.2. Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) Integration Encumbrance Accounting for Purchase Orders with Shop Floor Destination In EBS Release 12.1.2, the implementation of encumbrance reversal for SCM was limited to Inventory and Expense Receiving transactions. Now in Release 12.1.3, this functionality has been extended to Shop Floor destination Purchase Orders, where the distributions will be created under WIP transactions. Purchasing will support encumbering funds for Purchase Orders generated from eAM (with a Shop Floor destination) during the approval process. All public sector organizations, such as municipal, state, provincial and federal government organizations are required to encumber or reserve funds that have been committed to a supply purchase order. Therefore, prior to approval of any purchasing document, the available funds must be checked and reserved against the available budget for the specified account code combination. This enhancement is key for budgetary control.

3.5.

Oracle Services Procurement

3.5.1. Overview
Oracle Services Procurement is the application that enables complete control and oversight for services spending. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs. Oracle Services Procurement further streamlines all aspects of the acquisition process for complex services including: Negotiation of service contracts with emphasis on terms related to contract financing and progress payment arrangements Tracking of work progress against agreed schedule in the contract Processing of payment requests
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Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.3 Release Content Document

By supporting real time online collaboration involving key stakeholders throughout the lifecycle, organizations can significantly improve the acquisition process of this important spend category.

3.5.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.5.2.1. Time Reporting and Contractor Assignment Flexibility For Services Procurement, Release 12.1.1 is focused on customer driven enhancements delivering greater flexibility for time reporting and contractor assignment. Key capabilities included maximizing preferred supplier savings, cutting processing costs, eliminating over-billing and providing visibility into services spending. Oracle continues to enhance and streamline the workflow for Contingent Workers by: Allowing multiple PO and PO lines to be associated with each assignment so that when workers are extended and a new requisition is added to an existing PO, a new PO line is automatically created. Enabling workers to charge time to multiple projects referenced on a PO line associated to the workers HR assignment.

3.5.3.

Release 12.1.2
3.5.3.1. Oracle Projects Work Confirmations The workflow for work confirmations, in Release 12.1.2, is more flexible and supports additional ways to record and display progress. Key benefits include: On a work confirmation for a PO, users now have the ability to enter incremental or cumulative progress values, as absolute amount or percentage Users now have the complete visibility to the progress as they can view the absolute and percentage values for both incremental and cumulative progress.

3.6.

Oracle Sourcing
3.6.1. Overview
Oracle Sourcing is the enterprise application that improves the effectiveness and efficiency of strategic sourcing. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs. Oracle Sourcing enables buyers to source more of the organizations spend at lower total cost. Oracle Sourcing creates immediate savings through rapid deployment, and ensures long-term savings with consistent execution and compliance.

3.6.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.6.2.1. Two Stage Evaluation of RFP In certain global markets, government organizations and some private sector enterprises often follow a formal two stage negotiation process. The two stage negotiation process requires the submission of bids from suppliers that can be evaluated based on technical

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and commercial aspects separately to help ensure fair evaluation of supplier bids. In Oracle Sourcing, organizations can now evaluate suppliers bids in two independent stages based on the technical and commercial parts of the bids. The first stage includes the technical evaluation of all responses to questions and parameters pertaining to the technical aspects that are used by the sourcing organization to evaluate the technical feasibility and capabilities of the suppliers. During this stage, commercial aspects remain sealed so that they do not influence the decision making process. For bids that fail the technical evaluation, the commercial part will remain sealed. Evaluators can then analyze the commercial aspects (such as price and delivery terms) for only those bids passing the technical stage. By adding support for two stage RFP in Oracle Sourcing, organizations can help ensure a more impartial evaluation of supplier bids based on the independent evaluation of the technical capabilities and then the commercial terms of a suppliers bid. 3.6.2.2. Two Stage RFQ Surrogate Bids The new two stage RFQ process also includes Surrogate Bidding support, allowing a buyer to enter, in stages, bid details on behalf of a supplier(s). During the first stage, the buyer is able to enter the surrogate quote with all the required technical details but without price information. Once all of the supplier bids have been received, technical scoring is done against the requirements and attributes in RFQ. For those suppliers that score well in the technical round, their bids will be short listed for the commercial round. During the commercial round, the buyer can then complete the surrogate bidding process for those suppliers not carrying out their own bidding. The buyer is able to enter the commercial terms provided by a supplier to enable scoring for the commercial round to be completed. Upon approval of the quote, it is short-listed for placing the purchase order or contract. 3.6.2.3. Supplier Response PDF Organizations often have the need to keep a physical record of a suppliers bid response for audit, reference, or offline review purposes. Oracle Sourcing Release 12.1.1 adds the ability to generate a PDF version of a suppliers response, which allows suppliers to print the PDF for draft and submitted bids. In addition, buyers can print the supplier bids allowing buyers to review responses offline or to save for their internal records. 3.6.2.4. Enhanced Spreadsheet Support In Release 12.1.1, Oracle Souring provides an enhanced XML spreadsheet format to support a standard look-and-feel and streamlined usability of the spreadsheets for supplier response creation and analysis/award. Buyers and suppliers can download all the information in one single spreadsheet, simplifying the loading and maintaining of spreadsheets for a negotiation.

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Response Lines

Line Filter

Bid Total Calculated Instantly

Link to Scoring Worksheet

Predefined List of Values

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Fig. 1: Line Level Response for Suppliers

The spreadsheets for supplier response creation not only has an improved and user friendly look and feel, but it can provide immediate feedback to suppliers through the robust formulas used to calculate scores, even when they are not connected to the system. The enhanced spreadsheets will allow buyers and suppliers to enter the data more efficiently and reduce the number of errors during data entry in the offline environment, thus improving the overall user experience during the process.

Analysis Lines
Overall Savings Calculated Instantly

Side-by-Side Bid Comparison

Perform What-If Analysis

Award and Savings Amount per Supplier Calculated Instantly

Copyright 2006, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Fig. 2: Buyer Analysis of Bid Responses from Suppliers

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Buyers also have a more powerful tool to conduct analysis of supplier responses and make smarter award decisions. Buyers can easily view totals and savings, conduct whatif analysis of different award scenarios, and view side-by-side comparison of all elements of supplier responses. 3.6.2.5. Countdown Clock In fast-paced auctions, the countdown clock will help to promote more competitive behavior among suppliers. Suppliers will know the exact amount of time left to create and submit their bids or quotes. The countdown clock updates automatically if there are changes in the negotiation close date (for example, if AutoExtend is triggered). The performance of the countdown clock is also optimized so that unnecessary use of network bandwidth is minimized. Buyers who monitor the negotiations from Live Console will also be able to monitor precisely how soon the negotiation will be closing. Buyers who monitor supplier activities will also see the time ticking down without manually refreshing the page. In addition to auctions, the countdown clock will apply to additional negotiation types of RFQ and RFI. 3.6.2.6. Price Tier Enhancements Suppliers have flexibility to offer different unit prices depending on the volume of business that the buyer is willing to commit for a given product or service. Typically, a supplier will provide preferential pricing for a larger volume purchase. Quantity based price tiers allow buyers to specify different price points for each quantity range on negotiations with standard purchase order, blanket or contract purchase agreement outcomes. Suppliers can respond to the tier structure defined by the buyer, or they can provide their own price tiers. Users can define quantity based price tiers when creating negotiations for Blanket Purchase Agreements. Buyers can select whether they want to have price breaks, quantity based, or no price tiers in the negotiation. When price tiers are enabled, buyers can define the quantity range and the target price for each tier within a line. Similarly, suppliers can create their own price tiers when they submit a bid. The award price is based on the tier that corresponds to the award quantity assigned to each supplier. 3.6.2.7. Cost Factor Enhancements Cost factors allow buyers to model the total cost of a product or service. Cost factors operate under one of these three pricing basis: (1) per unit cost (2) percentage of the unit price (3) fixed amount for the line. This enhancement improves the calculation of the per unit total cost when fixed amount cost factors are used and the buyer awards a supplier a quantity that is either equal to or lower than the response quantity. Whereas before Oracle Sourcing used the response quantity to calculate the per unit total cost, the new formula utilizes the award quantity to distribute the fixed amount cost factor resulting in a more accurate award amount calculation.

3.6.3.

Release 12.1.2
3.6.3.1. Earnest Money Deposit In certain global markets, particularly in APAC and EMEA, government organizations and some private sector enterprises often follow a formal process of taking EMD

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(Earnest Money Deposit) from their suppliers. A supplier, unless exempted, has to pay the EMD amount to the buying organization in order to participate in any Sourcing negotiation. This EMD amount is usually refunded after the negotiation is completed. Buying organizations can leverage these capabilities to ensure the supply base is seriously interested in providing a competitive bid. Oracle Sourcing supports various EMD payment methods, namely: a. b. c. d. Cash Check (Cheque) Demand Draft Corporate EMD. Corporate EMD is a practice where a supplier deposits a large amount with the buying company and the EMD is adjusted against this amount. e. Bank Guarantee EMD is received by the EMD Administrator, a new responsibility made available for EMD transactions, or can be paid online by the suppliers (Corporate EMD). The EMD Administrator can exempt a supplier from paying EMD, or refund or forfeit the EMD amount, depending on the business policies. There is an out-of-the-box integration with Oracle Financials, so that the receipt, forfeit and refund of EMD can leverage Oracle Receivables and Oracle Payables. For customers not using Oracle Financials, there is a non-integrated EMD deployment process where the company can still use the EMD feature in Oracle Sourcing. There are reports available for the buying organization to validate the EMD status and details for different negotiations and suppliers. This feature in Oracle Sourcing ensures that the end-to-end sourcing process for the buying organization can be performed using Oracle Sourcing application, and customers will not have to rely on processes outside the application to complete their sourcing negotiations. This shortens the sourcing cycle which otherwise can lead to delays in receiving and returning the EMD amount and affects the productivity of buying organization due to manual checks and coordination. Also, all EMD related information is retained in the application which can be leveraged for future reference and audit requirements.

3.6.4.

Release 12.1.3
3.6.4.1. Requester Field in the Sourcing Header At times, there is a need to capture the name of the business owner of the negotiation or in the case where the owner/sponsor is separate from the person running the negotiation. The requester field is available in the negotiation header (RFI, RFQ and Auctions). The default value is the buyer, but it can be updated as shown in the screenshot below. This field can be used to capture the name of the business owner of the negotiation or in the case where the owner / sponsor is separate from the person running the negotiation.

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Fig. 3: Requester Field in the Sourcing Header Page

Please note that the field, by default, is not available in the application and can be made available though personalization.

3.6.4.2. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) in Oracle Sourcing Header Often, buyers have a need to provide additional information on the header page, for example, information on contract value, final project approver, etc. Headers attributes are of two types: a) Visible to Buyers only (who have access to negotiation) and b) Visible to both the buyer and supplier. As shown in the figure below, there are two DFFs in the negotiation header page which helps to capture these attributes: Additional Header Attributes (Buyer Only) Additional Header Attributes (Buyer & Supplier)

Fig. 4: Descriptive Flex Field in Oracle Sourcing Header Page

The buyer can create different contexts which will control the different attributes displayed. For example, in this case the context additional supplier information selection displayed the contact address, contact number and budget sanctioned attributes. These fields can be used to convey additional negotiation related information to the buyer and supplier community. Please note that the DFFs, by default, are not available in the application and can be made available though personalization

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3.7.

Oracle Sourcing Optimization

3.7.1. Overview
When allocating business to suppliers, buyers often must strive to meet multiple purchasing goals and business policies. For example: award at least 10% business to minority-owned suppliers, no single supplier should get more than 80% of the total business, or at least half of the business should go to incumbent suppliers. It can be challenging to achieve maximum savings while meeting such business policies, particularly if there are many line items and a large number of competitive bids. Oracle Sourcing Optimization can help by allowing the buyer to create scenarios that can be automatically optimized to determine the best award, while adhering to policies and goals defined on the scenario. This results in better and faster award decisions.

3.7.2.

Release 12.1.1
3.7.2.1. Sourcing Optimization Enhancements Sourcing Optimization has several enhancements to assist buyers in making optimal award decisions. Buyers can now determine a constraint priority for award optimization by indicating the importance of a given constraint. The concept of setting up priorities for constraints will help the optimization engine identify which constraints can be automatically relaxed when, otherwise, no solution exist. By automatically relaxing a constraint, the engine may find an acceptable solution, saving the buyer time and avoiding an iterative process for optimizing. Upon optimizing a scenario, buyers will be able to analyze the cost of a particular constraint. Buyers typically want to evaluate by how much an award decision results on a more expensive award because of a business constraint (i.e., the additional cost imposed by a business constraint). Cost of constraint refers to the difference in price (or cost or score) that occurs in an optimized award solution vs. what would be achievable were that constraint removed. Oracle Sourcing will now simplify the cost of constraint analysis by allowing buyers to select the constraint that they want to evaluate and returning the cost associated to the selected constraint. With the cost of constraint feature, buyers can determine how much more expensive is an award decision because of a business constraint. Buyers will also have the ability to view award optimization scenarios side-by-side to compare the results of different optimization approaches. Buyers will select what scenarios they want to display side-by-side and Oracle Sourcing will show award amounts and savings for those scenarios. Buyers will be able to effectively see the before and after effects of changes made to the optimization criteria and/or weightings when reviewing optimization results. With Quantity based constraints, buyers can now indicate award allocation not only in terms of award amount, but also in terms of award quantity. For example, 15% of all units should be awarded to minority owned suppliers allowing for more control over the optimization constraints.

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3.7.2.2. Price Tier Optimization Suppliers typically have their own price tiers that meet their business realities. Analyzing dissimilar tier structures is a very complex and time consuming activity. This process is greatly streamlined by the use of Oracle Sourcing Optimization. When Oracle Sourcing Optimization is used to find the best award scenario in a negotiation, the optimization engine analyzes all combinations of price tiers submitted by suppliers to determine the best award recommendation. Award quantities specified in the award recommendation are used to assign the correct unit price to the resulting purchasing documents. 3.7.2.3. Supplier Incentives Suppliers often provide incentives to increase the level of business transacted with the buying organization. The incentives can be in the form of a fixed amount (e.g., signing bonus), a tiered rebate structure (e.g., rebates that occur when a predetermined level of business is reached), or both. These additional savings through incentives may directly impact the award decisions that buyers make. How much business a buyer awards to each supplier determines whether additional rebates apply, and, therefore, the additional savings need to be factored in the award scenario analysis. Oracle Sourcing Optimization allows buyers to enter the incentives given by suppliers. Buyers can enter the current total spend and rebate percentage for each supplier, and the rebate structure for any extra award made on top of the current spend. In addition, a fixed amount incentive can be specified to account for a signing or transition bonus. Oracle Sourcing Optimization uses these values to calculate the additional savings yielded by the incentives, and adds the amount to the total savings in the award scenario. Buyers can then use the information to make more informed award decisions.

3.8.

Oracle Spend Classification New Product

3.8.1. Overview
One of the biggest benefits from business intelligence applications that analyze spend derives from the consolidation of spend data from multiple sources. Whether from many sources, or just one, it is generally true that spending data is inadequately categorized for use by procurement. One of the reasons is an emphasis on recording accounting information, which often reveals little of the purchasing category. In most organizations, a majority of spend data is not categorized, categorized incorrectly, or categorized as miscellaneous. This leads to a skewed picture of the breakdown of spend, resulting in poor visibility to identify saving opportunities. Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics (P&SA) includes adaptors that load data from many sources, including Oracle E-Business Suite 11i9, 11i10, R12, Oracle Peoplesoft Enterprise 8.9, 9.0, legacy, and other sources. Spend Classification processes the data contained in P&SA and predicts appropriate category information for each invoice line. To be able to do the predictions, Spend Classification uses existing categorized data from PS&A to create a knowledge base. Features in Spend Classification allow data stewards to test and validate the learning performance, ensuring the knowledge base is performing classification at adequate levels. Once the knowledge base has been built, the product can be used to classify spend data residing in P&SA.

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Fig. 5: Oracle Spend Classification, Classification Summary Page

3.8.2.

Release 12.1.2
3.8.2.1. Integration with Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6 Spend Classification is integrated with Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6 (P&SA), a component of Oracle BI Applications. It processes data from OBIA tables for invoice, purchasing, and requisition information. After Spend Classification predicts purchasing categories for spend lines, it reassigns categories in P&SA where it has a high confidence rating of a successful match. 3.8.2.2. Knowledge Base Creation and Incremental Updates Spend Classification uses a sample of existing and accurately categorized spend data to learn successful categorization based on a wide range of an organizations data. The product allows the users to enrich the knowledge base with incremental data as data evolves to increase classification accuracy over time. 3.8.2.3. Multiple Knowledge Bases Spend Classification provides functionality to create a standard knowledge base that can predict categories at various levels of the purchasing category hierarchy. Spend Classification uses Oracle Data Mining as its engine for predictive analytics. Advanced users may use Data Mining to create any of the alternate supported Data Mining knowledge bases and then reference these knowledge bases from Spend Classification to process future spend data.

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3.8.2.4. Easy to Use User Interface Spend Classification uses Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, a component of Fusion middleware, for its user interface. Pages provide dynamic sorting of data, column level search, and filters. Users can drill down to segments of data directly from various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) defined for classification results.

Fig. 6: Oracle Spend Classification, Classification Details Page

3.8.2.5. Export and Import to Excel Spend Classification integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Excel. It allows users to export all data to Excel in order to do offline processing. If manual updates are made in Excel, the Excel file can be uploaded into OBIA. For example, this might be used in cases where the user decides to manually reassign categories. 3.8.2.6. Ability to Classify Data into Multiple Taxonomies Spend Classification can categorize spend data into different category taxonomies. Category taxonomies that are supported include: The category setup in a source financials system UNSPSC Three additional custom category taxonomies

There is no restriction on the number of levels defined for a category hierarchy. 3.8.2.7. In-line Commodity Classification At times, requesters may need to order off catalog and create a Non Catalog Request. When requesters describe the purchase, there is a high likelihood of it not being classified into an existing commodity hierarchy. This increases misclassification of spend information, contract leakage, lower compliance and internal controls.
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In R12.1.1 onwards, requesters creating Non Catalog Requests will have the option of category being predicted for the purchase being made. After the requester clicks on Add to Cart they will be able to view a suggested best fit category with a list of categories that could be alternate possibilities. The same window can also be used to parse the complete Category hierarchy. This approach uses the Oracle Spend Classification in real time to assess the category of what the requester is ordering. The requester merely picks the purchasing category and continues checking out. This capability allows even unstructured requests to be categorized appropriately, aiding downstream spend analysis.

3.9.

Oracle Supplier Hub New Product

3.9.1. Overview
Many organizations track supplier data in multiple ways, driven by the needs of different business units or unconnected business processes The result is disparate supplier definitions that make it difficult to have a complete and coherent summary of each trading partner. Oracle Supplier Hub is a new application that provides a portfolio of Master Data Management tools to enable organizations to better manage their supplier master records centrally. Built on the foundational technology used to support mastering of customer information, Supplier Hub can be used by both organizations that need to aggregate supplier data from a range of application systems and also by those running a single EBusiness Suite instance. Supplier Hub consolidates supplier information from disparate systems and business lines into a single repository, provides cleansing and third party enrichment tools for effective data management, and provides the resulting "single point of truth" supplier data as a service to consuming applications, enterprise business processes and decision support systems. Supplier Hub is a complementary solution to Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM). It can be implemented to extend the SLM capabilities by providing comprehensive quality management functionality to cleanse the underlying supplier identity information that has been enriched through the SLM tools. Deployment of Supplier Hub enables organizations to have a consistent understanding of the trading partners that they use to procure the various goods and services required to support their business. This clarity is essential in order to be able to carry out effective analysis of spending patterns so that appropriate tactical and strategic decisions can be made about specific supplier relationships and overall company procurement policies.

3.9.2.

Release 12.1.1+
Oracle Supplier Hub provides the following set of features: Supplier Master Profile Supplier Classification Management Supplier Hierarchy Management Supplier Data Import and Source Management
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Supplier Data Quality Management Supplier D&B Data Enrichment Supplier Data Publication and Synchronization

Full details about the capabilities of the Supplier Hub application can be found in the Master Data Management Release Content Document.

3.10. Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management New Product

3.10.1. Overview
Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) is a new application that provides an extensive set of features to support the qualification, profile management and performance assessment of suppliers as well as tools to track ongoing supplier compliance with corporate and legal requirements. Utilizing these capabilities, organizations can exercise proper control over suppliers throughout the lifecycle of their relationship with the organization; from initial discovery, through qualification and onboarding, to ongoing maintenance and possible obsolescence. A key factor in improving the quality of an organizations supplier master file is to establish proper processes to formally qualify different types of prospective suppliers. Supplier Lifecycle Management enables any and all of the peculiar information required to assess a prospect to be gathered and then routed through the organization to ensure efficient review of the suppliers credentials. Once a supplier has been approved, SLM also enables organizations to gather feedback from key stakeholders as part of an overall supplier performance tracking process. In addition, Supplier Lifecycle Management also allows key stakeholders to identify and track critical compliance documents and attributes that need to be gathered from suppliers on a periodic basis in order for the two parties to maintain an active business relationship.

3.10.2.

Release 12.1.1+
3.10.2.1. 360 Supplier View One of the challenges with managing supplier information is that the pieces of information gathered about a supplier can be stored in a variety of applications and systems. This data disbursement can hamper organizations as they look to review supplier performance or to comply with audit requirements. Supplier Lifecycle Management provides a repository for storing information from disparate sources and then enabling a 360 view of the data to be provided to the key business users within the organization. As well as access to basic supplier information such as Address, Contact, Business/Diversity Classification, General Classification, Product and Services category and Banking details - users will be able to review qualification and on-going evaluation details for the supplier, view key documents that have been included in the suppliers profile and check the status of Deliverables that the supplier is required to provide to maintain their status within the system.

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3.10.2.2. Supplier Search To assist administrators charged with managing the vendor master for their organizations, Advanced Search capabilities enable them to efficiently find and retrieve supplier records. The Advanced Search allows any of the standard and extended profile attributes to be used as search criteria and for the results to be viewed using multiple display formats. The profile information retrieved from the search can be exported in spreadsheet format, modified and then re-imported to enable mass data changes to be handled in an efficient manner. The Advanced Search criteria and display formats can be personalized both at the administrator and business user level. 3.10.2.3. Supplier Profile Management (including Self-Service) Most organizations maintain a team of administrators to deal with the flow of administrative updates from trading partners containing changes to their company profile details. To make this process more efficient, Supplier Lifecycle Management extends existing iSupplier Portal functionality to allow supplier users to be given online access to maintain a wider range of their own profile details. The supplier user can maintain standard company profile details; Address, Contacts, Business Diversity Classifications, Products and Services category and Banking Details. Changes they provide can then be reviewed by internal administrators before approval. Suppliers are also able to access qualification and on-going compliance information that they are required to provide to the buying organization to maintain their status in the system. 3.10.2.4. Extended Supplier Profile To better understand the capabilities of suppliers in key product categories, Supplier Lifecycle Management utilizes User Defined Attribute technology to allow administrators to add an unlimited range of attributes to the supplier definition and to group these into logical Profile sections. Typically, this is the sort of information stored in paper-based systems that are maintained by different departments throughout an organization. In addition to the attribute name, administrators are able to add descriptive text to help explain the purpose of the attribute. Fine-grained access control tools allow administrators to manage which users can have access to the individual attributes in the extended set of profile details. This is particularly important when sensitive information is stored in the profile and access needs to be restricted to appropriate users either internally or at the supplier. 3.10.2.5. Registration and On-Boarding of New Suppliers To help manage the stream of inquiries that come from supplier prospects interested in doing business with the buying organization, many companies now use their corporate websites to have potential suppliers register their interest in establishing a business relationship. This allows the organization to get key information from the supplier that can be used to qualify whether they are a suitable trading partner. Supplier Lifecycle Management provides a supplier registration feature that can be configured by business unit to gather the data elements required to assess each prospective supplier request. The registration form can be configured to include
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Address, Contacts, Business Classification, Product and Services category, Banking detail and any of the Extended Supplier Profile attributes. The prospective supplier can also upload attachments as part of their registration packet. To support sophisticated and conditional qualification procedures, administrators can also establish RFI documents that allow various profile and compliance information from the prospect to be captured using a questionnaire format. In addition to the walk-up process, buyers can pre-register and send invitations to prospective suppliers, requesting them to provide additional details for pre-qualification and approval using the self-service capability. To support complex or lengthy supplier registration, prospective suppliers can save their draft registration request at any time, and return to it at a later date. Once a prospective supplier has registered, their request is routed through an approval hierarchy for review. 3.10.2.6. Qualification Management For many organizations, the processes for assessing new supplier relationships are cumbersome and inefficient. In an effort to ensure that business gets done, companies often support multiple channels for receiving new supplier requests and then follow a very limited or haphazard procedure to review supplier credentials. Oftentimes, this is a poorly coordinated manual process that requires tasks to be sequenced and tracked across multiple departments as credit checks are carried out, customer references called, quality standards reviewed and production facilities inspected. Supplier Lifecycle Management leverages the Approval Management Engine to allow companies to generate customized approval flows for processing supplier requests and registrations. The details for each new supplier can be passed to multiple stakeholders across many departments within the buying organization. Approvers are notified when they are required to review a request and can check graphically the overall approval status for a given request. As part of the approval routing, SLM includes the qualification information collected from the supplier as well as incremental feedback provided by business users assessing the request. This allows basic supplier profile and qualification details to be gathered, deliverables like Insurance certificates and Code of Conduct documents to be stored and Products and Services information to be recorded within the Qualification packet. The buying organization can apply business rules that will use the details in the request to customize the approval flow so that the appropriate approvers can look at the details. Once a registration request has been approved or rejected, the supplier is automatically notified by email. Following approval, the qualification details provided by a supplier become part of their profile that can be updated at a later date. 3.10.2.7. Compliance and Profile Audits Whilst there are regulatory requirements for some types of organization to keep key supplier profile elements up to date, this is also an important process for a lot of nonregulated organizations that are looking to meet Corporate Social Responsibility standards that they have set for themselves.

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Supplier Lifecycle Management enables administrators to utilize the RFI tools to gather and manage supplier compliance and profile information that are required on an anniversary basis. They can define key compliance information that is required from suppliers and then store the feedback provided by the supplier into the supplier master profile record. 3.10.2.8. Performance Evaluation Companies recognize that employees who interact with suppliers can provide insightful feedback on soft performance metrics for the supplier. Being able to canvas opinion from these key stakeholders and then use the information to help drive an overall assessment of a suppliers performance is a key part of any collaborative program intended to help improve supplier relationships. Supplier Lifecycle Management will allow administrators to generate internal RFI documents that can be sent to key personnel within the organization to evaluate and score specific aspects of a suppliers overall performance. This will allow stakeholders in a diverse range of departments, such as Procurement, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality, Design and Legal, to combine their opinions into a rating of how well the supplier is doing. The feedback gathered about the supplier is stored in the supplier profile allowing performance trends to be tracked and risk to be effectively managed. 3.10.2.9. Supplier Notifications To assist with supplier communication, Supplier Lifecycle Management provides tools to allow notifications to be selectively communicated to a companys supply base. Administrators enter notification information and then use search tools to generate the list of suppliers that are to receive the message.

3.11. Oracle Supplier Network

3.11.1. Overview
The Oracle Supplier Network (Oracle SN) enables Oracle Purchasing customers and their suppliers to accelerate collaboration and deliver significant efficiency savings by conducting business electronically. Buying organizations are able to achieve quick cost savings by leveraging the community of enabled suppliers on Oracle SN where thousands of XML transactions are exchanged daily. An Oracle-run service utilizing an Internet-based hub transaction model, Oracle SN provides a wide range of features that are designed to ease the challenges of electronic messaging. Single Connection: Oracle SN is a messaging hub so each organization need only setup a single connection to get access to the community of buyers/suppliers Multiple Document and Transformation Support: The buying organization and its suppliers can exchange Purchase Orders, PO Acknowledgments, PO Change Requests, Advanced Shipment Notices and Invoices that can be automatically converted between OAG and cXML formats
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Self-Testing: Trading partners do not have to coordinate connectivity testing. Instead, Oracle SN allows each partner to utilize a Test Hub to send and receive sample documents to validate their connection Supplier Punch-in access to multiple customer Oracle iSupplier Portal applications

3.11.2.

Version 5.0
Oracle SN 5.0 is the most recent release and offers a range of new features. 3.11.2.1. Consolidated Hub Administration Streamlined account administration tools allow administrators to manage all the messaging configurations for both their test and production transactions from a single account login. Users no longer migrate account setup between hubs. Instead users control separate transaction delivery parameters centrally for routing over the Oracle SN Test Hub and the Oracle SN Production Hub. 3.11.2.2. Production Routing Controls Users can restrict specific trading partners from exchanging production messages. 3.11.2.3. UTF-8 Support UTF-8 message encoding enables Oracle SN to route messages containing multibyte languages.

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