Update 21B

Revision History

This document will continue to evolve as existing sections change and new information is added. All updates appear in the following table:

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update.

DISCLAIMER

The information contained in this document may include statements about Oracle’s product development plans. Many factors can materially affect Oracle’s product development plans and the nature and timing of future product releases. Accordingly, this Information is provided to you solely for information only, 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 remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.

This information may not be incorporated into any contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates. Oracle specifically disclaims any liability with respect to this information. Refer to the Legal Notices and Terms of Use for further information.

Cross-Product Procurement Enhancements

Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services

In this update, Oracle Procurement Cloud delivers new and modified REST APIs to enable and simplify integration with external systems.

Approvals and Notifications

This section provides details about a shared feature that's related to approvals and notifications. This feature is also described in Oracle Common Technologies and User Experience: New Features Summary, Update 21B.

Display Reminder Prefix for Approval Notifications

The prefix "Reminder" is attached by default to the beginning of the title for reminder notifications related to approvals. This can be configured by specifying a value for the Add Reminder Prefix to Notification Title (BPM_REMINDER_PREFIX) profile option.

Adding this prefix improves the visibility of reminder notifications related to approvals.

Configure Commenting Options for Approval and Rejection (Updated)

Configure commenting options for approving and rejecting workflow tasks. You can configure comments as mandatory or optional; you can also restrict approvers from entering comments. You can use this feature to adhere to regulatory compliance requirements that mandate auditing of comments. Beginning in 21B, this feature also applies to notifications and task details that you can configure using Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.

New Enhancements to Transaction Console

Leverage these enhancements to the Transaction Console:

• A new enhancement to help diagnose problems for failed transactions is available in Transaction Console. Approval rules details have been added to the Diagnostic Log to enable Administrators to review the specific conditions that may have caused failure. 

• A Transaction Console refresh schedule process ('Refresh Transaction Administrator Console Transaction Status') is now delivered with a default schedule to run every hour out of the box. Please note this will not have any impact on existing customers who have already scheduled this process. 

Project-Driven Supply Chain

Project-Driven Supply Chain is an end-to-end, integrated solution across the Oracle Supply Chain Management and Oracle Project Management Cloud applications.  This solution is designed to support various business processes of manufacturing and asset-intensive companies.

You can use the Project-Driven Supply Chain solution to manage your supply chain processes in the context of projects without creating separate organizations for each project. You can also capture supply chain costs as project expenditures.

Create Supply in Back-to-Back Flows for Sales Orders That Include Project Details

Create a sales order that includes project details. You can now use supply that's specific to the project when you fulfill the item in a back-to-back flow. Send project details to the purchase order, transfer order, or work order. You can also collect expenditure details for the project in Oracle Project Financials Cloud.

Purchasing

Configure the Sender Email Address for Purchasing Document Communication

Specify the sender email address for purchasing document communication. You can now configure any email address for the sender instead of using the application-generated or buyer's email address.

Communicate Purchase Orders to Secondary Recipients Using Cc and Bcc

Communicate purchase orders to secondary recipients by using the newly added Cc and Bcc fields. For the primary recipients, use the Email field. This lets you keep the primary and secondary recipients separately and clearly visible.

Disable Automatic Communication of Purchase Order Changes

Disable automatic communication of change orders to suppliers by configuring the application to set the Communication Method and the Acknowledgment Required attributes to None. As a buyer, you can manually update these values on individual change orders to allow supplier communication if needed.

Set and Update Automatic Sourcing Options for Contract Purchase Agreements in Bulk

Use the file-based data import to set and update automatic sourcing options for your contract purchase agreements. You can now enable or disable an existing contract purchase agreement for automatic document sourcing. In addition, you now also can control whether document sourcing should be limited to only punchout sourced requisitions or all requisitions both for new as well as existing contract purchase agreements.

Configure Approval Rules Based on the Purchase Order Line and Schedule Status

Configure approval rules based on the purchase order line and schedule status. This lets you write approval rule conditions to either include or exclude records based on their status.

Purchase Past and Future Revisions of Items

Purchase items without any revision restrictions, including revisions that are already expired or would be effective in the future.

View Matched Attribute Values in Highlighted Text When Using Global Search

View matched attribute values in highlighted text when using global search. You can now easily identify the attributes of the document where there was a match.

Generate Reports on Manufacturer Part Numbers for Purchase Orders Using OTBI

Include manufacturer and manufacturer part number on OTBI analyses based on the Procure to Pay or the Purchasing Real Time Subject Areas. These details are taken from the corresponding attributes on the purchase order line.

View Funds Reservation Errors When Final Close or Reopen Fails for a Purchase Order

Drill down to the funds reservation results from error messages. These error messages are displayed when final close or reopen fails for a purchase order because of issues in releasing or reserving funds.

Associate a Master Contract with a Purchasing Document

Associate a master contract with a purchasing document. The master contract sets the overall terms and conditions between parties. This feature was originally introduced in 20B. In this update, additional functionality is added. After you opt in to the feature named Associate a Master Contract with a Purchasing Document, you can use the feature described in this section.

Use Master Contract Variables While Authoring Purchasing Documents

Use master contract variables to refer to the information from the parent contract directly. When you author terms and conditions on a purchasing document, use the variables in your clause templates and policy rules. The variables get automatically resolved based on the referenced master contract.

Self Service Procurement

Use Task Number to Identify Project Tasks When Importing Requisitions

Use task number to identify a specific project task when importing requisitions using the FBDI template. This attribute helps you identify the specific project task when the task name isn't unique.

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a monthly update of 21A and 20D.

Configure One-Time Address in Requisition Preferences

Configure one-time address as part of requisition preferences. This helps you use the default one-time address for all requisition lines without updating the delivery information at requisition submission.

Sourcing

Enforce Different Bid Price Decrement for Each Line in Auctions

Ensure that suppliers bid with a lower price than their previous bid, or the best bid, for each auction line according to the line's specified decrement.

Share Negotiation Attachments on External Website with the Abstract

Include negotiation attachments with the abstract for potential suppliers to download from your external website.

Configure Negotiation Approval Notification with Business Intelligence Publisher

Use an Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher template to configure the content of the negotiation approval notification. You can tailor the notification layout and content to meet your specific business requirements.

Configure Approval Rules Using Negotiation Style, Display Name and Response Visibility

Set negotiation and award approval rules based on negotiation style, negotiation display name, and response visibility. This allows you to route approvals to the right people based on your configured negotiation document.

Route Approvals Based on Negotiation Owner’s Job and Department Hierarchy

Configure negotiation and award approvals based on the negotiation owner’s organization hierarchy. You can specify approval authority based on amount limits for each job position and organization level.

Create Reports and Analytics on External Cost Factors Using OTBI

Analyze external cost factors in negotiations, supplier responses and awards by creating reports and analytics using Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI).

Supplier Model

Provide Rejection Reason in Supplier Registration

Improve communication and audit by providing a rejection reason when approvers reject the registration of a potential supplier.

Procurement Contracts

Search and Preview Contracts As a Supplier User

Oracle Supplier Portal provides a platform where your suppliers can manage various transactions and documents. Now, your suppliers can search and preview contracts assigned to them using the Manage Contracts task. Different filters offer flexibility in searching for contracts. From the search results, your suppliers can preview contracts in the user-friendly PDF format, and they can download contract documents.

Import Contract Header and Line Translations

You can use Import Management from the Tools work area to import the contract translations objects into Enterprise Contracts. Here's the list of objects you can import:

• Contract Header Translation
• Contract Line Translation

You can also update the attributes of these translation objects using import.

Improve Terms Library Search for Clauses and Rules

Usability improvements to the Terms Library Search Clauses and Search Rules pages help you find the clauses and rules that you need to review or modify.

Use Cross-References Between Nonstandard Clauses

You can define cross-references in the contract terms to refer to other clauses in the document from another clause. You can now set up these cross-references between nonstandard clauses, in addition to standard clauses defined in the Terms Library. References are often applicable when legal language in a clause refers to terms described in another clause from the same document. Updating the contract document -- for example, moving a clause or inserting a new clause -- automatically updates the cross-reference used in the clause text.

View HTML Source of Clause Text

You can view the HTML source for clauses in the Terms Library that aren't in an editable state, using the View Source action from the Edit Clause page.

The View Source button is displayed when viewing the Terms Library clauses in these states:

• Approved
• Pending approval
• Expired
• On hold
• Draft status where the clause text is imported from a Word XML document

Use Clause Number in Keyword Search

When adding a clause to a contract or a terms template, you can search based on a keyword. The Keyword search attribute now considers the Clause Number assigned to the clause in the Terms Library.

Here's the full set of fields that are searched based on the text you enter as the keyword:

• Clause Number
• Clause Title
• Display Title
• Description
• Text
• Instructions

Author Contract Terms with Microsoft Word 2019

You can use Microsoft Word 2019 to manage your contract terms. You can download your contract, make changes, use the Oracle Contracts add-in, and upload it back to the application in the same way as other supported versions of Word.