Cloud Readiness / Oracle Fusion Cloud Procurement
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  1. Update 22D
  1. Revision History
  2. Overview
  3. Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)
  4. Feature Summary
  5. Procurement Common
    1. Common Procurement
        1. Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services
  6. Procurement
    1. Purchasing
        1. Specify an Overriding Approver for Purchase Orders
        2. Automate Invoice Validation to Release Holds Upon Purchase Order Change
        3. Search Requisitions by Project and Task as a Buyer
        4. Selected Purchasing Bug Fixes in This Update
      1. External Purchase Prices
        1. Manage Purchase Prices and Purchase Agreements for a Group of Requisitioning BUs
    2. Supplier Model
        1. Prevent Suppliers from Registering As a Duplicate
    3. Sourcing
        1. Manage Large Negotiations
        2. Invite All Supplier Contacts
        3. Default a Negotiation Template
        4. Enforce Negotiation Template Selection
        5. Initiate Approval for Purchasing Documents
        6. Configure Approval Rules for Amendments and New Rounds
        7. Selected Sourcing Bug Fixes in This Update
    4. Supplier Qualification Management
        1. Exclude Not Applicable Questions from Scoring
    5. Spend Classification
        1. Analyze Classification Results in a Batch and Use Visualizations for a Focused Review
    6. Procurement Contracts
        1. Use Updated Rich Text Editor in Enterprise Contracts
        2. Protect Supporting Documents from Deletion

Update 22D

Revision History

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

Date Module Feature Notes
17 FEB 2023 Common Procurement Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services

Updated document. Updated feature description with two new, backported resources.

28 NOV 2022 Procurement Contracts Protect Supporting Documents from Deletion Updated document. Updated links in Key Resources.
28 NOV 2022 Purchasing Selected Purchasing Bug Fixes in This Update

Updated document. Revised feature description.

16 SEP 2022     Created initial document.

Overview

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DISCLAIMER

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Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

Oracle Cloud Applications delivers new updates every quarter. This means every three months you'll receive new functionality to help you efficiently and effectively manage your business. Some features are delivered Enabled meaning they are immediately available to end users. Other features are delivered Disabled meaning you have to take action to make available. Features delivered Disabled can be activated for end users by stepping through the following instructions using the following privileges:

  • Review Applications Offering (ASM_REVIEW_APPLICATIONS_OFFERINGS_PRIV)
  • Configure Oracle Fusion Applications Offering (ASM_CONFIGURE_OFFERING_PRIV)

Here’s how you opt in to new features:

  1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > New Features.
  2. On the Features Overview page, select your offering to review new features specific to it. Or, you can leave the default selection All Enabled Offerings to review new features for all offerings.
  3. On the New Features tab, review the new features and check the opt-in status of the feature in the Enabled column. If a feature has already been enabled, you will see a check mark. Otherwise, you will see an icon to enable the feature.
  4. Click the icon in the Enabled column and complete the steps to enable the feature.

In some cases, you might want to opt in to a feature that's not listed in the New Features work area. Here's how to opt in:

  1. Click Navigator > My Enterprise > Offerings.
  2. On the Offerings page, select your offering, and then click Opt In Features.
  3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features (pencil) icon for the offering, or for the functional area that includes your feature.
  4. On the Edit Features page, complete the steps to enable the feature.

For more information and detailed instructions on opting in to new features for your offering, see Offering Configuration.

Opt In Expiration

Occasionally, features delivered Disabled via Opt In may be enabled automatically in a future update. This is known as an Opt In Expiration. If your cloud service has any Opt In Expirations you will see a related tab in this document. Click on that tab to see when the feature was originally delivered Disabled, and when the Opt In will expire, potentially automatically enabling the feature. You can also click here to see features with Opt In Expirations across all Oracle Cloud Applications.

Feature Summary

Column Definitions:

Report = New or modified, Oracle-delivered, ready to run reports.

UI or Process-Based: Small Scale = These UI or process-based features are typically comprised of minor field, validation, or program changes. Therefore, the potential impact to users is minimal.

UI or Process-Based: Larger Scale* = These UI or process-based features have more complex designs. Therefore, the potential impact to users is higher.

Features Delivered Disabled = Action is needed BEFORE these features can be used by END USERS. These features are delivered disabled and you choose if and when to enable them. For example, a) new or expanded BI subject areas need to first be incorporated into reports, b) Integration is required to utilize new web services, or c) features must be assigned to user roles before they can be accessed.

Ready for Use by End Users
(Feature Delivered Enabled)

Reports plus Small Scale UI or Process-Based new features will have minimal user impact after an update. Therefore, customer acceptance testing should focus on the Larger Scale UI or Process-Based* new features.

Customer Must Take Action before Use by End Users
(Feature Delivered Disabled)

Not disruptive as action is required to make these features ready to use. As you selectively choose to leverage, you set your test and roll out timing.

Feature

Report

UI or
Process-Based:
Small Scale

UI or
Process-Based:
Larger Scale*

Procurement Common

Common Procurement

Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services

Procurement

Purchasing

Specify an Overriding Approver for Purchase Orders

Automate Invoice Validation to Release Holds Upon Purchase Order Change

Search Requisitions by Project and Task as a Buyer

Selected Purchasing Bug Fixes in This Update

External Purchase Prices

Manage Purchase Prices and Purchase Agreements for a Group of Requisitioning BUs

Supplier Model

Prevent Suppliers from Registering As a Duplicate

Sourcing

Manage Large Negotiations

Invite All Supplier Contacts

Default a Negotiation Template

Enforce Negotiation Template Selection

Initiate Approval for Purchasing Documents

Configure Approval Rules for Amendments and New Rounds

Selected Sourcing Bug Fixes in This Update

Supplier Qualification Management

Exclude Not Applicable Questions from Scoring

Spend Classification

Analyze Classification Results in a Batch and Use Visualizations for a Focused Review

Procurement Contracts

Use Updated Rich Text Editor in Enterprise Contracts

Protect Supporting Documents from Deletion

Procurement Common

Common Procurement

Integrate and Extend Procurement Using REST Services

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

The new REST APIs introduced in this update are:

  • Public Shopping Lists

  • Procurement Approved Supplier List Entries (available in the November monthly update of 22D)

  • Approved Supplier List Source Documents (available in the November monthly update of 22D)

The following REST APIs are enhanced:

  • Purchase Requisitions
    • GET is supported for Purchase Order Cancel Reason and Purchase Order Hold Reason for requisition lines.
    • POST and PATCH are enhanced to allow requisitions to be created in a foreign currency (a currency that is different from the requisitioning business unit’s functional currency) for description-based lines.
    • GET, POST, and PATCH are enhanced to support internal material transfers. Use the REST API to create requisitions for internal material transfers and provide the source organization and optionally the source subinventory that can supply the item to the destination organization. The operations calculateTaxAndAccounting and submitRequisition were also enhanced to support internal material transfer requisitions.
    • A new operation, retrieveTransferPriceAndTax, is now available for you to quickly calculate the transfer price and taxes for internal material transfer requisition lines. The transfer price is either at cost or as per the financial orchestration flow definition when the transfer is across profit centers. The transaction will be subject to taxes when intercompany invoicing is used. Similarly, the operation calculateTaxAndAccounting was enhanced to handle taxes for internal material transfer requisitions.
    • A new action, retrieveCurrentApproversList, is available to retrieve the list of current approvers for a requisition that's pending approval.
  • Public Shopping List Lines
    • POST and PATCH are supported for internally orderable items.
  • Draft Purchase Orders
    • GET, POST, and PATCH are supported for overriding approvers.
    • GET, POST, and PATCH are supported for U.S. Federal attributes.
  • Purchase Orders
    • GET is supported for overriding approvers.
  • Supplier Negotiations
    • GET, POST, and PATCH are supported to notify all contacts when inviting suppliers in a draft negotiation.
    • POST and the createNegotiationFromTemplate action can be used to create large draft negotiations.
    • GET is supported to identify a large negotiation.

You can use these new and modified REST services to simplify integrations and support standards-based interoperability with your other applications and external systems.

Steps to Enable

Review the REST service definition in the REST API guides, available from the Oracle Help Center > your apps service area of interest > REST API. If you're new to Oracle's REST services you may want to begin with the Quick Start section.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

Procurement

Purchasing

Specify an Overriding Approver for Purchase Orders

Specify an overriding approver for purchase orders and route purchase orders for approval. Using the Override First Approver for Purchase Orders feature, you can route purchase orders and related change orders for approval to the overriding approver from the backing requisition. In cases where the requisition's overriding approver is no longer responsible for approving the order or its subsequent changes, buyers and requesters can now use this new feature to specify a different overriding approver on the purchase order and related change orders.

To use this feature, configure a new approval rule using the PO Overriding Approver attribute. If you have configured an approval rule using the requisition overriding approver, modify it so that purchase orders and change orders are routed to the requisition's overriding approver only if an overriding approver isn't specified on the purchase order.

These screen captures illustrate the feature.

Overriding Approver on Requisition

A Requester-Initiated Change Order With a Different Overriding Approver

Approval Rule to Route Requester-Initiated Change Orders to the PO Overriding Approver

Approval Rule to Route Requester-Initiated Change Orders to the Requisition's Overriding Approver

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, select: 
    • Procurement offering
    • Procurement Foundation functional area
    • Configure Requisitioning Business Function task
  2. Select a Requisitioning BU.
  3. Check the Enable approver override check box.

Tips And Considerations

  • Buyers can create purchase orders with an overriding approver online, using the REST resources and file-based data import.
  • When you duplicate a purchase order with an overriding approver, the overriding approver won’t be copied to the new purchase order.
  • When a purchase order is created from a backing requisition, the requisition's overriding approver won’t be copied to the purchase order.
  • The approval task attribute associated with the Requisition Line dimension is renamed from Overriding Approver to Requisition Overriding Approver.

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to setup this feature:
    • Procurement Manager (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_MANAGER_JOB)
    • Procurement Application Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain this privilege are able to setup this feature:
    • Manage Procurement Configuration (PO_MANAGE_PROCUREMENT_CONFIGURATION_PRIV)
  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature:
    • Buyer (ORA_PO_BUYER_JOB)
    • Procurement Requester (ORA_POR_PROCUREMENT_REQUESTER_ABSTRACT)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain 1 of these privileges are able to access this feature:
    • Create Purchase Order (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)
    • Change Purchase Order (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV) 
    • Change Purchase Order as Procurement Requester (PO_CHANGE_PURCHASE_ORDER_AS_PROCUREMENT_REQUESTER_PRIV)

Automate Invoice Validation to Release Holds Upon Purchase Order Change

Enable automatic validation of matched invoices to release holds upon change order implementation. This will eliminate the need to manually validate and release invoice holds if the purchase order change removes the hold condition. This can also eliminate the time delay if you have the invoice validation process running on a schedule.. 

These screen captures illustrate the feature.

Orders with Invoice Holds Requiring Attention

Change Order Correcting Variance Between Purchase Order and Matched Invoice

Invoice Validated Upon Change Order Implementation

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Tips And Considerations

  • The Orders Requiring Attention -  The With Invoice Holds infolet doesn't include purchase orders in Closed, Finally Closed, or Canceled status. You need to search purchase orders in these statuses from the Manage Orders page or using a global or keyword search.
  • The invoice validation process will automatically be invoked upon change order implementation only for matched invoices with holds of reason type matching hold. Matched invoices with holds of other hold reasons still need to be validated either manually or through a scheduled process.

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles can set up this feature:
    • Procurement Manager (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_MANAGER_JOB)
    • Procurement Application Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can set up this feature:
    • Manage Procurement Configuration (PO_MANAGE_PROCUREMENT_CONFIGURATION_PRIV)
  • Users who are assigned this predefined job role can access this feature in Purchasing:
    • Buyer (ORA_PO_BUYER_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains this privilege can access this feature in Purchasing:
    • Create Purchase Order (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER_PRIV)

Search Requisitions by Project and Task as a Buyer

Search for requisition lines using project attributes such as project number and task number. As a buyer, you can now filter the requisitions to be processed into purchase orders using project details.

This screen capture illustrates the feature:

Project Attributes in the Advanced Search and Search Results

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

  • To add project number and task number, use the Advanced Search option on the Process Requisitions page.
  • You must enter the requisitioning BU before entering a value for project number. Similarly, you must enter a project number before entering a task number.

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned this predefined job role are automatically able to access this feature:
    • Buyer (ORA_PO_BUYER_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain this privilege are able to access this feature:
    • Process Requisition Line (POR_PROCESS_REQUISITION_LINE_PRIV)

Selected Purchasing Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Purchasing works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Communicate Correct Document Revision to Suppliers

Before update 22D, when a purchasing document was communicated after canceling an external change order, an incorrect revision number was printed in the PDF and email communicated to suppliers. After you update to 22D, the correct revision number will be communicated to suppliers.

Oracle reference: 34226239

Reserve Funds for Change Order Net Increase During Submission

Before update 22D, when you submitted a change order for approval that included both funds increase and decrease, only the increase was considered for funds reservation.  This could either fail because of insufficient funds or temporarily reserve excess funds until the change order was implemented. When you update to 22D, the net amount will be considered for funds reservation at change order submission time, eliminating the need for additional funds. This change applies to both account-based and project-based control budgets.

Oracle reference: 32779022

Export Notes to Supplier and Receiver

Before update 22D, Note to Supplier and Note to Receiver weren't shown in tables as separate columns. As a result, this information was lost when exporting the results to Excel. After you update to 22D, you can expose these attributes in tables that appear on these pages: Manage Orders Search Results, View Purchase Order, and View Purchase Order Change Order.

Reprice When Updating Requested Delivery Dates

Before this update, a change to the requested delivery date didn’t retrieve the latest price from the blanket purchase agreement when the agreement was configured to disallow price overrides. After you update to 22D, the price will reflect the latest price based on the updated requested delivery date.

Oracle reference: 34074528

Retrieve Supplier Contact Email ID or Fax Number When Cancelling or Recommunicating a Purchase Order

Before update 22D, when you changed the communication method while canceling or recommunicating a purchase order to email or fax, the corresponding email address or fax number didn’t default correctly. After you update to 22D, updated values will correctly default, and you can proceed without manually entering these values.

Oracle reference: 34066545

Include Purchase Order Descriptive Flexfields in OTBI Cross-Functional Area Analysis

Before update 22D, you couldn't include purchase order descriptive flexfields  in OTBI cross-functional area analyses containing the Procurement - Procure to Pay subject area. After you update to 22D, you can build cross-functional area analyses based on the Procurement - Procure to Pay and the Procurement - Purchasing Real Time subject areas and include purchase order descriptive flexfields from the latter subject area.

Oracle reference: 33833621

Include Enable Automatic Sourcing Indicator in OTBI Analysis

Before update 22D, you couldn't include the Enable Automatic Sourcing Indicator in OTBI analyses based on the Procurement - Purchasing Agreements Real Time subject area. After you update to 22D, you can include the indicator by selecting it from the Contract Agreement Detail folder.

Oracle reference: 34130167

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

External Purchase Prices

Manage Purchase Prices and Purchase Agreements for a Group of Requisitioning BUs

Map multiple requisitioning business units to a source organization and create external purchase prices for the group of requisitioning business units (BUs) specified in these mappings. You can maintain external purchase prices for this group of requisitioning BUs instead of creating separate external purchase prices for each requisitioning business unit. The purchase agreements created from these external purchase prices will be accessible to all the requisitioning BUs in the group.

External Purchase Prices with Multiple Requisitioning BUs

You can now map a source organization to more than one requisitioning business unit belonging to a procurement BU using the Manage External Purchase Prices Business Unit Mapping setup task or from the External Purchase Prices Mappings page. A requisitioning business unit can be mapped to only one active source organization.

Requisitioning BU Mapping Setup

To create a new mapping, click Add on the External Purchase Prices Mappings page to open the Add Mapping panel. You can also add new requisitioning business units to an active mapping at any point of time. On the External Purchase Prices Mappings page, click on the requisitioning BUs for a source organization to open the Manage Mappings panel. Add the requisitioning BUs and save.

Updating a Requisitioning BU Mapping

If external purchase prices exist for the mapping, the BU access of the purchase agreements created for those external purchase prices are automatically updated with the newly added requisitioning business units. A new scheduled process, Update BU Access for Purchase Agreements Created from External Purchase Prices, performs this update. The mappings status shows as Pending until the purchase agreements are updated with the new requisitioning BUs, after which the status changes to Active.

On the Mapping Details panel, you can change the status of the mapping to inactive by turning off the Active switch. For the status to be changed to inactive, the mapping must not be used in any external purchase prices other than those in canceled status.

Update BU Access for Purchase Agreements Scheduled Process

If any purchase agreements couldn’t be updated due to any error, the status of the mapping is Error. The number of purchase agreements in error is displayed in the purchase agreement exceptions card in the external purchase prices work area. You can drill down from the card to the purchase agreement exceptions page to view the error details. After resolving the errors, update the purchase agreements by submitting the scheduled process Update BU Access for Purchase Agreements Created from External Purchase Prices.

BU Access Exceptions for Purchase Agreements

This feature reduces the time and effort involved in creation and maintenance of external purchase prices because you now have lesser number of external purchase prices to manage. Creation of a common purchase agreement for multiple requisitioning BUs also helps you with improved performance in managing the procurement processes. Automatic updates to the BU access of the purchase agreements with newly added requisitioning business units provides you improved flexibility to manage your requisitioning business units in external purchase prices. 

Purchase Agreements with Multiple Requisitioning BUs

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

Users who are assigned the Purchase Pricing Manager (ORA_SCH_PURCHASE_PRICING_MANAGER_JOB) job role are automatically able to access this feature.

Supplier Model

Prevent Suppliers from Registering As a Duplicate

Supplier self-service registration provides an efficient process for onboarding new suppliers. Unfortunately, suppliers can register multiple times due to factors such as employee turnover or an expanding sales force. The supplier gets no indication they're already in the supplier master and submits a registration that eventually results in a duplicate supplier error. This requires your manual intervention to correct and wastes the supplier's time completing a registration that will be rejected.

With this feature, the company name, D-U-N-S number, taxpayer ID, and tax registration number of the registering company are used to perform the duplicate check. The registering company is considered a duplicate if at least one of these attributes is found to match against existing suppliers or registration requests that are in progress.

Duplicate Supplier Error in Self-Service Registration

Suppliers will now be prevented from registering if they're already a valid supplier in the supplier master. Checking for duplicate suppliers upfront during supplier self-service registration ensures only new suppliers can submit registration requests. This leads to fewer errors for administrators to resolve, and saves your suppliers time and frustration.

Steps to Enable

Use the Opt In UI to enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Offering: Procurement

Tips And Considerations

  • You can update the error message text from the setup page Manage Supplier Messages and provide contact details if you want the requester to contact your company for any clarification on the error. The two relevant error messages are:
    • Message name POZ_SUP_REG_DUP_PROD: This company is already our supplier. Contact us for information on your existing profile.
    • Message name POZ_REG_DUP_ERROR: A registration request for this company already exists. Contact us for the information on the status of the registration request {REQUEST_NUMBER}.

Sourcing

Manage Large Negotiations

Customers across industries, such as construction, distribution, retail, manufacturing, and the public sector who use Oracle Sourcing need the ability to process very large negotiations. These are negotiations with very high line volumes. Such negotiations can’t be processed in real-time due to application constraints with UI display, or timeout limits.

With this feature, you can now conduct large line volume negotiations using file-based data import and background processing.

In large negotiations, you will be able to:

  • Import a large number of negotiation lines using file-based data import process (FBDI)
  • Search lines in the UI
  • Generate scalable, light-weight negotiation, and response documents
  • Send negotiation documents as notification attachments to approvers and suppliers
  • Monitor the status of scheduled background processes through the negotiation life cycle. Events such as publish negotiation, create amendment, import award lines spreadsheet trigger background processes. Notifications alert you after a background process is completed.
  • Suppliers can import responses using a background process
  • Award large line volumes, and export using a background process
  • Automate large negotiation creation using web services

Create a large negotiation:

  • Large negotiations can be created using a negotiation template which copies all the template information except lines to the large negotiation.
  • A new MS Excel template (.XLSM) is available to import lines in the FBDI process. You must use this template to add, update, or delete negotiation lines and line entities such as external cost factors, quantity-based price tiers, or price breaks. Web services are available to automate this FBDI process.
  • The import lines template has separate worksheets to add lines, external cost factors, and quantity-based price tiers or price breaks based on negotiation outcome. To add line attributes, you need to specify an attribute list at line level.
  • Once the lines are imported successfully, you are notified and able to review them in the application.
  • After adding suppliers, to control their line access, use an Excel spreadsheet with Visual Builder Add-in or invoke the Supplier Negotiations REST web services.
  • Two new negotiation header approval attributes are introduced, which can be used to create negotiation approval rules specific to large negotiations – Large negotiation and Count of lines.
  • Actions such as validate negotiation and publish negotiation, will trigger a background process. You can monitor their status in the Monitor Processes page and you are notified once the job is completed.

Create and manage supplier responses:

  • Invited suppliers will receive an invitation notification with the response lines spreadsheet (.CSV) and the negotiation details PDF as an attachment. Suppliers can directly use this response lines spreadsheet to prepare the response and import it.
  • Suppliers have the ability to search lines and edit their responses online.
  • Events such as export response lines spreadsheet, import response lines spreadsheet, validate response, and submit response, trigger background processes. Suppliers can monitor them in the Monitor Processes page and they are notified once the job is completed.
  • You can also submit surrogate responses to the large negotiation on behalf of the suppliers.
  • Suppliers can revise an existing response or submit multiple responses (if allowed).

Manage large negotiation life cycle:

  • You can manage the large negotiation life cycle like other negotiations. For example, you can pause, extend or close it early. Monitor supplier activities, lockout suppliers or disqualify a response. You can also create an amendment or a new round with background process to carry over lines.

Award large negotiation

  • After the negotiation is closed, you can optionally score the requirement responses and remove responses that don’t meet requirements from the shortlist status.
  • The entire negotiation can be awarded to a single response online after comparing the responses side-by-side.
  • Overall response ranking or line level response ranking is available for analyzing the responses.
  • You can export the award lines spreadsheet for analyzing line-level responses offline and record the award decision in the spreadsheet.
  • You can award the negotiation at the line level by importing the award lines spreadsheet.
  • While awarding the negotiation by line, you can always export and import the award lines in multiple batches by line range.
  • Three new award header approval attributes are introduced, which can be used to create award approval rules specific to large negotiations – Large negotiation, Count of lines, and Lines pending award.
  • Once the award is finalized you can complete the award and notify the award decision to the suppliers.

These screens illustrate this feature:

File-Based Data Import Template for Negotiation Lines

File-Based Data Import Template for Negotiation Lines

Import Negotiation Lines Using File-Based Data Import Process

Line Summary and Line Search with Filters in Edit Negotiation Lines

Line Summary and Line Search with Filters in Edit Negotiation Lines

Monitor Processes UI

Monitor Processes

BIP-Based Supplier Invitation Notification with Negotiation Details as Attachment

Supplier Invitation Notification with Negotiation Details Attached

Response Lines CSV for Importing response line information

Response Lines CSV for Importing response line information

Create Response Lines with Line Search

Create Response Lines with Line Search

Award Summary Information and Lines Search

Award Summary Information and Lines Search

Award the Entire Negotiation to a Single Response

Award the Entire Negotiation to a Single Response

Award the Negotiation at Line Level Using Spreadsheet

Award the Negotiation at Line Level Using Spreadsheet

Award Approval Notification

Award Approval Notification

Award Decision Notification

Award Decision Notification

Create negotiations with high line volumes and manage them easily with this feature.

Steps to Enable

Enable by setting a control on the negotiation style:

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Negotiation Styles task.

  • Offering: Procurement
  • Functional area: Sourcing
  • Task: Manage Negotiation Styles

On the Manage Negotiation Styles page, select and edit one of your existing negotiation styles, or create a new negotiation style. (You can't edit a predefined negotiation style.)

In the Controls section, under the Overview group, select the Large negotiation radio button.

Negotiation Controls in Neogotiation Style Page

Negotiation Controls in Negotiation Style

Tips And Considerations

While adding a huge number of lines to a large negotiation, you can split them into multiple batches using the Batch ID attribute and import them one batch at a time.

Large negotiation is currently not integrated with Oracle Purchasing, so you can’t create purchasing documents directly after completing the award. For now, you can export the finalized award decision in a spreadsheet and use it to create purchasing documents with FBDI or REST web services available in Oracle Purchasing.

The number of large negotiation lines that can be processed efficiently will vary based on several factors, such as the number of line details (cost factors, price tiers, line attributes, lot lines, group lines), or number of supplier responses when exporting award. We recommend that you benchmark for your common high line volume cases to establish thresholds and guidance for using this feature.

For example, you may be able to use large negotiations to process more than 50,000 lines easily if the lines have about 5 cost factors, 5 price tiers and 5 attributes. Or, you may want to use large negotiations even for lower line ranges of 200 to 400 lines, if each line has tens of cost factors, attributes or price tiers.

In update 22D, these features aren’t available for large negotiations:

  • Two-stage RFQ
  • Staggered closing
  • Auto-extend
  • Proxy bidding
  • Mass price reduction
  • Alternate response lines
  • Line level price decrement
  • Multi-attribute scoring
  • Default line attributes
  • Internal cost factors
  • Line level attachments
  • Inviting additional suppliers post publish
  • Auto award recommendation
  • Create large negotiation from requisitions

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature.
    • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER)
    • Sourcing Project Collaborator (ORA_PON_SOURCING_PROJECT_COLLABORATOR_ABSTRACT)
    • Supplier Bidder (ORA_PON_SUPPLIER_BIDDER_ABSTRACT)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles should have all the duties and privileges of the above mentioned predefined job roles in order to manage the entire life cycle of the large negotiation. It is recommended to make a copy of the above predefined job roles and tweak them as per your business need.
  • As part of the large negotiation feature, following new duty roles and privileges are added, which are by default assigned to the job role Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER):
    • Duty Role: Upload data for Supplier Negotiation Import (PRC_SUPPLIERNEGOTIATION_IMPORT_RWD)
    • Duty Role: Download data for Supplier Negotiation Export (PRC_SUPPLIERNEGOTIATION_EXPORT_RWD)
    • Privilege: Cancel Scheduled Process (PON_CANCEL_SCHEDULED_PROCESS_PRIV)
    • Privilege: Purge Negotiation Interface Records (PON_PURGE_NEGOTIATION_INTERFACE_PRIV)

Invite All Supplier Contacts

You can select a specific supplier contact to invite in a negotiation, and also specify an additional email to send the invitation notification and PDF. But often it isn't known which person is the right sourcing contact. There can be several supplier contacts at the company who need to be notified about the negotiation opportunity in order to maximize the chances of the supplier's participation.

With this feature, you can now notify all the contacts for an invited supplier.

Supplier contacts with and without supplier portal user accounts will receive the notification email and PDF. Once notified, contacts who don't have a user account may initiate user account creation, or submit offline responses for buyers to record as surrogate responses.

You can also notify all contacts when you invite additional suppliers after publishing the negotiation. When you choose to notify all contacts, selecting a primary supplier contact is optional.

When you send an online message to All participants, all the contacts of the invited supplier having active user accounts receive the online message notification. Similarly, all the contacts of the invited supplier having active user accounts are notified when an amendment is published, or if the negotiation is paused, resumed, extended, or closed.

Notify All Contacts of an Invited Supplier

With this feature, you can reduce the burden on category managers to figure out which supplier contact to invite.

Watch a Demo.

Steps to Enable

Enable Send invitation to all contacts in a negotiation style:

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Negotiation Styles task
    • Offering: Procurement
    • Functional area: Sourcing
    • Task: Manage Negotiation Styles
  2. On the Manage Negotiation Styles page, select and edit one of your existing negotiation styles, or create a new negotiation style.
  3. In the Controls section, under the Suppliers group, select the Send invitation to all contacts check box to notify all contacts of a supplier. (This control is checked by default in the seeded styles: Simple Negotiation, Standard Negotiation and Two Stage Negotiation)

Enable Feature in the Negotiation Style

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles can access this feature:
    • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER_JOB)
    • Sourcing Project Collaborator (ORA_PON_SOURCING_PROJECT_COLLABORATOR_ABSTRACT)
  • Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:
    • Create Supplier Negotiation (PON_CREATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)
    • Edit Supplier Negotiation (PON_EDIT_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)
    • Manage Negotiation Supplier Invitation (PON_MANAGE_NEGOTIATION_SUPPLIER_INVITATION_PRIV)

Default a Negotiation Template

Creating a document with accurate response rules, response visibility, requirements, and instructions is key to conducting fair and compliant negotiations. You can create negotiation templates with predefined information for lines, requirements, suppliers, response rules, and other controls. Once the templates are defined, you can reuse them without having to reenter negotiation information.

With this update, you will have the ability to set a default negotiation template when creating a negotiation. Setting a default template will ensure that negotiations are created with the correct information, improve efficiency, and maintain accuracy.

You can select a unique default template for each document type RFI, RFQ, and Auction on the negotiation style. When you select the negotiation type and style on the Create Negotiation popup, the default negotiation template is automatically selected. You have the option to change it.

Default Negotiation Template Based on Negotiation Type and Negotiation Style

Improve usability, and reduce errors by defaulting the right negotiation content such as response visibility, response rules, instructions, and other negotiation controls.

Steps to Enable

Offering: Procurement

This feature is always enabled. To use the feature, procurement administrators set a default negotiation template for each document type when creating or editing a negotiation style.

Set Default Template in the Negotiation Style

Tips And Considerations

Template set on the negotiation style won't default in these scenarios:

  • If the template is inactive at the time of creating the negotiation.
  • If it isn't a global template, and negotiation is created in a different BU than that of the template.
  • If it's a private template where only the template owner can use it.

Role And Privileges

To use this feature, the following roles are required:

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature:
    • Procurement Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
    • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain these privileges are able to access this feature:
    • Manage Supplier Negotiation Styl (PON_MANAGE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_STYLE_PRIV)

Enforce Negotiation Template Selection

Category managers can now be required to use a negotiation template to drive best practices when creating a negotiation.

Templates are often used to maintain accuracy and save time during negotiation creation as they have precreated data like line and requirement details, supplier-related information, and response rule settings. If users miss to select a template, it can lead to longer times to publish negotiations, errors, and rework.

With this update, you can make template selection required in a negotiation for a procurement business unit. Template is enforced when category managers create negotiations in Negotiations work area or from the Process Requisitions page.

Template Required When Creating Negotiation

Usage of negotiation templates can save time, maintain accuracy, and drive best practices. By requiring that category managers must select a set template, you can drive better compliance in negotiation creation.

Steps to Enable

Offering: Procurement

To enable this feature, on the Configure Procurement Business Function page.select the Negotiation template required check box.

Require Negotiation Template in a Procurement BU

Role And Privileges

To use this feature, the following roles are required:

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature:
    • Procurement Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
    • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain these privileges are able to access this feature:
    • Create Supplier Negotiation (PON_CREATE_SUPPLIER_NEGOTIATION_PRIV)

Initiate Approval for Purchasing Documents

You can now initiate an approval by default when you're creating purchasing documents from the negotiation award.

If you enable this feature for the procurement business unit, on the Create Purchasing Documents page, the Initiate Approval checkbox is selected by default for all the purchasing documents to be created from the negotiation award.

Initiate approval checkbox in create purchasing documents page

Initiate Approval when Creating Purchasing Documents

Initiate approval by default when buyers create purchasing documents from the negotiation award. Avoid creating purchasing documents in incomplete status.

Steps to Enable

To enable initiate approval for purchasing documents: On the Configure Procurement Business Function setup task page, for each procurement business unit, under the Sourcing section, select the Initiate approval checkbox.

Initiate approval checkbox in configure procurement business function setup task page

Initiate Approval Default Set in Configure Procurement Business Function Setup Task

Role And Privileges

To use this feature, the following roles are required:

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature.
    • Procurement Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
    • Category Manager (ORA_PON_CATEGORY_MANAGER)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain these privileges are able to access this feature:
    • Manage Procurement Configuration (PO_MANAGE_PROCUREMENT_CONFIGURATION)
    • Create Purchase Order (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_ORDER)
    • Create Purchase Agreement (PO_CREATE_PURCHASE_AGREEMENT)

Configure Approval Rules for Amendments and New Rounds

The new approval attribute Negotiation Change Type is now available to configure negotiation and award approval rules. You can route the negotiation or award documents to the right approver based on whether it’s an amendment or a new round. For example, if you require amendments to approved RFQs be autoapproved, but when a new round is created, the RFQ should be routed to additional approvers in the organization hierarchy, this can be achieved. Or, if you require at least 2 rounds to award negotiations (for example, a first RFQ round to shortlist suppliers, and a second auction round to identify the best pricing), you can set up approval rules to autoreject an award decision unless it's a new round.

Negotiation Approval Rules Based on the Negotiation Change Type

Flexibility in creating approval rules enables smarter approval routing and ensures the right approvers are reached to make the best approval decisions based on your business needs.

Steps to Enable

To enable configuration of approval rules for amendments and new rounds:

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the Manage Supplier Negotiation Approvals or Manage Supplier Negotiation Award Approvals tasks:
  • Offering: Procurement
  • Functional Area: Approval Management
  • Tasks: Manage Supplier Negotiation Approvals or Manage Supplier Negotiation Award Approvals
  1. Create approval rules to use the Negotiation Change Type attribute.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles are automatically able to access this feature:
    • Application Implementation Consultant (ORA_ASM_APPLICATION_IMPLEMENTATION_CONSULTANT_JOB)
    • Procurement Application Administrator (ORA_PO_PROCUREMENT_APPLICATION_ADMIN_JOB)
  • Users who are assigned configured job roles that contain these privileges are able to access this feature:
    • Manage Approval Task (POR_MANAGE_APPROVAL_TASK_PRIV)

Selected Sourcing Bug Fixes in This Update

This update includes some bug fixes that can change the way Oracle Sourcing works. This isn't a full list of all the bug fixes in this update. This list includes the bug fixes that can cause a noticeable change in application behavior.

Apply Procurement BU Defaults when Creating Negotiation from Requisitions

When creating negotiations on the Process Requisitions page, the default values for negotiation type and negotiation style, set on the Configure Procurement Business Function setup page, are now correctly selected.

Oracle Reference: 34223677

Configure Negotiation Pages and Actions Based on Time Remaining to Close

You can now use Page Composer to configure negotiation-related UI pages based on time remaining to close. For example, you have the option to hide the Close, Pause, or Extend actions unless the negotiation is in final 24 hours to close. Or you can add special instructions for suppliers or category managers to display only in the final 48 hours before the negotiation closes. You can make these changes using 2 new variables: CurrentDate and HoursTillClose. 

Oracle Reference:34152208

Suppliers Can Accept Terms For Negotiations Created using REST service

Before update 22D, when a negotiation is created using the REST service, if terms were enabled, then supplier wasn't able to accept the terms before viewing negotiation, or creating the response. With this fix, suppliers will be able to accept negotiation terms and conditions that are sent based on the setup in Configure Procurement Business Function page.

Oracle Reference: 34024947

Create a Base Contract in Negotiations Created Using REST Service

Before update 22D, when a negotiation is created using the REST service, you can't create a contract even if you have opted in to create contracts from negotiations. The Create Contract action is not available. With this fix, you can create a base contract in negotiations created using REST.

Oracle Reference: 34213893

Improved Error Handling When Creating Amendment or New Round by Team Member With Incomplete Setup

Before update 22D, when a collaboration team member who doesn't have either create contract privilege or isn't defined as a contract resource tries to create a new round or amendment for a negotiation with a base contract, an error occurs and they can't proceed. Now, a meaningful error message with recovery options is shown. They can contact their help desk to fix the setup and can proceed creating the new round or amendment.

New Error Message

Oracle Reference: 33389047

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Supplier Qualification Management

Exclude Not Applicable Questions from Scoring

When qualifying suppliers, you might ask questions that don't always apply to some suppliers. Questions that don't apply should not impact the evaluation when you score that supplier. To better manage this, when defining qualification questions, you can now mark one or more response options indicating that you wish to exclude that question from scoring if responders choose that response. During evaluation, the scoring weight of these not applicable questions is automatically redistributed to the other applicable questions such that their relative importance doesn't change. This avoids penalizing or rewarding the supplier when calculating the final qualification outcome.

For a multiple choice question with scoring enabled, you can now define an acceptable response as Not Applicable and mark it for scoring exclusion so the question is not scored when responders choose that response.

Question Setup

Let us consider an example of a qualification with three questions scored automatically and carrying these weights. Question 1 - 60%, Question 2 - 20%, and Question 3 - 20%.

If the responder has selected the response to question 2 as not applicable, that question is excluded from scoring and its weight (20%) is redistributed among Question 1 and Question 3 in the ratio of 3:1 (15% and 5%). The new weight for Question 1 is 75% (60% + 15%) and Question 3 is 25% (20% + 5%).

The weight change is indicated using the green or red arrow next to the weights.

Qualification with a Not Applicable Response and Redistributed Weights

When evaluating a survey qualification:

If one responder selects a not applicable response and other responders select valid responses, then the aggregate score and response are derived using the available responses.

If all the internal responders select the not applicable response, the question is excluded from scoring and the weight is redistributed among other questions proportionally.

Survey Qualification: Response Details Page with Not Applicable Response and Redistributed Weights

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

In Sourcing, if these predefined questions are added as requirements to a negotiation, the not applicable responses will not be excluded from scoring.

  • For automatically scored questions, you must define scores for these acceptable responses before publishing the negotiation.
  • For manually scored questions, scorers must enter the scores during evaluation.

Role And Privileges

You have a couple of options for giving people access to this feature, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.

  • Users who are assigned any of these predefined job roles can access this feature:
    • Supplier Qualification (ORA_POQ_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_DISCRETIONARY) 
  • Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:
    • Edit Supplier Qualification Question (POQ_EDIT_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_QUESTION_PRIV) 
    • Evaluate Supplier Qualification (POQ_EVALUATE_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_PRIV) 
    • View Supplier Qualification (POQ_VIEW_SUPPLIER_QUALIFICATION_PRIV)

Spend Classification

Analyze Classification Results in a Batch and Use Visualizations for a Focused Review

Review and improve your classification results with the help of the new Analytics dashboard. This includes detailed visualizations and powerful search options that help you narrow down the transactions that may need your attention. As you assess classification predictions for individual spend records, you can make corrections and view overall improvements to your batch results in real time.

The Analytics option on the Batch Details page opens the new Analytics landing page, which contains metrics, charts, and other visualizations to help you assess classification accuracy.

Batch Summary

The Analytics for the batch are organized into four sections: Classification Performance, Classification Spread, Positive Influencers, and Negative Influencers. By clicking on each section, you can view the detailed charts and related metrics.

Batch Analytics

Classification Performance: Allows you to review the classification results for the batch by category based on the system confidence level for the predictions that have been made. The default view is for low confidence transactions.

The Classification Performance chart shows you how many of the transactions predicted for a category were originally assigned to that category and how many were assigned to a different category. This split is shown by amount and number of transactions. This can highlight the areas where there may be issues with the predictions being generated by Spend Classification. For example, if the volume of transactions predicted in a category is low, but they represent a significant proportion of the total value of the transactions for that category, this would warrant a detailed investigation.

The Classification Performance chart makes this easy, as you can drill down to the actual transactions for any of the regions in the chart. For example, if you click the Prediction Varies from Original bar within the Total Spend Amount for a specific category in this chart, you’ll be navigated to the batch details page that is filtered to list only those transactions included in that spend amount.

Transactions by Status

Classification Spread: The chart in this section allows you to understand how much of your category taxonomy includes predicted spend. And it helps you to assess the accuracy of the predictions for those categories. This helps you determine the relevance of your taxonomy or highlight significant issues with your Knowledge Base, if you have Training Set Data for a significant number of categories that are receiving no predicted spend.

You can compare the transactions categorization before and after classification process and see the breakup of this spread in terms of transaction amount or the number of transactions per category. Major deviations may warrant intervention and review. As with the transactions by category chart, you can use these charts to drill down to the batch details and make changes if required.

Spend by Category

Positive Influencers: This section within the Analytics dashboard shows you the words in the training data that have greater significance and a positive impact on accurate classification or category prediction. Review the positive keywords to assess whether there are improvements that can be made to training data, by refining existing keywords or augmenting them with additional similar terms. This should help you make changes that ensure that the training data is adequate, and the results are coming from positive influencers.

Positive Influencers

Negative Influencers: This shows the words in the training data that either have no impact or have a negative impact on accurate classification or category prediction for a category(s). Review negative keywords and remove them from training data to improve the classification results. You can add negative keywords to training exclusions to improve the classification results for a training set.

Negative Influencers

Use batch analytics to review the results after the classification process. These analytics significantly improve the efficiency of review and cut down the time that is otherwise spent on manually arriving at the transactions to review.

Watch a Demo.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

  • This feature is available without additional setup to users who have access to spend classification.
  • You have a couple of options for giving people access to Spend Classification, depending on whether you're assigning them predefined job roles or your own configured job roles.
    • Users who are assigned this predefined job role can access this feature:
      • Procurement Data Analyst (ORA_POI_PROCUREMENT_DATA_ANALYST_ABSTRACT)
    • Users who are assigned a configured job role that contains these privileges can access this feature:
      • Administer Spend Classification Application (POI_ADMINISTER_SPEND_CLASSIFICATION_PRIV)
      • Manage Spend Classification Batch (POI_MANAGE_SPEND_CLASSIFICATION_BATCH_PRIV)
      • View Spend Classification Work Area (POI_SPEND_CLASSIFICATION_WORKAREA_PRIV)

Procurement Contracts

Use Updated Rich Text Editor in Enterprise Contracts

Use the latest built-in rich text editor when editing clause text in Oracle Enterprise Contracts.

Built-in Rich Text Editor

Enjoy a simplified, more modern interface while using the same features available in the prior version of the editor.

Steps to Enable

You don't need to do anything to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

You can use the updated editor without requiring any additional steps to enable it. You can revert to the previous editor using the Opt In UI to disable this feature. From Update 23A, this feature is no longer optional, and you'll use the updated editor.

The updated built-in text editor is compatible with Firefox browser versions from Firefox 78.0esr.

The toolbar display is simplified, with features working in a similar way as before, with these notes:

  • There are no toolbar icons to copy, cut, and paste, but you can perform these functions using keyboard shortcuts.
  • You can select a bulleted or numbered list with fewer clicks. However, the numbered list with leading zeros is not supported.

Numbered Lists

  • There is no SCAYT (spell check) feature.
  • There is no Show Blocks feature.

Key Resources

Protect Supporting Documents from Deletion

Protect your supporting documents from being inadvertently deleted. Adding the new privilege, Delete Supporting Documents by Contract Status, to the required roles lets you restrict the deletion of supporting documents in all contract statuses other than Draft and Under Amendment. To restrict the deletion of supporting documents in all contract statuses, revoke the existing privilege, Delete Supporting Documents, for specific roles.

Delete Supporting Documents Privilege

Delete Supporting Documents by Contract Status Privilege

Result

Yes Yes

User can delete supporting documents in all contract statuses

Yes No

User can delete supporting documents in all contract statuses

No No

User can't delete supporting documents in any contract status

No Yes

User can delete supporting documents only in Draft and Under Amendment contract status

This feature lets you protect contracts' supporting documents from deletion using privileges.

Steps to Enable

Make the feature accessible by assigning or updating privileges and/or job roles. Details are provided in the Role section below.

Key Resources

Role And Privileges

The supplied privilege, Delete Supporting Documents by Contract Status Privilege, isn't assigned to any role. Add the privilege to the necessary roles and revoke the existing privilege, Delete Supporting Documents.