Document History

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

Date Update Version Notes
20 OCT 2017 Update 17D Delivered new features in update 17D.
03 AUG 2018 Update 17C Revised update 17C.
21 APR 2017 Update 17B Delivered new features in update 17B.

Update 17D

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 Feature Notes
20 OCT 2017   Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update, and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

We continue to add many new features to the Oracle Cloud Applications, and for some features, you can take advantage of new functionality at a pace that suits you by “opting in” to the feature when you’re ready. You can opt in to a feature in two ways:  by using the New Features work area, or by using the Setup and Maintenance work area.

To opt in using the New Features work area:

  1. Click the Navigator, and then click New Features (under the My Enterprise heading).
  2. On the New Features page, select the offering that includes new features you’d like to review.
  3. Click Opt In for any feature that you want to opt in to.
  4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for the feature, and then click Done.

To opt in using the Setup and Maintenance work area:

  1. Click the Navigator, and then click Setup and Maintenance.
  2. On the Setup page, select your offering, and then click Change Feature Opt In.
  3. On the Opt In page, click the Edit Features icon.
  4. On the Edit Features page, select the Enable option for any feature you want to opt in to. If the Enable column includes an Edit icon instead of a check box, then click the icon, select your feature options, and click Save and Close
  5. Click Done.

Update Tasks

This section gives you information to help you plan, deploy, and validate your update. We make frequent additions to this document, so don’t forget to check back and get the latest information before your update starts.

Feature Summary

Action Required to Enable Feature

Feature

None (Automatically Available)

Enable via Opt In UI Only

Enable via Opt In UI Plus Additional Steps

Not Enabled via Opt In UI but Setup Required

Issue Service Request

Purchasing

Send Purchasing Document Attachments as Separate Files

Bypass Purchase Order Approval Option

Self Service Procurement

Restart Approvals After Preparer and Requester Update

Use Requisition Flexfield Parameters to Configure Descriptive Flexfield Value Sets

Reassign Multiple Requisitions

Supplier Model

Allow Taxpayer ID Sharing Across Suppliers

Sourcing

Receive Supplier Acknowledgment Notifications

Manage Sourcing Attachments Download

Communicate Negotiation Amendments to Suppliers

Create Sourcing Program Reports

Supplier Qualification Management

New Notifications to Improve Qualification Processes

Remove Requirement for Supplier Contact on Qualification Questionnaires

Purchasing

Send Purchasing Document Attachments as Separate Files

Some supplier email systems either remove or reject delivery of messages that include compressed attachments from outbound purchase order emails. You can now send purchasing document attachments as separate files in the email message, instead of as a single compressed file. This helps ensure suppliers have access to all required information.

Steps to Enable

You must opt in to and enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Bypass Purchase Order Approval Option

Requisitions that leverage negotiated sources are often set up for automatic generation of purchase orders upon requisition approval. Additional approvals are not typically required for such orders and hence approval rules are configured to automatically approve these requisitions. When you have a high volume of such requisitions being interfaced from external systems, it causes significant strain on system resources to process the generated orders for approval, which in turn may result in delays and timeouts. 

With this feature, you now have an option to bypass redundant and resource intensive approval processing of purchase orders that are generated automatically to fulfill requisitions for negotiated goods and services and thus further accelerate the touchless buying process. Furthermore, it simplifies approval rule management by reducing the need for auto-approval rules. The following diagram illustrates this feature.

Process Flow for Bypassing Approvals

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Navigator, select Setup and Maintenance.
  2. Select the Procurement offering.
  3. From the Procurement Foundation functional area, select the Configure Procurement Business Function task.
  4. For the applicable procurement business unit, select the option: Bypass approvals for automatically submitted orders.

Option to Bypass Approval for Automatically Submitted Orders

Tips And Considerations

Emergency requisition lines and requisition lines charged to procurement cards can also be automatically processed into Purchase Orders. However, if such lines are not marked as “Negotiated”, they will still be subject to approvals processing. Also, the ability to bypass approvals does not apply to purchase orders generated from sourcing awards even if they are automatically submitted for approval.

Key Resources

Self Service Procurement

Restart Approvals After Preparer and Requester Update

When requisitions are reassigned to a new owner, approvals might have to be restarted from the beginning of the approval routing, based on the new owner. Restarting approvals manually is time-consuming, and there is a risk that requisitions could be incorrectly approved. You can now opt to automatically restart approvals at the time the Update action for the requisition is taken.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature:

Option to Restart Approvals From the Update Preparer and Requester Dialog Box

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Use Requisition Flexfield Parameters to Configure Descriptive Flexfield Value Sets

Values exposed using descriptive flexfields during requisition creation should be appropriate to the current user, based on attributes in the requisition. If incorrect values are selected in the shopping flow, problems with requisition execution can result, such as erroneous accounting, an incorrect supplier, delivery delays, or purchase of the wrong item. Procurement administrators can define parameters to limit the display of descriptive flexfield value sets based on attributes in a requisition, such as the attributes for requisitioning business unit and source agreement. This ensures that Self Service Procurement users can see and select only valid descriptive flexfield values within the context of a requisition.

The following requisition attributes are enabled as descriptive flexfield parameters that can be used to define value set initial values and validations for the descriptive flexfield segments:

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable these attributes. They are automatically available as flexfield parameters.

Key Resources

Reassign Multiple Requisitions

Managing the requisition process can include the reassignment of requisitions from one user to another for situations such as a temporary absence. Reassigning a large number of requisitions individually can be a very cumbersome and time-consuming process. With this enhancement to the existing Reassign requisitions capability in the Manage Requisitions page of Oracle Self Service Procurement, users can now select multiple requisitions to assign to a temporary delegated owner. In a single, efficient operation, a user can select all the requisitions to be reassigned, greatly reducing the time to perform these operations.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature:

Ability to Reassign Multiple Requisitions Simultaneously From the Manage Requisitions Page

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Supplier Model

Allow Taxpayer ID Sharing Across Suppliers

Under certain circumstances, multiple suppliers with different names must share the same taxpayer ID. Without this capability, payment and reporting capabilities are limited and require error-prone, costly manual processing. This feature enables suppliers that are configured as part of a parent-child hierarchy to share the same taxpayer ID. Every supplier record within that hierarchy can share the same taxpayer ID. This enables reporting and payments for each of those suppliers based on the shared taxpayer ID, eliminating the manual processes.

The following screen captures illustrate the feature.

Confirmation Required to Share Taxpayer ID

Advanced Search with Taxpayer ID Results in All Suppliers Sharing the Taxpayer ID

Steps to Enable

You must opt in to and enable this feature. For instructions, refer to the Optional Uptake of New Features section of this document.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Sourcing

Receive Supplier Acknowledgment Notifications

Busy Category Managers can find it cumbersome to frequently check suppliers’ acknowledgment of the negotiation invitation. Negotiation owners will now receive an email notification when invited suppliers state their intention to participate in the negotiation. You can stop these notifications to Category Managers at any time by deselecting the Negotiation participation acknowledged check box in the Manage Sourcing Notifications page.

Supplier Acknowledgment Notification

Steps to Enable

To enable this feature, the Procurement Application Administrator must perform the following steps:

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, select the Procurement offering.
  2. Search for the Manage Sourcing Notifications task.
  3. Click the task link.
  4. Select the Negotiation participation acknowledged checkbox. This notification can be enabled for all three negotiation types.
  5. Click Save.

Manage Sourcing Attachments Download

Suppliers and Category Managers must efficiently manage a large number of documents during the negotiation process. Use the Negotiation attachments and Response attachments pages to select attachments to download. You can also download all attachments shown on a page with one action.

You can search for an attachment by name, and refine searches using filters. To help manage large numbers of attachments, you can export a list of all attachments to a spreadsheet. Attachments are downloaded into a zip file and organized into a directory structure to facilitate drill down to a specific attachment by supplier, response, or level.

Download Response Attachments as a Category Manager

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Attachment download time may vary with the attachment size and network speed.

Communicate Negotiation Amendments to Suppliers

Effective supplier communication is critical to achieving negotiation success.When a negotiation is amended, category managers can now notify suppliers with an email notification that includes the updated negotiation PDF as an attachment. Supplier contacts and additional email recipients will receive the notification email with a PDF attachment, where they can review the negotiation details and take the appropriate next action.

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Create Sourcing Program Reports

Gain insight into your sourcing programs by creating custom reports using Oracle Transaction Business Intelligence. Sourcing programs enable you to set measurable negotiation savings and spend goals and proactively determine whether they are being met. Use the Sourcing – Program Real Time subject area in Oracle Transaction Business Intelligence (OTBI) to create sourcing program reports that support informed decision-making.

Custom Report Created Using Sourcing Programs Real Time Subject Area in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence Application

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Supplier Qualification Management

New Notifications to Improve Qualification Processes

Notify the responder directly when a previously submitted response requires re-submission. If the qualification manager sends a questionnaire back to a responder for further action, the internal responder and the supplier contact may be unaware that they need to revise and resubmit their questionnaire. The response re-submission notification alerts them to this situation.

In addition, you can send a reminder to a supplier or internal contact that they have a questionnaire awaiting a response. Prior to this enhancement, you could send a reminder notification only for overdue questionnaires for a specific initiative. You can now proactively remind responders that you are waiting for a response before it is overdue. The notification's content indicates whether the response is past due according to the questionnaire's due date.

New Notification: Response to Questionnaire Requires Resubmission

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Remove Requirement for Supplier Contact on Qualification Questionnaires

Create an initiative and launch a questionnaire without specifying a contact for the supplier. If the qualification process does not require direct participation from suppliers, such as in the case of an entirely internal performance evaluation, you save time by avoiding unneeded portal access setup for supplier contacts.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Update 17C

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 Feature Notes
03 AUG 2018 Descriptive Flexfield Inheritance Between Requisitions and Purchase Orders Updated document. Revised feature information.
10 OCT 2017 Exchange Attachments Using Collaboration Messaging Framework Updated document. Added feature delivered in update 17C.
11 AUG 2017  

Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update, and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update. Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

SECURITY & NEW FEATURES

If your system has modified security structures, you may need to advise your security administrator of new features you would like to take advantage of.

GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

We continue to add many new features to Oracle Cloud Applications and we now give you the option to take advantage of new functionality at a pace that suits you. The ‘New Features UI’ is available to you from your cloud homepage, where you can make your choices and do any configuration necessary.

Update Tasks

This section gives you information to help you plan, deploy, and validate your update. We make frequent additions to this document, so don’t forget to check back and get the latest information before your update starts.

Release Feature Summary

Action Required to Enable Feature

Feature

Automatically Available

End User Action Required

Administrator Action Required

Oracle Service Request Required

Oracle Procurement Cloud

Purchasing

Override First Approver for Purchase Orders

Acknowledgment Controls Defaulting for Purchase Orders

Update Purchase Order Agreements Using File-Based Data Import

Descriptive Flexfield Inheritance Between Requisitions and Purchase Orders

Enhanced Messages for Account Generation Failures

Remove Budgetary Control-Related Restrictions When a Purchase Order is Not Holding Funds

Report Using the Procure to Pay Subject Area

Exchange Attachments Using Collaboration Messaging Framework

Self Service Procurement

Assign All Lines on a Requisition to the Same Buyer

Retain Last Assigned Buyer for Returned Lines

Use a Purchase Agreement Across Supplier Sites

Sourcing

Ensure Supplier Communication in Preferred Language

Track and Audit Supplier Actions

Consolidate Negotiation Lines on Purchase Order

Supplier Qualification Management

Share Qualifications and Assessments with Suppliers

Improved Management of Automation Errors

Oracle Procurement Cloud

Oracle Procurement Cloud provides a complete source-to-settle solution to help you:

Oracle Procurement Cloud supports both transactional procure-to-pay flows from requisitions through purchase orders, receipts, and invoices, as well as strategic areas around sourcing, contracting, and advanced supplier management.

This update provides a number of new enhancements that help you gain more value from your procurement processes.

Purchasing

Override First Approver for Purchase Orders

Currently, requesters can be given the option to specify the overriding approver used to start requisition approval routing.

You can now use the original overriding approver from the originating requisition on purchase orders and related change orders to determine the approval routing of the resulting purchase order and related change orders. This ensures that the approvers of the originating requisition are able to approve any changes introduced later in the procurement process and maintain compliance with approval policies.

This capability provides additional approval flexibility, maintains the integrity of the approval process (change orders have the same functionality as the original requisition), and ensures consistent business controls throughout the purchasing process.

The following screen capture illustrates a sample approval rule that routes requester-initiated change orders to the requisition's overriding approver.

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

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Acknowledgment Controls Defaulting for Purchase Orders

In many cases, suppliers must formally acknowledge the receipt of a purchase order and accept its terms and conditions before the fulfillment cycle can begin. Issuing these orders without explicitly specifying the acknowledgment requirements can expose the buying organization to considerable risk. You can now leverage the supplier site configuration to automatically default the appropriate acknowledgment terms and controls on your purchase orders. This applies to all methods of purchase order creation including web service, file based data import, automated order generation from requisitions as well as direct entry. Through automatic defaulting of appropriate acknowledgment controls on purchase orders, Oracle Purchasing Cloud eliminates the need to rely on accurate manual entry, minimizing your risk exposure.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Define Acknowledgment Controls at the Supplier Site level

Acknowledgement Controls Defaulted on New Purchase Order

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Update Purchase Order Agreements Using File-Based Data Import

Oracle Purchasing Cloud has extended the number of agreement attributes available for update through file-based data import. When using file-based data import to update agreement information from a third-party system, a broad set of agreement attributes are needed to enable a complete, automated integration. Without these, many of the updates would have to be managed manually, a time-consuming and error-prone process.

Additional attributes available for update through file-based data import include:

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Descriptive Flexfield Inheritance Between Requisitions and Purchase Orders

Descriptive flexfields offer a powerful and flexible way to capture specific information on a requisition that may be unique to your business needs. You now have the option to copy descriptive flexfield attributes from the requisition header to the purchase order header, and from a requisition line to the purchase order line, in addition to the preexisting requisition distribution to purchase order distribution option.

Steps to Enable

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, on the Manage Administrator Profile Values page, set the Requisition Header Descriptive Flexfields Copied to Purchase Order Headers and the Requisition Line Descriptive Flexfields Copied to Purchase Order Lines profile options to Yes.

Profile Options to Enable Descriptive Flexfield Inheritance from Requisitions to Purchase Orders

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Enhanced Messages for Account Generation Failures

Lapses in accounting rule configuration using Transaction Account Builder can sometimes lead to unexpected errors when submitting the transactions for approval. When Oracle Purchasing Cloud cannot derive accounts for a transaction, the application will now display detailed messages about the underlying error, so you can work with your administrator to resolve the issues without additional technical research.

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Enhanced Account Generation Failure Message Example

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Remove Budgetary Control-Related Restrictions When a Purchase Order is Not Holding Funds

Organizations using budgetary control for a portion of their spend often want additional flexibility in actions they can take on non-budgetary-controlled purchases. You can now split a line or update the line from the catalog for requisitions that are not holding funds, even if budgetary control is enabled for the requisitioning BU. If you have purchase orders that are not holding funds, you now have the option to cancel the purchase order without having to cancel the associated requisition lines. With the availability of these additional actions, you can now process requisitions more efficiently. As a requester, you will no longer have to submit new requisitions for requirements that were previously approved but not fulfilled.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Report Using the Procure to Pay Subject Area

Report on spend for purchase orders and their associated requisitions, invoices, receipts, and accounts using a new Procure to Pay Real Time subject area in Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence. The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

New Procurement Subject Area - Procure To Pay Real Time

Sample Report - Procure To Pay

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Exchange Attachments Using Collaboration Messaging Framework

Business-to-business communications and configuration have already been greatly simplified using Oracle Fusion Collaboration Messaging Framework. You now have the option to deliver, to your suppliers or trading partner networks, "To supplier" purchase order attachments that are embedded within the message body of an OAG 10.1 purchase order outbound message.  This broadens the capabilities of business-to-business communications while ensuring that suppliers have the information they need to process your orders.

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 11.

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Navigator, click Setup and Maintenance.

  2. Select the Procurement offering.

  3. In the Procurement offering, locate the task named Manage Administrator Profile Values.

  4. Search for the following profile option: Include Attachments in Electronic Communication.

  5. Set the value of this profile option to Yes.

Key Resources

For more details, review the following white paper on My Oracle Support: Oracle Fusion Purchasing: Overview of Electronic Communication in Purchasing (note 2174649.1).

Self Service Procurement

Assign All Lines on a Requisition to the Same Buyer

You can now assign all lines on a requisition to the same buyer. A new site-level profile option (Use Same Buyer for all Lines in a Requisition) is available in this release. If the value of the profile option is Yes, then when a requisition is submitted, the buyer assigned to the first requisition line will be used as the buyer on all lines in the requisition. The default value of the profile option is No.

Steps to Enable

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, set the profile option named Use Same Buyer for All Lines in a Requisition (POR_ASSIGN_REQ_SAME_BUYER) to Yes to enable this feature.

Manage Administrator Profile Values Page

Tips And Considerations

Retain Last Assigned Buyer for Returned Lines

You can now retain the last assigned buyer on returned requisition lines.  A new site-level profile option (Retain Last Assigned Buyer on Requisition Line) is available in this release. If the value of the profile option is Yes and a requester resubmits a returned line, the line will be reassigned to the buyer who returned that line. The default value of the profile option is No.

Steps to Enable

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, set the profile option named Retain Last Assigned Buyer on Requisition Line (POR_RETAIN_LAST_ASSIGNED_BUYER) to Yes to enable this feature.

Manage Administrator Profile Values Page

Tips And Considerations

Use a Purchase Agreement Across Supplier Sites

You can now create agreements that allow ordering from any site. Self Service Procurement users can choose any valid supplier site in the requisitioning Business Unit when ordering items using smart forms or through the Enter Requisition Line page if they select a purchase agreement that allows ordering from any site.

Steps to Enable

Select the “Allow ordering from unassigned sites” option on the purchasing agreement’s Controls tab to enable this feature for requisitions that are sourced to a particular agreement.

Controls Tab on a Purchase Agreement

Tips And Considerations

When the agreement allows ordering from any site, all supplier sites that are enabled in the user’s preferred requisitioning business unit will be available when the user creates a requisition. However, if the “Agreement order locally” option is selected, then when the user creates a requisition, the only purchasing supplier sites available to select are those that are assigned to the requisitioning business unit that is specified on the user’s requisition preferences.

Sourcing

Ensure Supplier Communication in Preferred Language

As markets become more globalized, many organizations are challenged to communicate business requirements effectively to suppliers. In a Sourcing process, it is important to ensure that suppliers receive clear, understandable communications. Currently, supplier notifications are sent based on the supplier contact's preferred language. Suppliers may have sites in different geographies with varied language preferences. With this feature, the supplier contacts of these different sites will receive negotiation PDFs and emails in their preferred language. Suppliers will receive communication in a way that best suits their understanding.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Supplier site language is specified on the address associated with the supplier site. The negotiation PDF will be generated in this language and send to supplier contacts in the negotiation invitation email.

Track and Audit Supplier Actions

Audit trails can play an important part in an organization’s overall risk management strategy, demonstrating to customers, business partners and regulators that an organization has made a thorough effort to protect against and prevent potential problems. For a Sourcing business process, tracking supplier activities provides a historical account of their actions for audit purposes and also provides details that can assist during a negotiation. A Category Manager can now go to a single place to track activities by supplier and take necessary actions. Providing a detailed and user friendly way to track supplier activities will provide Category Managers insight into supplier progress and audit trails of supplier actions for compliance purposes.

In this release the Monitor Supplier Activities feature is enhanced to capture an activity log. It is a historical account of suppliers’ activities during a negotiation cycle. When supplier takes various actions, such as accept or decline a negotiation invitation, accept terms and conditions or create a response, the log shows what action was taken by the contact, and when. Category Managers can export the activity log into an excel report.

Monitor Supplier Activities with an Activity Log

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Consolidate Negotiation Lines on Purchase Order

Category Managers often create negotiations from requisitions to consolidate demand or negotiate for better pricing. They may need to add additional negotiation lines or increase quantities on the line items in the negotiation, in accordance with their business needs. Category Managers can now leverage discounted pricing based on increased quantities of items, or additional items purchased from the supplier by providing suppliers with a single, consolidated purchase order based on the award decisions. The supplier can also keep track of the negotiated results on a single, consolidated purchase order. Category Managers can now take advantage of better pricing and communicate effectively when buying additional items from the supplier.

Negotiation Lines From Requisitions and Lines Added Directly in the Negotiation Consolidate in a Single Purchase Order

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Separate purchase orders will be created for the awarded negotiation lines in some scenarios:

Supplier Qualification Management

Share Qualifications and Assessments with Suppliers

To increase performance and qualification levels and to help maintain the most current supplier information, you can share qualification results with suppliers. This optional feature allows you to control the level of information you share. You may choose to disclose only summary outcome information or you may share individual question response details as well. You can share internal responses (responses that did not originate from the supplier) or only question responses that originated with the supplier. Supplier visibility controls have been added to the qualification model and qualification area setup UI. The page layouts are optimized to make it easy to tell which controls are related.

View Qualifications as Supplier

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Improved Management of Automation Errors

As the supplier qualification process becomes increasingly automated through continued enhancements, you must track and manage an increasing number of errors and exceptions that occur during processing. This enhancement provides a new landing page infolet that highlights the number of recently occurring automation errors. When an automated transaction fails to process as expected, such as during the automatic assignment of qualifications to suppliers at the conclusion of supplier registration, the error is registered for your attention. From the infolet, you can drill down into the new Manage Automation Errors page and take corrective action. You can view the list of errors and see detailed information. You can then correct configuration errors, or process the transactions manually as needed. These tools will help you identify and address configuration issues and reduce the need to contact support, shortening the time to resolution.

Automation Errors Infolet on Supplier Qualification Landing Page

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Update 17B

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 Feature Notes
11 DEC 2017 Outbound Integration Events Updated document.  Removed key resource.
21 APR 2017   Created initial document.

Overview

This guide outlines the information you need to know about new or improved functionality in this update, and describes any tasks you might need to perform for the update.  Each section includes a brief description of the feature, the steps you need to take to enable or begin using the feature, any tips or considerations that you should keep in mind, and the resources available to help you.

Security & New Features

If your system has modified security structures, you may need to advise your security administrator of new features you would like to take advantage of. Appendix A provides details about the security attributes needed to employ the new features after you have decided to implement them.

GIVE US FEEDBACK

We welcome your comments and suggestions to improve the content. Please send us your feedback at oracle_fusion_applications_help_ww_grp@oracle.com.

Optional Uptake of New Features (Opt In)

We continue to add many new features to Oracle Cloud Applications and we now give you the option to take advantage of new functionality at a pace that suits you. The ‘New Features UI’ is available to you from your cloud homepage, where you can make your choices and do any configuration necessary.

Update Tasks

This section gives you information to help you plan, deploy, and validate your update to this release. We make frequent additions to this document, so don’t forget to check back and get the latest information before your update starts.

CUSTOM BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE CONTENT ADDED TO THE PURCHASING OVERVIEW PAGE

If you added custom business intelligence content to the Purchasing Overview page in previous releases, and you want to make that content available to your users in this release, you must follow these steps:

  1. Grant your users the following entitlement: View Custom Infolets.
  2. Use the page customization feature to create an infolet, and add the custom business intelligence content to the Custom Infolet Analyses on the home page.

Release Feature Summary

Action Required to Enable Feature

Feature

Automatically Available

End User Action Required

Administrator Action Required

Oracle Service Request Required

Source to Settle

Cross-Product Procurement Enhancements

Analytic-Driven Infolets on the Home Page and Work Area Landing Page

Select and Access Favorites

Purchasing

Purchase Orders Work Area Landing Page

Agreements Work Area Landing Page

Manage Supplier Acknowledgments

Enable Electronic Signature of Procurement Documents

Reporting

Budgetary Control - Grants Funding Sources

Budgetary Control - Funds Reservation

Period-End Processing

Keyword Search

Outside Processing

Outbound Integration Events

Provide Details for Human Workflow Issues that Cause PO Rejection

Self Service Procurement

Shopping Experience

Mobile Requisition Application

Internal Material Transfer

Budgetary Control

Multiple-Grant Support

Outside Processing

Punchout Setup Diagnostic Tools

Supplier Model

Full Supplier Profile Change Management

Inbound Supplier Web Service

Supplier Portal Work Area Landing Page

Search Suppliers

Communicate New Supplier Documents

Import Supplier Profile Attachments

Support Batch Processing in Supplier Import

Create Suppliers from Existing Party Using Supplier Import

Sourcing

Team Scoring

Sourcing Programs

Negotiation Abstracts

Supplier Response Tabulation

Award Notice

Negotiations Work Area Landing Page

Question Library Scoring

Remove Managers from the Collaboration Team

Price Visibility Control

Supplier Lock Out

Outside Processing

Supplier Qualification Management

Qualification and Assessment Scoring

Automatic Evaluation

Automatic Acceptance of Responses

Event-Based Initiative and Qualification Creation

Cancellation of Future-Dated Qualifications and Assessments

Supplier Qualification Work Area Landing Page

Additional Notifications

Appendix A: Function Security Roles and Privileges

Source to Settle

Oracle Procurement Cloud provides a complete source-to-settle solution to help you:

Oracle Procurement Cloud supports both transactional procure-to-pay flows from requisitions through purchase orders, receipts, and invoices as well as strategic areas around sourcing, contracting, and advanced supplier management.

This release provides enhancements in user experience and navigation, more flexibility with additional services, and a large set of new product features enabling you to gain more value from your procurement processes.

Cross-Product Procurement Enhancements

A successful source-to-settle business process relies on your ability to aggregate, analyze, and act upon key insights that drive timely and reliable business decisions. You need highly visual, analytically driven, and timely information at the forefront of the applications you use every day. Release 13 introduces a revamped home experience page, work area landing pages, and Favorites capability that provide visual, insightful, and actionable information for your entire source-to-settle business process.

Analytic-Driven Infolets on the Home Page and Work Area Landing Page

The new home experience and application work area pages provide modern user interface components called infolets. An infolet is a self-contained, interactive container that helps you quickly visualize high-level information, review relevant details, and proceed to action. Because infolets are role-based, you see only what is relevant to your specific role. Progressive disclosure of details is available to you by expanding or inverting the infolet as needed. You can also rearrange the layout of your infolets or hide the ones that you do not need.

Infolets are available to you at two levels:

Source to Settle Infolets Home Page

The redesigned work area landing pages present information quickly and clearly to draw your attention to actionable content, which is key to your productivity. Infolet-based work area landing pages have easy-to-read analytic tiles that users can rearrange and configure to meet personalized needs. The tiles also provide additional metrics and improved usability. This design allows all users to monitor the part of the operation that best meets their own role or interest.

You can configure which infolets you want to display on the home experience infolet page from the following list:

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Select and Access Favorites

To help you quickly find important information or transactions, Oracle Procurement Cloud supports an expanded Favorites capability. In prior releases, setting a favorite was managed through the Favorites and Recent Items toolbar, which required a few extra clicks. In this release, you can easily establish individual suppliers, purchase orders, and more as favorites with a click on the Star icon that appears next to the object title. One click identifies the object as a favorite (solid yellow star), and one click removes it from favorites (empty star). Establishing a favorite provides you with easy access to revisit those objects by opening your Favorites and Recent Items list and clicking on the title.

The following screen captures illustrate the feature and its benefits.

Favorite Supplier Indicated by the Solid Yellow Star Icon

Favorite Supplier Shown in the Favorites and Recent Items List

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Purchasing

With Oracle Purchasing Cloud, you can verify the accuracy of supplier agreements that ensure pricing, terms and conditions, and policies with suppliers. Purchasing also enables you to manage purchase orders with suppliers to ensure goods and services are delivered on time.

Purchase Orders Work Area Landing Page

The Purchase Orders work area landing page has been redesigned to quickly highlight purchasing transactions that require buyer attention and infolets that include key alerts and important metrics. The following infolets are available to provide improved insight into purchase orders:

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Purchase Orders Work Area Landing Page

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Agreements Work Area Landing Page

The Agreements work area landing page has been redesigned to quickly highlight supplier agreement transactions that require the category manager’s attention and infolets that include key alerts and important metrics. The following infolets are available to provide improved insight into agreements:

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Agreements Work Area Landing Page

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Manage Supplier Acknowledgments

Supplier acknowledgments are a valuable tool in the procure-to-pay transaction flow. You can use acknowledgments to confirm suppliers have received a transaction and have accepted pricing and other terms and conditions. Suppliers can notify any changes to expected quantity and delivery information.

You can do the following:

The following screen captures illustrate these features.

Propose Changes During Acknowledgment

Acknowledge Schedules with Spreadsheet

Track Acknowledgment Activity in Document History

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Enable Electronic Signature of Procurement Documents

You can now use electronic signatures with DocuSign® to effectively capture formal acceptance of internal users and suppliers on purchasing documents. The following capabilities can help you manage the electronic signature process:

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.  

Require Signature During Purchasing Document Creation

Prepare Purchasing Document for Signature

Steps to Enable

You can now use electronic signatures with DocuSign® to effectively capture formal acceptance of internal users and suppliers on purchasing documents. The following capabilities can help you manage the electronic signature process:

To use this feature, you must have procurement contracts implemented. Follow these steps in the Setup and Maintenance work area to enable the electronic signatures for procurement documents feature under the Procurement Contracts functional area:

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Select the Procurement offering.
  3. In Administration region, from the Actions menu, select Change Configuration.
  4. For the Procurement Contracts functional area, click the Edit icon in the features column.
  5. Select the option for Enable Electronic Signature for Procurement Documents.

Enable Electronic Signature for Procurement Offering

  1. Next, configure the Electronic Signature:
    1. Select the Procurement offering.
    2. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
    3. Click Setup.
    4. Select the Procurement Contracts offering in the Functional Areas region.
    5. Click Configure Electronic Signature for Procurement Documents in the Task region.
    6. Select DocuSign as the Solution Provider.
    7. Provide the URL and Admin account credentials for DocuSign.
    8. Click Save and Close. 

Manage Electronic Signature Setup

Key Resources

Reporting

Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) reporting capabilities have been enhanced with the following:

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Document Action History Sample Report

Award Sample Report

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Budgetary Control - Grants Funding Sources

Many grants are funded by multiple funding sources. You now have the ability to charge transactions against multiple funding sources for a single grant. This enhancement removes the previous limitation of a single funding source per grant. You now define the funding source as a budget segment, and you can specify the funding source to charge the expense for purchasing transactions.

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Funding Source as Budget Segment

Steps to Enable

Refer to the What’s New in Oracle Grants Management Cloud Release 13 Guide, available on the Oracle Help Center.

Key Resources

Budgetary Control - Funds Reservation

In this release, you can configure funds to be reserved as early as document submission rather than wait for approval to reserve the funds.

When a purchase order is needed and budget is not available, a funds override process can quickly resolve the constraint. The following capabilities have been added to help manage the funds override process:

The following screen captures illustrate these features.

Purchase Order with Funds Reserved on Submit

Request Insufficient Funds Override

Document History for Purchase Order with Funds Override

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Create or open an implementation project that includes:
    1. Offering:  Financials
    2. Functional Area:  Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting
  3. Search for the Manage Budgetary Control task.
  4. Search for the appropriate Ledger and Business Unit combination.
  5. Select the Business Unit.
  6. In the Procure-to-Pay Business Functions region, select Submission from the Reservation Point drop down list.  

    Enable Funds Reservation on Document Submission

To enable insufficient funds override feature and define the various override rules:

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Create or open an implementation project that includes:
    1. Offering:  Financials
    2. Functional Area:  Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting
  3. Search for the Manage Control Budgets task.
  4. Click on Add to create a new control budget.
  5. Select the Allow overrides checkbox.

Enable Funds Override for Control Budget

  1. In the Override Rules region, click Add to create an override rule.
  2. Provide values for Maximum Override Amount, and Name.
  3. Select Insufficient funds from the Type dropdown.
  4. Select appropriate Transaction Types.
  5. Save your changes.
  6. From the Action menu, select Prepare for Use.

Define Override Rules for Control Budget

Key Resources

Period-End Processing

Period-end processing can be time consuming. You must carefully examine transactions to determine whether they must be finally closed or carried over to the next period.

You can now accomplish period-end processing more efficiently by using a simplified Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with upload and download functions to perform mass-close operations. This enhancement makes it easier for users to quickly update the status of open transactions that may be holding residual accruals or obligations and that have been inactive or overdue for closure.

The following screen capture illustrates the feature.

Close Purchase Order Schedules in Spreadsheet

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Keyword Search

Find the orders, agreements, and suppliers you need faster and more easily with the new quick search tool, which includes keyword search and autosuggest. This feature provides a more modern and easy-to-use search capability, while still providing the ability to search for specific field values when needed.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Keyword Search In Manage Orders

Keyword Search with Autosuggest

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Outside Processing

Outside processing is a common business process in which one or more operations of a work order is outsourced to a supplier. Typically, manufacturers use outside processing when they don’t have the capabilities or equipment to perform a specialized and costly service (such as plating) in-house. 

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Outside Processing Work Order Information

Steps to Enable

Refer to What’s New in Manufacturing Cloud Release 13, available on the Oracle Help Center.

Key Resources

Outbound Integration Events

You can integrate Oracle Procurement Cloud with additional systems using a variety of techniques. In addition, you can now configure integrated systems to subscribe to and consume purchase order events. This provides a quick, efficient method of integration. The following events are now available to you:

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

ICS Integration Allows System to Subscribe To and Consume Purchase Order Events

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Provide Details for Human Workflow Issues that Cause PO Rejection

Complex approval rules can sometimes result in configuration issues or oversights that lead to unexpected approval rejections. When a purchasing document is rejected for technical reasons, the rejection notification contains additional details about the underlying errors. Failures due to rule configuration issues and missing currency conversion rates are clearly indicated so that you can work with your administrator to resolve the issues without additional technical research or support.The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Error Notifications Include Additional Details That Identify the Cause of Failure

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Self Service Procurement

Oracle Self Service Procurement Cloud streamlines the purchase requisitioning process using a consumer-centric approach and helps control employee spending by enforcing procurement policies. Requisitions are validated and submitted for approval before they are processed as purchase orders in Oracle Purchasing.

Shopping Experience

As consumer shopping expectations evolve, the self-service procurement experience must also evolve. Self Service Procurement delivers a new, simplified user experience for shopping and requisition creation. A completely redesigned layout is now available for easier identification of important information for requesters, such as recently viewed, recent purchases, and featured categories. Powerful new tools, such as advanced filters in search results and one-click requisition submission, meet the expectations of a demanding user base accustomed to consumer shopping tools. Users are able to complete tasks more quickly and easily with less support. In a world of ever-expanding devices, the improved experience is designed to satisfy across devices, including desktops, laptops, and tablets.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Shopping Home Page Redesign

 

Quicker Checkout

 

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Mobile Requisition Application

You can take self-service shopping and requisition creation on the road with the Self Service Procurement mobile application. Employees in the field or on the go can easily and quickly create and submit requisitions from iOS and Android devices. The mobile application is easy to use, with a consumer experience that includes the ability to view item details in search results, view status of recent requisitions, and keep up-to-date with purchasing news.

Item Search Results Card View

View Requisition Status/Purchasing News

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.  However, the user must have the necessary privileges to access the feature.

Key Resources

Internal Material Transfer

Rather than buy items that are already on hand, you can use an internal material transfer through Self Service Procurement to request goods held in internal inventory. The internal material transfer differs from a standard requisition in that it is processed internally rather than through the dispatch of a purchase order to a supplier. However, requisitions for internal material transfers are governed by the same approval workflows, account defaulting rules, and controls as other requisitions destined for suppliers.  

The following screen capture illustrates this feature. 

Select Supply Source UI

Steps to Enable

  1. Enable the Internal Material Transfers feature in the Self Service Procurement functional area of the Procurement offering (Setup and Maintenance work area).
  2. In the Configure Requisitioning Business Function page, optionally enable the visibility of available inventory quantities in the Select Supply Source window.

Key Resources

Budgetary Control

Control and maintain budgets with greater flexibility.  Oracle Budgetary Control Cloud provides several new features that enhance the existing capabilities to enforce budget constraints and prevent users from submitting transactions if funds are not sufficient. You can configure funds to be reserved as early as requisition submission rather than waiting for requisition approval to reserve the funds. When a purchase is needed, even though a budget is not available, you can apply a funds override process to make the purchase. The override flow support consists of: a funds override request, funds override approval, and reserving funds with an override at requisition approval. When you must release funds without being used, instead of finding and canceling individual requisitions, you can now mass-cancel requisitions to make it easy to clean up reserved funds that are held across multiple requisitions. 

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Create or open an implementation project that includes:
    1. Offering:Financials
    2. Functional Area:Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting
  3. Search for the Manage Budgetary Control task.
  4. Search for the appropriate Ledger and Business Unit combination.
  5. Select the Business Unit.
  6. In the Procure-to-Pay Business Functions region, select Submission or Approval from the Reservation Point drop down list.

Manage Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting

Enable Funds Reservation on Document Submission

To enable insufficient funds override feature and define the various override rules:

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Create or open an implementation project that includes:
    1. Offering:  Financials
    2. Functional Area:  Budgetary Control and Encumbrance Accounting
  3. Search for the Manage Control Budgets task.
  4. Click on Add to create a new control budget.
  5. Select the Allow overrides checkbox.

Manage Control Budget

Enable Funds Override for Control Budget

  1. In the Override Rules region, click Add to create an override rule.
  2. Provide values for Maximum Override Amount, and Name.
  3. Select Insufficient funds from the Type dropdown.
  4. Select appropriate Transaction Types.
  5. Save your changes.
  6. From the Action menu, select Prepare for Use.

Define Override Rules for Control Budget

Key Resources

Multiple-Grant Support

Some projects are funded by multiple grants. To enhance grants management in the procurement process, Self Service Procurement provides the ability to charge against multiple grants for a single project. This removes the current limitation of a single grant per project.

Steps to Enable

To use Multiple-Grant Support, Projects Costing and Grants Management must be implemented. No additional setup steps are required.

Tips And Considerations

When multiple awards are available for a project, you must select the Contract Number and Funding Source for each requisition distribution associated to the project expenditure.

Selecting Contract Number and Funding Source in Requisition

Key Resources

Outside Processing

Outside processing is a common business process in which one or more operations of a work order is outsourced to a supplier. Typically, manufacturers use outside processing when they don’t have the capabilities or equipment to perform a specialized and costly service (such as plating) in house. Self Service Procurement supports integration to create outside processing requisitions to buy the outside manufacturing service, either at release of the work order or when the prior operation is completed, depending on your requirements.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Punchout Setup Diagnostic Tools

When configuring and using a punchout supplier, errors can sometimes occur. These problems are generally due to connection failures, errors in the punchout request, or errors in the returned shopping cart. It can be tedious and time consuming to diagnose and fix these errors, slowing implementation and increasing costs.

Oracle Self Service Procurement Cloud provides the Catalog Administrator and Application Administrator with inline diagnostics for errors found in punchout site configuration test requests or in returned shopping carts. This diagnostic capability provides immediately accessible information that can be used to diagnose punchout problems, greatly reducing the time to get a punchout supplier up and running.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Error Message Popup with View Log button

Punchout Log Details Popup Displaying the Punchout Attributes and its Values

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Supplier Model

Oracle Supplier Model Cloud enables you to manage your supplier data to support critical business processes that leverage suppliers such as procure-to-pay. You can maintain external supplier profile information, including addresses, contacts, and tax information. In addition, you can maintain internal business controls to govern transaction processing based on the supplier relationship.

Full Supplier Profile Change Management

Management of supplier profile information consumes a significant level of time and resources. Supplier self-service profile management empowers suppliers to maintain their own profile data through the Oracle Supplier Portal Cloud. Supplier Portal delivers a complete set of tools for suppliers to manage their profile: secure access to profile information, configuration of supplier profile elements that are change-controlled, and ability for internal users to review and approve supplier-initiated profile changes. When suppliers manage their own profiles, you’ll benefit from improved accuracy of supplier data, reduced costs associated with profile management, and improved communication with suppliers on profile review and updates. 

The following screen captures illustrate this feature.

Edit Profile Change Request From Supplier Portal

Review Changes Before Submitting the Request

Steps to Enable

This feature is available in the following Procurement Cloud products: Supplier Portal, Sourcing, and Supplier Qualification.

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, enable the Full Supplier Profile Change Management feature, under the Supplier Portal, Sourcing, or Supplier Qualification functional area. When the feature is enabled, supplier users can manage full profiles from Supplier Portal.
  2. IMPORTANT: For new customers, the Full Supplier Profile Change Management feature is enabled by default. For existing customers upgrading to Release 13, the feature is not enabled by default, so you can determine whether and when to implement this feature, as appropriate to your business.
  3. Review the defaults in the following optional setup steps and make changes based on the business needs of your organization.
    1. Configure Supplier Registration and Profile Change Request: review the default settings for which types of profile changes require approval.
    2. Manage Supplier Profile Change Approvals: review the default approval routing rules for the supplier profile change requests.

OPT IN PARAMETERS

Opt In

Yes

Opt In Expiration (if applicable)

Not applicable

Dependent Feature Opt In (if applicable)

None

Offering Names

Procurement > Supplier Portal

Procurement > Sourcing

Procurement > Supplier Qualification

Key Resources

Inbound Supplier Web Service

A comprehensive inbound web service that facilitates data transfers from external supplier data sources into the Supplier Model profile. The web service allows you to create new suppliers, as well as update or delete attributes in existing supplier profiles.

Steps to Enable

There are no steps needed to enable the feature in Oracle Supplier Model Cloud. It can be used after completing following steps in the external application:

  1. Provide the WSDL URL for the Inbound Supplier Web Service.
  2. Configure the application to publish the supplier record changes in a prescribed XML payload.

Tips And Considerations

While maintaining an external master application for suppliers, use the Inbound Supplier Web Service feature to synchronize supplier records to be used in the Procure to Pay flow in Oracle Cloud Applications.

Key Resources

Supplier Portal Work Area Landing Page

You can gain substantial savings and efficiency with an effective supplier self-service portal solution to manage supplier transactions and communication. The success of a portal solution is dependent on the ability of suppliers to identify and complete essential tasks quickly and easily. A re-engineered user experience for the Supplier Portal is both simplified and more effective. Reduced information density, clearer calls to action and improved usability means suppliers can start working quickly with actionable content. By surfacing real-time information on the work area landing page (such as recent activity, transaction reports, and issues that require urgent attention), the landing page provides immediate and summarized visibility of current work and business flows. For suppliers on the go, the new landing page is designed to deliver a great experience on tablets as well as the desktop. New infolets include:

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Supplier Portal Work Area Landing Page

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Search Suppliers

Find the suppliers you need faster and more easily with the new supplier search tool, which includes keyword search and autosuggest. Expanded search capability also provides you the flexibility to use the Manage Suppliers page to do light reporting and analysis tasks without leaving the Suppliers work area. The new supplier search includes the ability to search for a set of suppliers across supplier attributes, such as business classifications, supplier types, or products and services. 

The following screen captures illustrate the feature.

Quick Search Enabled with Keywords-Based Search and Autosuggest

Manage Suppliers – Basic Search

 

Manage Suppliers – Advanced Search

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Communicate New Supplier Documents

Purchasing departments must communicate important information to the new suppliers. The information can vary from being a simple terms-and-conditions document to a more detailed document including payment terms and contract information. Organizations that deal with suppliers globally might have different versions of the information based upon the country of the suppliers to support different languages and other country specific business requirements. Organizations now have the ability to configure the documents that they want automatically communicated to new suppliers. This can be configured based upon the supplier’s country to accommodate regional differences. A system-generated email is sent to the supplier contacts along with the documents. The documents are sent as attachments to the email notification. 

The following screen capture shows where the notification content is configured.

Configure New Supplier Notification Setup Page

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

In the Setup and Maintenance work area, select the Procurement offering and click Setup. Then, select the Suppliers functional area and use the Configure New Supplier Notification task to enable the feature.

  1. Enter the email subject and body.
  2. If applicable, upload notification documents as global or tax country specific.
  3. Select the Enable notification option.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Import Supplier Profile Attachments

When importing suppliers to Oracle Procurement Cloud, file attachments are often required to complete the supplier profiles.  Adding file attachments manually through the user interface  is time consuming, error prone, and expensive. Oracle Procurement Cloud automates the process by enabling mass uploads of supplier profile, supplier site, and business classification attachments. With supplier import, you can quickly import all of the supported attachment types and categories, which greatly reduces the time needed to complete a supplier profile. After import, the attachments are immediately available.  Support for attachment import is especially significant for migration activities, during which you must import large volumes of suppliers with attachment data from existing systems.

The following screen captures illustrate the import of supplier attachments.

New Import Supplier Attachments Process

 

Supplier Attachments FBDI Import Template

 

 

 Supplier Attachments Import Report

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Support Batch Processing in Supplier Import

Supplier import allows you to enter or update large volumes of supplier data in Oracle Procurement Cloud. When the import is processed, all records in the staging or interface tables are picked up for processing, which can occasionally affect performance and take longer than desired. Additionally, if an import process is scheduled more than once, all instances will attempt to process all records, affecting performance.

You can now specify which records you want processed when you schedule a supplier import process. You can organize import records into batches by assigning them a Batch ID. Batches can be processed in parallel.

The following screen captures illustrate the feature.

Suppliers File-Based Import Template with Batch ID Column

Import Suppliers Process Window  with Batch ID Parameter

Suppliers Import Report with Batch ID Parameter

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Create Suppliers from Existing Party Using Supplier Import

Often, a supplier is also a customer. Many companies want to manage both aspects of that relationship in an integrated fashion to ensure the best relationship possible. Sharing parties reduces duplicate maintenance and improves data quality. If separate unique records are required for the supplier and customer, the difficulty of getting accurate, timely information about their activities greatly increases. Using Oracle Supplier Import, supplier records can be created as part of the same existing global party that includes the customer record information. Actionable information from reporting and analysis enables enhanced management of the relationship. The following screen capture illustrates creating supplier from existing party.

Suppliers Imports Template with Registry ID Column

NOTE: This feature was also made available in a quarterly update of Release 12.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Sourcing

Oracle Sourcing Cloud delivers the structure, tools, and information that you require to maximize the value of supplier negotiations. You can improve your negotiation position, drive strategic savings initiatives, and achieve bottom-line savings results.

Team Scoring

Sourcing excellence requires combining the specialized skills of procurement professionals and subject matter experts by leveraging their expertise and gathering feedback. For large or complex negotiations, it's common to use different teams to evaluate different aspects of the supplier responses. With team scoring, you can divide individuals into one or more teams and assign specific sections of requirements. Team members are notified of supplier responses to be evaluated and can view their progress at any time. You can also choose when to open and close for scoring, monitor the scoring progress of all team members, and communicate with teams throughout the process. When you are ready to analyze supplier responses for award, the system calculates the combined team scores, and you can drill down to see individual scores and comments. Team scoring provides a more comprehensive evaluation of supplier responses leading to more effective award decisions and increased transparency.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature:

Create Multiple Scoring Teams

Monitor Scoring Progress

Steps to Enable

When creating a negotiation, select a negotiation style that has the “Team scoring” option enabled.

Tips And Considerations

The “Team scoring” option is enabled by default in the Standard Negotiation and Two Stage Negotiation styles delivered with Sourcing. Team scoring will be available on new negotiations created using one of these styles.

Key Resources

Sourcing Programs

Procurement organizations are challenged to provide tangible results based on internal goals to help measure sourcing performance. Currently, there is limited visibility into the overall value delivered by multiple sourcing initiatives and a lack of insight into results. With sourcing programs, organizations have a way to set measurable goals across sourcing initiatives and proactively determine whether those goals are being met. You can define goals with tangible objectives that are tied to negotiations and enter other data that contributes to the objective. Teams can participate in the program and collaborate with internal stakeholders using Oracle Social Network. You can proactively measure and monitor program progress and results with embedded analytics for key metrics. Being able to track and manage sourcing programs yields visibility into how the sourcing organization is performing, improves buyer productivity, and helps identify cost-savings opportunities.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature:

 

Set Goals and Define Objectives

 

Monitor Results and Measure Performance

Steps to Enable

You must opt in to use this feature. There are no additional steps to enable this feature.

OPT IN PARAMETERS

Opt In

Yes

Opt In Expiration (if applicable)

Not applicable

Dependent Feature Opt In (if applicable)

Not applicable

Offering Name

Procurement > Sourcing

To enable social collaboration on programs:

  1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
  2. Select Setup for the Procurement Offering
  3. In the Procurement Offering, select the Applications Extensions functional area.
  4. Search for the task named Manage Oracle Social Network Objects.
  5. Click the task link.
  6. Under Sourcing, enable ‘Program’ business object.
  7. Once enabled, add following attributes under ‘Program: Attributes’ section – Title, Start Date, End Date, Owner.

Key Resources

Negotiation Abstracts

Abstracts are negotiation summaries presented to the public on the buying organization's external web site. Suppliers can easily discover negotiations and determine if they are interested in participating without having to log in to the sourcing application. Abstracts are used mainly in public sector entities, such as state and local governments, and you can enable or disable this feature according to your business needs. You can preview the abstract content and control when the abstract is published to your external web site. To add custom content to the abstract, you can define additional fields that are relevant to your business. When you publish the negotiation, the external web site is updated with the negotiation details and instructions for the supplier to log into to the Sourcing application. Publishing the abstract and negotiation information to an external web site opens the visibility to any supplier who is interested in bidding, which ensures compliance to public sector policy.

The following screen captures illustrate this feature:

Negotiation Abstract Listing

 

Negotiation Abstract

Steps to Enable

  1. When creating a negotiation, select a negotiation style that has the “Abstracts” option enabled.  
  2. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, configure the abstract listing page and set the page display preferences such as Date Format, Time Format, Number Format, Language, Time Zone and any custom Header and Footer content. You can use the URL to include the abstract listing on your company website.
  3. To configure the display of the Abstract Listing page and to obtain the URL for including it on your website, follow these steps:
    1. In the Navigator, click the Setup and Maintenance work area link.
    2. Select the Procurement offering.
    3. Search for task Configure Procurement Business Function.
    4. On Configure Procurement Business Function page, click Configure Abstract Listing button.
    5. Navigate to Configure Negotiatio n Abstract Listing Setup page.

Tips And Considerations

Supplier Response Tabulation

Many public sector entities have a requirement for transparency with suppliers to ensure that there is no inherent bias and to comply with public policies. When a negotiation is closed, you have the option to generate a listing of all of the suppliers’ responses to the negotiation and publish the report to the external web site. Suppliers can view each other’s responses and see where they stand among competitors. You can tailor Oracle BI Publisher reports to your business requirements. You also have the option to withdraw the supplier response tabulation, which removes the report from the external web site.

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Response Tabulation

Steps to Enable

You must use a negotiation style that enables Abstract to use this feature.

Key Resources

Award Notice

To ensure transparency for public sector entities, it is important that you publish the final award decision to the external web site. You can tailor the award notice to your business needs using Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher. You also have the option to withdraw the award notice, which will remove the report from the external web site.

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

 

Award Notice

Steps to Enable

You must use a negotiation style that enables Abstract to use this feature.

Key Resources

Negotiations Work Area Landing Page

Visibility into sourcing activities and key metrics helps to drive sourcing effectiveness.

Negotiations Work Area Landing Page

The Negotiations work area landing page provides a simple, meaningful aggregation of sourcing data that is organized into personalized and actionable infolets:

The modern, simple-to-use Negotiations work area landing page provides flexibility to determine which infolets are most important to you and for you to tailor the display to meet your business requirements. With the Negotiations landing page, you have a clear view into the sourcing information that is central to your business needs.

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Question Library Scoring

Category managers can use the question library that is shared with Oracle Supplier Qualification Management Cloud, and they can use these predefined questions as negotiation requirements.  Defining the scoring model in the question library helps category managers standardize the evaluation criteria, which can be used in negotiations as well as in supplier qualifications. After the questions from the library are added to a negotiation, category managers can assign weighting to the questions. Alternatively, when category managers add entire qualification areas to the negotiation, the weights and knockout criteria defined for individual questions are automatically transferred to the negotiation.

Steps to Enable

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, enable the Supplier Qualification functional area in the Procurement Offering so that you can add qualification areas.
  2. Define questions/qualification areas with scoring in the question library before using them in Sourcing.

Tips And Considerations

Scoring information is copied when a question is added from the library. This is supported in the following scenarios.

If you uptake the latest revision of the question and the latest revision has scoring, then the scoring model will be copied.

NOTE: When you add questions as requirements and they have no scoring defined in the library, you can define manual or automatic scoring for them in Sourcing. But, when the questions have scoring (manual or automatic) defined in the library, you cannot change the scoring model when you add them in Sourcing.

Key Resources

Remove Managers from the Collaboration Team

When creating a negotiation, the system automatically defaults the reporting manager as a collaboration team member with full access. With the appropriate security permissions, you have the flexibility to modify the collaboration team and remove the manager from the team. You can now configure the team in a way that fits your business.

Remove Manager From Collaboration Team

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Price Visibility Control

Certain types of negotiations demand visibility control of pricing information from supplier responses.  In scenarios where team members need to evaluate supplier responses without consideration for price, the category manager can restrict their access to pricing information. This restriction ensures that pricing information is only available for the appropriate team members. You can control the price visibility for team members in any type of negotiation, including two-stage request for quotes (RFQs).

The following screen capture illustrates this feature:

Controlling Price Visibility on the Manage Collaboration Team Dialog

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Supplier Lock Out

Whether because suppliers looking to gain competitive information without participating in the event or simply to restrict supplier access during the award process, category managers can lock suppliers out of the negotiation at any time during the negotiation life cycle. Locked out suppliers can’t see any information about the negotiation until a category manager reinstates them. Previously, category managers could only lock out suppliers while the negotiation was open. 

The following screen capture illustrates this feature.

Lockout Suppliers

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Outside Processing

You can use the integration between Sourcing and Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud to negotiate items that require third-party outside processing. Outside processing is a common business process in which one or more operations of a work order is outsourced to a supplier. Typically, manufacturers use outside processing when they don’t have the capabilities or equipment to perform a specialized and costly service (such as plating) in-house. Start the process from a planning requisition or initiate the negotiation in Sourcing directly. Create agreements in Purchasing with the appropriate item configuration based on the negotiation business award. Tailor the negotiation and award approvals rules to account for special conditions when the negotiation includes outside processing items.

Steps to Enable

Refer to What’s New in Oracle Supply Chain Management Cloud Release 13, available on the Oracle Help Center.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Supplier Qualification Management

Oracle Supplier Qualification Management Cloud enables you to streamline the process of qualifying suppliers according to predefined criteria that support your procurement processes. Use Supplier Qualification Management to define the requirements that a supplier should meet, prequalify suppliers according to a simpler set of requirements, and then perform required verifications to qualify suppliers. You can assess and maintain the qualifications on an ongoing basis.

Qualification and Assessment Scoring

Enabling automatic scoring on qualifications and assessments reduces the effort required to analyze supplier qualification data, thereby decreasing the time required to qualify suppliers and maintain supplier qualifications. Not all qualifications are suitable for automatic scoring, particularly those that have questions involving qualitative free text responses that require your review. You decide on an area-by-area basis whether the system should automatically score supplier responses.

The features and benefits of qualification and scoring include the following:

Steps to Enable

  1. Configure questions for automatic or manual scoring and provide scoring details.
  2. Enable scoring for the qualification area and provide weights for each scored question. Map each qualification area outcome to a range of scores.
  3. Enable scoring for the qualification model and provide weights for each scored qualification area. Map each qualification model outcome to a range of scores.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Automatic Evaluation

In order to support a fully automated flow, you can extend the automatic scoring feature to include assignment of the evaluated outcome and automatic processing of the evaluation. This allows a supplier to have a fully processed active qualification or assessment based on the scoring model without manual intervention. You can then focus your time addressing exception cases and the most value-added segments of your supply base instead of reviewing satisfactory suppliers that meet pre-established criteria.

This feature allows you to:

Steps to Enable

To enable automatic evaluation of qualification:

  1. Enable scoring of qualification on qualification area.
  2. Once scoring is enabled, enable qualification area for automatic evaluation.
  3. Optionally specify a duration for which the automatically evaluated qualification must be active. If no qualification duration is specified, then the automatically evaluated qualification will have no end date.
  4. Optionally configure the qualification area to notify of specific outcome by selecting the ‘Notify’ checkbox for that outcome.

To enable automatic evaluation of qualification:

  1. Enable scoring of assessment on qualification model.
  2. Once scoring is enabled then enable qualification model for automatic evaluation.
  3. Optionally configure the qualification model to notify of specific outcome by selecting the ‘Notify’ checkbox for that outcome.

Key Resources

Automatic Acceptance of Responses

Manually reviewing responses to a supplier or internal questionnaire can be a time-consuming effort. You can now configure responses for automatic acceptance and allow automatic scoring and evaluation to occur without intervention, saving time and improving accuracy. You indicate whether the solution accepts responses automatically on the initiative and it defaults from the underlying qualification areas. Your use of automatic acceptance of responses is optional.

Steps to Enable

Automatic acceptance of responses can be enabled for an initiative by checking the ‘Automatically accept questionnaire responses’ checkbox during the ‘Questionnaires’ step of the ‘Create Initiative’ process. Optionally, this checkbox can be automatically defaulted on the initiative by configuring the ‘Automatically accept responses’ checkbox on each qualification area to be included on that initiative.

Key Resources

Event-Based Initiative and Qualification Creation

You now have the ability to launch an initiative and create qualifications automatically based on a triggering event, such as the registration of a new supplier. There is a fully automated process from determining the required qualifications in a given situation to gathering the information, scoring the results, and processing a completed evaluation. The following trigger events are now supported:

The system provides a configurable rule set for you to map which qualification areas should apply to suppliers for each event. For example, you can use a basic set of qualifications for a new supplier registration, and then a more comprehensive set upon promotion to spend authorized, which typically occurs when you first award the supplier a contract. Use of event-based initiative and qualification creation is optional.

Steps to Enable

  1. Create a Supplier Qualification Rule Set for one or more inviting Procurement Business Units.
  2. Activate the Rule Set.
  3. For Supplier Registration event, confirm that “Qualification Questionnaire” is enabled for Prospective and/or Spend Authorized Supplier Registration Processes using the Setup and Maintenance work area task “Configure Supplier Registration and Profile Change Request”.

Tips And Considerations

Key Resources

Cancellation of Future-Dated Qualifications and Assessments

 If you no longer need a future-dated qualification or assessment, you can now cancel them directly. This cancellation provides you with a way to discard unneeded data without requiring you to modify effective dates to obsolete a qualification that never took effect. 

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Supplier Qualification Work Area Landing Page

Visibility into key supplier qualification metrics helps to increase your productivity and efficiency. The redesigned Supplier Qualification work area landing page directs you to suppliers and recent activities that may require attention, helping you prioritize your efforts and minimize searching.  

Supplier Qualification Work Area Landing Page

The following infolets are available to provide insight into supplier qualifications and assessments: 

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Key Resources

Additional Notifications

In order to improve your visibility to the changes happening to the qualifications and assessments due to various business events, Release 13 introduces some new notifications in Supplier Qualification Management. They are:

Steps to Enable

No steps are required to enable this feature.

Appendix A: Function Security Roles and Privileges

This release may include new roles and privileges that facilitate function security for new features. If you have created custom job roles, then you can add new privileges to those custom roles as needed.

For a list of new roles and privileges in this release, refer to the What's New section of the Oracle Procurement Cloud: Security Reference guide, available on the Oracle Help Center.