O E-B S R C D: Procurement Releases 12.1 and 12.2

ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE
RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT
Procurement
Releases 12.1 and 12.2 (inclusive of 12.0.2 12.0.7)
Prepared by EBS Product Management & Strategy
Last Updated: November 27, 2013

Version: 3.1
Copyright 2013 Oracle Corporation

All Rights Reserved
Table of Contents
1. Disclaimer 1
2. Introduction 2
2.1. Purpose of Document 2
3. New and Changed Features in Procurement 3
3.1. Oracle iProcurement 3
3.1.1. Overview 3
3.1.2. Release 12.1.1 3
3.1.2.1. Change Management for Internal Requisitions 3
3.1.3. Release 12.1.2 3
3.1.3.1. In-line Commodity Classification 3
3.1.4. Release 12.1.3+ 4
3.1.4.1. Information Template Enhancements 4
3.1.4.2. Primary Favorite Charge Account can take Precedence over Employee Charge Account 4
3.1.4.3. Dual Budgetary Control Support 4
3.1.4.4. Attachment Support in Change Order Process 4
3.1.4.5. Account Generator Support in Requisition Import 4
3.1.5. Release 12.2 4
3.1.5.1. Automatic Updates to Encumbrance (GL) Date 4
3.1.5.2. Visibility of Item Master Attachments in Item Search and Detail Pages 4
3.2. Oracle iProcurement Extensions for Oracle Endeca 5
3.2.1. Overview 5
3.2.2. Release 12.1.3.4 5
3.2.2.1. Search All Catalogs 5
3.2.2.2. Advanced Filtering 5
3.2.2.3. Item Comparison 5
3.2.2.4. Easy to Implement and Configure 5
3.3. Oracle iSupplier Portal 6
3.3.1. Overview 6
3.3.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3) 6
3.3.2.1. Forward Port of JFMIP/FSIO from 11.5.10 to R12 for Federal Customers 6
3.3.3. Release 12.1.1 7
3.3.3.1. Dispute Resolution for G-Log Invoices 7
3.3.3.2. AP/AR Netting 7
3.3.3.3. Products and Services Search 7
3.3.3.4. Business Classification Recertification 7
3.3.3.5. Third Party Payments 7
3.3.4. Release 12.1.3 8
3.3.4.1. Work Confirmation Correction 8
3.3.5. Release 12.2 8
3.3.5.1. Integrate with Oracle Flow Manufacturing to View and Edit E-Kanbans 8
3.3.5.2. Capture Additional Supplier Contact details 8
3.4. Oracle Procurement Contracts 8
3.4.1. Overview 8
Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document ii
3.4.2. Release 12.0.2 (RUP2) 8
3.4.2.1. User-Defined Variables with PL/SQL Procedures as Source 8
3.4.3. Release 12.1.1 9
3.4.3.1. Structured Terms Authoring in Repository Contracts 9
3.4.3.2. Secure Enterprise Search 9
3.4.3.3. Deliverable Payment Holds 9
3.4.4. Release 12.1.2 11
3.4.4.1. Author Individual Clauses in Microsoft Word 11
3.4.4.2. Project Manager Dashboard for Maintenance of Procurement Deliverables 11
3.4.5. Release 12.1.3+ 12
3.4.5.1. Apply Multiple Templates to a Sourcing or Purchasing Document 12
3.4.5.2. APIs for Importing Templates, Rules, Questions and Constants 12
3.4.5.3. New Clause Descriptor Field 12
3.4.5.4. Clause Mandatory Attribute at Rule Level 12
3.4.5.5. Clause Section Placement by Contract Expert 12
3.4.5.6. Deletion of Provisional Sections from Solicitation to Award 13
3.4.5.7. Instruction Text 13
3.4.5.8. Multi-Row Variables 13
3.4.5.9. Display Clause Number and Sort by Clause Number 13
3.4.6. Release 12.2 14
3.4.6.1. Repository Contracts Configurability Enhancements 14
3.4.6.2. UDA support for Deliverables 14
3.4.6.3. MS Word 2010 Certification 14
3.4.6.4. Contract Expert Performance Improvements 14
3.5. Oracle Purchasing 14
3.5.1. Overview 14
3.5.2. Release 12.0.2 (RUP2) 15
3.5.2.1. Integration between Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Transportation Management 15
3.5.2.2. iSetup APIs 15
3.5.3. Release 12.0.6 (RUP6) 15
3.5.3.1. Contract Commitments Integration with Self Service Purchasing (Oracle Public Sector Financials
International) 15
3.5.4. Release 12.1.1 15
3.5.4.1. PO and Requisition Mass Update 15
3.5.4.2. Enable All Sites for Global Contract Purchase Agreements 16
3.5.4.3. FPDS-NG Integration 16
3.5.5. Release 12.1.2 16
3.5.5.1. Purchase Order Pricing Enhancement 16
3.5.5.2. Project Security within Oracle Purchasing 16
3.5.5.3. Procurement Web Services Purchasing 16
3.5.6. Release 12.1.3 17
3.5.6.1. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration 17
3.5.6.2. Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) Integration 17
3.5.7. Release 12.1.3+ 17
3.5.7.1. Encumbered Document Revisions without Un-reserving Funds 17
3.5.7.2. Approvals Management Engine (AME) for PO Approvals 18
3.5.7.3. Current and Pending Approvers in Action History Region 18
3.5.7.4. Withdrawing Purchase Order after Submitted for Approval 18
3.5.7.5. Configurable Notification in Purchase Order 18
3.5.7.6. Outside Processing Lines in Global Blanket Agreements (GBPAs) 18
3.5.7.7. Support for Importing Complex Purchase Orders 18
3.5.8. Release 12.2 18
3.5.8.1. Automatic Updates to Encumbrance (GL) Date 18
3.5.8.2. Support for Additional Extension Hooks 19
3.6. Oracle Services Procurement 19
3.6.1. Overview 19
3.6.2. Release 12.1.1 19
3.6.2.1. Time Reporting and Contractor Assignment Flexibility 19
3.6.3. Release 12.1.2 19
Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document iii
3.6.3.1. Oracle Projects Work Confirmations 19
3.7. Oracle Sourcing 20
3.7.1. Overview 20
3.7.2. Release 12.1.1 20
3.7.2.1. Two Stage Evaluation of RFP 20
3.7.2.2. Two Stage RFQ Surrogate Bids 20
3.7.2.3. Supplier Response PDF 20
3.7.2.4. Enhanced Spreadsheet Support 21
3.7.2.5. Countdown Clock 22
3.7.2.6. Price Tier Enhancements 22
3.7.2.7. Cost Factor Enhancements 22
3.7.3. Release 12.1.2 22
3.7.3.1. Earnest Money Deposit 22
3.7.4. Release 12.1.3 23
3.7.4.1. Requester Field in the Sourcing Header 23
3.7.4.2. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) in Oracle Sourcing Header 24
3.7.4.3. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration 24
3.7.5. Release 12.1.3+ 25
3.7.5.1. Online Discussions Attachments 25
3.7.5.2. Terms and Conditions Controls 25
3.7.5.3. Lot Price Summation 25
3.7.6. Release 12.2 25
3.7.6.1. Add Requisition lines to a Draft Negotiation (RFx & Auction) 25
3.7.6.2. Response Withdrawal 26
3.7.6.3. Track Amendment Acknowledgements 26
3.7.6.4. Staggered Awards 26
3.7.6.5. Import of Price Breaks 26
3.7.6.6. Negative Cost Factors 26
3.7.6.7. Sourcing APIs 26
3.8. Oracle Sourcing Optimization 27
3.8.1. Overview 27
3.8.2. Release 12.1.1 27
3.8.2.1. Sourcing Optimization Enhancements 27
3.8.2.2. Price Tier Optimization 27
3.8.2.3. Supplier Incentives 28
3.9. Oracle Spend Classification 28
3.9.1. Overview 28
3.9.2. Release 12.1.2 29
3.9.2.1. Integration with Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6 29
3.9.2.2. Knowledge Base Creation and Incremental Updates 29
3.9.2.3. Multiple Knowledge Bases 29
3.9.2.4. Easy to Use User Interface 29
3.9.2.5. Export and Import to Excel 30
3.9.2.6. Ability to Classify Data into Multiple Taxonomies 30
3.9.2.7. In-line Commodity Classification 30
3.9.3. Release 12.2 31
3.9.3.1. Reclassify Historical Data 31
3.9.3.2. Asynchronous Approval Flow 31
3.9.3.3. Enhanced Training Data Upload 31
3.9.3.4. Enhanced Tracking Capabilities 31
3.9.3.5. Improvements in Analyzing Batches and Excel to Export 31
3.9.3.6. Increased Flexibility in Resetting Data 32
3.10. Oracle Supplier Hub 32
3.10.1. Overview 32
3.10.2. Release 12.1.1+ 32
3.11. Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management 33
3.11.1. Overview 33
Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document iv
3.11.2. Release 12.1.1+ 33
3.11.2.1. 360 Supplier View 33
3.11.2.2. Supplier Search 33
3.11.2.3. Supplier Profile Management (including Self-Service) 33
3.11.2.4. Extended Supplier Profile 34
3.11.2.5. Registration and On-Boarding of New Suppliers 34
3.11.2.6. Qualification Management 34
3.11.2.7. Compliance and Profile Audits 35
3.11.2.8. Performance Evaluation 35
3.11.2.9. Supplier Notifications 35
3.12. Oracle Supplier Network 36
3.12.1. Overview 36
3.12.2. Version 5.0 36
3.12.2.1. Consolidated Hub Administration 36
3.12.2.2. Production Routing Controls 36
3.12.2.3. UTF-8 Support 36
Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document v
1. Disclaimer
This Release Content Document (RCD) describes product features that are proposed for
the specified releases of the Oracle E-Business Suite. This document describes new or
changed functionality only. Existing functionality from prior releases is not described. It
is intended solely to help you assess the business benefits of upgrading to the specified
release of the Oracle E-Business Suite.
This document in any form, software or printed matter, contains proprietary information
that is the exclusive property of Oracle. Your access to and use of this confidential
material is subject to the terms and conditions of your Oracle Software License and
Service Agreement, which has been executed and with which you agree to comply. This
document and information contained herein may not be disclosed, copied, reproduced or
distributed to anyone outside Oracle without prior written consent of Oracle. This
document is not part of your license agreement nor can it be incorporated into any
contractual agreement with Oracle or its subsidiaries or affiliates.
This document is for informational purposes only and is intended solely to assist you in
planning for the implementation and upgrade of the product features described. It is not a
commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon
in making purchasing decisions. The development, release, and timing of any features or
functionality described in this document remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.
Due to the nature of the product architecture, it may not be possible to safely include all
features described in this document without risking significant destabilization of the code.
Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2 Release Content Document 1
2. Introduction
2.1. Purpose of Document

This Release Content Document (RCD) communicates information about new or changed
functionality introduced in Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 12.1 and 12.2, and in
subsequent Release Update Packs (RUPs) and off-cycle patches. For your convenience,
it also includes new or changed functionality introduced in the RUPs for Release 12,
including 12.0.2 through 12.0.7.
The features and enhancements described in this document are grouped by product, and
then by the release in which they first became available, for example, Release 12.1.1.
Features released in an off-cycle patch have a special designation for example, a feature
released after 12.1.3, but before 12.2, is designated as Release 12.1.3+.
3. New and Changed Features in Procurement
3.1. Oracle iProcurement

3.1.1. Overview
Oracle iProcurement is the self-service requisitioning application that controls employee
spending. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite
that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.
3.1.2. Release 12.1.1
3.1.2.1. Change Management for Internal Requisitions

In Release 12.1.1, processing for internal orders has been enhanced to offer additional
and better-coordinated change management capabilities. Now, quantity or date
information can be updated by either the Requesting or Fulfillment organization and the
updates will be accurately reflected on both the internal requisition and the internal sales
order. In addition, support is now provided for the cancellation of internal transfer
requests. All of these changes will now be visible throughout the planning, purchasing
and order fulfillment workbenches.
A requester can update Quantity and Need-By Date of an approved internal requisition.
If desired, tolerances can be set for automatic approval of updates made to the internal
requisition.
Many new synchronization features are provided. Quantity and Need-By Date changes
on the internal requisition line are automatically propagated to the internal sales order and
vice versa. Cascading of an internal sales order Schedule Ship/Arrival date with the
internal requisition is may be controlled through a profile option. Cancellation of an
internal requisition/line will automatically cancel the corresponding internal sales
order/line and vice versa. And finally, the urgent flag on the internal requisition line will
flow onto the internal sales order line as the shipment priority, based on a profile option
setting.
3.1.3. Release 12.1.2
3.1.3.1. In-line Commodity Classification

At times, requesters may need to order off catalog and create a Non-Catalog Request.
When requesters describe the purchase, there is a high likelihood of it not being classified
into an existing commodity hierarchy. This increases misclassification of spend
information, contract leakage, lower compliance and internal controls.
In R12.1.1 onwards, requesters creating Non-Catalog Requests will have the option of
category being predicted for the purchase being made. After the requester clicks on Add
to Cart they will be able to view a suggested best fit category with a list of categories
that could be alternate possibilities. The same window can also be used to parse the
complete Category hierarchy. This approach uses the Oracle Spend Classification in
real-time to assess the category of what the requester is ordering. The requester merely
picks the purchasing category and continues checking out. This capability allows even
unstructured requests to be categorized appropriately, aiding downstream spend analysis.
This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Spend Classification.
3.1.4. Release 12.1.3+
3.1.4.1. Information Template Enhancements

Oracle iProcurement now stores eligible information template information (of size 4000
bytes or less) as short-text attachments and offers a preview display for data stored
through information templates. The Attachment icon in the Requisition Summary and
Buyer Work Center pages displays a preview pop-up upon mouse-over for requesters and
buyers.
3.1.4.2. Primary Favorite Charge Account can take Precedence over Employee
Charge Account
Employees can define Favorite Charge Accounts in iProcurement Preferences, and can
mark one of those accounts as the Primary Favorite. iProcurement uses a series of rules to
generate charge accounts during the checkout process. Under certain circumstances,
iProcurement gets the charge account from the employee record in HR. But if that is not
specified, it defaults to the Primary Favorite. However, if an employee needs the Primary
Favorite to override the charge account on their HR record, they can now do so with the
Override Employee Charge Account preference in iProcurement.
3.1.4.3. Dual Budgetary Control Support

An enabled dual budgetary control allows iProcurement users to specify the accounting
date on which they want to encumber funds. This gives users more flexibility in creating
documents involving transactions that spawn multiple fiscal years.
3.1.4.4. Attachment Support in Change Order Process

iProcurement users can now add an attachment when requesting a change on a
Requisition that has been converted to a Purchase Order. Approvers and buyers will be
able to view the attachment. Attachments marked with the category To Supplier will
also be visible to suppliers after the revised Purchase Order is approved.
3.1.4.5. Account Generator Support in Requisition Import

Requisition Import Process now calls Account Generator Workflow to generate charge
accounts for requisitions that are being created. When inserting requisitions into the
Requisitions Interface, users can leave the charge account columns blank, and the system
will then trigger account generator workflow to default these fields.
3.1.5. Release 12.2
3.1.5.1. Automatic Updates to Encumbrance (GL) Date

Requesters specify an Encumbrance Date for each distribution against a line at the time
of creating requisitions. If this date is within a closed period, and is hence invalid, then
the application can automatically update the date to the current date. This feature requires
a profile value setting to be activated.
3.1.5.2. Visibility of Item Master Attachments in Item Search and Detail Pages
While viewing the details of the item after having searched for them in the store,
iProcurement users will now be able to see attachments associated with the Item Master
for those items. This will enable users to gain access to item attachments like design
specifications etc, and thus better equip them to choose the right product to order.
3.2. Oracle iProcurement Extensions for Oracle Endeca
3.2.1. Overview
Employee search against catalogs is one of the most critical activities in iProcurement,
influencing adoption, user satisfaction, and the amount of buying activity that can be
automated. Endeca technology used in conjunction with iProcurement provides a
powerful new approach to search, while retaining the robust policies, controls, and
integrations built into iProcurement.
Expanded catalogs can be loaded to capture contract savings without adding complexity
to the shopping experience. Maverick spending is reduced, and non-catalog requisitions
for catalog items are minimized, further streamlining the process and reducing
procurement involvement.
Endeca functionality replaces the iProcurement home page while the shopping cart and
subsequent checkout with integration, accounting, and approvals remain unchanged. Key
product features are described below.
3.2.2. Release 12.1.3.4
3.2.2.1. Search All Catalogs

Universal Search allows employees to immediately search for their desired item without
having to first choose the appropriate catalog. All catalog content is queried including
catalogs hosted by punch-out suppliers. Search displays results from every eligible
source regardless of where data is hosted, and search results are displayed with
remarkable speed.
3.2.2.2. Advanced Filtering

Filters allow employees to target desired choices. Default filters include supplier name,
source contract, and shopping category. Guided Navigation filters display for items that
share similar category attributes. For example, Display Size may appear as a filter when
shopping for computer monitors.
3.2.2.3. Item Comparison

With a few clicks employees can evaluate items and detailed item attributes side-by- side.
Just as with the search engine, item comparison also enables comparison between items
from different catalogs or suppliers. Item comparison allows employees to feel confident
they have identified the best product at the best price.
3.2.2.4. Easy to Implement and Configure

Items from Supplier punch-out catalogs may be refreshed in the search catalog as often
as needed. If desired, items that originate in supplier punch-out catalogs can require the
user to navigate to the suppliers item page for further information. Requiring navigation
to the suppliers item page may be required for items that have add-on configuration,
volatile availability, calculated pricing, or specification sheets that employees must
reference prior to making a purchase decision.
3.3. Oracle iSupplier Portal
3.3.1. Overview
Oracle iSupplier Portal is the enterprise application that structures all supplier
communication through a secure, Internet-based portal. It is a key component of Oracle
Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management
costs.
3.3.2. Release 12.0.3 (RUP3)
3.3.2.1. Forward Port of JFMIP/FSIO from 11.5.10 to R12 for Federal Customers
This feature addresses the delta between 11.5.10 functionality and R12 functionality,
related to meeting the requirements given by JFMIP in 2004 for iSupplier Portal. The
following iSupplier Portal pages are impacted:
3.3.2.1.1. Supplier Search Page
The DUNS number is available at the supplier site level for CCR Suppliers. A user
can retrieve distinct supplier records while performing the search using the DUNS
Number.
3.3.2.1.2. Organization Page
A CCR Supplier indicator was provided on the Organization page. If the supplier is a
CCR Supplier, then the Taxpayer ID, DUNS Number and SIC attributes, and Bank
Account tab are rendered view-only.
3.3.2.1.3. Manage Sites Page / Update Address Page
In the Update Address page for CCR Suppliers, the attributes Country, Address
Lines, City, State, Postal Code, Province, DUNS Number, and Pay Site are view-
only.
A new attribute, DUNS Number, was added and displayed in the Identification tab
within the Manage Sites page, for Federal Financials installations. If the supplier site
is a CCR supplier site, the user cannot update this field.
The newly added icon View CCR Supplier allows the user to access the General
Information page from the federal application, to view CCR supplier site-specific
data.
3.3.2.1.4. Tax Details Page
An indicative comment was provided on the tax details page; it identifies the Tax
Details of a CCR vendor.
3.3.2.1.5. Bank Details Page
A CCR indicator appears when the assignment level is Supplier Site, and if the site is
a CCR site. For a CCR Site, adding new bank accounts, modifying any bank, branch
or account information, changing the priority of bank accounts and update bank
account number is not possible.
3.3.2.1.6. Invoice Management page
A descriptive comment CCR Site was added to the Invoice Management page.
3.3.3. Release 12.1.1
3.3.3.1. Dispute Resolution for G-Log Invoices

In situations where suppliers include sundry charges on a G-Log invoice, it is not
uncommon for the buying organization to hold the invoice in order that the buyer can
review any discrepancies between the invoice and the original Purchase Order.
Depending on the nature of the additional charges, the buyer and supplier may negotiate a
compromise and adjust the invoice accordingly.
When such disputes occur, it is important that the supplier is able to log and track all
activities for a particular invoice. To better help suppliers in these situations, new fields
have been added to the View Invoice page so that the supplier can see the original value
for their invoice and the reason for the discrepancy.
3.3.3.2. AP/AR Netting

It is a common business practice in many industries to both purchase products or services
from a trading partner and sell products or services to the same trading partner. In cases
like this companies often offset payable and receivable invoices so that only the net
difference is paid or received. This saves you and your trading partners the expenses
associated with making multiple payments.
The new feature will give iSupplier Portal users visibility into the AP/AR netting activity,
so they can easily see which invoices will be paid standalone, which invoices will be
offset against receivable transactions, and which groups of invoices will be paid by a
single payment. On the View Invoices and Payments pages, if a particular invoice has
been netted, the users will be able to see the Netted Amount and the Reckoning Currency.
Furthermore, the users will be able to drill down to the Netting Report, which will show
all transactions that are a part of the netting batch.
3.3.3.3. Products and Services Search

A new search tool has been added to the Products and Services section of the Supplier
Profile to make it much easier for suppliers and administrators to find and select the
goods or services categories that identify a supplier's capabilities. This is especially
useful for those customers that have an extensive Products and Services hierarchy with
many thousands of individual categories from which to choose.
The new feature is available within both the Profile Management pages for existing
suppliers and the prospective supplier registration flow.
3.3.3.4. Business Classification Recertification

For those businesses required to track the business classification details of their suppliers,
it has always been a challenge to keep this information up to date to the satisfaction of
auditors. Now, a recertification tool has been added to the Business Classification
section of the Supplier Profile that tracks the "Last Update" date for the supplier's
classification details and allow administrators to schedule reminder notifications to be
sent to each supplier as this information becomes due.
This feature significantly reduces risk and administrative burden for buying organizations
because they will no longer need to manage the recertification process manually.
3.3.3.5. Third Party Payments

Third party payments help parties engaged in business set off their liabilities without
directly paying them. This reduces the direct funds movements and enables transactions
to be settled easily. When customers are making payments from their Payables system,
there might be instructions from the supplier to make payment to a different party (Third
Party). In that case the remittance of the payment has to be made to the Third Party.
Establishing Third Party Payment relationship can be done from iSupplier Portal.
Suppliers can add a new relationship and find and update existing relationships.
3.3.4. Release 12.1.3
3.3.4.1. Work Confirmation Correction

At times, there may be a need to correct a previously approved work confirmation in
order to adjust a payment to a supplier. This capability enables a buyer to reduce the
scope of the original work confirmation, when an error is made during data entry for the
work confirmation. Work Confirmation Correction is possible via Purchasing
Professional Buyers Work Center and iSupplier Portal internal view. Buyers can be
granted the additional authority to make corrections as needed. Buyers that are granted
this authority will be able to make corrections to approved Work Confirmation.
3.3.5. Release 12.2
3.3.5.1. Integrate with Oracle Flow Manufacturing to View and Edit E-Kanbans
Oracle iSupplier Portal integrates with the E-Kanban feature of Oracle Flow
Manufacturing. Suppliers can now use iSupplier Portal to view a summary of their E-
Kanbans and update the status on their E-Kanbans.
For more information, consult the Manufacturing RCD.
3.3.5.2. Capture Additional Supplier Contact details

Oracle iSupplier Portal now offers the following set of additional fields to capture
Supplier Contact Information: URL, Alternate Contact Name, Alternate Area Code, and
Alternate Phone Extension. Prospective suppliers will now be able to use these fields
during registration. Buyers will be able to enter / update these fields for each contact on
the Supplier Profile. Supplier users will also be able to update these fields while
submitting a profile change request.
3.4. Oracle Procurement Contracts

3.4.1. Overview
Oracle Procurement Contracts is the enterprise application that creates and enforces
better purchasing contracts. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the
integrated suite that dramatically cuts supply management costs.
3.4.2. Release 12.0.2 (RUP2)
3.4.2.1. User-Defined Variables with PL/SQL Procedures as Source

Procurement Contracts supports the concept of system and user-defined variables that can
be embedded in clause text or used in contract expert rules. System variables are defined
by the application and the values are sourced from attributes on the Oracle Purchasing
and Sourcing documents (e.g. payment terms). User-defined variables are defined in
Contract Terms Library and the values are provided by users when they author contract
terms and conditions.
Contracts customers have requested the ability to create user-defined variables whose
values can be sourced from descriptive flex fields, custom tables, or even a Purchase
Agreement or RFQ that are not supported as system variables. With RUP2, user-defined
variable values can now be sourced from any data source. The data source is
encapsulated as a custom PL/SQL procedure that is associated to the user-defined
variable definition. As a user authors contract terms and conditions, the system will
automatically obtain the values from the data source eliminating the need for users to
manually enter them.
3.4.3. Release 12.1.1
3.4.3.1. Structured Terms Authoring in Repository Contracts

The Contracts Repository module enables customers to easily manage all their contracts
online. It provides basic contract management capabilities and global, secure visibility to
key stakeholders. Users can create Repository contracts by capturing key attributes about
the contract such as contract party, dates, amount, etc., and managing the document files
associated with the contract. Users can also track key deliverables and contract
expiration.
With Release 12.1.1, users can now author structured terms and conditions while creating
a Repository contract. These terms are based on standard templates, clauses and policies
defined in the contract terms library. Users can also use the Contract Expert feature to
bring in additional clauses that may be required based on the business terms of the
particular contract. The contract can then be printed for signature, or exported to
Microsoft Word for redlining/collaboration with the external party. The deviations report
functionality will provide a quick overview of all policy violations in the contract.
Structured terms authoring promotes standards based contract authoring and reduces the
overall time-to-contract. Risks associated with non-standard contracts are mitigated by
ensuring approvers have visibility to all policy violations.
3.4.3.2. Secure Enterprise Search

Business and legal users sometimes wish to locate contracts containing a certain word or
phrase. Oracle Procurement Contracts now leverages Oracles Secure Enterprise Search
to better search against procurement, sales, and repository contracts. Business and legal
users can perform full-text queries in conjunction with structured data queries.
Secure Enterprise Search provides flexibility to match user entered keywords to search
both structured text, such as contract terms, and unstructured text, such as text contained
in attached documents. Additional structured contract attributes may be used to further
refine the search, and include: contract number, contract name, supplier/customer/party
name, contract status, start date, and end date.
This feature requires licensing of Oracle Secure Enterprise Search (SES).
3.4.3.3. Deliverable Payment Holds

Engineering and Construction (E&C) firms have unique requirements regarding
subcontractor management, subcontractor payment, and customer billing. Pay When
Paid is a payment term common in this industry, where sub-contractors are not paid
until the customer pays the general contractor. In addition, it is sometimes necessary to
require subcontractors to maintain specified insurance coverage and other work related
certifications. The general contractor frequently reserves the right to withhold payments
to subcontractors until proof of insurance or proof of certifications has been provided.
The following features enable users to track such requirements and to automate the
payment hold process.
This feature requires additional products to be licensed for full functionality described
below, including Financials and Services Procurement.
3.4.3.3.1. Payment Hold Deliverables

Tracking insurance and certification requirements is often a cumbersome and
manual process. Deliverables will be used to track these requirements. Initiate
Payment Holds functionality will provide users the ability to initiate payment
holds on all future invoices when a deliverable approaches its due date or when a
deliverable becomes overdue. For example, a subcontractor may be required to
be licensed yearly. To ensure that licensing happens, the buyer or project
manager can define a deliverable to hold all payments if the subcontractor fails to
renew his license.
3.4.3.3.2. Payables Integration
In Release 12.1.1, new hold and release reasons are seeded in Oracle Payables.
A PO Deliverable hold can be placed on all supplier invoices that are matched
to a purchase order that has a deliverable with payment hold terms and is nearly
due or is overdue.
Releases may be automatic or manual. A concurrent process automates the
release of PO Deliverable Payment holds. The process is submitted
automatically when the user updates the Due Date for a deliverable that is within
the defined payment hold terms. Project managers can also use the
Subcontractor Payment Management Workbench to manage Deliverables. A
Payment Hold Status and Payment Indicator allow users to quickly see whether
all deliverables have been met and determine whether payments can be made to
the subcontractor. Project managers can override the automatic payment holds
caused by overdue purchase order deliverables.
3.4.3.3.3. Support for Pay When Paid Scenarios
Many construction firms adhere to a Pay when Paid policy for subcontract
agreements, in order to manage cash flow for a project. Specifically,
construction companies will hold the payment of subcontractor bills until the
construction firm has been paid by the owner. Now, a Pay when Paid payment
term may be specified for a subcontract to automatically result in the placing of
holds on all subcontractor invoices under that subcontract until the corresponding
customer payment is received.
A new Subcontract Payment Controls workbench allows the project manager to
manage these holds, with visibility into both the customer invoices and the
associated subcontractor invoices. Alerted by workflow notifications once the
customer payment is received, the project manager can then choose to
automatically or manually release the corresponding subcontractor invoices. The
associations between the customer invoices and the subcontractor invoices may
be automatically maintained based on the billing of project expenditures in the
case of a cost-plus contract, or manually maintained for fixed price contract
scenarios.
3.4.4. Release 12.1.2
3.4.4.1. Author Individual Clauses in Microsoft Word

Legal clauses are typically managed in Word documents. Organizations using Oracle E-
Business Suite for their enterprise contract management need to be able to create and
update clauses using a rich text editor such as Microsoft Word.
With 12.1.2, users can directly create and edit the clauses in Microsoft Word leveraging
additional formatting features. Importing clause text from Microsoft Word and exporting
clause text to Microsoft Word for edit have been incorporated into both the Contract
Terms Library and the Contract Authoring Flow. The following formats will be preserved
as defined in Microsoft Word:
Bold, italic, text color, and underlines
Standard bullets available in Word
Numbering schemes (roman numerals, alphabets, numbers) and their indents
including hanging indents
List items with non-numbered text between them
Indent and tabs (Tab spacing/width is determined based on style sheet
information)
Line spacing
Text alignment (left, right, and center justification)
Table formatting
Hyperlinks, page breaks, and symbols defined in Unicode
This feature requires Microsoft Word Professional 2003 or later.
3.4.4.2. Project Manager Dashboard for Maintenance of Procurement Deliverables

A new feature in Release 12.1.1 provided support for the tracking and monitoring of
subcontract deliverables that place automatic holds on subcontractor invoices in the case
of non-compliance. For example, if a subcontractor fails to provide their insurance
certificate in a timely fashion per the subcontract terms, holds are automatically placed on
incoming invoices based on the contractual deliverable. Upon complying, the hold is
released.
Also in 12.1.1, a new Payment Controls Workbench in Oracle Projects allows the project
manager to view a checklist of all subcontract deliverables to assist in evaluating the
subcontractor status prior to releasing monthly progress payments.
Project managers are frequently responsible for subcontractor management. In 12.1.2,
the Payment Controls Workbench has been enhanced to allow project managers to
directly update subcontract deliverables. A project manager with proper security
privileges can update existing deliverables or define new deliverables to track future
subcontractor obligations. A project manager can also apply payment holds even when
the Pay when Paid attribute has not been checked.
This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Projects.
3.4.5. Release 12.1.3+
3.4.5.1. Apply Multiple Templates to a Sourcing or Purchasing Document
A buyer or contract administrator may apply a contract template to quickly draft a

compliant legal contract as part of a Sourcing or Purchasing document. A contract
template may include internal and supplier deliverables to encourage execution of a
standardized and complete process. Now the buyer may add multiple templates to these
contracts. All clauses and deliverables from new templates flow into the document.
Each template that has been applied can be viewed as part of the contract record, for easy
identification by a buyer or contract administrator.
Contract Expert rules specified in the original template continue to govern exclusively.
For instance, if a new template is added that contains Contract Expert rules these rules
will not be retained as part of the contract.
3.4.5.2. APIs for Importing Templates, Rules, Questions and Constants
Migrating elements from the Contract Terms Library from one environment to another is
sometimes necessary, for instance to graduate templates and rules created in a test
instance into production. Once created in a test instance, it can be time-consuming to
reproduce these rules in production.
Now, interfaces (APIs) can be used by technical staff to efficiently upload and create new
entities. New APIs include:
Templates
Rules, and
Questions and Constants
APIs can be used to create new entities and update existing templates and rules. These
APIs return error and warning messages to simplify troubleshooting.
3.4.5.3. New Clause Descriptor Field
A clause descriptor field displays on the Contract Template, Rules Definition and
Contract Terms pages. This field can be updated from Contract template and Rules
definitions page. This field is hidden by default, and references a user defined lookup for
the list of values.
3.4.5.4. Clause Mandatory Attribute at Rule Level
Now it is possible to specify if a clause suggested by the Contract Expert is mandatory or

optional when defining a rule.
If undefined at the clause level, the template level setup will be used to determine
whether a Contract Expert suggested clause should be added as mandatory or optional.
3.4.5.5. Clause Section Placement by Contract Expert
Today when a clause is added to a contract via Contract Expert, it is added to the default
section. Now, contract administrators have the flexibility to add the clause to different
sections based on attributes of the contract.
When creating a clause, the contract administrator may insert a variable such as the
contract printing format (see image below). The user can now define the appropriate
section for a clause based on variable values. When the clause is added to the document
by the Contract Expert, the clause will get added to the section based on the value of the
variable of the document.
Fig.1: Buyer Analysis of Bid Responses from Suppliers
3.4.5.6. Deletion of Provisional Sections from Solicitation to Award
There are a number of clauses which are specific to a sourcing (Solicitation) document
and should not move onto the final contract. These are called Provisional Clauses.
Now, the user can indicate that certain sections are provisional. Provisional Sections and
their clauses do not flow to the award document when the award contract is created from
the solicitation document.
3.4.5.7. Instruction Text
The clauses in a document may contain URLs of external websites where additional
information is available. One can add the destination URL in the instruction text of the
clause with the appropriate HTML tags. This will now make the URL available as a
hyperlink which will be available for the user to click from the clause details page.
3.4.5.8. Multi-Row Variables
Currently the variable field in a contract clause only accepts single values. However,
there is a need to provide multiple values for a single variable in the form of an n X n
matrix. For example, the variable contact number can have 3 columns Country, City
and Number with multiple rows. Users can now leverage the UDA (User Defined
Attribute) framework to set up attributes groups and refer these groups in Multi-Row
Variables.
The variable creation page will allow the user to designate the variable as multi-row and
associate attributes and printing RTF templates to them. These variables when available
in a contract for a Sourcing or Purchasing document will allow the user to enter multiple
rows for a given variable and this will be printed in the PDF document as per the defined
RTF template. This is available for buyer updateable variables and does not support
PL/SQL values.
3.4.5.9. Display Clause Number and Sort by Clause Number
The clause number may be used by contracting professionals for many purposes. Now,
the clause number may be used for searching, updating or adding clauses. The clause
number has been added to the Contract Terms page, the Search results page for clauses,
and the summary page after Contract Expert in run.
It is also required to sort the clauses in a section by the clause number. There will be a
button available which will sort all the clauses in a section by the clause number. This is
currently optimized for the Federal clause numbering scheme as follows:
<NUMBER 1>.<NUMBER 2>-<NUMBER 3><Some text>
Search is an alphanumeric sort on the clause number. A code hook is provided, enabling
customers to embed desired sorting logic (for example, the numbering schema is
different) which will be called when sorting occurs.
3.4.6. Release 12.2
3.4.6.1. Repository Contracts Configurability Enhancements
Repository Contracts now provides greater flexibility and improved capabilities to the
contracting professional. The contract administrator can now control the different entities
that are available for each contract type. Custom signature and approval workflows may
be defined individually for each contract type, which enhances the applicability of
repository contracts in different business scenarios. Customers can leverage repository
contracts to integrate them within their existing business flows in different application
modules. Repository contracts also support UDA (User Defined Attributes) pages. So,
each contract can contain multiple additional pages to capture specific business
information. This will allow the repository contracts to be used a as solution for modeling
different document management requirements along with their own process lifecycle.
3.4.6.2. UDA support for Deliverables

Repository contracts also support UDA (User Defined Attributes) pages. So, each
contract can contain multiple additional pages to capture specific business information.
This will allow the repository contracts to be used a as solution for modeling different
document management requirements along with their own process lifecycle.
3.4.6.3. MS Word 2010 Certification

The clause and contract terms sync process is now certified for Microsoft Word 2010.
Users can now download and view clauses and contract terms in MS Word 2010 and also
upload documents edited in MS Word 2010
3.4.6.4. Contract Expert Performance Improvements

The contract expert engine now has improved performance of the complete flow.
Impacts include faster UI and better formatting of the question and answer fields. There
is no change to the Contract Expert process itself.
3.5. Oracle Purchasing

3.5.1. Overview
Oracle Purchasing is the application for procurement professionals that streamlines
purchase order processing while strengthening policy compliance. It is a key component
of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts supply
management costs.
3.5.2. Release 12.0.2 (RUP2)
3.5.2.1. Integration between Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Transportation

Management
Oracle E-Business Suite integrates with Oracle Transportation Management to enable
transportation features and functionality in existing products, including Oracle Order
Management, Oracle Shipping Execution, Oracle Payables, Oracle Warehouse
Management, and Oracle Purchasing.
Oracle Transportation Management combines transportation planning and execution

with freight payment, inbound freight logistics, and freight rating and routing. Oracle
Transportation Management adds the following features and enhancements to Oracle
Purchasing:
Carrier selection and tender
Freight rating and routing
Actual ship quantities update and re-rate
Freight payment, freight payment audit, and approval
Visible in-transit statuses
Inbound carrier selection
Inbound in-transit statuses
3.5.2.2. iSetup APIs

This feature makes it easier for customers to move Setup data between EBS instances.
iSetup automates the setup and management of setup data for Oracle EBS. The iSetup
migrator moves setup data across multiple EBS instances. Each business entity supported
by iSetup requires an API created by the owning product team to handle export and
import of setup data.
3.5.3. Release 12.0.6 (RUP6)
3.5.3.1. Contract Commitments Integration with Self Service Purchasing (Oracle

Public Sector Financials International)
Contract Commitments with Dual Budgetary Control is now integrated with Self Service
Purchasing. Users can now create purchase orders and perform funds check and funds reserve
using the self service version of Purchasing, when using Contract Commitments with the Dual
Budgetary Control feature enabled.
3.5.4. Release 12.1.1
3.5.4.1. PO and Requisition Mass Update

Oracle Purchasing includes a new capability to mass update buyer, approver, and deliver-
to person information in Purchase Orders (PO) and preparer, requester and approver
information on requisitions to streamline the process of maintaining organizational
changes.
A new program, Mass Close of Purchase Document, allows users to mass close Purchase
documents. The Mass Close functionality applies to Purchase Orders that have been fully
processed i.e. batch processing has completed, but are not in the closed status as well as
for Purchase Orders that the user needs to manually close. The program is applicable to
Standard Purchase Orders, Blanket Purchase Agreements, Planned Purchase Orders and
Contract Agreement and Blanket Releases
3.5.4.2. Enable All Sites for Global Contract Purchase Agreements
Contracts may be referenced from any of the valid supplier sites while creating standard
PO and requisitions. This allows broader use of GCPA, such as for suppliers with many
valid sites in a single master agreement.
Additionally, a profile option has been added to allow a Requisition or Standard Purchase
Order to reference a GCPA from any of the Supplier Sites while the GCPA is being
amended. By default, the profile option is set to No to preserve current behavior.
3.5.4.3. FPDS-NG Integration

Most U.S. Federal Government agencies must track and report their contract activity in a
variety of ways, including publishing certain contract activity to the Federal Procurement
Data System Next Generation (FPDS-NG). Oracle Purchasing Release 12.1.1 provides
support for integration with FPDS-NG by ensuring that required contract and vendor data
elements are captured in the system and that submission data passes all required FPDS-
NG validations.
3.5.5. Release 12.1.2
3.5.5.1. Purchase Order Pricing Enhancement

Oracle Purchasing has extended its integration with Advanced Pricing to provide greater
granularity and flexibility in pricing orders and agreements. The extended integration also
provides greater transparency to the means by which a price has been determined for
orders and agreements.
Oracle Purchasing users can now:
View the pricing modifier information for a purchase order and/or Global
Blanket Purchase Agreement line and view the pre-calculated price adjustments
applied by the price engine.
Manually enter a price modifier, change modifier rate, and recalculate the price.
Query existing manual modifiers and apply them to a Purchase Order and Global
Blanket Purchase Agreement unit price.
Change the modifier rate and apply changes to PO or Global Blanket Purchase
Agreement Line.
These new features provide an accurate view of pricing information to the buyer,
increased flexibility for buyers to price an order, and streamlined supplier communication
on prices.
3.5.5.2. Project Security within Oracle Purchasing

It is common in project-centric industries like Engineering and Construction for buyers to
be assigned to projects rather than to commodities or item categories. Buyers only have
authority to transact on behalf of the projects to which they are assigned. To help enforce
this business rule, project level security is being introduced in Oracle Purchasing. When
the new security option is enabled, procurement users will only be allowed to view and
update procurement documents that are related to a project on which the user has an
active role.
This feature has a prerequisite of Oracle Projects.
3.5.5.3. Procurement Web Services Purchasing

This feature exposes business logic contained within user forms through Java APIs.
These web services are cataloged in the Oracle Integration Repository and can be
browsed though Oracle Integration Repository Browser Interface under the respective
product family node. By clicking on the Business Entity in the Integration Repository,
you can view a full description, a list of web services for that business entity along with
the description of the web service. The description of parameters can be viewed from the
xsd definition of the service available via the generated wsdl.
As part of 12.1.2, the following web services are provided for Purchasing:
Purchase Order (PO): Cancel PO, Create PO, Delete PO, Approve PO, Query
PO, and Update PO
Requisition: Create Requisition, Delete Requisition, Query Requisition, and
Update Requisition.
Note that these support requisitions in iProcurement as well as Purchasing.
3.5.6. Release 12.1.3
3.5.6.1. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration
Oracle Landed Cost Management gives organizations financial visibility into their
extended supply chain costs including transportation, handling fees, regulatory duties and
taxes and helps them to determine the landed cost of the material for transactional
purposes. This allows organizations to have better control over procurement costs,
maximize profits, increase competitiveness, and ensures that complex trade activities are
compliant with regulatory mandates.
This integration allows purchasing users to simulate the Landed Costs at the creation time
of purchase orders, allowing better procurement decisions based on the estimated Landed
Cost of the items.
3.5.6.2. Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) Integration
In EBS Release 12.1.2, the implementation of encumbrance reversal for SCM was
limited to Inventory and Expense Receiving transactions. Now in Release 12.1.3, this
functionality has been extended to Shop Floor destination Purchase Orders, where the
distributions will be created under WIP transactions. Purchasing will support
encumbering funds for Purchase Orders generated from eAM (with a Shop Floor
destination) during the approval process.
All public sector organizations, such as municipal, state, provincial and federal
government organizations are required to encumber or reserve funds that have been
committed to a supply purchase order. Therefore, prior to approval of any purchasing
document, the available funds must be checked and reserved against the available budget
for the specified account code combination. Enhancement is key for budgetary control.
3.5.7. Release 12.1.3+
3.5.7.1. Encumbered Document Revisions without Un-reserving Funds

Users may now create revisions for approved and reserved purchasing documents without
first un-reserving funds. Permitted changes include changes to quantities and tax
attributes. When the revision is approved, the system automatically adjusts the amount
reserved by calculating the difference between the reserved amount and the document
amount. Users may also manually reserve an increase or decrease in the document
amounts as well as view encumbrance-related accounting entries for a Purchase Order or
Global Blanket Purchase Agreement document. This feature is supported in OAF pages
only and not in the Forms interface.
3.5.7.2. Approvals Management Engine (AME) for PO Approvals

Oracle Purchasing users now have the option of using the Approvals Management Engine
(AME) for approving PO documents. Approvers can be defined either in parallel or
sequential manner using AME. AME also brings in multiple voting methods for
approving the PO documents. Enterprises can use the predefined AME transaction type
and PO workflow process or they can create custom transaction type and workflow
process based on their business requirements. Buyers can add adhoc Approvers and
Electronic Signatories using the Approval Options screen. The AME process can also be
used to add multiple reviewers and electronic signatories to the approval hierarchy.
3.5.7.3. Current and Pending Approvers in Action History Region

The application will allow users to view current and pending approvers if the order
document is undergoing an AME approval process. Approver details and approval
sequence are available in the Action History. The system also tracks reminders sent to the
Approver. If there is no response from an Approver after two reminders, the Approval
process times-out and a Timeout action is recorded plus the Supervisor of the Approver is
notified.
3.5.7.4. Withdrawing Purchase Order after Submitted for Approval

Buyers using the Professional Buyers Work Center may now withdraw a Purchase Order
that is in the approval queue in In Process or Pre-Approved status. Based on control
options, Approvers may receive an FYI notification giving reasons for withdrawal when
the Buyer withdraws the purchasing document. This feature is supported in OAF pages
only and not in the Forms interface.
3.5.7.5. Configurable Notification in Purchase Order

The PO Approval Notification Region can be configured to enable enterprises to
personalize the notification page according to their business requirements. The
notification region can be personalized to add or remove columns in header as well as in
lines region according to their business needs. In addition this region can be configured to
control what approvers can or cannot view in the notification. This feature is also
available to modify the notification text sent via email.
3.5.7.6. Outside Processing Lines in Global Blanket Agreements (GBPAs)

Oracle Purchasing now allows Global Blanket Purchase Agreement (GBPA) lines to have
items that are defined as Outside Processing Items. When standard POs are created
against these GBPAs, these items can be ordered and delivered to Shop Floor
destination.
3.5.7.7. Support for Importing Complex Purchase Orders

Purchasing Users can now import complex purchase orders using the PDOI (Purchasing
Document Open Interface).
3.5.8. Release 12.2
3.5.8.1. Automatic Updates to Encumbrance (GL) Date

Buyers can specify an Encumbrance Date for each distribution against a line at the time
of creating purchase orders. If this date is within a closed period, and is hence invalid,
then the application automatically updates the date as the system date. This feature
requires a profile value setting to be activated.
3.5.8.2. Support for Additional Extension Hooks

Oracle Purchasing provides additional extension hooks that enable usage of custom
validations for the Purchase Order submission process. Buyers now have the ability to
make changes to the target document during the Autocreate flow.
3.6. Oracle Services Procurement

3.6.1. Overview
Oracle Services Procurement is the application that enables complete control and
oversight for services spending. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement,
the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.
Oracle Services Procurement further streamlines all aspects of the acquisition process for
complex services including:
Negotiation of service contracts with emphasis on terms related to contract
financing and progress payment arrangements
Tracking of work progress against agreed schedule in the contract
Processing of payment requests
By supporting real time online collaboration involving key stakeholders throughout the
lifecycle, organizations can significantly improve the acquisition process of services
spend.
3.6.2. Release 12.1.1
3.6.2.1. Time Reporting and Contractor Assignment Flexibility

For Services Procurement, Release 12.1.1 is focused on customer driven enhancements
delivering greater flexibility for time reporting and contractor assignment. Key
capabilities included maximizing preferred supplier savings, cutting processing costs,
eliminating over-billing and providing visibility into services spending. Oracle continues
to enhance and streamline the workflow for Contingent Workers by:
Allowing multiple PO and PO lines to be associated with each assignment so that
when workers are extended and a new requisition is added to an existing PO, a
new PO line is automatically created.
Enabling workers to charge time to multiple projects referenced on a PO line
associated to the workers HR assignment.
3.6.3. Release 12.1.2
3.6.3.1. Oracle Projects Work Confirmations

The workflow for work confirmations, in Release 12.1.2, is more flexible and supports
additional ways to record and display progress. Key benefits include:
On a work confirmation for a PO, users now have the ability to enter incremental
or cumulative progress values, as absolute amount or percentage
Users now have the complete visibility to the progress as they can view the
absolute and percentage values for both incremental and cumulative progress.
3.7. Oracle Sourcing
3.7.1. Overview
Oracle Sourcing is the enterprise application that improves the effectiveness and
efficiency of strategic sourcing. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement,
the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.
Oracle Sourcing enables buyers to source more of the organizations spend at lower total
cost. Oracle Sourcing creates immediate savings through rapid deployment and ensures
long-term savings with consistent execution and compliance.
3.7.2. Release 12.1.1
3.7.2.1. Two Stage Evaluation of RFP

In certain global markets, government organizations and some private sector enterprises
often follow a formal two stage negotiation process. The two stage negotiation process
requires the submission of bids from suppliers that can be evaluated based on technical
and commercial aspects separately to help ensure fair evaluation of supplier bids. In
Oracle Sourcing, organizations can now evaluate suppliers bids in two independent
stages based on the technical and commercial parts of the bids.
The first stage includes the technical evaluation of all responses to questions and
parameters pertaining to the technical aspects that are used by the sourcing organization
to evaluate the technical feasibility and capabilities of the suppliers. During this stage,
commercial aspects remain sealed so that they do not influence the decision making
process. For bids that fail the technical evaluation, the commercial part will remain
sealed. Evaluators can then analyze the commercial aspects (such as price and delivery
terms) for only those bids passing the technical stage.
By adding support for two stage RFP in Oracle Sourcing, organizations can help ensure a
more impartial evaluation of supplier bids based on the independent evaluation of the
technical capabilities and then the commercial terms of a suppliers bid.
3.7.2.2. Two Stage RFQ Surrogate Bids

The new two stage RFQ process also includes Surrogate Bidding support, allowing a
buyer to enter, in stages, bid details on behalf of a supplier(s). During the first stage, the
buyer is able to enter the surrogate quote with all the required technical details but
without price information. Once all of the supplier bids have been received, technical
scoring is done against the requirements and attributes in RFQ. For those suppliers that
score well in the technical round, their bids will be short listed for the commercial round.
During the commercial round, the buyer can then complete the surrogate bidding process
for those suppliers not carrying out their own bidding. The buyer is able to enter the
commercial terms provided by a supplier to enable scoring for the commercial round to
be completed. Upon approval of the quote, it is short-listed for placing the purchase order
or contract.
3.7.2.3. Supplier Response PDF

Organizations often have the need to keep a physical record of a suppliers bid response
for audit, reference, or offline review purposes. Oracle Sourcing Release 12.1.1 adds the
ability to generate a PDF version of a suppliers response, which allows suppliers to print
the PDF for draft and submitted bids. In addition, buyers can print the supplier bids
allowing buyers to review responses offline or to save for their internal records.
3.7.2.4. Enhanced Spreadsheet Support
In Release 12.1.1, Oracle Souring provides an enhanced XML spreadsheet format to
support a standard look-and-feel and streamlined usability of the spreadsheets for
supplier response creation and analysis/award. Buyers and suppliers can download all
the information in one single spreadsheet, simplifying the loading and maintaining of
spreadsheets for a negotiation.
Response Lines
Bid Total
Calculated
Instantly
Line Filter
Predefined
List of
Link to Values
Scoring
Worksheet
Fig. 2: Line Level Response for Suppliers
The spreadsheets for supplier response creation not only has an improved and user
friendly look and feel, but it can provide immediate feedback to suppliers through the
robust formulas used to calculate scores, even when they are not connected to the system.
The enhanced spreadsheets will allow buyers and suppliers to enter the data more
efficiently and reduce the number of errors during data entry in the offline environment,
thus improving the overall user experience during the process.
Analysis Lines
Overall Savings
Calculated Instantly
Side-by-Side
Bid
Comparison
Perform
What-If
Analysis
Award and Savings

Amount per Supplier
Calculated Instantly
Fig. 3: Buyer Analysis of Bid Responses from Suppliers
Buyers also have a more powerful tool to conduct analysis of supplier responses and
make smarter award decisions. Buyers can easily view totals and savings, conduct what-
if analysis of different award scenarios, and view side-by-side comparison of all elements
of supplier responses.
3.7.2.5. Countdown Clock

In fast-paced auctions, the countdown clock will help to promote more competitive
behavior among suppliers. Suppliers will know the exact amount of time left to create
and submit their bids or quotes. The countdown clock updates automatically if there are
changes in the negotiation close date (for example, if AutoExtend is triggered). The
performance of the countdown clock is also optimized so that unnecessary use of network
bandwidth is minimized. Buyers who monitor the negotiations from Live Console will
also be able to monitor precisely how soon the negotiation will be closing. Buyers who
monitor supplier activities will also see the time ticking down without manually
refreshing the page. In addition to auctions, the countdown clock will apply to additional
negotiation types of RFQ and RFI.
3.7.2.6. Price Tier Enhancements

Suppliers have flexibility to offer different unit prices depending on the volume of
business that the buyer is willing to commit for a given product or service. Typically, a
supplier will provide preferential pricing for a larger volume purchase. Quantity based
price tiers allow buyers to specify different price points for each quantity range on
negotiations with standard purchase order, blanket or contract purchase agreement
outcomes. Suppliers can respond to the tier structure defined by the buyer, or they can
provide their own price tiers.
Users can define quantity based price tiers when creating negotiations for Blanket
Purchase Agreements. Buyers can select whether they want to have price breaks,
quantity based, or no price tiers in the negotiation. When price tiers are enabled, buyers
can define the quantity range and the target price for each tier within a line. Similarly,
suppliers can create their own price tiers when they submit a bid. The award price is
based on the tier that corresponds to the award quantity assigned to each supplier.
3.7.2.7. Cost Factor Enhancements

Cost factors allow buyers to model the total cost of a product or service. Cost factors
operate under one of three pricing basis: (1) per unit cost (2) percentage of the unit price
(3) fixed amount for the line.
This enhancement improves the calculation of the per unit total cost when fixed amount
cost factors are used and the buyer awards a supplier a quantity that is either equal to or
lower than the response quantity. Whereas before Oracle Sourcing used the response
quantity to calculate the per unit total cost, now the formula utilizes the award quantity to
distribute the fixed amount cost factor: resulting in a more accurate award amount
calculation.
3.7.3. Release 12.1.2
3.7.3.1. Earnest Money Deposit

In certain global markets, particularly in APAC and EMEA, government organizations
and some private sector enterprises often follow a formal process of taking EMD (Earnest
Money Deposit) from their suppliers. A supplier, unless exempted, has to pay the EMD
amount to the buying organization in order to participate in any Sourcing negotiation.
This EMD amount is usually refunded after the negotiation is completed. Buying
organizations can leverage these capabilities to ensure the supply base is seriously
interested in providing a competitive bid.
Oracle Sourcing supports various EMD payment methods:
Cash
Check (Cheque)
Demand Draft
Corporate EMD. Corporate EMD is a practice where a supplier deposits a large
amount with the buying company and the EMD is adjusted against this amount.
Bank Guarantee
EMD is received by the EMD Administrator, a new responsibility made available for
EMD transactions, or can be paid online by the suppliers (Corporate EMD). The EMD
Administrator can exempt a supplier from paying EMD, or refund or forfeit the EMD
amount, depending on the business policies.
There is an out-of-the-box integration with Oracle Financials, so that the receipt, forfeit
and refund of EMD can leverage Oracle Receivables and Oracle Payables. For customers
not using Oracle Financials, there is a non-integrated EMD deployment process where
the company can still use the EMD feature in Oracle Sourcing. There are reports
available for the buying organization to validate the EMD status and details for different
negotiations and suppliers.
This feature in Oracle Sourcing ensures that the end-to-end sourcing process for the
buying organization can be performed using Oracle Sourcing application, and customers
will not have to rely on processes outside the application to complete their sourcing
negotiations. This shortens the sourcing cycle which otherwise can lead to delays in
receiving and returning the EMD amount and affects the productivity of buying
organization due to manual checks and coordination. Also, all EMD related information
is retained in the application which can be leveraged for future reference and audit
requirements.
3.7.4. Release 12.1.3
3.7.4.1. Requester Field in the Sourcing Header
At times, there is a need to capture the name of the business owner of the negotiation or
in the case where the owner/sponsor is separate from the person running the negotiation.
The requester field is available in the negotiation header (RFI, RFQ and Auctions).
The default value is the buyer, but it can be updated as shown in the screenshot below.
Fig. 4: Requester Field in the Sourcing Header Page
Please note that the field, by default, is not available in the application and can be made
available though personalization.
3.7.4.2. Descriptive Flex Field (DFF) in Oracle Sourcing Header

Often, buyers have a need to provide additional information on the header page, for
example, information on contract value, final project approver, etc. Headers attributes are
of two types: a) Visible to Buyers only (who have access to negotiation) and b) Visible to
both the buyer and supplier. As shown in the figure below, there are two DFFs in the
negotiation header page which helps to capture these attributes:
Additional Header Attributes (Buyer Only)
Additional Header Attributes (Buyer & Supplier)
Fig. 5: Descriptive Flex Field in Oracle Sourcing Header Page
The buyer can create different contexts which will control the different attributes
displayed. For example, in this case the context additional supplier information selection
displayed the contact address, contact number and budget sanctioned attributes. These
fields can be used to convey additional negotiation related information to the buyer and
supplier community.
Please note that the DFFs, by default, are not available in the application and can be made
available though personalization
3.7.4.3. Landed Cost Management (LCM) Integration

Customers sourcing overseas (25% or more) find that the item cost (procurement price)
accounts for more than half of the cost to acquire the product. From a strategic sourcing
perspective, Oracle has tried to give users some visibility into these potential costs,
however, at PO creation time, users need the same and even more refined insight. The
integration with Landed Cost Management (LCM) allows them to make more tactical
decisions about how to source an item. Additionally, it gives an organization better and
early visibility into what their potential liabilities might be. For bigger ticket items such
as heavier or bulkier goods, users can run through a number of different scenarios and
compare the potential output before firming up the estimate. Then, once they prepare to
receive an item, they can use this estimate as basis for that receipt. With LCM more
closely tied to Procurement, Oracle is giving customers the information they need to
make better tactical decisions and is giving them early insight into their outstanding
liabilities. In fact, many of our customers don't want to approve a PO without having
visibility into this. Finally, we observed that virtually all retailers, wholesale distributors
and customers require this functionality and have modified their systems to give some
visibility into this today. When faced with an upgrade, they will have to migrate these
solutions to R12 or will need a solution like LCM.
3.7.5. Release 12.1.3+
3.7.5.1. Online Discussions Attachments

Buyers and suppliers can now upload attachments in the context of an Online Discussion.
This is especially useful when highlighting information during the negotiation process.
For example, the buyer may want to forward additional technical clarification to suppliers
during a negotiation to procure complex machinery.
In addition, for negotiations with a style of sealed, supplier users can now send
messages exclusively to the buyer. This allows clarification of unique queries without the
mandate to broadcast every message to all participants. Buyers can respond to all
suppliers or only the sender, as needed.
3.7.5.2. Terms and Conditions Controls

The Terms and Conditions display can now be controlled by the Sourcing Administrator
with new settings. The page can be displayed to a bidder in the following manner, as
required by the organizations business policies:
Before creating an offer
Before accessing the negotiation document, or
Never
The explicit supplier acceptance of Terms and Conditions can be captured, before
allowing the supplier to proceed further.
To accommodate specific terms and conditions across business entities, the system
allows for terms and conditions to be created for each Operating Unit. Finally, Terms
and Conditions supports attachments to allow for displaying additional information.
3.7.5.3. Lot Price Summation

Certain negotiations use a Lot hierarchy to organize bidding lines. For Lots, the actual
award happens at the parent Lot level with detailed bid information collected at the
child (or Lot Lines) level.
Sourcing professionals can now view a Lot price, calculated as the sum of the price for
each Lot Line in that Lot. One example where this capability is applicable is for basic
bills of materials, where the item (Lot) level costing is naturally a summation of the
individual components (Lot Lines).
3.7.6. Release 12.2
3.7.6.1. Add Requisition lines to a Draft Negotiation (RFx & Auction)

Currently, buyers can select requisition lines using Demand Workbench and use them to
create a draft negotiation or an amendment negotiation document. Buyers can also select
requisition lines and create a new draft negotiation using the Document Builder.
However, buyers may want to add some additional requisition lines to the negotiation.
With this release, buyers can use Demand Workbench, select requisition lines, provide
the negotiation number, and add the lines to the negotiation. Alternatively, buyers can
navigate to the Demand Workbench page from within a draft negotiation by selecting the
add requisition lines from the Lines tab. This provides flexibility to the buying
organization in the negotiation creation process, as buyers can add demand to the draft
negotiation during the negotiation creation process.
3.7.6.2. Response Withdrawal
Oracle Sourcing now provides suppliers with the ability to withdraw responses submitted
on an RFI/RFQ. A new negotiation control enables Sourcing buyers to determine if
suppliers can withdraw submitted responses on that negotiation. Suppliers can withdraw
submitted responses only as long as the negotiation is open for bidding. Surrogate
withdrawal is also possible where the Sourcing buyer withdraws surrogate responses on
behalf of the supplier.
3.7.6.3. Track Amendment Acknowledgements

The Supplier Activities Page now shows a chronological log of all the supplier activities
on the negotiation. Sourcing buyers can now track acknowledgements from invited
suppliers to amendments made to a negotiation.
3.7.6.4. Staggered Awards

Sometimes sourcing awards are desired only for part of a negotiation. In these cases,
optimal timing for awarding different parts of the negotiation occurs at multiple dates.
For example, a large project scenario may involve a negotiation with many lines, with the
entire project in one document. In this case a single award timeframe may be premature
for the decision on certain lines.
With staggered awards a sourcing professional may evaluate and award one or more
lines, and later revisit the negotiation and award additional lines. The staggered award
process allows the buyer to award different lines at different points in time. New awards
can be used to create a new Purchase Order or Agreement in Purchasing.
3.7.6.5. Import of Price Breaks

A new spreadsheet upload supports the buyer uploading price tiers when creating a
negotiation. Support for both price tiers and price breaks makes spreadsheet use more
effective. Price breaks uploaded via spreadsheet may reduce manual effort updating line-
level price breaks, especially for complex negotiations or negotiations having a very large
number of lines. As before, price breaks on awarded bids may automatically generate
Blanket Purchase Agreements in Oracle Purchasing for rapid implementation of
negotiated terms.
3.7.6.6. Negative Cost Factors

Cost Factors are typically positive values which are added to a bid price for a line to help
a buyer understand total effective cost in competitive bidding scenarios. To expand this
valuable capability, the buyer may now define cost factors whose values may decrement
the total cost for a line. For example, a bidder may want to submit a rebate or discount as
a cost factor to improve the competitiveness of a bid.
3.7.6.7. Sourcing APIs

Many sources of demand can automatically populate a negotiation in Sourcing with
relevant, integrated data. Now an additional scenario is supported: an API to create
negotiations through direct data upload. The API supports the creation of RFIs, RFQs
and Auctions, and negotiations are created in draft status. Organizations can now
leverage an API to directly create a draft negotiation document from information
available outside the system.
3.8. Oracle Sourcing Optimization
3.8.1. Overview
When allocating business to suppliers, buyers often must strive to meet multiple
purchasing goals and business policies. For example: award at least 10% business to
minority-owned suppliers, no single supplier should get more than 80% of the total
business, or at least half of the business should go to incumbent suppliers. It can be
challenging to achieve maximum savings while meeting such business policies,
particularly if there are many line items and a large number of competitive bids.
Oracle Sourcing Optimization can help by allowing the buyer to create scenarios that can
be automatically optimized to determine the best award, while adhering to policies and
goals defined on the scenario. This results in better and faster award decisions.
3.8.2. Release 12.1.1
3.8.2.1. Sourcing Optimization Enhancements

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

Suppliers typically have their own price tiers that meet their business realities. Analyzing
dissimilar tier structures is a very complex and time consuming activity. This process is
greatly streamlined by the use of Oracle Sourcing Optimization. When Oracle Sourcing
Optimization is used to find the best award scenario in a negotiation, the optimization
engine analyzes all combinations of price tiers submitted by suppliers to determine the
best award recommendation. Award quantities specified in the award recommendation
are used to assign the correct unit price to the resulting purchasing documents.
3.8.2.3. Supplier Incentives

Suppliers often provide incentives to increase the level of business transacted with the
buying organization. The incentives can be in the form of a fixed amount (e.g., signing
bonus), a tiered rebate structure (e.g., rebates that occur when a predetermined level of
business is reached), or both. These additional savings through incentives may directly
impact the award decisions that buyers make. How much business a buyer awards to each
supplier determines whether additional rebates apply, and, therefore, the additional
savings need to be factored in the award scenario analysis.
Oracle Sourcing Optimization allows buyers to enter the incentives given by suppliers.
Buyers can enter the current total spend and rebate percentage for each supplier, and the
rebate structure for any extra award made on top of the current spend. In addition, a fixed
amount incentive can be specified to account for a signing or transition bonus. Oracle
Sourcing Optimization uses these values to calculate the additional savings yielded by the
incentives, and adds the amount to the total savings in the award scenario. Buyers can
then use the information to make more informed award decisions.
3.9. Oracle Spend Classification

3.9.1. Overview
One of the biggest benefits from business intelligence applications that analyze spend
derives from the consolidation of spend data from multiple sources. Whether from many
sources, or just one, it is generally true that spending data is inadequately categorized for
use by procurement. One of the reasons is an emphasis on recording accounting
information, which often reveals little of the purchasing category. In most organizations,
a majority of spend data is not categorized, categorized incorrectly, or categorized as
miscellaneous. This leads to a skewed picture of the breakdown of spend, resulting in
poor visibility to identify saving opportunities.
Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics (P&SA) includes adaptors that load data from
many sources, including Oracle E-Business Suite 11i9, 11i10, R12, Oracle Peoplesoft
Enterprise 8.9, 9.0, legacy, and other sources.
Spend Classification processes the data contained in P&SA and predicts appropriate
category information for each invoice line. To be able to do the predictions, Spend
Classification uses existing categorized data from PS&A to create a knowledge base.
Features in Spend Classification allow data stewards to test and validate the learning
performance, ensuring the knowledge base is performing classification at adequate levels.
Once the knowledge base has been built, the product can be used to classify spend data
residing in P&SA.
Fig. 6: Oracle Spend Classification, Classification Summary Page
3.9.2. Release 12.1.2
3.9.2.1. Integration with Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6

Spend Classification is integrated with Oracle Procurement and Spend Analytics 7.9.6
(P&SA), a component of Oracle BI Applications. It processes data from P&SA tables for
invoice, purchasing, and requisition information. After Spend Classification predicts
purchasing categories for spend lines, it reassigns categories in P&SA where it has a high
confidence rating of a successful match.
3.9.2.2. Knowledge Base Creation and Incremental Updates

Spend Classification uses a sample of existing and accurately categorized spend data to
learn successful categorization based on a wide range of an organizations data. The
product allows the users to enrich the knowledge base with incremental data as data
evolves to increase classification accuracy over time.
3.9.2.3. Multiple Knowledge Bases

Spend Classification provides functionality to create a standard knowledge base that can
predict categories at various levels of the purchasing category hierarchy.
Spend Classification uses Oracle Data Mining as its engine for predictive analytics.
Advanced users may use Data Mining to create any of the alternate supported Data
Mining knowledge bases and then reference these knowledge bases from Spend
Classification to process future spend data.
3.9.2.4. Easy to Use User Interface

Spend Classification uses Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, a component
of Fusion middleware, for its user interface. Pages provide dynamic sorting of data,
column level search, and filters. Users can drill down to segments of data directly from
various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) defined for classification results.
Fig. 7: Oracle Spend Classification, Classification Details Page
3.9.2.5. Export and Import to Excel

Spend Classification integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Excel. It allows users to
export all data to Excel in order to do offline processing. If manual updates are made in
Excel, the Excel file can be uploaded into OBIA. For example, this might be used in
cases where the user decides to manually reassign categories.
3.9.2.6. Ability to Classify Data into Multiple Taxonomies

Spend Classification can categorize spend data into different category taxonomies.
Category taxonomies that are supported include:
The category setup in a source financials system
UNSPSC
Three additional custom category taxonomies
There is no restriction on the number of levels defined for a category hierarchy.
3.9.2.7. In-line Commodity Classification

At times, requesters may need to order off catalog and create a Non Catalog Request.
When requesters describe the purchase, there is a high likelihood of it not being classified
into an existing commodity hierarchy. This increases misclassification of spend
information, contract leakage, lower compliance and internal controls.
In R12.1.1 onwards, requesters creating Non Catalog Requests will have the option of
category being predicted for the purchase being made. After the requester clicks on Add
to Cart they will be able to view a suggested best fit category with a list of categories
that could be alternate possibilities. The same window can also be used to parse the
complete Category hierarchy. This approach uses the Oracle Spend Classification in real
time to assess the category of what the requester is ordering. The requester merely picks
the purchasing category and continues checking out. This capability allows even
unstructured requests to be categorized appropriately, aiding downstream spend analysis.
3.9.3. Release 12.2
3.9.3.1. Reclassify Historical Data

Currently, Spend Classification supports classifying a Batch against a particular
taxonomy once, and can reclassify a batch up to a maximum of 5 times, each time against
a Knowledge Base having a different taxonomy.
With this release Spend Classification can be used to reclassify a previously classified
Batch or a range of data belonging to a previously classified batch, as required, against a
Knowledge Base with the same taxonomy. This feature provides the flexibility to
reclassify the Batch if the earlier classification is not satisfactory.
3.9.3.2. Asynchronous Approval Flow

Asynchronous approval flow enables approval of classified batches in parallel, thus
allowing users to perform other tasks while the Batch is being approved. As in previous
releases, users can monitor the approval status of batches submitted for approval through
the Approval Activity Log under the Monitor Activity tab.
3.9.3.3. Enhanced Training Data Upload

Using Spend Classification, users can now upload Dataset files as large as 100MB, and
can specify the number of errors as a threshold up to which the upload should continue. If
the number of errors exceeds the threshold, then the upload stops and the errors can be
viewed in a log file.
Also the Data Template can be downloaded directly from the application, where the
format for dates and numbers can be specified. Additionally, the Category Codes instead
of the Category ID can be entered in the template. This helps users save considerable
time as they can avoid checking database tables to determine mappings for Category IDs.
The datasets that are uploaded can be deleted by navigating to the Configuration, Manage
Datasets tab. This helps users free up database space by purging potentially large datasets
that are no longer in use.
3.9.3.4. Enhanced Tracking Capabilities

An enhanced tracking capability now monitors the progress of the knowledge base
creation, enrichment and classification processes. During the execution of any of these
processes, an indicator reminds analysts of the current step of the process and for certain
steps, percentage completion. Historical data for each process can now be tracked
individually in the Monitor Activity screen. Similarly, during the Dataset Upload process
the system provides indication about the upload of data.
3.9.3.5. Improvements in Analyzing Batches and Excel to Export

While viewing the KPIs pertaining to the classification process, analysts now see
information about the batch whose data is being analyzed. While analyzing batches,
should an analyst decide to filter the transactions within the batch, a count of transactions
resulting from any query is now displayed. This helps the analyst to decide if she has a
good sub-set of data to work with or if she needs to filter it even more.
Also available is ability to export only the filtered rows to Excel. With the count of
transactions now available in the filtered data set, analysts are able to estimate the time it
would take to export to Excel, based on past experience. Spend Classification analysis
provides analysts the best and second best predicted classification codes, with
corresponding confidence levels. Now analysts can export these values at each level of
the taxonomy structure. This provides access to knowledge base prediction patterns at
each level of the taxonomy for additional evaluation and analysis.
3.9.3.6. Increased Flexibility in Resetting Data

Now, when analyzing classified data, it is possible to reset the classification code for
certain records. Analysts can select transactions records by specific values of
classification code. This provides greater flexibility to reset the classification code for
specific records.
3.10. Oracle Supplier Hub

3.10.1. Overview
Many organizations track supplier data in multiple ways, driven by the needs of different
business units or unconnected business processes The result is disparate supplier
definitions that make it difficult to have a complete and coherent summary of each
trading partner.
Oracle Supplier Hub is an application that provides a portfolio of Master Data
Management tools to enable organizations to better manage their supplier master records
centrally. Built on the foundational technology used to support mastering of customer
information, Supplier Hub can be used by both organizations that need to aggregate
supplier data from a range of application systems and also by those running a single E-
Business Suite instance.
Supplier Hub consolidates supplier information from disparate systems and business lines
into a single repository, provides cleansing and third party enrichment tools for effective
data management, and provides the resulting "single point of truth" supplier data as a
service to consuming applications, enterprise business processes and decision support
systems.
Supplier Hub is a complementary solution to Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM). It
can be implemented to extend the SLM capabilities by providing comprehensive quality
management functionality to cleanse the underlying supplier identity information that has
been enriched through the SLM tools.
Deployment of Supplier Hub enables organizations to have a consistent understanding of
the trading partners that they use to procure the various goods and services required to
support their business. This clarity is essential in order to be able to carry out effective
analysis of spending patterns so that appropriate tactical and strategic decisions can be
made about specific supplier relationships and overall company procurement policies.
3.10.2. Release 12.1.1+
Oracle Supplier Hub provides the following set of features:
Supplier Master Profile
Supplier Classification Management
Supplier Hierarchy Management
Supplier Data Import and Source Management
Supplier Data Quality Management
Supplier D&B Data Enrichment
Supplier Data Publication and Synchronization
Full details about the current capabilities of Oracle Supplier Hub can be found in the
Master Data Management RCD.
3.11. Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management
3.11.1. Overview
Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) provides an extensive set of features to
support the qualification, profile management and performance assessment of suppliers
as well as tools to track ongoing supplier compliance with corporate and legal
requirements. Utilizing these capabilities, organizations can exercise proper control over
suppliers throughout the lifecycle of their relationship with the organization; from initial
discovery, through qualification and on-boarding, to ongoing maintenance and possible
obsolescence.
A key factor in improving the quality of an organizations supplier master file is to
establish proper processes to formally qualify different types of prospective suppliers.
Supplier Lifecycle Management enables any and all of the peculiar information required
to assess a prospect to be gathered and then routed through the organization to ensure
efficient review of the suppliers credentials.
Once a supplier has been approved, SLM also enables organizations to gather feedback
from key stakeholders as part of an overall supplier performance tracking process. In
addition, Supplier Lifecycle Management also allows key stakeholders to identify and
track critical compliance documents and attributes that need to be gathered from suppliers
on a periodic basis in order for the two parties to maintain an active business relationship.
3.11.2. Release 12.1.1+
3.11.2.1. 360 Supplier View

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

To assist administrators charged with managing the vendor master for their organizations,
Advanced Search capabilities enable them to efficiently find and retrieve suppliers.
The Advanced Search allows any of the standard and extended profile attributes to be
used as search criteria and for the results to be viewed using multiple display formats.
The profile information retrieved from the search can be exported in spreadsheet format,
modified and then re-imported to enable mass data changes to be handled in an efficient
manner. The Advanced Search criteria and display formats can be personalized both at
the administrator and business user level.
3.11.2.3. Supplier Profile Management (including Self-Service)

Most organizations maintain a team of administrators to deal with the flow of
administrative updates from trading partners containing changes to their company profile
details. To make this process more efficient, Supplier Lifecycle Management extends
existing iSupplier Portal functionality to allow supplier users to be given online access to
maintain a wider range of their own profile details.
The supplier user can maintain standard company profile details; Address, Contacts,
Business Diversity Classifications, Products and Services category and Banking Details.
Changes they provide can then be reviewed by internal administrators before approval.
Suppliers can also access qualification and on-going compliance information that they are
required to provide to the buying organization to maintain their status in the system.
3.11.2.4. Extended Supplier Profile

To better understand the capabilities of suppliers in key product categories, Supplier
Lifecycle Management utilizes User Defined Attribute technology to allow
administrators to add an unlimited range of attributes to the supplier definition and to
group these into logical Profile sections. Typically, this is the sort of information stored
in paper-based systems that are maintained by different departments throughout an
organization. In addition to the attribute name, administrators are able to add descriptive
text to help explain the purpose of the attribute.
Fine-grained access control tools allow administrators to manage which users can have
access to the individual attributes in the extended set of profile details. This is
particularly important when sensitive information is stored in the profile and access needs
to be restricted to appropriate users either internally or at the supplier.
3.11.2.5. Registration and On-Boarding of New Suppliers

To help manage the stream of inquiries that come from supplier prospects interested in
doing business with the buying organization, many companies now use their corporate
websites to have potential suppliers register their interest in establishing a business
relationship. This allows the organization to get key information from the supplier that
can be used to qualify whether they are a suitable trading partner.
Supplier Lifecycle Management provides a supplier registration feature that can be
configured by business unit to gather the data elements required to assess each
prospective supplier request. The registration form can be configured to include Address,
Contacts, Business Classification, Product and Services category, Banking detail and any
of the Extended Supplier Profile attributes. The prospective supplier can also upload
attachments as part of their registration packet.
To support sophisticated and conditional qualification procedures, administrators can also
establish RFI documents that allow various profile and compliance information from the
prospect to be captured using a questionnaire format.
In addition to the walk-up process, buyers can pre-register and send invitations to
prospective suppliers, requesting them to provide additional details for pre-qualification
and approval using the self-service capability.
To support complex or lengthy supplier registration, prospective suppliers can save their
draft registration request at any time, and return to it at a later date. Once a prospective
supplier has registered, their request is routed through an approval hierarchy for review.
3.11.2.6. Qualification Management

For many organizations, the processes for assessing new supplier relationships are
cumbersome and inefficient. In an effort to ensure that business gets done, companies
often support multiple channels for receiving new supplier requests and then follow a
very limited or haphazard procedure to review supplier credentials. Oftentimes, this is a
poorly coordinated manual process that requires tasks to be sequenced and tracked across
multiple departments as credit checks are carried out, customer references called, quality
standards reviewed and production facilities inspected.
Supplier Lifecycle Management leverages the Approval Management Engine to allow
companies to generate customized approval flows for processing supplier requests and
registrations. The details for each new supplier can be passed to multiple stakeholders
across many departments within the buying organization. Approvers are notified when
they are required to review a request and can check graphically the overall approval
status for a given request.
As part of the approval routing, SLM includes the qualification information collected
from the supplier as well as incremental feedback provided by business users assessing
the request. This allows basic supplier profile and qualification details to be gathered,
deliverables like Insurance certificates and Code of Conduct documents to be stored and
Products and Services information to be recorded within the Qualification packet.
The buying organization can apply business rules that will use the details in the request to
customize the approval flow so that the appropriate approvers can look at the details.
Once a registration request has been approved or rejected, the supplier is automatically
notified by email. Following approval, the qualification details provided by a supplier
become part of their profile that can be updated at a later date.
3.11.2.7. Compliance and Profile Audits

Whilst there are regulatory requirements for some types of organization to keep key
supplier profile elements up to date, this is also an important process for a lot of non-
regulated organizations that are looking to meet Corporate Social Responsibility
standards that they have set for themselves.
Supplier Lifecycle Management enables administrators to utilize the RFI tools to gather
and manage supplier compliance and profile information that are required on an
anniversary basis. They can define key compliance information that is required from
suppliers and then store the feedback provided by the supplier into the supplier master
profile record.
3.11.2.8. Performance Evaluation

Companies recognize that employees who interact with suppliers can provide insightful
feedback on soft performance metrics for the supplier. Being able to canvas opinion
from these key stakeholders and then use the information to help drive an overall
assessment of a suppliers performance is a key part of any collaborative program
intended to help improve supplier relationships.
Supplier Lifecycle Management will allow administrators to generate internal RFI
documents that can be sent to key personnel within the organization to evaluate and score
specific aspects of a suppliers overall performance. This will allow stakeholders in a
diverse range of departments, such as Procurement, Finance, Supply Chain,
Manufacturing, Quality, Design and Legal, to combine their opinions into a rating of how
well the supplier is doing.
The feedback gathered about the supplier is stored in the supplier profile allowing
performance trends to be tracked and risk to be effectively managed.
3.11.2.9. Supplier Notifications

To assist with supplier communication, Supplier Lifecycle Management provides tools to
allow notifications to be selectively communicated to a companys supply base.
Administrators enter notification information and then use search tools to generate the list
of suppliers that are to receive the message.
3.12. Oracle Supplier Network
3.12.1. Overview
The Oracle Supplier Network (Oracle SN) enables Oracle Purchasing customers and their
suppliers to accelerate collaboration and deliver significant efficiency savings by
conducting business electronically. Buying organizations are able to achieve quick cost
savings by leveraging the community of enabled suppliers on Oracle SN where thousands
of XML transactions are exchanged daily.
An Oracle-run service utilizing an Internet-based hub transaction model, Oracle SN
provides a wide range of features that are designed to ease the challenges of electronic
messaging.
Single Connection: Oracle SN is a messaging hub so each organization need only
setup a single connection to get access to the community of buyers/suppliers
Multiple Document and Transformation Support: The buying organization and its
suppliers can exchange Purchase Orders, PO Acknowledgments, PO Change
Requests, Advanced Shipment Notices and Invoices that can be automatically
converted between OAG and cXML formats
Self-Testing: Trading partners do not have to coordinate connectivity testing.
Instead, Oracle SN allows each partner to utilize a Test Hub to send and receive
sample documents to validate their connection
Supplier Punch-in access to multiple customer Oracle iSupplier Portal
applications
3.12.2. Version 5.0
3.12.2.1. Consolidated Hub Administration

Streamlined account administration tools allow administrators to manage all the
messaging configurations for both their test and production transactions from a single
account login. Users no longer migrate account setup between hubs. Instead users
control separate transaction delivery parameters centrally for routing over the Oracle SN
Test Hub and the Oracle SN Production Hub.
3.12.2.2. Production Routing Controls

Users can restrict specific trading partners from exchanging production messages.
3.12.2.3. UTF-8 Support

UTF-8 message encoding enables Oracle SN to route messages containing multibyte
languages.

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ORACLE E-BUSINESS SUITE

RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT

Prepared by EBS Product Management & Strategy

Last Updated: November 27, 2013

Copyright 2013 Oracle Corporation

2.1. Purpose of Document

3.1. Oracle iProcurement

3.1.2.1. Change Management for Internal Requisitions

3.1.3.1. In-line Commodity Classification

3.1.4.1. Information Template Enhancements

3.1.4.3. Dual Budgetary Control Support

3.1.4.4. Attachment Support in Change Order Process

3.1.4.5. Account Generator Support in Requisition Import

3.1.5. Release 12.2

3.1.5.1. Automatic Updates to Encumbrance (GL) Date

3.2.2.1. Search All Catalogs

3.2.2.2. Advanced Filtering

3.2.2.3. Item Comparison

3.2.2.4. Easy to Implement and Configure

3.3.3.1. Dispute Resolution for G-Log Invoices

3.3.3.2. AP/AR Netting

3.3.3.3. Products and Services Search

3.3.3.4. Business Classification Recertification

3.3.3.5. Third Party Payments

3.3.4.1. Work Confirmation Correction

3.3.5.2. Capture Additional Supplier Contact details

3.4. Oracle Procurement Contracts

3.4.2.1. User-Defined Variables with PL/SQL Procedures as Source

3.4.3.1. Structured Terms Authoring in Repository Contracts

3.4.3.2. Secure Enterprise Search

3.4.3.3. Deliverable Payment Holds

3.4.3.3.1. Payment Hold Deliverables

3.4.4.1. Author Individual Clauses in Microsoft Word

3.4.4.2. Project Manager Dashboard for Maintenance of Procurement Deliverables

3.4.5.1. Apply Multiple Templates to a Sourcing or Purchasing Document

A buyer or contract administrator may apply a contract template to quickly draft a

3.4.5.2. APIs for Importing Templates, Rules, Questions and Constants

3.4.5.3. New Clause Descriptor Field

3.4.5.4. Clause Mandatory Attribute at Rule Level

Now it is possible to specify if a clause suggested by the Contract Expert is mandatory or

3.4.5.5. Clause Section Placement by Contract Expert

Fig.1: Buyer Analysis of Bid Responses from Suppliers

3.4.5.6. Deletion of Provisional Sections from Solicitation to Award

3.4.5.7. Instruction Text

3.4.5.8. Multi-Row Variables

3.4.5.9. Display Clause Number and Sort by Clause Number

<NUMBER 1>.<NUMBER 2>-<NUMBER 3><Some text>

3.4.6. Release 12.2

3.4.6.1. Repository Contracts Configurability Enhancements

3.4.6.2. UDA support for Deliverables

3.4.6.3. MS Word 2010 Certification

3.4.6.4. Contract Expert Performance Improvements

3.5. Oracle Purchasing

3.5.2.1. Integration between Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Transportation

Oracle Transportation Management combines transportation planning and execution

3.5.2.2. iSetup APIs

3.5.3. Release 12.0.6 (RUP6)

3.5.3.1. Contract Commitments Integration with Self Service Purchasing (Oracle

3.5.4. Release 12.1.1

3.5.4.1. PO and Requisition Mass Update

3.5.4.3. FPDS-NG Integration

3.5.5. Release 12.1.2

3.5.5.1. Purchase Order Pricing Enhancement