r12 Adv Procurement RCD

RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT
Release 12
Oracle Advanced Procurement
Prepared by Advanced Procurement Product Management Teams
Last Updated: 18th October 2006

Version: 7.0
Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All Rights Reserved

Table of Contents
1. Disclaimer 5
2. Introduction 6
2.1. Purpose of Document 6
2.2. Reference Documents 6
3. Oracle Advanced Procurement 7
3.1. Oracle iProcurement 7
3.1.1. Overview 7
3.1.2. Features 7
3.1.2.1. Enhanced Catalog Authoring 7
3.1.2.2. Difference Summary for Catalog Changes 8
3.1.2.3. Unified Catalog 8
3.1.2.4. Approval, Revision Control and Archive for Catalog Data 8
3.1.2.5. Content Security 9
3.1.2.6. Advanced Approval Support 9
3.1.2.7. Enhanced Requester Driven Change Order Management 10
3.1.2.8. Requester Directed Sourcing 10
3.1.2.9. Support for Multiple Favorite Lists 10
3.1.2.10. Confirm Receipt Enhancements 10
3.1.2.11. Multiple Search Result Layouts 11
3.1.2.12. List of Value Enhancements 11
3.1.2.13. Contractor Support in iProcurement 11
3.1.2.14. Work Confirmation Support 11
3.2. Oracle iSupplier Portal 13
3.2.1. Overview 13
3.2.2. Features 13
3.2.2.1. Complex Contract Payments 13
3.2.2.2. Supplier Change Order 14
3.2.2.3. Supplier Onboarding 15
3.2.2.4. Supplier Managed User Maintenance 16
3.2.2.5. Supplier Contact Management 16
3.2.2.6. Enhanced Supplier Profile Management 17
3.2.2.7. Representation of Suppliers in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA) 17
3.2.2.8. New Supplier Setup User Interface 17
3.2.2.9. Consolidated Banking Model 19
3.2.2.10. Integration with Oracle Supplier Network Identity Broker 19
3.2.2.11. Enhanced Inbound Logistics 19
3.2.2.12. PO Status Tracking 20
3.2.2.13. Receipt Inquiry 20
3.2.2.14. Invoice & Payment Inquiry 20
3.2.2.15. Supplier Scorecard 20
3.2.2.16. Supplier Self-Service Catalog Authoring 21
3.2.2.17. Multi-Org Access Controls 21
R12 Release Content Document, Rev. 07 2

3.2.2.18. Invoice Requests and Online Collaboration 21
3.3. Oracle Procurement Contracts 23
3.3.1. Overview 23
3.3.2. Features 23
3.3.2.1. Rules based Clause Selection 23
3.3.2.2. Microsoft Word Synchronization 24
3.3.2.3. Contract Deviations Report 24
3.3.2.4. Contract Policy Standards and Deviations 25
3.3.2.5. Support Contract Terms as an Attached Document 26
3.3.2.6. Clause Usage Analysis 26
3.3.2.7. Professional Buyer’s Work Center 27
3.3.2.8. Contract Workbench 29
3.3.2.9. Approve Clauses as Part of Template Approvals 29
3.3.2.10. Automatic Application of Contract Template 29
3.3.2.12. Multi-Organization Access Control 30
3.3.2.13. Enhanced Support for Contract Template Translation 30
3.3.2.14. XML Interface for Clause Import 31
3.3.2.15. Contract Publishing Enhancements 31
3.3.2.16. Enhanced Electronic Signature Support 32
3.3.2.17. Availability of New Features 33
3.4. Oracle Purchasing 34
3.4.1. Overview 34
3.4.2. Features 34
3.4.2.2. Procurement for Complex Services 40
3.4.2.3. Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC) 41
3.4.2.4. E-Business Tax 41
3.4.2.5. Document Publishing Enhancements 42
3.4.2.6. Communicate Document Attachments to Suppliers 43
3.4.2.7. Oracle Supplier Network - Rapid Supplier Enablement 43
3.4.2.8. Maintain Sourcing Rules/ASLs for Agreement Items 44
3.4.2.9. Support for Contractor Purchasing Users 44
3.4.2.10. Compliance to Packaging Constraints 44
3.4.2.11. Auto-Approval Tolerance for Change Orders 45
3.4.2.12. eAM Support for Services Procurement 45
3.4.2.13. Model Complex Pricing for Blanket Line Items 45
3.4.2.14. Advanced Approval Support for Requisitions 45
3.4.2.15. Subledger Accounting for Budgetary Control Actions 45
3.4.2.16. New User Interface for Oracle Purchasing Setups 46
3.4.2.17. Chargeable Subcontracting 46
3.4.2.18. Support for Unified Process Manufacturing/Discrete Inventory 46
3.4.2.19. Dual Unit of Measure Control 47
3.4.2.20. Material Status Control 47
3.4.2.21. Sublot Control 47
3.4.2.22. Depot Repair Enhancements 48
3.5. Oracle Services Procurement 49
3.5.1. Overview 49
3.5.2. Features 49
3.5.2.2. Advances and Recoupment of Advances 50
3.5.2.3. Progress Payments 50
3.5.2.4. Retainage and Retainage Release 51
3.5.2.5. Negotiate Contracts for Complex Services 52
3.5.2.6. Work Confirmation 52
3.5.2.7. Supplier Collaboration 53
3.5.2.8. eAM Support for Fixed Price Services 54

3.6. Oracle Sourcing 55
3.6.1. Overview 55
3.6.2. Features 55
3.6.2.1. Negotiation Styles 55
3.6.2.2. Complex Contract Payments Negotiation 55
3.6.2.3. Negotiation Requirements 56
3.6.2.4. Team Scoring for Subjectively Scored Requirements 58
3.6.2.5. Automatically Knockout Suppliers from the Shortlist 59
3.6.2.6. Support for Very Large Number of Line Items on a Negotiation 59
3.6.2.7. Enhanced Catalog Management 60
3.6.2.8. Negotiation Document PDF Printing Enhancements 61
3.6.2.9. Collaboration Team Member Messaging 61
3.6.2.11. Staggered Closing of Lines in Auctions 62
3.6.2.12. AutoExtend Improvements 62
3.6.2.13. Notification Subscription 63
3.6.2.14. Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement: Sourcing Dashboard 64
3.6.2.15. Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement: Supplier Scorecard 65
3.6.2.16. Award Approval Routing Using Position Hierarchy 65
3.6.2.17. Workflow Business Events 65
3.6.2.18. Price Breaks Settings Defaulting 66
3.6.2.19. Support for Contractors 66
3.6.2.20. Easier Configuration of Responsibilities 66
3.6.2.21. Multi-Org Access Controls (MOAC) 67
3.6.2.22. Representation of Suppliers in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA) 67
3.6.2.23. Prospective and New Supplier Invitation 67
3.6.2.24. Display Best Bid Price in Blind Negotiations 68
3.6.2.25. Bidding Improvements 68
3.6.2.26. Live Console 69
3.6.2.27. Transformation Bidding 71
3.6.2.28. Lot Based Bidding 72
3.6.2.29. Line Groups 72
3.6.2.30. Control Supplier Participation 73
3.6.2.31. Post Negotiation Synopsis to Extranet Website 73
3.6.2.32. Create and Publish Industry Standard Forms 73
3.6.2.33. Home Page Enhancements 73
3.6.2.34. Negotiate Contract Purchase Agreements 74
3.6.2.35. Supplier Research Enhancements 74
3.6.2.36. Change Document Type for New Round 75
3.6.2.37. Copy across Document Types 75
3.6.2.38. Spreadsheet Import of Header Attributes 76
3.6.2.39. Negotiations without Lines 76
3.6.2.40. Improved Purchase Document Creation Flow 76
Oracle Sourcing Optimization – New Product 77
3.6.3. Overview 77
3.6.4. Features 77
3.6.4.1. Scenario Objectives 77
3.6.4.2. Business Constraints 77
3.6.4.3. Scenario Optimization 79
3.6.4.4. What-if Analysis 79
3.6.4.5. Scenario Acceptance 80

1. Disclaimer
This Release Content Document (RCD) describes product features that are proposed for the specified
release 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 Release 12.
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 with 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.
R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 5

2. Introduction
2.1. Purpose of Document

The Release Content Document (RCD), produced as part of Oracle’s Applications Product Lifecycle
(APL), communicates information about new or changed functionality in the specified release of the
Oracle E-Business Suite. Existing functionality from prior point releases is not described. However,
content introduced by Family Packs, Mini-Packs or Standalone patches since the prior point release
has been included in this document and denoted accordingly.
2.2. Reference Documents

Name Location Completion Date

3. Oracle Advanced 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.
Release 12 of Oracle iProcurement is focused on three key themes:
• Improved Content Management

• Advancements in Requester Driven Procurement
• User Interface Upgrades
Release 12 significantly improves the content management process with features such as
online catalog authoring, difference summaries for catalog changes, and a new and
improved catalog security model. This release also contains much advancement in
requester driven functionality by allowing requesters to suggest negotiation events when
ordering goods as well as providing tolerance rules to automatically process minor
changes without buyer involvement. Finally, numerous user interface upgrades such as
multiple search results layouts, multiple favorites lists were integrated into iProcurement
to make the ordering process more intuitive and provide more flexibility for the
requesters.
3.1.2. Features
3.1.2.1. Enhanced Catalog Authoring

Release 12 enhances the catalog management process by providing online authoring
capability for iProcurement catalog administrators. Online catalog authoring
complements the existing batch upload process. While batch upload is optimized for
large data upload, the online authoring is optimized for making small and quick updates
to catalog content.
Increasingly, content management has become a collaborative process between the

buying and supplying organizations. Many enterprises now outsource the content
authoring responsibilities to suppliers or third party vendors. This creates a need for
suppliers to be able to view, create and maintain their content on behalf of the buying
organization.
Through Release 12 of Oracle iSupplier Portal, suppliers can now author their own
content either via file upload or online. Self-service authoring supports industry standard
formats for upload mode including OAG XML, cXML, CIF and text files. Any supplier-
authored content is subject to buyer approval before it is made available to requesters.
For additional details on Supplier Self-service Catalog Authoring, refer to the Oracle
iSupplier Portal Release Content Document. .

3.1.2.2. Difference Summary for Catalog Changes
Release 12 eases the catalog change management process by providing a Difference
Summary between new catalog content and the last approved version.
When suppliers and/or catalog administrators make changes to catalog data, Release 12
provides a Difference Summary highlighting the changes. This allows users to easily
review and verify their changes prior to submission. Users can sort and drill down on the
summary to view additional information as well as export changes to a spreadsheet to
further manipulate the data. Similarly, buyers can also access the Difference Summary
when reviewing changes submitted from a supplier or catalog administrator. The
summary gives the buyer a clear snapshot into the requested changes, so they can
judiciously accept or reject the changes.
3.1.2.3. Unified Catalog

With Release 12, Oracle iProcurement and Oracle Purchasing now have a single shared
catalog data model. The converged catalog combines the best features of both previous
models, and provides a number of significant capabilities and benefits:
• Catalogs are automatically and perpetually up-to-date and based on real-time data.
The extractor process is no longer required to maintain the catalog. Instead,
approved content is instantly available to iProcurement requesters
• Support for extensible base and category attributes to enhance the product data
catalog. Oracle iProcurement customers can now define base and category attributes
for their specific needs
• Support for price breaks based on quantity, shipping organization and effective date
range
3.1.2.4. Approval, Revision Control and Archive for Catalog Data

Release 12 now provides approval, revision control and archival capability for catalog
data.
Catalog data is now stored in the form of Global Blanket Agreements, allowing users to
leverage Purchasing Approval hierarchy, Revision Control and Archival capabilities for
agreements. Customers can now leverage the purchasing approval hierarchy to configure
catalog approvals to suit their business needs. Following the approval of catalog data, the
document revision version is incremented as needed, and the previous revision of the
agreement is archived.

3.1.2.5. Content Security
Release 12 expands catalog content security, providing more precise control of what
users can see in the catalog.
Enterprises that manage a large set of goods and services in their procurement system
need control of what content requesters can access—based on their responsibilities,
geographical locations, etc. Release 12 offers a configurable content security model that
introduces the concept of Content Zones to give administrators finer and more flexible
access control. Content Zones are segments of catalog content that administrators can
define based on supplier, supplier site and category. In addition, the administrator can
use inclusionary or exclusionary rules to determine whether certain items should be
included or excluded from a specified Content Zone. For example, an administrator can
define an ‘Industrial Supplies, North America’ Content Zone; this content zone includes
content from supplier ‘Industrial Depot’, supplier site ‘North America’ but excludes
content from category ‘Power Supplies’.
Once the administrator has defined a content zone, he can secure it by assigning it to one
or more operating units. Optionally, the administrator can also determine which
responsibilities in the selected operating units are eligible to access content in this content
zone. The administrator can also define Punchout, Transparent Punchout, and
Informational content zones.
Once the content zone is defined, the administrator can create a store, and assign one or
more content zones to that store. Similarly, the administrator can also assign Smart
Forms to the store to capture non-catalog requests appropriate to that store.
3.1.2.6. Advanced Approval Support

Release 12 of Oracle iProcurement further expands and enhances integration with the
Oracle Approvals Management product. This integration gives enterprises even more
flexibility to configure their business approval processes. Key enhancements include:
3.1.2.6.1. Position Hierarchy based Approvals
Position based hierarchies allow organizations the flexibility to create reporting

structures that remain stable regardless of personnel changes. Enterprises already
using position hierarchies via Oracle Approval Management can immediately
leverage those hierarchies for the requisition approvals process.
3.1.2.6.2. Parallel Approvals
The Parallel Approvals functionality gives enterprises the option to speed up the
approvals process by routing a requisition to multiple approvers simultaneously.
3.1.2.6.3. Support for FYI Notifications
Certain individuals or business roles need to be kept informed of purchases and

decisions, but do not necessarily need to take action against that notification. Release
12 provides new functionality to allow certain individuals or roles to review the
purchases, but do not require any response from the recipient.

3.1.2.6.4. Graphical Display of Approval Chain
Release 12 provides requesters and approvers with a simple and intuitive graphical
view of the approval chain and requisition status for a given requisition.
3.1.2.7. Enhanced Requester Driven Change Order Management

Release 12 enhances touchless buying by optionally processing non-significant order
changes without requiring change approval.
Existing Oracle iProcurement functionality allows requesters to make changes to the

requisition even after it has been converted into a purchase order. These changes are
conditionally routed through the requester’s approval hierarchy based on tolerance values
setup for each of the changed attributes. However, the change request is always routed to
the buyer for approval.
To better automate this process Release 12 introduces tolerances and options into the
Requester Change Order workflow to determine whether the buyer needs to approve a
given change.
Release 12 also leverages this functionality to automate the processing of supplier-

initiated purchasing changes. The system processes changes that fall within defined
tolerances without buyer approval, and routes change requests that fall outside those
boundaries to the buyer for approval. Optionally, administrators can define tolerances to
indicate when a supplier-initiated change should be routed to the requester instead of the
buyer for approval.
3.1.2.8. Requester Directed Sourcing

Release 12 allows requesters to suggest a sourcing event, when they believe such an
event is needed.
Because the requester is often most familiar with the product or service being ordered, he
should be able to indicate whether a negotiation event is needed. For example, the
requester may be aware that for a large order, the company should be able to negotiate
more favorable prices or terms. With the requester-directed sourcing capability in
Release 12, requesters can indicate their preferences for sourcing a given requisition line.
The buyer can then review the request and proceed with the appropriate sourcing steps.
3.1.2.9. Support for Multiple Favorite Lists

Release 12 of Oracle iProcurement introduces Multiple Favorite Lists.
Users can easily organize items by adding them into separate favorite lists, instead of one
large list. This greatly speeds browsing and ordering process by allowing requesters to
quickly choose items from any one of the saved Favorite Lists.
3.1.2.10. Confirm Receipt Enhancements

Some organizations hold invoice payments until receipts are created for 3-way matched
purchase orders. For these organizations, the timely creation of receipts impacts payment
timeliness and ultimately supplier relationships.

New in Release 12 are Confirm Receipt Notification Reminders that will be sent to the
requester whenever invoices are matched to purchase orders in Accounts Payable. Upon
receiving the notifications, requesters may:
• Review the order information and any invoices matched to their orders
• Create a receipt for the amount that was invoiced
Release 12 also continues to support Notification Reminders based on the requisition
need-by date, as well as fully or partially receiving goods or services.
3.1.2.11. Multiple Search Result Layouts

Release 12 incorporates the latest usability study feedback into iProcurement, revising
user interface models to improve the shopping experience. In this release, iProcurement
users can choose to display shopping search results in either an updated Paragraph search
result display format or the Grid display format.
The Grid format presents item information in a table to show more information on a page
and allow quick row-to-row comparisons. The refreshed Paragraph format provides
better alignment of item attributes and allows the truncation of long descriptions.
In addition, Release 12 substantially updates the Item Detail and Item Compare screens to
make them easier to read. These combined UI changes help requesters find information
and make purchasing decisions faster, with fewer clicks required to perform key actions.
3.1.2.12. List of Value Enhancements

Release 12 makes List of Value (LOV) functionality easier to use with the addition of
sorting capabilities, more LOV search criteria, and displaying additional information
about list of values.
Requesters use List of Values (LOV) frequently to find the correct approvers, locations,
and suppliers etc. In this release, new LOV functionalities are introduced to allow users
to more easily find the desired values. Key enhancements include:
• Sorting capability - Users can sort on the results returned from the LOVs
• Additional search criteria - Users can search for the values in the LOVs using new
search criteria customized for each LOV
• Additional information displayed - Additional information is displayed wherever
appropriate to provide relevant information
3.1.2.13. Contractor Support in iProcurement

Release 12 allows contractors to use iProcurement in the same manner as employees.
Now contractors can be set up as requesters and/or approvers. Given the appropriate
level of functional security, contractors can now have the ability to perform all the same
functions as the employees in iProcurement.
3.1.2.14. Work Confirmation Support

In large-scale projects, the supplier may periodically request payment as work progresses
and as certain deliverables or milestones are achieved. Oracle iSupplier Portal
streamlines the work certification and payment authorization process. Once the Supplier

submits an online work confirmation, the request is automatically routed for approval to
those who are qualified to certify the work. The list of approvers can include certain
roles (such as project manager, buyer or engineer) that are familiar with the work
deliverables. To ensure accurate and timely payments, the system can optionally
generate an automatic invoice once the work confirmation is approved.
Internal users within the buying organization can also generate work confirmations. The
requester or project manager can initiate work confirmations within iProcurement, as well
as view and respond to work confirmations that require their approval.
For additional details on Complex Work, please refer to the Oracle Purchasing and Oracle
Services Procurement Release Content Document.

3.2. Oracle iSupplier Portal
3.2.1. Overview
Oracle iSupplier Portal is the enterprise application that structures all supplier
communication through a secure, Internet-based portal. It is a key component of Oracle
Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management
costs.
In Release 12, substantial new functionality has been introduced to Oracle iSupplier
Portal to support the procurement and management of complex work. Significant
enhancements have also been made to the supplier change order process and supplier
onboarding, in addition to many usability improvements for external and internal users of
the application.
3.2.2. Features
3.2.2.1. Complex Contract Payments

Oracle Purchasing, in conjunction with Oracle Procurement Contracts, supports the
procurement of large-scale complex services including construction, research and
engineering, and project outsourcing. These long term-contracts may require complex
payment arrangements such as milestone payments, progress payments, advances,
retainage and recoupment. To optimize the business process, suppliers and key project
stakeholders need to collaborate throughout the contract execution cycle. Using Oracle
iSupplier Portal, suppliers will be able to perform the following tasks:
3.2.2.1.1. View and Manage Complex Orders

Large-scale projects present unique order management challenges. Oracle iSupplier
Portal will allow suppliers to view and manage purchase orders for large-scale
complex projects. Suppliers will be able to view the unique finance and retainage
terms that are unique to the contract as well as the detailed payment schedule. The
payment schedule will include the contractual deliverables for the project and the
associated progress payments for completing the deliverables on time. Through
iSupplier Portal, the supplier will be able to track the deliverable due dates and
monitor the payment status and progress of each deliverable.
Existing features that support the order acknowledgement process and supplier
initiated change requests will also be available for complex orders.
3.2.2.1.2. Create and View Work Confirmations
In large-scale projects, the supplier may periodically request payment as work
progresses and as certain deliverables or milestones are achieved. Oracle iSupplier
Portal streamlines the work certification and payment authorization process. Once
the Supplier submits an online work confirmation, the request is automatically routed
for approval to those who are qualified to certify the work. The list of approvers
could include a project manager, buyer, engineer, etc. who are familiar with the work
deliverables. To ensure accurate and timely payments, once the work confirmation is
approved, an invoice may be automatically generated.
In addition to supplier initiated work confirmations, work confirmations can also be

initiated by internal users within the buying organization. From Oracle

iProcurement, the requester or project manager is able to initiate work confirmations
as well as view and respond to work confirmations requiring their authorization.
For additional details on Complex Work, please refer to the Oracle Services
Procurement section of this document.
3.2.2.2. Supplier Change Order

Release 12 significantly enhances the supplier change order flow to expedite both
initiation and approval of change order requests.
3.2.2.2.1. Multi-Order Change Request
The current change order functionality allows suppliers to acknowledge orders and
initiate change requests one purchase order at a time. With Release 12, this
functionality has been extended to enable suppliers to acknowledge or process
changes across multiple orders simultaneously. Suppliers use advanced search
capabilities to find shipments from multiple orders that share common attributes such
as item number, promised date range and more. Acknowledgements, changes, and
cancellations can then be initiated for the entire search selection.
3.2.2.2.2. Tolerance-based Auto-Approval of Supplier Change Requests
Release 12 allows buyers to filter out minor supplier change requests by having them
automatically approved by the system. Currently, change requests initiated by the
supplier are routed to the buyer for approval. However, some changes may not be
significant enough to require the buyer’s attention. To improve the cycle time for
processing change requests, tolerances have been introduced to control whether the
buyer is required to approve the change request. Changes that fall within predefined
policy limits are automatically approved. The buyer is notified when a change
request is auto-approved but does not need to take any action on the approval task.
For increased flexibility, tolerances may be defined at the Operating Unit level.
3.2.2.2.3. Route Change Requests to Requester

In prior releases, requesters did not have visibility into the supplier change order
process. However, change requests can have a direct impact on the project or needs
of the requester. With Release 12, the buying organization may optionally give
requesters full control of their orders by routing change requests to the requester
rather than the buyer. If the requester does not have the appropriate approval
authorization, approval from the requester’s approval hierarchy will also be required.
The change request is conditionally routed to the requester for approval based on the
configuration rules of the buying organization. A routing rule may be created based
on any combination of the following attributes: promised date, shipment quantity
and price (for non-catalog items).
3.2.2.2.4. Change Requests for Services
In many situations, service orders are commonly created with an estimated price.
Currently in iSupplier Portal, suppliers are able to initiate changes to promised dates
and request cancellations for service orders. The final price may not be determined
until the service schedule is finalized. To account for this business situation, Release
12 allows suppliers to request changes to the price of their service and create new
service schedules by splitting existing shipments.

3.2.2.3. Supplier Onboarding
For many organizations, the processes for onboarding and maintaining supplier
relationships are cumbersome and inefficient. Inadvertently, companies often support
multiple channels for receiving new supplier requests and establish profile maintenance
procedures that are bureaucratic and overly restrictive. This makes it difficult to manage
the overall process and to ensure that requests and updates are directed to the appropriate
stakeholders within the business. Many companies bear the added cost of maintaining
back-office teams whose key function is to maintain supplier master data.
To help companies better control the inflow and qualification of new suppliers, Release
12 includes significant improvements to the existing prospective supplier registration
feature. Also introduced are new procedures that allow internal users to request new
suppliers.
3.2.2.3.1. Flexible Prospective Supplier Registration
Many companies now use their corporate websites to allow potential suppliers to
register their interest in doing business with the buying organization.
For Release 12, the Prospective Supplier Registration feature has been significantly
enhanced so that customers are able to configure the type of qualification details that
are captured during the registration flow. They can define which elements of the
supplier profile need to be filled-out and also have the flexibility to include
customized questionnaires using iSurvey that must be completed by the supplier as
part of their registration request. These can be used to gather specific information
that is required by the buying organization as part of their qualification process, such
as standards compliance details, logistical capabilities or support for relevant
business practices.
To assist prospective suppliers, a draft registration request can be saved at any time,
allowing the supplier to return to it at a later date.
Once a prospective supplier has registered, their request is routed through an

approval hierarchy for review. The buying organization can use the request details 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.
3.2.2.3.2. New Supplier Request
The New Supplier Request feature facilitates the process of gathering requests for
new suppliers from internal users and the subsequent capturing of qualification
details about the company. An approval hierarchy allows deploying organizations to
ensure that once the qualification details have been gathered, the relevant
stakeholders within the business are involved in the review process for the requested
supplier. Following approval, a new supplier record is setup automatically using the
supplier’s qualification details.
The Profile Administrators tools have been enhanced so that they can track the list of
requests that have been submitted and review the details.

For Release 12, the New Supplier Request feature is incorporated into Oracle
Sourcing so that Sourcing event managers can now invite prospective suppliers to
participate in a particular auction or negotiation. In prior Sourcing releases, buyers
could only invite suppliers to sourcing events if the supplier was already defined in
the supplier master.
Once the event has been approved, the contact at the prospective supplier receives
notifications that provide details of the event and also invites them to register their
details with the buying organization in order that they can be qualified to participate.
Only approved suppliers are able to submit bids for an event.
As an alternative, designated sourcing event managers can also be given the authority
to include a new supplier in an event and approve them immediately as an RFQ-only
supplier, thus bypassing the need to capture and review qualification details.
3.2.2.3.3. Supplier Approval Management
Tracking the formal approval of each new supplier request is traditionally a manual
process that requires coordination across multiple departments as credit checks are
carried out, customer references called, quality standards reviewed and production
facilities inspected.
In Release 12, Oracle iSupplier Portal 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.
3.2.2.4. Supplier Managed User Maintenance

While the advent of portal solutions has allowed buyers and suppliers to streamline the
flow of information between the two organizations at a greatly reduced cost, tracking and
maintaining the portal user accounts has remained an administrative burden to both
parties.
To relieve this pressure, Release 12 introduces the Supplier Managed User Maintenance
feature. Buying organizations are now able to hand over the task of user account
administration to nominated administrators at each supplier. The Supplier User
Administrators can create or obsolete user accounts and also alter the security access
rights for each user within their company. Their right to do this is limited to the set of
security privileges originally delegated to them by the buying organization.
This benefits both organizations. Suppliers can directly control which of their users have
access and what activities they can perform. Buyers eliminate a time-consuming
administrative task and no longer need to monitor for obsolete supplier user accounts.
3.2.2.5. Supplier Contact Management

In this release, supplier contact records and supplier user accounts are harmonized so that
any changes need only be made to a single record. In addition, the process for setting up
supplier user accounts is simplified so that an administrator only needs to flag a contact
to grant them a login to the portal.

3.2.2.6. Enhanced Supplier Profile Management
The Supplier Profile Management tools have been significantly enhanced for both
supplier users and buyer administrators.
For suppliers, the enhancements enable them to access and update additional profile
details such as their tax information and payment preferences. They are also able to
access and respond to questionnaires that the buying organization has created in order to
gather information beyond the standard supplier profile.
The updates for buyer administrators are significant. The Profile Management tools are
integrated into the new HTML Supplier UI for managing the total supplier setup (see
3.1.2.8). The pages used to manage profile change requests from suppliers have also
been streamlined so that an administrator is able to review a given type of request across
all suppliers at once. The administrator can then select multiple requests and approve or
reject them as necessary.
3.2.2.7. Representation of Suppliers in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA)

The Trading Community Architecture is a highly flexible architecture that allows you to
fully model real world entities in your trading community and accurately represent the
complex relationships among those entities. It is the core data model for trading partners
used by Oracle e-Business Suite applications.
By representing Suppliers as part of the trading community, you have access to many of
the features provided by TCA. Data Librarian tools assist with activities focused on
improving data consistency, eliminating duplicates and modelling extended relationships.
Through TCA it is also possible to leverage external data sources such as Dun &
Bradstreet to enrich data quality.
3.2.2.8. New Supplier Setup User Interface

A new HTML UI for managing suppliers has been introduced in Release 12 that replaces
the previous Suppliers Form.

Figure 1: Obsolete Suppliers Form
The new UI delivers an improved layout for accessing all aspects of a supplier's setup,
providing a clear distinction between the supplier's company details and the terms &
controls that are used to manage the trading relationship. General and site level setup
parameters are now available on a single page and work has been done to rationalise the
organisation of setup preferences across fewer subtabs to allow administrators quicker
access to information. In addition, a new Quick Update page gives each administrator
access to an initial summary page that can be personalized to suit the needs of their role.
Figure 2: New HTML Supplier Setup UI

For those companies that have enabled supplier access to their profile information
through the Portal, the Supplier Profile Management tools have been integrated into the
Setup UI pages, affording administrators a single view of a supplier's setup and any
pending updates that have been provided by the supplier to the buying organization.
The new Supplier UI also includes a Survey section that provides administrators with
access to the results of questionnaires that were created using iSurvey and which the
supplier was asked to complete, either during self-registration or as part of profile
maintenance through the Portal.
Security controls are incorporated into the Setup UI so that companies can limit an
administrator’s access to specific tabs within the supplier setup. This feature is key for
assisting companies to comply with the separation of duties elements of the Sarbanes-
Oxley legislation.
3.2.2.9. Consolidated Banking Model

Enhancements to the setup of supplier bank accounts remove some processing restrictions
and achieve greater control and security. Bank accounts are now modeled centrally
providing the architecture to meet the following features:
• The bank account is tied directly to the trading partner allowing one bank account
definition to be leveraged by a “supplier” trading partner and shared if the trading
partner is also an employee or customer. This approach provides for easier and
centralized maintenance and security of the bank account information
• This definition is targeted directly towards trading partner bank accounts leaving
internal bank accounts out of the user interface. . In other words, the supplier’s
banking information is entered and assigned right in the Supplier Entry and
Maintenance user interface
• Notification when trying to inactive a bank account that is associated with unpaid
invoices or pay runs that are in process
3.2.2.10. Integration with Oracle Supplier Network Identity Broker

Buying organizations now have the ability to let their suppliers access Oracle iSupplier
Portal through the Oracle Supplier Network (Oracle SN). Oracle SN acts as a central
access point, allowing suppliers to logon and then gain access to other registered
iSupplier Portal instances. This simplifies the collaboration process for suppliers by
having Oracle SN store their username and password information for each of their
customer’s iSupplier Portal’s. Whether suppliers are enabling transaction automation
with customers or needing to view PO or payment details in iSupplier Portal, it can all be
initiated by the supplier simply logging into the Oracle Supplier Network.
To assist buyers with their supplier on-boarding in iSupplier Portal, registered suppliers
on Oracle SN are now able to request an ‘iSP’ account for a specific iSP instance. The
Oracle SNsends a new supplier user request to the buyer’s iSupplier Portal instance,
which initiates a workflow process. Once approved, the supplier’s new account is stored
on the Oracle Supplier Network and a link becomes active providing the supplier one
click access to the buyer’s iSupplier Portal instance.
3.2.2.11. Enhanced Inbound Logistics

Buying organizations may choose to manage the transportation of incoming goods from
their suppliers. Oracle iSupplier Portal introduced features in 11i10 to enable buying

companies to greatly reduce freight costs by optimizing their transportation plans. These
features included allowing the supplier to upload the transportation routing request and
allowing supplier access to the routing response from the transportation planner. With
Release 12, the supplier is able to include the ship from location on an ASN/ASBN. This
allows automated matching of shipment lines to the corresponding delivery lines in
Oracle Transportation Management, and largely reduces the need for the manual match.
3.2.2.12. PO Status Tracking

Suppliers are now able to track the status of their purchase orders throughout the order
lifecycle. The redesigned purchase order page gives suppliers real-time order status at a
glance. Supplier may drill down to see the details of the associated ASN/ASBN, receipts,
invoices and payments.
3.2.2.13. Receipt Inquiry

The redesigned receipt pages provide suppliers with a streamlined process to view receipt
information and the details of the associated purchase orders, shipments and invoices.
The receipt details page includes on-time performance information, so that late, on-time
and early shipments can be easily identified. In addition, the receipt details page includes
values for quantity/amounts received, ordered, returned and rejected.
3.2.2.14. Invoice & Payment Inquiry

The redesigned Invoice and Payment pages provide a holistic view of an invoice and
associated payment activities. More search options are provided so that users can
identify invoices and payments quickly. Invoice and payment flexfields that are enabled
in Oracle Payables are now displayed on the invoice and payment pages in iSupplier
Portal. This ensures that all pertinent information is communicated to the supplier.
Also in Release 12, the Invoice Summary page includes invoice hold information and
payment status, as well as links to payment and receipt details. The Invoice Detail page
summarizes the most pertinent information at a glance including the invoice breakdown
and related payment information. To ensure a smooth payment cycle, users are now able
to view upcoming scheduled payments and invoice holds.
3.2.2.15. Supplier Scorecard

By integrating with Oracle Daily Business Intelligence, iSupplier Portal allows a buying
organization to view and share with supplier’s quantitative measures of supplier
performance. Buyers and suppliers are able to examine and track the results to provide
feedback for continuous improvement.
This feature provides a one-stop location for relevant and reliable supplier performance
information and a complete view from aggregated data to granular details on Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs). Both the supplier and the buyer are able to perform
comparison across supplier sites, trend data over various time periods and collect results
by time period. The flexibility built into the tool allows the buyer to tailor the KPIs in
Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for each supplier and supplier site. Additionally, this
new feature enables the buyer to focus his or her efforts on managing and selectively
scoring performance of the most strategic suppliers.

3.2.2.16. Supplier Self-Service Catalog Authoring
Increasingly, content management has become a collaborative process between the
buying and supplying organizations. Many enterprises now outsource the content
authoring responsibilities to suppliers or third parties. Therefore suppliers must be able
to view, create and maintain their content for the buying organization.
Release 12 provides suppliers the capability to author their own content online, either via
bulk file upload or on-line authoring. The industry standard formats supported in the
upload mode include OAG XML, cXML, CIF and text file. Content provided by the
supplier is subject to the buyer’s approval before it is made available to the requesters in
Oracle iProcurement.
3.2.2.17. Multi-Org Access Controls

Multi-Org Access Control enables companies that have implemented a Shared Services
operating model to efficiently process business transactions by allowing them to access,
process, and report on data for an unlimited number of operating units within a single
applications responsibility. This increases the productivity of Shared Service Centers, as
users and processes no longer have to switch applications responsibilities when
processing transactions for multiple operating units at a time. Data security and access
privileges are still maintained using security profiles that now support a list of operating
units.
All documents and transactions on iSupplier Portal are tied to an operating unit. Internal
users may be responsible for transactions that span operating units. Previously internal
users were required to maintain separate responsibilities for each operating unit. In
Release 12, Oracle E-Business Suite introduces a new architecture to enable Multi-Org
Access Control (MOAC). MOAC allows a set of operating units to be assigned to an
internal user so that they can process transactions and view data across them. Approvers
and internal users of iSupplier Portal with the appropriate security access are able to
access documents, transactions and associated notifications for multiple operating units.
MOAC has no impact on supplier users, as their access is restricted by the supplier
logging in, rather than the operating unit.
3.2.2.18. Invoice Requests and Online Collaboration

An Invoice Request records an invoice when the accuracy or verification of the services
or goods may be in question. Collaboration and Approval processes route the invoice
request to the employees in the company that are most likely to resolve these issues.
3.2.2.18.1. Accounts Receivable/Accounts Payable Netting
When a trading partner is both a customer and a supplier, you may choose to offset
open receivables’ against open payables’ items. Netting Agreements add trading
partner terms as well as deploying company controls. A selection program
automatically pulls information from Oracle Receivables and Oracle Payables taking
into consideration discounts, late fees, and withholding taxes prior to determining the
final netting amount. A review process and trading partner approval afford further
verification to support the netting event.
When an invoice submitted by a supplier falls outside the tolerances for planned or
received amounts or quantity, buyers or employees must collaborate with the supplier
and sometimes negotiate to resolve the differences. The Invoice Request feature

allows a disputed invoice to be recorded as an invoice request, offers online
buyer/supplier collaboration to resolve or accept differences or allow the supplier to
cancel their invoice request. Since the invoice request is recorded in Oracle
Payables, the requests are tracked. If the differences are negotiated successfully, the
accepted changes are recorded as an invoice ready for regular invoice processing. An
audit trail will be created informing the user of what occurred during the negotiation
process.
3.2.2.18.2. Non-Purchase Order Invoices
Suppliers are allowed to submit invoices when a purchase order was not obtained up
front. In this case, the invoice request first goes through an approval process. Along
the approval process, users have an opportunity to add accounting information that is
used when an approved request becomes an invoice.

3.3. Oracle Procurement Contracts
3.3.1. Overview
Oracle Procurement Contracts is the enterprise application that creates and enforces better
purchasing contracts. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the
integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.
Oracle Procurement Contracts allows you to take control of your contract lifecycle, from
authoring and negotiation through implementation, enforcement, evaluation and closeout.
Procurement and legal professionals can quickly author contracts that comply with
corporate standards, and measure compliance to ensure that negotiated savings reach the
bottom line.
With Oracle Procurement Contracts you can:
• Standardize Contract Processes

• Reduce Time-to-Contract
• Drive Contract Compliance
3.3.2. Features
3.3.2.1. Rules based Clause Selection

Release 11i10, cumulative update #1 introduced Contract Expert, a rules-based contract
creation configurator that assists purchasing professionals in authoring complex
contracts. Using Contract Expert, companies can define their business rules that govern
the contract clauses to be included in a purchasing or sourcing document. During
authoring, Contract Expert takes users through a contract creation questionnaire and
automatically adds needed clauses based on previously defined policy rules.
In addition to user answers, clause selection rules can also be based on the business terms
and other values contained in the purchasing or sourcing document, such as purchasing
category, payment term and agreed contract amount. For example, buying organizations
may require additional clauses in contracts for the purchase of hazardous materials, or
contracts for which the supplier is located in a specific foreign country.
Contract Expert further enhances Oracle Procurement Contracts’ functionality for users
across the enterprise to author standards-compliant contracts with minimal legal
department supervision. Buyers or contract administrators can choose to remove the
clauses brought in by Contract Expert or select alternates during negotiation. However,
these changes are flagged as deviations during the approval process, ensuring proper
scrutiny of all non-standard terms.

Contract Expert: Rules Based Clause Selection
This feature was first released in Release 11i10, Cumulative Update #1
3.3.2.2. Microsoft Word Synchronization

Oracle Procurement Contracts provides all the necessary tools for authoring contracts that
conform to your corporate standards. However, it is often convenient during negotiation
and redlining to edit the contract offline in a word processor. Release 11i10, Cumulative
Update #1, allowed contract administrators or legal to download the contract into Rich
Text Format (“RTF”) for editing in Microsoft Word.
In Release 12.0, Oracle Procurement Contracts also supports import of the Microsoft
Word document and the synchronization of the changes with the structured contract
stored in the system. Modifications to the original contract can be reviewed before
changes are accepted. This two-way integration with Microsoft Word streamlines the
contract collaboration process involving the buyer, contract administrator, legal and
supplier.
Please note that this feature requires Microsoft Word 2003 Professional.
3.3.2.3. Contract Deviations Report

The contract deviations report streamlines the approval process and improves internal
control by highlighting non-standard terms and conditions for approvers. Deviations are
changes made to the contract as compared to the standard template used to author the
contract and all established policy rules that apply.
3.3.2.3.1. Review Contract Deviations Online
Contract administrators and approvers can view the deviation report online. The
deviations report lists all changes made to the contract under the following
categories:
a) Non-standard clauses in the contract – Standard clauses that were

modified for this contract, or clauses that are not from the pre-approved

library. The ‘compare’ feature displays a redline view of the changes to a
standard clause if modified on the contract.
b) Standard clauses removed from the contract – Clauses suggested by

Contract Expert or part of the standard template that were removed.
c) Invalid clauses on the contract – Clauses that are ‘on-hold’ or have expired.
d) Standard clauses added to the contract – Clauses from the pre-approved

library that were manually added to the contract including alternates.
Users can also provide an abstract or summary justifying the deviations. The abstract
is forwarded to approvers for review along with the deviations report.
3.3.2.3.2. Include Contract Deviations Report in Approvals
For standard purchase orders, blanket purchase agreements, and contract purchase
agreements with contract terms, users have the option to automatically include the
system generated deviation report in Adobe PDF format to the approval notification.
3.3.2.3.3. Export Contract Deviations Report
Oracle Purchasing users can download the deviations report including the abstract to
Microsoft Word. This is useful in cases where additional information like tables,
graphics and clause-specific justifications may need to be added to the deviations
report for approvals. Users can upload the modified document as an attachment under
the new category ‘Approval Abstract’. For standard purchase orders, blanket
purchase agreements, and contract purchase agreements with contract terms, the
attached document is included in the approval notification.
Oracle Sourcing users can view the deviation report online and download to Adobe
PDF document.
This feature was first released in Release 11i10, Cumulative Update #1.
3.3.2.4. Contract Policy Standards and Deviations

Contract negotiations may result in terms that do not conform to company standard
policies. For example, a buying organization may have a policy that would require a
payment term of Net 45 for facilities services at a specific location. However, suppliers
may negotiate a different payment term in the contract that results in a deviation from
corporate standard. Release 12.0 extends the contract expert to enable contract
administrator to set rules that represent corporate policy.
Such deviations from set corporate standards in negotiated business terms are reflected as
deviations to ensure proper visibility during review and approvals. The rules can be based
on values of system variables, user-defined variables, or responses to questions asked
during the contract authoring process. All policy deviations are reported to approvers
alongside clause deviations in the Contract Deviations Report, guiding approvers to
exceptions in the contract along with the standard values.

Policy Deviation Rule – User interface depicting Policy Deviation Rule definition using System Variables
for a corporate policy
3.3.2.5. Support Contract Terms as an Attached Document

When negotiating complex deals or when the supplier authors the contract, the terms and
conditions are often represented in a document file. In such cases, contract administrators
may choose not to update the structured representation of the contract terms in the
application and instead retain them in the document. With Oracle Procurement Contracts,
users can indicate the source of the contract terms to be an attached document. The
system flags the attached document as the primary contract document. If the attached
document had been previously downloaded from the system the preview functionality
will merge its contents with the business document (such as standard purchase order,
blanket purchase agreement, or RFQ) to generate the final contract in PDF format.
This feature was released in Release 11i10, Cumulative Update #1.
3.3.2.6. Clause Usage Analysis

To improve future contract negotiations, or to comply with regulatory requirements,
contract administrators or legal may need to periodically review and revise their contract
standards. Analyzing the contract language used in existing contracts is a critical step in
effectively updating existing standards. In Release 12.0, users can search for all contracts
where certain clauses are used, or have been modified. The search can be filtered by
various criteria like contracts with a specific supplier, contracts above a certain amount,
contracts for one or all Operating Units, or contracts authored using a specific template.
Information on the number of times a certain clause has been used or modified is also
provided as part of the results.

Contract Administrator searches for all Approved Contracts that uses Keyword “Payment” and has
“Facilities Maintenance Template” applied and summarize by Clause Version
3.3.2.7. Professional Buyer’s Work Center

Release 12.0 introduces the Professional Buyer’s Work Center, a next generation
interface that provides command and control for the procurement department. Designed
for contract administrators and procurement professionals, the Work Center combines
ease of use with powerful capabilities to track, manage and control all strategic and
tactical activities.
3.3.2.7.1. Procurement Contract Creation and Maintenance
The Professional Buyer’s Work Center provides a dedicated user interface for
creating and maintaining contracts, targeting the contract professional and strategic
buyer responsible for maintenance and compliance of such contracts. Visibility to
key attributes like authoring party and contract template is enhanced with a wider
range of data making contract authoring easier.

User Interface tailored to creating a facilities maintenance contract
3.3.2.7.2. Document Styles
Document styles allow contract administrators the ability to control the look and feel
of the application to match the needs of different contract spend categories. Through
reusable document styles, deploying organizations can turn on or off various Oracle
Procurement Contract features.
When a contract is created using a style, disabled features are hidden to simplify the
user interface. For example, organizations can create a document style for a specific
commodity, such as temporary labor. This document style optimizes field labels and
presentment for that commodity, simplifying contract entry by hiding
regions/attributes that are only relevant for goods purchases.
In addition, document styles provide the ability to appropriately name contracts to

align more closely with the naming conventions of the deploying organization’s
business. The following figure shows a style intended for authoring
agreements/orders to acquire Facilities related services. This style would enable
contract administrators to author a “Facilities Maintenance Contract”. The style
display name is exposed throughout the work center and also to the supplier.
Contract Expert rules and deviation rules may now reference a Document Style,
generating tailored agreements and enforcing policies relating to the document style.

Document Styles – Various settings allow companies to control look and feel of user interface
3.3.2.8. Contract Workbench

The contract workbench is a configurable portal that provides contract administrators
easy access to all their contracts. Simple and advanced search capabilities with a rich set
of attributes enable adhoc queries or reporting on all enterprise procurement contracts.
Administrators can also use the workbench as a launch pad for all contract activities.
The workbench provides relevant information in bins that can be personalized by the
administrator to improve their productivity. For example, administrators can quickly
access all their contracts that are currently in draft or pending approval. Expiring
agreements can also be easily tracked. The workbench also allows administrators to view
various business documents like orders and agreements.
3.3.2.9. Approve Clauses as Part of Template Approvals

When authoring a new contract template, library administrators can now include draft
clauses as part of the template. This enhancement to the contract template approval
functionality allows users to submit the draft clauses for approval along with the contract
template as one approval workflow. This allows approvers to simultaneously approve the
contract template and its clauses in a single step.
3.3.2.10. Automatic Application of Contract Template

In many situations, incoming demand can be automatically sourced to the appropriate
vendor and issued without any buyer intervention. This touch-less buying capability
significantly drives down processing costs and cuts cycle time. Now, companies can
optionally assign a default contract template which will automatically be applied to all

outgoing standard purchase orders, blanket purchase agreements, or contract purchase
agreements.

Across Fortune 1000 companies, services-related procurement accounts for about 54% of
procured total procurement spending. Outsourcing and globalization are the key drivers
of this trend. Due to the increasing share of budget allocated to services, procurement
organizations are increasingly being given responsibility to control services spend.
Much of services spending go to complex services, such as outsourced high-value

projects that require extensive collaboration between the buyer and supplier
organizations. These complex services include consulting, advertising, construction,
research and development, and professional services. These services require complex
negotiated contracts that often include complex payment arrangements. These
arrangements can include:
• Progress payments
• Advances and recoupment of advances
• Retainage and retainage release
Release 12.0 will support acquisition of complex services by allowing buyers to author,
negotiate, execute and monitor complex contract payment arrangements like progress
payments, advances and retainage.
Please see the Services Procurement part of this RCD for more details.
3.3.2.12. Multi-Organization Access Control

applications responsibility. This increases the productivity of Shared Service Centers for
users who no longer have to switch applications responsibilities when processing
transactions for multiple operating units at a time. Data security is still maintained using
security profiles that are defined for a list of operating units and determine the data access
privileges for a user.
With Release 12.0, contract administrators can be granted access to multiple operating
units from within a single responsibility. This enables them to manage contracts across
different operating units without switching responsibilities. Administrators can also
manage the contract terms library across different operating units.
3.3.2.13. Enhanced Support for Contract Template Translation

With Release 12.0, contract administrators can additionally define certain templates as
primary, and associate other templates from the same organization as translations of the
primary template. Users can use this to author templates in multiple languages within an
operating unit.

3.3.2.14. XML Interface for Clause Import
Organizations using Oracle Procurement Contracts may need to import clauses from
external systems or content providers. For example, US Federal Agencies are required
by statute to follow policies and procedures defined in Federal Acquisition Regulations
(FAR). In 11i10, users could use the clause import interface table to upload clauses.
With Release 12.0, Oracle Procurement Contracts will also provide a mechanism to
import clauses that conforms to the XML schema published by Oracle. The XML
interface will also support creation of user defined variables and clause relationships.
Prior to upload, the import program validates all system and user-defined variable tokens
that are embedded in the imported clause text.
3.3.2.15. Contract Publishing Enhancements

Release 12.0 further enhances the 11i10 feature, which introduced the ability to generate
contract in Adobe PDF format.
3.3.2.15.1. Support for RTF and PDF layout templates
In Release 11i10, generation of contract documents in Adobe PDF format required

organizations to create contract layout templates in the form of XSL-FO style sheets.
With Release 12.0, organizations can also use RTF or PDF layout templates for
Purchase Order Layout, which require little training to configure and maintain.
3.3.2.15.2. Publish Contracts using user specified layout
In order to comply with reporting requirements of regulatory bodies, organizations,

especially in the public sector, need the ability to publish the contracts that they
award in multiple formats as prescribed by these bodies. In Release 11i10,
Procurement Contracts supported generating contract document in Adobe PDF using
a specified format but such documents could use only a single layout template as
configured in the Document Types Setup.
Release12.0 enables buying organizations to easily publish contracts on demand

using any predefined layout template. To generate a contract using a certain layout,
organizations can provide the layout name as a runtime parameter while submitting
the “PO Output for Communication” concurrent program.

Publish Contract – Additional parameters introduced in the concurrent parameter allowing selection of
predefined Adobe PDF or RTF layout templates
One particular application of this feature is for public sector organizations to generate
government forms (such as SF30, OF347 etc.). Published, fill-able PDF templates for
these forms can be modified and stored in Oracle XML Publisher as layout templates.
3.3.2.16. Enhanced Electronic Signature Support

Oracle Procurement Contracts’ supports digital certificate authentication to electronic
signature. Buyers and suppliers can sign contracts manually or electronically. Release
11i10 of Oracle Procurement Contracts enabled buying organizations to authenticate
users’ identity by requiring users to re-enter usernames and passwords when signing
contracts electronically. A new alternative is to validate users’ unique digital certificates,
normally issued by a Certification Authority. This new signature process can be enabled
in the existing workflow approval process. Signed documents are kept in an evidence
store in case of future disputes.
The Oracle technology underlying this feature is in compliance with recognized industry
standards, such as PKCS7 (based on X.509 certificates) and CFR 21.

This feature was released in Release 11i10, Cumulative Update #1
3.3.2.17. Availability of New Features

Oracle Procurement Contracts enables contract functionality within existing Oracle
Advanced Procurement products and Oracle Contract Core. The following table
summarizes the availability of the new contract functionality by product:
Feature Name Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle

Purchasing Sourcing iSupplier Contracts
Portal Core
Rule based Clause Selection 9 9 9
Microsoft Word Synchronization 9 9
Contract Deviations Report 9 9
Corporate Policy Compliance 9 9 9
Support Contract Terms in an Attached 9 9 9
Document
Clause Usage Analysis 9
Contract Workbench 9
Professional Buyer’s Work Center 9
Approve Clauses as Part of Template 9
Approvals
Automatic Application of Contract 9
Templates
Complex Contract Payments 9 9 9
Multi-Organization Access Control 9 9 9 9
Enhanced Support for Contract 9
Template Translation
XML Interface for Clause Import 9
Contract Publishing Enhancements 9 9
Enhanced Electronic Signature Support 9 9

3.4. Oracle Purchasing
3.4.1. Overview
Oracle Purchasing is the application for procurement professionals that streamlines

purchase order processing while strengthening policy compliance. It is a key component
of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts supply
management costs.
3.4.2. Features

Oracle Purchasing Release 12.0 speeds up daily purchasing tasks with an enhanced
Professional Buyer’s Work Center. Based on the latest web-based user interface models,
the Work Center is a central ‘Launch Pad’ from which buyers can efficiently perform
their daily tasks:
• View and Act upon Requisition Demand

• Create and Manage Orders and Agreements
• Run Negotiation Events including Auctions and RFxs (requires Oracle Sourcing)
• Manage Supplier Information
The Professional Buyer’s Work Center leverages Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC) by
allowing buyers to view and manage documents across all of the operating units they
service. For more details, please reference the MOAC section of this document.
Professional Buyer’s Work Center – Launch Pad to Perform Daily Tasks
3.4.2.1.1. Requisition Management
The Work Center offers a streamlined, HTML user interface to look up and act upon
requisitions. Buyers can aggregate demand from different organizations and
consolidate it in a single document in an organization that they designate. The
document could be a solicitation (Auction/RFx) for bids (requires Oracle Sourcing)
or a Standard Purchase Order.
Buyers can search for requisitions with several pre-configured views and advanced
search criteria. Default views include My Requisitions, My Urgent Requisitions, My
Requisitions requiring a RFQ, Requisitions with a Suggested Supplier, Requisitions
with a New Supplier, and Unassigned Requisitions. In addition, buyers can save their
own views, specifying custom search criteria and display columns.
Buyers can view details of the requisitions by clicking the requisition links. In
addition, buyers can return requisitions to requesters to solicit additional information,

reassign requisitions to other buyers, split requisition lines in order to source from
multiple suppliers and replace off-catalog requests with items available in the catalog.
Requisition Demand - View All Requisitions Assigned to the Buyer Across Multiple Operating Units
3.4.2.1.2. Purchase Order Creation and Maintenance
The Work Center user interface optimizes the standard purchase order creation and
management processes. The new user interface allows buyers to edit and view
delivery schedules and account distributions across all order lines, thus eliminating
the need to drilldown on individual lines. For simple purchase orders that do not
require staged delivery schedules or multiple account distributions, buyers can
quickly enter all necessary information for the orders in the header and line sections,
without having to navigate to the schedules and distributions sections.

Orders – User Interface Tailored to PO Creation
Purchase Order Lines – Enter Schedule and Delivery Information When Creating Lines

3.4.2.1.3. Purchase Agreement Creation and Maintenance
The Professional Buyer’s Work Center provides a dedicated user interface for
creating and maintaining agreements, targeting the strategic buyer responsible for
agreement maintenance and compliance.
Agreements – User Interface Tailored to Creating Long-Term Agreements (Schedule and Delivery Information Replaced by Agreement
Controls)
In addition, user extensible attributes can now be captured on the blanket agreement
to further enrich the description of the products and services listed in the document.
Such attributes could be generic to all items (Example: Manufacturer Number, Lead
time) or could be category specific (Example: Color, Size, etc.)
3.4.2.1.4. Negotiations in Oracle Sourcing
The Professional Buyer’s Work Center increases the drill down capabilities between
Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Sourcing. Buyers can now easily navigate from
purchasing to sourcing documents, and vice-versa, using a single, friendly user
interface
3.4.2.1.5. Enhanced Catalog Access
Release 12.0 of Oracle Purchasing builds on the popularity of Oracle iProcurement’s

search capabilities by offering professional buyers a similar search interface to easily
find the items they need to procure. From the Demand Workbench, buyers can access
the catalog to find negotiated alternatives to non-catalog requests. While authoring
orders and agreements, buyers can use the catalog to quickly add items, thereby
accelerating the document creation process.
3.4.2.1.6. New Supplier Setup User Interface

Release 12.0 introduces a new HTML UI for managing suppliers, which replaces the
existing Suppliers Form.
Obsolete Suppliers Form
The new UI delivers an improved layout for accessing all aspects of a supplier's
setup, providing a clear distinction between the supplier's company details and the
terms & controls that are used to manage the trading relationship. General and site
level setup parameters is now available on a single page and work has been done to
rationalize the organization of setup preferences across fewer sub-tabs to allow
administrators quicker access to information. In addition, a new Quick Update page
gives each administrator access to an initial summary page that can be personalized
to suit the needs of their role.

New HTML Supplier Setup UI
For those companies that have enabled supplier access to their profile information
through the Portal, the Supplier Profile Management tools have been integrated into
the Setup UI pages, affording administrators a single view of a supplier's setup and
any pending updates that have been provided by the supplier to the buying
organization.
The new Supplier UI also includes a Survey section that provides administrators with
access to the results of questionnaires that were created using iSurvey and which the
supplier had been asked to complete, either during self-registration or as part of
profile maintenance through the Portal.
Security controls are incorporated into the Setup UI so that companies can limit an
administrator’s access to specific tabs within the supplier setup. This feature is key
for assisting companies to comply with the separation of duties elements of the
Sarbanes-Oxley legislation.
3.4.2.1.7. Document Styles
Document styles allow buying organizations to control the look and feel of the
application to match the needs of different purchasing documents. Through reusable
document styles, deploying organizations turn on or off various Oracle Purchasing
features, thereby simplifying the user interface.
When a purchasing document is created using a document style, disabled features are
hidden to simplify the user interface. For example, organizations can create a
document style for a specific commodity, such as temporary labor. This document
style optimizes field labels and presentment for that commodity, simplifying

purchase order entry by hiding regions/attributes that are only relevant for that
commodity.
In addition, document styles provide the ability to appropriately name purchasing

documents to align more closely with the naming conventions of the deploying
organization’s business. In other words, the same purchasing document type (e.g.
Standard Purchase Order) can assume different names based on the style applied. The
following figure shows a style intended for authoring agreements and orders to
acquire facilities related services. The name assigned to Standard Purchase Orders
using this style is ‘Facilities Maintenance Order’. The name assigned to Blanket
Purchase Agreements using this style is ‘Facilities Maintenance Contract’. These
names are exposed throughout the Work Center and also to the supplier.
Document Styles – Various Settings Allow Companies to Control Look and Feel of User Interface
Note: The existing Oracle Purchasing forms for managing requisition demand and
purchasing documents, including orders, agreements and releases, will still be
available in Release 12.0. Also note that creation of the following documents will
only be supported in the forms interface:
• Blanket Purchase Agreements and Releases (Work Center will only support
authoring of Global Blanket Purchase Agreements)
• Planned Purchase Orders and Scheduled Releases
3.4.2.2. Procurement for Complex Services

procured total procurement spending. Outsourcing and globalization are the key drivers

of this trend. Due to the increasing share of budget allocated to services, procurement
Much of services spending go to complex services, such as outsourced high-value

projects that require extensive collaboration between the buyer and supplier
• Progress payments
Release 12.0 will support acquisition of complex services by allowing buyers to author,
negotiate, execute and monitor complex contract payment arrangements like progress
payments, advances and retainage.
Please see the Services Procurement part of this RCD for more details.
3.4.2.3. Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC)

applications responsibility. This increases the productivity of Shared Service Centers for
users who no longer have to switch application responsibilities when processing
transactions for multiple operating units at a time. Data security is still maintained using
security profiles that are defined for a list of operating units and determine the data access
privileges for a user.
In Release 12.0, Oracle Purchasing will leverage the new Multi-Org Access Control
capabilities to support more streamlined operation of Shared Procurement Service
Centers. Without changing Responsibility, and without closing windows, buyers will
now be able to view consolidated requisition demand spanning multiple operating units.
Using a single Responsibility, they will be able to manage demand (i.e. requisitions),
conduct sourcing events, enter into agreements and issue purchase orders on behalf
of any of the operating units that they serve. The operating units that they can transact on
behalf of will be controlled by the security profile associated with their responsibilities.
Similarly, receiving clerks will now be able to easily inquire about, plan for and receive
expected shipments against purchase orders or requisitions or RMAs originating in
multiple operating units without needing to close windows and change responsibilities.
3.4.2.4. E-Business Tax

Oracle E-Business Tax is a new infrastructure for tax knowledge management and
delivery, using a global system architecture that is configurable and scalable for adding
country specific tax content. As the single point solution for managing transaction-based
tax, Oracle E-Business Tax will deliver tax services uniformly to Oracle E-Business Suite
business flows through one application interface.
Oracle E-Business Tax significantly enhances the current tax code/tax group based tax
computation capabilities within the Procure to Pay business flow.

For more information, please refer to the Oracle E-Business Tax section within the
Oracle Financials RCD.
3.4.2.5. Document Publishing Enhancements

Release 12.0 further enhances the 11i10 feature, which introduced the ability to generate
purchasing documents in Adobe PDF format.
3.4.2.5.1. Support for RTF and PDF layout templates
In Release 11i10, generation of purchasing documents in Adobe PDF format required

organizations to create layout templates in the form of XSL-FO style sheets. With
Release 12.0, organizations can also use RTF or PDF layout templates which require
little training to configure and maintain.
3.4.2.5.2. Publish Contracts using user specified layout
In order to comply with reporting requirements of regulatory bodies, organizations,

especially in the public sector, need the ability to publish the contracts that they
award in multiple formats as prescribed by these bodies. In Release 11i.10, Oracle
Purchasing supported generating purchasing documents in Adobe PDF. Format for
such documents were limited to a single layout template as configured in the
Document Types Setup.
Release12.0 enables buying organizations to easily publish documents on demand

using any predefined layout template. To generate a document using a certain layout,
organizations simply provide the layout name as a runtime parameter while
submitting the ‘PO Output for Communication’ concurrent program.

Publish Contract – Additional parameters introduced in the concurrent parameter allowing selection of
pre-defined Adobe PDF or RTF layout templates
One particular application of this feature is for public sector organizations to generate
government forms (such as SF30, OF347 etc.).
3.4.2.6. Communicate Document Attachments to Suppliers

Release 12.0 enables buyers to communicate all necessary document attachments to
suppliers.
Oracle Purchasing supports various types of file attachments (MS Word, Excel, PDF etc.)
that can be appended to purchasing documents in addition to long and short text
attachments. In previous releases, only text attachments were communicated to suppliers.
With Release 12.0, buyers can communicate all necessary attachments to suppliers,
including file attachments via email. When the system emails a purchase order to the
supplier, the corresponding file attachments appear in a zip file attached to the email.
System administrators can specify the maximum allowable size for this zip file to
minimize network traffic.
3.4.2.7. Oracle Supplier Network - Rapid Supplier Enablement

Oracle Supplier Network lets Oracle Purchasing customers leverage pre-defined
connectivity to quickly enable electronic messaging with suppliers. The Oracle Supplier
Network (OSN) provides a community of suppliers available for transaction integration,
capable of sending and receiving XML documents, such as Purchase Orders and
Invoices. The hosted network service eliminates the costly IT effort involved in building
and maintaining direct connections with specific suppliers since each trading party only
has to maintain a single connection with the OSN. This enables companies to drive
machine-to-machine messaging down to a larger base of their repetitive suppliers with

even less resources. Release 12.0 is certified with the OSN, which ensures that all R12.0
Purchasing and Payables’ XML documents are fully supported for end-to-end message
routing and transformation over the OSN. A quick start guide is provided to help buying
organizations quickly connect R12.0 to the OSN.
3.4.2.8. Maintain Sourcing Rules/ASLs for Agreement Items

Release 12.0 streamlines enabling blanket agreements for automatic document sourcing
in specific inventory organizations.
Previous releases allowed buyers to instruct the system to automatically create sourcing
rules, sourcing rule assignments and approved supplier list entries out of all blanket
agreement lines during blanket agreement approval submission. The system would then
automatically source of requisition demand for all inventory organizations within an
operating unit
Release 12.0 allows finer control of how blanket agreements are enabled for automatic
document sourcing. Buyers can now choose to enable them only in specific inventory
organizations. Thus, buyers can negotiate a blanket agreement to fulfill requisition
demand for a subset of inventory organizations and enable the agreement for
autosourcing only in those inventory organizations.
To use a blanket agreement for autosourcing in a specific inventory org, the buyer simply
submits a concurrent program specifying the inventory organization and the blanket
agreement number as runtime parameters.
3.4.2.9. Support for Contractor Purchasing Users

More and more companies are outsourcing part or all of their procurement processes in
an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
In keeping with this recent trend, Oracle Purchasing Release 12.0 introduces support for
contingent workers in the procurement process. Authorized contingent Purchasing
workers can raise requisitions, conduct negotiations, and create and maintain purchase
orders.
3.4.2.10. Compliance to Packaging Constraints

Release 12.0 makes inventory replenishment more efficient and less expensive by
applying supplier-packaging constraints to replenishment choices.
Material replenishment recommendations from Inventory Planning systems are typically

designed to maintain inventory levels to match predetermined policy guidelines. Such
guidelines seldom take into consideration packaging lot sizes or minimum order quantity
requirements of the supplier. Placing orders based on such requests without any review or
adjustment may force the supplier to over or under-ship the order, or even reject the
order.
To reduce cost and time delays associated with administering such orders, Oracle
Purchasing can automatically apply supplier-specific order modifiers, including
fixed lot multiple and minimum order quantities to replenishment requests that originate
in Inventory planning systems. These include Min-Max, Reorder Point and any
requisitions imported from legacy systems via the open interface. Automatic application
of such modifiers can be used both for requisitions sourced from external suppliers as
well as those sourced from internal warehouse locations within the enterprise.

3.4.2.11. Auto-Approval Tolerance for Change Orders
With Release 12.0, business users can use a web-based interface to define tolerances for
auto-approval of document revisions.
3.4.2.12. eAM Support for Services Procurement

Release 12.0 extends the support for Enterprise Asset Manager (eAM) to include fixed
price services line types.
Now requesters can associate maintenance Work Orders and Operation References for
fixed price services requisition lines. The existing eAM integration for goods and
amount based requisition lines is still supported.
3.4.2.13. Model Complex Pricing for Blanket Line Items

With Release 12.0, Oracle Purchasing extends the integration with Oracle Advanced
Pricing to allow procurement professionals to model complex pricing rules for items
listed on Global Blanket Agreements. Requisitions and orders sourced to these
agreements can now leverage dynamic pricing formulas and/or modifiers defined in
Oracle Advanced Pricing, in addition to the agreement line price and price breaks.
3.4.2.14. Advanced Approval Support for Requisitions

Release 12.0 of Oracle Purchasing further expands and enhances integration with the
Oracle Approvals Management product for approval routing of purchase requisitions.
This integration gives enterprises even more flexibility to configure their business
approval processes. Key enhancements include:
• Position Hierarchy based Approvals

Position based hierarchies allow organizations the flexibility to create reporting
structures that remain stable regardless of personnel changes. Enterprises already
using position hierarchies via Oracle Approval Management can immediately
leverage those hierarchies for the requisition approvals process.
• Parallel Approvals
The Parallel Approvals functionality gives enterprises the option to speed up the
approvals process by routing a requisition to multiple approvers simultaneously.
• Support for FYI Notifications

Certain individuals or business roles need to be kept informed of purchases and
decisions, but do not necessarily need to take action against that notification. Release
12.0 provides new functionality to allow certain individuals or roles to review the
purchases, but do not require any response from the recipient.
3.4.2.15. Subledger Accounting for Budgetary Control Actions

In Release 12.0, Oracle Purchasing utilizes the new Subledger Architecture (SLA) for
encumbrance accounting entries created for documents in Oracle Purchasing and Oracle
iProcurement. These entries will be available for analysis and reporting with other SLA
reports. Customers will also now be able to configure accounting annotations for their
purchasing encumbrance accounting entries.
Please see Subledger Accounting section of the Release 12.0 Oracle Financials RCD for
more details.

3.4.2.16. New User Interface for Oracle Purchasing Setups
With Release 12.0, more user-friendly and intuitive web-based user interfaces will
replace the following existing Oracle Purchasing setup forms.
• Define Buyers
• Define Approval Groups
• Assign Approval Groups
• Define Purchasing Options
• Define Receiving Options
• Define Line Types
• Define Document Types
• Control Purchasing Periods
• Setup Expense Account Rules
• Define Hazard Classes
• Define UN Numbers
• Define Quality Inspection Codes
• Define Job and Category Association
The new UIs will also leverage MOAC, making it easier for system administrators to
perform setups in multiple operating units in the context of a single application
responsibility.
3.4.2.17. Chargeable Subcontracting

The Japanese legal and business practice of Chargeable Subcontracting is a method of
subcontracting assemblies from an OEM to one or more manufacturing partners.
According to this method, the OEM ships and makes a provisional sale of component
materials used to build the assembly at the manufacturing partner. When the assemblies
are completed and returned to the OEM, the manufacturing partner bills the OEM for the
gross price of the assembly. In order to provide support for the Chargeable
Subcontracting business practices, the Pay on Receipt Auto-invoice program has been
enhanced to create separate invoices for these items.
For more information, please refer to the Charegeable Subcontracting features within the
Oracle Logistics RCD.
3.4.2.18. Support for Unified Process Manufacturing/Discrete Inventory

Release 12.0 of Oracle E-Business Suite merges the Oracle Process Inventory and Oracle
Inventory applications into a single version of Oracle Inventory that manages inventory
across the entire E-Business Suite. This single application supports Process
characteristics such as dual units of measure, grade, child lots as a subdivision of lot-
controlled inventory, and the use of material status.
This convergence removes the need for integration between Oracle Process Inventory and
Oracle Purchasing. The process-enhanced Release 12.0 version of Oracle Inventory is the
one source for all material management information. Oracle Process Quality for
receiving inspection has been enhanced specifically to support Purchasing. Process users

of Oracle Inventory can leverage all of the related functionality in Oracle Purchasing
including:
• Consigned and Vendor Managed Inventory

• Cross Operating Unit Drop Shipments
• Center-Led Procurement Flows
• Warehouse Management System functions.
3.4.2.19. Dual Unit of Measure Control

In many industries, such as the meat, poultry, metals or chemicals industries, ‘catch
weight’ is a term used to track inventory simultaneously in two different units of
measure. To run their businesses, these industries need to know both the number of
cases, bars or drums of product stored, as well as the weight or potency of that product.
Prices are calculated based on the shipment weight of the product, not on the number of
cases or units shipped. Oracle Inventory's Dual Unit of Measure Control enables users to
transact inventory in two unrelated units of measure where the conversion between the
measures vary from lot to lot or from one transaction to the next.
The dual unit of measure support that had been available only for Oracle Process
Manufacturing enabled organizations is now available for all Inventory organizations.
Thus, if a user chooses to enable dual unit of measure control for a given inventory item,
Oracle Receiving will now require quantity entry in two units of measure according to
the defaulting rules set up at the item level.
3.4.2.20. Material Status Control

Quality Control and product lifecycle issues may require that certain material, although
stored in a ready to use state in the warehouse or production facility, may not be usable
for certain applications. A lot that has not yet passed inspection should not be shipped to
a customer or consumed in production. A warehouse location that has been discovered to
have erroneous inventory balances should not be included in available to promise
calculations.
With this release, if material status control has been enabled for a given lot or serial
controlled item, Oracle Receiving will now require quantity entry of the status for each
new lot or serial received.
3.4.2.21. Sublot Control

Getting fast answers to questions such as the following may determine whether your
company will survive a crisis:
• Which lots were delivered to which customers?

• Which other lots were produced from that production line during that shift?
• What was the quality of the components or ingredients and which suppliers sent
them?
To enable better visibility to a lot and its genealogy and attributes, significant
enhancements have been made to the lot tracking capabilities within Oracle Inventory.
Sublot control allows users to track the parent lot from which multiple lots were created.
The parent lot may refer to the production batch that spawned the lot, but if the output of
that batch varied in term of grade or other QC attributes, multiple sublots could be
received into inventory. Users can query lots in by their parent lot and view the parent
lot in the lot genealogy form. Users can also now grade control their lot controlled items.
With this release, if sublot control has been enabled for a given item, Oracle Receiving
will now require quantity entry of the parent lot for each new lot received.
For more information, please refer to the OPM Convergence features within the Oracle
Logistics RCD.
3.4.2.22. Depot Repair Enhancements

Many business processes require receiving capabilities to complete a material movement
flow. When receiving material based on business processes initiated in other forms,
minimizing keystrokes is key to a great user experience. With this release, different
applications, such as Depot Repair can invoke the receiving forms with the requisite data;
such as requisition number and/or requisition line number and the system will directly
show the results of the search criteria by completely bypassing the 'find' screen.
For more information, please refer to the Depot Repair RCD

3.5. Oracle Services Procurement
3.5.1. Overview
Oracle Services Procurement is the application that enables complete control and
oversight for services spending. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement,
the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.
Release 12 of 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 this
important spend category.
3.5.2. Features

total procurement spending.1 Outsourcing and globalization are the key drivers of this
trend. Because of the increasing share of budget allocated to services, procurement
Much of services spending goes to complex services, such as outsourced high-value

projects that require extensive collaboration between the buying and supplying
• Progress payments based on cost, stage of completion or performance milestones

Release 12 will support acquisition of complex services by allowing buyers to author,
negotiate, execute and monitor contracts for complex services with one or more of these
payment arrangements built into the contract.

3.5.2.2. Advances and Recoupment of Advances
In order to provide working capital to smaller contractors, buying organizations may
often pay advances to these contractors right after contract signing, before any work or
product delivery has been performed.
With this release, buying organizations can negotiate and finalize the terms of such
advances, and ensure compliance to those terms. Requests for advances submitted by the
suppliers are verified against the advance limits set forth in the contract. These advance
payments are automatically liquidated/recouped from payment requests, based on the
recoupment rates specified in the contract.
Contract with provisions for Advance and terms for Recoupment
3.5.2.3. Progress Payments

Complex Service Contracts are characterized by their high dollar value and long lead
times. In order to track progress and release payments between the time the contract is
signed and the final deliverable completed, it is typical of the buying and selling parties
to agree on a progress payment schedule.
With Release 12, buying organizations can negotiate with their contractors and
incorporate a detailed progress payment schedule as part of the contract. The schedule
consists of ‘pay items’ that specifies the work component, the associated dollar amount
and due date for completion. The solution provides for maximum flexibility in defining
these pay items based on the way progress needs to be measured. The pay items could be:
• Based on a ‘Milestone’ that needs to be fully complete before the associated payment
can be claimed by the contractor. Example: Successful test flight of completed
aircraft. Amount: $1,200,00.00
• Based on a ‘Rate’ of work completion. Payments for these can be claimed as units of
work are completed. Example: Installation of 100 lamp posts @ $1000.00/lamp post.

• Based on a ‘Lump Sum’ amount allocated to a portion of work against which
payments can be released based on the stage of completion. Unlike milestone pay
items, contractors can report partial progress against such pay items and request
payments. Example: Excavation of Site. Amount: $20,000.00.
For industries where such a payment schedule is considered as a form of contract

financing, these payments are automatically liquidated/recouped from payments due at
delivery based on the recoupment rates specified in the contract.
Progress Payment Schedule within a Contract
3.5.2.4. Retainage and Retainage Release

Retainage represents funds withheld from payment to ensure that the supplier finishes
work as agreed. The buying organization releases these funds only after verifying that the
contractor has fulfilled all contractual obligations. Retainage is also called ‘retention’ or
‘contractual withholds’.
With Release 12, contract administrator can negotiate retainage terms with the supplier
and capture these as a part of the contract. These terms include:
• Retainage Rate: Determines the percentage of the amount requested that will be
withheld before releasing payments to the supplier
• Maximum Retainage Amount: Puts a cap on the total amount that can be withheld
from payments released to the supplier.
At the end of the project or when the agreed criteria are met, the withheld amount can be
released upon receipt of a retainage release request from the supplier.

Retainage Terms on the Contract
3.5.2.5. Negotiate Contracts for Complex Services

With Release 12, Oracle Sourcing provides a platform for online collaboration between
the buying organization and the contractors for negotiation of contracts for complex
services. Complex contract payment arrangements including advances, retainage,
progress payments, typical of these contracts, can now be included in the RFQs or
Auctions for negotiation between the two parties. Once the RFQ is published, the buying
organization can make changes to the proposed contract payments through the existing
RFQ amendment process, if needed.
Suppliers can review the proposed complex contract payment terms online and submit
their quotes accordingly. If permitted by the buying organization, suppliers can propose
a different payment schedule, add payment milestones, request for additional advances,
or change the retainage and financing terms as part of their quotes.
When the contract is awarded, the agreed terms along with the payment schedule are
transferred along with other contract terms to Oracle Purchasing for signature, execution
and payment.
3.5.2.6. Work Confirmation

Managing the execution of Complex Services contracts presents unique challenges to the
buying organization and the contractor due to their high-dollar values and long lead-
times. One of the challenges is to accurately track and monitor progress as required by
the contract before releasing progress payments.
Release 12 provides a streamlined process for Contractors to report progress in the form
of Work Confirmation Requests, which can then be electronically routed for approval.
Organizations can leverage the flexibility of Oracle Approvals Management to configure
their business approval processes for Work Confirmation Requests. The solution allows
online negotiation on the amount of work eligible for payment through multiple rounds of
resubmissions of the work confirmation request till both parties are in agreement and the
request is approved.

Create Request for Work Confirmation
3.5.2.7. Supplier Collaboration

In Release 12, Oracle iSupplier Portal streamlines online collaboration between the
buying and supplying organizations required for managing these complex services
contracts.
The portal provides the contractors a self-service interface to check on the status of their
contracts in real-time. Using the portal, they can look up progress status, billing/payment
status, advance and retainage balances associated with their contracts.
The portal extends process automation beyond the enterprise by allowing contractors to
enter contract related transactions online. Such transactions include:
• Acknowledge or Sign the contract before starting work
• Change requests including changes to the progress payment schedule
• Request to confirm work (See the Work Confirmation Section above)
• Request to release advance payments
• Request to release progress payments
Through online transaction entry and self-service query capabilities, Oracle iSupplier
Portal extends process automation beyond the enterprise eliminating inefficiencies linked
to paper-based processes.

Oracle iSupplier Portal: Contract Status Summary
3.5.2.8. eAM Support for Fixed Price Services

Release 12 extends the support for Oracle Enterprise Asset Management (eAM) to
include fixed price services line types.
Requesters can associate Work Order and Operation References for a fixed price services
requisition line. Release 12 continues to support the existing eAM integration for goods
and amount-based requisition lines.

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

Over the last few releases, Oracle Sourcing has evolved to enable increasingly complex
electronic sourcing practices. The introduction of advanced features (e.g., multi-attribute
scoring, transformation bidding, etc.) has made the product extremely powerful.
However, this rich functionality has come at the cost of unnecessary user interface
complexity for those events where the advanced features are not required.
Document styles allow buying organizations to tailor the Oracle Sourcing user interface
to match the needs of different sourcing events. Through reusable document styles,
deploying organizations expose or hide unneeded Oracle Sourcing features, therefore,
simplifying the user interface and reducing clutter. When a sourcing document is created
using a style, disabled features are hidden to simplify the user interface.
For example, the buyer can set up a ‘Simple Auction’ style that turns off all advanced
features such as multi-attribute scoring, cost factors, location-based pricing, and price
differentials. Negotiations created using this style inherit the streamlined interface of the
style.
Oracle Sourcing also displays or hides user interface elements based on the Purchasing
Document Style chosen as the Outcome for the negotiation. See Release 12.0 Purchasing
RCD for more details.
3.6.2.2. Complex Contract Payments Negotiation

procured total procurement spending.1 Outsourcing and globalization are the key drivers
of this trend. Because of the increasing share of budget allocated to services,
procurement organizations are increasingly being given responsibility to control services
spend.
Much of services spending goes to complex services, such as outsourced high-value

projects that require extensive collaboration between the buying and supplier
1 Center of Advanced Purchasing

arrangements can include milestone payments, progress payments, advances, and
retainage and recoupment.
Complex Contract Payment – Capture financing and retainage terms during the sourcing process.
Release 12.0 supports complex services and equipment acquisition by allowing buyers to
define, negotiate, monitor and execute many types of complex contract payments like
milestone payments, progress payments, advances and retainage.
See Release 12.0 Services Procurement RCD for more details.
3.6.2.3. Negotiation Requirements

Header level attributes have been enhanced in a number of different areas in Release
12.0.
• In response to feedback from a product usability study, header level attributes have
been renamed ‘Requirements’, and their presentation and formatting have been
significantly improved.
• Buyers can now further structure supplier responses to requirements by predefining
the list of acceptable response values. Suppliers then choose from these values when
responding to requirements.
• In addition to the current manual scoring method, buyers can opt to score
requirements automatically
3.6.2.3.1. Improved Formatting and Presentation
A new, two-level hierarchical structure allows buyers to organize requirements into

sections. Sections and requirements can be moved and re-organized using the new
user interface controls, thus facilitating the grouping and sequencing of questions.
Buyers composing questions and requirements can now use Rich Text Format
commands (e.g., bold, italics, bullets, etc.) to highlight key information to suppliers.
The rich text is presented to suppliers as entered by the buyer, both online and in the
negotiation PDF. Additionally, suppliers will enjoy a reconfigured bidding screen
with more room to enter long answers.

Requirements – New scoring options and Rich Text Format (RTF).
3.6.2.3.2. Enhanced Support for Acceptable Response Values
Buyers can set up acceptable response values for each text-type requirement,
regardless of whether the requirement is scored. With Release 12.0, buyers can also
associate predefined value sets to requirements as a means of specifying acceptable
values for text type responses.
3.6.2.3.3. System Scoring for Header Level Requirements
Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 allows buyers to set up requirements to be scored

automatically by the system. They can set up acceptable response values and
corresponding scores for each response value. The system uses this information to
automatically score supplier responses.
For example, the buyer sets up the following requirement, acceptable response values
and scores:
Q. Is your company ISO certified?

Response Value Score
Yes 10
No 0
If a supplier responds with ‘Yes’, then the system automatically gives the supplier a
score of 10.
The new automatic scoring and the existing subjective scoring can co-exist on a
single sourcing event. Some requirements can be scored manually, while others
might be set up for automatic scoring
Buyers can highlight the relative importance of requirements by assigning weights to

each requirement. Both, manually and automatically scored requirements can be
weight. Oracle Sourcing calculates the total weighted score for the response once all
scores have been entered in the system.
See Team Scoring for Subjectively Scored Requirements in this document for
additional details.
3.6.2.4. Team Scoring for Subjectively Scored Requirements

Companies usually approach the evaluation of bid packages as a team effort. People
from different departments such as legal, engineering, etc., typically evaluate different
parts of suppliers’ responses based on their area of expertise. Buyers are then chartered
with combining the different score sheets submitted by the team members and computing
the total score for the supplier. Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 automates the procedure
and brings additional transparency to the team scoring process.
In Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0, buyers can designate collaboration team members as
fully privileged, scorers, or view-only members. Fully privileged members have
complete access to the negotiation document, limited only by the security functions
assigned to them. Scorers have view-only access to the negotiation, but are granted
access to the scoring screens in order to enter subjective scores during the evaluation of
responses. View Only members can only view the negotiation information.
Scoring members can be organized into different teams. Each team can be granted access
to specific sections that need to be scored by that team. Following a common business
practice, the buyer can specify if the pricing information on the quotes should be hidden
from a scoring team. This helps scorers to remain objective during the scoring process.

Scoring Team – Oracle Sourcing automatically computes the average team score
Each member on a scoring team enters scores for each quote for sections assigned to
them for scoring. Upon completion of the scoring process, the system computes the
average score for each quote. If desired, fully privileged members on the collaboration
team can override the average score, for example, with a consensus score. The system
maintains an audit trail of whether the final score is the system calculated average or
overridden by a user.
3.6.2.5. Automatically Knockout Suppliers from the Shortlist

Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 allows buyers to set up knockout criteria that can be used
to automatically exclude suppliers from the shortlist, therefore simplifying the bid
analysis process. Knockout criteria can be set up in terms of minimum score that the
supplier must attain for certain negotiation requirements. Suppliers that are scored below
the specified minimum are automatically removed from the shortlist. Suppliers excluded
from the shortlist are not eligible for awards.
If desired, buyers can modify the knockout criteria during the analysis and award phase
to narrow down the suppliers on the shortlist.
3.6.2.6. Support for Very Large Number of Line Items on a Negotiation

Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 expands support for very large RFXs/Auctions, allowing
for thousands of line items on a single negotiation. In prior releases, Oracle Sourcing
supported large RFXs/Auctions with hundreds of line items.
3.6.2.6.1. Offline Work using Spreadsheet Upload and Download
Buyers can create such large negotiations using the spreadsheet upload feature, or by
re-negotiating an existing catalog with thousands of lines. Suppliers can download
the line items to spreadsheet in order to enter their bid offline and upload the
completed bid.
Buyers can download the bids to spreadsheet to enter award decisions offline and
upload the award. They can also award using the online user interface if they want to
award the entire business to a single supplier.

3.6.2.6.2. Online Edits to Subsets of Lines
Buyers and suppliers can search for a subset of lines in order to make online updates.
They can search for lines based on line number range, line description, category or
item.
3.6.2.6.3. Asynchronous Processing Support
As part of Oracle Sourcing setup, the administrator can set up the threshold for
number of lines for using asynchronous processing. If the user submits a request to
process more than this number of lines, the system will automatically initiate an
asynchronous request to complete the processing. The user will be notified when the
processing completes. This allows the user to go on to other tasks online, while the
system completes the request to process a very large number of lines.
For example, if the limit for online synchronous processing is set up as 4,000, a buyer
request to create PDF document for a negotiation with 4,100 lines will be processed
asynchronously.
3.6.2.7. Enhanced Catalog Management

With Release 12.0, buying organizations with locally hosted catalogs will be able to
leverage the enhanced catalog management capabilities. Oracle Sourcing will enable
catalog negotiation process with a seamless flow across the Advanced Procurement Suite.
Procurement organizations will observe the following benefits:
• Negotiated pricing is available to requesters faster. Buyers can negotiate prices for
catalog items, and then automatically create a catalog from the awarded bid.
• Existing catalog descriptors are automatically available for negotiation. When
requisition lines are copied to a negotiation document, the extensible base and
category descriptors from the catalog will be copied to the negotiation line attributes.
The buyer can choose to simply share the attribute values with suppliers or have
suppliers respond with values during the negotiation process.
• Add negotiation lines from the catalog. Buyers can now link out to the Oracle
iProcurement catalog while adding lines to the negotiation. From the negotiation
creation flow, buyers can navigate and browse the iProcurement catalog, select the
appropriate items, and automatically add them to the negotiation. Optionally, all
catalog descriptors will be automatically copied onto the negotiation as well.

Catalog Negotiation – Automatically add catalog descriptors to negotiation lines
• Automatically add incumbent catalog suppliers to the negotiation invitation list.

Whether negotiating requisitions created from the catalog or renegotiating the entire
catalog, the incumbent supplier is automatically added to the negotiation invitation
list
• Bid line attributes move automatically to catalogs. When buyers create the catalog
from an awarded bid, the attribute values will be copied from the bid lines to the
catalog items
See Release 12.0 Oracle iProcurement RCD for more details.
3.6.2.8. Negotiation Document PDF Printing Enhancements

3.6.2.8.1. PDF Printing Before Publishing Negotiation To Suppliers
With Release 12.0, buyers can generate PDF version of the negotiation while the
document is in draft status. They can print a ‘buyer version’ that includes all the
information on the document (e.g., collaboration team, invitation list, etc.), and a
‘supplier version’ that includes only the information visible to suppliers. The draft
and buyer versions of the PDF include watermarks to avoid confusions with the
supplier version of the document.
3.6.2.8.2. Supplier Specific PDF
Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 supports printing the negotiation document specific to
a particular supplier. In this case, the PDF contains information based upon supplier
specific data. For example, if the buyer set up cost factors for the supplier or
restricted the supplier to view only a subset of lines, the PDF will reflect the same.
3.6.2.9. Collaboration Team Member Messaging

The collaboration aspects of the Online Discussions feature have been enhanced to
include any collaboration team member. Whereas in previous releases team members
could read the ongoing communication with suppliers, in Release 12.0 team members
will be able to send messages to external parties.

In addition, all people on the collaboration team for a negotiation can send online
messages to each other and to entire scoring teams. This further facilitates collaboration
during all phases of the negotiation process from negotiation document creation, through
analysis and award.

Oracle Purchasing Release 12.0 speeds up daily purchasing tasks with an enhanced
Professional Buyer’s Work Center. Built on the latest web-based user interface models,
the Center is a central ‘launchpad’ from which buyers can efficiently perform their daily
tasks—such as viewing and acting upon requisition demand, creating and modifying
orders and agreements, and accessing Oracle Sourcing to initiate negotiations.
The Professional Buyer’s Work Center increases the drill down capabilities between
Oracle Sourcing and Oracle Purchasing. Buyers can now easily navigate from
purchasing to sourcing documents, and vice-versa, using a single and friendly user
interface.
See Release 12.0 Oracle Procurement RCD for more details.
3.6.2.11. Staggered Closing of Lines in Auctions

In fast-paced auctions that include multiple products and services, suppliers are
challenged to respond to competitive bids in a timely manner. Suppliers often find
themselves struggling to amend and submit their improved bid before the auction closes.
Staggered closing of lines allows buyers to schedule cascading closing times for
negotiation lines, letting suppliers focus their attention and energy on a single line, lot, or
group at a time. The additional attention that every line gets from suppliers drives
competitive behavior, leading to increased savings.
During the auction creation process (Controls page), buyers indicate whether auction
lines should have staggered closing times, and what the closing interval from one line to
the next should be. Oracle Sourcing then determines the closing date to each line in the
negotiation considering the specified interval. For example, if the first line is scheduled
to close at 10:30 and the closing interval is 10 minutes, Oracle Sourcing will assign the
following closing times:
Line Number Close Time
1 10:30
2 10:40
3 10:50
...
When AutoExtend and staggered closing are used in conjunction, any automatic
extensions on a line are automatically propagated to the subsequent lines to retain the
closing interval between lines.
This functionality was originally released as a patch for 11i.10.
3.6.2.12. AutoExtend Improvements

In negotiations where the intention is to award business to more than one supplier (e.g.,
companies looking for a primary and an alternate source of supply), buyers want to
encourage competitive bidding not only for first place, but also for subsequent places in

the auction. One way to drive competitive behavior is to give suppliers additional time to
respond to new incoming bids from competing suppliers.
AutoExtend has been enhanced to automatically extend an auction when a new bid
ranked in a buyer-specified position is received. Whereas before only winning bids
triggered AutoExtend, now buyers have the ability to specify the minimum rank of a bid
that will automatically extend the auction (e.g., buyers can set up the auction to
automatically extend when a new bid ranked third or better is received). Buyers can also
set up the negotiation to extend every time a new bid is submitted, irrespective of the bid
rank.
In addition, Release 12.0 gives buyers increased flexibility to specify the maximum
number of automatic extensions by entering any number between 1 and 9999, or choose
unlimited extensions. Suppliers are notified via an Online Discussion message once the
auction enters the last extension period (i.e. when no more extensions are allowed).
Buyers view the number of remaining AutoExtensions for an auction on the Live Console
page.
3.6.2.13. Notification Subscription

One of the key elements of the sourcing process is the communication with suppliers and
internal collaboration team. To that extent, Oracle Sourcing has increased significantly
the number of notifications that the system generates at different times during the
sourcing process. However, many of these notifications vary in relevance depending on
the sourcing document type or the sourcing processes followed by the deploying
organization.
Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 introduces a notification subscription framework that

allows deploying organizations to easily enable and disable notifications, system-wide.
The new model reduces the need to request help from the IT department to modify
workflow definitions.
The user-friendly interface allows sourcing administrators to turn notifications on and off
by document type. For example, for auctions a system administrator may want to disable
the Response Submitted notification because buyers are likely to be monitoring the
bidding process online. Conversely, they may decide to enable the same notification for
RFQs to alert buyers when a new quote is submitted.

Notification Subscription – Easily subscribe to relevant notifications by document type.
3.6.2.14. Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement: Sourcing Dashboard

Procurement managers will be able to monitor the performance of their sourcing efforts
using the DBI for Procurement Sourcing Dashboard. The dashboard contains key
performance indicators (KPI) that answer traditionally tough questions such as:
• What percent of total purchases are negotiated? Is the percentage the same across
operating units?
• What is the total projected savings from sourcing activities?
• What are the realized savings from previously negotiated contracts?
• What’s the average sourcing cycle time? By commodity?
The dashboard measures sourcing performance through metrics such as:
• Sourcing Awarded Amount, Projected Savings and Realized Savings

• Negotiated Purchases
• Average Cycle time taken in Sourcing Process
As with all DBI reports, buyers can obtain additional information about a sourcing KPI
by drilling down to the report that shows supporting information information.

Sourcing Dashboard – Measure sourcing processes performance
See Release 12.0 Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement RCD for more details.
3.6.2.15. Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement: Supplier Scorecard

Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 integrates with Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for
Procurement to provide buyers with quantitative measures of supplier performance.
Buyers can view relevant and reliable supplier performance information when
determining which suppliers to invite to sourcing events, as well as while analyzing
supplier bids.
Buyers get a complete view, from aggregated data to granular details on Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs). They can also view trend data over various time periods.
The flexibility built into the tool allows the buyer to tailor the KPIs in Oracle Daily
Business Intelligence for Procurement for each supplier and supplier site.
See Release 12.0 Daily Business Intelligence for Procurement RCD for more details.
3.6.2.16. Award Approval Routing Using Position Hierarchy

The award approval process in Oracle Sourcing uses AME (Oracle Approvals
Management) as the approval engine. In prior releases, AME could only be set up to use
employee-supervisor hierarchy for Oracle Sourcing award approvals. With Release 12.0,
companies can also use Position Hierarchy based rules to determine the approvers for
negotiation award approval. Position based hierarchies allow organizations the flexibility
to create reporting structures that remain stable regardless of organizational changes.
3.6.2.17. Workflow Business Events

Customers planning to extend Oracle Sourcing will be able to leverage the new workflow
business events embedded in the application. Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 includes a

set of workflow business events that will be raised at different event points during the
negotiation process. Customers can create custom ‘subscribing’ processes for these
business events to perform desired processing when the corresponding business event is
raised.
The following is the list of business events:
• Response for a negotiation is submitted

• Negotiation is published (also for amendments and new round)
• Response for a negotiation is disqualified
• Negotiation is submitted for award approval
• Negotiation award is completed
• Purchase Document creation is initiated
3.6.2.18. Price Breaks Settings Defaulting

Companies using location, time-phased, or volume pricing will enjoy easier configuration
of price breaks settings in Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0. The new settings defaulting
significantly reduce data entry effort as only specific lines that require different settings
need to be updated.
Buyers can set up system level Price Break Response setting to None, Optional or
Required that default onto the negotiation document being created, but may be
overridden. All lines on the negotiation then inherit the Price Break Response setting
from the header. Additionally, Oracle Sourcing now defaults the Price Break Type from
Purchasing Options.
3.6.2.19. Support for Contractors

More and more companies are outsourcing part or all of their procurement processes in
an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiencies.
In keeping with this recent trend, Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 introduces support for
contingent workers in the sourcing process. This allows contractors with the appropriate
level of functional security to perform all the same functions within Oracle Sourcing as
employees. Contractors can be set up as buyers, approvers, or team members.
This does not apply to external supplier users.
3.6.2.20. Easier Configuration of Responsibilities

Oracle Sourcing’s security model provides system administrators with enormous
flexibility to control what parts of the application are exposed or hidden from sourcing
users. For example, companies may decide to create two independent user roles to score
bids and produce award recommendations.
The security model is based on security functions that control different functional areas
of the application and are assigned to application responsibilities. In Release 12.0 all the
functions in the Oracle Sourcing application have been grouped into sub menus of related
functions to facilitate the manipulation and creation of new responsibilities. For example,
all functions that relate to the task of creating and editing a negotiation document are
grouped into a single sub menu. This allows for easier inclusion or exclusions of tasks

from customized responsibilities by simply including or excluding the appropriate sub
menu.
Quite often Collaboration Team members need to help with negotiation creation and
quote evaluation, but should not have access to other tasks such as closing the negotiation
or entering award decisions. A new Team Member responsibility tailored for
collaboration team members is provided with the product. Please refer to the Release
12.0 Oracle Sourcing About Doc for a detailed list of sub menus and functions included
in this new responsibility.
3.6.2.21. Multi-Org Access Controls (MOAC)

In a Shared Procurement Services environment, a buyer typically carries out
procurement/sourcing functions on behalf of multiple business units. Oracle Sourcing
Release 12.0 implements Multi-Org Access Control (MOAC) to control user access to
different operating units.
All Oracle Sourcing negotiation documents and transactions are owned by an operating
unit. Whereas in prior releases buyers could create, review, and update documents in any
operating unit, in Release 12.0 buying organizations will be able to limit buyers’ access
to a predefined set of operating units.
With the new MOAC architecture, administrators can associate a Responsibility with
either a simple list of Operating Units or a list that is derived from a node in a given
hierarchy. Using a single Responsibility, buyers can conduct sourcing events, enter into
agreements and issue purchase orders on behalf of any of the operating units that they
serve.
There are no changes to the system’s behavior for external supplier users.
3.6.2.22. Representation of Suppliers in the Trading Community Architecture

(TCA)
The Trading Community Architecture (TCA) is a highly flexible model that allows you
to fully model real world entities in your trading community and accurately represent the
complex relationships among those entities. It is the core data model for trading partners
used by Oracle e-Business Suite applications.
By representing Suppliers as part of the trading community, you have access to many of
the features provided by TCA. Data Librarian tools can assist with activities focused on
improving data consistency, eliminating duplicates and modeling extended relationships.
Through TCA it is also possible to leverage external data sources such as D&B to enrich
data quality.
See Release 12.0 Oracle iSupplier Portal RCD for more details.
3.6.2.23. Prospective and New Supplier Invitation

The New Supplier Request feature facilitates the process of gathering requests for new
suppliers from internal users and the subsequent capturing of qualification details about
the company. An approval hierarchy allows deploying organizations to ensure that once
the qualification details have been gathered, the relevant stakeholders within the business
are involved in the review process for the requested supplier. Following approval, a new
supplier record will be setup automatically using the supplier’s qualification details.

The Supplier Profile Administrators tools have been enhanced so that they can track the
list of requests that have been submitted and review the details.
For Release 12.0, the New Supplier Request feature allows sourcing event managers to
invite prospective suppliers as the sourcing event is created. In prior Sourcing releases,
buyers could only invite suppliers to sourcing events if the suppliers were already defined
in the supplier master.
The contact at the prospective supplier will receive a notification to participate in the
sourcing event and then an additional invitation requesting that they register their details
with the buying organization in order that they can be qualified to participate. Only
approved suppliers are able to submit bids for an event.
As an alternative, designated sourcing event managers can also be given the authority to
include a new supplier in an event and approve them immediately as an RFQ-only
supplier, thus bypassing the need to capture and review qualification details.
See Release 12.0 Oracle iSupplier Portal RCD for more details.
3.6.2.24. Display Best Bid Price in Blind Negotiations

In blind online negotiations, buyers sometimes implement a strategy where all suppliers
follow the price of the best bid in the event. In this strategy, suppliers are encouraged to
improve their bids to better the best bid in the event without necessarily knowing their
own rank. As in any blind event, suppliers do not have access to additional information
about the competing bids, so the best bid price is the only feedback that they receive.
An alternative strategy is for buyers to share with the supplier his overall rank and the
best bid in the event. In this case, suppliers know their position in the negotiation and
how much they would have to improve their bid to become the leader in the negotiation.
Buyers now have the option to let suppliers see the best bid price in the auction or RFQ.
Buyers cannot only disclose rank to suppliers (previously supported feature), but also the
price of the best bid for every line in the event. Buyers decide whether to share best bid
price with suppliers through a bid control when the negotiation is created.
Administrators can set up a default bid control value in the negotiation configuration
page.
3.6.2.25. Bidding Improvements

The following improvements have been made to the supplier bidding pages:
3.6.2.25.1. Power Bid On Losing Lines
In the competitive environment of reverse auctions, suppliers use Power Bid to

quickly improve their bid price (11i.10 functionality). Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0
adds additional flexibility to the existing Power Bid capability, by allowing suppliers
to choose to apply the Power Bid decrements only to non-winning lines. When
suppliers select this option, those bid lines that are already winning bids remain
untouched. As in prior releases, suppliers can still apply the Power Bid decrement to
all lines in their bid.
3.6.2.25.2. Better Visibility to Bid Total Amount

Oracle Sourcing Release 12.0 increases the visibility of total bid amounts to help
buyers and suppliers evaluate bid packages more easily. Suppliers will now be able
to view the total amount for their bid on the Review Bid page, before they submit the
bid. The bid total amount will also be displayed to buyers and suppliers on various
other pages in the application, including View Bid, Bid History, and Monitor Bids
pages.
3.6.2.25.3. Bid Decrement Enhancement
Buyers can enforce that suppliers re-bidding on a negotiation improve their bid by a
certain amount or percentage (Minimum Bid Decrement). In Release 12.0, a new bid
control allows buyers to specify the price base on which the minimum decrement is
calculated. The new control allows buyers to opt between the current bid submitted
by the supplier (current support) and the best bid available in the negotiation (new in
Release 12.0).
3.6.2.25.4. Bid Price Reduction Enforcement Across Negotiation Rounds
In multi-round negotiations, buyers typically want to encourage suppliers to improve

the bid price submitted in the previous round of the negotiation. A new bid control
allows buyers to specify whether the last bid price for each supplier should be
enforced as the start price in the new round. The new bid control is available during
the creation of a new round of auctions and RFQs.
If the bid control is selected, Oracle Sourcing will require suppliers to enter prices
that at least match their best price from the previous round. The original start price
will not be carried forward from one round to the next.
3.6.2.26. Live Console

The Live Console provides a graphical display especially suited to monitoring the
progress of a fast-paced auction.
From a single page buyers view graphs and charts of bidding activity. Buyers may view
bidder status and participation, and monitor ongoing bid activity. Bid totals and
projected savings are immediately calculated and graphed. Over 10 graphs provide
insight for many negotiation scenarios. Bids can be viewed as total bid amount or by
individual line or lot. New tools that expand buyer control of the negotiation include:
Negotiation Pause; Supplier Activity Monitor; Supplier Lockout and Message Alerts.

Select from
multiple graphs
Live Console – Monitor bidding activity as it happens
3.6.2.26.1. Negotiation Pause
Buyers may occasionally need to halt a live negotiation. For example, a buyer may
desire to clarify a question for all bidders when precious few minutes are remaining
in the negotiation. When the negotiation is paused bidding activity is halted, an icon
is displayed beside the negotiation number, and online message alerts are
immediately displayed to suppliers at the top of each screen. Once restarted, the
negotiation continues where it was paused.
3.6.2.26.2. Supplier Activity Monitor
Buyers can view the login status of invited and walk-up supplier users, and view the
most recent activity the supplier has taken, such as whether the supplier has created a
draft response. The buyer can immediately determine actual participation levels to
help evaluate how the negotiation is progressing.
3.6.2.26.3. Supplier Lockout

Buyers may choose to lock a supplier out of a negotiation. The buyer may find this
useful if they see a supplier viewing the negotiation – and collecting competitive
pricing information – but not actively participating. Usually lockout is used when the
buyer has a policy requiring active participation prior to some point in the
negotiation.
3.6.2.26.4. Message Alerts
The existing Online Discussions feature allows buyers and suppliers to communicate
in a structured and archived manner. During short time-frame negotiations, messages
can be urgent in nature, such as those relating to pricing or product clarification.
Message alerts notify buyers and suppliers of new messages on each screen
associated with a negotiation. The benefit is timely information that remains part of
the archived message history.
Live Console was originally released in Oracle Sourcing Mini-Pack J (11i.PON.J)
3.6.2.27. Transformation Bidding

Transformation Bidding allows buyers to incorporate (1) intangible costs such as
switching costs and supplier risk factors and/or (2) tangible costs such freight and special
charges, into the bidding, analysis, and award processes. The bid that receives the highest
rank is the one with the lowest Total Bid Price including the quantified effect of all
tangible and intangible costs.
With Transformation Bidding, the buyer can define ‘Price Factors’ to represent tangible
and intangible costs in addition to the price of the goods or services. These price factors
can be defined as Per Unit, % of Line Price or Fixed Amount. The buyer can define
‘Buyer’ and/or ‘Supplier’ price factors. Note that in Oracle Sourcing 11.5.8, only the
supplier price factors (called Price Elements) could be defined.
The bid price, line bid total and bid total, as viewed by the buyer, include the effect of the
price factor values. Therefore, each bid is evaluated based on the true cost of buying the
goods or services from the supplier. This results in cost savings that are not possible with
a manual, paper-based RFQ or conventional reverse auction platform.
3.6.2.27.1. Buyer Price Factors
Buyer price factors can be assigned a value only by the buyer before the start of the
negotiation. A different value may be assigned for each line item and for each invited
bidder. Examples of buyer price factors are intangible costs such as supplier risk
factors applicable to non-incumbent suppliers, or tangible costs that the buyer will
incur.
If only buyer price factors are used in a negotiation, the buyer can choose to hide
from suppliers how price factors adjust their bids. Each supplier views their own bid
as entered by them, but the bids of competitors are automatically transformed based
on the buyer price factors specified.
3.6.2.27.2. Supplier Price Factors
Buyers can define different Supplier Price Factors for each line. Suppliers then enter
values for these price factors when they create their bids. Examples of supplier price
factors are freight or special charges that the supplier needs to charge.

Transformation Bidding – Evaluate tangible and intangible costs
Transformation Bidding was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J (11i.PON.J)
3.6.2.28. Lot Based Bidding

Buyers can now define lots that contain a collection of lines, giving a new hierarchical
structure to the sourcing document. A lot may be an assembled product, or lines may be
organized into lots to get the most competitive bid. Suppliers are required to evaluate the
entire lot and submit their bids at the lot level for speed and convenience. Suppliers may
optionally provide line-level bids as well.
Buyers can analyze the bids and make award decisions at the lot level. When the buyer
creates a purchasing document from the Sourcing award, awarded lots are transferred to
purchasing document lines.
Lot Based Bidding was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J (11i.PON.J)
3.6.2.29. Line Groups

Negotiation lines can now be organized into groups for ease of analysis and award.
Groups are collections of related lines that allow buyers to model market baskets.
Suppliers bid against individual lines in the group, and pricing information is
automatically rolled up to the group level for enhanced analysis.
Buyers can analyze and make award decisions for the entire group or they can choose to
cherry-pick the best supplier bids for individual lines within the group. Awarded lines are
transferred to the purchasing document, if the buyer creates one from the Sourcing award.
Line Groups was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J (11i.PON.J)

3.6.2.30. Control Supplier Participation
Buyers may specify which groups, lots, or lines should be visible to each supplier during
the negotiation. By including only qualified bidders, competition is maximized and
bidder data entry is reduced. In addition, this feature allows buyers to reduce the number
of negotiations needed to source a commodity when particular lots or lines require
distinct (or overlapping) sets of suppliers.
Supplier Participation Control was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J

(11i.PON.J)
3.6.2.31. Post Negotiation Synopsis to Extranet Website

Buying organizations can publish negotiation summary information to their
organization’s extranet website to allow potential suppliers to view upcoming and current
negotiations and register if interested. For example, Public Sector entities may be legally
required to advertise sourcing events for goods and services. This capability is also
useful for organizations that are trying to obtain new vendors or broaden participation.
Buyers can publish a customizable subset of information from their negotiations to their
extranet web site using an automated, secure, and audited approach. A PDF of the
negotiation can also be made available for download.
This functionality was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J (11i.PON.J)
3.6.2.32. Create and Publish Industry Standard Forms

This feature allows users to create forms that are filled out by buyers with information
concerning a negotiation or event. Forms can be created to emulate standard industry
formats, for example, the Contract Notice form used in the European Union. Once
created, Forms are made available to and completed by buyers that are responsible for the
creation of the negotiation.
The buyers can then publish this information to any website that accepts XML files, in an
automated and audited method. For example, Public Sector buyers frequently have
statuary requirements to transmit standard forms to regulatory authorities. Now, these
buyers can enter information in the forms online and send them via XML to the
appropriate authority (such as the FedBizOps website for the US Federal Government
and the Tenders Electronic Daily in the European Union). Forms can be revised over
time, and information entered in the forms is stored for easy reference.
Note: Publishing forms via XML requires use of a XML mapping tool, such as
Mapforce™ from Altova, Inc. or an equivalent product.
3.6.2.33. Home Page Enhancements

The negotiations home page has been enhanced to provide better visibility to current
negotiations and pending activities for both buyers and other collaboration team
members. The published negotiations section now includes negotiations where the user is
a collaboration team member in addition to the ones that the user created.
A list of all draft negotiations allows collaboration team members to easily locate
negotiations in draft status without performing a search.

Many collaboration team members may have tasks assigned to them, such as specifying
item attributes, scoring supplier responses, performing analysis, etc. Users are now
alerted to incomplete tasks on the home page. An Unread Messages list highlights new
supplier questions, allowing the buyer to respond more quickly for real-time
communication between trading partners.
Oracle Sourcing Home Page
3.6.2.34. Negotiate Contract Purchase Agreements

Now Contract Purchase Agreements (CPA) can be negotiated in Oracle Sourcing.
Negotiation of CPAs is especially valuable to buying organizations that do not host their
content (i.e., suppliers maintain their catalogs).
Buyers can negotiate contract terms while optionally detailing the services and products
that will be ordered against the agreement. If Oracle Procurement Contracts is licensed,
contract clauses and deliverables may be part of the negotiation. Based on one or more
awards, the buyer may automatically create a new CPA in Oracle Purchasing.
3.6.2.35. Supplier Research Enhancements

Buyers now have enhanced supplier research capabilities while creating a negotiation.
They can also use the same capabilities to research suppliers for a particular commodity
in order to create an invitation list. Additional search criteria include search for suppliers
for a particular commodity, and search based on suppliers’ sourcing transactions history.

Supplier search results have been enhanced to provide a more comprehensive view of the
supplier. Additional information includes:
Details on the sourcing and purchasing transactions history with the supplier, over a
configurable time period
Invitation Lists and Templates that contain the supplier
Registered Users
In addition, links to the following DBI reports allow direct access to real-time commodity
spend data across purchasing organizations:
• Invoice Amount
• Contract Utilization Rates
• Returns
• Receipt Date Exceptions
• PO Price Change
• PO Price Savings and Quantity Change
3.6.2.36. Change Document Type for New Round

Often buyers conduct negotiations where the first round is an RFI to pre-qualify
suppliers, followed by one or more rounds of RFQs, and finally an Auction so that the
qualified bidders can offer the best prices. With this feature, buyers may create an
Auction, RFQ or RFI from a prior round regardless of the document type of the prior
round. This provides buyers the ability to use the most appropriate document type for
each round of negotiation.
All data applicable to the negotiation document type being created, is carried over from
one round to the next. Also, all applicable data is defaulted from the previous round when
the supplier creates a response in the new round.
Further, when creating the new round, the buyer has the option to: (1) Either retain or
remove Clauses and Deliverables; (2) Update Clauses with the latest versions; (3) Either
retain or remove attachments.
3.6.2.37. Copy across Document Types

Buyers often need to create negotiations that contain similar data as already entered in an
existing negotiation. Now buyers can create an Auction, RFQ or RFI by copying a
published or draft negotiation, regardless of the type of the document being copied.
Further, when creating the copy, the buyer has the option to: (1) Either retain or remove
Clauses and Deliverables; (2) Update Clauses with the latest versions; (3) Either retain or
remove attachments.

3.6.2.38. Spreadsheet Import of Header Attributes
Spreadsheet support has been extended to allow buyers to import header attributes using
a spreadsheet created offline. This is useful when the buyer needs to create a large
number of header attributes. The buyer can also use spreadsheet upload to add header
attributes during amendment or new round creation.
Suppliers may download header attributes from a negotiation, enter their responses in the
downloaded spreadsheet offline, and then import the spreadsheet into their online
response.
3.6.2.39. Negotiations without Lines

Buyers can now create negotiations that do not include a specific product or service.
This is useful, for example, when negotiating an RFI with header attributes for survey
questions, or when negotiating a Contract Purchase Agreement and not desiring to
receive bids on individual lines.
3.6.2.40. Improved Purchase Document Creation Flow

The process to complete the award in Oracle Sourcing and create a document in Oracle
Purchasing has been significantly streamlined. Now this can be done in two steps as
opposed to five steps in prior releases. In case the negotiation was created from
requisitions, these are automatically allocated to the awards. The user may modify the
automatic allocation if required.

Oracle Sourcing Optimization – New Product
3.6.3. 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.
Oracle Sourcing Optimization was originally released in Sourcing Mini-Pack J

(11i.PON.J)
3.6.4. Features
3.6.4.1. Scenario Objectives

When creating a scenario, the buyer chooses an objective that defines what the
optimization engine should seek to maximize or minimize. For example, the objective
‘Maximize award quantity and minimize award amount’ will cause the optimizer to try to
award quantities indicated on the negotiation while minimizing the total cost of the
award.
The buyer can also choose to include or exclude price factor values from the bid prices
during the optimization process. This can be particularly useful if the price factors model
intangible costs such as risk.
3.6.4.2. Business Constraints

The buyer may specify the purchasing policies or goals in terms of ‘constraints’ at the
negotiation header, line, or supplier level. The optimizer will satisfy all the constraints
defined for a scenario, while it seeks to find the optimal solution for the chosen objective.
3.6.4.2.1. Header Constraints
Header constraints span all the lines in the negotiation. For example, to make sure
that a budget amount is not exceeded; a constraint can be set up to limit the maximum
award amount. Constraints can also be set up to exclude suppliers that do not meet
cutoffs for header attribute scores, header attribute group scores or total score.
3.6.4.2.2. Line Constraints
Constraints may also be defined at the line level. The buyer can decide whether or
not a line award can be split between multiple suppliers. Price and score cutoffs can
be defined for the lines so as to eliminate bids that do not meet the cutoff. Line

constraints can be used to limit the maximum amount or quantity awarded for a
particular line.
The buyer can specify if he or she wants to award all lines in a group to the same
supplier.
Further, the buyer can define supplier related constraints for a specific line. These
constraints may be used to specify the minimum and maximum quantity or amount
that may be awarded to a supplier for a particular line.
3.6.4.2.3. Supplier Constraints
Supplier constraints can be used to manage the size of the supply base by specifying
minimum and maximum number of suppliers that can be awarded. Risk from
switching to new suppliers can be reduced by specifying that a certain percentage of
the total award amount should go to incumbent suppliers.
Supplier constraints can also be set up based on business classifications such as

Minority Owned, Women Owned, etc. Setting up constraints based on Approved
Supplier List statuses can ensure that a certain percentage of the business is awarded
to approved suppliers.

Award Scenarios – Enforce company policies through award constraints
3.6.4.3. Scenario Optimization

The buyer can compute the optimal award allocations for a scenario with a single click.
Oracle Sourcing uses ILOG’s CPLEX optimization engine to generate the optimal award
allocation that satisfies the constraints. Optimization results are displayed in both
graphical and tabular formats for ease of interpretation.
Optimization Results – Review award recommendations in graphical and tabular format
The buyer can easily view savings resulting from the optimal solution for the scenario.
The constraints are summarized and supplier type constraints are graphed so the buyer
can see how these constraints were met.
3.6.4.4. What-if Analysis

Through ‘What-if’ Analysis the buyer can define different scenarios and compare
optimization results. The buyer can edit an existing scenario or copy it to create a new
scenario to quickly generate alternate scenarios.

For example, the buyer can create a scenario where no more than 5 suppliers are awarded,
the incumbent supplier is awarded at least 30% of the business, and no supplier receives
more than 40% business. Another scenario might specify a maximum of 4 suppliers with
the incumbent being awarded at least 40% of the business. Other scenarios might
stipulate minimum award percentage to Minority or Women owned businesses.
It would be impossible, or prohibitively time consuming to manually identify the best

possible solution for all these different scenarios. By comparing the optimal solutions for
different scenarios, the buyer may realize savings that would otherwise not be apparent.
Also, the time required to make award decisions can be significantly reduced.
3.6.4.5. Scenario Acceptance

The buyer can choose the scenario that provides the most savings and satisfies company
policies and business objectives to create the award. A single click copies the accepted
scenario results into a draft award. The buyer can modify the draft award if desired.
Award approvers can compare the accepted scenario results to other scenarios to better
understand the rationale for the proposed awards.

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RELEASE CONTENT DOCUMENT

Prepared by Advanced Procurement Product Management Teams

Last Updated: 18th October 2006

Copyright © 2006 Oracle. All Rights Reserved

R12 Release Content Document, Rev. 07 2

R12 Release Content Document, Rev. 07 3

R12 Release Content Document, Rev. 07 4

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 5

2.1. Purpose of Document

2.2. Reference Documents

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 6

3.1. Oracle iProcurement

Oracle iProcurement is the self-service requisitioning application that controls employee

Release 12 of Oracle iProcurement is focused on three key themes:

• Improved Content Management

3.1.2.1. Enhanced Catalog Authoring

Increasingly, content management has become a collaborative process between the

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 7

3.1.2.3. Unified Catalog

3.1.2.4. Approval, Revision Control and Archive for Catalog Data

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 8

3.1.2.6. Advanced Approval Support

3.1.2.6.1. Position Hierarchy based Approvals

Position based hierarchies allow organizations the flexibility to create reporting

3.1.2.6.2. Parallel Approvals

3.1.2.6.3. Support for FYI Notifications

Certain individuals or business roles need to be kept informed of purchases and

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 9

3.1.2.7. Enhanced Requester Driven Change Order Management

Existing Oracle iProcurement functionality allows requesters to make changes to the

Release 12 also leverages this functionality to automate the processing of supplier-

3.1.2.8. Requester Directed Sourcing

3.1.2.9. Support for Multiple Favorite Lists

3.1.2.10. Confirm Receipt Enhancements

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 10

3.1.2.11. Multiple Search Result Layouts

3.1.2.12. List of Value Enhancements

3.1.2.13. Contractor Support in iProcurement

3.1.2.14. Work Confirmation Support

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3.2.2.1. Complex Contract Payments

3.2.2.1.1. View and Manage Complex Orders

In addition to supplier initiated work confirmations, work confirmations can also be

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 13

3.2.2.2. Supplier Change Order

3.2.2.2.1. Multi-Order Change Request

3.2.2.2.2. Tolerance-based Auto-Approval of Supplier Change Requests

3.2.2.2.3. Route Change Requests to Requester

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 14

3.2.2.3.1. Flexible Prospective Supplier Registration

Once a prospective supplier has registered, their request is routed through an

Following approval, the qualification details provided by a supplier become part of

3.2.2.3.2. New Supplier Request

R12 Release Content Document Oracle Advanced Procurement 15

3.2.2.3.3. Supplier Approval Management

3.2.2.4. Supplier Managed User Maintenance

3.2.2.5. Supplier Contact Management

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3.2.2.7. Representation of Suppliers in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA)

3.2.2.8. New Supplier Setup User Interface

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