Self Service Procurement Management

Oracle® iProcurement is the self-service requisitioning application that controls employee purchasing. It is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, the integrated suite that dramatically cuts all supply management costs.

Self-Service Requisitioning that Streamlines Buying, Enforces Policy and Slashes Cost

Paper-based procurement processes are not only slow and expensive; they create barriers to enforcing spending policy. Oracle iProcurement automates requisitioning through a self-service web-shopping system. Users create, manage and track their own orders in an intuitive web interface, while purchasing retains central control.

Oracle iProcurement ensures that purchasing policies and preferred pricing agreements are reflected in every transaction. Easy online ordering and self-service tracking and receiving provide better service while reducing routine purchasing inquiries and non-sourced purchasing. This frees procurement professionals to focus on supplier relationships and strategic sourcing.

With Oracle iProcurement you can:

• Streamline employee ordering
• Enforce spending policy
• Slash procurement costs

☑ Streamline Employee Ordering

Self-service ordering eliminates error-prone paper processes, improving productivity and control.

Web-Shopping Interface Ensures Rapid Deployment and Adoption

Oracle iProcurement lets you control purchasing by all employees because it is easy for you to implement and for them to use. Oracle iProcurement gives employees an intuitive web-shopping interface that is instantly familiar to anyone who has shopped online. Powerful search features and logically grouped online “stores” lead users to the products and services they need. Requesters can place and track orders from any web browser. This web architecture also allows rapid deployment to every employee because there is no desktop software to install. Your employees can have immediate access to the system, and an interface they can use right away.

Content Control Guides User Choice

With Oracle iProcurement, Purchasing departments completely control the products, services, and views that users see; based on organization, responsibilities and more. Users’ access can be further restricted by ‘content zones’ that partition content based on item category, browser category, supplier and supplier site. Content can be easily loaded into iProcurement and your existing supplier agreements. Buyers, suppliers, and catalog administrators can manage content either via file upload or through a powerful online interface; generating real-time updates. This ensures the most up to date catalog information is always available to users when browsing in stores. Users find the items using a configurable category structure or employ the powerful advanced search capabilities. You can provide rich information on the items so employees make informed decisions. Suppliers can also manage content on your behalf by providing supplier hosted catalogs. Oracle iProcurement allows users to punch-out to supplier-hosted sites set up as stores to select items, returning to iProcurement for checkout and approval. Additionally, iProcurement’s unique Transparent Punch-Out allows users to access content from external sites without ever leaving the familiar iProcurement interface. By providing flexible options for user content, Oracle iProcurement gives you unparalleled ability to guide users to make compliant purchasing choices.

Requester Fulfillment Tracking and Change Management Saves Purchasing Staff Resources

Purchasing departments are inundated with status calls, wasting valuable staff time. Oracle iProcurement’s requester-led fulfillment tracking frees your purchasing department from routine tracking, receiving and change management. Requesters can track approvals and delivery status, change or cancel line items, and acknowledge receipt of goods from any web browser. Tolerances and options determine whether the buyer needs to approve a given change. When requester changes are approved, Oracle iProcurement automatically revises purchase orders and notifies suppliers. It even pro-actively alerts requesters about non-received orders and lets them return faulty goods. So procurement professionals are free to focus on high-value tasks rather than routine request or requests.

☑ Enforce Spending Policy

Robust policy enforcement gives you unprecedented control and governance support.

Approval and Accounting Enforcement Ensure Compliance

Oracle iProcurement builds policy enforcement into every transaction, from requisition through payment. The approval management capabilities are configurable, ensuring that every requisition has the right approvals based on the requester, the amount, and even the department or project in question. iProcurement provides parallel approvals, supports approval based on position hierarchy and a ‘view only’ approval chain so that the right people can provide approvals in the shortest possible time. What’s more, users can instantly view the status of requisitions in the graphical approval chain. Support for key accounting methods including a budget, encumbrance, projects, and grants ensure correct fiscal control. Administrators can set up tolerances for commitments against a budget. Requesters can allocate costs to one or more projects or grants and validate funds availability in real-time. With built-in policy enforcement, routine compliance is improved and exceptions are bubbled up for management by purchasing professionals.

Smart Forms put Purchasing in Control of Non-Catalog Requests

Often a user needs goods or services that aren’t available in the catalog. With Oracle iProcurement’s Smart Forms, Purchasing can easily gather and organize these non-catalog purchases. Smart Forms are fully-configurable templates that default key information, such as preferred suppliers, category, and price on the request and gather other information needed to validate and execute the order. By associating a contract or agreement with a Smart Form, you can have all approved requisitions automatically placed on purchase orders without buyer intervention. So routine non-catalog orders flow just as efficiently as orders for catalog items.

Supplier Pricing and Contract Enforcement Flow Correct Terms into Every Order

Oracle iProcurement ensures that the prices and terms of your supplier agreements save money on every order. The power of Oracle’s Global Agreements allows you to set up a supplier agreement once and use it across the enterprise if desired. The system also helps your buying organization comply with centrally authored supplier agreements by directing users to preferred suppliers and allowing you to aggregate demand for quantity discounts. With Oracle iProcurement, the savings you negotiate with suppliers consistently reach your bottom line.

☑ Slash Procurement Costs

Lower procurement costs by cutting transaction overhead, controlling maverick purchasing, and realizing the full value of your preferred supplier agreements.

Process Automation Lowers Transaction Costs

Transaction overhead accounts for a significant share of the ‘cost of procurement’. Oracle iProcurement slashes the cost of thousands of procurement transactions by allowing end-users to place thousands of orders for the goods and services without costly intervention from purchasing professionals. To help ensure efficient processing, catalog content is managed through a powerful online interface; generating real-time updates. This ensures the most up to date catalog information is always available to users when browsing in stores.

Efficient and error-free transaction processing begins when suppliers, buyers, and catalog administrators use powerful catalog maintenance the drive the real-time updates needed to ensure accurate item and pricing information. Once requisitions are approved, the intelligent Workflow can automatically place the requested goods and services on purchase orders and issue them to suppliers. Oracle iProcurement supports print, fax, and email order delivery. To drive down costs further, customers may choose to use advanced electronic transaction delivery via EDI or XML using the Oracle Supplier Network. From requisition to fulfillment, Oracle iProcurement drives transaction overhead down.

Easy Single Point of Purchase Controls Maverick Purchasing

Maverick purchasing is notoriously hard to control because users naturally route their purchases through the path of least resistance. But Oracle iProcurement is so convenient that it’s actually easier for requesters to buy through it than to go outside the system. By providing an easy-to-use single point of entry for all requisitions, iProcurement encourages requesters to use it every time. As former maverick spenders are drawn into using the system, iProcurement guides their purchasing choices and captures detailed information on their purchasing. So not only are your policies automatically enforced, your spend data is available for advanced analysis that will yield future savings opportunities.

Price Modeling and Compliance Realizes Preferred Supplier Savings

Pricing structures in supplier agreements can be so complex that savings from negotiated discounts fail to show up correctly on purchase orders. OracleiProcurement’s solves this problem with a formula-based engine that calculates discounts based on complex price models. Pricing complexity is hidden from end-users, who simply see the correctly discounted prices in their shopping carts. Sorequesters can take advantage of negotiated savings without becoming purchasing experts, and your buying organization never leaves money from negotiated discounts on the table.

Oracle E-Business Suite — The Complete Solution

Oracle E-Business Suite enables companies to efficiently manage customer processes, manufacture products, ship orders, collect payments, and more—all from applications that are built on unified information architecture. This information architecture provides a single definition of customers, suppliers, users, and products—all aspects of the business. Whether one module or the entire Suite is implemented, Oracle E-Business Suite enables procurement professionals to share unified information across the enterprise and make smarter decisions with better information.