This chapter covers the following topics:
The Administrator Workbench enables sales representatives, managers, and contract administrators to track progress of workloads and initiate follow up actions on contracts under negotiation. Sales representatives may have several open quotes in various stages of negotiation. These open quotes may be undergoing revisions, awaiting approvals for special terms, or with customers for review. The Administrator Workbench informs users of what is currently in their queue.
As a sales representative, you can perform multiple actions during the negotiation process from the Administrator Workbench. It enables you to track new contract and renewal opportunities by providing information in bins and portlets that you can personalize:
Quick Search: Enables you to perform a search using a search intent and search criteria. You can also navigate to an advanced search page for an expanded criteria list.
Notifications: Provides a list of open notifications that require your attention. From this region, you can view notification details and submit responses.
My In Process Contracts: Provides a list of views for open service contracts that are assigned to you. The following views for open service contracts are seeded in the application:
All In Process Contracts: A list of all open contracts under negotiation or pending approval and activation.
Follow Up Actions: A list of open contracts with assigned follow-up actions and due dates.
Online Quotes : A list of all open contracts that are routed for automatic online customer acceptance.
Pending Internal Approval : A list of all contracts that are accepted by customers and pending internal review and approval
Pending Quotes: A list of all open contracts for which quotes have been sent to the customer. This view does not include contracts that have been accepted by the customer and are pending approval.
Pending Salesrep Assistance: A list of online acceptance contracts for which customers requested assistance in clarifying terms or want to make corrections. This is the default view for the bin.
Reminder Sent: A list of open contracts for which reminder notices have been sent to the customer.
Renewals: A list of all open renewals under negotiation.
When you select a view and click the Go button, the My In Process Contracts bin refreshes. The following options are available:
Personalize: In addition to the seeded views, you can define personalized views to manage your contracts by using the OA Framework personalization features.
Note: For information about personalization of the HTML pages, refer to the Oracle Applications Personalization Guide.
Full List: This option shows your full list of tracked contracts.
Note: All actions that are available from the renewal tracking bin are also available from the full list page.
From the My In Process Contract bin, you can:
Identify follow-up actions on contracts.
Publish contract online to customers.
Submit contract for internal review.
Manage reminders and notifications.
Run quality check to validate contract information.
Open the contract in the Service Contracts Authoring window for editing.
Initiate communication with customers through e-mail.
Note: The My In Process bin actions are separated based on whether they can be performed on a single contract or multiple contracts.
Actions performed on multiple contracts: Publish to Customer, Submit for Approval, Disable Reminders, Enable Reminders, Run QA Check
Actions performed on single contracts: Open Contract, Email Customer, Print Quote
Shortcuts: Provides a list of links that provide shortcuts to other functions within Oracle Service Contracts.
This group of procedures covers the following:
Submitting a Contract for Approval from the Administrator Workbench
Sending an E-mail to a Customer from the Administrator Workbench
You can view a list of notifications from the Administrator Workbench. If the notification does not require a response, the application provides a message within the Notification Detail page.
The following table provides a list of notifications that you may see in Oracle Service Contracts:
| Notification Title | Example |
| Quote Published Online | Contract 21100-R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) has been published online |
| Quote Sent to Customer | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) has been emailed |
| Customer Acceptance Notification | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) has been accepted by Sharpe, Marty |
| Customer Decline Notification | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) has been declined by Sharpe, Marty |
| Assistance Request Notification | As entered by customer from Online renewal flow. |
| Request for Internal Approval notification | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) |
| Internal Approval Reject Notification | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) has been rejected by Stock, Pat |
| Signature Required | Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) requires your signature |
| QA Check Failure Notification | QA Check Failure in Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) |
| Workflow Error Notification | Workflow Error in Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) |
| Reminder Failure Notification | Reminder Failure in Contract 21100@R31-Nov-05 for Business World (3422.50 USD) |
To view notifications
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
Your notifications appear at the top of the page.
To see all your notifications, select Full List.
To open a notification, select the corresponding Subject link.
The Notification Detail page appears. From this page, you can approve, reject, delegate, or request information by clicking the appropriate action button.
If a notification does not require a response, a note appears at the top of the page. You can select OK to close the notification and return to the Administrator Workbench.
Select an action:
Approve: Opens the Notification Detail page.
To approve the contract:
Enter a response note.
Click Approve.
Reject: Opens the Notification Detail page.
To reject the contract:
Enter a response note.
Click Reject.
Delegate: Opens the Delegate Notification page.
To delegate a notification:
Select an assignee.
Enter comments.
Click Submit.
Request Information: Opens the Request Information page.
To request information:
Select the individual from whom you want to request more information.
Enter the information requested.
Click Submit.
OK: Returns to the Administrator Workbench.
Note: You can return to the Administrator Workbench, by selecting the Service Contracts link preceding the notification title.
You can publish a manual renewal contract or a new contract online for customer acceptance. Contracts that are marked for online renewal get published online upon renewal. However, you may decide to publish additional contracts that are currently being manually managed by using this action. This action publishes selected contracts on the online acceptance portal. You can publish one or multiple contracts online.
To publish a contract to a customer for acceptance
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to publish to a customer for approval.
From the Select Contracts list, select Publish to Customer.
Click Go.
A confirmation appears, which indicates the contracts that have been submitted for online acceptance. If the contract is already published online, a message appears indicating that the contract is already published.
You can submit contracts for internal business approval . The Submit for Approval action puts the contract in the approver’s worklist. You can submit contracts for approval for one or multiple contracts.
To submit a contract for approval from the Administrator Workbench
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to publish for internal approval.
From the Select Contracts list, select Submit for Approval.
Click Go.
A confirmation appears indicating the contracts that have been submitted for approval. If the contract is already submitted for approval, a message appears indicating that the contract is already in the approval queue.
You can suppress reminders for contracts using the suppress reminders actions. Customers do not get reminder notifications for contracts from the auto reminder program for contracts that require customer acceptance. You can suppress reminders for one or multiple contracts.
To suppress reminders
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to disable reminders.
From the Select Contracts list, select Disable Reminders.
Click Go.
A confirmation appears, which indicates that reminders have been disabled for the selected contracts. All contracts for which reminders have been suppressed are marked with an icon next to the contract number.
You can enable reminders for those contracts for which reminders were suppressed. You can enable reminders for one or multiple contracts.
To enable reminders
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to enable reminders.
From the Select Contracts list, select Enable Reminders.
Click Go.
A confirmation appears, which indicates that reminders have been enabled for the selected contracts.
You can run the quality assurance (QA) check on selected contracts. You can run the QA check for one or multiple contracts.
To run the quality assurance check
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to publish to a customer for approval.
From the Select Contracts list, select Run QA Check.
Click Go.
A confirmation appears, which indicates the QA Check concurrent request has been submitted and provides a concurrent request id.
Note: For more information about the QA check, see About the Quality Assurance Check (QA Check).
You can update one or more attributes on multiple contracts from the Mass Update Contracts page.
Prerequisites: .
Identify one or more contracts with a status of Entered or Canceled. The negotiation status must not be Pending Approval or Pending Activation.
Note: This procedure shows the navigation from the Administrator Workbench page.
You can also access the Mass Update Contracts page when the Mass Update action is selected from the following pages:
Search
Advanced Search
To update multiple contracts
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Mark the Select check box next to the contracts that you want to update.
From the Select Contracts list, select Mass Update.
Click Go.
The Mass Update Contracts page appears.
A read-only table at the top of the page shows the following attributes for the contracts that you selected:
Contract Number
Customer
Description
Status
Start Date
End Date
Follow-Up Due Date
Follow-Up Action
Amount
You can also add the following columns using the personalization feature:
Forecast Close Date
Forecast Percent
Negotiation Status
Known As
Category
To update the contract status information, scroll to the Contract Status region. You can update the following:
Status: Select a new status from the drop down list.
Reason: Select a reason from the drop down list.
Comments: Enter comments to explain the status update.
To create a follow up action, scroll to the Follow-Up region. You can create the following:
Action: Select an action from the drop down list, such as Call Customer.
Due Date: Select the date that you expect the action to be completed.
To update forecast details, scroll to the Forecast region. You can update the following:
Close Date: Select a new close date for the forecast.
Close Percent: Enter a new close percent for the forecast.
To enter notes, scroll to the Notes region and enter any notes relating to the contract within the Notes Text field.
Click Apply.
A confirmation message appears indicating that the contracts were successfully updated.
You can update one or more attributes on a single contract from the Update Contracts page.
Prerequisite: .
Identify a contract with a status of Entered or Canceled. The negotiation status must not be Pending Approval or Pending Activation.
Note: This procedure shows the navigation from the Administrator Workbench page.
You can also access the Update Contracts page when the Update Contract action is selected from the following pages:
Search
Advanced Search
To update a contract
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Mark the Select check box next to the contract that you want to update.
From the Select Contracts list, select Update Contract.
Click Go.
The Update Contracts page appears.
A read-only table at the top of the page shows the following attributes for the contract that you selected:
Contract Number
Customer
Description
Status
Start Date
End Date
Follow-Up Due Date
Follow-Up Action
Amount
Forecast Close Date
Forecast Percent
Negotiation Status
Known As
Category
You can change the display of the page by using the personalization feature.
To update the contract status information, scroll to the Contract Status region. You can update the following:
Status: Select a new status from the drop down list.
Reason: Select a reason from the drop down list.
Comments: Enter comments to explain the status update.
To create a follow up action, scroll to the Follow-Up region. You can create the following:
Action: Select an action from the drop down list, such as Call Customer.
Due Date: Select the date that you expect the action to be completed.
To update forecast details, scroll to the Forecast region. You can update the following:
Close Date: Select a new close date for the forecast.
Close Percent: Enter a new close percent for the forecast.
To enter notes, scroll to the Notes region and enter any notes relating to the contract within the Notes Text field.
To add a note to the interaction history of the contract, scroll to the Interaction History region.
Filter the interactions by selecting a value from the View list, such as In Person.
Click Go.
This filters the interactions.
Select the Interaction to which you would like to add a note.
Enter a text in the Note field.
Click Apply.
A confirmation message appears indicating that the contract was successfully updated.
You can open the Service Contracts Authoring window from the Administrator Workbench, where you can make updates to the contract, save those changes and return to the workbench. You are limited to opening one contract at a time.
To open a contract
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract that you want to open.
From the Select Contracts list, select Open Contract.
Click Go.
The Service Contracts Authoring window appears. You can make updates to the contract in this form.
For information about the Service Contracts Authoring window, see Creating a Contract.
You can send an e-mail to a customer from the Administrator Workbench. This opens the Email Customer page, where you can select the communication template and specify a description. You are limited to sending an e-mail for one contract at a time.
The procedure for sending an e-mail from the Administrator Workbench mirrors the procedure for sending an e-mail from the Service Contract Search page. See Sending an E-Mail to a Customer (HTML) for details.
You can select a contract and the Print Quote action to view the quote in the PDF format. You are limited to creating a quote document for one contract at a time.
To print quotes and contracts
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
A list of contracts appears in the My In Process Contracts region.
Choose the Select check box next to the contract for which you want to create a Quote Document.
From the Select Contracts list, select Print Quote.
Click Go.
The File Download window appears.
Select Open to open the file, or Save to save to the file to your computer.
If you chose to open the file, the Quote Document opens in a new window.
Review the details on the Quote Document, such as:
Contract number
Short description
Contract term (start and end dates)
Amount
Line details
You can print the Quote Document for your computer.
You can view contracts that require follow-up actions from the My In Process Contracts bin.
To identify follow-up actions
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
From the View list, select Follow Up Actions .
Select Go. A list of contracts appears.
You can view contracts that require follow-up actions. The due date is the date on which you must complete the action. All follow-up actions that are past due are marked with an icon next to the due date.
The Shortcuts bin provides links to other functions within Oracle Service Contracts. You can use the Shortcuts bin to search for contracts or create contracts:
Advanced Search: Opens the Advanced Search page.
Create Service Agreement: Opens the Service Contracts Authoring window with a Status of Entered and a Category of Service Agreement.
Create Extended Warranty: Opens the Service Contracts Authoring window with a Status of Entered and a Category of Warranty and Extended Warranty.
Create Subscription: Opens the Service Contracts Authoring window with a Status of Entered and a Category of Subscription Agreement.
To use shortcuts
From the Navigator, navigate to Contract Administration, and then select Administrator Workbench.
Click the link for the function that you want to start, such as Create Service Agreement.