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| iPlanet BuyerXpert 4.5 Concepts |
Chapter 2 How Does iPlanet BuyerXpert Work?
The following sections are contained in this chapter:
iPlanet BuyerXpert People
iPlanet BuyerXpert People
There are a number of people in the organization who are involved with iPlanet BuyerXpert:
Users
Users
In the iPlanet BuyerXpert environment, users are procurement professionals or other employees of the buyer organization who are buying items from catalogs that belong to other organizations. These catalogs are hosted in the buying organization's environment.
A buyer is a member of the iPlanet BuyerXpert community who can request sales quotes, browse a catalog, place an order, and track purchases.
A buyer logs into the web browser interface.
The buyer searches available catalogs and selects items to buy.
The buyer reviews selections and continues shopping.
The buyer begins the checkout process.
The buyer is prompted to confirm checkout; a message is displayed when the checkout is successful.
For iPlanet BuyerXpert, the requisition is electronically submitted for approval. After approval, it is submitted as an order to the seller.
The buyer can view order details and track the order.
Administrators
An administrator is an employee of the buyer organization that performs such administrative tasks as:
Installing and upgrading the product
Starting up and shutting down the systems and components
Setting up access control to iPlanet BuyerXpert resources
Defining the members within a buyer organization and assigning privileges associated with that organization
Administering electronic catalogs
Managing the iPlanet BuyerXpert data, including creating, updating, and deleting data using the graphical interfaces or Import/Export utility
Administrator Roles for the Multi-Organizational Structure
iPlanet BuyerXpert administration is a multi-tiered process that works through privilege levels associated with three distinct administrator roles: the systemadmin, the orgadmin, and the selfadmin. These roles are assigned during iPlanet BuyerXpert implementation.
Systemadmin (super administrator)—Can do all that is possible through the administrative utilities and interfaces of iPlanet BuyerXpert, including interactive administration and importing data. The superadmin has full create-read-update-delete privileges across organizations, and is responsible for giving the orgadmins their functional privileges. This role has no administrative restrictions.
Orgadmin (organization administrator)—Can administer various resources within the domain of the orgadmin's organization. An orgadmin has full create-read-update-delete privileges within an organization.The orgadmins in an organization are given functional privileges by the superadmin.
Selfadmin (self administrator)—Can administer only self and self-related entities and attributes. This is the most restrictive role and is the default. iPlanet BuyerXpert determines what a particular administrator can do with a resource by consulting the privilege table for that resource.
Note For further information on resources and privileges, refer to the resources chapters and appendix in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
Approvers
An approver is an employee of the buyer organization who is responsible for reviewing and approving requisitions that are created using iPlanet BuyerXpert. There can be a number of approvers in the approval cycle for a particular organization. This cycle is set up by the superadmin in an approval matrix.
Hierarchical approver—person who manages the buyer who created the requisition; could include a hierarchy of managers above the buyer
Commodity approver—person who is responsible for a particular category of products or services in the organization, such as office supplies or computer equipment
Cost center approver—person responsible for a particular cost center or department of the organization
Approver pool—a group of users, any or all of whom can function as the approver, depending on the approval chain of the organization
Off-catalog approver—person who determines what to purchase if an item cannot be ordered through a catalog Approval authorization can be delegated to another iPlanet BuyerXpert member if the organization approval matrix is set up to allow delegation.
Note Further information can be found in the iPlanet BuyerXpert online Help and the resources setup chapter of the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
iPlanet BuyerXpert Components
The components that form the processing framework for are:
Multi-Organizational Structure
Multi-Organizational Structure
iPlanet BuyerXpert provides a multi-organizational approach that allows unique business rules to be applied to subdivisions of an enterprise. That is, within a single instance of iPlanet BuyerXpert, an enterprise can be divided into multiple organizations or divisions, each of which can have unique access control, catalogs, price lists, locales, currencies, bill-to and ship-to locations, adjustments, and payment methods.
Multi-locale and multi-currency functionality allows great flexibility in tailoring iPlanet BuyerXpert to the specific profile of your organization.
Multi-Locale
The term multi-locale refers to the situation where multiple locale presentations can be used simultaneously within one iPlanet BuyerXpert system. For example, one user may be using English and another Chinese.
Language and/or language variant (zh_CN/ en-us)
Page layout—required to handle string expansion and/or text that reads in directions other than left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
Graphics—different graphics may be needed due to page layout or cultural differences The locale is independent of the currency, and the currency is independent of the locale. For example, locale doesn't determine how many significant digits are shown, and the currency doesn't determine the number format.
Multi-Currency
The term multi-currency refers to support for multiple currencies (Euro, USD and others) within one iPlanet BuyerXpert system. With multi-currency functionality, the preferred currency can be displayed for:
Graphical interfaces
Reports
Note Refer to the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for more information.
Access Control
A business community is a hierarchy of organizations, organizational units, users, user groups, and locations. For iPlanet BuyerXpert, this hierarchical model is represented in the directory structure of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).
The security policy for a business community is a defined, administered, reconciled plan, based on the hierarchical model of the particular business community. A security policy includes access control mechanisms that are used to protect resources from unauthorized access and manipulation. There are three primary goals of any security system:
Confidentiality—Data cannot be viewed by members who are not intended to view it.
Integrity—Data cannot be modified by members who are not intended to modify it.
Integrity depends on the principle of least privilege, that is, a member is given no more than the minimum privilege required to perform a task, as opposed to trusting the member's good intentions.
Accountability—All relevant access and modification events should be capable of being logged for future auditing and verification purposes.
Privileges
In a security system, authentication involves verification of the identity of a member by a trusted system. Authentication is about who you are. Authorization involves verifying the actions that are allowed for that particular member. Authorization is about what you can do.
Assigning privileges to a member is how that member's access to resources is determined. A privilege level can be made up of a number of permissions that specifically define what a member can and cannot do in particular circumstances. A permission is constructed using the resource name, the member identification, and the action name.
Access to Resources
A resource, also known as a business object, is typically a piece of business data, such as a record in a database. The manipulation of resources involves the performance of a business task, such as creating an order, by a person who is a member of the iPlanet BuyerXpert business community.
Note See the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for more information on access and resources.
Membership
Members are participants in the iPlanet BuyerXpert system and have permission to access particular iPlanet BuyerXpert functions and data. The concept of members is not restricted to users. In addition to buyer and seller organization people, members include the buyer and seller organizations, user groups, organizational units, and locations for shipping, receiving, and payment information.
Membership refers to the roles, permissions, and authorizations associated with each member. When iPlanet BuyerXpert is set up, the administrator creates a unique user ID and password for each user, as well as each user's membership profile.
iPlanet BuyerXpert members are:
Organization
An organization is a company, government body, or institution that participates in the buying or selling process. This includes the buyer organization, the seller organization, the shipper organization, and so on.
An organization represents a collection of users, locations, sub-organizations, organizational units and user groups that carry on the day-to-day business operations. An organization can have unique access control, catalogs, price lists, locales, currencies, bill-to and ship-to locations, business rules, adjustments, and payment methods.
At the top of its domain, the organization forms the root of the membership hierarchy.
Note In the iPlanet BuyerXpert multi-organizational environment, there can be many organizations, each with their own domains.
Organizational Unit
An organizational unit is a grouping of users, usually along a specific line of work in the day-to-day operation of the organization. An organization can be divided into one or more organizational units, each of which can be further be subdivided into more organizational units (nesting).
An organizational unit can have unique locations and catalogs.
A user does not have to belong to an organizational unit, but cannot belong to more than one.
User
Users are people who belong to an organization and perform the day-to-day tasks within the procurement enterprise. Buyers, sellers, and administrators are all users.
Users have differing privileges, based on the requirements of the organization and enforced by the membership hierarchy and access control directives. User permissions can be based on organization, organizational unit, and/or user group.
Although users can only belong to a single organizational unit (or none), they can belong to many user groups.
User Group
A user group is a role-based grouping of users within an organization that has its own business rules and access control policies. User groups are used primarily to define roles among users, such as setting privileges for a group of users rather than setting these privileges separately for each individual.
In many ways, user groups resemble organizational units, but organizational units have stricter limitations regarding user membership. Unlike organizational units, a user can belong to many user groups.
User groups cannot be divided into sub-user groups.
Location
A location represents a destination point for shipping, receiving, billing, and so on. iPlanet BuyerXpert locations include:
These locations could have the same physical address, or could all have different addresses.
Note See the resources chapters in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for more information.
Business Rules
Business rules are configurable, generalized statements that define the specifics of applying processing methods to a particular set of data. Business rules determine privileges, acceptable processes, relationships between iPlanet BuyerXpert participants, and defaults.
Business rules determine such things as:
Relationships between buyer and seller organizations
Applicability of business processes, such as buying with credit cards
Choices and default values for options, such as ship-to address or payment methods
The business rules semantics are not as complex as a full programming language, so programming expertise is not required to perform typical configurations.
Example
Rule instance named LINE_DISCOUNT:
Buyer==iPlanet & Seller==Sun & Product==Computers => Line Discount=10%
This example rule is made up of a number of elements that state if the buyer organization is iPlanet, the seller is Sun, and the product is computers, iPlanet BuyerXpert applies a 10% line discount to an order.
Note Refer to the online Help and the business rules chapter in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for more information.
Typically, business rules are configured during initial deployment of the iPlanet BuyerXpert software on a customer site. After implementing the business rules on a staging environment, a rules export utility can be used to transfer the organization-specific rules to a production environment. Once the business rules are active, the associated rules search facility in the Admin interface can be used to find rules associated with particular people, resources, or processes.
Catalog Manager
To make their products available to buyers, sellers organize product information into catalogs. The product information structure in a catalog is a hierarchy of categories, with items under those categories. The ways of representing this information vary from buyer to buyer, depending on the buyer profile.
Catalog management is simplified by a set of tools which allow sellers to map existing catalogs to the iPlanet BuyerXpert environment. Using a graphical interface, sellers can organize their catalog data and import using a command line interface for the iPlanet BuyerXpert environment. After a catalog is imported and a master catalog is created, buyer organizations are able to create private buyer catalogs for specific groups within their organizations. This allows buyer organizations to control excessive and maverick spending.
Catalog Manager allows for quick, real-time catalog creation and maintenance by providing the following product catalog-related capabilities:
Creation of seller-managed content through an internal product catalog system
Graphical interface for catalog design and product classification
Support for schema to follow United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC), or other structure, if desired
Access to remote seller-managed web-based content via OBI standard Users who have browsing privileges can browse the buyer catalogs created for their user groups. A buyer searches and locates catalog items, views item details, compares catalog items, picks and adds catalog items to an electronic shopping cart, and creates orders.
Catalog Manager enables the following:
The administrator can create and maintain a standardized structure (master ontology) that maps catalog data to the iPlanet BuyerXpert environment.
The administrator can manage catalog data using the Catalog Manager graphical interface or the batch process Import/Export utility.
The administrator can create and manage group-specific buyer catalogs.
The administrator can add items to seller catalogs and manage catalogs online.
Users can perform advanced, keyword, and parametric searches on catalogs and perform side-by-side comparisons of items.
Users can generate orders.
Note Further information and procedures are contained in the Catalog interface Help and in the catalog chapter of the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
Order Process
The order process handles the core processing of orders, including placing orders and tracking order status. Using data from business rules, member profiles, product lists, price lists, default order settings, and calculation formulas, the order process assembles first a requisition, then an order that is ready to be sent to the backend system of the seller organization.
The iPlanet BuyerXpert order process can be configured to:
Create orders by browsing catalogs
Create and manage blanket purchase orders awarded to particular suppliers
Determine contract pricing with discounts, charges, allowances, and promotions
Estimate freight charges based on shipping point and carrier selection
Support credit and check (bank account) payment methods
Search by full or partial shipment of goods
Archive and restore requisitions
Support repeat order templates and multiple orders in progress
Award discounts, commissions, allowances, or promotions (DCAPs)
Elect to turn off rules you may not be using, such as freight, taxation, DCAPs
Note Refer to the User and Admin interface Help and the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for more information.
Contract Tracking
Contract tracking provides the ability to associate a line item on a requisition with any contracts indicated by the contract identifier code(s) for that item. The requisitioner can click a link to display a contract document.
Blanket Purchase Orders
The blanket purchase order functionality allows you to issue a standing purchase order to a particular supplier, limited by either a dollar amount, a time period, or both. Blanket purchase orders are only created by users who have the appropriate permission (defined by a business rule). After it has been created, a blanket purchase order goes through an approval process which may or may not be the same as the standard requisition approval process for your company.
After approval, the new blanket purchase order is sent to the supplier using ECXpert, and is available for buyers to order against until its limits expire.
The details of requisitions that have been created against the blanket purchase order and its expiration status can be viewed by the owner in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Track screen.
Information on creating, ordering, and tracking blanket purchase orders can be found in the online Help for the iPlanet BuyerXpert User interface and Admin interface.
Using the rules associated with blanket purchase orders, you can:
Limit who can create blank purchase orders.
Identify who is authorized to update another person's blanket purchase orders.
Determine who should receive notifications, and in what situations. Information on configuring rules can be found in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide and the Admin interface online Help.
Archive/Restore Requisitions
Over time, the requisition data in the iPlanet BuyerXpert database grows. This ultimately affects performance, particularly response time. These old records may no longer be needed for immediate access, in which case, they can be removed to an archival database where they are available for restoration if needed.
In the iPlanet BuyerXpert Admin interface, a Requisition Archive screen allows the administrator to select requisitions for archiving by specifying a date, a requisition number, or a range for either dates or requisition numbers. As the archive/restore process proceeds, the status is updated on the screen. The details of an archive/restore operation are logged to a text report. The location and level of detail of this report are configurable.
Each requisition is archived/restored in a transaction so the data integrity of the requisition is not compromised.
In the iPlanet BuyerXpert User interface, summary information for an archived requisition is displayed in the track screen of the user who created the requisition.
Instructions for using the requisition archival feature are contained in the iPlanet BuyerXpert Admin interface online Help.
Approval
The iPlanet BuyerXpert approval process is a series of pre-defined approval tasks through which a requisition is routed before becoming a purchase order. The desired action is the approval of the requisition; the tangible result is a purchase order (approved) that can be sent to a seller for fulfillment.
The approval process works like this:
Adheres to a rule-based process flow as determined by your organization. A process flow is a set of procedural steps that establish approval paths.
Determines which process steps to take based on the person who creates the requisition. This allows different process sequences to occur for different users and organizations. Approval pools can be designated.
In conjunction with a specific process flow, evaluates a requisition based on such data as purchase amount and employee role to create an approval case made up of one or more process instances.
Routes requisitions according to an approver matrix, which is based on:
Sends notification emails throughout the approval process.
Delegates approval authority according to an approval delegation table.
Receiving
The iPlanet BuyerXpert receiving process provides the following capabilities:
Either desktop or centralized receiving
Delivery package tracking and searching by order number When the items ordered arrive from the seller, the following information is captured by the receiving process:
The delivery package is tracked by purchase order number. You can search receipts by purchase order number, status, and so on.
A seller may deliver a partial order. That is, some items on the order are delivered and some items are not, or the quantity of an item is only partially delivered, with the rest to arrive later.
Receiving status on a line item is either fully received or partially received. After an order is either fully received or partially received, the order cannot be cancelled. The receiving process allows you to query what quantities or items are received thus far. The receiving history shows the date and quantity of items received on a purchase order.
Note Further information can be found in the iPlanet BuyerXpert online Help and the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
Supplier Performance
Supplier (seller) performance provides the ability to track and compare sellers based on criteria such as quality of goods, quality of service, and timeliness of delivery. This feature allows customers to manually enter performance data, automatically collect basic receiving data, and report on data collected.
A user can enter quality metrics for any given line item.
The system can be configured to support a variable number of quality fields.
Options for each quality field are configurable, and can vary by product or commodity code.
Automated supplier performance tracking/reporting uses Order Acknowledgement (ACK), and Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN).
A person other than the requisitioner can receive On Behalf Of.
Note Information on how to customize supplier performance is contained in the customization chapter of the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
Invoice Matching
Invoice matching is a payment strategy whereby the recipient pays for shipped goods upon arrival only under certain conditions. Payment is authorized only if the prices and goods of the purchase order, the invoice, and the products received match. The matching process is triggered by either an invoice or a receipt.
If validation fails, the invoice is routed to an authorized user and email notification is sent.
An authorized user can view, update, resubmit, defer, or reassign an invoice.
An item can be invoiced, but not received, or received but not invoiced.
Note Information on how to customize invoice matching is contained in the customization chapter of the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide.
Timecard Process
The iPlanet BuyerXpert timecard process provides a means for a timecard user (normally a contractor who works for the buyer organization) to electronically submit timecard information for payment approval.
Although the timecard process is initiated at the Welcome screen of the iPlanet BuyerXpert User interface, it is actually outside the buy process altogether, and only uses the following functionality of iPlanet BuyerXpert:
Create a timecard
Approve using the standard iPlanet BuyerXpert approval process There is no ordering process (because nothing has been ordered from a catalog), nor is there a receiving process (because nothing is being received).
Timecard Creation
A timecard requisition is created by timecard users after timecard projects and contractor profiles have been set up by the BuyerXpert administrator. For timecard requisitions, the line items that are created by the timecard user are rows of information about the billable hours worked by the timecard user. Data entry fields include project name, type of hours (such as regular, overtime, or holiday), and the quantity of hours worked on each day of the time period, usually a week. The user can provide this information all at once, or enter partial information, then save the timecard requisition and add to it throughout the time period.
Timecard Approval
The approval process (as configured by the BuyerXpert administrator) determines who approves the timecard requisition and in what sequence. At the end of the time period, a timecard user submits the timecard to the iPlanet BuyerXpert approval process.
When a user submits a timecard for approval, BuyerXpert assigns a default accounting code to each line item in the timecard, as set up by the administrator. BuyerXpert calculates the costs of the hours for a line item by multiplying the total number of weekly hours times the rate specified in the timecard project table for the specific project.
Timecard Tracking
After the timecard is submitted for approval (and, thus, formatted into a iPlanet BuyerXpert requisition), it can be viewed by the timecard user and the approvers using the track option of iPlanet BuyerXpert. The information the user and the approvers see is different:
Pricing information is not displayed to the timecard user
Approvers see the pricing information and the accounting codes that the line items are being charged to
Example
Shailesh Jones, Senior Consultant, Anderson Consulting
BuyerXpert RegularTime = 30, OverTime = 5, HolidayTime=6, Price = $3000
Some_menial_task RegularTime = 3, Price = $180
In this example, the three Price=$ items would not be visible to the timecard creator, but would be visible to the approver.
Timecard Transmission
After approval, timecard requisitions are sent to ECXpert, where they can be mapped to the format of the buyer's legacy system and transmitted to the buyer organization.
Note Refer to the iPlanet BuyerXpert online Help and the iPlanet BuyerXpert Administrator's Guide for further information on timecards.
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Copyright © 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last Updated June 07, 2002