Frequently Asked Questions: Oracle Sourcing
If you are a Sourcing Buyer, see Getting Started for Buyers.
If you are a Sourcing Supplier, see Getting Started for Suppliers.
If you are responsible for administering the Sourcing system, see Getting Started for the Sourcing Super User.
As a Sourcing Buyer you have access to a wide range functionality with Oracle Sourcing. You can create a request for information (RFIs), request for quotations (RFQs), and Buyer's Auction. If your system is integrated with Oracle Purchasing, you can also use requisition information contained in Oracle Purchasing to create draft RFQs and auctions which you can then complete and submit using Oracle Sourcing. You can monitor your negotiations in real time and communicate with participants using online discussions.
To create an RFI, RFQ, or buyer's auction, click the appropriate create link from the Quick Links section of the Negotiations Home page. See: Creating Negotiations section.
To create templates and reusable lists to simplify negotiation creation, click the appropriate link(s) in the Quick Links section of the Negotiations Home page.
To manage draft negotiations on which you and others may be working, click "Edit" under the Drafts Quick Links section.
To monitor the negotiations in which you are participating, check the Negotiations at a Glance section. Use the Search Negotiations fields at the top of the page to search for a particular negotiation
To edit your personal information, click the Preferences link at the top of the page. You can enter many different personal options such as your language, date format, and password, among others.
This system also provides graphical summary and detail reports for many transaction types. Click the Intelligence tab on the Sourcing Home page.
Oracle Sourcing Suppliers can use the product functionality to quickly locate and respond to negotiations. Sourcing Buyers (along with the Sourcing Super User), can invite you to register with the system. Once you receive a registration invitation and have registered and been approved, you can start participating in negotiations.
To respond to negotiations to which you have been specifically invited, view the Open Invitations section of the Negotiations Home page. To respond to a negotiation, click the negotiation number. Use the Search Negotiations fields to search for a particular negotiation.
To monitor the negotiations in which you are participating, check the Your Active and Draft Responses section.
To edit your personal information, click the Preferences link at the top of the page. You can enter many different personal options such as your language, date format, and password, among others. You can also click "Edit" link in the Profile section of Quick Links update contact information such as your name and email address.
Getting Started for the Sourcing Super User
If you are the Oracle Sourcing Super User, you are responsible for setting up and maintaining your company's system. Many setup tasks were probably performed during implementation, however you may wish to do any of the following:
Set up terms and conditions for negotiations.
If integrated with a procurement or purchasing system (for example Oracle Purchasing) register users for your existing suppliers.
Create attribute lists, invitation lists, price elements, and cost factor lists.
See the Oracle Sourcing Administration and Maintenance Guide for details on how to perform these tasks.
Getting Started for the Sourcing Collaborator
As a Sourcing Collaborator, you must have Oracle Sourcing, or Oracle Procurement Contracts licensed, and ready to use. The Sourcing Collaborator responsibility enables you to work with the Sourcing team to contribute to negotiation creation, quote review, and awarding. Your responsibility enables you to perform all tasks as a Sourcing buyer, except that you cannot create new negotiations (RFI, RFQ, or Auction): either from scratch, or by copying an existing negotiation.
Using Shortcuts to Create a Sourcing Document
Using the Spreadsheet Functionality
Responding to the Same Negotiation
Changing the Close Date of a Published Negotiation
Initiating a New Round of Responses
Creating an Attribute Based Negotiation
Awarding Business to Bids or Quotes from the Previous Round When a New Draft Exists
Understanding Auction or RFQ Item Numbers
Canceling a Negotiation with Backing Requisitions in PO
Working with Multi-Attribute Scoring
Accepting Negotiation Responses in Multiple Currencies
Inviting Companies to Participate in a Negotiation
Receiving Reminder E-mail Notifications
Acknowledging Intent to Participate Before Submitting Responses
Responding to a Negotiation that your company owns
Inviting Additional Suppliers to an Auction or RFQ
Checking Created Purchase Orders after Completing Auction or RFQ
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Oracle Sourcing offers flexible negotiation capabilities to buyers and sellers, enabling them to efficiently obtain the best possible prices for goods and services. Prices are established based on actual supply and demand at the time the negotiation is transacted.
The four different types of sourcing documents available - requests for quotations (RFQs), requests for information (RFIs), and buyer's auctions. Buyers use real-time interaction to obtain information on suppliers' products and services, and then use that information to create negotiations that drive prices based not only on price, but on lead times, quantity, and item-specific attributes. Buyers and sellers, who might never meet face-to-face, can bypass intermediaries and establish relationships that might not have been possible using more traditional methods of buying and selling.
Common Functionality
All sourcing document types have the following common functionality to simplify the negotiation creation process:
Sourcing Template and Copy features
Multiple Currency support
Multiple Language support
Notes and Attachments
Terms and Conditions enforcement
RFIs
Oracle Sourcing allows buyers to qualify a wide group of suppliers and their products and services using RFIs. Buyers can use the information obtained to subsequently conduct an RFQ or buyer's auction.
RFQs
Negotiations supports the full RFQ business process. RFQs enable buyers to request quotes from suppliers for complex and hard-to-define items or services such as make-to-order manufacturing items or construction projects.
Typically an RFQ consists of multiple rounds with competition focused on which supplier(s) can meet the specific requirements in addition to price.
The process can last from days to weeks. Buyers usually review the received quotes, amend the supplier list and submit a modified RFQ for subsequent rounds of quoting.
Negotiations supports blind and sealed RFQs. Suppliers are not allowed to see competitive quotes while the RFQ is in progress.
Learn more about RFQs.
Auctions
Auctions supports the complete auction process from auction creation to final award to purchase order generation. Auctions enable buyers to solicit bids for goods and services that are clearly defined, such as office furniture or memory chips.
Auctions last for a set period of time, typically a matter of a few hours, although the close time can be changed manually or extended automatically based on last minute bids.
Auctions are typically focused on creating competition between sellers.
Auctions supports open, blind, and sealed auction styles.
Learn more about auctions.
Use the following table to determine which type of negotiation best suits your business needs. These recommendations should only be used as guidelines. Your specific needs may dictate that you use a negotiation type that has not been specifically recommended for the scenarios listed below.
Guidelines for choosing a negotiation type
| Description of your goods and services | Buyer's Auction | RFQ |
| Easily definable item with few attributes | Y | - |
| Complex item with many attributes | - | Y |
| High number of responses expected in a short time | Y | - |
| Other decision criteria | - | - |
| All participants in the negotiation should be able to view competitive responses but not the responder's identity.(Open Style) | Y | - |
| Only buyer should be able to see the responses(Closed Style) | - | Y |
| ON one can view the responses until the buyer unlocks and unseals them(Sealed Style) | Y | Y |
| Closing time should be modifiable | AutoExtendManual Extend/Close Early | Manual Extend/Close Early |
| Should be able to monitor and alanyze responses online | Graphical MonitorBid CompareBid History | Graphical MonitorQuote CompareQuote History |
The four types of negotiations are Requests for Information (RFIs), Requests for Quotes (RFQs), and auctions. See the table below to help you determine which type of negotiation to create.
Requests for Information (RFIs)
RFI's are used to qualify suppliers and their goods and services for subsequent procurement activities. RFIs are used more for gathering information on goods and service provided by a supplier than to lock in particular price information. Therefore, RFIs typically do not make reference to line price or quantity. RFIs identify important item criteria on which the buyer needs information. The supplier responds by answering the buyer's questions. The buyer uses supplier responses to identify the group of suppliers who should be included in the subsequent negotiation. RFIs can be (and typically are) taken to multiple rounds until the buyer has enough information to identify supplier(s) with which to deal. At the conclusion of the RFI cycle, the information contained in the RFI can be copied into an RFQ or buyer's auction.
Requests for quotes (RFQs) RFQs enable buyers to collect quotes from suppliers for complex and hard-to-define items or services, such as made-to-order manufacturing or construction projects. The RFQ process is generally the longest of the negotiation processes. Once suppliers have submitted an initial round of proposals (quotes), the buyer has the power to fine-tune the RFQ and initiate detailed negotiations, as necessary. This process may go through multiple rounds of negotiations and quotes. RFQs can be blind (buyer can see the quotes during the RFQ, but suppliers cannot) or sealed (neither buyer nor suppliers can see the quotes until the RFQ is closed and the quotes are unsealed), so suppliers can never see each other's quotes while the negotiation is in progress.
Auctions enable buyers to solicit bids for goods and services that are clearly defined, such as office furniture and memory chips. Buyers can discover new suppliers or buyers and get competitive pricing or improved service. Buyers can tailor each auction to control who can see bids during the auction, whether multiple rounds of bidding are possible, and whether partial bids are allowed. Many different items can be included in an auction.
If permitted by the buyer, suppliers can view all bids submitted while the auction is open. This information generates competition and encourages suppliers to submit their best possible price. Once the auction is completed, suppliers are immediately notified of the auction results via online notifications.
Comparison of the negotiation types:
| Negotiation Type | RFI | RFQ | Auction |
| Characteristics | RFIs allow buyers to solicit information from suppliers on the goods and services the suppliers provide. This allows buyers to qualify a group of suppliers and identify the suppliers to be included later in the negotiation | RFQs allow buyers to collect quotes from suppliers for complex items and services. Suppliers submit a single quote per round. Buyers review the quotes, may amend the supplier list, and submit the RFQ for subsequent rounds of negotiating. The RFQ process is typically longer than an auction. | Auctions allow buyers to solicit bids for items and services that are clearly defined, for example, office furniture and memory chips. Auctions are usually short in duration and require a fast bidding process leading to a quick award. |
| Response Document | Response | Quote | Bid |
| Style(s) | Open, Blind, Sealed | Blind, Sealed | Open, Blind, Sealed |
| Multiple Rounds Supported(?) | Yes | YesRFQ,s by nature usually lead to multiple rounds. | Yes, if enabled through bid controls. |
| Can Include Multiple Items? | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Other |
|
|
|
The buyer can choose from three types of negotiations:
Open (auctions, RFIs only): everyone can see the response content, but only the buyer can see the identity of the response.
Blind: Only the buyer can see the response content
Sealed: Neither the buyer nor the suppliers can see the response content until the negotiation closes. The buyer can see the responses once the negotiation is unlocked. Everyone can see the response content once the negotiation is unsealed.
When creating a new RFQ or auction, you can optionally set a start price and target price for every line in the negotiation. The start price is the maximum price you are willing to pay for one unit of item. The target price is the price you hope to pay for one unit of an item. You can elect to display the target price to participants. If you specify a start price, all responding must begin at that price or lower. If suppliers respond with a price higher than the start, they receive an error message.
There are many ways you can streamline the creation of sourcing documents:
Copying an existing document You can copy documents that you, or any other users in your organization, have previously created. The details of the document such as the controls, terms and conditions, item information, and invitation list are copied into a new document which you can edit if necessary.
Using document templates If many of the negotiations you create contain the same features, you may want to create a template that you can use each time you create a sourcing document. This allows you to standardize business practices and save time. Your template will contain the features that are similar among the negotiations you commonly create. When you create a document using a template, you simply open the template and add to or edit details of the template as necessary.
If you are assigned the Manage Sourcing Document Templates job function, you can also create and manage public templates in addition to your private ones. The public document templates will be available for every Sourcing buyer at your company.
Using negotiation styles Your Sourcing Administrator can define document styles that become available for use by buyers. A negotiation style can exclude certain Oracle Sourcing features. For example, a style could be defined that does not allow the use of Requirements or attributes. Once a feature has been removed, the associated regions and fields do not appear on the product pages thus streamlining the appearance.
Using Reusable Attribute Lists
Attribute lists can streamline the document creation process while providing standardization for negotiation items. If you are assigned the Manage Attribute List job function, you can create attribute lists for use by all Sourcing buyers at your company. An attribute list is a grouping of attributes that are commonly used together to describe a good or service.
Using Reusable Invitation Lists
You can create Reusable Invitation Lists containing names of suppliers who you frequently invite to your negotiations. Invitation lists can be shared across the company. This can help you standardize your business practice as well as speed up the negotiation creation process.
If you are assigned the Manage Invitation List job function, you can create and manage public Reusable Attribute Lists, in addition to your private ones. The public lists will be available for Sourcing buyers at your company.
Using spreadsheets
You can download and use spreadsheets to efficiently create and award RFQs and auctions having many line items.
Using draft RFQs/auctions
You can create and save an auction intending to submit it later. These draft documents also allow multiple collaborators to work on the same document.
Creating RFQs/auctions using Autocreate
If your company has licensed both Oracle Purchasing and Oracle Sourcing, you can use the Autocreate feature of Oracle Purchasing to select and group requisitions to create draft RFQs or auctions.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Both buyers and suppliers can utilize the spreadsheet functionality to save time when creating or Quoting/Bidding on multi-line item negotiations. Buyers can efficiently create and award RFQs and auctions while suppliers can also use this functionality to assist in bidding in auctions or submitting quotes for RFQs.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
. All registered users in a company can bid on the same auction, provided that:
The negotiation to which they are responding is not owned by their company
The bid controls for this auction allow multiple bids per round. If only one response per company is allowed, that is called the Single Best Bid.
They have the appropriate function security..
Depending on the auction style, the bidders will be able to see different information as shown below:
| Auction Style | Other Bidder's Viewable Information |
| Open | Company Name Time of bid Bid details Any Notes and Attachments (if notes and attachments are viewable for auction) |
| Blind | Company Name Time of bid |
| Sealed/Locked | Company Name Time of bid |
| Sealed/Unlocked or Sealed/Unsealed | Company Name Time of bid Bid details Any Notes and Attachments (if notes and attachments are viewable for auction) |
Note:Two people from the same cannot quote in the same RFQ.
If you set the response controls appropriately, you can manually close a negotiation before its published close time. Also, you can manually extend a negotiation or allow AutoExtend to automatically trigger one or more extensions.
Additionally, you can pause and resume a negotiation for a short period of time if you need to clarify supplier questions.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
If a supplier has submitted a response, the supplier can contact the buyer and ask to have the response disqualified. Disqualification, however, is up to the discretion of the buyer.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Attribute based negotiations enable buyers to define multiple item-specific characteristics, called item attributes, that allow bidders/suppliers not only to respond to the price, quantity, and delivery, but also to other features salient to each item. Depending on the setting chosen during the negotiation creation, these attributes can be either required, optional, or display only.
Item attributes and their responses comprise the heart of the RFI process. When creating an RFI, buyers define attributes for negotiation items. These attributes represent important aspects of the item for which the buyers need information from their suppliers. Suppliers reply to the item attribute, in essence "answering" the buyer's question. The buyer then uses the suppliers' responses to qualify the group of suppliers and to determine the best set of suppliers with which to later conduct a negotiation.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Once you save a new round of Quoting/Bidding, the system automatically updates the status of the previous round to Round Completed. Negotiations with Round Completed are not available for awarding.
However, you can delete the draft for the new round from the Manage Draft Negotiations page. The system automatically updates the status of the previous round to Closed, making it available for award.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Item numbers and item revisions appear if the negotiation item is AutoCreated from a requisition line having an item from the item master. Negotiations lines entered directly in Oracle Sourcing can include item numbers and item revisions if the item information was retrieved from the Item Master.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
As soon as you cancel a negotiation with backing requisitions, the requisitions become available again to AutoCreate in Oracle Purchasing. New buyers can then manage the requisitions as needed. The old Sourcing negotiation number remains on the requisition line until a buyer creates a new negotiation using the requisition.
In a price-only negotiation, suppliers can quote/bid on price, quantity, delivery dates and attributes of an item, however, the system ranks the supplier only on the basis of price. In a Multi-Attribute Weighted Scoring negotiation, item attributes can be scored and weighted. The winning response is decided based on the buyer's definitions of the relative importance of item attributes, reflected in the Price-to-Total-Score.
In both price-only and Multi-Attribute Weighted Scoring negotiation, the buyer can still award the negotiation to any supplier regardless of the Price to Total Score ratio values.
Multi-Attribute Weighted Scoring is the ability for a buyer to use customizable attributes to define a product or service in a quantifiable manner. This allows the buyer to define the relative importance of each attribute by assigning weights to these attributes and scores to expected values for each attribute.
Each weight assigned to an item attribute is a number between one and 100 that represents the importance of that attribute compared to other item attributes. The higher the weight, the more important the attribute to the item.
Scores are numbers between zero and 100 and are assigned to each possible attribute value or range of values. The higher the score, the more desirable the attribute value or range of values. Scores represent the desirability of that attribute value or range of values compared to other values. The goal of scoring is to motivate a respondent to respond with quotes/bids most closely matching the desired attribute values.
Weights and scores can be assigned to the custom attributes, quantity, or need-by date. Custom attributes having weights and scores are called weighted attributes and require a response. As responses are received, the system calculates a weighted score for each attribute response and a Total Score for the item. It then ranks the scores for the same item from different respondents based on a Price to Total Score ratio.
When you create a new negotiation, the negotiation currency defaults to the ledger currency defined for your operating unit. However, you can allow bids or quotes in currencies other than the negotiation currency. Whenever you view the responses you have received, the system will automatically convert the responses to the negotiation currency.
Though suppliers in a multi-currency negotiation can submit responses in several currencies, they are allowed to respond in only one currency per response.
You can invite suppliers to participate in your negotiation by selecting them from the Supplier Master or by applying predefined invitation lists. Invitations are automatically sent to each supplier.
For a public negotiation, you are not required to send invitations to any suppliers. However, you might want to send invitations to increase specific suppliers' awareness of your negotiation and encourage participation.
If the supplier (or a supplier contact) has created a group email list that includes all the individuals who should receive the negotiation notifications, you can enter the address in the Additional Contact Email field during negotiation creation.
Notifications are used to communicate specific events to users.
| Event | Recipient | Purpose |
| Preview or open date/time | Buyers | To inform them that the negotiation is open for previewing or bidding |
| Preview or open date/time | All invited suppliers | To invite them to acknowledge intent, and participate in the negotiation |
| Preview or open date/time | All invited additional contacts | To invite them to acknowledge intent, and participate in the negotiation |
| Early close of an RFQ or auction | All invitees and suppliers | To inform them about the newly updated close time |
| Extend close date/time of an RFQ or auction | All invitees and suppliers | To inform them about the newly extended close date/time |
| Disqualify a bid or quote | Supplier whose response has been disqualified | To inform the supplier the bid has been disqualified |
| Disqualify a bid or quote | All bidders in the open or sealed auction, or all suppliers in the sealed RFQ | To inform all bidders/suppliers that a certain quote/bid has been disqualified |
| Cancel a negotiation | All invitees and suppliers | To inform them the negotiation has been canceled |
| Award and RFQ or auction | All suppliers | To notify the suppliers that the RFQ or auction has been awarded and how many lines have been accepted or rejected |
| Starting a new round in an RFQ or auction | Suppliers who are invited for the new round | To invite them to participate in an additional round of negotiation |
| Starting a new round in an RFQ or auction | All suppliers from the previous round who are not invited to the new round | To notify them that they are not invited for the additional round of negotiation |
| Invitee not acknowledging intent within the allowed time | Supplier who hasn't responded | To inform and encourage invitee to acknowledge intent to participate |
If companies do not acknowledge participation by a certain time, they receive a reminder email notification once the negotiation has opened for either previewing or responding. When the reminder gets sent depends on the duration of the negotiation. The negotiation duration is the length of time between either the preview date (if the buyer specified one) or the open date, and the close date.
| Negotiation Duration | Reminder Email Sent |
| Equal to or less that 24 hours | One hour after the preview/open date |
| More than 24 hours but less than one week | One day after the preview/open date |
| Equal to or longer than one week | Three days after the preview/open date |
Notes:
If the buyers manually advance the close date to before the original reminder time, then invitees do not receive a reminder. Otherwise, they receive it at the original reminder time.
If additional companies are added before the original reminder time, these new invitees receive reminders at the original time; however, if they are added after the original reminder time, they do not receive reminders.
If the buyer starts another round of negotiation before the reminder time, the reminder is not sent. The new round of negotiation is now treated as a regular new negotiation and invited companies in the new round should acknowledge their intent to participate again.
If the negotiation is closed, canceled or deleted before the reminder time, then invitees do not receive any reminder.
Getting Started with Oracle Sourcing
Suppliers are encouraged to acknowledge their participation intention after they receive the invitation email. Such acknowledgments are intended to enhance communication between buyers and suppliers and inform buyers of the potential participation. It is not mandatory to acknowledge your intent before submitting responses.
You cannot respond to any negotiation that your company owns.
Any user assigned the appropriate job function canadd suppliers to an RFQ or auctionany time before the close date and time.
There are various ways to check which purchase orders were created.
In Oracle Sourcing, access the negotiation whose associated purchase orders you wish to see by entering the negotiation number into the Search Negotiations fields. On the Negotiations Summary page, select Award Summary from the Action menu and click Go. On the Award Summary page, click the response number link to view the information on that response including the corresponding purchase order created for that response.
You can check your Notifications for the Purchase Order Creation Notification, which includes the purchase order numbers along with other information.
You can search for the purchase orders in Oracle Purchasing by entering the negotiation data, for example, the negotiation number. This displays all purchase orders for a particular negotiation. You can also search Oracle Purchasing by entering the original requisition information.
RFQs supports the full business process to solicit quotes from suppliers. The suppliers' responses to the RFQ allow the buyer to compare quotes and negotiate the best price and specifications for the good or service. RFQs enable buyers to collect quotes from suppliers for complex and hard-to-define items or services. Once suppliers have submitted an initial round of quotes, buyers can review quotes and award the RFQ or submit a modified RFQ for another round of quoting.
The RFQ process usually lasts days or weeks through multiple rounds of negotiations.
RFQ is typically used for complex items or services such as made-to-order manufacturing items or construction projects.
RFQs typically consist of multiple rounds with competition focused on whether supplier(s) can meet the specific requirements.
RFQs supports both blind and sealed RFQs. Suppliers cannot view competing quotes while the negotiation is in progress.
Steps in the RFQ process include:
RFQ creation Buyers initiate RFQs that may include multiple line items by publishing the RFQ and inviting suppliers.
Quote preparation and submission Suppliers view the RFQ details and submit their quotes online.
RFQ monitoring Buyers can monitor real-time quote activity and take appropriate action.
RFQ modification or awarding Buyers analyze the quotes and either award the RFQs or modify the RFQs and open them for another round of quoting. Once the RFQ is completed, suppliers are immediately notified of the results via online notifications.
RFQ Capabilities
Manual extend and early close features
Multiple RFQ styles: blind or sealed
Monitoring quote activity in realtime
Purchase order generation
Real-time status updates
Notes and attachments
Online or offline awarding capability (spreadsheet awarding)
Auctions offers complete, flexible auction capabilities to buyers so they can efficiently obtain the best possible price for goods and services. Prices are established based on actual supply and demand at the time the auction is transacted. Auctions allow real-time interaction to drive dynamic prices based on information that extends beyond price to include lead times, quantity and item-specific attributes. Because most auctions are open for short periods of time, the bidding process moves quickly which results in increased competition.
Auctions last for a set period of time, typically a matter of a few days, although the close time can be extended manually or automatically based on last minute bids.
Auctions enable buyers to solicit bids for goods and services that are clearly defined, such as office furniture or memory chips.
Auctions are typically focused on creating competition between bidders.
Negotiations allows buyers to establish either public or private auctions to meet the specific needs of buyers.
Steps in the auction process include:
Creating the auction The buyer defines the auction and includes all the auction item information, the business terms and conditions and intended bidders.
Responding to the auction Bidders participate in the auction by viewing the auction items and submitting bids online. If permitted by the auction rules, bidders can view competitive bids during the auction.
Monitoring the bid responses The buyer and all other participants can monitor the real-time activity during the auction and take action as necessary.
Evaluating and awarding bids The buyer analyzes the bids and awards the auction based on the price, bid quantity, bid attribute value(s). Once the auction is completed, bidders are immediately notified of the auction results via online notifications.
Auction features include:
Manual extend and early close features
Multiple Auction styles:open, blind or sealed
Monitoring bid activity
Purchase order generation
Real-time status updates
Notes and attachments
Online or offline awarding capability (spreadsheet awarding)