Initiatives enable a senior procurement manager or chief purchasing officer execute and monitor strategic procurement initiatives, aimed to meet a specific set of objectives, in their organization. Initiatives also enables buyers break down the complex task of negotiation and supplier identification into smaller tasks, and collaborate with colleagues in order to gather information that is necessary to conduct an effective negotiation. Some essential advantages of Sourcing Initiatives include:
Ability to Create and Manage Initiatives: Buyers and Procurement Managers can organize their strategic procurement activities and sourcing activities into initiatives, using a set of tasks that is completed by a collaboration team.
Monitor Progress of Initiatives: Each initiative is be assigned one or more objectives. Initiative owners, sponsors and the chief purchasing officer can track the initiative, to see if it has achieved the targeted objectives.
Negotiations can be linked to the initiative. Thus any procurement documents that are an outcome of the negotiation, or any related documents can also be linked to the initiative.
The following describes the Sourcing Initiatives process at a high-level:
Various events that can start the creation of a Sourcing Initiative: an item / service requisition that needs a negotiation, a procurement plan for purchasing items / services for a cycle, a requirement to meet business demands where a series of tasks need to be tracked to meet objectives.
Changes in procurement strategy, or changes in organization goals / new objectives within the procurement team can also lead to the creation of new initiatives to execute the change management process, or to align the organization to the new set of objectives.
When the initiative is created, the buyer adds tasks to it, and assigns the tasks to various task owners. These task owners can be anybody in the organization whose involvement is needed in meeting the objectives of the initiative.
The initiative is started; notifications go to various task owners to complete their tasks. Task owners would complete their tasks.
The initiative is completed in due course, however, the initiative might need to be put on-hold, or cancelled for reasons such as non-completion of tasks, non-availability of information.
Managing Objectives
Objectives will be used in initiatives to measure effectiveness of the initiative in achieving the overall strategic objectives of the organization.
Objectives are fundamentally quantitative targets that an initiative sets out to achieve, and each initiative can have its own set of unique objectives to fulfill, or you can have many initiatives created to influence the same objective.
Navigate to Manage > Objectives to open the Manage Objectives page.
The Search region enables you to find one or more objectives. You should create your objectives before you create the Initiative Template, so that you have the objectives ready, and you can simply add them to the Initiative Template. Click Create Objective to create the Objective.
Some examples of objectives you could create:
Supplier Consolidation (measured by number of suppliers in a particular category)
Targeted cost savings (measured by cost savings achieved)
Reduction in lead time for a key component or category of items (measured by the effective lead-time from purchasing transactions)
Geographic restructuring (measured by number of suppliers with sites in a given geographical region)
Improve quality/reduce return rate (measured by quality results)
Improve delivery reliability (measured by number of shipments delivered on time)
In the Create Objective: page, you need to enter data for the following mandatory fields:
Name
Description
Maintenance Mode : Automated or Manual (whether the system generates the numerical values for the Objective using a function and custom hook, or whether the user needs to enter the numbers manually)
Status
Enter a Start Value and Target Value in the objective. The dropdown next to the Current Value field is the Unit of Measure (UOM), that you need to select for the Start Value, Target Value and Current Value. UOM refers to the UOM that you will use to measure an objective. For example, you could select Day or Each, and this would show next to the Start Value and Target Value. You can also specify start date and target date to achieve the target value of the objective.
Objectives can be assigned to initiative templates, or they can be assigned directly to initiatives.
Save your work when done, you will get a confirmation message that the Objective is created successfully and you will return to the Manage Objectives page.
Managing Task Lists
A task list is a collection of tasks that you can use and re-use in several initiatives. This is most frequently required when the collection is a standardized set of tasks to be performed by the team members across initiatives. It is advisable to create a task list before creating an Initiative: in this way, you can have a ready-to-use task list when you create the Initiative.
Click the Manage icon and then select the Task Lists link. The Task Lists page opens and you can search for an already created task list with the search criteria given.
Create a Task List by clicking Create Task List. The Create Task List: page opens, where you need to enter the Task List information such as List Name, Description, Status, Owner (logged in user) and Visibility (Public or Private).
Click Add Task to add tasks to the task list. The Create Task: page opens and you can enter the task details here. The tasks are numbered sequentially by the system. Enter a task name, description and owner.
The Risks region enables you to enter a significance for the task. Each task can be assigned a significance (this must add up to 100 across all tasks).
You can add documents to the task, (for example, documents detailing the task requirements and processes) using the Add Attachment button in the Attachment region. For example, you can use these documents can detail how the task needs to be performed, or what conditions need to be met to report progress on the task.
Save your work to return to the Create Task List: page. You will see your newly-created task as a new row in the Tasks region. Create as many tasks as you require and then click Save to return to the home page. You get a confirmation message that the task list is successfully created.
Managing Initiative Templates
If you create a template for initiatives that you plan to use often, you could save a lot of time and effort. Use the templates as a repository of best-practice initiatives, and update or maintain them. In this way, you learn to create more efficient initiatives as you execute and refine them.
Several fields that are required to progress an initiative are optional on an initiative template. This provides flexibility to define the templates just the way you want to use them when creating initiatives.
There are two types of initiative templates: Private and Public. Only an owner can view, updates, and access private templates. Public templates can be viewed, updated and accessed by owners as well as buyers.
Navigate to Manage > Initiative Templates: Click this link to open the Manage Templates page. You can search for an existing template using the Search criteria. Or you can create a new template by clicking the Create Initiative Template button.
Click the Create Initiative Template button to open up the Create Initiative Template page. An initiative number is automatically generated by the system, and is suffixed to the title of the page, for example, Create Initiative Template: 999.
Enter a title for the initiative (mandatory), then enter other header details such as owner, category, approach, etc. You should select a category from the Purchasing list of values category dropdown.
Add an Objective to the Initiative.
If you would like to assign objectives to the initiative template, click Add Objective, and then click the search and select list of values in the Objective Name column. The list of values popup displays, and you can select an objective to add to the initiative template. Select the Primary Flag column checkbox if you wish that this Objective should be the primary objective. There can be only one primary objective for an initiative template / initiative.
Scroll to the top of the page, click Tasks (below the Header link) to open the Create Tasks for Initiative Template: (template number). Use the Add Task button to create one or more tasks for the initiative. You can also add a task list that consists of a set of tasks grouped together, by clicking the Add Task List button. Save your work and return to the Initiative Header page. For more information on tasks and task lists, please refer to the following sections in this chapter.
Update the Status of the Initiative Template to Active before saving the Initiative Template. You get a confirmation message that the Initiative Template is successfully created. You can use this template to create an initiative.
Adding Attachments
You can add attachments to the initiative template by using Add Attachment in the Attachments region.
Task Details
For more information on task details, please refer to the following sections in this chapter:
Task Lists
Tasks
Notification Subscription
Click the Manage icon on the home page, and then click the Notification Subscription link.
Users can subscribe or unsubscribe from various notifications using the Notification Subscription page. The notifications a user can opt to subscribe to are:
Initiative cancelled
Initiative placed on-hold
Task Assigned
Task Cancelled
Task Placed on-hold
Before the workflow processes are initiated to send a notification to a user, the workflow checks the subscription option the user has selected.
Notifications are also sent to the task owners when the initiative is active.
Notifications are also sent to the task owners or sponsors when the initiative or task is on-hold or canceled.
Notifications are sent to the task owners only if a user puts a task on hold using an action.
If a task owner requests updates to a task, the task owner gets a notification.
Roles and Access
There are two main roles a user can assume with regards to initiatives and tasks:
Buyer or Super User: A buyer can create Initiative Templates, Initiatives, Objectives, Task Lists.
Sourcing Team Member: Typically, this is a task owner. A team member cannot create Initiatives, Initiative Templates, Task Lists, Objectives; a team member can only update the progress on a task.
Home Page
Using an appropriate Sourcing responsibility, navigate to the Sourcing Initiatives home page.
The infotiles at the top of the home page (four in number), when clicked, give you information on the open and overdue tasks and initiatives. When you click the overdue task infotile, for example, the rows below show you the list of overdue tasks with details. Click a task number link or a task name to open it to see more information on the task. The same process can be used for open initiatives and tasks, and overdue inititatives.
If you wish to see only your Initiatives / Tasks, select the My Initiatives / Tasks checkbox on the top right hand corner of the home page. The infotiles and their corresponding tables will reflect the numbers and information relevant to your initiatives and tasks only.
Additional columns that can be enabled for display via personalization in the Overdue Initiatives and Open Initiatives tables:
Operating Unit
Sponsor
Category
Tags
Planned Start Date
Duration
Planned Completion Date
Actual Start Date
Actual Completion Date
Additional columns that can be enabled for display via personalization in the Overdue Tasks and Open Tasks tables:
Operating Unit
Initiative Number
Tags
Initiative Status
Planned Start Date
Duration
Planned Completion Date
Actual Start Date
Actual Completion Date
Progress Last Reported
Prerequisite Task
Dependent Task(s)
Due Date
Significance
Negotiation Number
Negotiation Title
You can search for an initiative by clicking the Search button, and then entering search criteria such as Initiative Number, Owner, Tag (keyword), Operating Unit (this is a mandatory search field). Click an Initiative Number link to open the Update Initiative page where you can edit the initiative header and task information, or perform any action on the initiative.
Administrative procedures such as Managing Initiative Templates, Task Lists, Creating Objectives and Managing Notification Subscriptions can be performed by the Manage button on the top right corner of the home page. Click the Manage button to see the options. Click an options link in order to perform the required administrative process.
Click Create Initiative to open the Create Initiative popup. You can opt to create an initiative from an Initiative Template, copy from another Initiative, or create a new initiative by selecting one of the three radiobuttons and clicking Create:
Create From Template: When this option is selected, the Select Template dropdown is enabled, and required. The dropdown shows all initiative templates that are either public, or private (those created by the logged-in user).
Create From Another Initiative: The Select Initiative dropdown is enabled, and required. The dropdown shows all initiatives that are active, and are either public, or private and created by the logged-in user.
Create New will create a new initiative.
Copying from template / other initiative copies all initiative header information (excluding dates and including durations), objectives, and collaborators. Task information is copied (except dates and risk rating). Attached documents (for example, linked plan lines or negotiations) are not copied.
The Create Initiative: page opens with the template or copied initiative information defaulted in the fields. The region Planned needs to be entered with your initiative planned start date and end date and duration data. If you have specified a Start Date and a Duration, the system automatically calculates and displays the End Date. Planned Start Date and Completion Date are optional in a draft initiative.
The Start Date, End Date and Progress % in the Actual region are automatically calculated by the system, they are defaulted to current dates when the task moves from draft / planned to active. In addition, the Status Summary text box enables Initiative owners describe where the initiative currently stands in terms of progress.
Verify that the Objective(s) you created in the Initiative Template or Initiative are copied over to this new initiative. If you need to add an objective, click Add Objective. Unselect the Tracked flag if you no longer want to consider this initiative among the list of initiatives that are aimed at achieving the objective. Set a start value and target value for the objective, to indicate how you think this initiative will influence the objective.
Sources: Sources are the documents from which the initiative has been created. The following source documents can be used to create an initiative: Requisition Line, Agreement, Catalog Item. Click the Add Another Row icon below the Sources title to add a source. Select a Source, the Source Name (for example, Requisition for IT Procurement).
You can add attachments to the initiative by using Add Attachment in the Attachments region.
Save your work and then click the Details link (below the Header link on the top left corner of the page). You will not be allowed to close the Create Initiative: page without entering one or more tasks, an error message is displayed.
Use the Create Task button to open the Create Task page. The Create Task page enables you to add a single task to the initiative. The task is automatically numbered by the system in a sequence of numbers. Enter the name and owner of the task along with the description. The task owner is the person responsible for performing the task within the timeframe / duration specified. The timeframe is specified in the Planned region – Start Date, Duration fields. If you enter a start date and a duration, the End Date is automatically calculated by the system. Unselect the Tracked flag if you no longer want to consider this initiative among the list of initiatives that are aimed at achieving the objective. Set a start value and target value for the objective, to indicate how you think this initiative will influence the objective.
The Actual region has fields that are automatically updated by the system. For example, when a task is complete, the system will update the End Date value.
When the initiative is not completed, the field is labelled Expected End Date. After the task is completed, the current date is defaulted into this field (so the user can update it), and the field label is Actual Completion Date. This date differs from planned end-date in the sense that the planned end-date is when the initiative owner wants the user to complete the task. The expected end-date is the date when the task owner thinks the task will be completed. Any user who can update the progress on the task can also update the expected end-date. The expected end-date cannot be earlier than the actual start date.
Enter a Significance (or weightage) between 1-100 in the Risks region. Also specify the Risk Level – low, medium, high in the Risk Level field.
Use the Prerequisite field to add a prerequisite task for this current task. A prerequisite task is required for the current task to start. For example, task 1 is a prerequisite task for task 2; unless task 1 completes, task 2 cannot start.
The Prerequisite dropdown shows all tasks on the initiative except the current task, and also excludes any task that references the current task as a prerequisite task.
Only buyers (not task owners) can enter a prerequisite task.
A prerequisite task is a task that needs to be completed before the current task can begin. The task details page has a column called Prerequisite Task that has the prerequisite task name (with a hyperlink). Conversely, a prerequisite task has one or more dependent tasks (among which is the current task) in the Dependent Task column. For example, task 1 is a prerequisite of task 2, then task 2 is a dependent task of task 1.
In the Task Details page, these task names show in the relevant Prerequisite and Dependent columns, with hyperlinks. Click on a task name hyperlink to open the task details for a prerequisite or dependent task.
If you delete a prerequisite task, the system displays a warning message, informing you that one or more tasks are dependent on this prerequisite task. If you wish to proceed, click Yes, and the prerequisite task will be removed. Click No to cancel.
You can add documents to the task, (for example, documents detailing the task requirements and processes) using the Add Attachment button in the Attachment region.
Linking Negotiations to Tasks
The Negotiations region enables you to associate a negotiation to the current task. Select a Negotiation Number from the search and select list of values. Only those negotiations that are not associated already to a task, are displayed. The negotiation title and status display on the Negotiations region when you select a negotiation to associate.
The negotiation title is a link that you can click to view the negotiation details. First save your task information and then click the negotiation title link, otherwise an error message appears.
If you attempt to save a task that is on hold or cancelled, a warning message appears.
Click Apply to save your work.
Return to the Header page where you can now activate the Initiative for use. Click the Actions list of values and select Activate. The status of your Initiative will change to In Progress.
Progressing Initiatives
Return to the Header page where you can now activate the Initiative for use. Click the Actions list of values and select Activate. The status of your Initiative will change to In Progress.
Reporting Progress on a task
As a task owner, you can access the initiative when it is active, and report progress on any task in the initiative. When you move the task progress from zero, the actual start date is defaulted, however, you can change it if you wish. When you set the progress to 100%, actual completion date is defaulted, however, you can change it too.
The Progress Reported field displays an alert icon if the progress last reported date is older than the system date minus the reporting frequency.
You can place a task on hold and provide a reason if your task is on hold.
When an initiative is created, the status is Draft. At this point, the actions you can perform on an initiative are: Activate, On Hold and Cancel. Following are some initiative statuses:
If the initiative is activated, and the Planned Start Date is a future date (that is, the initiative is not started yet), the status is Planned.
If the initiative is activated, and the Planned Start Date is the current date, the status is In Progress. The buyer can complete the initiative by selecting the Complete action. For example, if the progress completion is 70%, the buyer can set the progress completion to 100%. This will only mark the initiative as Complete, however the task owners/buyer need to actually complete the tasks to make the initiative totally complete.
If the initiative has some updates, has crossed the Planned End Date, and the progress completion is less than 100, the status is Delayed.
If the initiative is activated, and the progress completion is 100%, the status is Completed.
Please note that the Cancel and Complete statuses are irrevocable, and the On Hold status is revocable.
You can add a task to an initiative that has a status of either Draft or Active. The status of the task in both these scenarios will begin as Planned and the task owner can later update the status to In-Progress, when he/she makes progress on the task
If the status of the initiative is Draft, you can delete a task. However, if the status of the initiative is Active, you cannot remove a task, you can only cancel the task.
All status changes are manual. Initiative Statuses are summarized in the following table, that describes what is possible and what is not:
| From - To Statuses | To Draft | To Planned | To Active | To Completed | To On Hold | To Canceled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From Draft | Not Applicable | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| From Planned | No | Not Applicable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| From Active | No | No | Not Applicable | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| From Completed | No | No | No | Not Applicable | No | No |
| From On Hold | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Not Applicable | Yes |
| From Canceled | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Updating and Reassigning Tasks
In the Tasks tab, click a Task Name to open the Update: Task # for Initiative # page. Update the required fields, for example, Task Owner, or Status, etc. Click Apply to save your changes and return to the Initiatives page. You get a confirmation message that the initiative has been saved.
Following up with Task Owners
You can select one or more tasks and click Request Updates button to send a notification to the task owners of the selected tasks, asking for progress on the task. You can enter your own message in the Comments pop-up.
Task owners will receive a notification with a link to the task.
Notifying Task Owners
Before the workflow processes are initiated to send a notification to a user, the workflow checks the subscription option the user has selected.
Notifications are also sent to the task owners when the initiative is active.
Notifications are also sent to the task owners or sponsors when the initiative or task is on-hold or canceled.
Notifications are sent to the task owners only if a user puts a task on hold using an action.
If a task owner requests updates to a task, the task owner gets a notification.
Home page
Using an appropriate Sourcing responsibility, navigate to the Sourcing Initiatives home page.
The infotiles at the top of the home page (four in number), when clicked, give you information on the open and overdue tasks and initiatives. When you click the overdue task infotile, for example, the rows below show you the list of overdue tasks with details. Click a task number link or a task name to open it to see more information on the task. The same process can be used for open initiatives and tasks, and overdue initiatives.
Additional columns that can be enabled for display via personalization in the Overdue Initiatives and Open Initiatives tables:
Operating Unit
Sponsor
Category
Tags
Planned Start Date
Duration
Planned Completion Date
Actual Start Date
Actual Completion Date
Additional columns that can be enabled for display via personalization in the Overdue Tasks and Open Tasks tables:
Operating Unit
Initiative Number
Tags
Initiative Status
Planned Start Date
Duration
Planned Completion Date
Actual Start Date
Actual Completion Date
Progress Last Reported
Prerequisite Task
Dependent Task(s)
Due Date
Significance
Negotiation Number
Negotiation Title
You can search for an initiative by clicking the Search button, and then entering search criteria such as Initiative Number, Owner, Tag (keyword), Operating Unit (this is a mandatory search field). Click an Initiative Number link to open the Update Initiative page where you can edit the initiative header and task information, or perform any action on the initiative.
Reporting Progress on a task
When you are identified as an owner of one or more tasks of an initiative, you will receive automated notifications informing you of changes to the status of the initiative. You can navigate to the Notification Subscription to unsubscribe from certain notifications if you want to.
Additionally, initiative owners can follow-up with you on getting progress updates by sending manual or scheduled notifications.
As a task owner, you can access the initiative when it is active, and report progress on any task in the initiative. When you move the task progress from zero, the actual start date is defaulted, however, you can change it if you wish.
Whenever you make changes to the Progress %, the Progress As Of date will be defaulted to the current date. You can change it to let the system know that the Progress % was achieved on a specific date in the past. The Progress As Of date is used to send automated notifications to you asking for updates if you do not report progress within the reporting frequency identified on the task.
The Progress Reported field displays an alert icon if the progress last reported date is older than the system date minus the reporting frequency.
Set a date to the Expected End Date to let the initiative owner know when he / she can expect to see you complete the task. This information will be useful to the initiative owner in ensuring that the initiative is completed on-time.
You can place a task on hold and provide a reason if your task is on hold.
You can also identify the risk level of a task in order to bring additional visibility to the task. You can enter information in the Status Summary to provide additional information to the initiative owners and management about the progress you are making on the task.
If the expectation of the objective is to deliver a document, you can attach the document to the task. This document will be visible to all the collaborators of the initiative.
When you set the progress to 100%, actual completion date is defaulted, however, you can change it to a past date if necessary