The chapter discusses the functional advantages of Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus and the business entities that enable project managers and project buyers to collaborate plan and process procurement actions.
This chapter covers the following topics:
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus enables your project teams to establish and measure strategic project objectives and drive project procurement planning, decision-making, and execution throughout the lifecycle of the project. This product provides an integrated platform for project managers and project buyers to create, view, and update procurement plans so they have the information they need to make planning decisions without the need to alert, notify, or engage in unproductive communication to execute the plan. It breaks traditional functional silos and communication gaps between project management and procurement by ensuring your project teams are on the same page at all times in the lifecycle of the project.
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus provides the ability to share information about the project needs and requirements with the buyer and information about procurement status with the project manager. The product brings together project and procurement information that is critical to aligning strategy with planning and execution. Project teams can establish strategic objectives, drive down-stream decision making through these objectives, and measure compliance with these objectives throughout the lifecycle of the project.
Based on the power of Oracle Information Discovery, Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus provides interactive, information-based tools that enable the project and procurement team to see and act on the same information. Procurement plans help in planning for goods and services lines. If the plan is for material or simple services, you can plan for the deliveries of these items or services over the project duration. If the plan is for complex service lines, you can plan for progress payments for the services rendered over a period of time within the project duration. The progress can be tracked as a milestone or a lumpsum based payment or can be released based on the amount of work being performed. The information discovery tools allow the teams to gain insight for decision-making by transforming information through filters or selecting dimensions that can aggregate, isolate, or correlate information from traditionally disconnected sources based on common and objective criteria. Out-of-the-box charts, graphs, and metrics provide critical, timely information that help project teams to work collaboratively and coordinate execution of the project procurement plan.
Using Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus, you can:
Reduce planning time - Successful project execution is a direct result of systematic planning. Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus introduces an entity called Procurement Plan to offer a collaborative procurement planning platform for project managers and project buyers. While the project manager works with the design team in identifying detailed procurement needs, the project buyer can establish supply sources to meet the procurement needs. This collaborative platform reduces the number of planning iterations, and makes each iteration faster, thus reducing the planning time.
Integrate execution based on a plan aligned to key objectives - The project teams can use the integrated project-based supply chain execution that reduces wastage and aligns delivery to key project and organizational objectives.
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus works based upon information in Oracle Project Management Planning and Control, and Oracle Purchasing and other related Oracle EBusiness Suite applications. Leverage investments in these applications projects and procurement to enable best in class project procurement processes. The information and processes supported by both these applications along with the procurement plan in Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus and the Oracle Information Discovery interface, equip you with tools to implement a procurement planning and execution process that is a competitive advantage in managing projects.
You can leverage benefits such as:
Increase the chance of project success and prevent risks due to activities associated to project related purchased acquisitions.
Increase the quality of project deliverables by ensuring the right items are ordered, services are procured or subcontracts arranged with the best suppliers that meet your project or organization objectives.
Improve productivity of project managers and project buyers by providing a access to information that eliminates the need for off-line communication about procurement plans and status of orders and deliveries.
Reduce wastage and improve profitability by insuring coordinated execution of orders and deliveries of materials and services needed to complete project tasks on-time.
Leverage the technology of the Information Discovery platform to improve decision-making insight for project managers and buyers.
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus empowers organizations managing large, complex, and procurement-intensive projects to make more effective decisions and eliminate wastage caused due to inefficiency in the procurement lifecycle. Project-based industries with a large percentage of revenue spent on procured materials and services, such as Engineering and Construction, Oil and Gas, and Aerospace and Defense benefit the most from the product's capabilities.
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus can help project managers and project buyers complete the following business actions:
Collaborate effectively on project supply chain decisions through the project lifecycle.
Create and manage procurement plans that meet their project's acquisition strategy.
Plan projects faster by managing procurement plan lines to update statuses, planned items or subcontracts, services, or associate approved sources of supply.
Execute supply chain activities effectively using the project manager or project buyer command centers to view project, task, or procurement transactions statuses.
Act quickly on procurement plans by initiating requisitions or supplier negotiations.
Analyze and negotiate service level agreements and pricing to optimize costs.
Collaborate effectively with approved suppliers.
Empower decision-making using the Item and Supplier Analysis pages to select the best products, services, and suppliers.
Discover project risks before they happen by leveraging the power of Oracle Information Discovery.
Project team members can collaborate when planning and acting on procurement activities for a project. They can:
View common information and statuses about the project procurement plan and the project.
View information about negotiations, agreements, orders, and other important transactions and documents needed to fulfill the project procurement plan.
View information about suppliers and items, or services or contracts necessary to decide on purchases for a project.
View and act on project procurement decisions without having to send notifications or rely on workflows.
Access information that provides appropriate insights when making decisions about an action required on a project procurement plan.
View metrics that indicate if previous decisions are providing the required results so that team member decisions are aligned with the procurement strategy for the project.
Oracle Project Procurement Command Center Plus provides the following business entities that enable project managers and project buyers to collaboratively plan and process procurement actions:
This dashboard enables project managers to:
Create and manage project procurement plans, which list all items and services needed for the project along with the estimated timeframe by when it is needed for the project along with payment schedule for procuring complex services.
Initiate requisitions using a shopping cart experience.
Update procurement plan lines or statuses to improve collaboration with project buyers.
Update project or task information and schedules.
View project schedules, budgets, and forecasts.
Compile and act on key project measures affected by the procurement plan status.
The project manager command center provides information to the project manager for managing the project supply chain and is based on the project procurement plan. It consists of an overview page that is organized around the following key activities:
Exceptions – Alerts guide the project manager to critical actions needed to address project risks.
Workload Balance – Graphs, charts, metrics, and tables help the project manager know what work or decisions are the most important to address.
Metrics – Graphs, charts, metrics, and tables help the project manager understand the overall health of the project's budget, schedule, and quality with regards to the status of the project and the procurement plan and services. .
For further information, see: Overview of Project Manager Actions.
This command center enables project buyers to:
Collaborate with project managers during the project lifecycle.
View and manage procurement plans and update line status.
Initiate negotiations using document builder.
Manage and complete negotiations.
Manage revisions to plan lines, and decide how the revisions will affect downstream procurement documents.
The project buyer command center provides information to the project buyer for managing the project supply chain and is based on the project procurement plan. The page is organized around the following key activities:
Exceptions – Alerts guide the project buyer to critical actions that need to be taken to address risks to the project procurement plan or schedule.
Workload Balance – Graphs, charts, metrics, and tables help the project buyer know what work or decisions are the most important to address.
Metrics – Graphs, charts, metrics, and tables help the project buyer understand the overall status of the procurement plan for the projects they are responsible for.
For further information, see: Overview of Project Buyer Actions.
The Item Analysis page enables project managers and project buyers to select the products and services that best suit the needs and objectives of the project. Using this page, project managers and project buyers can research information about items and services procured for projects. This additional information empowers the project managers and project buyers to analyze the items and services assigned to procurement plan line and make project decisions beneficial to their organizations and the needs of their project customers.
For further information, see: Analyzing Items
The Supplier Analysis page enables project managers and project buyers to select the best suppliers. This page provides additional information to the project managers and project buyers when they need to analyze information about the suppliers who can fulfill orders for a procurement plan line. Using this page, the project team can review, compare supplier performance history, and select suppliers easily.
For further information, see: Analyzing Suppliers