Understanding Site Acquisition Request Generation

The typical flow to generate a site acquisition request (SAR) is:

  1. The project manager (PM), after approving that a new site acquisition project be undertaken, assigns team members to execute the project.

  2. The PM or Real Estate Specialist creates a new SAR and enters beginning data.

  3. After sufficient SAR data is entered, a Specialist attempts to activate the SAR.

    • If a Specialist does not have the appropriate security level to activate the SAR, then she or he can only validate and correct errors; she will need to submit the SAR to the PM for activation.

    • If a Specialist has the appropriate security level to activate the SAR, then he can do so immediately.

      After activation, a SAR is still open for editing. Users can add to or delete sites from the SAR until the approval submission stage, when the final list of candidates is selected.

  4. During finalization, a user can create an asset in Asset Management, a lease with basic information in Lease Administration, and a project with basic information in Project Costing.

    Any data that can be transferred from the site record (in the site repository) or from the SAR is copied to the asset definition, lease, or project.

Comparison Matrix

After a SAR is Active, the user can check which sites in the Comparison Matrix are proposed as finalists. The list of sites populates the columns, and the attributes populate the rows. The user can rate each attribute on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being the least suitable and 5 being the most suitable. After the user enters the ratings for all the attributes, the system calculates the most suitable site by multiplying the score with the weighting for that row, and then summing the attributes for each site (total score). Each grid (category) lists an individual total as well as a final summarization box at the bottom of the page providing grand totals.

The system calculates a total possible score for each grid. Essentially, this value is the sum of all the fields in the grid with the weighting value multiplied by 5 (the highest score possible for each attribute).

SAR Submission and Approval Processing

The approval step allows the project team to proceed with acquiring the sites under consideration based on rankings in the Comparison Matrix. You use the Approval Workflow Engine for this approval, and you can configure it to require one or many approvers based on customer needs. Both the PM and the individual selected as the Requestor/Approver can approve the SAR for acquisition.

After the finalists are researched and documented, you can adjust the rankings of the sites to be acquired in order to identify the final order. Based on the Adjusted Ranking and the comments field below it, the Approver can identify the order in which the sites are to be acquired and whether the team should acquire one or all of the sites.

All fields at the Evaluating Finalists status remain open for editing. In addition, the Approver can override the finalists proposed by the submitter.

Finalization of Sites Acquired

After sites are selected for acquisition, the project team attempts final negotiations and acquires one or many sites, as defined in the SAR. The negotiation and final acquisition processes occur outside the system. When confirmation is received that a site or sites were actually acquired, then the finalization process takes place.

When you click the Confirm and Finalize Acquisition button, the following actions are triggered:

  • The status of the acquired sites changes to Operating.

  • The status of the SAR changes to Finalized.

  • The actual completion date is updated to the current date.

  • The duration changes to reflect the new duration based on the change in the actual completion date.

  • If you select to create an asset, it is created in PeopleSoft Asset Management with the Asset Type of Property and the Property Class of Site. The system copies the asset description and name from the Site. The Asset ID created appears on the integration tab of the Comparison Matrix.

  • If you select to create a lease, the system validates that the asset was created before the lease was created. The lease is created with the basic information at a Pending status. The site acquired is populated in the property details.

    If a lease is to be created, you must provide the Lease Commencement date, Termination date, and the Lease Obligation date.

  • If you select to create a project, the system uses the project template defined at setup to define a basic project shell with activities and resources.