Understanding the Supplier Contract Workbench

The Supplier Contract Workbench is a central location from which contract administrators can manage contract-related transactions. Contract Administrators can perform related actions directly from the Workbench, such as accessing source transactions and authored documents. In addition, contract administers can manage exceptions and take actions based on notifications, worklist items, and alerts. The Supplier Contract Workbench can be used as the starting point for all contract administrator tasks.

When using the Supplier Contract Workbench, the contract administrator begins by searching for a source transaction and specific document or transaction attributes. An All Sources search option is available, but not recommended if additional search fields are not used to reduce the search results. The system searches for all authored documents, procurement contracts, as well as purchase orders and sourcing events that have authored documents.

Search criteria can be refined to display the needed results and saved to be reused. Saved search criteria can be marked as public for other contract administrators to use.

Search results are displayed in a grid format where each row can be expanded to show additional detail. The rows that appear in this section can be sorted by clicking on the column heading. In the expanded row, graphical icons are displayed in a lifeline as well as links, which can be used to access additional information.

In addition, you can specify whether you want to employ a SQL-based search method (Real Time Searching) or a Search Engine method for the workbench. PeopleSoft provides these specific Supplier Contract Workbench indexes that are used by the PeopleSoft Search Framework engine to assist in your search for documents based on any of the various combinations of search criteria fields:

Search Definition Index Search Category Indexes

EP_CS_CWB_ADHOC

EP_CS_CWB_ADHOC
 

EP_CS_CWB_AUC
 

EP_CS_CWB_CONTRACTS
 

EP_CS_CWB_PO

Steps to Set Up PeopleSoft Search Framework for the Supplier Contract Workbench

To use PeopleSoft Search Framework with the Supplier Contract Workbench, you must:

  1. Enable the feature using the Workbench Search Method field on the Installation Options - Supplier Contract Management page.

    See Installation Options - Supplier Contract Management Page

  2. Set up PeopleSoft Search Framework for your search engine.

    See ‘Understanding PeopleSoft Search Framework Administration’ in the PeopleSoft PeopleTools Search Technology documentation.

  3. Build and deploy these search definition indexes:

    • EP_CS_DOC_ADHOC

    • EP_CS_DOC_CONTRACTS

    • EP_CS_DOC_PURCHORDRS

    • EP_CS_DOC_SOURCING

    • EP_CS_CWB_ADHOC

    • EP_CS_CWB_CONTRACTS

    • EP_CS_CWB_PO

    • EP_CS_CWB_AUC

    Note:

    Indexes with the prefix ‘EP_CS_DOC’ need to be built before indexes with the prefix ‘EP_CS_CWB.’ Otherwise, the search engine may return incorrect results.

Delivered Permissions

The following sample permissions, or roles, are provided to access the Supplier Contract Workbench:

  • EPCS2000 - Supplier Contracts Library

  • EPCS3000 - Supplier Contracts & Documents

  • EPCS4000 - Supplier Contracts Casual User

  • EPAUC1500 - Event Coordinator

  • EPAUC3000 - Maintain Events