Negotiation Abstracts

Abstracts are negotiation summaries that you post on your external website for suppliers. Your suppliers can read information about your upcoming negotiations.

They can decide if they want to participate without having to log in to the sourcing application to view information. Include attachments for suppliers when you post the abstract on the public website.

Abstracts are used mainly in public sector entities such as state and local governments, EMEA and US federal negotiations.

Abstract Information

When you define an abstract, you specify when the abstract information is made available. You can have the abstract posted at these times:

• During negotiation open period to inform suppliers about the negotiation and how to participate.

• After negotiation is awarded to publish award notice to external web site.

You can use two types of fields in your abstract definition. These fields are always available:

• Negotiation Number

• Title

• Synopsis

• Negotiation Type (auction, RFQ, RFI)

• Preview, Open, or Close dates

• Negotiation Status

• Buyer

• Attachment Description

Use the Synopsis field to describe your negotiation. The descriptive information in the field is what your suppliers see when they view the negotiation abstract.

Also, if the descriptive flexfields associated with abstracts have been enabled, there may be additional fields you can use.

If you amend the negotiation, open a new round of responding, or duplicate the negotiation to create a new negotiation document, the abstract information is copied. Abstract information is also copied over when a negotiation is saved to template.

Using Abstracts

You can manually post an abstract in draft status. You can automatically post the abstract for negotiations in submitted, preview or active status. Once you have posted the abstract on external web site, you can remove it if necessary.

Enabling Abstracts

You enable the abstract functionality in Setup and Maintenance. You must create or update a negotiation style to support abstracts (style sheets that support Two-stage negotiations have abstracts enabled by default). You must also configure the abstract listing page.

To create a style sheet that accepts abstracts:

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the task: Manage Negotiation Styles:

   • Offering: Procurement

   • Functional Area: Sourcing

   • Task: Manage Negotiation Styles

2. On the Manage Negotiation styles task and click the link.

3. On the manage Negotiation Styles page, and click the Add icon (the plus sign).

4. On the create Negotiation Style page, from the Overview section in Controls, select the Abstract check box.

5. Enter the remaining attributes as needed for this style.

6. Click Save and Close. You use this negotiation style later when you define negotiations for which you want to create an abstract.

To create the Abstract Listing page:

1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to the task: Configure Procurement Business Function:

   • Offering: Procurement

   • Functional Area: Sourcing

   • Task: Configure Procurement Business Function

2. From the search results, click the link for Configure Procurement Business Function.

3. On the Specify Procurement BU page, select the procurement business unit for which you want to create the Abstract Listing.

4. On the Main tab of the Configure Procurement Business Function page, in Sourcing, click Configure Negotiation Abstract Listing page.

5. On the Configure Negotiation Abstract Listing page.

6. Select default formats for dates, time, and negotiation numbers.

7. Select the appropriate language and time zone for this BU.

8. Specify a URL where you want the abstracts to appear.

9. Finally, you can specify default header and footer text.

10. Click Save and Close.

Using Abstracts with a Negotiation

Once you have enabled abstracts for your Procurement BU, you start adding abstracts to your negotiations.

1. Click the Create Negotiations link from the Task panel.

2. On the Create Negotiation dialog box, select a negotiation style that supports abstracts.

3. On the Overview page, enter text into the Synopsis field. This text description of the negotiation is what the supplier sees when viewing the abstract.

4. Click the Abstracts tab.

5. In the Abstract Controls section: specify

   • Whether to include a negotiation .pdf with the abstract.

   • Whether the abstract is posted automatically. If you choose this option, you must also specify which event triggers the abstract posts.

   • A layout for the award notice and the response tabulation.

   • In any of the descriptive flexfields for the Abstract Control section have been implemented there will be additional fields which you may want to enter information.

   • Whether to include all the negotiation attachments categorized as To Supplier in the abstract listing by selecting the control Include negotiation attachments to supplier. You can attach a file, text, or URL link.

6. If you want to see what abstract looks like, click Preview Abstract.

7. After you have finished defining your abstract, you can continue defining the negotiation