Qualification Areas

Qualification areas are containers for your questions. You use a qualification area and its questions to evaluate a particular aspect of a supplier.

You add one or more qualification areas to an initiative and use the questions in the qualification areas to create a questionnaire. You then send the questionnaire to the supplier and any internal responders for a response. Once all the responders have submitted replies, you and any other evaluators review the answers. If all evaluators approve the responses, a qualification for the supplier is created for that qualification area.

If you try to use a qualification area whose questions have been updated, the questions are displayed with an alert icon. You can revise the qualification area definition by using the Uptake Latest Revision. If you don't update the qualification area definition, it uses the previous version of the question.

The table shows the attributes for a qualification area and explanations for each.

Name	Explanation
Qualification Area	The name of the qualification area you're creating. This name is used as the name of the qualification.
Revision	The number of the current version of this qualification area definition. As changes are made to the qualification area definition, the Revision number is incremented.
Description	Optional description
Owner	The owner of the qualification area definition.
Internal survey	Survey qualification area to aggregate feedback on suppliers from multiple internal responders.
Information only	Select this check box if you don't want this qualification area to affect any outcomes.
Expiration Period	Sets a future point in time before the qualification expires. The value you set here's the default that's used for any qualification created using this qualification area. The owner of the qualification can override the value.
Attachments	You can browse to existing files and add as attachments on the qualification area. You can browse to and attach files, enter free form text, or enter a URL in the format https://some.name.com
Status	Qualification area definitions can be in one of four statuses: Draft - the initial definition hasn't been activated for use. Active - the definition is available for use in initiatives and qualification models. Inactive - the definition is disabled and can't be used. It can be reactivated for use when necessary. Archived - this definition has been superseded by a more recent revision.
Qualification Area Level	Whether qualifications generated using this model apply only at the supplier site level or at both the supplier and the supplier site level.
Owning Procurement BU	The procurement business unit that owns this definition.
Default Qualification Owner	Select a user to set as the default qualification owner for all the accessing procurement BUs when this qualification area is included in a qualification initiative. When a default qualification owner is assigned, then all the procurement BUs that have access to this area will have this user as the default qualification owner unless specified otherwise in the Business Unit Access or Business Unit Defaults table.
Global BU access	These values control who can use this qualification area. The default is the procurement business unit of the creator. If you check Global, the qualification area can be used by all procurement business units in the application. Otherwise, you choose the procurement business unit which can use this qualification area. You can insert multiple rows as access procurement BUs.
Business Unit Access	You can assign a default qualification owner for various business units. When the area isn't global BU access, you can also add the procurement business units which can use this qualification area.
Business Unit Defaults	When you chose Global BU access, you provide access to this qualification area for various business units and assign a default qualification owner to manage the evaluation.
Share Qualification with Supplier	You can expose qualification evaluation decisions to suppliers by selecting the Summary option for the Share Qualification with Supplier attribute. By selecting this option, you can control the level of information that's shared with the supplier. Summary - the qualification outcome, the start date and end date. Supplier response - the supplier response to the area questions. Internal response - the internal responder's response to the area questions. Note - you can communicate any additional information to the supplier.
Qualification Duration (only if automatically evaluating qualifications)	If you choose to have qualifications automatically evaluated, this is value is used to derive the qualification end date. The application uses the date the evaluation is performed for the qualification start date. The qualification duration is added to the qualification start date to derive the qualification end date.
Automatically populate responses	If there are existing responses from a supplier's previous response to questions in this qualification area, you can choose to have the application use the existing responses when it generates a new questionnaire. This sets the default for any initiatives that use this qualification area, although a qualification manager can override the setting when defining the initiative. Automatically populating the questionnaire with previous responses relieves the supplier of always answering all the questions. Or, you might want to force the supplier to answer all the questions every time (for example, you're using the questionnaire as a poll, so you want updated responses every time).
Automatically populate questionnaire responses from the same responder	For survey qualification areas, if there are existing responses from the internal responder's previous response to questions in this qualification area, you can choose to have the application use the existing responses when it generates a new questionnaire. This sets the default for any initiatives that use this qualification area, although a qualification manager can override the setting when defining the initiative. Automatically populating the questionnaire with previous responses relieves the internal responder of always answering all the questions. Or, you might want to force the internal responder to answer all the questions every time (for example, you're using the questionnaire as a poll, so you want updated responses every time).
Automatically accept responses	If you choose, you can automatically accept responses to questionnaires. This allows the responses to enter the application without needing an evaluator to manually view and accept them first. If you enable automatic response acceptance here, this sets the default for any initiatives that use this qualification area, although a qualification manager can override the setting when defining the initiative.
Enable scoring	If you enable scoring for this qualification area, it must contain at least one question with scoring defined. You must also set a weight for the question. The weight reflects the importance of that question among the other scored questions in this area. Weights are required for scored questions and the weight values must add up to 100. You can also set a knockout score, which all response scores must meet or surpass if they're to be used in further processing. Setting knockout scores is optional. Also, you define the area outcomes in terms of total scores. An area's total score is the sum of the scores of all the questions in the area. Typically, for each outcome, you specify a beginning and ending score range.
Automatic initiative with single qualification	Select to automatically create an initiative with a single qualification where subject matter experts as initiative owners can review and accept responses independently for complex qualifications with quicker turn around for responses. Qualification owner can then evaluate each qualification quickly, without waiting for other qualification responses when multiple qualifications are present in the initiative.
Automatically evaluate qualification (only if scoring is enabled)	You can also choose to have qualifications automatically evaluated.
Automatic Requalification on qualification expiration	Select to automatically requalify a supplier for certain qualification areas when the current qualification has expired or is within the expiration reminder period so that the supplier always has an active qualification. If you enable automatic requalification on qualification expiration here, all the qualifications created based on this qualification area will have automatic requalification on expiration enabled by default.
Automatic Requalification on new response	Select to automatically requalify a supplier for certain qualification areas when a new response is available so that the active qualification is always based on the latest information.
Information only	An information-only area doesn't have any outcome.
Add icon (Question section)	Using the add icon opens up a dialog window where you can choose questions and add them to your qualification area.
Questions and Outcomes icon	Use the Questions and Outcomes icon to display the Create Qualification Area: Questions and Outcomes page where you can choose the qualification questions and add them to your qualification area. You also specify the possible question outcomes.
Question/Question text (Search and Add dialog box)	Enter the name of a question or the beginning text of a question you want to find. You choose the appropriate questions from the search results. When you're returned to the Create Qualification Area, the questions you chose are displayed.
AI Assist	Click to use generative AI to create questions.
Weight	You can set different weights for the questions in this qualification area. The weight for a question indicates the importance of that question relative to the other questions in the area. The higher the weight, the more important the question. The sum of the weights for all scored questions in this area must equal 100.
Knockout score	You can set a minimum score that all supplier responses must meet or surpass in order to be considered an acceptable response to this question. If any of the required question responses fail to pass the knockout score, the application assigns the qualification an unacceptable outcome.
Add icon (Qualification Outcomes section)	Use the icon to define a possible evaluation outcome for this area.
Set as Knockout (only if scoring is enabled)	When defining an area outcome, clicking this button identifies this outcome and the one to use for any responses that don't meet or surpass the knockout score.
Outcome	The name of a possible qualification outcome. For example, you might define three possible outcomes, Best, Acceptable, and Unacceptable. You assign one of these outcomes later when you're evaluating a supplier's response, or if you're using automatic evaluation, the application assigns the outcome based on the sum of scores for all the questions. If you've scored questions in this area, then you define the possible outcomes in terms of total score values (the sum of all the scores of all the questions) using the From Score and To Score fields. You must define one outcome to use when at least one of the required question responses doesn't pass the knock out score.
From Score/To Score (only if scoring is enabled)	If scoring is enabled this qualification area, for each possible outcome, you must identify a From Score and a To Score. When the responses to scored questions are evaluated, their scores are added together to give a total score. This total score value you use here. Effectively, this assigns responses with different total scores to different area outcomes.
Notify (Only if automatic evaluation is enabled)	For each outcome you define, you can optionally choose to send a notification to the owner of the qualification area a notification whenever a response was automatically evaluated and assigned to this outcome.

The process for creating a qualification area includes these steps.

1. Define the qualification area header values, such as name, business unit access, and expiration notification values. If you intend to use this qualification area with scored questions, decide whether you want to process this area automatically (automatic acceptance and automatic evaluation), and set the attributes appropriately.

   If you intend to share qualification decisions with your suppliers, set the sharing attributes as needed.

2. Click the Questions and Outcomes icon to display the Create Qualification Area: Questions and Outcomes page.

3. Search for and add all the questions that are appropriate for the aspect of the supplier that you want to qualify.

   You can add active and draft questions. You can create and add new questions in draft status or select and add draft questions from your library. You can activate all the draft questions at the same time as you activate the qualification area to streamline the setup process.

   If a draft and active revision of the same question exists, then only one of them is added to the qualification area.

   If you add a question that uses scoring, enter a weight for that question (the sum of all the question weights must equal 100).

4. Define all the possible outcomes to use later when you're evaluating a supplier's response. If you add a question that uses scoring, enter a weight for that question (the sum of all the question weights must equal 100).

5. Define any additional classification values as appropriate.

6. Once you've completed defining the qualification area, use Activate to make the qualification area available for use.

If any changes are made to the questions contained in a qualification area, you can synchronize the latest question version with the qualification area by choosing Uptake Latest Revision. Existing qualification areas remain linked to the version of the question used when the area was created.

If you're planning changes to a qualification area, and you want to see which qualification models use the area, you can view the area definition and then choose the View Qualification Area Usage.

Using Qualification Areas in Oracle Sourcing

Category Managers use Oracle Sourcing to conduct negotiations with suppliers to determine the best provider for goods and services. Negotiations include details on the negotiated items, but might also solicit a company, licensing, performance history and other information from the suppliers participating in the negotiation. Category Managers identify such information by adding questions (called requirements) to the negotiations they then conduct with suppliers. Because this can be the same information you can obtain by using qualification areas in initiatives, Oracle Supplier Qualification lets category managers copy existing qualification areas as requirement sections in their negotiations. Any qualification areas used in the negotiations must also be defined for the same procurement BU or defined as global.

Translate Section Name in Qualification Area

After you've established translations for the questions, you can proceed to define translations for the section name within the qualification area. Section name is a new attribute introduced with this feature. This value set in the qualification area will be defaulted as the section name in the questionnaire, including its corresponding translations.

Create Qualification Questions with Generative AI

Launching or expanding qualification programs to cover new areas often involves significant effort, from researching to determining questionnaire requirements. Generative AI can dramatically shorten the time needed to initiate new supplier qualifications, streamlining the creation process. For example, you can use Generative AI to suggest questions on topics such as sustainability, governance, financial viability, and various supplier risks.

Enter a name and description for a qualification area and click on the AI Assist button on the Questions and Outcomes tab to view the AI suggested questions for the qualification area.

The AI engine will return up to ten suggested questions for the qualification area.

First, you want to review the question text and see if it suits your needs and then delete the ones that aren't needed. After that, review the details of each question and make any necessary edits before adding to the qualification area. Optionally, you can change the description and click on the AI Assist button to regenerate questions.

In addition to generating the question text, the AI engine also suggests and populates other attributes, such as the question name, responder type, question type, and a scoring model. It further provides recommended acceptable responses and, when applicable, assigns a recommended score for each acceptable response.

The selected questions are added to the qualification area, where you can make further changes before activating the qualification area for use in supplier qualification initiatives. The questions are added in the draft status. Data created through generative AI using OTBI is viewable.

This feature has these limitations:

• AI-generated questions are always created in English (additional language support planned for future release).
• This feature is currently available only for qualification areas in draft status and doesn't support survey type qualification areas.
• The questions generated by AI may contain inaccuracies and should be reviewed prior to activation.