The Oracle Sourcing Negotiations Home page is the starting place for all your sourcing tasks. The tasks you can perform are organized into functional areas and are accessible from different tables and links
Requests Tab
You use the Requests tab to access the Demand Workbench feature. This feature allows you to access and use requisition demand stored in Oracle Purchasing to create Oracle Sourcing documents. You can use the Demand Workbench to create RFQs and auctions with either standard or blanket purchase order outcomes. You can define your own views to automatically display only the requisition demand that meets the search criteria you select.
Negotiations Tab
Searches
You can perform simple and advanced searches to locate negotiations of interest. A simple search allows you to specify a single search criterion and search value, and then locate all published negotiations that match the search value (published negotiations are open for supplier responding). An advanced search allows you to specify multiple search criteria and then locate published negotiations that match all search values.
Published Negotiations
The Published Negotiations table displays the negotiations which you have published. This display includes negotiations in which you are either the owner or for which you are a collaboration member. The entries in the table appear in the following order:
Open negotiations, in order of time left (paused negotiations are displayed with a pause icon to the right of the negotiation number).
Closed negotiations, ordered by negotiation number.
Cancelled negotiations, ordered by negotiation number
There are five entries in the table. To see all your negotiations, click Full List.
Click the negotiation number link to access the negotiation summary page to view information for that negotiation. Click the Monitor icon to access the Live Console and view supplier and response information for any responses to the negotiation.
Quick Links
The Quick Links section of the Negotiations Home page provides fast access to the most commonly performed operations in Oracle Sourcing.
Create
You use the links under the Create section to create new negotiations. There is a link for each negotiation type. You can also use the Copy link to access a draft or published negotiation and use it as the basis for you new negotiation document. You can also create events, which are collections of sourcing negotiations that can be viewed and managed as a group.
Manage
The Manage section allows you to:
Manage draft sourcing documents.
View and manage events
View the status of any Oracle Procurement Contracts deliverables that are associated with your negotiations.
Submit surrogate responses on behalf of suppliers who have no Internet access but wish to participate in a negotiation.
Research supplier performance by searching the Approved Supplier List information or viewing a supplier information to determine which suppliers are appropriate for a particular negotiation you are creating.
Templates
If you frequently conduct negotiations of a similar type that use many of the same attributes or suppliers, you can create templates based on the negotiation type. You can have multiple templates for each negotiation type. The templates you create are private and available for your use only. The Sourcing Super User may have created public templates for use by all Sourcing Buyers. Once a template has been created, you can use the template when creating your new negotiation. You use the Resuable Templates links to search for existing templates or to create new ones.
Containers
On the right side of the page, there are three possible containers identifying actions items you may need to address. If there are no entries for you for that particular type of task, the container does not appear.
Draft Negotiations
This container lists the draft negotiations for which you are either the owner or a collaboration team member. The entries appear by preview date (if specified), then by open date. If there are no dates specified, they appear according to the negotiation number. This container lists a maximum of fifty entries.
If you can edit the draft, clicking the link navigates to the Create Negotiation: Header page.
Unread Messages
While a negotiation is in progress, you can communicate with suppliers to provide additional information or answer of clarify questions. This container lists any unread messages. A maximum of fifty messages appear, according to the time sent. Clicking the link accesses the Message page where you can read the text of the message.
Incomplete Tasks
If you are a member of a collaboration team, you may have been assigned specified tasks to perform. For example, you may be responsible for defining the invitation list for a draft negotiation.
If there are outstanding tasks you need to perform, reminders for the fifty most current (displayed in order of target completion date) are displayed in this container. If no date for the task was specified, the entries appear according to the negotiation number.
Clicking the link displays the associated negotiation information.
Intelligence Tab
The Intelligence Tab provides access to the many reports available within Oracle Sourcing. You can use this tab both to generate the reports and view the report results. You can also export the report output to a spreadsheet for offline viewing and analysis.
Intelligence Reports
The following reports are always available:
Awards by Supplier
Savings by Category
Awarded Bids
Awarded Quotes
Additionally, if Oracle Daily Business Intelligence in implemented, you have access to the following reports:
Commodity Spend Management
Commodity Supplier Management
Procurement Management
Procure-to-Pay Management
Award Totals Display
This tab also displays total award amounts for all negotiations awarded within the last 30 days. There is a breakdown by negotiation type (RFQ or auction), as well as the cumulative total of all negotiations.
You can drill into each report to see detailed information on the awards included in that report. Advanced filtering capabilities allow you to generate detailed award displays including graphs. For each award,you can access information on that award's response as well as the negotiation associated with that award.
Administration Tab
The Administration tab provides access to the tasks you use to administer and maintain Oracle Sourcing. These tasks are performed by the Sourcing Super User. If you do not have the Sourcing Super User responsibility, you do not see the tab.