Creating Qualification or Miscellaneous Processes

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Create a qualification or miscellaneous supplier management process project in a supplier’s profile.
  • Create a qualification or miscellaneous supplier management process project for multiple suppliers at once.

About Creating Qualification or Miscellaneous Processes

Note

This lesson teaches you how to use process projects to qualify suppliers. If your organization uses legacy supplier qualification projects, refer to Qualification Management Using Supplier Qualification and Disqualification Projects.

Depending on your organization's needs, you can create qualification or miscellaneous lifecycle processes. You create qualification processes, which are linked to the SAP Ariba qualification lifecycle stage, in either the Qualifications or Processes detail area of the supplier profile. You create miscellaneous processes, which aren’t tied to a specific lifecycle stage, in the Processes detail area.

Any qualification process you initiate will appear on the Qualification tile of your Supplier Management dashboard. Miscellaneous processes will not appear on the dashboard.

A combination of commodities, regions, and departments defines each process project. A supplier can have one process of each type per unique combination. These hierarchical attributes allow you to create multiple process projects with similar types for parent or child levels. For example, if a supplier has a qualification process for market research in the United States for the marketing department, you can’t create another qualification for that exact combination. However, you can create one for market research in California or North America for the marketing department, or consumer-based research in Germany for the marketing department.

The commodities, regions, and departments you specify in the process intake form determine which modular questionnaires the process project uses to gather information. If the process can expire, you set an expiration schedule in the intake form. Optional reminders notify suppliers and internal users when the process is about to expire.

The templates for the modular questionnaires determine if they can be reused across multiple projects. If reusable questionnaires have already been assigned, you can request updates for your new process.

How to Create Qualification or Miscellaneous Processes in Supplier Profiles

Follow these steps to create a qualification or miscellaneous process that evaluates a supplier for a specific combination of commodities, regions, and departments using information from modular questionnaires.

Prerequisites

The process project feature (SM-16798) must be enabled in your site.

To create a qualification or miscellaneous process project, you must be a member of both the SM Modular Questionnaire Manager global user group and a project group with the Process Initiator role in the process project template.

If the supplier doesn't have a registration status of Registered, you can only create a qualification process for them if an administrator has enabled the self-service configuration parameter Application.SM.Process.AllowStartOfProcessQualificationForUnRegisteredSuppliers in your site. You can always start a miscellaneous process for a supplier regardless of their registration status.

You can't request an update for a questionnaire while creating a process project if the questionnaire is in Pending Submission or Pending Approval status.

To add, edit, or delete a supplier contact in a supplier's profile or when inviting a supplier to a questionnaire, you must be a member of one of the following groups:

  • Supplier Registration Manager
  • SM Ops Administrator
  • Customer Administrator
  • Category Manager
  • Commodity Manager
  • Event Administrator
  • Limited Event Administrator
  • Sourcing Project Administrator
  • Supplier Project Administrator
  • Supplier/Customer Manager
  • Supplier/Customer Agent

Members of the Supplier Qualification Manager group can add, but not edit or delete, supplier contacts in the supplier's profile and when inviting a supplier to a questionnaire.

Business Scenario

As a category manager for NSM Global, Joe Ortiz ensures that his assigned suppliers align with the company’s qualification requirements. Joe must determine whether a newly registered supplier, Intellitech Direct, meets the criteria for supplying information technology and telecommunications products to all NSM Global departments in North America. To evaluate the supplier’s suitability to provide these products in the designated region, Joe will create a new qualification process.

In this video, you’ll watch Joe create a new qualification process in the supplier’s profile.

Steps

  1. In the Qualifications or Processes detail area of the supplier's profile, choose the add icon.

  2. In the Process Type dropdown list, select the type of process you want to create.

    Note

    You can only proceed to the next step if you're a process initiator for the type of process you selected.

  3. In the process intake form, enter the following information:

    • Answers to any available questions about the commodities, regions, and departments to which the process applies
    • An expiration schedule and an expiration reminder schedule, if available
    • Any other questions included in the intake form

  4. Choose Next.

    Note

    You can only proceed to the next step if there's no existing process of the same type for the combination of commodities, regions, and departments you've selected.

  5. Select questionnaires to include in the process by performing the following actions:

    1. In the Add new questionnaires area, select the new questionnaires you want to include in the process. The system automatically selects required questionnaires, and you can't uncheck them.

    2. If the questionnaire has already been assigned and is reusable, perform any of the following actions in the Reuse existing questionnaires area:

      • Select the questionnaires to reuse in the new process.
      • Slide the toggle switch to request an update as part of the new process. If the questionnaire has been set up to always request updates, you can't change this setting.

  6. Choose Next.

  7. Optional: The default recipient for external questionnaires is the supplier's primary contact. Change the recipient of any external questionnaires from the default by performing the following steps:

    1. To the right of the external questionnaire, choose Change recipient.

    2. Select the recipient that you want to use. If the recipient you want isn't listed as an existing contact and you have permission to create contacts, you can add them here.

    3. Choose Save.

  8. Optional: The default recipient for internal questionnaires is the process initiator who creates the process project and becomes its owner. Change the recipient of any internal questionnaires from the default by performing the following steps:

    1. To the right of the internal questionnaire, choose Change recipient.

    2. Select the recipient that you want to use. If the recipient you want isn't listed, search for them.

    3. Choose Confirm.

  9. Optional: Enter a message to internal and external questionnaire recipients. This message is included in the e-mail notifications recipients receive asking them to complete the questionnaires.

  10. Choose Send.

  11. Choose OK to confirm that you want to create the process.

Result

When you choose OK, the system creates the process project itself and generates projects for any newly assigned or non-reusable modular questionnaires.

The system notifies the supplier's primary contact that you've started the process with them. This notification includes the names of any external questionnaires and their recipients.

Additionally, the system notifies recipients of new internal and external questionnaires, inviting them to complete them. It also notifies recipients of existing internal and external questionnaires for which you've requested updates.

The newly created process project appears in the Processes detail area of the supplier's profile. If the newly created process is a qualification, it also appears in the Qualifications detail area.

All questionnaires included in the process project are displayed in the Questionnaires detail area of the supplier's profile, where approvers and task owners can review them and complete their assigned tasks.

Create a Qualification Process in a Supplier’s Profile

In this exercise, you’ll create a qualification process in a supplier’s profile.

ExerciseStart Exercise

How to Create Qualification or Miscellaneous Processes for Multiple Suppliers at Once

Follow these steps to create a qualification or miscellaneous process for one or more suppliers at a time for a specific combination of commodities, regions, and departments.

Prerequisites

The process project feature (SM-16798) must be enabled in your site.

To create a qualification or miscellaneous process project, you must be a member of both the SM Modular Questionnaire Manager global user group and a project group with the Process Initiator role in the process project template.

If the supplier doesn't have a registration status of Registered, you can only create a qualification process for them if an administrator has enabled the self-service configuration parameter Application.SM.Process.AllowStartOfProcessQualificationForUnRegisteredSuppliers in your site. You can always start a miscellaneous process for a supplier regardless of their registration status.

Business Scenario

Category manager Joe Ortiz needs to assess whether two recently registered suppliers are suitable for supplying information technology and telecommunications products to all NSM Global departments in North America. Since Joe is qualifying the suppliers for the same set of commodities, regions, and departments, he can initiate process projects for both suppliers at the same time. This approach allows him to avoid starting each process separately from the suppliers’ profiles.

In this video, you’ll watch Joe create a new supplier management process for multiple suppliers at once.

Steps

  1. On the dashboard, choose Manage→SM Process Flow.

  2. In the Processes area, choose the add icon.

  3. In the Process Type dropdown list, select the type of process you want to create.

    Note

    You can only proceed to the next step if you're a process initiator for the type of process you selected.

  4. In the process intake form, enter the following information:

    • Answers to any available questions about the commodities, regions, and departments to which the process applies

    • An expiration schedule and an expiration reminder schedule, if available
    • Any other questions included in the intake form

  5. Choose Next.

  6. Choose questionnaires to include in the process. The system automatically selects required questionnaires, and you can't uncheck them.

  7. Choose Next.

  8. Select the suppliers that you wish to create the process for.

  9. Choose Next.

  10. On the confirmation page, select the Suppliers good to go tile and verify that the primary contact for each listed supplier is the person you want to send the questionnaires to. If not, perform the following actions:

    1. Choose Change contact.

    2. Optional: If the person you want to invite isn't listed as one of the supplier's current contacts and you have the required permissions, choose Add Supplier Contact and add a contact.

    3. Select the contact that you want to invite and choose Save.

  11. If you added any suppliers that don't currently have contacts and you have the required permissions to add contacts, select the Suppliers missing contacts tile and add a contact.

  12. Choose Next.

  13. Choose Send.

  14. Choose OK.

Result

The primary contact (or other supplier contact you selected) is notified that you've started the process with them, including the names of any external questionnaires and their recipients.

Recipients of new internal and external questionnaires receive notifications inviting them to fill them out. If you're sending an existing modular questionnaire that can be reused to the same supplier through a mass process, the status changes based on its current status:

  • If the status of the modular questionnaire is Approved, it changes to Not Responded.
  • If the modular questionnaire status is anything other than Approved, the status remains as is.

The newly created process project appears in the Processes detail area of the supplier's profile. If the newly created process is a qualification process, it also appears in the Qualifications detail area.

All questionnaires included in the process project are displayed in the Questionnaires detail area, where approvers and task owners can review them and complete their assigned tasks.

Summary

  • Create qualification or miscellaneous process projects for individual or multiple suppliers using specific commodities, regions, and departments.
  • Qualification processes are linked to lifecycle stages and appear on the Supplier Management dashboard; miscellaneous processes are not.
  • Modular questionnaires collect supplier information; required questionnaires are auto-selected, and reusable questionnaires can be updated.
  • Only one process of each type can exist for a unique combination of commodities, regions, and departments per supplier.
  • Appropriate user permissions are required to initiate process projects and manage supplier contacts.

Learning

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