Using SOW Workers

Depending on the nature and volume of the service being provided from supplier to buyer, the supplier will need to engage workers to actually carry out the tasks and activities related to the service deliverables. Standard design and functionality of SOW Workers in SAP Fieldglass allows tracking of these personnel as part of the overall service agreement.

Buyers enable SOW workers by adding the necessary roles to the SOW. The supplier may then assign specific workers to these roles either during the initial negotiation of terms, after the statement of work is fully approved, or at any time during the agreed service duration, depending on the administration setup.

The use of workers is optional on a Statement of Work. Some SOWs, like the one for WorkingNet’s data center expansion project, include workers. However, in some cases the nature of the service may not require an individual, or even a crew of workers, to execute tasks and activities. The buyer may also simply choose not to track how the service is being provided, only that the agreed outputs are delivered to the defined milestones.

If SOW Workers are included on an SOW, there are a number of options that determine the level of tracking and billing detail.

For instance, Patricia, the Head of Data Networking, determined that a Project Lead Manager and several Network Engineers and Associate Network Engineers would be required to deliver the service. She had several options related to the tracking and billing of those workers, such as:

• Time Sheet Tracking
• Billable vs Non-billable
• Headcount Cap
• Auto-activate
• Auto-register

Play the video to learn more about how SOW worker time sheets can be tracked.

The Auto Activate and Auto Register rules on the SOW Template impact if and when SOW Workers can access SAP Fieldglass, either to complete activity items or to submit time and expenses.

The Auto Activate rule ensures that once a work order has been Accepted by the Supplier, it is automatically activated and the invitation to register is sent to the worker. Buyers will commonly enable this rule for situations where they do not need to control when system access is given to a new worker.

When the Auto Register rule is enabled, SAP Fieldglass will automatically convert the work order into a confirmed worker account without actual login credentials. This rule is typically used for situations where the workers will not be submitting time and expenses in the SAP Fieldglass system directly.

Workers that are part of a crew or team can have their time tracked and approved for the entire team or crew at once, as opposed to individual time sheets. This is pertinent to certain industries such as Transportation and Oil and Gas.

A crew may consist of workers with various roles, supervisors, and other resources, such as equipment. Having individual Work Orders and Time Sheets for each crew member can be difficult to manage, especially when a buyer must allocate amounts to multiple cost centers. It is more efficient for a manager to review and approve the entire crew’s time sheet.

Crew-based billing is facilitated using SOW fees, meaning the Supplier can submit a single fee response that includes all workers and other resources defined within a crew. The configuration of an SOW Worker Role dictates whether fees should be used to bill the worker’s time as part of a crew, rather than time sheets as an individual.

A combination of SOW Template rules and setup of the relevant SOW Worker Roles for a project enables a buyer to use crew-based billing.