Utilizing and Managing Modular Questionnaires in Supplier Management

You view and manage modular questionnaires for a supplier in the Questionnaires area of the supplier 360° profile.

You can do the following things in the Questionnaires area:

• See all of the modular questionnaires associated with the supplier, their statuses, and their expiration dates
  • If a questionnaire is scored, view its overall score
• View details about modular questionnaire projects, including workflows and any included internal forms
• Fill out and submit internal questionnaires
• Request an update or change the recipient of a questionnaire
• See tasks associated with the questionnaires and complete them if you’re a task owner

Stand-alone modular questionnaires function as independent units and have no effect on the supplier’s registration, qualification, or preferred statuses.

• You can invite a supplier to fill out one or more modular questionnaires
• You can invite a supplier to fill out modular questionnaires at any point after the supplier is created

If your site uses certificate management, you collect and maintain a supplier's certificates in modular supplier management questionnaires.

Modular questionnaire templates used for certificate management can:

• Include both certificate and other types of questions
• Ask for a single certificate or multiple related certificates
• Associate a questionnaire type with the overall questionnaire, and a certificate type with each individual certificate question
• Track expiration dates for individual certificates and entire questionnaires

Modular supplier management questionnaire projects are designed to collect supplier certificate information in dedicated, standalone projects with their own approval flows. Certificates collected in these projects display on both the Certificates area and the Questionnaires area of the supplier's 360° profile.

A modular supplier management questionnaire can contain one or more certificate questions, along with other types of content. Modular supplier management questionnaire project templates, and the certificate questions in their survey documents, include the following features:

• Commodity, region, and department properties for the project template, which allow you to tie a certificate or set of certificates to specific combinations of values for these fields.
• A questionnaire type (in the template properties) and a certificate type (in the settings for certificate questions), which allow you to differentiate between projects that serve different purposes, and to categorize their certificates.
• Expiration schedules and notification settings for both individual certificate questions (in question settings) and entire questionnaires (in the questionnaire survey document's Supplier Management rules).

1. A supplier manager invites the supplier to fill out a modular supplier management questionnaire from the Manage → SM Modular Questionnaires menu. The questionnaire displays on the Questionnaires area of the supplier's 360° profile.
2. Notifications let the supplier know that they have been invited to complete a questionnaire and provide a link to the questionnaire.
3. The supplier answers the questionnaire from their Ariba Network account.
4. Notifications let the approvers know that the questionnaire requires approval. They can also see outstanding approval tasks using Manage → My Tasks on the dashboard. The approvers review the questionnaire and approve or deny it. Approvers can request additional information from the supplier before approving or denying the questionnaire.
5. Notifications let the supplier know when the questionnaire has been approved, denied, or requires more information.
6. When a modular supplier management questionnaire is approved, the questionnaire’s status is Approved. Information about the certificate displays in the Certificates area of the supplier’s 360° profile.

A modular supplier management questionnaire’s status changes throughout the process based on the actions that are performed.