Sourcing Setup Step 6: Set Up Negotiations Confguration (Optional)

You use the Negotiations Configuration page to set and maintain many aspects of your Oracle Sourcing system. This includes:

• Selecting the default ranking display.

• Identifying allowable price factor types.

• Allowing award approval to be required.

• Defining header scoring defaults.

• Defining default header and line attribute groups.

• Defining the default UOM for amount-based line types.

• Listing URLs for supplier discovery.

• Specifying the supplier online window value.

Using the Negotiations Configuration page:

All of the following tasks are performed from the Negotiations Configuration page.

To access the Negotiations Configuration page:

• On the Negotiations Home page, click the Administration tab.
• On the Administration tab, click " Negotiations Configuration."
• After you have finished performing any of the following tasks, click OK to save your updates.

Setting the default ranking display:

The system can rank responses of suppliers participating in an auction or RFQ. You can choose which type of indicator is used to display rankings. You can also choose whether ranking information is visible during blind auctions or RFQs (for sealed auctions/RFQs, the ranking cannot be viewed until the auction/RFQ is unsealed).                                                 

To choose a ranking indicator:

1. In the Rank Indicator section of the Negotiations Configuration page, select a default rank indicator. This indicator is used to identify the method for displaying the rank of responses on a negotiation.

2. If you want to allow negotiation creators to select a rank indicator other than the default when creating a negotiation, click the override checkbox.

3. If you wish the suppliers in blind auctions/RFQs to see the response rankings, select the appropriate radio button.

Identifying allowable price factor types:

Price factors are additional cost factors that should be included when calculating total cost for a line. There are two types of price factors.

• Supplier price factors identify additional costs (beyond just price) that the buyer

must pay a supplier to acquire an item or service. For example, a software purchase might include the additional cost of training. Buyers define supplier price factors and suppliers respond with the amount they will charge.

• Buyer price factors reflect additional costs involved when dealing with a particular supplier. This cost could be incurred due to geographical location, supplier performance history, or other reasons. Buyers define buyer price factors and specify the amount for each. 

Suppliers do not respond to buyer price factors.

You can restrict the type of price factors buyers can apply to their negotiations.

To specify the allowable types of price factors:

1. Select the appropriate value from the Price Factors menu, and click OK.

2. Additionally, you can choose to allow the buyer to override these defaults.


Allowing award approval to be required:

You can choose to have award decisions approved before a purchase order can be generated. A buyer’s approval hierarchy is defined in Oracle Human Resources (see instructions on Buyer Security in a previous step for information on approval hierarchies). Note this section only appears if you set the system profile option

PON: Enable Sourcing Award Approval to Yes (see the previous step, Defining System

Profile Options for instructions on this system profile option).

1. On the Negotiations Configuration page, select the appropriate radio button to indicate whether award approval is required.

2. Optionally, you can allow the buyer to override this setting by clicking "Allow
Negotiation creators to override indicator."

Defining header scoring defaults:

You can define defaults for header attribute scores. You can choose to allow buyers to weight scores when evaluating supplier responses, and you can define a default maximum score value (this can be overridden by the buyer when the negotiation is defined). You can also choose whether to display the scoring criteria to suppliers.

To define maximum header score defaults:

1. On the Negotiations Configuration page, select the appropriate check boxes and enter appropriate values.

Defining the default header and line attribute groups:

Attributes defined to a negotiation header, line or attribute list must be assigned to an attribute group. Attribute groups allow control over how attributes are displayed since you can specify the sequence of the attributes within the group. When attributes are initially created, they are assigned to a default group. You can specify the default group that is assigned to both header and line attributes.

1. On the Negotiations Configuration page, select a group from the list of predefined groups. You can specify a default for both header and line attributes. See instructions in a previous step for instructions on defining additional attribute group values.

Defining the default UOM for amount-based line types:

Amount- based lines typically are not negotiated by unit. Instead, they normally refer to services such as training or consulting. As such, there is no unit of measure associated with them. However, Unit of Measure is a required field when defining a negotiation line. To simplify creating amount-based lines, you can select a default value to be used when creating a negotiating for amount-based lines.

To define a default unit of measurement:

1. In the Unit of Measure for Amount Based Line Items section, select the value from the menu to be used as the default. The entries available from this menu can be defined in Oracle Purchasing.

Listing URLs for supplier discovery:

You can define a list of URLs that carry information about suppliers’ external web sites. Buyers can use these links to access and browse the supplier web sites from the Add Supplier page during negotiation creation. Buyers can use the information from the supplier web site to decide whether to invite a supplier to the negotiation they are creating.

1. Scroll to the Supplier Discovery section of the Negotiations Configuration page. Enter the Provider Name (this is the name used within the system. It does not have to be the supplier’s official name) and the URL to the provider’s site. To allow your buyers to view and use the link, click Enabled. You can control access to different sites by selecting and deselecting the Enabled flag.

Specifying the supplier online window value:

The Live Console feature allows buyers to monitor negotiations in real time. In addition to other information, this allows buyers to see which suppliers are actively participating in the negotiation. The system indicates which suppliers are considered to be currently "online" by tracking the time elapsed since that supplier’s last action. 

You can specify the maximum amount of time that has elapsed since the supplier’s last action before a supplier is considered to be no longer online.

To set the Supplier Online Window Value:

1. On the Negotiations Configuration page, scroll to the Supplier Online Window section. Enter a number for the Supplier Online Window value. This is the number of minutes that can elapse since a supplier’s last action before that supplier is considered to be no longer active.