A Complete Guide to Oracle iProcurement: Streamlining Procurement (2024)

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Maintaining effective procurement operations is key to gaining a competitive edge and controlling costs in today’s fast-paced business landscape.

Oracle iProcurement offers a complete procurement management solution to simplify and streamline an automated document creation process for organizations of all sizes, ensuring procurement efficiency and accuracy. By delivering a user-friendly interface and powerful automation features, iProcurement helps organizations optimize core procurement operations, from requisition to approval and order fulfillment.

Read on to learn more about Oracle iProcurement and how our team of senior-level Oracle consultants can help your organization maximize your technology investment.

What is Oracle iProcurement?

Oracle iProcurement serves as the self-service requisitioning tool overseeing employee expenses. It offers a web-based shopping platform that enables employees to initiate, supervise, and monitor their orders autonomously while maintaining centralized oversight of critical purchasing operations.

This intelligent structure ensures compliance with policies and preferred pricing agreements in each transaction. Streamlined ordering processes and seamless workflows enhance service quality, while non-sourced or off-catalog spending receives the right attention from procurement specialists.

Oracle iProcurement Release 12

Oracle iProcurement stands out as one of the most recognized and extensively used tools within the Oracle Advanced Procurement suite. Version R12 incorporates continual enhancements that encompass cosmetic upgrades, major architectural advances, and more.

Key improvements include:

Introduction of new approval types
Enhanced user-interface choices
Adoption of Unified Catalog Architecture
Improved Catalog Authoring Capability for buyers, suppliers, and catalog administrators
Additional options for creating and managing favorites lists
Implementation of Tolerance-Based Change Request Routing and Approval
Content security enhancements enable precise control over user access to specific content

Key Features of Oracle iProcurement

Oracle iProcurement allows requesters to remodel the purchasing process into a streamlined and efficient process. Here’s how:

1. Catalog Management

Types of Catalogs and Sources

Oracle iProcurement delivers a versatile solution for managing catalogs and their associated content, offering various approaches tailored to specific business frameworks.

Management of Categories and Descriptors

The Oracle iProcurement catalog provides uploading and online functionality for creating categories and descriptors for critical process details.

Catalogs and Marketplaces

Stores offer requesters a platform to access and analyze various catalog types and origins as an optional component within the catalog setup process.

Ensuring Security

Content security features allow users to regulate requester access to catalog content. Users can configure stores only to be visible to requesters in specific operating units or circ*mstances.

Incorporating Images

Oracle iProcurement provides multiple image display options for items, such as image uploads or references, and the provision of thumbnail images that accompany items in search results. These thumbnails can be separate, smaller images or automatically created from larger item images using advanced profile options.

2. Shopping

Oracle iProcurement adopts the widely embraced online shopping model utilized by leading consumer websites. This established method initiates the discovery of necessary services or items and the creation of requisitions, catering to both inexperienced and experienced users. While beginner users can leverage simplified tools to find items and create requisitions, experienced users can benefit from enhanced control, flexibility, and advanced organizational tools.

Dynamic Search Functionality

The search functionality of Oracle iProcurement accommodates users at all proficiency levels, from casual browsing to targeted product searches. Users can search the catalog using natural language descriptions, bypassing the need for familiarity with catalog structures. The search engine employs Oracle interMedia technology to deliver a list of relevant items and additional features like comparison, sorting, and filtering to refine search results.

Alternatively, users can navigate through category hierarchies to locate items, which is especially useful for those familiar with item classifications.

Standard (Quick) Search: The standard search function scans through all searchable descriptors to identify records matching all the entered search keywords.
Expanded Search: If the standard search does not yield any matches, users can conduct a wider search, which can find more exact matches.
Advanced Search: Advanced search functionality empowers users to refine their searches by specific item descriptors, such as item description, manufacturer, supplier, or price. Users can leverage advanced search operators, such as “with at least one of the words” or “with the exact phrase,” to pinpoint items matching particular descriptions, manufacturer details, prices, or other combinations.

Stores

Oracle iProcurement enables organizations to create content areas intuitively by allowing administrators to tailor access to catalogs and stores based on user roles.

Shopping Lists

Requesters can access and view regularly ordered items through shopping lists.

Favorite List: Requesters can build custom lists of frequently ordered items.
Public Lists: Professional buyers can employ requisition templates within Oracle Purchasing to establish public lists accessible to requesters.

Saved Shopping Carts

Requesters can save many shopping carts in progress, enabling them to save chosen items and modify orders, add more items, and check out at a later date.

Non-Catalog Requests

Users can generate non-catalog requests to request items or services not listed in the catalog or shopping lists. Through effective catalog administration, administrators can design templates for non-catalog requests, often referred to as smart forms. These templates allow administrators to regulate the fields for non-catalog requests that users fill out based on their specific store or operating unit.

Automatic Document Creation

Oracle iProcurement offers various supplier-level document types to facilitate automated document creation. Standard purchase orders can be generated from supplier purchase contracts and quotations, while releases can be created from the supplier blanket purchase agreements. These document types enable the creation of purchasing documents without requiring intervention from buyers or suppliers.

3. Checkout

The following components comprise the checkout category:

Delivery
Billing
Approvers
Attachments and notes

Delivery

Each requisition contains essential order details, such as the need-by date and time, requester information, and location. Users can submit this information once for the entire requisition or customize it for individual lines. While most details are preset as defaults, requesters can modify default delivery settings in their Oracle iProcurement Preferences or directly on each requisition.

Single-Time Addresses: Requesters can specify a one-time address during the requisition creation process when items need to be delivered to a location, not stored in the database.
Various Destination Categories: Oracle iProcurement offers flexibility that allows requisitions to be generated for inventory replenishment requests initiated by the requester, like restocking a shop floor crib. Alternatively, users can specify the delivery of requested items to an expense destination.
Integration with Oracle Enterprise Asset Management (EAM): Integrating with Oracle EAM streamlines asset-related processes. Oracle iProcurement requisitions seamlessly connect with existing EAM work orders, ensuring alignment and efficiency in asset management processes.

Billing

Account Generation Workflow and Multiple Account Administration

Account charges for requisition lines are created through Account Generator Workflow regulations. The ability to distribute charges for requested items among various accounting codes allows multiple departments or accounts to share the cost of items listed on a single requisition line. This eliminates the need to create multiple requisition lines for the same item requested by multiple departments.

Procurement Card Expenses

Oracle iProcurement automatically identifies shopping cart lines eligible for procurement card (P-Card) payments and defaults to the appropriate P-Card number based on requester and supplier profiles. There are two types of supported P-Cards:

Employee P-Cards: Each requester in the company is assigned a distinct employee P-Card for making purchases.
Supplier P-Cards: A single supplier P-Card is maintained for each supplier or supplier site in the system, consolidating all purchases from that supplier or site.

Oracle Projects Integration

Integrating with Oracle Project Manufacturing and Oracle Projects allows requesters to reference projects and related task information for shopping cart order lines.

Tax Integration

Integrating tax information with Oracle iProcurement helps organizations outline tax details, including tax code and taxable status. The tax information is pushed through to the purchasing document.

Oracle Grants Integration

Integrating with Oracle Grants allows requesters to reference tasks, projects, and award data regarding shopping cart order lines.

Approvers

The configuration of approval and workflow processes in Oracle Purchasing establishes the list of approvers for each requisition. At the checkout stage, requesters can include additional approvers and modify the primary approver listed, enabling access to this functionality through function security. Workflows can also be tailored to align with specific business requirements.

Attachments and Notes

Including Notes

Requesters can include notes to approvers and buyers during checkout. The intended receivers can access the notes later in the procurement process.

Submit and View Attachments

Users can add details for approvers, buyers, suppliers, and receivers by attaching text, URLs, and file formats to the requisition. These attachments can be easily transferred throughout the system to purchase orders, blanket releases, and receipts.

4. Requisition Tracking and Management

After requesters create and submit a requisition, they can monitor the end-to-end processing activities through intuitive Oracle iProcurement functionality.

Requisition Status

Requesters can:

Conduct thorough searches for requisitions, utilizing criteria like creation date, requester details, and purchase order or sales order number.
Monitor the status of their requisitions via the Requisitions tab.
Access real-time notifications within the Oracle iProcurement notifications page or email to inform users about any actions taken regarding their requisitions.

Requisition Management

Requesters can execute the following requisition management tasks on the Requisitions tab:

Change: The requester can choose the requisition and click “Change.” If the requisition has yet to be placed on a purchase order, it is removed from the approval process. The requester can then make the necessary modifications and initiate the checkout process. However, if the requisition has already been placed on a purchase order, any alterations made by the requester become change order requests that require approval from the buyer before implementation.
Cancel: The requester can choose the requisition and click “Cancel” to cancel the entire requisition or specific lines within it. If the requisition hasn’t been placed on a purchase order yet, the cancellation takes effect immediately. However, if the requisition has already been placed on a purchase order, the cancellation becomes a request that requires approval from the buyer before being finalized.
Complete: A saved cart transforms into an Incomplete requisition displayed on the Requisitions tab. The requester can choose the requisition and click “Complete” to finalize the checkout process.
Resubmit: If the requisition is in either the Rejected or Returned status, the requester can initiate a resubmission by selecting it and clicking “Change.” After making any required adjustments, they can continue the checkout process.

Life Cycle Tracking of Procure-to-Pay

Requesters can monitor the complete procure-to-pay journey of their requisitions. Within the Requisitions tab, they can choose a requisition and click the Details icon to access information about each requisition line. This information encompasses the entire procure-to-pay cycle of the requested item, covering elements such as the purchase order, shipment, receipt, invoice, and payment.

5. Desktop Receiving

In Oracle iProcurement, requesters can correct, receive, and return items received and see their receiving transaction history.

See Shipments

Oracle iProcurement users with requester privileges can access advanced shipment notices (ASNs) from suppliers and internal shipments. When receiving items, shipment details are automatically populated into the receipt.

Receiving

Requesters can receive both internally and externally sourced items by individual item or the entire requisition. By using the Express Receive feature, requesters can quickly create receipts for individual items. Alternatively, requesters can add details such as packing slip number, airbill, or waybill number, and comments through standard receiving. Oracle iProcurement automatically logs the receipt time, although requesters can manually enter or alter the receipt date and time.

Returns

Oracle iProcurement allows receivers to initiate item returns to suppliers. If configured correctly, the system can automatically generate debit memos as part of the return process.

Corrections

In Oracle iProcurement, receivers can make adjustments to the received quantity on already finalized receipts.

Receipt Confirmations

iProcurement delivers a workflow-driven receipt confirmation tool that effectively alerts requesters to confirm receipts on the due dates.

How Can We Help?

Whether you need help implementing new Oracle applications, effectively overseeing employee expenditures, reducing supply management-related costs, or navigating complex system integrations, Surety Systems has you covered.

Our senior-level Oracle consultants have the skills, knowledge, and experience to fully understand all your project needs and prepare your internal teams for long-term success.

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