This post is to discuss the integration of various modules of e-Business Suite from an PO perspective. It should give an idea to consultants who wish to determine dependencies and to understand how the different modules communicate data between each others.

With Account Payable

• Matching need PO number to match Invoices
• PO Distribution Details Default to Invoice Lines
• Projects and Assets Information default to Invoice Line Distribution depending on PO Match
• AP Invoice Holds depend on PO Tolerance limits and Paid When Holds are released and Tolerance level met

With Inventory

• Items Setup in Inventory are Used in a PO
• Item Attributes Assigned define behavior of Items on a PO
• Categories Defined and assigned to Items are defaulted to Items Ordered in a PO

With Projects Dependency

• Projects setup in Project Accounting can be selected at the PO Distribution level
• Type of Project Determines the Project default
• Accounting derived based on Defaults for Projects
• Project status affects the use of specific project on a PO

With Fixed Assets

• Items classified with Asset Category used on a PO derive the classification of Item on a PO line
• PO Defaults are interfaced to Assets via APModule
• Asset Category & Asset Clearing Account is interfaced to Assets from PO
• Important to select Appropriate Account on PO, before the PO Line can interface to Assets via Mass Additions
• Supplier information defaults to Assets from PO
• Employee and Manufacturer information interfaced from PO to Assets

With GL

• All Account details defined on Items, Projects or Item Categories determine the account on a PO Shipment’s Distribution
• Employee Default account information determines the account on a PO Distribution for Expense related PO/Requisition
• Default account selected on a Requisition derives the account on a PO Distribution
• SLA Definition derives the account upon GL Transfer

With Order Manager

• Items defined as Outside Processing (OSP) are defaulted on a Internal Sales Order, which then converts it into a Internal Requisition and a PO
• Drop-shipment functionality affects PO Item behavior

With HRMS

The purchasing module uses the HR employee database for the following purposes:

• Designate employees as buyers
• To assign documents (purchase orders, requisitions, etc.) against them when these documents are created.

The module can use either the supervisory or the position hierarchy for routing approvals

Oracle Supplier Data Hub is part of a full suite of Master Data Management (MDM) tools unifies and shares critical information about an organization's supply base. It does this by enabling customers to centralize all supplier information from heterogeneous systems and thus creates a single view of supplier information that can be leveraged across all functional departments.

Oracle Supplier Hub feature :

Oracle Supplier Hub can be broadly categorize into five major coverage area as per fig 1.

1. Consolidate - Data Import Management, Source System , Cross Reference
2. Cleanse - Matching, D & B Data Enrichment
   • Various Functionality Coverage are
     • Supplier Registration DQM and D&B
     • Supplier attribute classification
     • Merge, validate duplicates. Similar supplier names are checked.
   • Integrated with D&B out of box. Import data in real-time or batch mode
3. Master - Supplier Classification & Relationship
4. Share - Publication and Synchronization, Web Services, Security. This is also called as called OSN Integration.
5. Govern -Classification Management, Hierarchy Management and Task Management

Typically data administrator functionalities are available from Supplier Data Librarian Super User application responsibility where the data librarian functionalities are available from Supplier Data Librarian application responsibility.

Take a note profile option POS:SM: Supplier Data Hub Configuration with a value Standalone at site level if you are deploying Supplier Hub as a centralized standalone MDM solution OR configure the profile option with a value Integrated EBS if you are deploying Supplier Hub as an Add-on for E-Business Suite to an existing EBS R12.1 application Installation after you purchase the application licenses.

From R12.1.2 to R12.1.3

Oracle Supplier Hub was first added in EBS in R12.1.2. With recent version 12.1.3, there is slight enhancements as below:

• Tasks and Notes , Contact points and Party Relationship
• Bulk Import & Spreadsheet Import
• Smart Search , Enable party as supplier , Supplier Creation De-duplication
• Supplier Data Publications and supplier Profile Report

Supplier Hub and TCA

Oracle Supplier Hub is built on top of Oracle Trading Community Architecture (TCA) of Oracle E-Business suite and leverage TCA implementations features like Data Quality, Batch Management, Source System Management, Adapters, Classifications, Relationships/Hierarchies, Tasks/Notes (available via Customer Data Hub (CDH)).

If you refer back to TCA and CDH documentations for the various profile options and implementations that are applicable at the party level for the functionalities exposed from Supplier Hub navigations.

You can take advantage of TCA DQM APIs to identify the potential duplicate Supplier parties in Supplier Master.

Customers can implement and use Supplier Lifecycle Management (SLM) to streamline the supplier relationship management processes through the trading lifecycle.

License Requirement

Supplier HUB Data requires a separate license. Those who already using isupplier can requires a separate license

It is a new module introduced in Oracle Applications release 12.1.2, and it allows integration with other systems besides Oracle Applications.

Option 1: Oracle Supplier Life cycle Management can be deployed on an existing E-Business suite R12.1 application instance.
Oracle Supplier Hub Add-on for E-Business Suite which has the same features that of Oracle Supplier Hub can be deployed on an existing E-Business suite R12.1 application instance.

Option 2: Customers who want to deploy a standalone Supplier master data management system can implement Oracle Supplier Hub using Oracle E-Business suite R12.1 platform. They can implement Oracle Supplier Life cycle Management along with Oracle Supplier Hub or as a standalone E-Business Suite application like any other E-Business Suite application in a new instance.

If your company or Customer have a multi-supplier environment, then managing Supplier is always be a challenge. In that case if you are using EBS R12.1.2 or higher version then you use solution from Oracle that helps you to manage and track supplier data a bit more easier way. The Oracle Supplier Hub and Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management applications are designed to keep a record of all your suppliers and also model (TCA way) and track suppliers through processes that are built-in.

Oracle Supplier Hub(SDH) application helps maintain supplier information. Supplier data from various sources can be Extracted ,cleaned up and loaded in this application ( and Published too). The data can also be merged with data from third party sources such as D & B. Each supplier's quantity metrics like quality, on-time delivery, and qualitative metrics in terms of supplier performance, quality and reliability can all be stored here. Oracle Supplier Hub is a stand-alone data management application and have the great capability to integrate with legacy applications.

Other Oracle Supplier Lifecycle Management(SLM) application supports on boarding, performance evaluation(Qualification and On-boarding ), and governance of suppliers based on risk" by mean of web-based application allows supplier registration. Ongoing performance is documented through template questionnaires and a centralized record of suppliers by risk, compliance and adherence to local laws, regulations, etc. are all stored in this application.

Putting together, these two applications really have great potential to make supply chain management section easier.

Reference:

• Oracle Supplier Life cycle Management
• Data Sheet: Oracle Supplier Management
  

The Procure To Pay cycle (PTP) of any industry includes following some basics steps:

• Requisition is raised by any department of the plant. Or any automatic process (MPR, Min-Max Planning)
• The Purchasing Dept. employee (buyer) creates the PO based on the Requisition and previous price information when this exists, otherwise, buyer creates Request for Quotation (RFQ) from different suppliers, based on the Requisition.
• The Quotations are sent by suppliers in response to the RFQ.
• The buyer will analyze various Quotations and place the PO on a supplier, based on analysis
• The Supplier receives the PO and the notification if he has iSupplier Portal implemented .He then supplies the goods on PO lines or sends an ASN.
• The receiver receives the goods.
• The invoices are raised and payment is made to the Supplier.

Oracle Purchasing support the pricing using the following structure

Oracle’s standard features include:

• Creation of Purchase Requisitions
• Recovery Pricing information from ASL setup
• Recovery buyer information from Organization Items Setup
• Creation of PO and receipt against a PO shipment

• Oracle Purchasing Release 12.0 speeds up daily purchasing tasks with an enhanced Professional Buyer s Work Center. Based on the latest web-based user interface models the Work Center is a central Launch Pad from which buyers can efficiently perform their daily tasks:
  1. View and Act upon Requisition Demand
  2. Create and Manage Orders and Agreements
  3. Run Negotiation Events including Auctions and RFxs (requires Oracle Sourcing)
  4. Manage Supplier Information
• In Release 11i generation of purchasing documents in Adobe PDF format required organizations to create layout templates in the form of XSL-FO style sheets. With Release 12.0 organizations can also use RTF or PDF layout templates which require little training to configure and maintain.
• Oracle Purchasing supports various types of file attachments (MS Word Excel PDF etc.) that can be appended to purchasing documents in addition to long and short text attachments. In previous releases only text attachments were communicated to suppliers. With Release 12.0 buyers can communicate all necessary attachments to suppliers including file attachments via email.
• Release 12.0 allows finer control of how blanket agreements are enabled for automatic document sourcing. Buyers can now choose to enable them only in specific inventory organizations. Thus buyers can negotiate a blanket agreement to fulfill requisition demand for a subset of inventory organizations and enable the agreement for autosourcing only in those inventory organizations.

Oracle Sourcing is the yet another enterprise application that improves the effectiveness and efficiency of strategic sourcing. This application is a key component of Oracle Advanced Procurement, which dramatically cuts all supply management costs. Oracle sourcing enables buyers to source more of the organizations spend at lower total cost. Oracle Sourcing application creates immediate savings through rapid deployment, and ensures long-term savings with consistent execution and compliance.

With Oracle Sourcing you can:

• Manage more sourcing events in less time and bring them to conclusion faster, so you can exploit additional savings opportunities
• Make more best-value award decisions based on total cost, not just on unit price
• Create immediate savings and faster ROI with rapid deployment; then gain additional savings with consistent execution through the Oracle Advanced Procurement suite

There are three typical business flows that utilize Oracle Sourcing.

1. Create New Documents Using Demand Workbench
2. Create New Documents from Existing Blanket PO Agreements
3. Create Documents Directly in Oracle Sourcing

Details are herewith:

1.Sourcing buyers can use the Demand Workbench feature of Oracle Purchasing to select approved requisition lines and aggregate demand into a draft auction or a Sourcing RFQ. Buyers can use the Demand Workbench without leaving Oracle Sourcing. The backing requisition line information is retained throughout the life cycle of the sourcing document.

2. Oracle purchasing buyers can select a blanket purchase agreement (BPA) and use it as the basis of a new auction or Sourcing RFQ. The details of the BPA (including header, attachments, price breaks) are copied to the draft negotiation, and the sourcing lines refer to the originating BPA lines.

3. Oracle Sourcing buyers can define sourcing documents directly in Oracle Sourcing. Inventory items can be selected and goods and services can be entered directly. A large number of items can be quickly entered by using the spreadsheet upload feature.

Therefore, buyers have visibility to information throughout the complete procurement process. Oracle purchasing users can view the awards that initiated the standard purchase order or blanket purchase agreement.

Hope this helps.

OTM-PO Integration enable you to manage inbound freight from your suppliers.

The integration of Oracle Transportation Management enables you to plan and track the progress and status of inbound purchase order-related shipments.

Purchase orders created in Oracle Purchasing are communicated to Oracle Transportation Management after approval, enabling you to execute (rate, route, track, and reconcile) the related shipment.

Purchase order changes are also communicated to Oracle Transportation Management upon re-approval in Oracle Purchasing.

As part of the shipment process, Oracle Transportation Management enables suppliers to submit "ready to ship" information.

After shipping takes place, purchasing agents access carrier-provided shipment status updates within OTM. After goods are delivered, invoices for freight payment are collected and processed for payment.

This figure shows the integration of Oracle Transportation Management with Oracle Purchasing, including PO creation and PO close:

This get called soon after a Standard Purchase Order or a Blanket Purchase Release is approved, the Approval process(POXDOCON) or the Create Release process (porelgeb.pls) will call PO_DELREC_PVT.create_update_delrec.

• PO_DELREC_PVT.create_update_delrec then calls
• PO_OTM_INTEGRATION_PVT.handle_doc_update
• PO_OTM_INTEGRATION_PVT.handle_doc_update then calls
• PO_BUSINESSEVENT_PVT.raise_event

Fig 1 below outlines the period end dependency for Oracle Payables, Oracle Purchasing, Oracle Inventory, Oracle Receivables, Oracle Assets, Oracle Order Management, Oracle Projects and Oracle General Ledger (Release 12).

Fig 1: Period Close dependecy among the modules

If you are coming from 11i then you might see beacuse of SLA there would be additional steps you need to perform.Fig 2 will be a quick compare of steps between two versions.

Fig 2: Process and flow changes between two versions

In almost all modules the period end process consist of 5-6 major activity as:

1. Completing the Transactions
2. Creating Accounting
3. Followed by Reconcile Transactions
4. Post to GL
5. Reconcile Accounting
6. Close Period

You can check some of closure process & checklist from previous post :

• Period Close Processing Checklist -> R12 General Ledger
• Period Close Processing Checklist -> R12 Receivables
• Period Close Processing Checklist -> R12 Payables
• Period Close Processing Checklist -> R12 Cash Management
• R12 :FA Close process

I have searched in the application and noticed the following events availabile in Purchasing module.

1. These events are introduced for ASL integration with ERES. The ER documentation might have more info.

oracle.apps.po.asl.create -> PO ERES ASL Creation
oracle.apps.po.asl.update ->PO ERES ASL Update
oracle.apps.po.event.create_asl->Create New Approved Supplier List Entry
oracle.apps.po.event.update_asl ->Update Existing Approved Supplier List Entry

2. These events are launched during the XML Communication in PO Approval wf,after the PO is approved.

oracle.apps.po.event.setxml -> Set up PO via XML
oracle.apps.po.event.xmlpo -> Send PO via XML
oracle.apps.po.event.xmlpogen -> XML PO document is generated
oracle.apps.po.event.xmlposent -> PO Sent via XML

3. These events are newly introduced for Change Requests and signature flow (11.5.9 - 11.5.10.CU2)

oracle.apps.po.buyersignature -> Buyer Signature Event
oracle.apps.po.suppliersignature -> Supplier Signature Event
oracle.apps.po.event.requester_change -> Requester change Request pending
oracle.apps.po.event.suppchnresp -> Response to Supplier Change Request Event
oracle.apps.po.event.supplier_change -> Supplier Change, and PO is Responded

4. OTM Event - These event is launched for OTM integration flow, to send the PO details to OTM.

oracle.apps.po.event.document_action_event -> Document Action Event

5. Receiving Events

oracle.apps.po.group.receive -> PO ERES Receiving Group Event
oracle.apps.po.line.receive -> PO ERES Receiving Line Event
oracle.apps.po.rcv.deliver -> PO ERES Receiving Delivery
oracle.apps.po.rcv.inspect -> PO ERES Receiving Inspection
oracle.apps.po.rcv.rcvtxn -> Receive Transaction
oracle.apps.po.rcv.transfer -> PO ERES Receiving Transfer

Hope this helps.

This post is answer of reader's query which was pending from long time.

To elaborate in details , lets take sample case with two items.

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