SciQuest Spend Director Enhancements and Solution Availability

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SciQuest Spend Director Enhancements and
Solution Availability

• CODiE Awards

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Spend DirectorEnhancementsJuly 30, 2006 July
29, 2007

• Product Releases 5.3, 5.4, 7.1 and 7.2

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Accept Multiple Suppliers in Punch Out Cart
  Return
• Spend Director now supports the ability to punch
  out to another market place that contains
  multiple suppliers.
• Organizations can enable punch out sites that
  contain multiple vendors, e.g., office furniture
  sites, and the shopping cart, when returned,
  contains all the appropriate supplier
  information.
• Suppliers in Product Search Results
• Keywords that are added to a suppliers profile
  can be searched upon using the standard product
  search functionality.
• For suppliers matching the users entered
  criterion, the suppliers name is listed at the
  top of Search Results with their available
  acquisition options.
• Acquisition options include browse by category,
  punch out, and non-catalog item. For suppliers
  with none of the abilities, the user is directed
  to Forms.
• Users can use the common search interface to find
  suppliers for all of their needs

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Search Interface Options
• Show/hide punch out icon A suppliers punch out
  icon can now be hidden, so they are not given
  preferential treatment in search results. The
  user can still find the punch out by either
  browsing for the supplier, or entering a
  suppliers keyword in the search interface.
• Use vertical separators The vertical separators
  for supplier punch outs can be suppressed.
• Collapse search entry box Set the search box
  entry interface to be completely collapsed in
  search results. This allows for additional
  results to be shown on the screen without the
  need to scroll.
• Non-Catalog Item
• A new interface is available for entering
  non-catalog requests.
• Non-catalog items are accessible from numerous
  locations within the application, e.g., cart,
  requisition, purchase order, etc., depending on
  the users permissions, e.g., Edit Purchase
  Order.
• The non-catalog item is an overlay making its use
  and access streamlined compared to the form used
  for non-catalog purchases.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Forms Service Pack
• Forms are highly configurable allowing an
  organization to make each form look and perform
  in the desired manner. Additional field types
  including Boolean, dates, drop-downs, and menu
  items are available.
• Forms are configured in a similar manner to
  requisitions, POs and fax POs.
• Remove Add-to-Cart Action in Search Results by
  Supplier
• Administrators can turn of the ability for users
  to add items from a suppliers catalog in Search
  Results. The add-to-cart icon and quantity are
  replaced with the verbiage entered in the
  Supplier Profile.
• Select this option on the General tab of the
  supplier profile to prevent users from adding
  items to their cart for the appropriate
  suppliers.
• This feature is useful for suppliers that fulfill
  their orders from another internal system, e.g.,
  internal antibody stock.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Edit Pricing by Item within the User Interface
• Suppliers can edit pricing for organizations
  using the user interface in addition to the
  standard file import process. Pricing by
  organization and currency are available.
• Create Product Attributes through the SciQuest
  Interface
• Suppliers can create their own product attributes
  through the user interface in addition to the
  standard file import process. Attributes show in
  the product details window.
• The same interface is available to SciQuest
  personnel for adding universal product attributes
  to be used by all suppliers and organizations
  with self-managed hosted catalogs.
• SciQuest added attributes can be made searchable
  if appropriate.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Enhanced Commodity Code Mapping for Punch Out
  Sites
• Items returned from a punch out site no longer
  use the SciQuest taxonomy for mapping to
  Commodity Code values. UN/SPSC is used for
  mapping punch out items.
• This eliminates the issue of duplicate mapping
  codes for punch out items in certain verticals,
  e.g., Lab Supplies, resulting in the supplier
  commodity code being used.
• Move Items to New Cart
• Users can move items from a draft cart to a new
  cart. When this function is performed, the item
  and all of its requisition detail (RM) is moved
  to the new cart.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• New Units of Measure (UOM) and Product Sizes
• The following UOM were added in 7.2
• GT Gross Ton
• JA Job
• The following product sizes were added in 7.2
• PC Piece (volume)
• UNIT Unit (volume)
• TEST Test (volume)
• ASSAY Assay (volume)
• Pricing Models
• Supplies Manager supports the ability to apply
  different pricing models at both the organization
  level as well as item level.
• Two pricing models use the cost of the item plus
  a markup (percentage or fixed) to determine the
  retail price based on FIFO and cost average. The
  third model is fixed pricing which ignores the
  cost of the item.
• FIFO bases the price of the item on the first
  in/first out principle, i.e., the cost of the
  oldest item in stock is used to determine the
  retail price. Cost averaging uses the average
  price of all of an item in stock plus a markup to
  determine the retail price.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Manage Hosted Catalogs by Item
• Hosted catalogs can be managed by individual SKU
  with this functionality. Items can be turned off
  globally for an organization, so they are no
  longer accessible by end users.
• Additionally, SKUs can be set to Not
  Available. This option permits the product to
  still show in Search Results to the end user, but
  they cannot be added to the shopping cart. The
  verbiage shown in place of the add-to-cart icon
  can be modified in field management to instruct
  the user where they should go to acquire the
  item, e.g., Go to the stockroom for this item.
• Manage Spot Buy Items
• In the past, organizations could add items to
  the hosted catalog search through the Spot Buy
  add-to-catalog process. Once added, the items
  could no longer be modified by the organization
  only SciQuest could modify/delete these items.
• All of these spot buy items are moved to a folder
  called Spot Buy Products that is located in
  Organization Favorites. Users with the ability
  to manage Org Favorites can now add/modify/delete
  these items as needed.
• Favorites are searchable. See next item.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Searchable Favorites
• Items located in either the users or
  organizations Favorites folders are shown in
  Search Results. These products can be found using
  the same search interface used for hosted catalog
  searching.
• This means that both non-catalog as well as forms
  are presented in Search Results.
• Whenever a Favorites appears in Search Results,
  it is highlighted with a special add-to-cart icon
  which has a colored star next to the cart. A
  yellow star is shown for personal favorites, and
  a green for organization favorites.
• Assign Cart for Processing
• Users with the appropriate permissions can assign
  a shopping cart to another user to complete the
  requisitioning process. For example, User-A can
  shop for all the items they need and add them to
  their shopping cart. Once they are finished
  shopping, User-A can assign the cart to User-B
  who then completes the requisition.
• Another option available is to permit a user to
  shop for the desired items. Add them to their
  cart, and then print the cart, i.e., they cannot
  submit nor assign the shopping cart.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• View and Sort Products by Price/UOM
• Spend Director offers grocery store type price
  comparisons between hosted catalog products.
• Normalized pricing based on the items UOM and
  product size are calculated and presented on the
  Product Comparison page.
• Alternate product sizes (e.g. L vs mL) can be
  selected to view normalized pricing based on the
  new product size selected.
• Edit/Inspect Punch Out Items
• The primary focus of this new functionality is to
  support edit and inspect sessions with a supplier
  punch out. Edit sessions allow the user to return
  to a supplier punch out cart and make changes to
  the items and/or configurations then return the
  changes to Spend Director. Inspect sessions allow
  users to return to the supplier punch out cart to
  view the full contents in a read-only format. The
  following applies to the edit and inspect
  functionality
• Edit or Inspect sessions are initiated from the
  purchase requisition (PR)
• Available only in the new PR interface
• Configurable by supplier
• Audit trail logs any Edit session changes
• Enabled by SciQuest only on a supplier-by-supplier
  level

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Assign Pricing to Contracts
• Several enhancements are available for managing
  price files and price file approvals.
  Additionally, contracts can be assigned to
  pricing to support the scenario where users under
  different contracts with a supplier can see the
  pricing associated with that contract.
• New functionality includes
• Ability to view price files after they are
  approved
• Ability to compare different versions of price
  files
• Approve an entire price set versus having to
  approve several files for larger suppliers
• View price deltas
• View entire price set
• Assign a price set to a contract
• Pricing is available immediately upon approval.
• Price files approved with a post-date are in
  effect at approximately 000001 ET of the
  post-date.

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Spend Director Enhancements

• Supplier Portal Price File Submission and
  Validation
• Suppliers can upload their pricing for all
  organizations through the Supplier Portal. A
  standardized price file format is now available
  allowing suppliers to load list pricing,
  consortium pricing, organization pricing, as well
  as contract pricing in one file.
• Price files are validated, and a report is
  generated for the supplier to review and use to
  correct errors.
• Customize Supplier Class Icons
• Organizations can manage their own set of icons
  and logos to be used within the application. The
  icons and logos are available for supplier class
  icons, supplier punch out logos, organization
  desktop logos, and organization fax logos.
• A custom icon can be assigned to the supplier
  class in order to direct spend to specific
  suppliers.
• The supplier punch out logos can be replaced with
  a custom logo in order to emphasize or
  de-emphasize the suppliers punch out.
• The organization can update their logos without
  involving SciQuest.

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SciQuest Solution Availability
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SciQuest Solution Availability

• SciQuests current run rate for availability
  during 2007 is 99.8730.  
• Since the implementation of our High Availability
  solution in April 2007, we are running at
  99.9971.
• At the individual component level, our firewalls,
  load balancers, network and application services
  have achieved a perfect 100 availability record
  for the year.
• Since January of 2004 SciQuest has achieved
  99.739 availability.

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SciQuest Solution Availability

• SciQuests production architecture is fully
  redundant at all levels across the infrastructure
  from the firewalls, load balancers through its
  application servers and the network to the
  database servers.
• In addition, SciQuest has looked at every
  possible disruptive scenario and developed a
  solution to ensure maximum up-time for the system
  and our customers is achieved if these occurred.
• In the event of a catastrophic disaster rendering
  our primary production facilities unusable, for
  example, a second site is maintained at all times
  in a disparate geographic location that can be
  brought online with current data in as little as
  1 to 4 hours.

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SciQuest Solution Availability

• To ensure these high levels of availability and
  performance continue to trend positively,
  SciQuest has made significant investment in
  replicating the production environment within its
  headquarter offices for the purpose of stress
  testing the overall solution as well as the
  individual hardware and software components of
  which it is comprised.
• This environment gives us the ability to
  accurately predict future system loads as well as
  performance expectations and significantly
  enhances the process of testing new functionality
  and code destined for the production systems.

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SciQuest Solution Availability

• New code and features can be rigorously tested in
  an environment that accurately models the current
  system load in production, ensuring that these
  features do not cause overall degradation of
  system performance.
• Data from the load testing environment allows us
  to determine the most efficient hardware and
  software upgrade paths that should be taken to
  ensure we effectively take advantage of technical
  innovations that could enhance both reliability
  of the systems and the overall customer
  experience.