Oracle i-Procurement Implementation Guide

Oracle i-Procurement Implementation

– Guidelines for a Successful Project Implementation

This document provides a high level guide to support the establishment and management of the
Oracle i-Procurement implementation project in collaboration with the Oracle i-Procurement
service provider TriSolve. It also recommends solutions to potential issues which CFS may
encounter during the course of an Oracle i-Procurement P2P (purchase to pay) implementation
lifecycle.

Tips for a successful project – before you start implementation

• Obtain visible and knowledgeable Senior Management commitment and support.

• Set and mandate specific adoption and compliance goals, and make these visible to your staff.
• Assign dedicated resources to manage implementation and drive adoption - the appointment of a
dedicated project manager, preferably utilising the Prince2 project management methodology and the
provision of specialist technical resource to provide support for any system integration work, is highly
recommended.
• Maintain a plan to communicate with all key stakeholders.
• Understand the skills and knowledge required to implement Oracle i-Procurement and deliver activities
to develop the required skills and knowledge.
• Provide appropriate opportunities for end–users to get involved early.
• Review your procurement policy and processes and change where necessary.

Implementation Stages

I. Project Initiation ( Inaugurating )

A. Business Case
A business case based upon the measurement of transactional benefits aligned with
organizational strategic objectives (strategic sourcing / commodity management / policy /
compliance), will be required as part of the formal business justification and project approval
process within your organisation. The business case will need to address these key areas:

• Benefits analysis - identification of the business benefits to the organization.

• Project funding – appropriate funding is allocated to the whole life of the project.
• Resources – ensure the project is sufficiently resourced for its entire lifecycle.
• Risks & issues – initial identification, assessment of likelihood and impact, and
countermeasures for key risks and issues.

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Recommended Actions:
 Complete business case.
 Design a measurement tool to measure progress against the defined benefits, and
publish metrics on a monthly basis.
 Design a compliance template to highlight areas which are not following the new
processes.

B. Assessing readiness and capacity for change

(Preparing)
Undertake a Scope & Readiness Assessment (SRA) for each Division. The report will provide a
Red/Amber/Green status against each of the key criteria required to initiate the implementation:
• Organisational Structure
• Project Resources
• Procurement Processes
• Financial Processes
• Users
• Technology
• Suppliers
• Benefits Realisation
• Additional Information – current ordering procedures, details of any online ordering
relationships with suppliers.

Recommended Actions:
 Commit resources for readiness assessment information requirements.
 Complete SRA questionnaire.
 Agree roles and responsibilities with the service provider.
 Identify a Super User/trainer for each Division.

C. Policy and Financial Management (Preparing)

The e-procurement policy which supports the business justification for an Oracle i-Procurement
implementation will need to be approved internally by the finance department. Rules governing
authorization, payment methods & matching will need to be specified and evaluated in relation to
the type of commodity and supplier.

Recommended Actions:
 Agree a simple authorization hierarchy & approval routes i.e. agree the simplest
authorization route, ideally no more than 3 levels above the requisitioner. The more levels
you introduce, the more difficult it will be to maintain.
 Confirm which payments methods will be used e.g. BACS, PCard, other.
 Confirm what level of matching will be required to authorize payment:
 2 way – order and invoice
 3 way – order, invoice & goods receipt
 4 way - order, invoice, goods receipt & quality check
 Agree whether there are different approval or matching rules for different types of
purchase e.g. capital expenditure etc.

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 Confirm if there is a requirement to implement the e-invoicing options.

 Review the limits of approvals, and consider giving all permanent staff a small approval
limit for buying from catalogues, e.g. less than £1000.
 Map new processes and agree procedures with finance and audit departments.

D. Project/Programme Management (Mobilising)

CFS will be required to establish appropriate project management processes and governance
structures to ensure a structured approach to the project’s initiation and the overall delivery of the
system implementation. Project start-up & initiation requires definition of the project scope, the
creation of a project implementation plan with realistic milestones, and identification, assessment
& management of the key risks. These components are encapsulated within a PID (project
initiation document), the document used to baseline the project’s progress and overall success.
Your project planning activities will provide the method for gaining a better understanding of the
resource requirements and skills needed to manage and deliver the project’s objectives.

Recommended Actions:
 Identify & commit sufficiently skilled resources.
 Establish a project organization, which should comprise a SRO & project board, a dedicated
project manager, and an implementation team.
 Adopt a structured project management methodology (PRINCE2) and checkpoint reviews, if
required.
 Develop an implementation project plan to deliver the following activities:
 Project initiation & start-up
 Change management– refer to section I. E
 Priority Supplier Adoption – refer to section I. H
 Supplier Set-up
 Technical Configuration with Oracle – refer to section II. C
 Testing (development/system/user acceptance) – refer to section II. D
 Training – refer to section II. B
• Review Oracle i-Procurement service demonstration & approve ‘Go Live’ – refer to
section II. E
• Project closure

E. Change Management (Mobilising)

Specific change management activity will be required to embed the business change within your
organisation i.e. engage and adopt suppliers, and motivate the staff within your organization who
will be given responsibility for administering the system post-implementation. Consideration may
need to be given to the benefits of delivering this project via temporary interim resource or
external consultants.

A key change management output is the development of a benefits realization plan, which
identifies and profiles benefits, both tangible and intangible. This should include a schedule
detailing when each benefit or group of benefits will be realised; identification of appropriate
milestones when a benefit review could be carried out and details of any handover activities -
beyond the mere implementation of a deliverable or output, to sustain the process of benefits
realisation after the project/programme is closed.

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Recommended Actions:
 Develop change management strategy & plan:
 identify the impact of proposed business change activities/outcomes on
stakeholders (you may wish to map the employee experience before & after the
implementation to highlight changes)
 identify the willingness, and potential barriers, to accept change
 identify change agents within the affected business units
 Develop a plan that outlines the transition from project delivery to business as usual
operations.
 Develop benefits realization & measurement plan.

F. Change Management - Stakeholder Management &

Communications strategy (Mobilising)
Key stakeholders within your organisation will need to be identified, analysed and engaged - their
requirements/expectations and information needs identified and managed effectively by the
project.

Recommended Actions:
 Identify & analyse stakeholders mapping their influence/interest.
 Confirm stakeholder objectives.
 Develop a communications plan, defining messages, communication channels, activities,
timings & owners.
 Engage with key stakeholders early, e.g. finance & audit departments, as part of the
project’s initiation phase.

G. Outline Spend Analysis (Delivering)

The purpose of this analysis – of the data held within your purchasing or accounts payable
systems - is to gather and analyse statistical information on your organisation’s purchasing
activities i.e. what is bought, who are the buyers, and the transaction values and volumes. This
analysis will provide the basis for the implementation business case and a list of baseline
measures from which your KPIs can be developed.

Recommended Actions:
 The areas of analysis are:
 Transaction analysis - the number & value of transactions.
 Requisitioning activity - identification of the main requisitioners within the
organization.
 Supplier analysis - the number of transactions per supplier.
 Off-contract spending – the number of suppliers used for the provision of similar
goods/services, and if a local and/or central contract is in place for specific supply.
 Priority adoption lists – for users and suppliers, and timescales for their adoption.
 Payments – the current payment methods.
 Payment errors – a measure of potential cost savings.
 Late interest payments – a measure of potential cost savings.

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H. Supplier Engagement & Adoption (Delivering)

A principal workstream within the implementation is the adoption of suppliers. Your organisation
will be required to undertake a process of an analysis and prioritization of suppliers. This will
enable the service provider to engage, register and support suppliers, with the loading of their
content onto the electronic catalogue system. Supplier engagement should be commenced at the
earliest possible opportunity during the project initiation phase.

The supplier forums, hosted in collaboration with the service provider, will disseminate ‘how to’
information to suppliers on the following key areas:

• upload catalogue content into Oracle i-Procurement

• enable staff as users on Oracle i-Procurement as appropriate
• standards for self-service catalogue loading and for XML integration with Oracle i-
Procurement

As with Change Management, early consideration should be given to how this workstream can be
best resourced. The benefits of using external specialist supplier adoption resources should be
assessed as part of the resource and skills planning process.

Recommended Actions:
 Identify and commit specific resources to manage all Supplier Adoption activities.
 Engage with your contract/category managers early in this process, as they will need to
motivate the suppliers to participate.
 Cleanse accounts payable data
 Analyse, segment and prioritise suppliers to identify those who constitute the highest
volume of your current orders or invoices. These will form a target list of priority suppliers.
 Confirm if any of these suppliers have been adopted on Oracle i-Procurement with the
contract you wish to use.
 Promote benefits to suppliers through, Supplier Adoption workshops & seminars.
 Catalogue management
 Engage and determine how suppliers will display their offerings i.e. goods or service
catalogue, or punch-out website
 Devise process with suppliers for the provision, approval, and maintenance of their
content

II. Implementation

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A. Change Management - Business Process Re-engineering

(Delivering)
Adoption of Oracle i-Procurement provides an ideal opportunity to maximize the benefits derived
from process efficiencies through procurement business process re-engineering i.e. analyse
existing procurement business processes to identify potential opportunities to streamline and
standardize these where possible. Lean, business process improvement, techniques may be
used to make this process effective.

Recommended Actions:
 Map & review current (‘as is’) procurement & payment processes.
 Map new (‘to be’) processes and identify process champions.
 Identify potential savings through adoption of new processes.
 Define user roles & responsibilities.
 Define catalogue rules for approval, access & maintenance.

B. Change Management – Training (Delivering)

The Service Provider will deliver a training plan for the users assigned to this system following
identification of your organisation’s training requirements. The training is comprised of 3 main
elements: System Administration, Train-the-Trainer and End-user Training.

Recommended Actions:
 Identify training needs – according to the authorization hierarchy.
 Identify staff to be trained.
 Identify how training will be provided.
 Schedule training sessions.
 Provide feedback on training & refine where necessary.
 Ensure you provide an ongoing training scheme for new hires.
 Provide ‘train the trainer’ training for your site Super users.

C. Technical Configuration & Systems Integration

(Delivering)
Your organisation will be required to provide sufficient technical resource to advise and co-
ordinate activities that support the technical configuration.

Recommended Actions:
 Confirm desktop, network and security set-up is sufficient to work with Oracle i-
Procurement at all sites.
 validate, approve and publish content (supplier e-Catalogues)

CFS will not be required to provide the same level of technical resource for this type of
implementation but will need to understand how Oracle i-Procurement will impact on existing
workflow and authorization processes, which will result in changes to the ways of working.
The following are examples of the type of questions, which will need to be addressed:
• How suppliers are selected?

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• How are orders raised?

• How are invoices approved?

Recommended Actions:
 Confirm desktop, network and security set-up.
 Confirm & document organisation set-up.
 Confirm & document P2P workflow rules.
 Create & load supplier e-Catalogues.
 Check, validate, approve and publish content (supplier e-Catalogues)

D. Testing (Delivering)

In addition to providing technical resource to support the development and system testing
phases, CFS will be responsible for providing the resource, and final sign-off, for all user
acceptance activities.

Recommended Actions:
 Develop user acceptance test strategy & plan (with details of relevant test scenarios).
 Test & accept:
 Supplier e-Catalogues.

E. Service Demonstration (Delivering)

The service provider will provide a service demonstration as the final deliverable of the Oracle
i-Procurement implementation. Your organisation will be required to approve the system at this
stage enabling it to move to a go live status.

Recommended Actions:
 Approve system.

III.Review

A. Project lessons learnt & Post-implementation review

(Closing)
Your organisation will be required to support activity in capturing key lessons learnt during the
implementation phases and to contribute towards the development of best practice materials.

B. Deliver & measure the benefits (Closing)

Your organisation will need to review and measure the benefits identified and profiled within the
benefits realisation plan.

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• Assess whether the business case justification for the project was realistic.
• Assess whether the anticipated benefits at this stage are actually being delivered.
• Confirm that the client side continues to have the necessary resources to manage the
contract successfully.
• Confirm continuity of key personnel involved in contract management/'intelligent
customer' roles.
• Where changes have been agreed, check that they do not compromise the original
project.
• Assess the ongoing requirement for the system to meet business needs. Ensure that if
circumstances have changed, the service delivery and system are adapting to the new
situation. Changing circumstances could affect: partner management; relationship
management; service management; change management; contract management;
benefits management; performance management.
• Check that there is ongoing system development to improve value for money.
• Confirm that there are plans to manage the implementation to Business as Usual.

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