PO Dispatch Tips and Tricks Session #27333

1. What do you mean, my PO was lost in the mail!?! Purchase Order Dispatch Tip and Tricks Session # 27333 March 2, 2010 3:15 PM – 4:15 PM

2. Presenter David Best • Senior ERP Analyst • Eight Years with ERP • Former Associate Director of Purchasing • 43 Year Seminole

3. Session Overview This presentation will focus on the PO Dispatch step in Purchase Order Management. The five PO dispatch methods will be examined separately. Comparative strengths and weaknesses among the methods will be presented and potential pitfalls of each method will be highlighted. Ways to improve the fault tolerance of each method will be suggested, including procedural changes, configurations, and minor enhancements. Lastly, some precautions for vendor file management, testing and integrating with a third-party document repository will be covered.

4. Agenda • The five PS dispatch methods • Setup Basics: Run Controls and Processes • Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • Testing, Vendor File, and Change Orders

5. Florida State University …a public university with emphasis on research, education and public service. Established 1851 Fall 2009 enrollment was 40,000 students Over 14,000 employees Annual Operating Budget 1.1 B

6. FSU and Oracle • Big Bang go live with PeopleSoft Financials version 8.4 on July 1, 2004 and HR on December 17, 2004. • Upgrade to FIN version 9.0, MP5, and conversion to Oracle Database in April, 2009 • Supply enablement of eSupplier Connection, Strategic Sourcing, eSettlements on March 15, 2010

7. Five Dispatch Methods by Volume Period: Calendar Year 2009

8. Print • Speed: Slowest • Lag time just to get hard copy out of the door • USPS • Effectiveness: Mixed • Withstands the test of time • Return service unreliable • Cost: Highest Per Unit Price among five methods

9. Print • Why do we still need print? • Individuals and Small Companies • Pickups • Minimum Address Info Required • Requires the least information to get a PO out of the door • People still like paper

10. Print Issues • Buyer must enter the correct Type, Format and Output Destination during online dispatch for PO to go to the printer.

11. Print Issues and Remedies If output destination is missing or incorrect, the POPO005 process runs to success but cannot send the file to the printer.

12. Print Issues and Remedies • Logo and Signature Files • PSNT or UNIX Server • Dedicated or Shared Printer • Log POs from Printer • Initiative to reduce volume of printed POs

13. Phone • Speed: Fast • PO can be transmitted before dispatch processing • Slows as the line count increases • Effective: Mixed • Person to person communication/contact • Communication errors: sending and receiving • Confirmation risks duplication • Cost: Varies relative to line count and phone line charges

14. Phone • Why do we still need telephone orders? • Individuals and Small Companies • Wide Accessibility to Medium • Common Vendor Address Requirement • FSU Purchasing has not provided the option to dispatch POs via phone for over 10 years. So, why are 12% of POs dispatched via phone? • Confirming Orders, Change Orders and Cancellations • A method that changes PO status without sending anything out of the system

15. Fax • Speed: Faster • Transmits POs quickly to the vendor • Handoff to a third party fax server increases the speed of transmittal even more than a fax machine • Effectiveness: Very Effective and Highly Reliable • Machine to machine over hardwired network • Confirmation of delivery and fast error correction • Vendors have dedicated sites and procedures • Cost: Lower (lower still with fax server)

16. Fax Issues • Why move beyond fax dispatch if its fast, effective and low in cost? • Files attachments are sent by email, which separates the PO and the “attachment”. • Many old fax machines print low resolution, poor quality documents. • Without a fax server: • still incurs cost of printing and manual handling • tracking and reconciliation with PS are difficult • There is a potential for delay and errors while vendors enter the faxed PO into their systems.

17. Fax Servers • Third-party Fax Servers • Automated dispatch reduces time, labor and material costs • Log files improve tracking and the ability to reconcile with your ERP system • Some fax servers deliver additional benefits that offset the cost of having one server dedicated to PO dispatch: • Desktop Faxing • Automated Inbound Fax Routing • Access to Electronic Document Management Systems • Looping … send a duplicate PO 1000 times in a day! Keep your fax server in the same domain as your outbound folder!

18. Fax Servers and Procedures • FSU uses RightFax (Captaris) and a T1 line as an Enterprise Fax server solution. • A Purchasing staff member monitors the fax logs every 90 minutes, which coincides with the timing of our batch dispatch jobs. • For undeliverable fax messages: • Manually fax PO • Contact Vendor status of their machine and/or to get correct fax number • If bad fax and phone, contact requester and/or mail it with form seeking updated information for the vendor file

19. Fax Servers Log

20. Fax Servers Log

21. Email • Speed: Faster • Transmits POs very quickly to the vendor • Lag time for PO to be opened and entered in vendor’s system • Effectiveness: Medium • Handoff to SMTP gateway compromises tracking • Bounce backs and replies managed manually • Typically goes to a person rather than a company • Cost: Very Low

22. Email Issues and Remedies • Email address is typically to a salesperson. • Get company accounts where possible. Avoid freebees like Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail • POs get stuck in the email queue without notice • Simple App Engine to check PO_EMAIL_QUEUE • Version 8.9 upgrade used contact’s email address instead of the email address in the vendor’s ordering address. • MP5 and communication with vendor file managers

23. Email Issues and Remedies • Bouncebacks and Replys go to SMTP server, which requires manual monitoring by IT staff. • Two possible ways to move monitoring to the Purchasing Department: • Add Cc: to a generic Purchasing account • Spoof sender

24. EDX • Speed: Fastest • Transmits POs like lighting to the vendors • No lag time for vendor to manually enter the order • Effectiveness: Very Highest • Machine to machine communication • Excellent for high volume vendors • Cost: Lowest per unit cost with no noticeable impact for high line/page count POs.

25. EDX Issues • Order site down • Ship To addresses: • become limited to the lowest common denominator among vendors: • Only Address1 and Address2 allowed • Only 30 Char per field • For some vendor, must share Ship To location codes and re-sync quarterly • One time addresses are potentially problematic • Comments might be disregarded or delay order entry

26. EDX Issues and Remedies Ship To Location Limitations

27. EDX – How it works at FSU • FSU contracted with SciQuest in 2008 to obtain access to an online marketplace offering both punchout and hosted catalog shopping. At that time we purchased the order manager module, too. The latter made EDX integration much easier because all of our EDX dispatch routes though their middleware and order site. • Currently have 23 linked vendors, eleven of which receive their PO through SciQuest via cXML.

28. EDX – How it works at FSU • Online Single PO Dispatch from Core PO or ePro • Batch Publishing via PV_DISPATCHER • Monitor EDX Dispatch in ePro and Integration Broker • Research Sent POs in SciQuest Order Manager

29. EDX – How it works at FSU Online Dispatcher

30. EDX Dispatch – How it Works PV_Dispatch Process

31. EDX Dispatch – How it Works PV_Dispatch Process

32. EDX Dispatch – How it Works EDX Dispatch Message Log

33. EDX Dispatch – How it Works EDX Dispatch Message Log

34. EDX Dispatch – How it Works Synchronous Details

35. EDX Dispatch – How it Works Message XLM

36. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Buyers Dispatch Ad Hoc via Add/Update POs

37. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Buyers Dispatch Ad Hoc via Add/Update POs

38. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes FSU_BATCH Job for Dispatch Processing

39. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Run control for Batch Dispatch FAX, EML & PHN

40. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Run control for Batch Dispatch via Print

41. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Process List setup for Batch Dispatch via Print

42. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes PO_DISPATCHED Table

43. Dispatch Run Controls and Processes Outbound Folder

44. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • POPO005: Mods for vendors • Remove clutter and mask PO ID to show only last seven digits • Requester Info • Attn To • Watermarks • Add link to Terms and Conditions

45. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • POPO005 Mods

46. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • POPO005 Mods

47. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • POPO005 Mods, Watermarks

48. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality Custom Support Processes

49. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • FSUPOPO5, Clone for creating copies of POs in a permanent electronic document management repository • Replaced file cabinets • AP favorite

50. Enhancements to Delivered Functionality • FSU_POEML_CK … App Engine process to check the table PO_EMAIL_QUEUE for POs that are undeliverable due to syntax errors in the email address. Check PO_EMAIL_QUEUE