Evaluate Suppliers

• Appointed persons evaluate suppliers on the basis of predefined 'competencies'
• Evaluations of individual competencies can be supported by competency-specific observations
• If necessary, additional tasks supporting the evaluation process may be conceived and planned
• When all information is collected and processed, inputs from individual evaluating persons are finalized
• The inputs are used to calculate overall evaluations of individual suppliers for specified periods of time

Create Evaluation Input

Once suppliers have been registered and graded, it is time to proceed to their evaluation. Evaluation of a given supplier by a given evaluator for a given period of time is represented by one evaluation input.

• Evaluation inputs can be created for suppliers regardless of their status. (E.g. a 'Potential' supplier can also be evaluated.)
• Limitations may apply as to which persons can create evaluation inputs for a given supplier. The default limitation in standard Valuemation is the following: only a person assigned to the evaluated supplier in process role 'Supplier Relationship Manager' can create evaluation inputs. The limitation can be changed in Supplier Manager settings.

To create an evaluation input for a supplier:

1. In a suppliers catalog, right-click the supplier and call action 'Evaluation Input'.
2. Catalog 'Evaluation inputs for...' opens. Here you can either select one of previous evaluation inputs (of the supplier) for an update or you can create a completely new input. In this use case, we will call action 'New Input' to create a new evaluation input for the supplier.
3. The 'New: Evaluation Input' editor opens. Fill in relevant attributes (see topic 'Evaluation Input' for attribute description).

An evaluation input can also be created using action 'Next Input for the Selected' from context menu called on an existing evaluation input. The action creates a new input by copying values (including evaluations) from the source input and automatically specifies the 'Experience From' attribute of the new input to immediately follow after 'Experience To' of the source (previous) input.

Evaluate Supplier Competencies

Suppliers are evaluated on the basis of predefined competencies. Competencies express important supplier attributes or areas of supplier performance. Prior to the actual evaluation, competencies must be created as 'Evaluable Competency' objects and assigned to relevant Valuemation object types. This ensures evaluation consistency - objects of the same type (supplier, person, contract) are evaluated according to the same criteria.

Evaluable competencies available for individual object types should be created in advance as part of Supplier Manager setup. Their actual evaluation involves the following:

1. Go to the 'Competencies' tab of the 'New: Evaluation Input' editor.
2. The tab lists all evaluable competencies available for 'Business Partner' object type of the 'Supplier' type. (Note that while this applies in the Supplier Manager context, generally the tab lists all evaluable competencies available for the object type and subset condition of the object selected for evaluation.)
3. Go through the competencies one by one. Double-click each competency to open it for editing. In the competency editor, use the 'Evaluation input' drop down box to select your evaluation value. Use the 'Comment by Evaluator' field to provide additional textual information if necessary. (Note that unlike 'Evaluation Input' (i.e. the evaluation value), comments can by entered directly by inplace editing in the 'Competencies' tab of the 'New: Evaluation Input' editor.)

Add Observations to Competencies

While in the competency editor (i.e. still in the 'Evaluate supplier competencies' step, see above), it is possible to add observations to the evaluations of individual competencies.

1. Go to the 'Observations' tab at the bottom of the editor and call action 'Add new Observation'.
2. The 'New: Observation' editor opens. Drop down box 'Observation Type' offers observation types defined for the given evaluable competency. For example, evaluable competency 'Quality of Invoicing' provided with standard Valuemation offers observation types 'Complaints' and 'Invoice Inconsistencies'. (Observation types should be created and associated with evaluable competencies in advance as part of Supplier Manager setup.) Select a suitable observation type.

   Fill in other relevant observation attributes (see topic 'Observation - Observation Type' attributes description).

3. Add as many observations to the competency as appropriate and finalize evaluation of the competency by clicking 'Save' in the competency editor.

Add Targeted Measures to Evaluation Input

During the evaluation of individual competencies in the evaluation input, you may realize that you need to obtain more information about the supplier and its performance. To get the information, additional action such as a phone call, an email or a meeting may be necessary. Targeted measures linked to the evaluation input can be used to plan and schedule the actions to be taken.

To create a targeted measure:

1. Switch to the 'Targeted Measures' tab at the bottom of the evaluation input editor.
2. Call action 'Add new Targeted Measure' (the icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the tab) or action 'Create' from tab context menu. The 'New: Targeted Measure' editor opens.
3. Use attributes in the editor to specify the targeted measure, see topic 'Targeted Measures' for attributes description.
4. Activate the targeted measure by calling the 'Activate' action. (Right-click context menu on the targeted measure object in catalogs or the 'Activate' button at the bottom of the targeted measure editor. The targeted measure receives status 'Active / In Work'. (See topic 'Status Diagrams - Targeted Measure' for an overview of targeted measure statuses.)

Use the steps above to create as many targeted measures as necessary for the evaluation input.

Finalize Evaluation Input

The evaluation input must be in status 'Completed' before it can enter the evaluation calculation. Additionally, the following actions are available:

• Save:

  Save the evaluation input after all competencies have been evaluated and targeted measures (optional) provided. After saving the input can still be edited at a later time. Only after a newly created input is saved it is listed in evaluation input catalogs, such as:

  • 'Evaluation Inputs from Users' - evaluation inputs from all users
  • 'Your Evaluation Inputs' - evaluation inputs from the currently logged in user

  The evaluation input remains in status 'Planned' until it is activated.

• Activate

  Evaluation input receives status 'Active / In Work'.

  Evaluation input is also automatically activated when a targeted measure is added to it.

• Complete

  When the evaluator considers the evaluation input completed, the completeness should be confirmed by using action 'Complete'. An evaluation input in status 'Complete' can no longer be edited. (It is, however, possible to revert the status back to 'Active / In work' for more editing, if necessary.)

  Depending on Supplier Manager settings, final evaluation of the supplier may be automatically triggered by calling the 'Complete' action. If the Supplier Manager settings are left at their default values, then the evaluator is asked whether the evaluation calculation should be triggered:

  • 'Yes' - calculation will be directly triggered
  • 'No' - calculation will not be triggered at the moment. Sidebar action 'Calculate Evaluations For...' will have to be used at a later time.

Calculate the Evaluation

The steps above describe the creation of individual evaluation inputs. Evaluation inputs form a basis for actual evaluation of the business partner.

The evaluation is calculated from the evaluation inputs. How this calculation is performed is influenced by Supplier Manager settings. Namely:

• Ask the user whether to run the calculation
• Run calculation immediately after complete
• User can change the calculation period

See the 'Supplier Manager Settings' topic for more information.

Three ways to initiate the evaluation calculation exist:

• The application runs the evaluation calculation automatically upon completion of evaluation inputs. Depending on Supplier Manager settings, the following behaviour is possible:
  • Upon completion of an evaluation input, the application automatically calculates evaluation of the business partner.
  • Upon completion of an evaluation input, a dialog box asks the user whether evaluation should be immediately calculated
  • Upon completion of an evaluation input nothing happens. Calculation of the evaluation is triggered independently on evaluation inputs, preferably by Valuemation escalation.
• Calculation of the evaluation is triggered on a scheduled basis by Valuemation escalation. Escalation parameter 'EvaluationCaculation_BP' is prepared for escalation of supplier evaluations. Escalation parameters 'EvaluationCalculation_Service' and 'EvaluationCalculation_System' exist for evaluations of object types 'Service' and 'System', respectively.
• Evaluation calculation can be triggered manually using action 'Calculate Evaluations For...' (found under 'Actions' in 'SRM & Procurement Manager' sidebar. Calling the action opens a window with calculation parameters:
  • 'Calculate From', 'Calculate To' - the evaluation period. Evaluation inputs falling into this time span will be part of the calculation.
  • 'Only Type' - select evaluated object type. Only evaluations based on evaluation inputs created for the selected object type will be calculated.

    For supplier evaluations, select 'Business Partner'.

  • 'Only Subset' - condition further restricting the selection of objects. Only evaluations based on evaluation inputs created for the selected objects of the object type will be calculated.

    For supplier evaluations, partner type 'Supplier' needs to be selected: Click the 'Only Subset...' button at the bottom of the window to open the 'Edit Query' dialog (a condition creation wizard). Create condition 'Partner Type' 'equals' 'Supplier'. (businesspartType == 'SUPPLIER')

  Note that while the 'Calculate Evaluations For...' action can be used for supplier evaluations, it is primarily intended for running evaluations within SRM & Procurement Manager. The expected way of triggering supplier evaluations is either upon evaluation input completion or by escalation.