A preview of Collaborate 2009 Session # 2296 scheduled on May 5, 2009 1:30pm-2:30pm

1. Service Contracts Life Cycle
Management:
Pathway to Higher Profits
Mohan Dutt
VeriSign Inc

2. Session Objectives
• Introduce EBS Release12 new features for
service contracts life cycle management
• Discuss implementation steps for EBS
Release12 new features
• Learn any dependencies for implementing the
EBS Release 12 new features
• Highlight key benefits of implementation of
EBS Release 12 new features

3. New & Enhanced R12 Features
• Renewal Negotiation Lifecycle Management
• Administrator Workbench
• Improvements to Online Acceptance Portal
• Enhanced Communication Templates
• Flexible Approval Rules
• Enhanced Auto-Reminder Process

4. Renewal Negotiation Lifecycle
Management
• All renewal contracts will be part of the
renewal negotiation workflow.
• The renewal workflow will manage each of
the stages of the negotiation cycle.
• In 11i10, these stages were being managed
by sales persons implicitly.
• With the new workflow, the system will enable
the flow of a renewal contract through each of
these stages.

5. Key Features
• Negotiation Status enables more granular status
tracking to allow proactive process monitoring and
improved visibility during the contract negotiation
lifecycle
• Internal and External Notifications to alert users
improves notifications to contract administrators and
customers of actions that they need to take on open
contracts
• New Approval Options provides support for various
contract approval scenarios ranging from manual to
fully automated approvals

6. Negotiation Workflow Stages
• There are 5 stages in the renewal negotiation
lifecycle
• Creation of the renewal contract, either by the
renewal event, or manually from contract authoring.
• As soon as the renewal contract is created, workflow
for that contract is initiated.
• System determines the renewal process for the
contract which can be manual, online or evergreen.

7. Negotiation Workflow Stages
• System determines the renewal process type
based on Global Contract Default setups
• The second stage is notifying the customer
that a renewal contract has been created and
is awaiting approval.
• The third stage is customer acceptance
during which the contract is in the customer’s
queue for acceptance.

8. Negotiation Workflow Stages
• Customer reviews renewal contract and
accepts or declines
• The fourth stage is Contract Approval.
Workflow uses AME to derive the contract
approver and routes the contract to approver.
• The last stage is Contract Activation where
the contract is activated contract on approval.
• Contract Status changes to ‘Active’ or
‘Signed’. Negotiation status changes to
‘Complete’

9. Negotiation Status Attribute
• Negotiation status is a new attribute that has
been added to the Contract Header as part of
workflow.
• The purpose of this attribute is to convey
where in the workflow a contract is in.
• Negotiation status is controlled by the
workflow process and cannot be changed by
the user.
• Current contract status attribute has not been
impacted by workflow. Customers can
continue using contract status as they are
using in 11i10 for processes such as auto-
reminders.

10. Negotiation Status Transitions

11. Negotiation Status on Workbench
Negotiation Status indicates current
workflow status of the contract

12. Determine Renewal Process
Renewal process follows the
Contract
qualifies for Contract renewed
Contract > Party > Org
Y
evergreen as evergreen
renewal
>Global hierarchy to
determine the effective value
N
Example Renewal Evergreen Online
Contract Process Threshold
Contract renewed
Threshold
qualifies for Y
as online
online renewal
Party Manual Null $25,000
N
Org Null $10,000 $15,000
Contract renewed
Global Online $10,000 $10,000
using derived
renewal process

13. Manual Renewal – Next Stages
• Options to Notify Customer - Print or Email, Publish
quote online using the Online Acceptance Portal
• Template set setup determines the format of the
quote
• Customer Acceptance - Manually by salesperson or
Explicitly by customer if the quote has been
published online
• Contract Approval and Activation - For manual
contracts internal approval is optional and is
determined by approval flag. If approval is required,
salesperson submits for approval. Once contract is
approved, workflow activates the contract

14. Online Renewal – Next Stages
• Customer Notification - Quote is automatically
published to the online portal through workflow
• Customer contact gets an email with online portal
login
• Template layout setup determines the format of the
quote published
• Customer Acceptance - Manually by salesperson:
Customer Acceptance is implicit OR Explicitly by
customer from the Online Acceptance Portal
• Internal Approval and Activation – Manual by
Salesperson OR Automatic: Contract is submitted for
approval right after customer acceptance OR Not
Required

15. Evergreen Renewal – Next Stages
• Evergreen contracts have a small lifecycle.
They are either ‘Activated’ or ‘submitted for
approval’ on renewal.
• Sales persons can notify customers by
printing or emailing the quote
• Customer acceptance is assumed for
evergreen contracts
• If approval is Required then the contract is
Submitted for internal approval right after
renewal

16. Determine Renewal Process
Renewal Process can
be setup at Contract,
Party, Org and Global
Levels
Thresholds are setup
at Party, Org and
Global Levels

17. Setup – Renewal Process
Renewal Type
has been
renamed to
Renewal
Process
R11i10 R12 Renewal
Renewal Type Process
Notify Manual
Salesrep
Electronic Online
Renewal
Submit for Evergreen
Approval (with approval)
Activate Evergreen
Contract (approval not
required
Do Not Renew Do Not Renew

18. Setup - Approval Flag
Approval flag
has to be
specified along
with renewal
process
Manual Process Required: Internal approval is Mandatory
Not Required: internal approval not required
Online Process Automatic:Automatic submission for approval after customer
acceptance
Manual: Salesperson has to submit for approval
Not Required: Contract automatically activated after customer
acceptance
Evergreen Required: Internal approval is Mandatory
Process Not Required: internal approval not required

19. Setup - Threshold Amt & Currency
Threshold Amounts
R11i10 R12
Threshold Threshold
Active Evergreen
Threshold Amount
Electronic Online
Threshold Acceptance
Amount
Threshold Currencies
R11i10 R12
Currency Currency
Credit Card Ledger
Threshold Currency Currency
currencies Active
Currency
Threshold have been
Electronic
amounts have consolidated Renewal
Currency
been renamed

20. Administrator Workbench
• A configurable workbench that enables sales reps
to easily track progress of open service contracts
• Notifications Bin allows users to view their
notifications
• Simple and Advanced Search allows users to
quickly search for renewal and new contracts
• Shortcuts: Administrators can use the workbench for
other activities such as authoring new contracts
• Seeded Bins enable users to view contracts in
various stages of negotiation
• Administrator Actions are available from the My In
Process Contracts that allow the administrator to take
actions on selected contracts

21. Administrator Workbench
Quick Search enables
users to search for new
and renewal contracts
Notifications for
contracts that
need attention
Shortcuts enable
My In Process Contracts
users to perform
bin displays all open
other actions
contracts in the user’s
queue

22. Administrator Workbench Bins
Default seeded bin with seeded views
Displays all contracts where current
user is the vendor contact
All in-process contracts
User can define views to filter
contracts
Bin has to be enabled using OA
Framework personalize features

23. Administrator Workbench Views
Seeded Views enable
administrators to view
their contracts using
various filter criteria
View Description
All In Process Contracts All new and renewal contracts in 'Entered' status
Follow-Up Actions All contracts for which a follow-up action has been entered
Online Quotes All contracts having 'Quote Published' negotiation status i.e. quote has been
published online for customer acceptance
Pending Internal Approval All contracts having 'Pending Internal Approval' negotiation status
Pending Quotes All manual and online contracts in entered status that are not pending
approval or pending activation
Pending Salesrep All contracts having 'Assistance Required' negotiation status
Assistance
Reminder Sent All contracts that are waiting for customer action (Negotiation Status =
'Quote Sent' or 'Quote Published'), for which reminders have been sent.
Renewals All contracts that have been renewed and are currently In Process.

24. My In-Process Contracts Bin
Search results
Negotiation Contracts with
Icon Indicates
can be sorted
Status indicates follow-up actions
auto-reminders
by various
current workflow and due date for
have been
attributes
status of the those actions are
disabled
contract available

25. In-Process Contracts Bin Actions
Multi-contract actions
(upper) and single contract
actions (lower)
These actions are
controlled by function
security. Administrators
can enable these actions
for specific users
Action Description
Publish to Customer Publish contracts for online acceptance
Submit for Approval Submit contracts for internal approval
Disable Reminders Disable auto reminders from being sent to customers
Enable Reminders Enable autoreminders if they have been disabled for selected contracts
Run QA Check Run QA check on selected contracts
Open Contract Opens the selected contract in Authoring form
Email Customer Opens the email page with selected contract information defaulted
Print Quote Prints the quote in pdf format

26. Contracts Bin – E-Mail Actions
User navigates to the email
customer page from the
workbench using the Email
Customer action
Email page will have To, From
and Subject defaulted
can define a message
–User
and attachment using
template sets
template and
–Message
attachment template LOVs
show all available XML
publisher templates for the
contract
User can also specify a
message instead of using
a message template

27. Online Acceptance Portal
Online Renewal Portal uses
the Oracle Single Sign-on
functionality to logon to the
acceptance portal
Customers can retrieve
forgotten usernames and
passwords themselves

28. Online Acceptance Portal
Available actions are –
Accept, Decline and
Request Assistance
Clicking quote
Contracts pending Flag indicates that
displays quote in
salesrep the pending
Acrobat Reader
assistance are contract is a
format
marked. These renewal
contracts can be
accepted or
declined

29. Online Acceptance Portal
Customers can attach a document such as
the image of a PO or check
Only acceptable payment methods
based on regional requirements
are exposed. Customer can enter
both new and existing credit cards

30. GCD Payment Types
Online acceptance
payment options can
be enabled at global
or org level
If contract amount <=
Credit card threshold
amount, credit card is
the only payment
option available
during online
acceptance
At the org level,
payment options can
have a Yes, No or Null
value

31. Online Acceptance Portal
Customer Comments and Reason for decline captured and saved on
contract
Both accept and
decline clauses have
tokens to include
Vendor Operating Unit
and Customer party in
the text

32. Online Acceptance Portal
Customer can
request salesrep for
assistance on a
specific contract
Salesrep email and
subject are
defaulted
Customer
comments are
tracked as
interaction on the
contract

33. Communication Templates
• Integration with XML Publisher supports user-defined
layout templates for customer communication
documents
• Templates for multiple processes: Template Set
setup functionality has been enhanced to support
templates for different processes – Online and Manual
processes for both new and renewal contracts
• Language Support enables a single Template setup to
support multiple languages

34. Define Template Set

35. Template Setup on GCD
Layout template required
on the GCD
If template language not
specified, default
language of the template
setup in xml publisher
definition is used
Template set and
language can also be
defined for contract org
and party

36. Communication Template
• Profile option 'OKS: Layout Template Source'
will no longer be supported
• Menu links in Service Contracts Manager
responsibility (OKC Print Contract Setup) will
not be available.
• No automatic migration path for Template Sets
setup using OKC Print Contract solution.
• Pre-R12 customers have to manually redesign
the layouts templates, define the Template Sets
and associate it in GCD.

37. Flexible Approval Rules
• Standard contract approval workflow integrates
with Oracle Approvals Management (AME) to drive
the approval process
• Standard approvals management features such as
rules based approval routing, definition of approval
groups are supported
• Use the ‘Approvals Management Business Analyst’
responsibility to view or modify AME setup
• Seeded Information for Service Contracts
– OKS Transaction Type
– Service Contract attributes
• Profile option OKC: Contract Approver no longer
be supported.

38. Flexible Approval Rules Setup
• Create new Service Contract Attributes in AME
• Define an AME Condition based on the attributes
• Define an AME Approval Group containing approvers
as members
• Define an Action in AME
• Define a Rule based on Conditions and Actions

39. Flexible Approval Rules
Setup – 1. Creating New
Attributes
Seeded attributes available for defining
Conditions
• Contract ID
• Operating Unit
• Customer Party
• Contract Category
• Contract Amount

40. Define AME Conditions
Condition Type can be Ordinary or
Exception. All Seeded attributes
available for defining Conditions
Condition is
CONTRACT_AMOUNT > 5000
and less than 25,000

41. Define AME Approval Group
Selected Approver for
this approval group

42. Define an AME Action
Action defined will be used later
in the approval rule

43. Define rules

44. Test Approval Rules
Once the approval rules
have been created the
AME test workbench can
be used to test the
conditions
When the test case is
run, the following
pages displays the
derived approver

45. Auto-Reminder Process
• Auto-reminder process has been enhanced to
send reminders for both manual and online
renewals
• Contract Administrators also have the ability to
disable or enable reminders for contracts that they
do not wish to send reminders to customers
• Template set for the contract has to be setup to
send reminders on specific intervals before current
contract expiration

46. Auto-Reminder Process
• Auto-reminder process can be used for both
manual and online contracts
• Online Contracts: Process will select all
contracts for which quote has been
published online
• Manual Contracts
– Contract Status will be used to send reminders
– When the auto-reminder process request is run,
the first reminder will be sent and the contract will
be flagged with a reminder sent flag
– Subsequent reminders will be send automatically

47. Auto-Reminder Process
For manual reminders, the contract status
has to be specified as a parameter
This will typically be a one time setup
In this example, the auto-reminder process
is set to send reminders for all contracts in
‘Quote Sent’ status

48. Benefits – Renewal Negotiation
Lifecycle Management
• Managing the renewal contract using workflow has
several benefits.
• Salesreps and managers can now monitor all
contracts and know where in the process a contract
is in. This will aid in removing bottlenecks in the
process.
• Workflow sends several automated external and
internal notifications regarding actions that users
need to take.
• Internal notifications help salesreps in managing
contracts they are responsible for. External
notifications make communicating with customers
easy and fast.

49. Benefits – Administrator
Workbench
• Increases Contract Administrator efficiency by
providing a single place to view and act on in-
process contracts
• Improves usability through consolidated,
personalized views of contracts in-process, and
drilldowns to contract details

50. Benefits – Online Acceptance
Portal
• Reduces manual processes and paperwork
to obtain customer acceptance
• Increase sales person efficiency by
automating customer acceptance
• Improves customer satisfaction by providing
enhanced payment methods and document
upload capabilities online

51. Benefits – Communication
Templates
• Contract Administrators can now define whether a set
of document templates is used for new contracts or
renewal contracts
• Users also have the option to specify whether
document templates should be used for salesrep
managed contracts or for online acceptance
contracts
• Reduces setup time required to setup templates for
various languages.

52. Benefits – Flexible Approval Rules
• Increased flexibility in creating sophisticated
approval rules based on contract attributes
• Streamlines approvals by enabling approvals
in parallel . For example, Business and Legal
approvals can be in parallel
• Approval hierarchy can be defined based on
approval limits and other business logic

53. Benefits - Auto-Reminder Process
• Enables contract administrators to remind
customers that contracts need their attention
• Automates reminder process for both manual
and online contracts
• Reduces contract leakage

54. Q&A
Thank You