Cloudia Planning is a tool that makes it possible to manage the procurement needs emerging in your organisation and create plans for the execution of procurement projects in response to them. The tool allows you to monitor the progress of purchase plans and the related individual purchases.
Cloudia Planning uses a purchase request to communicate the emerged procurement need from the request creator to the procurement planner. The procurement planner may compile individual purchase requests into purchase plans. Purchase plans, as well as individual procurement processes and purchases, can be published to the calendar. Cloudia Planning also includes message and survey tools as well as a library where you can create and manage form items, purchase request templates, purchase plan templates, categories and schedule profiles.
Cloudia Planning can be used for carrying out tasks such as:
- Creating a purchase request
- Creating a purchase plan
- Browsing and viewing purchase requests and exporting the requested items to an existing
- purchase plan
- Merging procurements and purchases into a purchase plan
- Commenting and adding notes to a purchase plan
- Creating a schedule for a purchase plan
- Publishing purchase plans and individual purchases in a calendar
- Sending messages and surveys and adding them to purchase plans
- Creating and maintaining form items, purchase request templates, purchase plan templates,
- categories and survey templates in a library
Request
A (purchase) request is a form created in the system to communicate purchase needs to those who are planning purchases (e.g. a procurement specialist). System administrators create the purchase request templates used in their organisation to direct request creators to provide the contracting entity with the necessary information in the purchase request. An organisation may have several purchase request templates in use at the same time, created by unit or category,
for example.
By using the uniquely identified purchase request templates thus created, it is possible to always obtain the necessary information for starting a more specific planning process. The purchase request templates are created in the library.
A purchase request contains information such as the following:
- Basic information
- Requested item(s) to be purchased
- Additional information (will be inherited from the contract notice template)
- Attachments
- Links
- Proposed planner
When a purchase request is created, it is possible to add a proposed planner (processor) to the request or it can be created without this information. The purchase request can nevertheless always be assigned to a specific planner. Planners may re-assign purchase requests and change their statuses. Purchase requests can be viewed in a list view, which also includes search and view filtering functionalities.
Purchase plan
In general terms, a purchase plan is a description of a larger procurement project. In addition to procurement objects, a purchase plan contains other information about the project that is necessary for conducting procurements and purchases. A purchase plan may involve one or several procurements or purchases (carried out in the Sourcing and Order modules, respectively), and purchase plans may be linked to other purchase plans. Just like an individual procurement, a procurement project may have its own schedule that can be published to a calendar. A purchase plan can be created using a plan template, or it can be created from the scratch without any template.
A purchase plan contains information such as the following:
- Basic information
- Items to be purchased
- Category(-ies)
- Procurements and purchases related to the purchase plan
- Additional information (will be inherited from the purchase plan template)
- Purchase requests related to the purchase plan
- Attachments
- Links
- Other purchase plans related to the purchase plan
- Notes
- Comments
- Schedules
- Purchase plan monitoring report
Purchase plans are assigned to planners. Planners may re-assign purchase plans and change their statuses. Purchase plans can be viewed in a list view, which also includes search and view filtering functionalities.
Notes and comments
Planner users may add notes and comments to a purchase plan. Notes are only intended to be viewed by the user who created them, whereas comments are also visible to other users viewing the purchase plan and can be responded to. The notes and comments appear on the purchase plan summary page.
Messages and surveys
Administrators may create messages and surveys and add them to purchase plans. Administrator (e.g. a procurement manager) may create survey templates. Surveys can be used for conducting a consumption survey, for example, or collecting feedback.
Library
In the library, an administrator (e.g. procurement manager) may create and maintain purchase request templates, purchase plan templates, form items, survey templates, categories and schedule templates. They can be used for controlling how purchase requests and purchase plans are created in the organisation.
Form items
Form items are the building blocks of purchase request templates, purchase plan templates and survey templates. Form items can be created using pre-defined field types. The field type defines the form in which the user may enter information into the form item when creating a purchase request or purchase plan.
Categories
Categories are a means of classifying purchase plans. Categories are created in the library, and each category may contain detailed information that is shown in the purchase plan in which the category is used. Purchase request and purchase plan templates An organisation may have several purchase request and purchase plan templates in use. For example, different units may have their own templates, and the user’s unit will determine which template they can use to create a purchase request or purchase plan.
Alerts
Alerts may be displayed to the user on the system front page concerning, for example, a new purchase request or plan assigned to the user, changing of the status of a purchase request or plan, new comments and the survey responses received. The system makes it possible to choose whether the alerts related to a user are to be shown on the user interface or sent by e-mail.
Calendar
Purchase plans, individual procurements and purchases can be published to the calendar. The calendar provides an overview of the planned purchases of the organisation and can be used by the users for monitoring the progress of these processes. The calendar view allows showing an interlinked display of purchase plans and procurements. The calendar can be used for viewing the basic information of a purchase plan or procurement. When a purchase plan or procurement has been published to a calendar, the user also has the option of cancelling the publication. The calendar includes a view filtering feature.