Explore Sourcing and Procurement Operations

Learn about the benefits and capabilities of Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO).

Sourcing and Procurement Operations overview

Sourcing and Procurement Operations provides employees with a simple, automated, AI-assisted tool to request goods and services they need at work. It delivers an end-to-end procurement experience, from shopping and sourcing to purchase order creation, receipt, and invoicing, while providing procurement specialists with a centralized workspace to manage and automate purchasing activities.

Sourcing and Procurement Operations users

Table 1. Users

User	Description
Shopper	Shopper browses the product catalog in Shopping Hub, submits purchase requests, tracks order status, and confirms receipt of delivered goods from Employee Center.
Procurement Specialist	Procurement Specialist reviews and manages sourcing requests, purchase requisitions, and negotiations in Source-to-Pay Workspace. The specialist can also create and resolve procurement cases and convert requisitions into purchase orders.
Procurement Administrator	Procurement Administrator manages primary data and administration settings in the Sourcing and Purchasing Automation module, including approval rules, assignment rules, and purchasing properties.

Sourcing and Procurement Operations workflow

A workflow for sourcing and procurement operations might progress as follows:

1. The requester (employee or shopper) browses the product catalog in Shopping Hub and submits a purchase request, either selecting a cataloged item through quick checkout or raising an off-catalog request for goods and services not listed.
2. The system evaluates the request and automatically routes it—creating a sourcing request if the item has no contractual pricing, or a purchase requisition if pricing already exists—and assigns it to the appropriate procurement specialist based on purchasing assignment rules.
3. The procurement specialist reviews the request in Source-to-Pay Workspace and, if required, initiates qualification activities such as supplier risk assessment, supplier onboarding, or contract review before proceeding.
4. The procurement specialist conducts negotiations with one or more suppliers, collects quotes, and awards the sourcing request to the winning supplier, establishing the negotiated price on the purchase line.
5. The system triggers the approval workflow, routing the purchase requisition to the relevant approvers based on configured approval rules. Approvers can approve, reject, or request clarification directly from Employee Center or via email notification.
6. Once all approvals are obtained and any associated tasks and cases are resolved, the system generates a purchase order, which is transmitted to the awarded supplier.
7. The supplier fulfills the order and ships the goods. The shopper can track shipment details in Shopping Hub. Upon delivery, the shopper confirms receipt of the ordered items from Employee Center, specifying the quantity received and the date of receipt.
8. The invoice from the supplier is matched against the purchase order and receipt, and upon successful matching and confirmation, the invoice is processed for payment.
9. Throughout the process, the requester can track the real-time status and progress of their purchase, including approvals, tasks, and delivery milestones, directly from Shopping Hub’s My Purchases view.

Sourcing and Procurement Operations benefits

Table 2. Sourcing and Procurement Operations benefits

Benefit	Feature	Users
Browse a managed product catalog and submit purchase requests through a streamlined, e-commerce-like shopping experience.	Using Shopping Hub	Shoppers
Track the complete status and progress of purchases, including approvals, tasks, and delivery milestones, from a single view.	My purchases on Shopping Hub	Shoppers
Submit purchase requests using AI-assisted conversational intake, without relying on procurement fulfillers.	Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)	Shoppers
Manage sourcing requests, purchase requisitions, negotiations, and procurement cases from a centralized workspace.	Source-to-Pay Workspace	Procurement specialists
Automate end-to-end sourcing and purchasing workflows, including approvals, task generation, and purchase order creation.	Sourcing and Purchasing Automation	Procurement specialists
Enable employees to raise procurement cases and allow procurement teams to manage and monitor fulfillment tasks.	Procurement Case Management	Procurement specialists, Shoppers
Assess spend, operational efficiency, and team performance using pre-configured dashboards and metrics.	Performance Analytics for Sourcing and Procurement Operations	Procurement specialists, Procurement administrators

Optimize digital purchasing workflows

Figure 1. The platform for digital purchasing workflows

Deliver intelligent and contextual shopping experiences to automate work across organizational silos and systems.

Helpful resources

Here are some additional ServiceNow resources that can help you:

Release Notes

Learn more about what's new and changed. See the Sourcing and Procurement Operations release notes.

ServiceNow University

Access real-time courses, self-paced training, and career resources, such as SPO Implementation Essentials and more, from ServiceNow University.

Best Practices

Explore the Best Practices content library to access resources and proven guidance that help accelerate the implementation and deployment of Sourcing and Procurement Operations features at Best Practices.

YouTube

Learn more about the value that you can add to your business with the Source-to-Pay suite. Watch Multiply the value of your ServiceNow platform with Source-to-Pay workflows on YouTube.

ServiceNow Community

Connect with other Sourcing and Procurement Operations users at ServiceNow Community.

What to explore next

To learn more about configuring and using Sourcing and Procurement Operations, see:

• Configure Sourcing and Procurement Operations
• Use Sourcing and Procurement Operations
• Sourcing and Procurement Operations reference

• Shopping Hub
  Shopping Hub (sn_spend_uib) is a self-service procurement portal that employees use to purchase products and services. It supports browsing internal catalog items and supplier catalogs, submitting purchase requests, and tracking orders from checkout through fulfillment.
• Shopping Hub Mobile
  The ServiceNow Shopping Hub Mobile app enables you to engage with procurement organizations from a mobile device. Shopping Hub Mobile is available on the Now Mobile app and is supported on iOS and Android devices.
• Performance Analytics for Sourcing and Procurement Operations
  With this application, you can use a set of pre-configured metrics and dashboards to assess spend, operational efficiency, and team performance across the Sourcing and Procurement Operations product.
• Sourcing and Purchasing Automation
  Sourcing and Purchasing Automation for ShoppingHub includes workflows that help support the user interface purchasing experience for the shopper. These workflows consist of sourcing requests, negotiations, purchase requisitions, contracts, purchase orders, receipts, and invoices.
• Procurement Case Management
  With the Procurement Case Management application, you can enable your employees to submit procurement cases and access your organization's knowledge base. You can also enable your procurement teams to automate their fulfillment processes so that they can manage and monitor the progress of their tasks.
• Source-to-Pay Workspace
  As a Procurement Specialist, you can easily complete your actionable tasks within the premises of an enhanced user experience with Source-to-Pay Workspace.
• Spend and Savings Management
  Category management is a strategic procurement approach that involves managing a group of related products or services to maximize value, optimize costs, and enhance supplier relationships. Essentially, it’s the structured management of category taxonomy, ensuring that goods and services are categorized, sourced, and managed efficiently to drive better decision-making and operational efficiency.
• Sourcing Pipeline Management
  Sourcing Pipeline Management (sn_spend_pipeline) provides a centralized framework for creating, tracking, and executing sourcing initiatives through pipeline projects. It enhances efficiency through automated workflows, improves visibility into project progress, and simplifies savings tracking and forecasting.
• Understanding punchout
  Punchout is a technology that connects a buyer’s eProcurement application directly to a supplier’s eCommerce site, enabling the buyer to browse products, build a cart, and then have the cart redirected into the buyer's procurement system for checkout.
• AI Search for Sourcing and Procurement Operations
  The AI Search application provides a modern consumer-grade search engine for the Service Portal, Employee Center (EC), Mobile, and Virtual Agent.
• Universal Request in Sourcing and Procurement Operations
  Universal Request (UR) in Sourcing and Procurement Operations enables employees to submit procurement-related requests through Employee Center, even when a request requires collaboration across multiple departments or teams. After submission, a routing agent creates a procurement case and routes it to the appropriate fulfillers for resolution.