Sourcing and Procurement Operations release notes
Summarize
Summarized using AI
This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete.
Summary of Sourcing and Procurement Operations release notes
The ServiceNow® Sourcing and Procurement Operations application, updated in the Yokohama release, enhances procurement workflows by enabling users to search punchout products, track procurement requests, browse multiple catalog types, and complete checkouts with accurate product category and unit mappings. It is designed to streamline procurement processes and improve visibility for both shoppers and procurement administrators.
Show less
This application is available from the ServiceNow Store and integrates with related tools like Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations and the Source-to-Pay Workspace.
Key Features
- Multi-currency Shopping Hub: Shoppers can view and select their local currency across the shopping experience, including supplier cards, product details, cart, checkout, purchases, and request tracking.
- Configurable Line-Level Questions: Procurement administrators can define unique question types for each product or service line during checkout to gather necessary details efficiently.
- Category and Pipeline Management: Users can access unified views of category performance, savings opportunities, and pipeline projects via dashboards and tabs in the Source-to-Pay Workspace. Pipeline projects can be created directly from expiring contracts or filtered lists.
- Search and Browse Capabilities: Punchout products can be searched directly in Employee Center using AI search, and both punchout and native catalog items are accessible from Categories or Suppliers lists in the Shopping Hub.
- Product Category and Unit Mapping: Product categories and units of measure for third-party products can be mapped to predefined models, ensuring accurate purchase order and requisition line details during checkout.
- Edit Receipt Requests: Shoppers can submit requests to correct receipt discrepancies, which fulfillers can review and process using a playbook in the Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Cost Allocation Adjustments: Purchase requisitions and orders can be edited while maintaining cost allocation across multiple cost centers.
- Spend and Savings Management: Category managers can import and maintain category taxonomies to better monitor spend and savings at the category level.
- Product Returns and Replacements: Shoppers can initiate replacements for goods directly from Shopping Hub, expanding beyond refund-only returns.
- Now Assist Enhancements: Agentic AI assists with contract metadata extraction, negotiation and purchase order summarization, and multi-language support for procurement object summaries, improving communication and actionability for both requesters and fulfillers.
- Agentic Workflows: Intelligent workflows guide procurement through product recommendations, checkout processes, and record tracking, enhancing user efficiency.
Important Changes and Activation
- The "All categories" option was removed from the Shopping Hub’s Categories tab due to low usage and performance impact.
- To use Sourcing and Procurement Operations, customers must request installation from the ServiceNow Store.
Related Applications
- Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO): Simplifies request creation and provides record summarization for prompt fulfiller action.
- Source-to-Pay Workspace: Supports procurement activities, supplier onboarding, and invoice processing with comprehensive tools and experiences.
The ServiceNow® Sourcing and Procurement Operations application enables you to search punchout products, track procurement requests, browse punchout and native catalog items, and complete checkout with accurate product category and unit mappings. Sourcing and Procurement Operations was enhanced and updated in the Yokohama release.
Sourcing and Procurement Operations highlights for the Yokohama release
- Enable shoppers to view and select their local currency throughout the Shopping Hub experience, including supplier cards, product detail pages, cart, checkout, my purchases, and request tracker.
- Enable procurement admins to configure and render unique question types for quick and full checkout experiences for each product or service line.
- Use dashboards and tabs in the Source-to-Pay Workspace to view spend, savings, and pipeline projects, identify savings opportunities, and create pipeline projects directly from filtered lists.
- Easily track products and services from ordering to fulfillment using procurement record IDs or keywords.
- Access both punchout and native catalog products from Categories or Suppliers on the Shopping Hub home page.
See Sourcing and Procurement Operations for more information.
Important:
Sourcing and Procurement Operations is available in the ServiceNow Store. For details, see the "Activation information" section of these release notes.
New in the Yokohama release
- Multi-currency support in Shopping Hub
- View and select your local currency while shopping for products in Shopping Hub to provide a seamless multi-currency experience.
- Purchase requisition line-level questions in Shopping Hub
- Create configurable, line-level questions during checkout in Shopping Hub. These questions are defined in Catalog Builder and are specific to certain products or product categories.
- Category management tab
- Access a unified, filter-based view of category performance across spend, savings, pipeline projects, contracts, purchase orders, and suppliers.
- Category analytics
- View savings opportunities across the sourcing pipeline using the Savings dashboard in the Category Analytics module of the Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Pipeline management tab
- Gain insights into savings and pipeline projects to enhance visibility, tracking, and collaboration across teams.
- Report savings when awarding multiple suppliers
- Enter the spend and savings data for the sourcing event associated with the pipeline project when awarding multiple suppliers.
- Create a pipeline project from an expiring contract
- Create a pipeline project directly from an expiring contract using a guided, decision-based workflow.
- Search for punchout products in Employee Center
- In Employee Center, you can search for punchout products directly using the AI search bar. After you search for a product, matching items from the third-party supplier's catalog are displayed on the Supplier Site Catalog tab.
- Unified request tracking in Shopping Hub
- From My Purchases in Shopping Hub, you can search purchased products or services using the original or associated procurement record IDs, tracking details from order to fulfillment. Additionally, you can use keywords or the first three letters of a procurement record type to search for and view your purchases.
- Browse punchout and native catalog items from the Categories and Suppliers lists in Shopping Hub (SH)
- In Shopping Hub, you can view both the punchout products and the natively available products from the Categories or the Suppliers list on the Shopping Hub home page.
- Mapping Product Categories and Units of Measure for seamless checkout in Shopping Hub
- You can map the product categories and units of measure for third-party products to the corresponding model categories. This capability helps to ensure that during checkout, Shopping Hub accurately considers and displays the product category for the purchase order lines (POL) and purchase requisition lines (PRL) based on your predefined mappings.
- Submit an edit receipt request from Shopping Hub
- Shoppers can submit edit receipt requests from Shopping Hub to correct discrepancies in accepted receipts, ensuring accurate updates to purchase orders, purchase order lines, and received quantities.
- Process an edit receipt request in playbook
- Fulfillers can review the edit receipt requests and either confirm or reject them. If the request is valid, they can process the request using the Edit a Receipt playbook in the Source-to-Pay Workspace.
- Editing purchase requisitions and orders with cost allocation adjustments
- Shoppers can modify purchase requisitions (PRs) and purchase orders (POs) while maintaining cost allocation across multiple cost centers.
- Spend and Savings Management
-
Spend and Savings Management (sn_spend_mgmt) enables category managers to import and maintain their organization’s category taxonomy. Integrating this taxonomy into ServiceNow helps streamline procurement processes, monitor spend, and assess savings more efficiently at the category level.
- Return a product
- Shoppers can now initiate replacements for goods directly from the Shopping Hub/EC. Previously, only returns for refunds were supported. This enhancement allows shoppers to replace faulty or unsatisfactory items, offering greater flexibility and improving the overall shopping experience.
- Using Now Assist for Contract Management in Sourcing and Procurement Operations
- Extract metadata from a signed contract attached in a contract repository record and analyze a contract document with agentic AI to identify non-standard and missing clauses.
- Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations (SPO)
- Activate the following new skills for Now Assist for SPO:
- Negotiation summarization for fulfillers: Summarize negotiations to keep fulfillers informed on their current status, progress, and action items.
- Negotiation event summarization for fulfillers: Summarize negotiation events to keep fulfillers informed on their current status, progress, and action items.
- Purchase order summarization for requesters: Summarize purchase orders to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
- Purchase requisition summarization for requesters: Summarize purchase requisitions to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
- Sourcing request summarization for requesters: Summarize sourcing requests to keep requesters informed about their current status, progress, and action items.
- Now Assist for Common Finance and Supply Chain features
- Use Now Assist for Common Finance and Supply Chain features to summarize purchase orders and keep fulfillers informed of their status, progress, and required actions.
- Use agentic workflows in Now Assist for Sourcing and Procurement Operations
- Use agentic workflows for Sourcing and Procurement Operations to fulfill your procurement needs through intelligent product recommendations, guided checkout and off-catalog purchasing processes, and detailed product information. These workflows also help answer procurement-related questions and efficiently track associated records.
Removed in this release
The All categories option has been removed from the Categories tab in Shopping Hub due to low usage and its impact on system performance.
Activation information
Install Sourcing and Procurement Operations by requesting it from the ServiceNow Store. Visit the ServiceNow Store website to view all the available apps and for information about submitting requests to the store. For cumulative release notes information for all released apps, see the ServiceNow Store version history release notes.