Application Onboarding

Before you start using Sterling Supply Chain Visibilityyou must configure different EDI IDs. EDI IDs enable you to definethe organization from which data for Sterling Supply Chain Visibility isreceived.

Also Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesadministrators to create details of Suppliers Buyers and Carriersfrom the respective screens.

Setting Up Custom Order Flows

When you need to define your own flow inwhich the order needs to be executed you can create custom orderflows in Sterling Supply Chain Visibility.In this application you can define the sequence in which the orderflow should be performed.

Configuring Business Calendar

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesadministrators to configure a business calendar for the enterpriseand specify non-working days such as holidays and special events.

Thedate-based alerts will be raised considering only the working daysthat have been defined in this business calendar.

Activating and Configuring Alerts and Events

Analert or event is a message directed to a user about a transactionthat may need manual intervention or manual review. Alerts are raisedwhen a particular pre-defined condition is met.

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesadministrators to create configure and activate custom events orconfigure and activate various factory-shipped events in the application.Once the events are activated they are raised and the correspondingmessage is displayed for users.

Managing User Alert Subscriptions

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesadministrators to manage alert subscriptions for users. Administratorscan assign alerts to a department and a user.

You can subscribeto a department or queue. Thus when a transaction is performed inthe respective department or queue the respective alert is raisedand the corresponding message is displayed.

When you log into Sterling Supply Chain Visibilityyou can view the alerts to which you are subscribed in the dashboard.

Viewing Interface Summary Information

Interface Summary Reportprovides a summary of information pertaining to the documents thatwere processed within a specific time period ordered by the dateson which the documents were processed. The interface summary informationis displayed as a table as well as a chart.

This summary displaysa list of documents that were processed within the specified timeperiod the dates on which the documents were processed the numberof documents that were processed successfully the number of documentsthat failed processing and the percentage of documents that failedprocessing.

Viewing Interface Error Details

The Error summary report providesa list of all the errors that occurred for a document that was processedon a specific date.

This report provides the error codes shortdescriptions and explanations for each of the errors that occurredwhile the document was being processed. This report also providesthe number of documents that failed processing because of the error.

Uploading Inventory

The Sterling Supply Chain Visibility inventoryvisibility feature enables you to upload and view an inventory picture. Sterling Supply Chain Visibility Administrators(Buyers) can upload inventory by sending their inventory informationin an XML format through IBM? SterlingB2B Collaboration Network to Sterling Supply Chain Visibility.

Suppliersto organizations that are Buyers in Sterling Supply Chain Visibility canalso upload their inventory either through IBM SterlingSupplier Portal or bysending an XML document to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork. Sterling Supply Chain Visibility providesBuyers visibility into the uploaded inventory by enabling them tosearch for inventory details by item ID.

Shipment Planning Milestones

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesa user to create planned shipments and also create milestones forthe planned shipments.

Two new milestones Planned and RoutePlanned are added to the default order flow type to permit a userto view the shipment planning activities.

The Planned milestonewill indicate when a vendor requests routing information via the Sterling Supplier Portal. TheRoute Planned milestone will indicate when the IBM SterlingTransportation Management System responds to thevendor with its load routing information.

The user will notbe able to raise alerts against the Planned and Route Planned milestones.

User Defined Field (UDF)-Based Shipment Search

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility enablesyou to use the User Defined Fields (UDF) defined at the header levelof an order for searching shipments containing corresponding orders.

Anew Include In Shipment option is added to User DefinedFields for Order panel in the Manage Inbound User DefinedFields screen or the Manage Outbound User Defined Fields screen. Ifthis option is selected the UDF will also be displayed in ShipmentSearch Shipment List or Shipment Detail screens based on correspondingdisplay on order.

Additionally a Buyer user and a Seller usercan search for shipments based on the latest milestone that occursbetween two milestones and a delivery date range and time range.

Anew ?having latest milestone between <milestone name drop-downlist> and <milestone name drop-down list>? option is added. Youcan choose this option to view the shipment for which the latest milestoneis between two specific milestones.

You can also search forshipments based on their delivery dates by entering the appropriatedate and time ranges in the Find Shipment screen.

Configuring Sterling VendorCompliance for Supply Chain Visibility and Supplier Portal

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility providesthe Sterling VendorCompliance for Supply Chain Visibility and Supplier Portal optionalmodule that allows buyer administrators to set up and enforce compliancerules with suppliers. For example shipment date or shipment quantitycan be configured with compliance rules with regard to late shipmentsor inaccurate quantities shipped. When tolerances of the compliancerules are exceeded the condition is detected and both buyer and supplierare notified.

A buyer administrator can set up compliance tolerancesfinancial penalties for violation of compliance rules (called chargebacks)view or modify chargeback reason codes control the export of chargebackdetails and other criteria.

When a noncompliance event occurs Sterling Supply Chain Visibility facilitatesa process that brings a resolution within a predefined time framecalled the mediation period or dispute period. During this mediationperiod buyers can modify or cancel chargebacks if a disparity israised by suppliers such that a mutual agreement is reached.

Buyerscan view the monthly summary of chargebacks against all suppliersa supplier group or individual suppliers.

Supplier Relations Officer Role

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility providesa new limited-user role called Supplier Relations Officer (SRO) formanaging vendor compliance activities. The buyer administrator candelegate some administrative tasks such as configurations of variousparameters for chargebacks and custom events in the Sterling VendorCompliance for Supply Chain Visibility and Supplier Portal optionalmodule to the SRO.

The SRO is a limited-user role because allthe functions of the administrator are not available to the SRO. Howeverall functions of the SRO are available to the buyer administrator.The SRO is able to create and manage events configure the grace periodthe mediation period and the chargeback reason codes.

Recording Manual Events

A buyer administratoror an SRO can create a manual non-compliance event which can be usedto enter the requisite details and generate a chargeback.

Thisis similar to the non-compliance event created by an XML file thatis generated by an external system except that in this case thenon-compliance information is manually entered by the buyer administratoror an SRO. This is typically due to situations that can only be detectedmanually at the buyer's physical location such as incorrectlabelling.

You can record discrepancies against a particularevent by providing pre-configured references such as purchase ordernumber shipment number invoice number and so on. The referenceyou enter must match with the corresponding event configuration. Forexample if the event is configured to generate chargeback at a flatfee per order only a purchase order number will be accepted as areference.

Enhanced Vendor Compliance Chargeback Calculation

Sterling Supply Chain Visibility providesthe SRO with the capability to add an optional administrator'sfee to the chargeback amount and also specify a minimum chargebackamount. The specified minimum chargeback amount is compared againstthe sum of the generated chargeback amount and the optional administrator'sfee and the final chargeback amount is calculated.

For exampleif the value of the sum of the generated chargeback amount and theoptional administrator's fee is less than the value of the specifiedminimum chargeback amount the minimum chargeback amount is consideredas the final chargeback amount.

Customer Canceled Order Alert

When a buyercancels an order after it is sent the cancellation may not be detectedby the supplier. Sterling Supply Chain Visibility providesthe supplier administrator with a manually-configured event to detectthe order cancellation.

Using the configuration option providedthe supplier administrator can create a manually-configured eventto raise an alert when a change order is received from the buyer forcanceling the entire order. Additionally the alert is not raisedif the order is partially canceled.

Synchronization of Supplier Details Between Sterling Supply Chain Visibility and Sterling Supplier Portal

Ifyou have subscribed to Sterling Supplier Portal in additionto Sterling Supply Chain Visibilitythe EDI IDs displayed in the Supplier's AdditionalEDI IDs panel in Sterling Supply Chain Visibility areupdated when the corresponding supplier details are updated in Sterling Supplier Portal.

Basedon the synchronization configuration of the supplier's communityin Sterling Supplier Portalthe supplier details are published to Sterling Supply Chain Visibility.This ensures that the details of a specific supplier in Sterling Supplier Portal are synchronizedwith the details of the corresponding supplier in Sterling Supply Chain Visibility.