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This page provides general information for purchasing with SAPweb. For detailed information about MIT policies and guidelines, be sure to see:
Policies and Procedures (Procurement Department)
Capitalization Policy (Property Office)
Coding of Equipment Purchases (Property Office)

 

Required Fields | Vendor Selection | Vendor Justification | Workflow and Release Strategies

 

Required Fields

All fields in SAPweb are required unless otherwise noted as optional.

Vendor Selection

When creating a requisition for an external vendor, you must enter the vendor number for your desired vendor. A vendor number is required for external vendors only. For purchases from internal providers, the Internal Provider requisition form provides a list of internal providers to choose from. For partner vendor requisitions, the vendor number will be filled in for you by SAPweb.

You may select only one vendor per requisition. In the case that your vendor has more than one vendor number in SAP, always use the lowest vendor number.

If your vendor does not have a number in SAP, enter the vendor name, address, fax number, and main phone number in the Item Note field. The Procurement Office will add the vendor to the vendor list.

Vendor Justification

For purchases from external vendors, if your requisition total is more than $5,000, justification of your vendor choice is required. A justification is required based on the total amount of the requisition, not on individual line item amounts.

NOTE: A justification is NOT required for purchases from internal providers and partner vendors.

The following are allowable justifications:

Sole source:	If your vendor is the only vendor who carries the product or service you are ordering, use the sole source justification.
Lowest bidder:	You must obtain bids from three different vendors. Supply the bidders' names and the quotes for all three bids on the requisition form. Indicate that the lowest bidder is the one you have selected.
Other than lowest bidder:	If the vendor you selected is not the lowest bidder, you must explain your choice.

Remember that, for requisitions that total $10,000 or more, you are still required to send all documentation and quotes to the Procurement Office. Be sure to include the SAP requisition number. Indicate in the Item Note field that you are sending this backup.

Workflow and Release Strategies

SAP has a built-in electronic routing system, called Workflow, that MIT is using to route requisitions for approval within a department before sending them to Procurement. Not all areas at MIT have chosen to use this routing system, but those that have were given a choice of Release Strategies (business rule models) that determine which requisition line items require approval before being routed to procurement.

Workflow

Depending on what is being requisitioned, by whom, how much it costs, and the release strategy chosen, workflow routes requisition line items to an approver's Inbox for review, or sends them directly to the Procurement Office.

There are two workflow options:

Standard workflow requires that a line item be manually released at every required level of approval.

Auto-approve workflow allows for a line item to go directly to the next level of approval or to the Purchasing Office if it is created by an approver whose level of approval authority is the same as the level required for the line item.

For example, a Level 1 approver creates a line item that requires only Level 1 approval. With Auto-approve workflow, it is routed directly to the Procurement Office. With Standard workflow, the approver will have to manually release the line item for it to be routed to the Procurement Office.

Release Strategies

Release Strategies define the levels of review and approval, if any, through which a given line item must pass. The four release strategy models are described below.

Model 1:

No approvals are required. Anyone authorized to create a requisition is given final release authority. SAP routes all requisition line items directly to the Procurement Office. This is the standard release strategy for Model 1. It is called Model 1a.

A variation of Model 1, called Model 1b, requires a Level 1 approval for any purchase of equipment.

 

Model 2:

All requisition line items require Level 1 and Level 2 approval before they can be routed to the Procurement Office, regardless of the dollar amount.

With the Auto-approve workflow chosen, if an approver creates a requisition line item, it does not require manual approval at the same level as the creator. However, a line item created by a Level 2 approver still requires a Level 1 approval before it can be routed to the Procurement Office. A line item created by an approver with Level 1 and Level 2 authority will be routed directly to the Procurement Office.

 

Model 3:

Model 3 structures approvals according to the dollar amount of the requisition line item. If approval is required for a line item, only one level of approval is necessary, either Level 1 or Level 2, depending on dollar amount.

If the amount is...

• less than $500, no approval is required.
• $500 to $2499, Level 1 approval is required.
• $2500 or more, Level 2 approval is required.

Model 4:

Model 4 is similar to Model 3. They both structure approvals according to dollar amounts, although the approval amounts are different for each model. Also, for Model 4, all requisition line items require either Level 1 or Level 2 approval.

If the amount is...

• less than $2500, Level 1 approval is required.
• $2500 or more, Level 2 approval is required.

 

Required Fields | Vendor Selection | Vendor Justification | Workflow and Release Strategies

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