Automatic pipeline project creation via Shopping Hub or Employee Center intake requests
Summarize
Summary of Automatic Pipeline Project Creation via Shopping Hub or Employee Center Intake Requests
This feature allows automatic creation of pipeline projects when shoppers submit sourcing requests through the Shopping Hub or Employee Center. Pipeline projects are created provided the product price meets the defined budget conditions, which can be configured to suit business needs. The default budget threshold is $250,000.
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Key Features
- Automatic Grouping: Sourcing requests for products within the same spend category or sourcing manager are grouped into a single pipeline project.
- Draft State: Automatically created pipeline projects are initially set to Draft state.
- Auto-Populated Fields: Key fields such as short description, requestor, unique number, estimated end date, and spend category are populated based on the intake request details.
- Grouping Logic: Sourcing requests are grouped based on spend categories, with specific rules for requests that lack categories.
- Cancellation Behavior: The cancellation of sourcing requests affects pipeline projects depending on how they were created (auto or manual).
Key Outcomes
By leveraging this automatic project creation process, ServiceNow customers can streamline their sourcing workflows, ensuring efficient project management while maintaining visibility over budget thresholds and project statuses. This feature enhances operational efficiency, reduces manual input, and supports better organization of sourcing requests, leading to more effective procurement practices.
When a shopper submits sourcing requests for products, pipeline projects are automatically created, provided the product price meets the budget conditions defined in the decision table.
By default, the budget threshold is set to $250,000. However, you can configure the budget conditions in the decision table to suit your business requirements. For more information, see Pipeline project creation rule for high-value sourcing requests.
If multiple sourcing requests are submitted for products that belong to the same spend category or the same sourcing manager, only a single pipeline project is created to group all those products.
Pipeline projects created automatically through sourcing intake requests are set to the Draft state.
Fields automatically populated in the pipeline project record
The following fields are automatically populated for pipeline project records created through an intake request:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Short description |
|
| Requestor | Populated based on the value provided in the Who is this request for field. |
| Number | An auto-generated number that uniquely identifies the pipeline project. |
| Estimated end date | If multiple SRs have different delivery dates, the earliest delivery date is used as the estimated end date. |
| Spend category | Derived from the Product Category field using predefined spend category to product category mappings. Note: If the sourcing requests in a pipeline project have different spend categories, the Spend
category field is left blank. If the sourcing manager is the same across different spend categories, the requests are grouped into one pipeline project. In such cases, the Spend category field is
left blank. |
Sourcing requests grouping logic
The following conditions determine how sourcing requests (SR) are grouped into pipeline projects.
| Grouping logic | Condition |
|---|---|
| Group SRs by spend category (if available) |
|
| Group SRs without spend categories |
|
| Spend category restrictions for adding SRs to a pipeline project | SRs can be added to an existing pipeline project in the following scenarios:
|
How pipeline project creation affects cancellation
The way a pipeline project is created determines when and how it can be canceled.
| Pipe creation method | Cancellation behavior |
|---|---|
| Auto-created pipeline projects from sourcing requests | If a pipeline project is auto-created from a sourcing request (SR), and that SR is later canceled, the pipeline project is also canceled but only in Draft state. If the pipeline project has progressed to the Work in Progress (WIP) state, it isn’t canceled, even if the associated SR is canceled. |
| Manually created pipeline projects | For pipeline projects created manually from the List view, the project isn’t canceled even if the associated sourcing request is canceled. |
| For both auto-created and manually created pipeline projects | If all sourcing requests under a pipeline project are in Closed – Cancelled or Closed – Rejected state, the pipeline project also moves to the Closed – Cancelled state. |