Phases

Phases determine when and how quotes, line items, and orders are processed. Phases control the activity allowed during each administrative step in the business process flow.

With a quote category, a phase indicates where in the process the quote currently stands, and who can modify the quote. A typical implementation has one quote category with two to three phases.

Phase	Definition
Initial phase	For setting up the quote with approvals.
Ordering phase	For order generation.
QA phase	For verifying successful fulfillment.

For example, where a phase requires that the operator who submitted the quote verify his or her satisfaction, you can set up an operator approval phase. You restrict the close or approval control of the quote to a request coordinator who must contact the originating operator to verify that the operator approves of the quote.

Not all operators have access to quotes and orders at all stages of the process. Typically, an implementation sets up one phase per order category, providing specific instructions for that category. Each line item category has only one phase, which defines the system behavior when that line is selected and processed.

Typically, Request Management is configured for three phases: User entry, coordinator, and ordering.

User entry

During this phase, the average user can access the quote and change information on it. The following is an example of information that the average user can change.

• Create the quote.
• Request items.
• Request a delivery date.

Coordinator

During this phase, the coordinator can replace the user’s request for generic items with specific items and add detailed information to both the line item and the quote. The coordinator is responsible for gathering enough information to bill for the items and deliver them properly.

Ordering

During this phase, the quote becomes an order and the actual order is generated. Some considerations for phase definitions include the following.

• Are these phase names acceptable?
• What requirements are there before closing a phase and opening the next?
• Should users who do not have update capability in a phase have browse capability at that phase?
• What is the administrative lead time at the Coordinator phase?
• How long does it take for the coordinator(s) to review a user’s request and process it into an order?