Step-by-step Walkthrough of the Vendor On-boarding Process

 

The Vendor on boarding process supported by workflows was introduced in AX2012.

This blog post guides you through the process from the point where an employee creates a vendor request to on-board a new vendor and to the point where the new vendor is introduced in AX together with a contact person who is a registered user in AX.

Preparation:

Setup 3 workflows – straight forward with one approval step.

System administration: User request workflow.

Procurement and sourcing:

Vendor add application WF  Vendor add justification WF

e.g.

Start the workflow processor from AOT forms (for demo purposes).

Set up External roles – (System administration/Setup/Security/External roles.

Under System administration/Setup/Enterprise Portal/Enterprise Portal parameters.

Set up the default authentication method for authentication of the vendor user account.

 

 

The process:

Initiate request from ESS

http://<machine>/sites/DynamicsAx/EmployeeServices. To initiate the request, you must have a role as no less than an Employee and be associated with a person/worker.

(You can also initiate the request from the Unsolicited vendor registration page).

Create a new vendor request. Make sure you are in the company where the workflows are defined.

Add initial information about the new vendor. Name and contact person.

Create the request and make sure you enter an address for the vendor and an email for the contact person on the request.

Submit the vendor request.

The request now has the status Request submitted:

Open the AX32 client as the user you have assigned in the workflow to approve the request.

Navigate to the Vendor request pending approval list page.

The request has the status Request pending approval.

Open the request, and approve it:

If you go to the Vendor requests list page, the request now has the status Request pending complete.

Now go to Prospective vendor user requests where the user request has the status Pending approval.

Open the record:

Depending on how you have set up your user request workflow, you can take different actions. I have set it up to manually provision the user.

Go to system administration, create a new user, and assign the role Vendor prospect (external).

Furthermore create the relation to the actual person (Peter Nielsen) and to the Prospective vendor (New vendor XXX).

When you have set up the user, approve the user request for the prospective vendor.

The request now gets the status Completed.

Go to the Vendor request page. The vendor request now has the status Vendor invited. This is based on the approval of the user request.

Now you can log in as the NEW user, and open the Vendor registration page for the prospective vendor:

Add the information. If a questionnaire was set up – you will be prompted to answer the questions of the questionnaire.

When finished – submit the registration form (to the Vendor add application workflow).

Go back to the AX32 client as the user that is set up to approve the request. Navigate to Vendor request pending approval and find the request. The request has the status Application pending approval.

Approve the request. This will create the vendor.

Now you can check the vendor list and see that the vendor has been added – and he also has a contact person, Peter Nielsen, which is the person that completed the registration form J

To view contact persons, go to the Vendor card.

A user will automatically be given new security roles:

– Vendor (external)

– Vendor portal administrator (external)

The roles are derived from the definitions that you set up for the external roles as a preparation.

And now a relation is established to the new vendor record.

Done J