For your better orientation when working with the ITscope purchasing board, we have compiled a small glossary for you. Below, you will find detailed explanations of the most important terms related to the topic ‘purchasing in ITscope’.
Purchasing board
| Term | Explanation |
| Purchasing board | On the ITscope platform, the purchasing board is the generic term for the whole procurement area of your company. It can be accessed via the main menu on the left-hand side under the menu item ‘Purchasing board’. |
| (Shopping) cart | The purchasing board is divided into multiple (shopping) carts. The ‘General cart’ is designed to be used by all users in your company. In addition to this general cart, you can create as many further shopping carts as you want to. |
| Supplier card | When adding items to you shopping cart, they are allocated to the supplier that you have selected. Each cart therefore contains one supplier card per supplier. Each of these cards then contains one or more line items. The supplier cards illustrate which items are allocated to which suppliers. This allocation can be modified at any time by dragging and dropping an item into a different supplier card, by selecting a different supplier via the price selection menu, or by selecting a different supplier through the ‘Sources of supply’ tab in the context menu on the right. |
| Price selection menu | The price selection menu expands upon clicking on the arrow displayed next to the price of a shopping cart item. From here, the source of supply can be changed taking into account stock levels, list prices and quoted prices. |
| Supplier/Distributor/Source of supply | The terms ‘Supplier’, ‘Distributor’ and ‘Source of supply’ refer to the company where items can be purchased from. The terms are used interchangeably across the ITscope platform. |
| Item | An Item in your cart is a product distinctly identifiable by EAN, SKU or ITscope ID. |
| Line item | An item in a cart can often be referred to as a line item (also: ‘demand line item’ or ‘order line item’). Items can appear several times as line items, as the same product can be sent to different customers, for example. |
| General cart | The general cart is designed to be used by all users in your company and is always visible for every user. |
| My carts | Selecting the ‘My carts’ filter, in the header area, will only show the carts which you are responsible for. The general cart is always part of this selection. In addition to this, all carts can be filtered by ‘Assigned user’ and their archive status (under ‘All carts’). |
| Create cart | You can add a new shopping cart by clicking the button ‘Create cart’. |
| Prepared orders | Each shopping cart has a middle column labelled ‘Prepared orders’. In this column, you can prepare your orders for final submission to the distributor. Here you can select the delivery address and mode of dispatch (e.g. partial delivery and drop shipment), and double-check your order. |
| Placed orders | Each shopping cart has a ‘Placed orders’ column on the right-hand side. In this column, you can see the status of all your orders (e.g. ‘Dispatched’, ‘Arrived’ or ‘Invoiced’), unless they are archived. Simply drag and drop a prepared order from the middle column into this field to place the order. |
| Archived orders | Placed orders can be hidden by clicking on the ‘Archive’ button. These orders won’t be displayed in the ‘Placed orders’ column any longer. However, you can access your archived orders anytime using the search bar. |
| Quick access | The quick access section is located below the main menu on the left-hand side. This section can be configured according to your requirements. Collections, quotes, shopping carts and cart line items can be viewed here. Items can also easily be added to a shopping cart in the quick access area by drag and drop. |
Price optimisation
| Term | Explanation |
| Manual | The ‘Manual‘ optimisation mode retains the allocation of products to the sources of supply as it was initially created by adding products to the shopping cart. If you manually change the supplier of an item, then this will be reflected in the ‘Manual‘ optimisation. |
| Best partner partner | The ‘Best price partner‘ optimisation attempts to assign all items from the order to suppliers that are part of your partner network. Items that are not available from your partners remain with their manually assigned supplier(s). |
| Best price | This optimisation mode is similar to ‘Best price partner‘, with the distinction that items are allocated irrespective of supplier partner status. |
| Minimum sources | This optimisation variant reduces the number of different suppliers to a minimum. Partners in your network are preferred, but non-partners are also considered as a backup option. |
Placing orders
| Term | Explanation |
| Prepare order | By dragging and dropping a supplier card from your shopping cart into the ‘Prepared orders‘ column, you are preparing the order for final placement. In this column, you can determine further details regarding your order (e.g. delivery address and mode of dispatch) and double-check your order. A supplier card can also be moved to the ‘Prepared orders’ column by clicking the ‘Prepare order‘ button on the supplier card. |
| Order preview | As soon as a supplier card is in the ‘Prepared orders‘ column, it becomes an order preview. To place the order, the card has to be moved to the ‘Placed orders’ column on the right-hand side of the cart. |
| This supplier has no order service. | You will receive this notification if a supplier has not activated the ‘Order’ eService, meaning that you cannot order from this distributor online through ITscope. |
| The eService ‘Place order’ is only available after you have registered your partnership. | This notification indicates that a certain supplier only accepts orders from registered customers. You may configure your partnership by clicking on the ‘Companies’ tab in the main menu on the left. Simply click on the ‘Add to network’ button on the respective supplier’s page. Then add your customer number and confirm by selecting ‘Add to network’. |
| You don’t have sufficient rights to place an order. | This notification is issued if the ‘place orders’ right has not been activated for you. To receive ordering rights, please consult your ITscope administrator or the owner of your ITscope company account. |
Context area
| Term | Explanation |
| Context area | The context area is located on the right-hand side of the platform and may be expanded or hidden as required. It is composed of the following tabs: ‘Activities’, ‘Sources of supply’, ‘Source details’, ‘Product details’ and ‘Price enquiry details’. This section provides detailed, contextual information about the items in your shopping carts, distributors and price enquiries. |
| Activities | The ‘Activities’ stream shows all activities that have taken place regarding the selected shopping cart. When clicking on a supplier card, only activities concerning the respective card are displayed. |
| Sources of supply | All distributors that have a certain item in stock are listed under the ‘Sources of supply’ tab. If you have received price quotes in response to price enquiries, then these prices will be displayed above the other sources of supply. |
| Source details | ‘Source details’ provides detailed information regarding the supplier that is currently allocated to an item. |
| Product details | The tab ‘Product details’ offers an overview of product properties, article numbers and datasheets. |
| Price enquiry details | The current state of a price enquiry can be viewed under ‘price enquiry details’. Additionally, you can exchange information with your quote partner. |