Changing a Supplier

You can use the Change Request service to create a change request for changing a single supplier. This change request goes through the predetermined workflow process and when complete results in the change of the selected supplier in the active area. Creating the change request copies the supplier to the staging area. A supplier can only be assigned to one active change request at a time, so no new change requests can be created for a supplier that is already in the staging area.

Caution Caution

If you use the back-end system to make changes to a field in the BP data model while the supplier is undergoing the change request process, when the change request is approved, all your changes will be overwritten and not just those fields effected by the change request.

You will however receive a warning during validation that this data has changed and you then have the option of viewing the changes made in the back-end system and incorporating them into your change request. You can then submit the change request for validation again.

End of the caution.

Prerequisites

The supplier to be changed exists in the active area and is not locked by another change request.
You have maintained a change request type for supplier change and have set up your workflow for this change request type.

Procedure

Select a supplier in the search result list
In the Search Supplier service, select a supplier in the result list.
Change to edit mode
To change the supplier to edit mode, choose the Edit button.
Select a change request type
In the Available Change Request Types dialog box, select a change request type.
Enter change request details
In the Change Request section, enter a description for your change request in the Description field. For further details see the corresponding section in Creating a Supplier.
Enter changes and submit
Enter the changes you want to make to the supplier and click the Submit button to submit your change request. For further details see the corresponding section in Creating a Supplier.

Result

Your new change request is created and sent for processing according to the rule-based workflow you have assigned to the change supplier process. Normally this means that it passes to a Master Data Steward who reviews the changes. Once the change request has been approved and technical validation has taken place, the changed supplier data replaces the existing data in the active area. The supplier is no longer available in the staging area and can be included in new change requests.