Standard operating procedure · PR3A · Procurement & Source-to-Pay

Sourcing Event

Transactional procedure owned by Sourcing & RFx in Procurement & Source-to-Pay. 10 numbered steps, 2 of them a person deciding and 8 of them agent work … more

Procurement & Source-to-Pay manual Service view

Procedure code

PR3A

Transactional

Rule versions in force

v2.2 · v4.6

2 governing rules stacked over it

In force since

2026-03-21

Earliest effective date across those rules

Last reviewed

2026-06-01

Latest review date across those rules

Rules approved by

Director, Strategic Sourcing

Rule health

2/2

0 under review · 0 superseded

There is no document register behind this header. The version, the dates and the approver names are read off the governing rules this procedure runs inside, which is the closest thing the estate holds to a document control record. Nobody wrote these procedures. There is no document library behind this page and no Word file anywhere in the estate. Every procedure below is generated from rows this platform already holds: the line and its ordered stations, the owning team and the person accountable for it, the policy items bound to that team, and the governance gates seeded against the function. The steps, the owners, the gates, the approvers, the dwell times and the volumes are read straight off those rows. The sentences that join them together are generated. Read a procedure as the estate describing itself, not as a document somebody signed.

Purpose and scope

What this procedure is for and where it stops

To run sourcing event to one repeatable standard inside Sourcing & RFx, part of Procurement & Source-to-Pay. more

Entry condition

Runs transactional. Starts when a threshold is crossed.

Exit condition

The unit clears award decision, released by Director, Strategic Sourcing. more

In scope

Every unit of sourcing event raised inside Sourcing & RFx, from the trigger below through to the final step.
8 of the 10 steps, which run without a person present.
2 decisions that stop the line until a named person releases it.

Out of scope

Anything outside the envelope set by the owning team. It leaves the line at a gate and becomes the named approver's decision.
Work that belongs to another function. This line records no handoff, so nothing leaves it mid-flow.
The 2 steps carried on the shared AI GBS spine. They are done for this line but not by this function.

Who owns it

Runs the line

Sourcing Orchestrator

Accountable person

Director, Strategic Sourcing

The end of the escalation path. Above them sits Procurement Chief of Staff for the function.

That team’s remit

Owns sourcing event work end to end inside Procurement & Source-to-Pay. more

That remit describes the whole team, not this one procedure, so its counts are larger than the ones on this page.

Autonomy

75% now · ceiling 80%

Authoring, issuing and normalizing bids run without a human. more

The procedure, step by step

10 numbered steps · 2 of them stop for a person

A step is one station on the line. more

No.	Step	Who does it	What happens	System of record	Time on the step	In flight
01	Capture requirement Agentworkflow	Requirement Capture Agent	Requirement Capture Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.6 hrsstandard 1.9 hrs	33
02	Approve scope HumanpolicyDecision	Director, Strategic Sourcing Releases: Director, Strategic Sourcing	Work stops. Director, Strategic Sourcing reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the sourcing event decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	11 minstandard 22 min	4
03	Build longlist Agentworkflow	RFx Authoring Agent	RFx Authoring Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Source-to-Pay Suite	2.6 hrsstandard 5.6 hrs	39
04	Author RFx Agentworkflow	Bid Analysis Agent	Bid Analysis Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Treasury and Cash Management	5 minstandard 11 min	31
05	Issue GBSgbs	Requirement Capture Agent	Requirement Capture Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	1.6 hrsstandard 3.8 hrs	31
06	Clarify GBSgbs	Requirement Capture Agent	Requirement Capture Agent performs this step unattended on the shared AI GBS transaction spine, outside the function, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Financials	2.8 hrsstandard 5.1 hrs	32
07	Analyze bids Agentworkflow	Sourcing Policy Agent	Sourcing Policy Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Invoice Capture and AP Automation	1.3 hrsstandard 2.0 hrs	1
08	Shortlist Agentworkflow	Sourcing Orchestrator	Sourcing Orchestrator performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Contract Lifecycle Management	1.0 hrsstandard 1.6 hrs	28
09	Recommend Agentworkflow	Requirement Capture Agent	Requirement Capture Agent performs this step unattended at the workflow layer, inside the envelope its owning team has set, and writes an evidence record naming the actor, the authority it acted under and the digests of what it read and wrote.	Group ERP — Materials and Inventory	2.4 hrsstandard 4.5 hrs	16
10	Award decision HumanpolicyDecision	Director, Strategic Sourcing Releases: Director, Strategic Sourcing	Work stops. Director, Strategic Sourcing reviews what the line has produced and either releases the unit or sends it back. Nothing downstream of this step runs until that decision is made.Holds until: Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the sourcing event decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	4.2 hrsstandard 8.3 hrs	9

The swimlane

The same steps, laid out by who is holding the work

Three lanes: a person deciding, an agent working, and the shared services spine. more

Person2 stations and 25% of the dwellAgent6 stations and 50% of the dwellShared spine2 stations and 25% of the dwell5 crossings between lanes

Human

decides

Agent

does the work

GBS

shared spine

System

attributed by rule

Group ERP — Financials

Source-to-Pay Suite

Treasury and Cash Management

Group ERP — Financials

Invoice Capture and AP Automation

Contract Lifecycle Management

Group ERP — Materials and Inventory

Group ERP — Financials

Click any station to see who does it, what it costs in time, the rule that gates it and the system attributed to it.

Run the procedure

One unit walked along that swimlane on the happy viable agentified path

Press run and a single unit enters at station 01. Each station takes exactly the dwell this platform records for it and is held by whoever the estate says holds it. more

speed

worked clock

00:00

allowance clock

00:00

stations cleared

0/10

the happy path, worked time0 min of 18 hrs

the same run against its allowance0 min of 33 hrs

Human

decides · 2

Agent

does the work · 6

GBS

shared spine · 2

run log

Nothing has happened yet. more

where the worked time goes18 hrs a unit

Person4.4 hrs · 25%Agent9.0 hrs · 50%Shared spine4.4 hrs · 25%5 crossings between lanes

what makes this path viable

The lanes are the recorded lanes. 2 of the 10 stations stop for a person and every one of them still does on this run.
Every one of the 2 decisions is still taken by the people who hold them. The happy path is that each one is released first time, not that it is skipped.
The owning team is held to a 80% autonomy ceiling and this run sits at 75% unattended, inside it.
6 systems are attributed across the stations, and 0 of them are connected. Nothing in this run has been watched executing against a real system of record.

what would have to change

1 of the 2 decisions can be handed over inside the 80% ceiling. more

could move to the agent lane

02 Approve scope — held by Director, Strategic Sourcing, 11 min a unit

stays with a person

10 Award decision — The last decision on the line. Something on every procedure ends with a person, so this one is never offered.

what this run is, and what it is not

This is a run, not a forecast. more

Happy means nothing goes wrong: no station raises an exception, no gate sends the unit back, no rework loop fires and nothing sits in a queue between stations. more

The second clock is the allowance. more

A decision may be handed to the agent lane only if two things hold … more

The run reads the station rows only. more

What this run does not model: arrival patterns, contention between procedures for the same person, shift patterns, weekends, learning curves, and the cost of anything. more

Run it again, going wrong

The same unit, the same stations, broken the way the estate already records breaking

This is the same unit on the same stations, breaking. more

No break below was chosen. more

One play head, two tracks, the same scale. The clean run stops when it runs out of stations; the other one keeps going.

As written

10 stations, nothing waiting, nothing sent back

0 min of 18 hrs

now Capture requirement · Requirement Capture Agent · 1.6 hrs

As the ledger has it

the same stations, plus 4 categories the estate already counts

0 min of 37 hrs

now Capture requirement · Requirement Capture Agent · 1.6 hrs

personagentshared spinework the break addsnobody working it

What breaks, and where it is counted

No break below was chosen. more

What the two runs say together

4 counted categories land on this procedure. more

What this run cannot claim

These breaks are shown together on one unit so the shape of a bad day fits on one screen. more

Two clocks run. Worked time is the sum of the time the work is actually being done … more

Roles and responsibilities

7 named parties

The responsibility grid is assigned by a rule, not lifted from a chart. more

Party	RACI	Steps	Duty	Escalates to
Sourcing Orchestrator orchestrator	Runs the line	0	Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more	Raises to Director, Strategic Sourcing when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Requirement Capture Agent agent A3% autonomy · ceiling A3% 91% clean · 4% overridden	Responsible	4	Runs the repeatable portion of sourcing & rfx inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.	Escalates to Director, Strategic Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Director, Strategic Sourcing person	Accountable and responsible	2	Holds 2 decisions on this line. more	Accountable to Director, Strategic Sourcing for the decisions held here.
RFx Authoring Agent agent A3% autonomy · ceiling A3% 93% clean · 2% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the sourcing & rfx step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to Director, Strategic Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Bid Analysis Agent agent A3% autonomy · ceiling A3% 95% clean · 5% overridden	Responsible	1	Runs the repeatable portion of sourcing & rfx inside the shared transaction spine at spine cost and spine controls.	Escalates to Director, Strategic Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Sourcing Policy Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A3% 90% clean · 7% overridden	Responsible	1	Holds the rules that bind every other agent in sourcing & rfx. more	Escalates on any decision that would breach a live policy version, with the clause cited.
Sourcing Orchestrator agent A3% autonomy · ceiling A3% 90% clean · 5% overridden	Responsible	1	Owns the sourcing & rfx lane end to end. more	Escalates to Director, Strategic Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.

Decision points and escalation

2 places this procedure stops

02 · Approve scope

11 min

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the sourcing event decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Director, Strategic Sourcing

10 · Award decision

4.2 hrs

Held for a named human when the unit exceeds the sourcing event decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.

Director, Strategic Sourcing

Handoffs out of this procedure

Nothing leaves this procedure for another function. It completes inside Sourcing & RFx.

The rules this procedure runs inside

2 governing rules

Sourcing & RFx Decision Envelope

active

PR3-POL-200 · envelope · vv2.2

Agents in this lane may act without a human when the sourcing event sits inside the stated value, risk and confidence envelope. more

Approved by Director, Strategic Sourcing · in force 2026-03-21 · reviewed 2026-04-20

Binds Requirement Capture Agent, Supplier Longlist Agent, RFx Authoring Agent, Bid Analysis Agent, Clarification Agent, Total Cost Modeling Agent

US · Canada

Sourcing & RFx Evidence Standard

active

PR3-POL-201 · evidence · vv4.6

Every autonomous decision writes inputs, the rule version applied, the model and prompt version, the output and a reversal path. more

Approved by Director, Strategic Sourcing · in force 2026-05-02 · reviewed 2026-06-01

Binds Requirement Capture Agent, Supplier Longlist Agent, RFx Authoring Agent, Bid Analysis Agent, Clarification Agent, Total Cost Modeling Agent

Global · EU

Systems this procedure touches

6 named · 0 connected

System attribution is a rule, not a reading. more

System	Vendor	Domain	Criticality	Steps	Connection
Group ERP — Financials	SAP S/4HANA	ledger	critical	5	modeled
Source-to-Pay Suite	SAP Ariba	procurement	critical	1	modeled
Treasury and Cash Management	Kyriba	banking	critical	1	modeled
Invoice Capture and AP Automation	Basware	procurement	high	1	modeled
Contract Lifecycle Management	Icertis	legal	high	1	modeled
Group ERP — Materials and Inventory	SAP S/4HANA MM	supply	high	1	modeled

0 of the 6 systems on this procedure is connected to the platform, and none of the twenty-six in the estate register is. 6 of them are marked as taking a write back, which is a property of the system, not a live path from here.

How it performs

End to end

17.8 hrs

Summed from the time each step sits, standard 33.4 hrs — running at 53% of the standard.

Touchless

84%

Agent share

80%

A week

3,113

In flight

224

Effort a week

265 human minutes · 803 agent minutes

Volume multiplied by the time on each step. more

Assurance over this procedure

4 governance gates sit above it

The twenty-four controls and eighteen exception classes in this platform are held at estate level … more

Gate	What trips it	Who releases it	Clock	Waivable
Purchase order above $25,000 approval	Any PO above $25,000 or off approved catalog or unbudgeted	Category manager	1 business day	No
New supplier or bank-detail change approval	Supplier onboarding or any change to payment banking details	Procurement controller	2 business days	No
Payment above $100,000 approval	Payment release above $100,000	Finance controller	Payment run	No
Single-source award or critical negotiation escalation	Single-source exception or any negotiation affecting critical supply	Chief Procurement Officer	3 business days	No

Next to it on the same team

Sourcing & RFx

Rapid Sourcing

PR3B

Bid Analysis

PR3C

All of Procurement & Source-to-Pay

What this document is and is not

These procedures describe the modeled estate. more

Actions

What is waiting on a person

What one procedure document gives you, and what to check before you treat it as the standard.

151

named approvers appear across the library

Every decision point on every procedure carries a job title, not a queue. more

143

steps in the library hand their unit to another function

A handoff is where a procedure stops being one team’s problem. more

controls exist in the estate, and they belong to no procedure in particular

Controls and exception classes are held estate-wide. more

Operations

What this desk is allowed to start

A surface that only reports is not operable. more

Trigger and bound

A procedure document prints purpose, scope, entry and exit, the numbered steps with the actor on each, the roles and their RACI position, the swimlane, the decision points and escalation, the handoffs, the governing rules with version and approver, the systems by rule and the timings. more

Live observability

What the record shows right now

The whole library, by lane, so a single document can be read against the estate it came from. more

Current distribution

2,748 steps

Agent, inside the function1,38951%

Agent, on the shared spine85131%

Person deciding at a gate50818%

Is policy and strategy coming to fruition

Whether the written intent is holding here

Half. The document is complete and every actor on it is measured more

Not holding on the record

A procedure here carries a version, an approver, an in-force date and a last-review date. more