Standard operating procedure · PR4A · Procurement & Source-to-Pay

Negotiation Cycle

Judgment procedure owned by Negotiation & Award in Procurement & Source-to-Pay. 8 numbered steps, 2 of them a person deciding and 6 of them agent work … more

Procurement & Source-to-Pay manual Service view

Procedure code

PR4A

Judgment

Rule versions in force

v3.4 · v4.1 · v2.8

3 governing rules stacked over it

In force since

2024-10-24

Earliest effective date across those rules

Last reviewed

2026-05-28

Latest review date across those rules

Rules approved by

VP Sourcing

Rule health

3/3

0 under review · 0 superseded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 negotiation cycle to one repeatable standard inside Negotiation & Award, part of Procurement & Source-to-Pay. more

Entry condition

Runs judgment. Starts when a break condition on a live position fires.

Exit condition

The unit clears document. more

In scope

Every unit of negotiation cycle raised inside Negotiation & Award, from the trigger below through to the final step.
6 of the 8 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 1 step carried on the shared AI GBS spine. They are done for this line but not by this function.

Who owns it

Runs the line

Negotiation Orchestrator

Accountable person

VP Sourcing

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

That team’s remit

Owns negotiation 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

57% now · ceiling 66%

Agents build the negotiation position including a modeled view of the supplier side. more

The procedure, step by step

8 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	Frame position Agentstrategy	Negotiation Prep Agent	Negotiation Prep Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy 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	2.2 daysstandard 3.3 days	19
02	Model supplier economics Agentstrategy	Concession Modeling Agent	Concession Modeling Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy 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	34.6 hrsstandard 2.2 days	15
03	Set walk-away HumanpolicyDecision	VP Sourcing Releases: VP Sourcing	Work stops. VP 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 negotiation decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	6.4 daysstandard 14.7 days	9
04	Draft strategy Agentstrategy	Term Comparison Agent	Term Comparison Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy 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	13.6 hrsstandard 19.6 hrs	36
05	Challenge Agentstrategy	Award Documentation Agent	Award Documentation Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy 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	2.0 daysstandard 2.8 days	21
06	Negotiate Agentstrategy	Negotiation Doctrine Agent	Negotiation Doctrine Agent performs this step unattended at the strategy 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	2.8 daysstandard 4.7 days	7
07	Award HumanpolicyDecision	VP Sourcing Releases: VP Sourcing	Work stops. VP 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 negotiation decision envelope, when confidence falls below the floor, or when a policy clause is engaged.	Group ERP — Financials	3.7 daysstandard 6.3 days	2
08	Document GBSgbs	Negotiation Orchestrator	Negotiation Orchestrator 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	2.3 daysstandard 3.0 days	8

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 47% of the dwellAgent5 stations and 42% of the dwellShared spine1 station and 11% of the dwell4 crossings between lanes

Human

decides

Agent

does the work

GBS

shared spine

System

attributed by rule

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

0/8

the happy path, worked time0 min of 21.4 days

the same run against its allowance0 min of 37.9 days

Human

decides · 2

Agent

does the work · 5

GBS

shared spine · 1

run log

Nothing has happened yet. more

where the worked time goes21.4 days a unit

Person10.1 days · 47%Agent9.0 days · 42%Shared spine2.3 days · 11%4 crossings between lanes

what makes this path viable

The lanes are the recorded lanes. 2 of the 8 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 66% autonomy ceiling and this run sits at 53% unattended, inside it.
1 system is 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

Nothing moves. 53% of the worked time already runs unattended and the owning team is held to a 66% ceiling, so the next decision cannot be handed over until somebody raises that ceiling.

stays with a person

03 Set walk-away — Handing this over would put 104% of the worked time in the unattended lane, past the 66% ceiling this team is held to.
07 Award — 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

8 stations, nothing waiting, nothing sent back

0 min of 21.4 days

now Frame position · Negotiation Prep Agent · 2.2 days

As the ledger has it

the same stations, plus 4 categories the estate already counts

0 min of 22.2 days

now Frame position · Negotiation Prep Agent · 2.2 days

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

8 named parties

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

Party	RACI	Steps	Duty	Escalates to
Negotiation Orchestrator orchestrator	Runs the line	0	Sequences this line, holds its timetable and decides what has to surface to a person. more	Raises to VP Sourcing when a unit falls outside the envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Negotiation Prep Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 92% clean · 8% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the negotiation & award step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Concession Modeling Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 91% clean · 8% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the negotiation & award step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
VP Sourcing person	Accountable and responsible	2	Holds 2 decisions on this line. more	Accountable to VP Sourcing for the decisions held here.
Term Comparison Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 97% clean · 4% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the negotiation & award step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Award Documentation Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 88% clean · 8% overridden	Responsible	1	Executes the negotiation & award step it owns, posts its evidence, and hands the unit to the next stage.	Escalates to VP Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.
Negotiation Doctrine Agent agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 88% clean · 14% overridden	Responsible	1	Authors positions on negotiation & award. more	Escalates when two options sit inside the confidence band and the evidence cannot separate them.
Negotiation Orchestrator agent A2% autonomy · ceiling A2% 91% clean · 6% overridden	Responsible	1	Owns the negotiation & award lane end to end. more	Escalates to VP Sourcing when the unit falls outside the decision envelope or confidence drops below the floor.

Decision points and escalation

2 places this procedure stops

03 · Set walk-away

6.4 days

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

VP Sourcing

07 · Award

3.7 days

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

VP Sourcing

Handoffs out of this procedure

Nothing leaves this procedure for another function. It completes inside Negotiation & Award.

The rules this procedure runs inside

3 governing rules

Negotiation & Award Decision Envelope

active

PR4-POL-200 · envelope · vv3.4

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

Approved by VP Sourcing · in force 2024-10-24 · reviewed 2026-04-24

Binds Negotiation Prep Agent, Concession Modeling Agent, Term Comparison Agent, Award Documentation Agent

Global · EU

Negotiation & Award Evidence Standard

active

PR4-POL-201 · evidence · vv4.1

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

Approved by VP Sourcing · in force 2025-04-17 · reviewed 2026-05-22

Binds Negotiation Prep Agent, Concession Modeling Agent, Term Comparison Agent, Award Documentation Agent

Global

Negotiation & Award Escalation Rule

active

PR4-POL-202 · escalation · vv2.8

Escalation is mandatory when confidence falls below the floor, when two options sit inside the confidence band, or when a break condition on a ratified position fires. more

Approved by VP Sourcing · in force 2025-01-15 · reviewed 2026-05-28

Binds Negotiation Prep Agent, Concession Modeling Agent, Term Comparison Agent, Award Documentation Agent

Global · EU

Systems this procedure touches

1 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	8	modeled

0 of the 1 systems on this procedure is connected to the platform, and none of the twenty-six in the estate register is. 1 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

21.4 days

Summed from the time each step sits, standard 37.9 days — running at 56% of the standard.

Touchless

28%

Agent share

75%

A week

In flight

117

Effort a week

14,528 human minutes · 16,284 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

Negotiation & Award

Concession Approval

PR4B

Negotiation Doctrine Refresh

PR4C

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