SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal

In today’s digital world, online web portals have become the connection point for organizations.

Self-service that maximizes the efficiency of every interaction is key and drives the top concerns of any organization by empowering users, having connected interactions across channels, and enabling organizations to be successful. Therefore, the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal allows users beyond a SYSPRO site to connect, interact and transact using the SYSPRO Web UI (Avanti) HTML5 user interface.

This is achieved by creating SYSPRO portal users with the access to the relevant functional role(s).

PDF version

Exploring

The following functional roles are currently available from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal:

  • Request for Quote System (RFQ):

    Available from SYSPRO 8 2019 R2

    Collaborate with your suppliers by automating the quote process and servicing of the RFQ by the supplier.

  • (SAM):

    Available from SYSPRO 8 2021 R2

    Enhance your procurement activities with the provision of account management capabilities for your end-suppliers.

  • (CAM):

    Available from SYSPRO 8 2021 R2

    Provide enhanced account management capabilities for your existing end-customers.

These functional roles will be extended as the capabilities of the feature grows.

Request for Quote System:

  • RFQs can be sent directly to suppliers via the portal.

  • Quotations can be submitted online by the suppliers themselves.

:

  • End-suppliers have direct access to information relating to their account, including transaction details.

  • Self-service access reduces the administrative burden of sending and requesting supplier-specific information through other communication channels.

  • Immediate availability of information to the supplier can reduce supplier lead times and increase opportunities to take advantage of any early settlement discounts offered by the supplier.

  • End-suppliers can download the following document types in PDF format, as required:

    • Remittance advices

:

  • End-customers have direct access to information relating to their account, including transaction details.

  • Self-service access improves the administrative response time to communicate customer-specific information.

  • The average accounts receivable turnaround time is reduced for the SYSPRO company because of the immediate availability of information to the end-customer.

  • End-customers can download the following document types in PDF format, as required:

    • Invoices

    • Credit notes

    • Debit notes

    • Statements

Adding portal users to your SYSPRO configuration provides external user access to specific functionality (using a dedicated user interface and menu system) based on the portal features available.

The portal's security ensures that the correct access is given to each portal user and that your end-supplier or customer can't access any unauthorized information.

This is achieved by each portal user being linked to a specific supplier or customer account from the SYSPRO company and then linked to a functional portal role. When logging in, portal users are then presented with a landing page determined by their functional role(s) that includes insights into the relevant information.

For example:

functional roles include insights such as agreed invoice terms, outstanding balances, etc.

functional roles include insights such as credit standing, receivable days outstanding, etc.

Administrators can easily configure security access for each portal user by defining an operator as a portal user; configuring each portal role with the appropriate access; and assigning the correct functional roles to the portal operators.

The programs related to this feature are accessed from the Program List of the SYSPRO menu:

  • Program List > Administration > Security

This indicates a customer that is registered in the AR Customer Master table (ArCustomer) of your company database.

End-customers can be assigned the functional role for account management capabilities within the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

This indicates a supplier that is registered in the AP Supplier Master table (ApSupplier) of your company database.

End-suppliers can be assigned the functional role for account management capabilities within the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Portal users are users who have access to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

They differ from regular SYSPRO operators and are configured and licensed separately based on a named-user license model.

When your system is licensed for a number of Portal Seats, an administrator can use the Portal User Management program to create and maintain portal users.

For example:

If you have a license for 1000 Portal Seats then you can create and maintain up to 1000 Portal Users, each of which can use the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal at the same time.

This has no effect on any other SYSPRO user licenses.

When creating a portal user, you assign an email address as the unique identifier against which the portal user will access the portal.

A unique operator code is generated against which all transaction journals are recorded. This generated operator code is not shown to portal users, but can be viewed from within the Portal User Management program and when viewing journals and other logs of using regular SYSPRO functions.

This is a system-wide number of named-users that can be included in your SYSPRO license.

You can create portal users up to the number of licensed Portal Seats.

Each portal user is a single person who has access to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Topics

Multi-Factor Authentication

Single Sign-on

Request for Quote System

Setup option categories

Company General

Connectivity System Setup

Reporting System Setup

SQL System Setup

Setup programs

Portal User Management

Add Portal User

Portal User Role Management

Supplier Account Query

AR Customer Account Query

Operator Maintenance

Query programs

System Audit Query

PDF and Video Resources

Feature Guides

Starting

This feature is installed using the SYSPRO Installer.

To use the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal, you must purchase and configure one or more Portal Seats according to the terms of your software license agreement.

All portal users count towards the license check, even if their status is Disabled. However, portal users with a status of Removed are not counted in the number of seats used. Portal users flagged as Removed are retained for historical purposes to identify operator details when viewing audits and logs.

In addition, each of the functions available from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal will require the appropriate SYSPRO module to be licensed.

Currently, the following module license requirements apply:

Request for Quote System:

  • Purchase Orders

:

  • Accounts Payable

:

  • Accounts Receivable

The following technology prerequisites are applicable to using this feature:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6

  • SYSPRO 8 Service Upgrade Manager

  • SYSPRO 8 Avanti Initialization Service

  • Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Core Web Engine Feature

  • Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 World Wide Web Publishing Feature

  • SYSPRO 8 Reporting Host Service

To use this feature, the following setup option(s) must be enabled:

Setup Options > Company > General

  • Supply chain portal URL

Setup Options > System Setup > Connectivity

  • SMTP server IP address
  • Outgoing email address
  • Username
  • Password
  • Server port
  • Use SSL

SMTP settings are required for the Forgot Password functionality within the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Setup Options > System Setup > Reporting

  • Reporting:

    • Reporting configuration

      This must be defined as Server-side reporting using SQL.

  • Server-side configuration:

    • Reporting service

      This must indicate the address to the reporting host service.

These settings are required to provide portal users with the ability to print documents via the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Setup Options > System Setup > SQL

  • SRS reporting database connection:

    • SRS authentication

    • SRS SQL Server name

    • SRS login password

You can secure this feature by implementing a range of controls against the affected programs. Although not all these controls are applicable to each feature, they include the following:

  • You restrict operator access to activities within a program using the Operator Maintenance program.
  • You can restrict operator access to the fields within a program (configured using the Operator Maintenance program).
  • You can restrict operator access to functions within a program using passwords (configured using the Password Definition program). When defined, the password must be entered before you can access the function.
  • You can restrict access to the eSignature transactions within a program at operator, group, role or company level (configured using the eSignature Setup program). You can restrict access to the eSignature transactions within a program at operator, group, role or company level (configured using the Electronic Signature Configuration Setup program). Electronic Signatures provide security access, transaction logging and event triggering that gives you greater control over your system changes.
  • You can restrict operator access to programs by assigning them to groups and applying access control against the group (configured using the Operator Groups program).
  • You can restrict operator access to programs by assigning them to roles and applying access control against the role (configured using the Role Management program).

  • Multi-Factor Authentication and Single Sign-on are not currently supported for the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal (i.e. an operator who is configured to use Multi-Factor Authentication or Single Sign-on won't be able to login to this platform).

  • Currently, the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal can only be installed for a single company.

    If you require portals for multiple companies, you can install the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal for the first company and then install the Additional Supply Chain Portal Service for each of the additional companies.

  • The ability to customize the logo and background image of the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal is not yet available, but will be included in a later release of SYSPRO 8.

  • Although technically possible, we don't recommend you duplicate an email address of a portal user amongst non-portal users.

    For this reason the Portal User Management and Operator Maintenance programs prevent you from entering a duplicate email address amongst all operators (of any type).

  • The ability to print documents from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal is only available with Server-side Reporting.

  • Archiving functionality is disabled when printing documents from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal (even if the archiving flag against the template being used is enabled).

Solving

The following describes how to create the operator Template that is required for the creation of portal users in the Portal User Management program.

  1. Open the Operator Maintenance program.

    Reset your toolbar to ensure that all the latest functions and options are visible.

  2. From the Edit menu, select Maintain templates.

  3. From the toolbar, enter the template code in the Template field and press tab.

  4. From the Operator Details pane, enter the following mandatory fields:

    • Operator name
    • Operator group

    For the remaining fields, enter any other information you require for the template, or accept the defaults provided.

  5. Save the operator template.

  6. Exit the Operator Maintenance program.

Template operator codes are prefixed with __Template_ and their operator type records as Template.

The following indicates the steps required to create a Portal user that can use the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal:

  1. Open the Portal User Management program.

  2. Select the Add Portal User function.

    The Add Portal User window is displayed.

  3. Select the hyperlink of the required operator template from the Templates list view to populate the Copy from template field in the Add Portal User pane.

  4. Configure the following fields for the portal operator:

    • Email

      This must be unique amongst all operators.

    • Name

    • The following is determined by the functional role you require:

      Supplier (When creating a portal user for the role)

      This supplier code is used as the Portal supplier in the Operator Maintenance program when you save the operator record.

      Customer (When creating a portal user for the role)

      This customer code is used as the Portal customer in the Operator Maintenance program when you save the operator record.

    • Location

      Optionally enter the physical location of the operator.

    • Default company

      This must be specified to ensure that only a single company can be used to login to the portal.

    • Initial Password

      This is automatically populated and based on the email address entered in the Email field, but can be changed as required.

  5. Select the Save and Close function to save the portal operator and exit the Add Portal User screen.

    Alternatively, select the Save and Edit function to save the details entered and open the Operator Maintenance program to make additional changes to the operator record.

  6. Activate the new portal operator by highlighting the operator entry and selecting the Activate Users option from the toolbar.

  7. Exit the Portal User Management program.

  1. Open the Portal User Management program.

  2. Navigate to the portal user to which you want to assign a functional role.

  3. Select the Maintain role hyperlink in the Role action column to launch the Portal User Role Management program.

    This column is hidden by default and can be added using the Field Chooser function.

  4. Indicate which functional role(s) must be assigned to the portal user by selecting the appropriate checkbox in the Select column.

  5. Select the Save function.

  6. Exit the Portal User Management program.

When first creating a portal operator, the password is automatically created using the operator's email address.

You can then notify the portal user of the login credentials and advise them to change this password (using the Change Password option) when they first access the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

From within the Portal User Management program, select the Disable option against the operator and enter a reason at the Reason Code field.

From within the Portal User Management program, select the Delete option against the operator and enter a reason at the Reason Code field.

Only portal users created within the Portal User Management program can access the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Portal users are designed to have limited access to portal-specific functions, whereas regular SYSPRO operators have access to a much wider range of functionality.

If you had already installed the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal prior to SYSPRO 8 2021 R2 and the introduction of functional roles, then your system administrator must assign the appropriate portal roles to your portal operator record within the Portal User Management program.

Not at this present time, however this functionality may be considered for introduction with a later release of SYSPRO 8.

Once you have installed the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal you can view the URL link from the following location of the machine to which the software is installed:

\inetpub\wwwroot\SYSPROSupplyChainPortal_"companyID"\index.html

However, the URL used for the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal is:

http://{DNS_Name}/SYSPROSupplyChainPortal_{CompanyId}, as configured against the Supply chain portal URL setup field within the Setup Options program (Setup Options > Company > General).

Although you can use any browser, we recommend Google Chrome as all of SYSPRO's development and testing is performed on Google Chrome.

Due to non-standardization among browsers, it isn't possible to test on every browser available. We test on Google Chrome due to it currently having the largest user base by a very large margin.

This functionality is planned for a later release.

If the login screen of the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal hangs, however the operator name is displayed below the login prompt (i.e. the system has resolved the operator code entered), then press Ctrl+F5 to force a refresh.

Your login can then proceed as normal.

The following additional parameter defaults can be defined against the SYSPROPortalARStatementParameter XML parameter using the Custom Configuration program:

  • Balance Type

  • Minimum Balance

  • Sales Message

You can define these parameters as follows:

  1. Open the Custom Configuration program (Program List > Administration).

  2. Within the Configuration Items pane, expand the folder structure as follows:

    Available Configurations > SYSPRO > XML Parameters

  3. Navigate to and select the SYSPROPortalARStatementParameter item.

    This populates the XML parameters pane.

  4. Define the parameters as required within the Store data column.

  5. Select the Save function

    The Custom Configuration Options program is launched.

  6. Under the Configuration item details section, define the Item level as required and enter the supporting field where applicable.

    For example:

    If you define the Item level as Company, then you must indicate the relevant company code within the Company field.

  7. Select the Save function.

    This returns you to the Custom Configuration program.

Using

The following depicts the process required to set up the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal and its associated portal users:

  1. Installation:

    Install the following using the SYSPRO Installer application:

    • SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal

      Including any prerequisites not installed as yet:

      • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6

      • SYSPRO 8 Service Upgrade Manager

      • SYSPRO 8 Avanti Initialization Service

      • Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 Core Web Engine Feature

      • Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0 World Wide Web Publishing Feature

      • SYSPRO 8 Reporting Host Service

  2. Configure the required options in the Setup Options program:

    1. Setup Options > Company > General:

      Ensure that your specific website address is defined against the Supply chain portal URL option.

      For example:

      http://{DNS_Name}/SYSPROSupplyChainPortal_{CompanyId}

    2. Setup Options > System Setup > Reporting:

      Ensure that the Reporting configuration is defined as Server-side reporting using SQL and that the Reporting service field is defined with the correct address to the SYSPRO 8 Reporting Host Service.

      This ensures that portal users have the ability to print documents from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

  3. Check your document formats:

    Ensure that the following document formats and templates are defined appropriately for the supplier or customer accounts to which you want to assign portal users.

    • Remittance advices (Configurable within the AP Check Format for SRS program)

    • Invoices, Credit notes and Debit notes (Configurable within the SO Document Format for SRS program)

    • Statements (Configurable within the AR Statement Format for SRS program)

  4. Create the portal operator template (required for the creation of portal users in the Portal User Management program):

    1. Open the Operator Maintenance program.

      Reset your toolbar to ensure that all the latest functions and options are visible.

    2. From the Edit menu, select Maintain templates.

    3. From the toolbar, enter the template code in the Template field and press tab.

    4. From the Operator Details pane, enter the following mandatory fields:

      • Operator name
      • Operator group

      For the remaining fields, enter any other information you require for the template, or accept the defaults provided.

    5. Save the operator template.

    6. Exit the Operator Maintenance program.

  5. Create the portal user:

    1. Open the Portal User Management program.

    2. Select the Add Portal User function.

      The Add Portal User window is displayed.

    3. Select the hyperlink of the required operator template from the Templates list view to populate the Copy from template field in the Add Portal User pane.

    4. Configure the following fields for the portal operator:

      • Email

        This must be unique amongst all operators.

      • Name

      • The following is determined by the functional role you require:

        Supplier (When creating a portal user for the role)

        This supplier code is used as the Portal supplier in the Operator Maintenance program when you save the operator record.

        Customer (When creating a portal user for the role)

        This customer code is used as the Portal customer in the Operator Maintenance program when you save the operator record.

      • Location

        Optionally enter the physical location of the operator.

      • Default company

        This must be specified to ensure that only a single company can be used to login to the portal.

      • Initial Password

        This is automatically populated and based on the email address entered in the Email field, but can be changed as required.

    5. Select the Save and Close function to save the portal operator and exit the Add Portal User screen.

      Alternatively, select the Save and Edit function to save the details entered and open the Operator Maintenance program to make additional changes to the operator record.

    6. Activate the new portal operator by highlighting the operator entry and selecting the Activate Users option from the toolbar.

    7. Exit the Portal User Management program.

  6. Assign the required functional role(s) to the portal user:

    1. Open the Portal User Management program.

    2. Navigate to the portal user to which you want to assign a functional role.

    3. Select the Maintain role hyperlink in the Role action column to launch the Portal User Role Management program.

      This column is hidden by default and can be added using the Field Chooser function.

    4. Indicate which functional role(s) must be assigned to the portal user by selecting the appropriate checkbox in the Select column.

    5. Select the Save function.

    6. Exit the Portal User Management program.

  7. Email the following information and login credentials to the portal user:

    • SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal URL

    • Username (i.e. email address)

    • Password

    Ensure to advise portal users to change their password using the Change Password option when they first login to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal. The operator password in SYSPRO is then updated to the new password defined by the portal user.

  • Depending on how your security is configured, you'll need to give either the portal operator (or its operator group) access to the Supplier Quote Entry program, so that they can use it in the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

  • All suppliers are given the same URL, however access is controlled in the background where users can only see quotes pertaining to the supplier code assigned to their portal user.

When a portal user logs into the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal, they are presented with a landing page determined by their assigned functional role(s) that provides the following functions and insights relevant to their account:

Request for Quote System:

  • Functions :

    • Supplier Quote Entry

  • Insights:

    • Active quote requests

    • Active quote submissions

    • Rejected quotes

    • Accepted quotes

    • Outstanding value for active quotes

    • Quotes for this year

:

  • Functions:

    • Customer Account Query

      Selecting this function launches the AR Customer Account Query program which includes the following information (as recorded against the customer within the SYSPRO company):

      • Account status

      • Credit status

      • Currency

      • Credit standing (i.e. outstanding balance, invoice terms, credit limit)

      • Last sale and payment dates

      • Customer type (if the customer account assigned to the portal user is part of a master / sub account structure)

      • Contact information and addresses

      • Links that provide access to the following list views with export to PDF or Excel functionality and filter options that can be used to interrogate data:

        • Invoices

        • Payments

        • Sales orders

        • Master sub-accounts

        • Statements

      • Graphs:

        • Ageing

        • Sales history

  • Insights:

    • Average days to pay

    • Receivables days outstanding

    • Outstanding balance

All transaction and balance values are displayed in the customer’s base currency.

:

  • Functions:

    • Supplier Account Query

      Selecting this function launches the Supplier Account Query program which includes the following information (as recorded against the supplier within the SYSPRO company):

      • Account status

      • Account information (e.g. current invoice terms, currency, credit limit, etc.)

      • Contact information and addresses

      • Ordered not received (i.e. all active purchase orders with an outstanding quantity)

      • Received not invoiced (i.e. all unmatched GRNs)

      • Outstanding balance (i.e. all open invoices that determine the outstanding balance)

      • Date of last purchase and payment

      • Purchase order history (i.e. monthly purchase history for the current year)

      • Links that provide access to the following list views with export to PDF or Excel functionality and filter options that can be used to interrogate data:

        • Invoices

        • Payments

        • Purchase orders

        • Goods received

        • Return to supplier (i.e. all active supplier returns with an outstanding value)

        • Registered credit notes and debit notes

        • Remittance advices

  • Insights:

    • Outstanding balance

All transaction and balance values are displayed in the supplier’s base currency.

Requirements for printing documents from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal include:

  • Only the reprinting of documents is allowed. Therefore, a document must have already been printed by the SYSPRO company before a portal user has access to printing it.

  • The ability to print documents from the portal is only available with Server-side Reporting. Therefore, only SRS Documents are available for printing.

The following defaults apply when a portal user prints a document from the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal:

  • Documents can only be printed for the specific customer account assigned to the portal user.

  • The document format applied is taken from the DocumentFormat column of the SorMasterRep table, as defined against the customer account assigned to the portal user.

  • Statements can only be printed for the specific customer account assigned to the portal user.

  • The document format applied is taken from the ArStatementNo column of the ArCustomer table, as defined against the customer account assigned to the portal user.

  • Portal users can select a statement period from the first month-end date of the previous year, up to the current month-end date.

  • The following options are based on the default parameters defined against the customer account assigned to the portal user:

    • Balance options

    • Print selection

  • The following is based on the ageing options defined against the SYSPRO company to which the portal user belongs:

    • Ageing options

The following additional parameter defaults can be defined against the SYSPROPortalARStatementParameter XML parameter using the Custom Configuration program:

  • Balance Type

  • Minimum Balance

  • Sales Message

  • Remittance advices can only be printed for the specific supplier account assigned to the portal user.

  • The document format applied is based on the bank defined against the supplier account assigned to the portal user, as recorded within the ApCheckFormat table (or the EftRemitFormat table for EFT remittances).

When the portal user selects the year for which he wants to download his remittances, a list of all the payment runs forming part of that year are returned. The user can then select which one(s) to download and print.

The following indicates areas in the product that may be affected by implementing this feature:

SYSPRO Ribbon bar > Setup > General Setup

The program includes a record of how many Portal seats are included with your configured license (under the System Settings section).

SYSPRO Ribbon bar > Setup > Operators

The program includes the following operator fields that are related to this feature:

Reset your toolbar to ensure that all the latest options are visible.

  • Operator type

    Portal indicates that the operator is a named user (used only for the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal).

  • Operator status

    This indicates the current status of the operator (as recorded in the OperatorStatus column of the AdmOperator table):

    Active

    This indicates that the portal user is active and can log into the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

    Disabled

    This indicates the portal user was disabled using the Portal User Management and cannot log into the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

    Removed

    This indicates the portal user was removed using the Portal User Management program and cannot log into the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

  • Portal supplier

    This indicates the supplier code that must be assigned to the portal user when accessing the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

  • Portal customer

    This indicates the customer code that must be assigned to the portal user when accessing the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Program List > Administration > Security

This program lets administrators create and manage portal operators that require access to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Things you can do in this program include:

  • Create portal operators

  • Configure functional roles for portal users

  • Disable portal operators

  • Remove portal operators

  • Activate disabled or removed portal operators

  • Delete portal operators

Accessible from the Add Portal User function of the Portal User Management program

This program lets administrators create new portal users that require access to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

Accessible from the Maintain role hyperlink of the Role action column in the Portal User Management program

This program lets administrators configure the functional roles for a portal user that requires access to the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

The functional roles available for configuration include:

  • Request for Quote System (RFQ)

  • (CAM)

  • (SAM)

This program lets portal users assigned with the functional role view information relating to their specific customer account via the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

All transaction and balance values are displayed in the base currency defined against the customer.

The account access is limited to the customer account defined against the portal user in the Portal User Management and Operator Maintenance programs.

This program lets portal users assigned with the functional role view information relating to their specific supplier account via the SYSPRO Supply Chain Portal.

All transaction and balance values are displayed in the base currency defined against the supplier.

The account access is limited to the supplier account defined against the portal user in the Portal User Management and Operator Maintenance programs.

Program List > Administration > Security

The program includes auditing and logging capabilities for all operators that are configured as Portal operators.