The Procurement Initiative is a core feature of Sastrify, alongside Workflows, designed to streamline SaaS procurement for new purchases and renewals. It provides a structured, centralized approach to procurement, enhancing efficiency and transparency.

Key benefits:

IN THIS ARTICLE

• Create a new initiative
• View active & completed initiatives
• View an Initiative from the tool page
• Work with an initiative
• Edit an initiative

Create a new initiative

You start a new initiative from one of the available entry points:

1. From the Navigation Bar: Select Initiatives from the left menu.

2. From the Tool Stack: Choose the relevant tool, then click the Initiatives tab.

To create a new initiative:

1. Click the "New Initiative" button.
2. Select "Start an initiative".
3. Name the initiative.
4. Select the type of initiative: Purchase (to purchase and implement a new tool) or Renewal (to renew an existing tool).
5. Specify the assignee (note: this person will be the first approver in Stage 1, as defined by the workflow).
6. Provide a description of the initiative.
7. Select the tool to be purchased/renewed from the drop-down menu.
8. In the vendor evaluation, add alternative vendors from the drop-down menu (if available). 
9. There is no limit on the number of tools you can add for review.
10. Fill in the details: budget, number of licenses, and payment frequency.
11. Add collaborators. They can later collaborate on the initiative and edit requests or take actions.
12. Set the due date.
13. Add any supporting documentation (e.g., previous contract for renewal or initial quote for new purchase).
14. Click Submit to complete the submission or Continue to the custom intake form (if defined as part of the workflow).
15. After completing all custom fields, click Submit to complete the submission.
16. (You can also save the submission as a draft.)

Documents uploaded as attachments within an initiative are not automatically transferred to the subscription's document tab. To ensure proper storage, you must manually re-upload them to the correct subscription page. Refer to this article for instructions on uploading documents.

Alternatively, upload documents under the Tools section (as shown in the image below) to ensure they sync with the correct subscription.

View active & completed initiatives

Once created, the new initiative appears under the "Active Initiatives" tab on the main Initiatives page. This tab displays all ongoing initiatives in a table format, showing key details such as the requester, assignee, collaborators, status, progress, and due dates.

View an Initiative from the tool page

Because an initiative is always created and anchored to a specific tool or subscription, you can also view a specific initiative from the relevant tool detail page.  

1. Go to your tool stack.
   
2. Select the desired tool or subscription.
   
3. Select the Initiatives tab.
4. Click a specific initiative to open its detail page.

Work with an initiative

Each initiative has a dedicated detail page where stakeholders and collaborators manage the procurement process from start to finish. Think of it as a collaborative procurement workspace, bringing everyone together to drive purchasing or renewal efforts. The initiative page consists of the following key sections:

1. Timeline: These are the procurement stages defined in the workflow. Each stage has an assignee who is the person responsible for that stage. The number of the stages may vary depending on your workflow.
2. Initiative Details: Contains the details you previously filled in (see above) and anything that is set as part of the custom form. 
3. Tools (tools involved or reviewed): These are tools that are part of the assessment. You can assess one or multiple tools, add new tools, make edits, or upload documents at any moment.
   • In this section, you can involve Sastrify in your procurement initiative to perform support such as taking over a negotiation and performing a custom price benchmarking, in which case a Sastrify IT buyer will be assigned to your case.
      
     
4. Actions: This is the section used to move the initiative along the different stages.
5. Activities: Allows all collaborators to communicate, post comments, and see all the paper trails of the initiatives, recording all the changes that have been made.
   
   

Pro Tip: You can eliminate tools that do not meet requirements by using the Actions section.

Once all approvals are complete and the procurement process is finished, you will be prompted to: renew tool if it's a renewal or activate tool if it's a new purchase.

This completes and closes the initiative and moves the selected tool to your tool stack. Any documents added to this tool during the initiative will be transferred and uploaded to the subscription's document repository, and the status will be set to Active.

Please note that the Initiatives feature is designed to be used to manage your internal procurement activities, either for requesting new tools, renewing existing tools, or other internal procurement initiatives.

It is important to note that creating a procurement initiative does not automatically trigger procurement support requests to the Sastrify Procurement Team. If you require assistance from the team for a particular initiative, you can easily involve them by clicking the "Involve Sastrify" button. 

Edit an initiative

On each initiative detail page, you can make edits to the initiative details, such as the assignee, description, or collaborators. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Click one of the initiatives to open its details page.
2. Locate the pencil icon in the upper right corner.
3. When a pop-up window opens, make edits in any of the fields.
4. Click "Submit" to complete the change.

Important: Editing or updating initiative details is only allowed during the first stage of an approval workflow. Once the approval progresses to the second stage or beyond, editing is disabled, as indicated by the disappearance of the pencil icon. If your workflow has only one stage (single-stage approval), the initiative can be edited as long as it is open or active.