Applicable to the following Sastrify plans:


Legacy*EssentialsProPlatinum
✔✘**✔✔


* Legacy includes all plans signed before February 29, 2024. 

** For Essentials plans signed before March 1, 2024, this feature is accessible as an add-on.

The Procurement Initiative is a key feature within Sastrify's offering, alongside Workflows, designed to streamline procurement processes. The feature also offers companies a structured approach to organizing and initiating their SaaS procurement efforts, whether for new purchases or renewals.


This feature serves multiple purposes:

  1. Integration and Standardization: 
    It centralizes the internal purchasing process, providing a standardized approach within a single platform.
  2. Internal Visibility: 
    It offers visibility within your team or organization, allowing stakeholders to understand ongoing procurement initiatives.
  3. Internal Collaboration: 
    It facilitates better collaboration within your team, enhancing communication and coordination in procurement activities.

IN THIS ARTICLE

Create a New Initiative


There are two ways to create a new procurement initiative:

  1. By accessing the feature from the navigation bar and selecting Initiatives from the left menu bar; or
  2. By going to the tool stack and selecting the tool on which you want to create an initiative. Once selected, 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). There is no limit on the number of tools you can add for review.
  9. Fill in the details: Budget, number of licenses, and payment frequency.
  10. Add collaborators. They can later collaborate on the initiative and edit requests or take actions.
  11. Set the due date.
  12. Add any supporting documentation (e.g., previous contract for renewal or initial quote for new purchase).
  13. Click Submit to complete the submission or Continue to the custom intake form (if defined as part of the workflow).
  14. After completing all custom fields, click Submit to complete the submission.
  15. (You can also save the submission as a draft.)



Please note that documents submitted to Sastrify as attachments during a procurement initiative are not automatically transferred to a subscription. You can upload the documents to a subscription in two ways: 

  • Manually: Download the documents from the Procurement Involvement, then upload them in the Document tab within the subscription once it is activated.

  • Semi-manually: Download the documents from the engagement, then upload them with the documents within the original renewal or new purchase initiative in the Document section. When the tool is renewed or activated, the documents are automatically transferred to the subscription (see image below).

View active & completed Initiatives

Once created, the new initiative will be listed under the "Active Initiatives" tab on the main Initiative page. 


The tab lists all active initiatives that are in progress, in a tabular format, displaying all high-level information such as the requester, assignee, collaborators, as well as their status, progress, and due dates.


Alongside, the "Active Initiatives" tab, there is also another tab called "Initiatives History" tab that contains all of the past initiatives that have been closed and completed. 

View an Initiative from the tool page

Because a sourcing 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 will have its own detail page where all stakeholders and collaborators will work through the defined procurement stages and collaborate from the beginning to the end of an initiative as the process runs.


View this as a collaborative procurement workspace where everyone involved can come together to drive the buying or renewal process forward that consists of the following sections as parts of its anatomy:


  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, performing a custom price benchmarking, where in such case a procurement support request will be created and a Sastrify's 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.


When all approvals are complete and you have reached the end of the procurement and approval process, you will be asked to:

  • Renew Tool, if it is a renewal.
  • Activate Tool, if it is 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 the details of an initiative is only allowed when it is in the first stage of an approval workflow. Once the approval stage has progressed to the second stage and beyond, editing is no longer possible, as indicated by the disappearance of the pencil icon. If your workflow contains only one stage (single-stage approval workflow), it can be edited as long as an initiative is open or active.