Centralized Procurement’s

Approval Management System

(Phase - I)

Version: 1.0

Date: March 07th, 2017

Document ID: Approval Management System

Department - Centralized Procurement

Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Sign-Off .................................................................................................................... 3
2 Problem Statement:.................................................................................................. 4
3 Vision ....................................................................................................................... 4
4 Project Scope & Description ..................................................................................... 4
5 Roles......................................................................................................................... 5
6 AMS Workflow ......................................................................................................... 5
7 Setup Table –Parameters ......................................................................................... 6
8 System Administrator............................................................................................... 7
9 Reports & History ..................................................................................................... 7
10 Email Alerts / Reminders......................................................................................... 7
11 Annex – A (Process Flow)......................................................................................... 8
12 Annex – B (Demo Document) ................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Scope of Work - Approval Management System (Phase I) 2

 Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

1 Sign-Off

Name Designation & Department Signature

Mehjabeen Ayub Unit Head - Compliance & Controls

Muhammad Zeeshan Anwer Unit Head - Process Management

Khwaja Rafid Masood DH - Procurement Planning & Optimization

Syed Ghouse Fakhri Senior Project Manager - IT Division

Muhammad Azfar Latif Head BRM - IT

Farhan Hadi Manager Operational Risk

Muhammad Mushtaq Financial Controller - Finance

Daniyal Muzaffar Unit Head Corporate - Legal Division

Muhammad Arshad Head - Centralized Procurement

DH Regulatory Compliance - Compliance &

Anjum Amin Siddiqui
Control Group

Syed Athar Ahmed CISO - IT Security

Scope of Work - Approval Management System (Phase I) 3

Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

2 Problem Statement:
Documents of any organization have to go through a long chain of physical approval process, which
cause serious delays in the routine official work. Even, users have to face loss of documents some-
times during the physical circulation of papers. Steps in a manual process allow each reviewer /
approver to make changes or comments that subsequent reviewers / approvers can read, once the
physical document is received. Manual processing involves significant time and resources to be
spent preparing and routing change documents for review and subsequent approvals. Bottlenecks
include copying, distribution & receipt of approval files; manually tracking and reporting of status;
indefinite waiting for the key personnel to sign off especially when they are out of office / travelling.

3 Vision
To over-come the above situation, UBL Centralized Procurement is intended to develop a
comprehensive automated Approval Management System (AMS) to manage internal approvals in
a sequential unified format. Through a single repository, this approval process will efficiently track
the document and will eliminate the need of human tasks involved with the approval process
(Sending / Receiving / Physical Sign-offs) and will provide the real-time status of the document
during & after its approval cycle.
Equipped with an intuitive graphical interface, AMS will also increase the security and
confidentiality of the documents, while letting approving managers create an IT audit trail of all
actions, identities, TATs and comments.

4 Project Scope & Description

The scope of AMS specifies all Centralized Procurement Department’s approval notes within bank
are circulated for approval from the relevant authorities irrespective of geographical boundaries. It
includes approvals notes i.e. General & Financial which are expected to be available online in AMS
for approval. AMS will allow documents (with related attachments) to be sent electronically for
review / approve / reject / enquire & send back the approval to initiator through the system. E-mail
notifications will also be sent step by step to track the updated status of document on real-time
basis.
It will offer complete visibility over approval requests, approver’s comments to make processes
efficient and transparent. Hence, it will exclude the need of sending or receiving documents and
placement of physical signatures. To refrain from the unusual delays, related participants will
receive reminders of pending tasks in accordance to the defined TATs. The flow of approving the
document will be such that the approver will either Approve or Reject the document with comments,
if needed. After the document is completely approved, one dedicated personnel will verify all the
approvals on the document from the system before sending it to the Central Payment in order for
authentication and validation of the approvals. This involvement of the personnel will eliminate the
need of e-signatures to be applied of every approver on the document and further, that personnel
will be held accountable for validation of all the approvals on that document after verifying from
the Approval Management System.

Classification of CP documents are as follows:

a. General
• Internal Approval Memo
• Corporate Communication
• Procurement Requisitions
b. Financial
• Procurement Approval Note
• Annual Maintenance Contracts
• Payment Authority Memo

Scope of Work - Approval Management System (Phase I) 4

Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

• Budget / Tax Amendments, Trainings, Travel & Entertainment related approval memos

5 Roles
This section represents various roles and profiles that are outlined in the Active Directory &
further will be defined in the approval process. The initiator will define the reviewer (optional) &
approver of the request to enable access of the published documents.

Following roles will be allocated to the users/staff:

1. System Admin
2. Initiator
3. Reviewer
4. Approver

6 AMS Workflow
1. Initiator logins the system with the domain credentials. Upon login, system gets the details of
user from AD i.e. Name & Department along with the availability of current timestamp (logged
in Date & Time) on the form.

2. The user enters the required fields on the form accordingly:

3. Reviewed by Name(s) (optional)
4. Approved by Name(s)

5. Approval Type

a. General
b. Financial

6. Expense Currency
a. PKR
b. USD
c. Any other currency (if required)

7. Nature of Expense
a. OPEX
b. CAPEX

8. Budget Status
a. Budgeted
b. Non-Budgeted

9. User inputs complete detail on the form that includes business case, summary, justification /
requirement & financials etc. in the approval description tab.

10. In case the reviewer/approver is on leave the document will be re-routed to the initiator
through system administrator.

11. Attachment option in the form is available for the attachment of related documents. These
will be viewable with the serial number, name & type of file.

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Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

12. Once the required mandatory fields are completed, the user submits the approval to next level
as defined in the reviewer & approver grid.

13. The reviewer logins & review the “Pending for Review” documents in his bucket for necessary
decision (approved / reject / enquire/ send back to initiator).

a. Approved - Document will be approved & will follow the further defined approval
hierarchy.

b. Reject - Document will be rejected & send back to initiator with proper log.

c. Enquire – Document will travel one step back with the required query & will fall in “on
hold” bucket till the recipient responses the query.

d. Send back to initiator - Document will be returned to initiator for the desired amendment.
Approval cycle will be re-initiated after changes.

14. Subsequent to the approval of reviewer, approver receives the document in his bucket for
necessary decision (approved/reject/enquire/ send back to initiator).

15. Approver/reviewer can always add comments on the note in the Comments Box.

16. Complete history from initiator to approval of the document will be available.

17. AMS dashboard contains the complete database details of the notes as follows:

a. My Notes - All notes prepared & approved by the authorities

b. Reviewed - Notes reviewed
c. Approved - Notes approved
d. Rejected - Notes rejected
e. On-hold - Enquired /Sent back by the reviewer or approver
f. Drafts - Notes prepared but added in the archive*
* System will input the timestamp on note upon routing for first review /approval

7 Setup Table –Parameters

System setup includes onetime data mapping for the information and matrix. A set of setup
tables/screens that describe the initial state of the application before giving access to end
users. Main purpose of this setup is to manage the upcoming changes, challenges and
innovations involving the feedback of the quality, system usability, organizational benefits and
the constraints to drive its evolution. System will be flexible to define / change the parameters
at any point in time.

Sample Grid:

Approval
Expense Currency Nature of Expense Budgeted Status
Type
General PKR OPEX Budgeted
Financial USD CAPEX Non- Budgeted
(Any other Currency)

Table for the re-routing of request will also be made available in the system for the administrator
to cater correct routing, in case of leaves of respected person or any mistake / error.

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Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

Audit log of parametric changes will also be maintained. Administrative rights for the interim
period will remain with the Centralized Procurement. However, rights will be transferred to IT
later on.

8 System Administrator
System administrator will have full rights to modify, add, delete & re-route requests as well as
to modify the setup tables.

9 Reports & History

All types of reports & history will be available on AMS system.

10 Email Alerts / Reminders

System will generate alerts to the concerns on the activities performed in AMS as follows:

• Initiated new document :

Alert will be received by the initiator & next level reviewer / approver.
• Approval / Review Processing:
Upon processing, alert will be generated to the initiator & current reviewer / approver &
next level approver in a sequential manner (till completion).
• Send back to the initiator :
Alert will be generated to the initiator & send back authority.
• Enquires on the note :
Alert will be generated to the initiator, enquirer & the authority who is enquired.

• All related participants will also receive email reminders of the pending tasks in
accordance to defined TATs.

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 Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

11 Annex – A (Process Flow)

Work Flow – Approval Management System

User Reviewer(Optional) Approver

Reviewer logs in & Approver logs in &

User Logs in and
B check pending review check pending
create new request
notes approval notes

Yes

Selects reviewer &

approver

Reviwed Approved

Input detail of approval

No
• Approval Type No
• Expense Currency
• Expense Type
• Budget Status On-Hold Rejected
On-Hold Rejected

Input description/ Yes

overview & justification Optional
in document Send Back/Enquired

Send Back Enquires

Attach separate file(s) if

required

Submits

A
A A/B A/End

Scope of Work - Approval Management System (Phase I) 8

 Centralized Procurement - Approval Management System

Annex- B

Centralized Procurement

Approved By: AD User 1, AD User 2, AD User n

Reviewed By: AD User 1, AD User 2,

Initiated By: AD Logged in User

Date: Month DD, YYYY - hh:mm:ss (logged in Date & Time)

Approval Type Expense Nature of Expense Budget Status

Financial /
Amount in PKR / USD CAPEX / OPEX Budgeted / Non Budgeted
General

Subject Re:

Approval Description:

This content box may be comprising of text, cell pasting (excel sheet), image etc. (no limit
constraint)

Submitted by:

__________________
Logged In User

Reviewed By (optional):

___________________ ___________________
AD User 1 AD User n
Designation Designation

Approved By:

________________ ___________________
AD User 1 AD User 2
Designation Designation

________________ ____________________
AD User 3 AD User 4
Designation Designation

Scope of Work - Approval Management System (Phase I) 9