What is happening
From 19 October, no new Purchase Orders can be raised in ICIS. Only fully approved Purchase Orders will be migrated to Atlas. Requisitions will not. Any requisition not converted to a Purchase Order by 19 October must be re-raised in Atlas from scratch after go live.
What you need to do
- Identify purchasing needed before or during the freeze and raise Purchase Orders well before 19 October.
- Factor in approval time. Allow enough time for the full sign-off chain before 19 October.
- Check your open requisitions now. Any stuck in approval at the freeze date are lost.
- Make sure approvers are available or set vacation delegation rules in ICIS if anyone is away. Guidance will be published separately.
- Do not use expense claims for items that should go through a Purchase Order. The Finance team will scrutinise claims and anything that should have been a Purchase Order will not be reimbursed.
Keeping ordering going: blanket Purchase Orders
A blanket Purchase Order lets you raise a single order against a supplier now and then manually order against that Purchase Order number throughout the freeze – by phone, email, or other means. Suppliers invoice against the Purchase Order number as normal and those invoices are processed once Atlas is live.
- Monitor spend against the blanket Purchase Order value locally during the freeze.
- Close the blanket Purchase Orders and switch to normal Atlas purchasing once the system is live.
- Contact Procurement for advice on setting one up before the freeze.
- We understand that blanket orders may need to be set up for multiple suppliers. This is a significant system change and this is what we need to do to make it work.
Labs and refrigerated consumables
Chemistry stores at White City and South Kensington are extending their ranges via VWR to cover lab consumables during the gap. Stock up in advance where possible. The blanket Purchase Order approach covers ordering needs for other consumables.
Purchase Order migration
- Migrated Purchase Orders keep their original ICIS Purchase Order numbers in Atlas.
- New Purchase Orders raised in Atlas after go live have a new number range so they are easy to distinguish from legacy Purchase Orders.
- Finance will lead a Purchase Order cleansing exercise before migration and will contact departments. You will not need to review everything yourself.
Important
Requisitions not converted to Purchase Orders by 19 October cannot be migrated. Check your open requisitions now.