Configuring Supplier Notifications (QMS)

QualityOne Vaults have built-in tools to process supplier notification emails, making it easy to get supplier notifications into Vault, triage notification records, and determine if further action is required.

Supplier Notifications Key Objects

QualityOne uses the following objects to support Supplier Notifications:

Email (email__sys): This object represents an email.
Supplier Notification (supplier_notification__v): This object represents a supplier notification.
Supplier Notification - Email (supplier_notification_email__v): This object represents the join between a supplier notification and an email.

Configuration Overview

Complete these steps to automate Supplier Notification intake:

Create Person and Organization object records for potential Supplier Contacts
Configure one (1) or more Inbound Email Addresses for notification intake
Configure the Supplier Notification lifecycle
Configure the Supplier Notification object
Configure user permissions

Note: Depending on your Vault’s creation date and which features are currently enabled and configured, some of the steps described in this article may be unavailable or already complete in your Vault.

Creating Person & Organization Records

You must create Person and Organization records so Vault can populate the Supplier and Supplier Contact fields on Supplier Notification records. After processing a new supplier notification, Vault matches the sender’s email address to an Email on a Person record to create a Supplier Notification record. On the new record, Vault populates the Supplier Contact and Supplier fields with the Name and Organization values from the matching Person record.

Configuring Inbound Email Addresses for Supplier Notification Intake

To configure an Inbound Email Address for use with supplier notifications:

Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Inbound Email Addresses.
Click Create.
Enter a Label.
Enter a Name.
Enter an Email Address for Vault to monitor for supplier notifications.
In the Email Processor drop-down, select Supplier Notification Email Processor.
In the Allowed Senders drop-down, select All Users & Persons in this Vault.
Select an Email Processor User. This User should have the required permissions to perform email intake in this Vault.
Click Submit.

Configuring the Supplier Notification Lifecycle

You can optionally configure an object lifecycle for the Supplier Notification object according to your business processes. If required, you can configure actions on the lifecycle for creating related records such as NCRs, Change Controls, and Action Items. For more information, see Setting Up Related Record Automation. You can collaborate with external parties on related follow-up records belonging to objects that support External Collaboration Management. To do this, you must have External Collaboration Management configured in your Vault.

Configuring the Supplier Notification Object

We recommend the following adjustments to the Supplier Notification object layout to take advantage of automated Supplier Notification intake:

Remove the Message ID and Root Message ID fields from the layout.
Optional: Insert a Supplier Notification - Email related object section for email metadata tracking purposes.
If appropriate for your processes, insert an Action Item related object section or other related object sections.

Configuring User Permissions

You must ensure users have the appropriate read and create permissions to access the appropriate objects and object fields in addition to the permissions outlined below:

For the Supplier Notification object:
- Read, Create, and Edit permissions
- Read and Edit permissions on the following fields:
  - Supplier
  - Supplier Contact
  - Email Body Text
  - Email Sent Date
  - Email Subject
  - Sender Email Address
  - Message ID
  - Root Message ID
For the Person object:
- Read permission
- Read permission on the Organization field
For the Email object:
- Read permission
- Read permission on the Full Message ID and Message ID fields
Create permission on the Supplier Notification - Email object
Read permission on the Organization object
Create permission on any objects for which users need to create related records from the Supplier Notification

You can complete all the steps in this article with the standard System Administrator or Vault Owner security profile. If your Vault uses custom security profiles, your profile must grant the following permissions:

Type	Permission	Controls
Security Profile	Admin: Configuration: Object Lifecycles: Create, Edit	Ability to create and modify object lifecycles.
Security Profile	Admin: Configuration: Objects: Edit	Ability to modify Vault objects.
Security Profile	Admin: Configuration: Inbound Email Addresses: Create	Ability to create Inbound Email Addresses.