Shoppers’ Guide
V2.1 September 2013
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Introduction
OPeRA is the University of Warwick's e-Procurement System. (Online Purchasing
electronic Requisition Automation)
Through OPeRA, departmental users are able to shop within University approved
catalogues, create purchase requisitions for catalogue or non catalogue suppliers,
obtain electronic approval and seamlessly distribute Purchase Orders to suppliers. Via
this electronic process, efficiencies to the University’s purchasing practices are
generated through reducing paperwork, rekeying and risk of errors.
OPeRA works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and on PCs, Macs and iPads
Use of Approved Suppliers
Before placing your order please consider the University’s Purchasing
Regulations – Financial Procedure 15
Please note that approved suppliers should be used whenever possible. The
Purchasing office has a comprehensive list of current approved suppliers for the
University of Warwick.
Details of all the University’s current approved suppliers can be found on both the
Purchasing and Insurance Office website and the Estates Office intranet
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/finance/purchasing_and_insurance/approved_su
ppliers/currentcontracts/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/estates/intranet/purchasing_and_tendering/
There is currently a range of UoW approved lab supplies, office supplies, electrical,
janitorial, and IT supplies catalogues available on the OPeRA system.
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.
Each Commodity Area (i.e.
Lab Supplies) will show the
list of approved suppliers
within that category.
Select the relevant
“Commodity area” to launch
the Commodity Web page
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Each Commodity Area has a page dedicated
it to, within this page you will find:
The Official Buyers Guide: This

provides you with details of the
approved “Lots” awarded to the
supplier, Information on delivery
costs, Discount rates

Supplier Information (address

Purchasing Office Contacts
Links to the Buyers guides are also
available via the OPeRA
Home/Shop Page
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Non-approved suppliers should ONLY be used if there are no approved suppliers for
the goods or services required. If it is not possible to make your purchase through an
approved supplier then you must ensure that you comply with the University's
procedures for obtaining quotations and tenders. The basic requirements are set out
below and a link to the full procedure is also provided. The values stated apply to the
total contract value which may in many cases be greater than the individual purchase
order value.
Up to and including £10,000 (ex
VAT)
At least one written quotation is required.
Over £10,000 and up to £35,000
At least two written quotations are required.
(ex VAT)
Over £35,000 (ex VAT)
Above EU tender thresholds
All items require competitive tender via the University Formal
Tendering Procedure. Please contact the Purchasing and
Insurance Office for assistance
All items require competitive tender via EU procurement
legislation. Please contact the Purchasing and Insurance Office
for
PLEASE ENSURE THAT QUOTATIONS ARE ATTACHED TO YOUR OPeRA
REQUISTIONS AS FAILURE TO DO SO COULD DELAY YOUR PURCHASE.
Please also note that certain funding providers will have lower quotation and
tender thresholds. If in doubt, please contact the Purchasing and Insurance Office.
Full details of Financial Procedure 15 are available via:
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/finance/resources/regulations/fp15
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Logging On
OPeRA utilises Single Sign-on. To log on to OPeRA follow the procedure below
and the instructions provided by your department about how to access the service.
(a) Open your web browser, go to the Warwick Intranet site and sign in:
Once you have done this follow your departmental instructions on how to
access Opera, probably via a link on your departmental homepage.
(b) The first page you may see if you have not logged on before is the
User Settings/User Identification tabs in your profile. This is shown
because as a new user you may wish to complete certain details. If
you do make any changes you will need to click on the Save or Update
buttons.
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Types of Requisitions
There are four different categories of purchase orders on OPeRA

Hosted Catalogue Requisition (catalogue held within OPeRA system)

Punch-Out Catalogue Requisition (via Warwick section of supplier’s website)

Non-Catalogue Requisition (products or services not held in catalogues)

Non-OPeRA Supplier Requisition (supplier not on OPeRA)
Catalogue Suppliers (as at August 2014)
Office Supplies:
 Office Depot – Stationery & Printer Consumables (Hosted)
 X MA – P r in t e r Co n su m a b le s ( Ho s t e d )
 Insight UK Ltd – IT &Related Accessories (Punchout)
Desktop and Laptop PC’s

DTP

Dell

Softcat

Viglen
Laboratory Supplies - Hosted
 Appleton Woods
 Appleton Woods
 Fisher Scientific
 Greiner Bio-One
 New England BioLabs
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 MP Lab Supplies
 Promega
 Sarstedt
 Scientific Glass Ltd
 Scientific Laboratory Supplies
 Sigma Aldrich
 Starlab
 VW R
O l i g os

I n t e gra t e d D NA T e ch n o lo g ie s (P u n ch o u t )

S i gm a A ld r ich (P u n ch o u t )
E l e c tr on i c Com po ne n ts

O n e ca l l (P u n ch o u t )
J a ni tor i a l S up pl i e s

Ch e r we ll L t d (P u n ch o u t )
Ca m pus a nd C om me rc i a l S e r vi c e s

Ni sb e t s

T h o m a s K n e a le
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Creating a Purchase Requisition
Section 1 – Catalogue Item
Section 2 – Non-Catalogue Item
Section 3 – Non-OPeRA Supplier
Section 4 - Punchout
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Section 1
Create a Purchase
Requisition for a
Catalogue Item
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OPeRA Hosted Catalogues
As an OPeRA shopper you have access to the online catalogues for the majority of
our contracted suppliers providing you with the pricing of over 400,000 items (in the
Hosted catalogues alone).
For best results when using the OPeRA search feature, use a manufacturer code (if
you have one) this is usually a generic part number which all distributors use in their
catalogues. Alternatively type in a generic description of the required product.
OPeRA will search all of the Hosted Catalogues held on file (cross referencing them
with the generic manufacture cade you have entered) providing you with a list of results,
and the contracted prices for that item. PLEASE NOTE catalogues accessed via punchout will not be included in the results) More search tips are available in the Search tips
section of this guide
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As with the majority of websites such
as Amazon you have the option to sort
/ filter your results e.g. Price Low to
High, Best Match, Supplier and
compare items to you ensure that you
are getting the best value for money*
Select the supplier “XMA” to filter
the result
*Please remember that Price files are
updated on a regular basis so an item
which was the best value for money
one month may not be three months
later so it is good practice to do
comparisons once in a while.
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Add the item to your cart
Selected items will be added
to your cart Choose to “View
my Cart” or “Proceed to
Checkout”
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NOTE: For your first order
you may be prompted to add
a cost collector (this is the
Cost Code/Project/Internal
order/Service orders
number we wish to charge to
goods/service to)
Helpful hint
Cost Centres 00XXXX00 (8
characters)
Project Code
RXXXX0000.CSA (12
characters)
Internal Order : XX00000
(7 Characters)
1: Select Cost Collector from “profile
Values / All ValueEnter the relevant code
in the appropriate field (if you need to
split the cost with another code select
the “Add Split option”
2:SAVE
(Once you have selected a cost collector
you can save this as a personal default
for future use)
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Select the “Summary” tab, this will give you an overview of everything
on your order:
General = Shopper / Approver information, Department, VAT Zero
Rating declarations
Shipping = Delivery address
Billing = Invoice address
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Cont...
Cost Collector = Cost centre/Internal order /
Project to be charged
VAT Code = if the goods/services being procured
are subject to VAT charges
NOTE: Shoppers are not required to enter VAT
codes on their requisitions as this forms part of the
Pre-Approval process; however guidance is available
via
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/finance/vat/va
t_guide
Plant and Purchasing group
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Internal Notes and attachments- This section should be used for any internal
comments and documentation linked to the purchase being made these include;
Supporting evidence of Financial Procedures adherence i.e. additional quotations for
purchases over £10K, Authorised APP’s, and Fin Regs. approval for “Conflicts of
Interest”
This should also be used to submit Variation orders, Ommision and addition requests
COSSH numbers (chemical orders)
Notes/Requests to Department Staff
External Notes and Attachments- This section should be used to for any information
you wish the Supplier to view i.e. Quotations, Delivery Schedules or specific delivery
instructions.
Where the purchase being made has been subject to the tender process the
“Tender reference” should be quoted in the External Notes with the relevant
“Terms and Conditions” as supplied by the Purchasing and Insurance Team
To insert comments/attachments select the “EDIT” button within the relevant section
IMPORTANT – Internal/External comments/attachments done this at this “header”
level will cover all lines items on the requisition being created therefore should only be
used if the requisition is for one sole supplier. Where there is more than one supplier
this information should be done at “line” level
NB: Suppliers who receive POs via cXML integration do not support attachments or
comments. Warnings will be shown to detail this. Should these be required, a non
catalogue requisition should be created and the necessary comments and / or
attachments added.
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The Final Section details the item/s which will make up the final requisition
This will show:
Supplier Name , Product description , Catalogue reference, Pack Size, NET
price (additional manufacturer information.) OPeRA / SAP Material number,
and the name of the person the goods should be delivered to.
It is possible to have more than one supplier on a single requisition; where this
is the case and supporting information is required this should be done at “line
item level”
Select the Edit Icon
Attach Internal/External attachments using the
relevant option at line item level
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Select “EDIT” to open the dialogue box for
Internal/External Comments.
Text entered in this section will relate to that line only
and should be used when there is more than one supplier
on the requisition.
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For the final stage, the Cart you have created should be assigned to the authorised
Budget Holder for approval: Select the “Assign Cart” Icon You can select the name
of the budget holder either by
performing a search “Search for an Assignee” or from
select the name from your Profile Values
(if you are already a budget holder you will have the option to
“Submit Requisition” straight in to workflow, and will see the
“Submit Requisition button above the “Assign Cart” option
Enter part/all of the name in
the “User Search” box and
Search
Select the name accordingly
And “Submit”
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This message is confirmation that the cart has now been entered in to the
approval process workflow
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(Check the progress of your requisition)
Select Shopping Cart
icon
My Carts and orders
to view a list of your
pending
carts/requisitions
(and their progress)
Once your cart has been approved by the budget holder it becomes a
fully-fledged requisition, its progress can be tracked using the PR
Approvals tab.
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Section 2
Creating a
Requisition via
Punch-out
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Punch-out is functionality
within OPeRA which allows
shoppers to view the
catalogues (for contracted
goods) of suppliers via an
external web link (punch-out)
to their own website.
Step 1 select the “Punch-out”
icon of the supplier you need
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The OPeRA screen will change to
show the “Redirecting to Supplier”
followed by the suppliers Welcome
page site. This site will be a UoW
section of the supplier’s website
restricted to University of Warwick
approved products and pricing.
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Search the catalogue using the Product
Search Box,
or,
Product lists
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The items you select from the punch out site will be added to a cart within the
supplier website, only when you “Checkout” will the goods transfer over to OPeRA
where your “Draft Cart is created.
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Once the cart has been created it will follow the same
workflow process as the both the Catalogue cart
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Section 3
Creating a Non
Catalogue Item
Requisition
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Select Non-Catalogue
Item
This will launch the
Supplier Search
function)
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Begin to type the name of
the supplier you wish to
order from, and select
their name from the drop
down list (names will only
appear if the supplier is
active in OPeRA, if they
are not you will need to
complete a non- OPeRA
Vendor form see Section
4)
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Enter
Product description – (depending on what you are
ordering)
Supplier ref
Quantity required
Unit Price (Net Value)
Save and close
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Selected items will appear in your “Shopping Cart”
Select either “View my Cart”
Or
Checkout (which will take you to the Requisition Summary
Screen) where you can Assign/Submit the cart (refer to
previous sections)
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Section 4
Creating a
Purchase
Requisition for a
Non-OPeRA
Supplier
To order goods/services from suppliers
who are not on SAP/ OPeRA
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Open the Non OPeRA
Vendor form
Select either the “Forms” option on the Home/Shop Page
Or Select “Shop” and “View Forms”
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Select “Non OPeRA
Vendor Form
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Please complete as much
information as you can this will
assist the Pre-Approvers in
deciding how to progress your
order,
Select Available Action “Add
and go to cart” this will create
your cart.
Proceed to checkout (as with
Catalogue / Non Catalogue
requisitions)
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The requisition you have created will look exactly the
same as the Catalogue / Non Catalogue requisitions and
are assigned/submitted for approval in the same way.
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OPeRA Favourites
To access your “Personal
Favourites” list :
Select the Shopping Cart
icon
“Shopping”
“Go To”View Favourites”
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Personal Favourites will be listed
here and any items contained within
that folder will be listed on the
“Results Page”
Here you will be able to add the item
to a new cart.
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To Add a new favourite:
from a product list select the “Add Favourite” next to the relevant
item
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From an existing cart/requisition
Select “Add to favourites” from
the Perform an action drop down
box.
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You will be able to name
your folder
Select “New”
“Top Level Personal
Folder”
Submit
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The new folder will be added to your “Personal Favourites”
IMPORTANT
To ensure that you are getting the best value at all times it is
advisable to update your favourites on a regular basis, especially
for goods which are available from more than one supplier as
prices can fluctuate.
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Useful Contacts
SAP / OPeRA Access : opera.admin@warwick.ac.uk
OPeRA Issues, purchasing@warwick.ac.uk
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