<p>Copyright TM Forum 2005<br/></p><p><br/></p><p><b>Extended Description</b><br/></p><p><br/></p><p>Supply Chain Capability Delivery processes manage the evaluation of new supplier/partners, to determine those with the products that best meet the enterprise's needs. These processes also initiate and complete business agreements with the supply chain, to allow the delivery of business and technical capabilities required by the enterprise. For example, through these processes, the enterprise might contract with a supplier of a Third-generation Mobile Network and put in place links between the IT Systems of the Supplier and the enterprise, ready to allow specific processes and products to be developed. Another example might be contracts for the supply of personal computers or office supplies for the enterprise. Supply Chain Capability Delivery processes manage the sourcing of infrastructure components, consumables, etc required to support the capability requirements of the enterprise, evaluate and select new supplier/partners, and establish commercial arrangements with selected suppliers/partners. The processes manage the specific evaluation of new supplier/partners to determine those with the best capabilities to meet the enterprise's specific needs (for infrastructure, consumables, etc), and establish commercial arrangements with selected suppliers/partners. These processes manage the activities associated with developing tender documents, running tender processes, gaining enterprise agreement to tender decisions, and negotiating commercial arrangements as a result of the tender decisions.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>On completion of the contract arrangements, these processes can manage supply of the contracted products and services (infrastructure, consumables, etc) or can ensure that other processes are able to make requisitions against the contract (e.g. during Fulfillment), according to the appropriate policy and practices of the enterprise. Managing supply includes tracking of the productss and services to be supplied, interaction with the Supplier/partner over any delays or problems, and acceptance on completion of the supply.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>These processes are also responsible for the establishment of commercial agreements between the enterprise and external parties/providers on B2B frameworks and interactions.<br/></p><p><br/></p><p>The tender process for the sourcing activity can be used not only for managing the sourcing of infrastructure of various types, but is also applicable for use in outsourcing tender processes, and for the sourcing of commodity items used within a business. The actual depth to which the sourcing process is used is dependent on such factors as the value of the sourced items. Note that these processes can also be used for the negotiated agreements between the enterprise and its competitors as a part of regulated inter-carrier agreements. While tender processes are not used in such a case, the processes for determining appropriate commercial arrangements and for gaining enterprise agreement are used for these regulated and competitive activities.<br/></p>