Contractor Sourcing Application (CSA) Training Release 1.2.9 New Supplier Presentation This presentation describes how a supplier would use the Contractor Sourcing Application (CSA). It will explain the features of CSA and also has reference screen shots that shows the complete process of submitting a response back to IBM as well as other features. CSA Release 1.2.9 deployed May 21, 2007.

Agenda CSA Overview CSA major features CSA status CSA e-mails File attachments and Browsers specifications CSA login / URL references CSA demonstration CSA screen shots navigation end to end processing (how to view and respond to a request other key functions how Guest company coordinator (GCC) can request access for additional users These are the topics we will cover in this presentation.

CSA Overview Contractor Sourcing Application (CSA) Used to buy technical, education, and consulting services resources from IBM contracted suppliers based on country configuration Intranet and Internet based applications IBM requesters create request on intranet site and submit to suppliers IBM configured suppliers are notified via email of requests and log into supplier’s interface to review and submit their responses IBM requesters are notified of supplier’s responses and log into intranet site to review and select responses to bridge to Bond for approvals and PO issuance. CSA deployed to 12 countries – US, Canada, Germany, France, India, China, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia This describes what CSA is used for and where it’s deployed as of 5/2007.

CSA Major Features Each supplier will have a Guest Company Coordinator Controls user access within the company Welcome page displays recent requests sent to supplier 3 request types: new request, renewal, referral Supports request for information and request for quote Use of Expertise Taxonomy to define skill requirements Ability to save responses as drafts Rate matrix pricing for skill requested will be displayed Ability to see status of responses Comments history log Requests can be modified by requester and re-sent out to suppliers ( ie – start/end date, quantity, work location, etc ) Requests can be canceled, put on hold, remove from hold Various search and sort functions Navigation views at request level, line item level, supplier response level Email profile setting for supplier users Letter of Assurance acceptance (applicable for US, UK and India only) Custom expenses ( applicable for Hong Kong only) This is a list of the major features which will be covered in the demo and the screen shots section. All features applies to all countries except where noted.

CSA Authorizer Roles Based on each countries business process, certain authorizer may be involved in the authorization process for the selected supplier’s response: Buyer Authorizer / Reviewer HR Reviewer Export Office Authorizer Based on each countries business process, the applicable authorizers will only be involved on an exception basis in the review and/or approval of a supplier’s response. For example, selected responses that are at or below rate matrix will not require authorizations. If the selected response is above matrix, it will be routed to the buyer for authorization before it can be submitted to the requisition application (Bond).

Common CSA status Request level: Skill line item level: Active, Canceled, On hold, Closed Skill line item level: Active, Canceled, On hold, Fulfilled, Response level: Draft, Ready for submission, Submitted/non-finalist, Finalist, Fulfilled, Awaiting authorization, Ready to fulfill, Withdrawn by supplier, Rejected, Review and resubmit, These are the status you will see in CSA and it’s broken down into 3 levels : Request level, line item level, and response level. The highest level is the request, which encompasses all the request information, and line item information and any responses you may be created or submitted. The status reflect the current state of the request. Active means you can submit responses. Canceled means requester no longer needs this and you will get an email informing you it’s canceled and the reason for cancellation. You will no longer be able to submit any responses. On-hold means the request has been placed on hold and you will not be able to submit any responses until it’s changed back to active status. Closed means all the line items on the request are in fulfilled status. The next level down is the line item level and that focuses just on the specific skill that is being requested. A request has a minimum of 1 skill line item. It can also have multiple skill line items. Each line item can request more than 1 quantity as well. The status reflect the current state of the line item. The status of each line item can be different from each other. Active means you can submit responses to this line item. Canceled means requester no longer needs this and you will get an email informing you it’s canceled and the reason for cancellation. You will no longer be able to submit any responses to this line item. On-hold means the line item has been placed on hold and you will not be able to submit any responses until it’s changed back to active status. Fulfilled means the requester has selected the appropriate quantity of responses to fill the line item. (For example, the line item asked for 1 Application consultant and requester has selected 1 response and submitted it to Bond.) The next level down is the response level. This is where you will find your responses for each line item. There are various status related to the responses which helps track the progression of the response. Draft is the initial status and can only be viewable by the supplier. You can edit all applicable data fields or delete the response when it’s in draft status Ready for submission is when all the required fields have been completed and you can proceed to submit to IBM when you are ready. The response is still editable and can also be deleted when it’s in this status. Submitted/non-finalist is the status right after you have submitted the response. It is no longer editable or deletable. You can only withdraw the response when it’s been submitted to IBM. Finalist is a status that is controlled by the IBM requester when they review the responses. It an indicator that the response has been short listed for final consideration. This does not mean they have been selected for the position. In addition, finalists can be moved back to non-finalist status by the requester. Fulfilled status means the IBM requester has selected the finalist and submitted it to Bond for processing and ultimately PO issuance. Awaiting authorization means that the finalist has been selected but requires authorization prior to being submitted to Bond. Ready to fulfill is the status after the finalist has been authorized and the requester can proceed to submit to Bond and the status will change to Fulfilled. Withdrawn by supplier indicates the response was withdrawn by supplier. Rejected indicates that the response has been rejected by either the requester or in some cases, by the authorizer if applicable. Review and resubmit is the status for any active requests that has been modified by the requester and resent out to suppliers. It indicates that the changes made by the requester requires the supplier to review and to resubmit their responses. Any submitted responses will be updated to draft status again to enable suppliers to edit the responses as applicable and submit them again. In addition, supplier can opt to submit new responses and not resubmit any of the drafts.

CSA e-mails Request is submitted to supplier, including modified active requests. Response is selected as a finalist Finalist is selected Request line item is closed Response is rejected by requester or approver Response is changed from finalist to non-finalist Request is canceled Request is put on hold Request is taken off hold These are the various emails that will be generated by CSA and sent to supplier users. Please note that all users granted access to CSA by the Guest company coordinator will receive an email.

CSA browsers and file attachment specifications Supported Browsers on supplier interface 1. MS Internet Explorer version 6.0 2. Home Page Reader 3.04 3. Mozilla 1.5.0.5 4. Netscape Navigator 7.2 5. Opera 7.54 File attachment specifications Max size limit is 800kb and acceptable file types are: Microsoft Word (.doc) Acrobat file (.pdf) Lotus Wordpro file (.lwp) Lotus 123 file (.123) Excel spreadsheet (.xls) Powerpoint presentation (.ppt) Zip archive (.zip) Plain text (.txt and .text) HTML (.htm and .html) RAR (.rar) These are the supported browsers and file attachment types supported by CSA as of May, 2007.

CSA Login CSA splash page url: http://www.ibm.com/procurement/csa Supply Portal ID/Password URL http://www.ibm.com/procurement/esi GCC will use this same url for submitting requests for additional users for CSA, click on “New user app enrollment” under User functions section of My Portal My Function. Call the help desk for assistance if needed CSA will be an option in your list of applications once access is granted These are the 2 ways to access CSA : CSA splash page which will take you directly into the application or via the Supply Portal splash page. Note: Guest company coordinators needs to log into Supply portal to request access for additional users. It can’t be done via the CSA direct login. Announcements on CSA will only be viewable on the CSA splash page. If you access CSA via the Supply portal, you will bypass the CSA splash page.

CSA Help User Guide Help Desk http://www-03.ibm.com/procurement/proweb.nsf/ContentDocsByTitle/United+States~Application+help?OpenDocument&Parent=Application+help Help Desk http://www-03.ibm.com/procurement/proweb.nsf/ContentDocsByTitle/United+States~IBM+Global+Procurement+application+support+center+strategy These are the CSA help websites. The user guide is a high level description of CSA. We encourage you to use the application page help or field level help for more detailed assistance. The help desk link will provide you with the level 1 help desk support phone numbers by country. Education information can be obtained via the level 1 help desk.

CSA Demonstration We will now go to the live demo on our test environment.

CSA screen shots This section will provide you with reference screen shots of the topics covered in the live demo.

CSA splash page login screen URL: www.ibm.com/procurement/csa This is the Contractor Sourcing Application supplier splash page. You should bookmark this url. Click on “sign in to CSA” link. A pop up window will appear for you to enter your supply portal userid and password. Please note: Users needs to be granted access to CSA first before they can successfully log into CSA. Your company’s Guest company coordinator (GCC) needs to submit the request to authorize additional users for access to CSA. We have included the instructions on how the GCC can request additional user access at the end of this presentation.

CSA Welcome screen This is the CSA Welcome page. It’s the first screen you will see after logging into the application. You can come back to this screen by clicking on the Contractor sourcing application navigation link on the top left corner. Contextual page level help is available via the “Need help with this form?” link on top right corner. (see next page for example of page help) You can view requests from 1 month up to previous 18 months by selecting the month in the drop down list and hitting “Go”. Default is 1 month. Click on Request ID link to access information for each request. Table will show all requests that have been submitted to suppliers for responses or any on-hold requests. The table will display up to 20 request sent to you by IBM requesters for the current month. Default view is by request id in descending order. You can sort on any of the blue column labels by clicking the column label and it will sort in ascending order first and if you click again, it will sort in descending order. Request ID is the unique CSA request number. It is system generated. Clicking the link takes you to the request summary screen. Request type identifies if the request is a request for quote (RFQ) or a request for information (RFI). Request status identifies the current status for this request ( Active, Canceled, On-hold) Project Name is the name associated with this request Skill identifies the line item for the request. Clicking this link takes you to the skill line item details, bypassing the request summary screen. Due date is the date that responses needs to be submitted back to IBM. CSA will allow you to continue submission after the due date has passed if the request is still in active status. Request date is the date the request was sent to suppliers Submitted responses shows the number of responses you have submitted to date and the maximum number of responses you are allowed for each line item. 5. At the bottom of the screen you can navigate to multiple screens if applicable. 6. The related links are helpful links for your reference to other IBM sites. Note that the help desk phone number for your country can be found by clicking “Procurement application support center” . Also the CSA user guide can be found by clicking “CSA help”. Users can also link to “Supply Portal” to change passwords or for GCC’s, they can request new user access via this link. 7. We will discuss the navigation on the top left in more detail on the following pages.

Page help The page help will display in a separate pop up window. You will find page help on a majority of the screens in CSA.

View individual skills By selecting “View individual skills” on the top left navigation, you can see all the active skill line items. You can click on request ID or skill name links to get into the appropriate sections of the request. You can sort the columns by clicking on the blue column labels. You can view requests from 1 month up to previous 18 months by selecting the month in the drop down list and hitting “Go”. Default is 1 month. The request status displayed in this view are Active or On-hold.

Inactive skills By selecting “Inactive skills” on the top left navigation, you can see all the skills that are canceled or closed.

View responses By selecting “View responses” on the top left navigation, you can see the active responses created by supplier that are in either draft, ready for submission or submitted/non-finalist status. Additionally, you can click on the reference link which will take you directly into the response created or submitted by the supplier.

Finalist responses By selecting “Finalist” on the top left navigation, you can see all the responses that have a status of finalist, awaiting authorization, or ready to fulfill. Awaiting authorization means the finalist was selected by the requester but needs special authorization (buyer and/or export office) . Ready to fulfill means authorization has been approved and requester needs to continue the submission of the response to Bond for financial approval and PO issuance.

Inactive responses By selecting “Inactive” on the top left navigation, you can see all the supplier’s responses that were either rejected by requester or withdrawn by supplier.

Feedback By selecting “Feedback” on the top left navigation, you can complete a feedback form to IBM on the application and the support provided by the help desk and contextual help within CSA. Please do not use this for real time help with the application. You should call the help desk with any “how do I” type questions.

CSA search By selecting “CSA search” on the top left navigation, you can search for request based on 4 parameters. Click on search tips to assist you with using the search parameters.

View the request When you click on one of the request id link from any of the 3 views ( Contractor sourcing application, View individual skills, or View responses ), you will be taken into the request header details section of the CSA request. If you click on the skill number link, you will be taken to the skill line item details. Also if you roll your mouse over the line number, it will display the name of the skill being requested.

This is the request summary view This is the request summary view. It has 3 sections: Request details, requester details, and the listing of the skill line items. Under Request details the submit type can be New T&M review request (new skill requirement), renewal ( existing skill that we want to extend, implies PO already in place), and in some countries, you will see referral (IBM did the recruiting for the skill and needs a supplier to handle the payroll function). the request type can either be request for quote ( IBM intends to issue a PO for this skill), or request for information (IBM is not going to issue a PO for this skill and is only interested in getting market pricing data) 3. Federal/requirement contract identifies if this request is in support of the federal government or not. The requester details provide you with the contact information of the requester Optionally, if the request has project coordinators identified, they will be listed in a section called “Project coordinator details” and will be below the requester details. If there are no project coordinators for the request, this section will be hidden. You can link into the skill line item details by clicking on the skill requested link. You can reject a skill here or you can add a response. There is a “Help” link next to Responses remaining that is an example of the field level contextual help. (next screen show the help that is displayed if you click “Help”. Each country will define the maximum number of responses you are allowed per quantity of skill requested and this number will be initially displayed here. As you submit responses, this number will be decremented by 1. When it reaches 0, you will no longer be allowed to submit anymore responses. If you withdraw a submitted response, the number will be incremented by 1. Any responses rejected by the IBM requester will not affect this counter. The action buttons at the bottom of this screen is dynamic and will vary based on the status of the responses you have created.

Field level help This is an example of the field level help which is specific to an input field on the screen. When you click “Help” a pop up window is displayed explaining what that specific field means.

If you click on the “Skill requested” link , it will display all the information for the line item. This is the top of part of the skill line item screen and shows the general information about the skill being requested. The skill requested is in compliance with IBM’s Corporate taxonomy for skill descriptions. NOTE: Flowdown terms refers to additional contractual terms that the supplier may need to agree to and the buyer will inform the supplier of these terms in the event the supplier is selected to fulfill the skill requested.

This is a continuation of the prior page and shows the bottom section of the skill line item view. The secondary skills requested section will display the skills required for this position based on Corporate taxonomy. If you click on “Reject skill”, you will get a reject confirmation page. (see next page). To submit a response, click on “Add response”.

Confirm skill rejection You will be required to identify the reason for the rejection and can optionally add any comments back to the IBM requester. You can click on “Confirm rejection” or “Cancel and return to request” Once you reject a skill , you can not reverse your action.

Add a response (1) When you click “Add response” you will be brought to this screen to enter your information. This screen is broken up into 4 screen shots so you can see the data fields. The top section provides some key information about the skill for your reference.

Add response (2) The next section allows you to begin entering your information. All required fields are marked with asterisk. Some fields become required based on the answers you provide. Please ensure you fill out the applicable fields. There will be validation to inform you if you missed a required field.

Add response (3) You must provide a response attachment and optionally can add a second attachment. You have a free form text field for providing comments back to the requester. Please include your contact name/phone number/email information in the comments so that if there are questions, the requester can contact you regarding your response.

Add response (4) Complete the bottom section of the response screen. The secondary skills requested section is mandatory and the response pricing has certain mandatory fields based on the straight time bill rate you enter. The negotiated rate matrix and requesting line of business is displayed for your reference. If you are allowed to submit an above matrix response, certain fields like overtime bill rate and straight time wage may become required fields for some countries. You will need to complete those fields before proceeding. After you have completed this entire screen, you can “Continue” and you will be brought to a summary screen if the response is at or below rate matrix. Selecting “Save and close” will save this as a draft provided all mandatory fields are completed. Selecting “Cancel” will clear your responses. If the response is above rate matrix, you will be brought to the Response pricing review screen to enter a business justification.

Response pricing review screen This screen will only show for responses that have above matrix pricing. Supplier is required to enter business justification for above matrix response. The former “Additional pricing” screen has been eliminated and replaced with this screen.

Summary of response (1) Top section Next section This is the screen you see if you had selected “Continue”

Summary of response (2) Bottom section Here is the bottom section. If you need to edit any of the response section, select “Edit response details”. If you hit “Continue” you will be taken to the request level information. “Save and close” will save this as draft and exit the request.

Request Summary This is the request summary page showing your response for line item 1 has been completed and the status is “Ready for submission”, which means you can proceed to submit the response. If you had only partially completed this response, it would be in draft status and you would not be able to submit it to IBM. You have the option to add another response, submit this current response or delete the response. Note, you can only delete a response if it hasn’t been submitted to IBM yet. Once submitted to IBM , you can’t delete it, but you can withdraw it and resubmit another candidate.

Submitted response By selecting Submit selected, the status for the response is changed automatically to “Submitted/non-finalist” status. Now the action buttons show only 2 choices: Add response or withdraw selected. If you choose to withdraw the response, you will need to provide a reason for the withdrawal. An email will be sent to the IBM requester informing them of your withdrawal and the reason. See next page.

Withdraw response If you select “Withdraw selected”, this is the confirmation page you will get to provide your withdrawal reason and any additional comments. You can “confirm withdraw” or “cancel and return to request”. If you withdraw a submitted response, the counter for responses remaining will be incremented by 1 and you can submit a replacement response. Note, if your response was rejected by the IBM requester, the counter for remaining responses will not be incremented by 1.

Running comments history After you have submitted your response to IBM, if you link back into your submitted response, you will see a new section at the bottom of the screen called “Running comments”. This allows you to communicate with the IBM requester on any questions or clarifications regarding the response you submitted. You can enter comments in the “New comments to IBM” field and click on “Submit comment”. It will be saved into the “Comment history” field below. There will be a log of the date and timestamp and the author of the comment. In addition, any comments from the IBM requester will also be displayed for your view in this section. (see next page)

Running comments history This shows the history of a submitted comment with date/timestamp/author’s name.

Renewal request This is an example of how a renewal request will look like. The submit type will identify the request as a renewal. This is the top section of the renewal request summary.

Renewal request This is the bottom section of the renewal request summary. The information in the skill line item has a link to the skill details, the reference being renewed and the previous PO number if provided by the requester. The response has been created for you and is in draft status. You can click on the response link and proceed to complete the response. You can also reject the skill.

Referral request This is an example of how a referral request will look like. The submit type will identify the request as a referral. This is the top section of the referral request summary. NOTE: This request type is not applicable for all countries.

Referral request This is the bottom section of the referral request summary. The information in the skill line item has a link to the skill details, the reference being referred and their contact information if provided by the requester. The response has been created for you and is in draft status. You can click on the response link and proceed to complete the response. You can also reject the skill.

Resubmit function Allows initiator, requester, or project coordinators to edit a submitted request and resend it to configured suppliers The following request detail fields can be modified: Project Coordinator, response reviewer, request type, Accounting information to be used in Bond, accounting information (but not accounting type) and Attachments. Changes to the attachment or the request type from RFI to RFQ will result in supplier’s responses received to date to be reset back to the supplier and changed to “review and resubmit” status. The following line item fields can be modified: Quantity of skill needed, years of experience, education requirements All fields in “Position details” section can be edited. All fields in the “Estimate of time to be worked” section can be edited. Secondary skills section are editable Supplier list can be modified. The next 2 pages outlines the resubmit function.

Resubmit function The following skill line item fields can not be modified: Primary job category, Secondary job category, Job role, Skill set or Skill level and work location Depending on the changes, responses previously submitted by suppliers will be removed from requester’s view and reset back to supplier in “review and resubmit status. Suppliers will be notified via email to resubmit their responses. Email will contain the changes made on the request. Some changes will not require suppliers to resend responses and requesters will be able to action those responses business as usual Additional information on resubmit function.

Process for GCC to request access for additional users Each supplier has identified a focal point to be the CSA guest company coordinator (GCC) to control user access for their company Only the GCC can submit a request to grant access to another user in their company There are 2 user roles, GCC or regular user Regular user can access all CSA request and respond to all requests just like a GCC but they do not have authority to request access for another user There can be more than 1 GCC for each supplier IBM will maintain records for one GCC for each supplier. If this GCC contact is replaced, please contact the help desk to advise of the replacement GCC so that we can initiate the update. This section explains how the CSA GCC focal point can request access for additional users in their company.

Submit new user request Supplier’s CSA Guest Company Coordinator (GCC) needs to go to IBM Supply Portal at http://www.ibm.com/procurement/esi Sign in by clicking “My Portal : My Functions”

Submit new user request Click on “New User App Enrollment”

Submit new user request Enter the user id of the person you wish to grant CSA access to on the following screen. This userid (in an email format) needs to be registered already by the user on our Supply Portal. Ensure you enter the user id EXACTLY the way the user registered it.

Submit new user request After entering the ID to register, select Contractor Sourcing Application from the drop down list of Applications.

Submit new user request Enter info on the required fields marked by a red asterisk. Please note the data entered in the required fields by the GCC must match EXACTLY the way the user registered it on the Supply Portal. ( First Name, Last Name, email address. Language preference,.) The Desired portal role has 2 options – Regular User or Coordinator. Regular user will have all view and edit capability but can’t grant access to other users. The coordinator role can grant access to other users and will have the “ New User App enrollment” option. All other fields are optional. Click continue when completed with this screen.

Submit new user request Complete the required fields on this screen.

Submit new user request Complete the required fields on the next screen for the Navigation language, User roles, and supplier numbers and click Continue.

Submit new user request Review the information provided and then hit Submit.

Submit new user request You will get a confirming screen with the request number for your new user enrollment form. All requests will be processed between 1-2 business days. If there is any mismatch with the data entered by the GCC and the data entered by the user , the request will be rejected back to the GCC. Otherwise, a confirming email will be sent advising that the new user enrollment has been completed. Please contact the help desk for any assistance on this process.

Supplier user’s e-mail profile preference setting Suppliers will have 3 options to set the email indicator for handling CSA emails. The email indicator can be set to either Yes or No. All supplier users have been defaulted to Yes automatically with R1.2.9 All updates for email setting must be done via IBM Supply portal and not within CSA Option Who can use this option Comments 1. New user app enrollment Guest Company coordinator (GCC) only GCC will use this option to grant CSA access to a new user who has not been set up for any IBM application and CSA is the first application they are being setup for. Note: If the new CSA user already has access for another IBM application ( WOI / ESI, etc), then the GCC needs to use Request app access option to get the user setup for CSA ( see option 3 below). Updating CSA email preference needs to be done through IBM Supply Portal website at www.ibm.com/procurement/esi. It can not be done within CSA. Upon successful log in to IBM Supply Portal, you can use either option 1 , 2 or 3 depending on the user’s current access for CSA. If user does not have any access to CSA, the supplier’s Guest Company Coordinator (GCC) will need to use option 1 to setup the user for CSA access and can indicate the new user’s email preference in the new user app enrollment request form. An email indicator of Yes means the user wants to receive CSA system generated emails. An email indicator of No means the user does not want to receive emails and will be responsible to log into CSA regularly to check on requests submitted to them from IBM requesters.

Supplier user’s e-mail profile preference setting Option Who can use this option Comments 2. Modify app access Any user that has been granted CSA access already (including GCC) GCC can use this option to change email preference for any user in their company besides themselves Non-GCC users can also update their own preference Option 2: Modify app access should be used for any current CSA user who wishes to change their email profile setting to No. This option can be used by either the GCC to update any user within their company or by the individual user themselves. You must log into IBM Supply Portal to make this change.

Supplier user’s e-mail profile preference setting Option Who can use this option Comments 3. Request app access Any user that already has access to an IBM application, (including GCC) GCC should use this option to request CSA access for a user that already has access to other IBM applications Individual users can use this option to request access for themselves for other applications that is available in the drop down list. (If they don’t see a particular application in the drop down list, it means they either have access to the application or they are not authorized to get access and will have to check with their GCC. Option 3: Request app access is used to request CSA access for a user that currently has access to other IBM applications. When they complete the request app access form, they can indicate their email preference for CSA. If they do not see CSA in their list of applications, they should contact their GCC. This option can be used by either the GCC or by the individual user themselves. You must log into IBM Supply Portal to make this change.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. When you log into Supply portal, click on “Modify App Access” option.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. Enter the user id you wish to modify email setting for.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. Select Contractor Sourcing Application from the drop down list.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. At the bottom is the Email flag option. It’s defaulted to Yes and you would select No from the drop down list and then click continue.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. Email flag set to No, click continue.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. Please record the request number in the event you need to reference it later.

Modify app access screen shots Please note this is screen shot from our test system and does not reflect a real supplier information. Review the changes and click Submit.

Letter of Assurance (LOA) Acceptance of Letter of Assurance (LOA) CSA will require you to accept the LOA prior to submitting the response if the citizenship of the candidate is different than the country of the request. Assist to streamline the cycle time for export approval if candidate is selected by IBM requester This change only applies to India, UK, US generated CSA requests. Letter of Assurance (LOA) is a new function with Release 1.2.9.

Letter of Assurance (LOA) acceptance screen To assist in streamlining the Deemed Export approval process, the supplier will need to accept the current version of the Letter of Assurance/Acceptance for any candidate whose citizenship is different than the country of the request. The response cannot be submitted by the supplier until this is accepted. This screen will be presented to the supplier after the completion of the skill response screen for less than or at matrix responses. It will be presented after the additional pricing justification screen for an above matrix response.

Letter of Assurance (LOA) acceptance confirmation Upon acceptance of the LOA, CSA records and display the following information on the skill response screen: Approver - the supplier’s contact name who accepted the LOA Approver’s email address Approval timestamp – date / timestamp of the acceptance Version – current version number of the accepted LOA Document link to the LOA (see next page for the screen shot of the pop up window)

Letter of Assurance (LOA) pop up screen This is the pop up window for the Letter of Acceptance link on the skill response page.