Post-Close Communication - Contacting Suppliers after a Request has Closed

If Post-Close Communication has been activated for your enterprise, you will be able to send messages to Suppliers who responded to your Request after it has closed and they can respond back via their accounts. Both you and the Suppliers can also add attachments to your messages.

When viewing unlocked responses, you can either send a message to an individual Supplier or send a bulk message to multiple, or all, Suppliers (which they can then respond to privately).

Bulk Messages

If you need to send the same message to all responders then you can send a bulk message to all at once. Suppliers will have no visibility of the other suppliers to who the message has been sent. Their responses back to you will also be kept private.

1. To message multiple Suppliers who responded, click the + Message to suppliers button above the responses.
   
   
   
   
2. Add a subject line and your message into the fields provided and click Next to select the Suppliers you would like to send your message to.
   
   
3. Click the  icon next to an individual Supplier to add that Supplier to the message, or click the  icon to add all Suppliers. Selecting a Supplier moves them from the Not Invited side to the Invited side.
   
   
   
   
4. You can add attachments by clicking the Add button below the Attachments section at the bottom.
   
   
   
   
5. Click either Post now to send the message (this button appears once Suppliers are added) or Save as draft to come back to it later. To delete the message, click the Delete button to the right.

    

   Messaging Individual Suppliers

   1. You can also start a conversation with an individual Supplier by clicking the + message button next to their response.
      
      
      
      
   2. Add a subject line and your message into the fields provided and click Next.
      
      
   3. You can add attachments by clicking the Add button below the Attachments section at the bottom.
   4. Click either Post now to send the message (this button appears once Suppliers are added) or Save as draft to come back to it later. To delete the message, click the Delete button to the right.
   5. Once you have sent a message to a Supplier, you will be able to view this by clicking the ‘x’ Topics button.
      
      
      
      
   6. When viewing these topics, first click on the name of the topic to bring up the list of recipients and then click the View button to the right of the relevant message conversation to read it and send any replies or follow-ups.
      
      

      Reading Supplier Replies

      When a Supplier responds to your message, you will receive an email notification and also see an Unread notification link below the Messaging heading on your dashboard.

      1. Click the Unread notification link to view your new messages.
         
         
         
         
      2. Here, you will see a list of the Requests/Tenders you have unread messages against.
         
         
      3. Click the green people icon next to the Request/Tender you want to view messages for.
         
         
         
         
      4. Now, click the ‘x’ Topic(s) button at the top to view all messages and replies to Suppliers or to the right of the relevant response to view just messages to and from that supplier.
         
         
         
         
      5. Click the subject name of the message you want to read and then click View to see their message.
         
         
      6. To view and download any attachments to their reply, click the ‘x’ files button to the right of their message. Next, click the name of the file you want to download.
         
         
      7. You can send a reply to the Supplier by clicking the Add Reply button that appears above the messages.
         
         

   Only Sending a Document to a Supplier

   While you can attach documents to messages you send to suppliers, there is an alternative method if you only want to attach a document against a supplier's response and make it accessible to the supplier.

   1. When you are viewing the responses, there is an Add documents button just to the left of the 'select/decline' links.
      
      
      
      
   2. You can select the Click to select... button and attach any document from your computer you like to the response.
      
      
      
      
   3. Once uploaded, you can check the box under the Supplier can access heading to make the document accessible to the supplier. They will be sent an email advising them of this document and they can login & download the document against their response.