Create a Bid Request

If the community has the Sourcing module enabled, users with the Bid Requests role can create a Bid Request.

 

Access Bid Requests Screen

To access the Bid Requests screen, select the Administration module > click Sourcing.

 

The Bid Requests screen will populate.

 

Create A Bid Request

To create a bid request, select Create Bid Request.

 

The Create Bid Request screen will populate, with the following tabs: Summary, Sections, Suppliers, Attachments, Email and Publish.

 

Summary Tab

To complete the summary tab, insert desired information in the mandatory fields marked with a red asterisk. 

For detailed information and behavior regarding each field, see the list below.

 

Name: The name of the Bid Request. This is displayed to the supplier and on all bid listings.

Description: A short description about the bid request. This is displayed to the supplier and on all bid listings, providing a short explanation of the request.

Type: There are three types of Bid Requests.

• A Request For Quote (RFQ) is used to invite suppliers to bid on specific products or services, specified using Items on the Section tab. The quoted items can be added to a cart and checked out once an RFQ is awarded.
• Request For Proposal (RFP) and Request For Information (RFI) are used to invite suppliers to respond to your requirements for a commodity or service or submit responses to questions for evaluations. You may specify Award section on the Sections tab, to award the bid for item purchase with the awarded supplier.

Bid Behavior: This determines the type of Bid Request that is issued to suppliers. There are 3 possible types.

• Standard: Responses submitted by suppliers can be viewed immediately.
• Sealed: Responses submitted by suppliers are sealed until the Response Date.
• Reverse Auction: Suppliers can view competitor bid price (anonymous).

Evaluation Scale: The scale on which your evaluation rating will follow (e.q. 0-3, 1-10, 1-100). The default setting is (0-3). These are configured by a Community Administrator.

Allow Online Registration: If enabled, a public URL for the Bid Request is created to be published on a bid listing site for potentially any supplier to respond and bid.

Require Company and Tax Profile: If enabled, the supplier must complete their Company Profile (company information) and Tax Profile (W9, W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E - US ONLY) before the supplies can respond to the Bid Request.

Award Type (for RFQs only): This allows the user to select a Bid Award Type. The Award Types are as follows:

• Quote: The bid is awarded based on all components of a quote. The entire quote is only awarded to one supplier.
• Section: The bid is awarded by section, allowing the bid to be awarded to a different supplier for each section.
• Line: The bid is awarded by each line, allowing the bid to source from several suppliers for each individual product or service.

General Category: The UNSPSC category of the Bid Request for future reporting purposes.

Requester: If the Bid Request was requested by a user other than the primary contact.

Contact Details: The contact details of the Bid Request initiator. This should be the user all supplier correspondence directly with regarding the bid.

 

Once completed, select Continue.

 

Sections Tab

The Sections tab is where items and questions are entered for suppliers to respond to. This can be completed manually or via CSV file upload.

Manually Add Sections

Dependent upon the Bid Request Type selected, all options below may not be visible.

Manually Add an Item Section

To add an item section, select +Add Item Section > a pop-up box will appear > insert information in the mandatory field marked with a red asterisk. 

• Name: The desired name of the item section.
• Allow Substitute: If enabled, suppliers may quote substitute items for requirements in this Item Section.
• Base required: If enabled, suppliers must provide a quote for the base items specified.

Once completed, select Add. To add additional item sections, click Add More.

 

Manually Add Question Section

Question Section templates are created for the community, by a user with the Community Administrator role.

To manually add a question section, select +Add Question Section > a pop-up box will appear > enter mandatory information in the required field marked with a red asterisk.

• Name: The name of the section (e.g. Warranty and Service Level).
• Score: If enabled, the settings determines if the section will be scored as part of the scorecard evaluation.
• Weight: If Score is enabled, the percentage entered will place desired weight on the section.
• Manually Weight Questions: If enabled, the setting allows individual questions to be weighted rather than weighted evenly across the section.
• Internal: If enabled, the internal sections are for user evaluation only. If check, this will not be sent to the supplier.
• Mandatory: If enabled, it will require the supplier to answer the section as part of their response.
• Evaluator: Defines the users who will evaluate and score the sections responses.

Once completed, select Add. To add additional item sections, click Add More.

 

Manually Add Award Section

When creating a RFI or RFP, there are no priced items for the evaluators to choose when awarding a winner. Award Sections are used for the awarding the supplier, once agreed by the community.  

To manually add award section, select +Add Award Section > a pop-up box will appear > in the Name field, insert the desired name > click Add. To add additional award sections, select Add More. 

Note: If an Award Section is not included when creating a RFP or RFI, the option to Select and Award the elected supplier.

 

Manually Add Standard Question Section

To manually add a standard question section, select +Add Standard Question Section > a pop-up box will appear > in the Questions field, select the dropdown > choose the desired section listed. 

The sections provided in the list, were added by a Community Administrator. 

 

A pop-up box will appear, to enable to desired options. For additional information about each field, hover over the encircled question mark. Once completed, select OK.

 

Upload Item Section

Item Section is an option for RFQ Bid Requests only.

To upload the item section, select Upload Item Sections > a pop-up box will appear > select Download Template, to insert the mandatory information.

Open the Excel file for editing. For additional requirement details, refer to help article Uploading Sections To A Bid Request.

For unit of measure information, select the Unit of Measure List link at the bottom of this help article.

 

Insert all required information in the template > save as a CSV file > click Browse > select OK.

 

Upload Question Section

To upload the question section, select Upload Question Sections > a pop-up box will appear > select Download Template, to insert the mandatory information.

For additional requirement details, refer to help article Uploading Sections To A Bid Request.

 

Insert all required information in the template > save as a CSV file > click Browse > select OK. 

 

Once the desired Item Section, Question Section and/or Standard Question is created manually or via upload, users must manually add requirements for each section.

 

Add Requirement for Item Section

In the Item Section, select the encircled "i" > the section will expand > click +Add Requirement > a pop-up box will appear > insert the required information in the field marked with a red asterisk. To detailed field information, refer to the information below.

Once completed, select Add. To add additional item section requirements, select Add More.

 

Add Requirement for Question Section or Standard Question Section

In the Question Section or Standard Question Section, select the encircled "i" > the section will expand > click +Add Requirement > a pop-up box will appear > insert the required information in the field marked with a red asterisk. To detailed field information, refer to the information below.

• Requirement: Free-form type the desired requirement
• Description (optional): This will display additional information around the question.
• Attachment: Select the desired available option if attachments are Disallowed, Mandatory or Optional for suppliers to provide.
• Comments: Select the desired available option, if comments are Disallowed, Mandatory or Optional for suppliers to provide.
• Question Type:

1. Picklist: Suppliers are given options to choose from a list.
2. Yes/No: Suppliers must choose Yes or No in their response.
3. Text: Suppliers are asked to fill out a field using standard text.

Once completed, select Add. To additional question sections requirement, select Add More.

To move to the Suppliers tab, click Continue.

 

Suppliers Tab

The user can add the desired supplier(s) by selecting +Add [Community's Name] Supplier, +Add Directory Supplier and/or +Add Non-Unimarket Supplier.

Suppliers can be added or removed after the bid request has been published, using the Edit function.

Once added, select Continue. 

 

Attachments Tab

Attachments will be visible to the suppliers upon accepting the bid.

The attachment feature is useful if the community desires to provide detailed requirements, for the specific bid or any documents that requires a supplier signature.

The convenience of the attachment tool allows users to provide any important documents, without distributing to participating suppliers individually. 

To attach documents, select Browse > add the desired documents > select Continue.

Email Tab

Users can send a customized email, all elected suppliers will receive once the bid request is published. A number of tokens are available to customize the email sent to suppliers.

The use of tokens eliminates the need to draft a different email for individual suppliers.

A generic email is pre-populated in field, as a suggestion. However, users can edit the message in the text box.

Users can preview the message, by selecting Preview. To review extended formatting and editing tools, view the Markup Help guide, by clicking Help. The Revert option, restores the message back to the original version. 

Note: Please do not remove the @ symbols and/or alter the capital font between the @ symbols.

Once completed, select Continue.

 

Team Tab

If the Community has Bid Request Collaboration enabled (by a Unimarket Customer Success Manager), users with the Bid Request or Bid Request Collaboration role can invite:

• Any user within their organization or
• Any other users within the extended Unimarket community, to collaborate on the bid request.

Add Other Users Within the Extended Unimarket Community

To add other users, select Add Other Users to Collaborate on this Bid Request > select Add a new user > a pop-up box will appear to select the desired user, in the User field.

If the community has Allow Ad-hoc Permissions enabled in Sourcing Modules (on the Security Profile tab), a list of permissions will appear. In the Permissions field, select the desired permissions to grant user.

The Read permission is enabled by default. For a descriptive listing of permission, hover over the question mark icon.

Once completed, select Save.

 

Edit Evaluators

Evaluators are community users who will evaluate and score the criterion bid responses, from suppliers who participate in the bid request.

To add or remove evaluators, select Edit Evaluators > a pop-up box will appear > in the Evaluator field, enter or remove the desired community user > select OK.

Note: For additional information on configuring the community features for Sourcing, refer to help article Sourcing Administration Module. Community Administrators can also pre-configure roles with pre-set permissions.

 

Publish Tab

When a bid is ready for publishing, users can customize the subject matter dates/times.

• Issue Date (From): By default, Now is enabled. To sent the bid request to suppliers after selecting Finish. If the user desires to postpone the date/time, uncheck the Now box > enter the desired date/time
• Response Date (To): The date/time suppliers must respond with their bid (quotes).
• Reminder Date: The date/time supplier will receive an automatic reminder if a response is not received by the date/time entered in field.
• Questions Due Date (optional): The final date suppliers can submit bid questions.
• Expected Award Date: The date the bid request results will be published.

Once completed, select Finish or Save for future submission. The saved bid request will be in an Incomplete state and listed on the Bid Requests view screen.

Note: If the bid request is edited, the user will be prompted to add a description of the changes being made. They can also choose to notify the workgroup of the changes being made.

 

Edit Options/Cancel Bid Request

Users can edit a bid request after submitting, by going to the Sourcing module > on the Bid Requests view screen, select desired bid name.

 

The desired bid request view screen will appear > click More Actions.

 

• Edit: Once selected, the user will be routed to the Summary tab (the first tab of the bid).
• Edit Section: Once selected, the user will be routed to the Section portion of the bid.
• Edit Team: A pop-up box will appear to add new users and/or Edit Evaluators (for additional information, refer to instructions above). Users can edit at any time, including after a bid closes.
• Cancel Bid Request: If selected, the bid request will be canceled.