Evaluating Responses & Finalizing Requests

  • Finalizing Your Request or Tender

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    Finalizing a Request or Tender will lock in your response selections and you will no longer be able to edit the Request or your decision. You can finalize a Request or Tender once you have selected or declined all responses (and had these selections approved if required).

    An email will be sent to each supplier you evaluated (except for those you specifically exclude from receiving an email) advising them of your decision on their submission(s). Any feedback you may have included for them will be added to this email. In all instances, your decision and feedback on their submission will be visible from within their account.

    Finalizing Your Request

    1. To view the responses you received on your Request you will need to click on the green people icon against the Request.



    2. You will need to have either selected or declined each Supplier response.

    3. To finalize the request, click the Go to Finalize button at the top of the Responses page.

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    4. To finalize, click the Finalize this request button at the bottom of the page.

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    5. Suppliers will then be advised of your decision by an account notification and an email (unless you have deselected the email notification option at the response selection step).

    Issue Docs

    1. Once the request has been finalized, the Buyer will have the ability to send a document, such as a Purchase Order, to the supplier using the Issue Docs button against the successful supplier.



    2. You can select the Click to select... button and attach any document from your computer you like to the response.

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    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.

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

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    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.

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    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.

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    3. Click the mceclip0.png icon next to an individual Supplier to add that Supplier to the message, or click the mceclip1.png 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.

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    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.

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        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.

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        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.

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        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.

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      2. You can select the Click to select... button and attach any document from your computer you like to the response.

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      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.

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  • Extending Your Expected Decision Date

    The 'expected decision date' for a Request or Tender tells Suppliers when to expect an outcome for the responses they have submitted.

    We recommend keeping the expected decision date as accurate as possible, for the benefit of Suppliers.

    1. To extend an expected decision date, click the 'blue arrow' icon to the right of the Request and select the 'Extend decision date' option within the pop-up box.

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    2. Select the length of time you want to extend the decision date by, and click the 'Save and Continue' button to apply the changes.

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    Note:

    • The expected decision date can be extended a maximum of three times.
    • Suppliers will be notified of an extension to the expected decision date.
  • Viewing the Responses to your Request

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    You will be able to view the Supplier Responses to your Request or Tender after it has closed. 

    When the Request is closed, you will need to access the responses to view them. Once these responses are unlocked, you will no longer be able to edit or re-open that Request.

    If the Tender needs to be re-opened for further Supplier submissions after the close time, you must do this before you access the responses. You can find steps on how to reopen a request here:

    Extending Your Expected Decision Date, or here: How to Accept a Late Submission.

    Viewing who has Responded

    While the Request is still open you cannot view the details of the responses but you can view which suppliers have responded. To do this, click the green people icon to the right of the Request.

    Here, you will see the Suppliers who have submitted a response - the response itself is greyed out.

     

    Here, you will see the business names of the Suppliers who have submitted a response. The response itself is inaccessible until the Request closes and you choose to unlock the Responses.

    Unlocking the Supplier Responses

    After the Request has closed, you can click to view the responses via the green people icon. You can click the Access Responses button to view the details of the Supplier submissions.

    Important: you cannot:

    • Re-open your Request once Responses have been accessed.
    • Lock your responses after they have been accessed.

    Viewing and Downloading the Responses

    Once you have unlocked the responses you can view the details, download any attachments and download an entire response or a full Request 'package' (this includes Supplier responses).

    You can do this by clicking one of the relevant icons highlighted below:

    • Phone - Click to view the Supplier’s contact details
    • Magnifying glass icon - View the Supplier’s response
    • Documents icon - View/download individual documents attached to their response
    • Download icon (below response) - Download the entire response and all attachments
    • Download icon (top right) - Download the response package (includes all responses)

     

  • How to Accept a Late Submission

    Using the late response link

    If enabled for your organization, you will have access to a late response link that can be used by Suppliers to submit their response, after the Request has closed.

    To use the late response link, the current Supplier responses must remain locked.

    1. To access the link, click the 'blue arrow' icon to the right of your Request and select the Get 'late response' token link within the pop-up box.

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    2. Copy the link and send this to the Supplier(s) who need to submit a late response.

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    Notes:

    • Once a Supplier clicks the late response link, they will have four hours to submit their response.
    • If you make changes to the closing date, unlock the current responses, or finalize the Request, the late response link will be made invalid. As a result, the link cannot be used by Suppliers.