Tendering Guide
- Overview
- Accessing the Tender Dashboard
- How to create a new Tender
- Navigating and actions on the Tender Dashboard ( Customer )
- Navigating and actions on the Tender Dashboard ( Provider )
- Last Step
Overview
This document is meant to guide users in the various actions that they need to take to create and manage the Tendering process.
Tenders are a sort of Auction, initiated buy a Customer.
A customer in need of a specific service or product, can send a request to one or multiple providers.
The providers will be then choose to participate or not in the process and then provide their proposal.
The customer will then be able to choose one of the proposal presented by the providers.
Lifecycle of a Tender
A customer can initiate a Tender by formalising the offer and inviting providers to the tenders.
During the drafting process, the Tender object is represented by a Quote of category "Coordinator" and in status draft, in this status, the tender is only visible to the customer.
During the draft, the customer can set the dates of start and end of the tendering, invite providers to the tender and remove providers already invited. The pdf with the request of the customer also need to be uploaded in this stage.
Once the customer is satisfied the Tender can be moved in the Pre-Launched state, in this stage, the providers gets notified of the invitation they received .
During the Pre-Launch period, the customer is able to navigate to the tender dashboard and see all his Tenders.
Tenders in draft can be edited, those that are already moved on from the draft state, can be expanded and a list of the quotes associated to the tenders will be presented, one for each invited providers, with its relative actions and state.
The providers during this period, can access the dashboard on the provider side, and see only one quote if they have been invited and at this point they can only decide to partecipate in the tender or decline the invitation.
Accepting the invitation will move the quote into status "inProgress".
The Tender then moves into status Launched.
At this point it's not possible for providers to join the process if they haven't already accepted.
Providers during this time, can submit their proposal by uploading a PDF on the quote that they see on their dashboard.
The customer is able to monitor who has uploaded a proposal from his side of the dashboard.
At this point is up to the customer to Reject the proposal that aren't acceptable and Accept the one that it's preffered.
Also, once a quote get accepted, all the other become automatically rejected.
The tender moves then into Closed state.
Once a tender is closed, or a customer accept a proposal, no further action can be taken by other providers.
This completes the Tender process
For further details on the quote, it is available the full guide here Quote Guide.
Chat
Once a tender is no more in status Draft, the chat funcionality is available.
Customer and provider can chat with each other 1 on 1 via their shared Quote; otherwise the Customer can broadcast a message to all the provider in a Tender.
Accessing the Tender Dashboard
The Tender dashboard is easily accessible at any moment by clicking your profile icon on the top right of the page and clicking on the "Tenders" menu voice
How to create a new Tender
On the top right of the Dashboard, you can find the button "Create Tender"
This will open a window with the first step for the creation of the Tender
To proceed in the creation, enter a title and description, click save and that will move you to the next step.
In the next step set up the start date, the end date and upload the PDF file with the request.
Click "Set" after filling every input.
After everything is set, the button Next will be available and is going to be the screen to select providers
In the first rows you can see a summary of the previous steps.
In this window you can invite providers after searching them using various criteria.
Once you invite a provider, they appear in the list of invited providers above.
Clicking the red X will remove them from the list.
After you are satisfied with the selection, you can first Save the Provider list, then you can move the tender in Pre-Launch clicking Submit tender, this action is final.
After the tender is created, you can find it in your dashboard
Navigating and actions on the Tender Dashboard ( Customer )
The first thing we might see in the Dashboard are Tenders that are still in status Draft.
Clicking the Eye icon, will show the title you inserted.
Clicking the Edit button, will open the window to finish creating the tender.
A tender that is no longer in Draft, can be expanded.
Clicking the expand arrow next to the Eye icon will show the related quotes, one for each provider
Once this phase is over, the tender moves into status Launched
In status Launched, the providers can upload a proposal in PDF form.
The customer can download the file that the Provider uploaded, accept or reject the proposal.
Accepting a proposal will move into status Rejected all the other quotes
For More information on the single quotes functionalities, you can check the guide here Customer Dashboard Quote Guide
Navigating and actions on the Tender Dashboard ( Provider )
WARNING: Outdated Layout in the image
On the provider side, only singular quotes are showed.
The title of the quote is the Title of the Tender.
From inside the details window and download attachment, the provider can download and see the PDF request that the customer has uploaded on the tender.
When a Quote is in pending and the Tender status is still in Pre-Launched, the provider can decide to accept the invitation or decline it, using the Green Checkmark or the Red Cross.
This will move the quote to either status inProgress or Cancelled.
Once the quote is in progress and the Tender status is in Launched, the provider can then upload a PDF proposal to the quote for the evaluation from the customer.
From this moment on, the provider can only wait on the action of the custoemer to further the process.
For more specific informations on the quote system management, you can refer to the guide here Provider Guide Quote Management
Last Step
If an agreement is reached, and the customer accept the proposal of the Provider, the scope of the Quote Management is over.
To proceed further and let the customer actually buy the Tailored product, the Provider must create a new copy of its product offering, with the details agreed with the customer and let the customer put the Tailored Item in the cart and buy it.
If needed the chat functionality is left available on a quote that is Finalized and Accepted, so that further coordination between the parties can be had.
For example a last step from the provider, is provide the link to the newly created Tailored Product in the chat to the customer, sto that it can be easiliy found and finally purchased.