Managing Requests on SourceDogg · On occasion, suppliers can forget to add important documents or submit their response by mistake. You are then able to reset the response back to

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Managing Request User Guide

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October 2017 Copyright SourceDogg

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Contents

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Managing Requests on SourceDogg

Date: 12th October 2017

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Contents

Published Request................................................................................................................................... 4

Private Q&A ........................................................................................................................................ 4

Post to All, Some or One Supplier ................................................................................................... 5

Include Attachments ....................................................................................................................... 5

Save as Draft ................................................................................................................................... 7

Supplier Posts .................................................................................................................................. 8

Public Q&A .......................................................................................................................................... 9

Posting messages as a buyer ........................................................................................................... 9

Posting messages as a supplier ..................................................................................................... 10

Extend the Deadline .......................................................................................................................... 12

Reset Response to Draft ................................................................................................................... 13

Reset Request to Draft ...................................................................................................................... 14

Add an Additional File ....................................................................................................................... 15

Editing Suppliers ............................................................................................................................... 16

Add a new Supplier ....................................................................................................................... 16

Remove a Supplier ........................................................................................................................ 16

Resend Invite ................................................................................................................................. 17

Check Progression ......................................................................................................................... 18

Change Contact ............................................................................................................................. 19

Cancel & Delete a Request ................................................................................................................ 20

Request Under Consideration ............................................................................................................... 22

Q&A Under Consideration ................................................................................................................ 22

Reopen the Request (Extend Deadline) ............................................................................................ 22

Review Responses ............................................................................................................................. 22

Review Response .......................................................................................................................... 23

Verify Certificates .......................................................................................................................... 24

Export Responses .............................................................................................................................. 25

Export Individual Response ........................................................................................................... 25

General Export .............................................................................................................................. 26

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Price Comparisons ............................................................................................................................ 29

Total Price ..................................................................................................................................... 30

Items & Prices ............................................................................................................................... 30

Lowest Bid Analysis ....................................................................................................................... 31

Decision ............................................................................................................................................. 32

Award Supplier .............................................................................................................................. 34

Award of Line Items ...................................................................................................................... 35

Decline Supplier ............................................................................................................................ 37

Create Purchase Order .................................................................................................................. 37

View Purchase Orders ................................................................................................................... 39

Create Catalogue ........................................................................................................................... 39

View Contracts .............................................................................................................................. 40

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Published Request

Private Q&A

The Q&A (Question & Answer) option is selected in either the Request Settings or when Creating the

Request. For the definition see below:

Supplier Q&A: Select supplier Q&A to allow participating suppliers to post questions

regarding the request. All supplier questions and buyer answers are private. This

setting also allows for announcements of any changes or clarifications to all

participating suppliers. See Q&A for more information.

When a request is published, the Q&A becomes active.

Here the user or buyer can communicate with the suppliers, either individually or in groups.

Likewise, the supplier can contact the buyer in this way.

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Post to All, Some or One Supplier

The buyer can choose who to message directly by selecting from the different groups or individual

suppliers.

Once the suppliers have been chosen then write the content of the message.

Include Attachments

The attach file button allows the User to attach any files to the post. Files can either be taken from

the document manager or can be taken from ‘My Computer’

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Save as Draft

Any post can be saved as a draft before it is published. Select the blue ‘Save’ to do this.

Once happy to post, click the ‘Post’ button.

Once posted, the post is Time & User Stamped.

Any time there is a post in the Q&A the recipient, whether buyer or supplier, will receive an email

notification. At the early stages of a request, users will receive a daily notification, with the

frequency increasing as the deadline approaches.

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Supplier Posts

Suppliers can respond to a buyer’s post or post their own question. Suppliers’ posts are always

private, i.e. only the buyer has visibility of the post. The buyer can then choose to respond in private

or make a public response. See below this interaction.

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Public Q&A

The Public Q&A message board is activated via the Request Details page. Turning on this feature will

result in all supplier and buyer messages being visible to all other users. Supplier company name,

logo and the contact name will be anonymized. The Buyer will no longer be able to post message to

individual suppliers, any message posted will be visible to all users.

It is possible to change the type of the Q&A while the RFx is being run, if that occurs, the following

message will be displayed to buyer.

Posting messages as a buyer

When the buyer posts message on the Public Q&A message board, they are not able to select the

supplier, as this by default will be “All Suppliers”. Buyers will receive a warning message before

posting.

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The following message is displayed after clicking the “Post” button.

When the message is posted, the public status is indicated by the icon on the right-hand side of the

message post.

Posting messages as a supplier

Suppliers are also reminded that the Q&A message board is Public. A warning message is displayed

on the page at all times

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Suppliers receive further warnings before posting.

If a supplier posts a message, this is then visible to all other suppliers, however the details are

anonymized. The below screenshot is the example of this:

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Extend the Deadline

On occasion the user may wish to extend the deadline of the request, perhaps based on feedback in

the Q&A or for other reasons. This can be done very easily. By clicking the request details, select

response deadline and choose a new date.

Once you have selected the new date, the save details button needs to be clicked. When it is dark

blue changes have been made: Once clicked, it will change to a pale blue:

All suppliers will be notified by email of the date change and new deadline.

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Reset Response to Draft

On occasion, suppliers can forget to add important documents or submit their response by mistake.

You are then able to reset the response back to draft. This is done in the Responses Tab. Find the

supplier whose response you want to reset and select the “Reset to Draft” option as in the picture

below. Please note you can only reset the responses if the request is currently in the “Published”

status. If your request is already “Under Consideration”, you will need to extend the deadline first.

In the next step, you are able to send a message from SourceDogg application that would notify the

supplier their response was reset. This is optional and you can you fully customise the message sent

to supplier. Resetting the response to draft will keep all the supplier’s answers as submitted so they

will be able to add missing documents or change details and re-submit the response immediately.

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Reset Request to Draft

In case you make a mistake in your request and publish it online, you are able to reset the request

back to draft status and change the content of your request. Please note this option is only possible

when there are no responses from your suppliers. If any supplier has responded, you will need to

reset their response back to draft before you can reset the request. If you need to make major

changes to a request, you should consider cancelling the request and publishing a new one at a later

date. When you are resetting the request to draft, there is no notification for suppliers so you should

consider announcing this through Q&A message system.

To reset the request to draft, click on the link below the Request status box.

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A dialog box will appear where you need to confirm this action. After Reset to Draft is selected, the

request will be in the draft stage and you will then be able to make any changes to the content of

the request as required.

Add an Additional File

If you need to add an extra document after the request has been published, the user can add it

through the Q&A Feature.

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Editing Suppliers

In the Suppliers section, we have seen how suppliers can be added to a request. Once a request is

published, suppliers can still be added as before and likewise a contact can be changed or the invite

resent. SourceDogg also allows for visibility into the Suppliers’ progression through a response.

Add a new Supplier

To add a new supplier see Add a Supplier via email and by Directory.

Remove a Supplier

Removing a supplier from a response may be necessary if a contact is incorrect or the supplier has

requested this. In the ‘Suppliers’ tab in the request, select the cog on the right and select the

‘Remove’ option.

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Once a supplier has been removed, and if the ‘Comment’ box has been completed, then the supplier

will receive that personalised message as to why they have been removed, otherwise they will

receive an email notifying them of their removal.

Resend Invite

To resend an invite, open up the cog beside the supplier you wish to re-invite. Then select resend

invite and they will receive the email invite again.

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Check Progression

SourceDogg allows for a buyer to have visibility into the progress of the suppliers invited to the

request.

Below are the steps of a supplier’s progression through a request as visible by the buyer.

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Change Contact

To change the supplier point of contact for a request, select the cog on the right of the chosen

supplier, and select ‘Change Contact’.

Any contact registered for this supplier will show in the pop out window. Select the contact you wish

to resend the invitation to. Alternatively, if the contact's email is not registered, that email can be

entered here and the contact will receive an invitation to the Request.

Select ‘Change’ to complete the process.

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Cancel & Delete a Request

If the buyer wishes to cancel the request, this can be done by selecting ‘Cancel’ underneath the

request status on the right of the screen.

Selecting ‘Cancel’ will open up a ‘Text Box’ which allows the user to give the suppliers a reason for

the cancellation. Once ‘Yes’ is clicked, the users and suppliers will then receive email notification of

this.

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The Request remains in the Request History unless it is deleted.

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Once deleted will still show in requests report for audit purposes.

Request Under Consideration

Once the deadline has expired, the request is now under consideration. This stage of the request

allows the buying organisation to now evaluate the supplier responses. Features such as Q&A

remain open and the request can also be re-opened. SourceDogg facilitates in aiding the response

evaluation through detailed reports and features which will be discussed in this section.

Q&A Under Consideration

The Q&A feature remains open after the request is completed. The functionality is exactly as

discussed in Q&A in Published Request.

Reopen the Request (Extend Deadline)

To reopen the request after the deadline has expired, the process is exactly as shown in the Extend

Deadline section. Once this is done, all buyers and suppliers will be notified of this new deadline.

Review Responses

When the deadline has passed a new tab is opened in the request.

The responses tab allows the User to review the supplier response to the request.

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Review Response

To open the response, select ‘View Response’. In the response, once the Review is complete the

User can then ‘Mark as reviewed’ and leave a comment specific to this response.

Once the review is submitted, it is time and date stamped. Team progress can also be viewed now.

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Verify Certificates

If a certificate question is in the response, then these documents can be opened and verified within

the response.

The document can be opened. If satisfied then the Certificate can be ‘Marked as Verified’. A Note

can also be made on this Specific Certificate question.

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Export Responses

Once the response has been reviewed the ‘Export as a Document’ feature in SourceDogg can be

used to export a single supplier response into a document.

As with all ‘Export as a document’ options in SourceDogg, the documents can be tailored to the

user’s needs.

Some example uses of this feature are – Contract Templates, Supplier/Vendor Application Forms,

and Tender Award reports.

Template documents can be set up via the advanced settings option. With those templates, the user

can then export the supplier response into them.

Export Individual Response

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General Export

In each request the export button is always available, allowing the user to export data into a

document at any stage.

The ‘Export’ is located underneath the Request status.

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User Specific Document Templates

These templates are predefined and uploaded in the settings. More information can be found

through the advanced settings option.

Export Request as Document

Selecting this option in the export menu allows the user to generate an export into a Word or PDF

document, using SourceDogg’s own template. Other templates can be chosen here as well.

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Export (Excel, PDF, html, etc)

This export option allows the user to export the full content of the request into a variety of

document types. Once this option is clicked it opens a separate browser tab, where the user can

select the format to open this Request in.

Export (Macro-Friendly Excel)

This purpose of this option is to simply open up this request into an Excel format. In Excel, the

content of this request can be edited and company branding can be added. By clicking this option it

automatically downloads the Excel file.

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Price Comparisons

If there are items in the request, then there will be prices provided by the suppliers who have

responded. SourceDogg provides three detailed reports which enable the user to evaluate these

prices effectively. These reports are available under the ‘Analysis Options’ dropdown in the

‘Responses’ tab.

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These reports open in a separate tab similar to the export (excel, pdf etc..) report.

Total Price

The total price report primarily highlights which Supplier has the highest and lowest pricing,

coloured in red and green respectively. It also analyses and forecasts different volumes.

Items & Prices

The items and prices report gives a far more detailed breakdown of each item in the request and

each supplier’s respone. Using green and red again, the report will highlight which supplier has the

lowest and highest price per item.

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Lowest Bid Analysis

The lowest bid analysis report works in conjunction with scoring. Scoring is enabled in the settings or

in the request. For a detailed explanation, please see the scoring section.

The lowest bid analysis highlights supplier performance and provides? sensitivity analysis – taking

account of? total score, content and supplier responses.

The supplier performance aspect of the report highlights any failed killer questions, warns if one or

more items have €0 Pricing, and warns if the supplier may have a potentially abnormally low tender.

For more information on this report see the scoring section

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Decision

When the responses have been evaluated completely there will be a new tab shown, called

‘Decision’. If scoring has been included in the request, below is how the responses tab will appear

after the response evaluation is complete.

In the decision tab, if scoring is enabled, then the response will be ranked by score. If there is no

scoring then they will be ranked by price or alphabetically ordered.

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By selecting the dropdown button ‘Award or Decline’ the following options are available:

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Award Supplier

By selecting ‘Award Supplier’, the user can creates an internal note on SourceDogg or can send an

email to let the supplier know they have been successful. The box below appears where the user

selects what they would like to do. By selecting the option “Send Award Email to Supplier”, you can

fully customise the content of the email that will be sent to the supplier, including the email subject

and email body. You can also nominate a person from your organisation who will be responsible for

the project and his/her details will be shared with the supplier. There is also an option to include a

header in the email, which will add your company’s profile logo and information.

You can preview the email by clicking on the “Preview Award Email” button.

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If needed, you can also include an attachment via the document library in SourceDogg or you can

simply attach the document from your local computer.

Award of Line Items

By using the “Record Award Details By Line Item” function you can select the individual items that

you want to award to a particular supplier. To activate this feature, select the checkbox in the award

screen.

Marking the checkbox on top of the screen will select all items for the award. To select individual

items, select the checkbox next to item name.

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When any item is selected, you can edit the quantity and the price per unit of these items before the

award notification is sent out to the supplier.

The details of the contract award are then recorded into the system and can be accessed by

selecting the ‘Award Details’ option from the menu.

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Decline Supplier

When declining a supplier, similar options apply: you may either simply note it on SourceDogg or

issue an email to the supplier. Again the email that is sent to the supplier can be fully customised

and a feedback file can be included to highlight the shortcomings of supplier response.

Create Purchase Order

A purchase order can be generated from the response of a supplier. This is a document template

which is managed in the advanced settings option.

Once selected, the user chooses the document template they would like to use. The purchase order

can be previewed and, once it satisfies requirements, saved. This will then be stored in the contract

management section.

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View Purchase Orders

By selecting the view purchase orders option, the user can see any purchase orders that have

previously been generated through SourceDogg with the supplier in Question. This option will only

be available if there have been previous purchase orders.

Create Catalogue

By selecting the create catalogue option, the user will generate a new internal catalogue based on

the pricing received from the specific supplier.

This will direct the user to the advanced settings menu, where the details of the catalogue will be

specified.

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For more information on catalogues, please see the catalogue section.

View Contracts

The view contracts option will take the user directly to the contract management section, where any

contract related to the specific supplier will be listed.

Documents

Managing Requests on SourceDogg · On occasion, suppliers can forget to add important documents or submit their response by mistake. You are then able to reset the response back to