Maintaining RFQ Responses

This chapter provides an overview of the eRFQ feature, lists common elements, and discusses how to:

• Alert vendors about dispatched requests for quotes (RFQs).

• Review and respond to RFQs.

Understanding the eRFQ Feature

Complex quoting and contracting procurement processes require extensive communication, collaboration, and negotiation between buying and selling organizations, and are critical to establishing long-term partnerships with trusted suppliers. In today’s environment, traditional applications do not facilitate realtime communications and collaboration between trading partners. In PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection, the eRFQ feature enables your suppliers to use an internet browser to review and respond to RFQs that are generated in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

eRFQ Process Flow

The buyer:

1. Creates and dispatches the RFQ in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

   Before a supplier can view and respond to an RFQ in PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection, you must create it, use the Dispatch Vendor List or the Item Supply Vendor List to assign the RFQ to the vendor, and dispatch it to the vendor. When dispatching by email, the email includes a link which returns the supplier back to the RFQ to respond.

2. Alerts the vendor to the RFQ.

   You can set up automatic workflow notification if your installation includes PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal, or you can generate an email that contains a URL to send the supplier directly to the RFQ details as part of the dispatch process.

The supplier:

1. Accesses the RFQ in PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection.

   If the supplier accesses the RFQ component using the portal menu, the Request for Quote List page displays the RFQs that meet the search criteria. The supplier can also access the component using the RFQ pagelet.

2. Reviews new RFQs and submits responses.

   The supplier can review requested items and submit responses by item regarding information such as quantity, price, date, and lead time.

   When the supplier submits a response, the system captures and date- and time-stamps the current RFQ details and the supplier’s response. This enables the buyer to review supplier responses even if the RFQ or response information subsequently changes The RFQ response status also changes in PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection to Responded, and now you can view or maintain the RFQ response in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

   Note. The buyer can view or maintain the RFQ or RFQ responses after the RFQ is dispatched; the buyer does not need to await supplier response to access it through PeopleSoft Purchasing.

RFQ Response Modification

The buyer can propose a change to the quote by reopening the RFQ line (by clearing the Responded check box) and directly changing the price, quantity, due date, or other fields on the RFQ Response (request for quote response) page in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

Upon saving the changes, the system changes the RFQ status back to New (as seen by the vendor), and now the vendor can enter a new response to the RFQ.

Note. The system does not capture buyer changes to RFQ responses in the RFQ history.

See Also

Understanding Requisitions

Common Elements Used in This Chapter

Alerting Vendors About Dispatched RFQs

You can alert suppliers by email (or, if your installation includes PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal, by a task list entry using the Integrated Task List pagelet) that you have dispatched a new RFQ to them.

This section discusses how to:

• Automatically email RFQ alerts.

• Send workflow task list alerts.

Automatically Emailing RFQ Alerts

To set up automatic RFQ dispatch alert emails to your suppliers:

1. Ensure that the supplier contact is specified on the RFQ and that the contact’s email address is specified on the Vendor Information - Contacts page.

   If you do not specify the contact on the RFQ, or if the contact email address is missing, the system sends an email to the supplier’s email address that you specify on the Vendor Information - Address page.

2. Run the RFQ Print/Dispatch SQR process (PORFQ01) and the Email Application Engine process (PO_RFQ_EMAIL) in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

   Note. Because you must run the RFQ Print/Dispatch process before sending an alert with the Email process, run RFQDISP job, which runs both processes sequentially.

   An email that is sent to a supplier regarding a dispatched RFQ contains a link that points to the Request For Quote List page (bypassing the search page) so that your supplier can view the RFQ. The email can also include the RFQ as an attachment.

See Also

Understanding Requisitions

Sending Workflow Task List Alerts

While the task list processes function independently of PeopleSoft self-service applications and dispatch-based alerts, you can optionally use workflow to add a task item to the Integrated Task List pagelet if:

1. You are using PeopleSoft Workflow and:

   1. You have set up the PO_RFQ_DISPATCH business process.

   2. Workflow activity is Active.

2. Your installation includes PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal.

When the supplier selects a task item, the Request for Quote List page opens, displaying the quote. The system marks the task item as worked, and it no longer appears on the Integrated Task List pagelet.

Note. If you give vendors the appropriate privileges, they can access task list entries or worklists through PeopleTools.

Enabling Users to See Task List Items for Specific Vendors

To view task list entries for demonstration purposes, the workflow activity (PO_RFQ_DISPATCH) is set up to use the Supplier-Customer Service Rep role. In addition, this role routes the control profiles that include the required route control types or the role that you define within the PO_RFQ_DISPATCH business process workflow activity.

Use two route control profiles:

1. Supplier includes three route control types:

   1. Vendor.

   2. Vendor_Loc (vendor location).

   3. TableSet ID.

2. Admin Area PO includes Administrative Area.

Before a task list item appears on the Integrated Task List pagelet, the PO_RFQ_DISPATCH workflow activity validates that ROLENAME = Supplier-Customer Service Rep (or role that you defined and assign to the activity). It also validates that these route control type values (for the route control profile for the user) match these values:

• Administrative Area = PO.

• TableSet ID = VENDOR_SETID.

• Vendor = VENDOR_ID.

• Vendor_Loc = VNDR_LOC of RFQ.

See Delivered Workflows for PeopleSoft eSupplier Connection.

Note. The SetID, vendor, and vendor location are defined on the RFQ.

If all of these conditions are met, the system creates a task list item for the user. Depending on the setup, a task list item for the same RFQ-supplier-item combination might appear in multiple user task lists.

See Also

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: Workflow Technology

Enterprise PeopleTools 8.48 PeopleBook: Security Administration

Reviewing and Responding to RFQs

This section discusses how to:

• Search for RFQs.

• Review RFQ lists.

• View RFQ details.

• Respond to RFQs.

• Review RFQ response history.

Pages Used to Review and Respond to RFQs

Searching for RFQs

Access the Request for Quotes - Filter Options page.

Note. Your suppliers can review only those RFQs for which they have security. Also, the system retrieves only dispatched RFQs with a status of Approved or Closed; it ignores RFQs with Open, On Hold, and Canceled statuses.

See Dispatching RFQs.

The supplier selects the criteria with which to filter the search. In particular:

Reviewing RFQ Lists

Access the Request for Quotes - Request for Quote List page.

The system displays any RFQs that are associated with the vendor.

Viewing RFQ Details

Access the Request for Quotes - Request for Quote Detail page.

The system displays RFQ details.

Responding to RFQs

Access the Request For Quotes - Request For Quote Response page.

The status of the RFQ response (by item) determines the mode of this page:

• When the supplier accesses this page by clicking New on the Request for Quote List page, several supplier response fields are available for modification, including Quantity, Price, and Schedule Date.

  The New button appears when an RFQ item requires a response from the buyer.

• When the supplier clicks the Responded button, this page is display-only.

  The Responded button appears when this supplier has previously entered a response for the RFQ item.

Submitting RFQ Responses

To respond to an RFQ:

1. On the Request for Quote List page, click the New button for the RFQ ID to which you want to respond to access the Request for Quote Response page.

   Note. An RFQ’s New status can be the result of the buyer reopening the line for further response; it does not necessarily indicate that this is the first time that the supplier has received or responded to the RFQ. See Reviewing RFQ Response History.

2. Many of the following field values appear by default from the actual RFQ.

   In addition to the fields to which suppliers would most commonly respond (such as Price, Quantity, Unit of Measure, Lead Time Days, and Schedule Date),, they can also respond to related fields, including:

   Salesperson	The supplier’s employee who is responsible for your purchase.
   Date Time Responded	The date and time that the supplier submitted a response for this item. The system maintains this field.
   Vendor Item ID	Suppliers can use this field to notify buyers of new or changed vendor item IDs. Note. This does not automatically update the Vendor Item ID table in the PeopleSoft system.
   Description	Notifies the buyer of the supplier’s item description.
   Minimum Quantity	The minimum quantity that the supplier is willing to quote.

   Note. Supplier responses are made on an item-by-item basis. However, several editable fields on the Request for Quote Response page include header values and vendor comments. When the supplier changes these values during an RFQ item response, the system stores them at the header level of the RFQ response. Thus any changes of the most recent item response are present on the buyer side. The response history displays any changes to these values as they occur response by response.

3. After entering any changes or comments, submit the response.

   Submit	Click to submit the response so that it can be viewed on the internal RFQ pages in PeopleSoft Purchasing. After clicking Submit, if the supplier chooses to continue, he or she can no longer edit the RFQ response but can still view it in read-only mode. Upon submission, the system stores supplier response history for the RFQ item to which the supplier is responding.
   Send Email	Click to open the Email Messages page and send an email to an internal or external party about the quote. See Sending Email Messages.

Reviewing RFQ Response History

Access the Request for Quote History page.

To view RFQ response history, the supplier clicks View History on the Request for Quote Response page; the buyer clicks the Supplier History button on the RFQ Response page.

The Request for Quote History page displays RFQ header details, the line details from the original RFQ at the time that the response was made, and the vendor’s response. (There can be multiple vendor responses for the same RFQ line.)

Note. You can also view a single RFQ response using the Response By Vendor inquiry page in PeopleSoft Purchasing.

See Also

Understanding Requisitions