Sourcing for Suppliers

Overview of the Negotiations Home Page

As a supplier, you use the Negotiations Home page to complete all your sourcing tasks. Use this page to do the following:

Searching for Negotiations

To be able to successfully conduct business on Oracle Sourcing, you must be able to quickly locate negotiations of interest. There are several ways to search depending on the kind of negotiation you are looking for.

To search for your active and draft responses:

If you are currently participating in a negotiation, or are in the process of preparing a response for a negotiation, information on your responses is displayed under Your Active and Draft Responses section of the Negotiations Home page. At a glance, you can view you top five active and draft responses. The details you can view are Response Number, Response Status, Supplier Site, Negotiation Number, Title, Type, Time Left, Monitor, and Unread Messages.

To search for negotiations to which you've been invited:

If a buyer has invited you to participate in a negotiation, you will see an entry for that negotiation under Open Negotiations. To access a negotiation, click the Number link for that negotiation. You can see the details of the negotiation and decide whether or not to participate. To see a complete list of negotiations to which you have been invited, click Full List.

To search for all open negotiations:

In addition to the negotiations to which you have been specifically invited, there may be many other open negotiations which you may wish to investigate and participate in.

Viewing Negotiation Details Before Responding

To view your negotiation details before responding:

  1. Under Open Invitations, click the Negotiation Number to access the Negotiation Summary page for the negotiation in which you are interested.

    Alternatively, use the Search Negotiations fields to access the Active Negotiations page. Click the Negotiation Number to access the Negotiation Summary page.

  2. The negotiation summary page displays all the current information for this negotiation. This includes such information as the open and close dates, negotiation terms, any header information and any notes or attachments. The countdown clock at the top of the page shows you the time left before the negotiation is closed.

    Clicking the Lines link displays information on the negotiation lines, including such information as the negotiation quantity, the current best response (if the buyer chooses to display this) and the number of active responses. If the buyer chooses to allow you to access response information, clicking the number link displays information on responses to this line. To see a line's attributes, price factors or notes/attachments, click the description link in the Line column.

    Clicking the Controls link displays the response controls set by the buyer when the negotiation was defined.

    See: Understanding Response Controls

    Clicking the Contract terms link displays any negotiation contract deliverable defined to this negotiation.

    If the item has attributes, cost factors, or price breaks associated with it, you can view information on the item attributes by clicking the View link under the Details column. The Notes and Attachments section displays any text messages from the buyer and any attached files. Attachments can be viewed by clicking the paperclip icon.

Responding to Solicitations

Suppliers can respond to public solicitations and private solicitations to which they have been invited. To respond to a solicitation you must:

Submitting Responses

Navigate to the Negotiation Summary page for the negotiation to which you wish to respond by clicking its Negotiation Number link under the Open Invitations section of the Negotiations Home page. Alternatively, you can enter search values into the Search Negotiations fields and click Go to list all negotiations in the system, including ones to which you were not explicitly invited to. On the Active Negotiations page, find your negotiation and click the Negotiation Number link there.

When a solicitation amendment is published, as a supplier, you have to review change description, acknowledge the amendment, and then resubmit the offer, after making any revisions.

You can see details of the negotiation on the Negotiation Summary page. If less than 24 hours remain for the negotiations, the countdown clock at the top of the page shows the amount of time left before the negotiation closes in real time.

To submit response online:

  1. On the Negotiation Summary page, select Create Offer from the Actions menu to create a response to the negotiation.

  2. If the buyer has defined Terms and Conditions, you are asked to read and accept the negotiation terms and conditions. After reading the terms and conditions, click Accept.

  3. On the Create Offer page, depending on the contract type used on each line, you click the Update button and enter the relevant details.

    See: Common CLM Functionality for more information on Contract Types

  4. When you have entered responses to all your line responses, and any specific requirements from the buyer, click Continue. This returns you to the Create: Review and Submit page.

  5. You can click Offer By Spreadsheet to use the a spreadsheet to work with the solicitation data. Select the type of spreadsheet format you wish to use: XML Spreadsheet or Tab-Delimited. If you choose Tab delimited, you will also have to select which spreadsheet you wish to download: Requirement or line. Click Export. Save the spreadsheet file to a convenient location. Open the spreadsheet file and complete your work. Once done, select the format of the spreadsheet you wish to import. Browse to the location where you saved your spreadsheet file. Click Import. The system will validate the response information you entered in your spreadsheet.

    Note: If you use MS Excel to open and work with this spreadsheet, then select the Data menu, select Get External Data, and then select Import Text File. Browse and select the downloaded response text file. In the Text Import Wizard that displays, select Delimited in Step 1 of 3 and click Next. In Step 2 of 3, ensure the Tab check box is selected, and click next. In Step 3 of 3, select the second column containing Solicitation Line Number and select the Text radio button. Click Finish. This ensures that your line numbers display in the correct format.

  6. When you are satisfied with your bid, click Submit.

    Note: If for some reason you do not wish to submit your response immediately, click Save Draft to save your response information for a later session. Your draft will be assigned a number which you can use later when accessing the draft for editing or completion. You can access your draft responses by clicking the Manage Draft quick link from the Negotiations Home page. You can access the draft for editing or for submission.

Responding to Deliverables Defined for a Negotiation

Deliverables are additional requirements a buyer may request of a supplier over the course of a negotiation. Deliverables are part of the contract terms the buyer may have defined and are typically additional pieces of documentation that must be provided by the supplier.

You use the Create Response page to enter your response to the buyer's negotiation. This includes responses to any contract terms the buyer has defined. Contract terms are displayed in the Contract Terms section of the page.

  1. If there are deliverables, they will be listed in the Deliverables section. Each deliverable has a due date, and you must respond to these deliverables before their dates expire. If there is an exclamation mark icon in the Alert column, the due date for completion of that deliverable has passed and that deliverable is late. If there is an X icon in the Alert column, the responsible party failed to perform the deliverable.

  2. Once you have completed the tasks outlined in the deliverable, you respond to the deliverable and update its status. Click the Update icon.

  3. On the Update Deliverable page, you can change the deliverable status, or modify or delete an existing attachment, or add a new attachment.

  4. Change the status to Submitted and click Done.

Monitoring Responses

From the Negotiations Home page, you can easily monitor the status of negotiations to which you have responded. The Your Active and Draft Responses section lists all negotiations to which your have either submitted an active response or to which you are still creating a draft response.

  1. Click the Negotiation Number link to see details of the negotiation such as negotiation items, terms and conditions, and response controls.

  2. Click the Response Number link to see details of your current responses.

Also on the Negotiations Home page, you can use the Response Quick Links to see the status of your awarded, rejected, and disqualified responses. You can also use the Monitor negotiation page to view your response while the negotiation is in progress.

Viewing Responses

The View Responses quick links section of the Negotiation Home page enables you to view your awarded, rejected, and disqualified responses.

Click Awarded to view the Awarded Items page, which shows you all negotiation items for which you have been awarded business. The Awarded Items page allows you to drill down into detailed information about the negotiation items and your responses to them. The Awarded Items page shows the Response Number, Reference Number, Supplier Site, Negotiation Number, Type, Description, Promised Date, Award Quantity, Award Price, Outcome Document, and Reason.

Click Rejected to view the Rejected Items page that shows you all items to which you responded but were not awarded by the buyer. The Rejected Items page allows you to drill down into detailed information about the negotiation and your response to it. The Rejected Items page shows the Response Number, Reference Number, Supplier Site, Negotiation Number, Type, Description, Promised Date, Response Quantity, Response Price, and Reason

Click Disqualified to view the Disqualified Responses page that shows you all responses you have placed in any negotiation that have been disqualified by the buyer. The Disqualified Responses page allows you to drill down into detailed information about the negotiation and your response to it. The Disqualified Responses page shows the Response Number, Your Response Number, Supplier Site, Negotiation Number, Title, Type, Event Title, Time Left, and Reason. If the negotiation is still open, you can select your response and click Revise to update your information and submit a new response.

Maintaining Your Profile

  1. On the Negotiations Home page, click the Personal Information quick link.

  2. The Update Personal Information page displays. You can update your Contact Title, First Name, Middle Name, Last Name, Job Title, Contact Email, Phone Area Code, Phone Number, Phone Extension, Fax Area Code, and Fax Number.

  3. When you have finished editing your personal information, click Apply. Click Clear Changes to undo all changes you made. To cancel all changes, click Cancel.