Before the RFB due date is met, and while the bid solicitation is in progress, the Actions menu will display the following options:
Note: The following options are applicable to the Private Bidding, only. The following options are not applicable to the Public Bidding.
- Send Mail
Where the user can select any vendor record and click Actions > Send Mail to initiate an email chain with the selected vendors.
- Send Password
Once the Invite is sent, the user can select Send Password (from the Actions menu) and send the password to the selected vendors.
- Remove
The user can select the vendors from the log and click Remove to delete the vendors from the list. The user can remove the vendors for whom the invite has not been sent yet, only (Status = Not Invited).
You can initiate an email chain with the vendor after the RFB due date. Use the gear menu (
) options, or the Actions menu (Send Mail).
The Menu Options will have the following options, when clicked from Proposal Management tab:
- Reload
- Review
- Terminate Record
- Transfer Ownership
- Undo Accept Task
- Help
- Close
In the case of Private Bidding, all vendor management is done in the Proposal Management tab. In the case of Public Bidding, you must use the Invite option (from the Menu Options) to initiate the bidding process.
The option to award a winning bid would not be available before the due date.
The following explains the available functions before the RFB due date is met.
Pre-approving Bidder
When a bid is open, the requestor can invite bidders. In addition, the requestor can pre-approve the list of bidders as part of the workflow process, in uDesigner. This will help the requester to monitor the list of bidders that need to be added to the bid invitation so that only the valid, or applicable, list of bidders get the invitation and the bidding process can be quickly completed.
The requestor can:
- Add pre-approved bidders, from the available list of vendors. If the pre-approved list of vendors are added, a user (project user) cannot add additional vendors to the list and the Add option will be disabled.
- Delete any added vendor from the approved list.
The following explain how to add bidders from the available list of vendors to the pre-approved list of bidders (detail form).
Navigate to the RFB BP (Project or Shell > User mode > Requests for Bid) and click Create to launch the task creation, or bid creation.
In this scenario, you can add the vendors and accept the bid package. Alternatively, you can accept the bid package and add the vendors.
If you select the Add option or the Remove option of the pre-approved vendors, then the Vendor tab will include the Add and Remove options in the Actions list. You can add vendors to the Proposal Management tab (or remove vendors) and send the bid package to the next step in the workflow.
When you click Add, a pop-up window opens which provides access to the Master Vendor List, and you can select vendors to add.
Note: The requestor details will not be available in the upper part of the screen until the Send Invitation option is enabled.
You can add vendors from the Add Vendor window. In this scenario, you must select the vendors, from the list of available vendors, and click the right-arrow to add your selected vendors to the Add Vendor window. When finished, click Add to add your selected vendors to the Proposal Management tab. At this point the vendor records will get added to the log.
The following options will be available to select:
- Add
To open a pop-up window referencing the Vendor BP (for example, if the project vendor list is selected in uDesigner form properties, then A project-level vendor is displayed for selection).
- Actions
To select any added vendor and delete the record. The Remove option would be available in this view as invitations cannot be sent from this step in the workflow.
When you receive a task from the project manager containing pre-selected vendors, you (user or requestor) have the option to accept or decline the task. In this scenario, if you select any, or both, of the following options, you can proceed to send the invitation. At this point, you cannot add new vendors:
- Send bid invitations and allow bid receipt
- Do not allow modification of pre-approved Vendor list
After accepting the task you can also send an email or send password by way of the Actions option.
In the workflow, once the Project Manager (or any user with the appropriate permission) adds the pre-approved vendors and sends the bid package to the next step (bid invitation), the added vendors will be added to the Proposal Management tab. At this stage, the list cannot be modified.
If the View pre-approved vendor list is selected, the Add or Remove option will be disabled. You can view the request and send the bid package to the next step.
You can send mail to a bidder before the RFB due date or after the bid is finalized.
Note: The above condition is applicable only to private bidding and not to public bidding.
Requestor can see the submitted bids while the bid is still open
Ability to see the submitted bids while the bid is still open enables the requestor to compare the submitted bids, before the bid closure date. The requestor can see the bids submitted by bidders while the bid is still open; however, the user can choose whether to hide or show bid responses before bid closure.
The requestor can select multiple responses and click Compare in order to compare the responses with the requester values.