The Request for Bid (RFB) feature allows companies to invite bids from vendors and suppliers.
Note: Unifier allows your company to only designate one Vendors business process as the RFB master vendor list (master vendor BP/vendor master BP).
The bid invitation can be addressed to a specific set of vendors, or can be opened up to the public. The bidders are provided with a simple Unifier interface that does not require special training to use. Bidders receive email notifying them that they have received a bid invitation so they can log into Unifier and submit their bids.
The bidder portal enables the bidder to use the Announcement icon (
) to view announcements by the owner company. The Bidder Business Process log (Bidder BP log) enables the bidder to view all requests, their titles, due date, and status.
The Bidder BP log has the following options:
- View
- Active
- All
- Refresh: To refresh the log items.
- Print: To print the log contents.
- Search
- Status with values of All, Open and Closed
- Search parameters based on Bidder log set in uDesigner
- Find on Page: To find content on the visible page.
- Help: To view help options.
The gear menu (
), in front of each record, is context sensitive and provides the following conditions and corresponding options:
Condition | Options |
|---|---|
Bid has been received and no submissions have been made | Open - Opens the requestor's form Create - Will open the bid form |
Bid has been submitted | Open - Opens the requestor's form View Submission Withdraw Submission - Confirmation asking user to confirm action. After a successful withdrawal, an alert will be seen Note: After a bid has been withdrawn, options seen will be: Open |
Bid has been closed | View Submission - This will open the submitted bid Double clicking the record will open the submitted bid form. |
The preview pane, on the right-hand side, contains:
- The form content, based on the current state of the record.
- If the bid is active (just received a RFB or submitted a bid), then the requestor form is displayed.
- If the bid is closed, then the content of the submitted bid is displayed.
- The Attachments tab is displayed.
The Mailbox provides a preview of a selected email, in the right- hand pane. The Mailbox has Inbox and Sent Items. The Inbox enables bidders to view all the mails received from Unifier.
The RFB type BP supports the Grid feature when the RFB design (developed in uDesigner) includes the subtype: Line Item with CBS Code. The Grid feature is available both in the Requestor and Bidder sides, within the Line Item tab.