How You Analyze an RFI by Spreadsheet
Once you have exported the spreadsheet, you can open it in Microsoft Excel (version 2003 or later). Excel automatically formats the display based on your style format. The spreadsheet consists of multiple worksheets.
These sections describe the information contained in each worksheet, and the tables in the sections describe each spreadsheet field for that worksheet. As you use the spreadsheets, note that some fields are automatically calculated and updated as you enter values into the spreadsheet. These fields are enclosed by a thick cell border. For some fields you can enter provisional values for requirements and observe the results.
Excel also automatically formats date fields according to your user preferences into the spreadsheet.
Your spreadsheet can have multiple worksheets, depending on how the negotiation was defined. For example, if no attributes were defined, the Attributes Scoring Worksheet doesn't appear.
Using Spreadsheet Processing
This topic contains the instructions for analyzing responses in RFIs using an XML spreadsheet. Spreadsheet processing speeds up the analysis process by letting you analyze your response data offline. The spreadsheet doesn't include all the negotiation details that can be found either online or in the PDF file.
Line Summary Worksheet
The Line Summary Worksheet displays the information defined for the negotiation lines as well as information for any responses on those lines. The worksheet name specifies the range of lines it contains. The Line Summary has entries for each regular line, lot, group, and group line. It doesn't contain entries for lot lines. In the Line Summary table, multiple rows are displayed, one for each response received for the negotiation.
If your negotiation contains many lines, you can control the display by using the down arrow. You have several options including sorting the lines by line number to display specific lines.
The following table shows the fields in the Line Summary worksheet.
Field Name |
Meaning |
---|---|
Line |
Line number and description as entered by the category manager. |
Item |
The number of the item that the category manager wants to purchase. |
Item Revision |
The item revision of the item that the category manager wants to purchase. |
Supplier |
The name of the supplier who responded to this line. |
Business Relationship |
The level of participation for this supplier. Suppliers with a business relationship of Prospective can participate, but you can't award business to them until their status is upgraded to Spend Approved. |
UOM |
The unit of measure in which the category manager plans to buy the item. |
Quantity |
The number of units the category manager wants to buy. |
Response Quantity |
The number of units offered by the supplier |
Response Price |
The price the supplier is offering for one unit of the item or service. |
Promised Delivery Date |
The date by which the supplier promises to deliver the item or service. |
Supplier Site |
The supplier site which submitted the response. |
Response |
The number the application assigned this response. |
Category Name |
The category name describing the broad family or category to which this line belongs. |
Location |
The address where the item or service should be delivered. |
Line Type |
The type of line being negotiated, for example, goods or amount-based. |
Overview Worksheet
The Overview Worksheet shows header information for the negotiation. The Overview Worksheet is the default worksheet that appears when you open the spreadsheet. Supplier responses are displayed in different columns to provide for easy side-by-side comparison.
The following table shows the fields in the Overview worksheet.
Field Title |
Meaning |
---|---|
Business Relationship |
The level of participation for this supplier. Suppliers with a business relationship of Prospective can participate, but you can't award business to them until their status is upgraded to Spend Approved. |
Supplier Site |
The supplier site from which this response was submitted. |
Supplier Contact |
Contact who submitted the response. |
Response Status |
The status of the response. |
Shortlist Status |
Whether the response is included on the shortlist. |
Response Currency |
The currency in which the supplier submitted the response (in multiple currency negotiations). |
Conversion Rate |
The conversion rate defined between the RFI currency and the response currency (in multiple currency negotiations). |
Response Total (Response Currency) |
The amount of the supplier's response (response price * quantity) in the supplier's currency (in multiple currency negotiations). |
Response Amount (RFI Currency) |
The amount of the supplier's response (response price * quantity) in response currency. |
Time of Response |
The time the response was received by the application. |
Response Valid Until |
The time the response was received by the application. |
Reference Number |
Number assigned by the application for this response |
Note to Buyer |
A text note entered by the supplier. |
Attachments |
Indicator that shows the presence of an attachment that can be downloaded online. |
If requirements were defined for this negotiation, information about the supplier responses is displayed in the Requirements section. For each Requirement, supplier responses are displayed in side-by-side columns for easy comparison. If scoring criteria is defined, you can use the View Scoring Criteria link to see the scoring criteria. If the Requirement is internal, there's no supplier response.
If your negotiation contains many lines, you can control the display by using the down arrow. You have several options including sorting the lines by line number to display specific lines.
The following table shows the fields in the Requirement section.
Field Title |
Meaning |
---|---|
View Scoring Criteria |
Link to the Requirements Scoring Worksheet. This link only appears if the category manager defined scoring information for at least one requirement and made the information visible to suppliers |
Requirement |
|
Weight |
The weight assigned to this requirement (a section's weight is the sum of its Requirements' weights). If manual or automatic scoring is defined for this Requirement, you can change its weight by entering new numbers into the spreadsheet. Weights only appear if the category manager has enabled weights for this negotiation. |
Target Value |
The target value defined by the category manager. |
Score and Weighted Score (Requirement) |
The score and weighted score for this Requirement, based on the supplier response. If the Requirement is manually scored, you can enter scores and the weighted score is calculated automatically. Weight values only appear if weights were enabled by the category manager |
Score and Weighted Score (Section) |
The score or weighted score (if weight is enabled) for this Requirement section, based on the supplier response. Weight values only appear if weights were enabled by the category manager |
Total Score or Total Weighted Score |
The total score or total weighted score for this supplier's response. Weight values only appear if weights were enabled by the category manager. |
Supplier's Response |
The response value entered by a supplier. |
Attachments |
Whether the supplier has provided an attachment |
Note to buyer |
Any text note the supplier entered |
Lines Worksheet
If your negotiation contains many lines, you can control the display by using the down arrow. You have several options including sorting the lines by line number to display specific lines.
The following table shows the fields in the Lines worksheet.
Field Name |
Meaning |
---|---|
Line |
Line number and description as entered by the category manager |
Line Type |
The type of line (for example, goods or amount-based) |
Item |
The number of the item that the category manager wants to purchase. |
Item Revision |
Item revision of the item that the category manager wants to purchase. |
Category Name |
The category name describing the broad family or category to which this line belongs. |
Location |
The address where the item or service should be delivered. |
UOM |
The unit of measure for this line. |
Target Price |
The target response price entered by the category manager. |
Current Price |
The current price the category manager is paying for this item or service. The Current Price value is used by the application to calculate savings amounts. |
Alternate Lines Provided |
Indicates if the supplier added any alternate lines in response to a negotiation line. |
The response section of the Lines Worksheet displays information about the responses received for this line. The Target Value column displays any target values the category manager has defined. Following the Target Value column, responses for individual suppliers are displayed in side-by-side columns for easy comparison.
The table shows the fields in the response section of the Lines worksheet.
Field Name |
Meaning |
---|---|
Line |
The number designation for this line |
Description |
Text description of the item or service for this line. |
Business Relationship |
The level of participation for this supplier. Suppliers with a business relationship of Prospective can participate, but you can't award business to them until their status is upgraded to Spend Approved. |
Supplier Site |
The supplier site that submitted the response. |
Response Status |
Status of the response. |
Requirement Score |
The score for this requirement. |
Shortlist Status |
Whether the response is included on the shortlist. |
UOM |
The unit of measure for this line. |
Response Currency |
The currency in which the supplier submitted the response (in multiple currency responses negotiations). |
Response Price (Response Currency) |
The price offered by the supplier. In a multiple currency negotiation, this value is in the supplier's currency. |
Response Price (RFI Currency) |
The price offered by the supplier. In a multiple currency negotiation, this value is in the negotiation currency. |
Response Quantity |
The quantity offered by the supplier's response. |
Line Amount |
|
Unit Price Savings |
The difference between the current price being paid for the line and the price being offered. |
Unit Price Savings Percent |
The Unit Price Savings amount converted to a percentage. |
Minimum Release Amount |
The minimum amount that can be released against the agreement. |
Promised Ship Date |
The date the supplier delivers the item or service (purchase order only). |
Note to Buyer |
A text note entered by the supplier. |
Attachments |
An indicator that shows whether the supplier also submitted an attachment with the response. |
Requirements Scoring Worksheet
The Requirements Scoring Worksheet only appears if scoring criteria was defined by the category manager.
The table shows the fields in the Requirements Scoring worksheet.
Field Name |
Meaning |
---|---|
Requirement |
|
Acceptable Values |
The acceptable response values for the requirement as defined by the category manager. For a text requirement, this is a list of values. For numeric, date, and date time type requirements, a set of numbers, dates or range of numbers. |
Score |
For automatically scored values, the numeric score assigned to that value by the category manager. |
Weight or Maximum Score |
If weights are enabled, the numeric value assigned by the category manager. Otherwise, the Maximum Score is displayed as defined by the category manager. |