Example of Managing Negotiations

There are many operations you can perform to manage a negotiation while it's active. You perform these tasks by selecting the appropriate suboption from the Manage options of the Actions menu.

Negotiation Close Time

There are many actions you can take while a negotiation is active and receiving responses.

• The Category Manager may receive inquiries from a supplier asking for clarification about a negotiation requirement or line attribute. The Category Manger pauses the negotiation while she's conducting a discussion with the supplier.

• A negotiation may unexpectedly start receiving a large number of responses in the last few minutes before the close time. The Category Manager may decide to manually extend the negotiation to allow all responses to be submitted. Note that you can also define the application to automatically extend negotiations.

• The Category Manager may have decided to begin a new round or responding. She may have decided that enough valid responses have been received that she can begin awarding the negotiation. For either action, the negotiation must be closed before it can be processed further.

• If the negotiation isn't receiving any responses or the responses are unsatisfactory, you can cancel the negotiation ahead of its close time. A negotiation that has been canceled can no longer be processed.

  The Category Manager may decide to close a negotiation early if the manager is satisfied with the supplier response. When the negotiation close date is changed to an earlier date, the close date for the negotiation is updated and along with the in-app notification, all invited and participating suppliers are notified by email. There's an option to enter a note to be included in the supplier's email notification.

Negotiation Owners

You can change the owner of the negotiation. The new owner receives any new notifications. The previous owner and the owner's manager are retained as collaboration team members.

Supplier Contact

You can change the supplier contact after a negotiation is published but before it's closed. The new contact receives any new notifications. The old contact is removed from the negotiation's list of invited suppliers and no longer receives any notifications.

Collaboration Teams

There's a new employee in the procurement department. The Category Manager adds the new employee to the collaboration teams for several ongoing negotiations. She can also manage the access level of the new employee between view-only and full access.

Requirements

You can manage requirements for a negotiation while the negotiation is active. You can add new internal requirements and can change the weighting of external requirements.

How You Invite Additional Suppliers

You can invite additional suppliers to an active negotiation. The suppliers are notified and can begin responding just like the suppliers who were included on the original invitation list.

Negotiation Amendments

You can update details of the negotiation while it's active. For example you could add additional negotiation lines or change the award date. Such changes are used to create an amendment to the negotiation. When you create an amendment, participating suppliers are notified. They must access the negotiation, view the amendment, acknowledge the changes, and resubmit their responses.