This article is intended for buyers.

If you’re a supplier check out our supplier help articles here.

This article aims to help you learn how to build a Request and will be helpful to you if you’re:

The different Request components that will be covered in this article are:

You can build a Request from two states:

When you build and issue a Blank Request, you will need to enter information for each of the tab headings; Summary, Stages, Details, Team, suppliers, Review & Send. You don’t need to fill these in in the order they appear in the app but all compulsory fields will need to be filled in, before you can send the Request out to your potential suppliers.

To start building a new Request from scratch you need to click new request and then choose the blank request button...

The Summary tab is where you will outline the overview of a new Request. All information shown on this page (with the exception of the approximate total value) is included in the email notification that is sent to suppliers when they are added to a Request.

Once you have completed all the required sections on this tab, click save to make sure any changes you make are not lost.

There are five parts that need to be addressed to complete the Summary tab and get your Request up and running:

Stages help you to structure your Requests; you can use them to set deadlines for your suppliers. When they’ve completed all the tasks in one stage, depending on your supplier responses (or lack there-of) you can manually move them forward to the next step or decide that they won’t be proceeding.

You can have single or multi-stage Requests. In multi-stage Requests suppliers will not be able to complete the information in a subsequent Stage until you have moved them through to it.

To create your first Stage, click the edit button next to Stage 1. Enter a title for your Stage (e.g NDA, RFP, RFI, RFQ). This will be visible to the supplier. Click the Calendar icon to set a date and time for your deadline.

✏️ Note: You can change this deadline after the Request has been issued if you need to extend it by issuing a revision.

To add additional Stages click add stage under Stage 1.

Enter a name and deadline as above and choose whether or not you would like this Stage to be hidden. If you select hidden, suppliers will be unaware of the additional Stages and their contents until you move them into them. All Stages added after this will be hidden by default once you choose this option.

✏️ Note: If you have 5 Stages in your process and you choose to hide the third Stage. Suppliers will only be able to see that Stages 1 and 2 exist until you move them beyond this point.

This is where you add in the information you would like to share with and request from your suppliers. There are two types of activities you can undertake in the Details tab: Pages and Evaluation.

Pages help you to organise your information that the supplier receives. They have NO influence or link to deadlines you set in Stages. There is no limit on the number Pages you can have in a request. You can organise your Pages into Sections. Sections are associated with Stages in a Request so you will need to decide at which Stage each Section is made available to input on/into.

⚡Top tip: You can use Pages to organise the information your RFx by business functions, e.g. “general”, “technical”, “commercial”, that way it’s super easy for your co-workers and suppliers to sort through information (and it’s even easier for you to control which team member can see what page e.g. ensure your technical team can’t see the commercial information)

Find out more about the various Section types that are available to you:

The Evaluation feature is a tool that allows you - and any additional team members you work with - to rank and compare suppliers’ proposals side by side. You can define what criteria is used, which ensures that you are assessing bids based upon what’s important to you and your stakeholders.

✏️ Note: You can create an Evaluation module at any time prior to a Request being awarded or closed. Read more about the benefits of and how to build an evaluation module here.

Your next step you need to take in building your Request, is to decide who you need to work with – you can do this in the Team link in the Navigation bar.

You can invite both your internal team members and third party companies you want to work with you. Any individual you invite will automatically become a Request Member unless you make them a Request Owner.

To add a third party company you can use the Collaborator Company feature. If you want to find out more about our Collaborator Company feature, the benefits of it and how you can best use it, click here.

You can also add internal stakeholders. For every Team Member added you can set their permissions, this can vary by Pages. If you’re the Request Owner you can add or remove team members from the Request at any point.

Find out more about the different roles and responsibilities click here.

The Suppliers tab is where you add the suppliers you would like to tender with on your Request. You can add additional suppliers to a Request at any point before it’s been closed or awarded.

You can add suppliers to a request in 4 ways:

The Review & Send tab allows you to review the information included in your Request. If any information is outstanding, a red box will appear and will highlight what needs to be inputted before you can submit it.

Once the information is confirmed, click send request. A confirmation pop up window will appear to triple confirm you want to send it off.

Once a Request is sent you can still make changes to the information included, the suppliers added and deadlines set at any point by issuing a revision.

If you regularly send Requests structured like the Request you have created you can create a Template from it. Find out more about Templates here.