This article is intended for buyers.
If you’re a supplier check out our supplier help articles here.
This article aims to help readers understand how to manage, close and award their Requests.
This article will cover:
How To Send Suppliers An Invite Reminder
If you’ve invited users to collaborate with you on DeepStream and they haven’t yet responded you can nudge them to engage by sending an invite reminder.
This is a tool that allows you to send a reminder to suppliers who have been invited to engage on an RFx through the DeepStream platform. An invite reminder will be sent in email format to suppliers and will include some key details:
Your (the buyers) company name
The Request name
The scope of work
An invitation link
Here’s an example of what your invite reminder could look like to a supplier.
To get started with Sending Your Invite Reminder...
... Log into DeepStream and click on the relevant live RFx. Once you’re in, go to the Suppliers Tab and select the suppliers that still have the status invited by ticking the checkbox next to their names.
Once selected, click the dropdown menu more actions on the right hand side of the screen and select invite reminders. An invite pop-up will appear asking you to confirm the reminder. Click send and you’re all set.
✏️ Note: Invite reminders can only be sent to users who you’ve invited to collaborate on DeepStream for the first time.
How to decline to bid on a supplier's behalf
If a buyer doesn’t respond to your invitation to bid on your Request on DeepStream you can decline to bid on their behalf.
Go to the Suppliers tab on your Request and click the checkbox beside the supplier you wish you decline to bid for. Go to the more actions button and select decline to bid.
A pop-up will appear and prompt you to give a reason for declining to bid on their behalf - this is mandatory.
The supplier will now appear as decline to bid as their status instead of no response.
✏️ Note: If a supplier chooses to bid at a later date they can change their status
How To Add a New supplier team member once your Request is live
If you've invited the wrong user from a supplier business or forgotten to add someone before sending your Request out - don't fear you can still add additional members.
✏️ Note: You can only do this if the supplier organization hasn't yet responded to your Request, they can still manage it on their end if they need to once that's happened
To get started go to the Request you want to add a supplier, you will automatically land on the Suppliers tab.
Click on the supplier you wish to add more team members to...
... and select the Team tab.
From here select the add user button and select the supplier's organization users you wish to add to the Request.
They'll automatically get an invitation adding them to the Request.
How To Communicate On A Request
Once a Request is live you will want to be able to interact with your suppliers (and your internal team. To find out more about our Messaging Features click here
How To Revise Your Request
To get started on editing your Request...
... Go to the live Request, click request actions, and select revise request from the drop down menu. This will take you to a revision draft state of the Request.
Once you’re in a draft state you can add additional Pages, Sections, Stages and change existing deadlines. You cannot remove Stages, or change the requirements of existing documents.
Once you’ve made all the revisions you want, go to the Review & Send tab and click issue revision.
A pop up window will appear asking whether you would like to post a message to the Bulletin. To find out more about how Bulletins work click here.
To finish off issuing your revision, click issue revision and you’re changes will be set live.
✏️ Note: You can only submit these revisions if you are the Request Owner; to check who is the Request Owner go to the Teams tab. For more information on Team Members and permission types click here.
How To Move Suppliers To The Next Stage
If you’ve built a multi-stage Request, you will have to move suppliers manually through each Stage once they’ve hit all the required criteria from the first one.
To get started...
... Log in, open the relevant Request, and click on the Suppliers tab at the top of the screen.
Select the checkbox next to the names of the suppliers you would like to progress to the next Stage of the request. You can click on the check box at the top to select all suppliers.
On the right hand of the screen, you then need to click more actions and select move to next stage from the drop down list.
You can also use this drop down list to…
Unlock bids
Download files
Reject bids
Send an invite reminder
… for the selected Suppliers.
✏️ Note: Once you’ve moved a supplier to the next Stage they can’t be moved backwards.
How To Close And Award a Bid
At the end of your Request you will need to close the bid or award the Request to a supplier.
Closing or awarding an RFx will end the bid, meaning that no further actions or revisions can be made to the Request, and suppliers can no longer respond or update their responses.
Awarding a Request means you have awarded one or more supplier(s) on the Request. You can send award and rejection messages to suppliers through the Chat message function. Once a Request is awarded no further information can be uploaded into the Request.
✏️ Note: You will only be able to award or close a Request once the deadlines you previously have set have passed.
To award a piece of work…
… First open the relevant Request. At the top right hand corner of the screen click the request actions button and select award request from the dropdown menu.
A pop up window will appear asking you to select the supplier(s) you would like to award the bid to. You will also have the option to enter a message and attach any files to send to the successful suppliers.
Once you have chosen whether or not to share a message with the awarded suppliers, click continue.
You will then have the option to send a message to the supplier(s) who have been rejected. Either choose to enter a message or not, and click continue.
Review and confirm your decision before clicking confirm. This will then notify the suppliers of your decision.
If you have chosen to send a message, this will open individual Chat messages with the supplier(s) you have awarded or rejected.
If you decide to close your Request, first click the ... button and select close request. You will be given the same option to send a message to rejected suppliers before confirming you wish to close the Request.
✏️ Note: Once awarded or closed you cannot re-open a Request.
- How you can find and download reports from a Request -
Request Members and Owners with can edit permissions can download reports from DeepStream. You can download the reports at any point during or after the Request has completed.
Click the report icon at the top right corner of your Request and select from the dropdown menu which report you would like to download.
There are five reports available which the table below goes into more detail on.
Supplier status table | This reflects the status of your suppliers on the Request. This is the same information that is shown on your Supplier tab on the Request, showing you which of your Suppliers are in progress or completed their bid submission as well as which Stage they are in. |
Supplier audit trail | This is a record of every event that has taken place on the Request since it was issued. This is a complete record of both your team members and your suppliers' team members action on the Request. |
Email delivery status | This report shows what email notifications your suppliers and team members have received during the Request, when they were delivered and whether or not they were opened and at what time. |
Stage approvals | This is a report specifically for multi-stage Requests. The report shows which Suppliers have been moved into a new Stage, when and by whom. This is for both confidentiality and auditability purposes. |
Clarifications | This is a report of all the Clarifications your company has received or sent during your Request |
✏️ Note: All reports are in a .csv format