This guide is intended for buyers. If you're a supplier, check out our supplier help articles here.
This article will cover:
How to Send Suppliers an Invite Reminder
If you’ve invited users to collaborate on DeepStream and they haven’t yet responded, you can nudge them to engage by sending an invite reminder.
Click on the Requests tab.
Select the request you wish to open.
Go to the Suppliers tab and select the suppliers that still have the Bid status ‘Invited’, by ticking the checkbox next to their name (you can select multiple using the top checkbox)
Click the dropdown button More actions and select Invite reminders.
Confirm the reminder in the invite pop-up, then click Send.
✏️Please Note: You can find the Bid status by scrolling along to the end of the supplier table.
✏️ Please Note: Invite reminders can only be sent to users invited to collaborate on DeepStream for the first time.
How to Decline a Bid on a Supplier's Behalf
If a supplier 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 in your Request.
Click the checkbox beside the supplier you wish to decline to bid for.
Click the More actions button and select Decline to bid.
Provide a reason for declining.
The supplier will now appear as ‘Decline to bid’ instead of ‘No response’.
✏️ Please Note: If a supplier chooses to bid later, 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 or forgotten to add someone before sending your Request, you can still add additional members.
Go to the Request you want to add a supplier to.
You will automatically land on the Suppliers tab.
Click on the supplier you wish to add more team members to.
Select the Team tab.
Click the + Add user button and choose the supplier's organisation users to add.
✏️ Please Note: This is only possible if the supplier organisation hasn't yet responded to your Request.
How to Communicate on a Request
Once a Request is live, you will want to interact with your suppliers and internal team. Learn more about our Messaging Features here.
How to Revise Your Request
To edit your Request:
Go to the live Request, click Request actions, and select Revise request.
This takes you to a revision draft state.
In the draft state, add or change Pages, Sections, Stages, or Deadlines.
Go to the Review & send tab and click the green Issue revision button.
A pop-up box will appear with the option to post a Bulletin to all your included suppliers. If you don’t want to send a message you can select No and then Issue revision.
✏️ Please Note: You can only submit revisions if you are the Request Owner.
How to Move Suppliers to the Next Stage
If you’ve built a multi-stage Request:
Open the relevant Request, and click on the Suppliers tab.
Select suppliers to progress by clicking on the checkbox next to their name.
Click More actions and select Move to next stage from the dropdown list.
A pop-up box will appear to confirm the suppliers you are moving and what the next stage is.
✏️ Please Note: Once moved, a supplier can't be moved backwards.
How to Close and Award a Bid
At the end of your Request you have a couple of options:
Award request: This means you have awarded one or more supplier(s).
Close request: This ends the bid, and no further actions or revisions can be made.
To award the request:
Open the relevant Request.
Click Request actions and select Award request.
Select supplier(s) to award, enter a message, and attach files if needed.
Click continue, review, and confirm your decision.
If chosen, send messages to awarded or rejected suppliers.
You will then be prompted to fill in a few more fields regarding the final value of your request. These fields will help to ensure data around your savings is accurate and up to date.
Once your Request has been awarded the Request actions button will change to Create contract - to learn more about our Contracts Hub click here.
✏️ Please Note: You can only award or close a Request after set deadlines have passed.
How to Find and Download Reports from a Request
Request Members and Owners with can edit permissions can download reports at any point during or after the Request has been completed.
Click the report icon at the top right corner of your Request.
Select the report you want to download from the dropdown menu.
There are five reports available:
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 audit-ability purposes.
Clarifications: This is a report of all the Clarifications you company has received or sent during your Request.
✏️ Please Note: All reports are in .csv format.
For any further queries, please use our live chat function or email: support@deepstreamtech.com