This article is intended for suppliers.

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

This article intends to help suppliers understand how to respond to Requests they're invited to bid on.

It will cover:

When a buyer invites you to bid on a Request, you’ll first need to respond to the Request to confirm that you intend to participate, or of course decline. Until you have sent your intention to bid you will not be able to access the details of, or participate in the Request.

In order to be able to bid on a Request you’ll need to have permissions to receive Requests (or just be a company profile administrator). Find out more about permissions here.

In order to respond to a Request, log into DeepStream and open the Request you would like to respond to. Click the respond button on the top right of your screen and select submit intention to bid or decline to bid.

If you choose decline to bid, you will have to give a reason as to why you have chosen not to participate.

If you choose to participate in the bid, your interface will change to show the action points that the buyer requires you to complete.

If you set your intention to bid you’ll immediately be able to see the first tasks that you are required to complete.

At the top of an individual my bid page, you’ll find the Bid Status Panel. This is a summary panel that will help you see the status of your bid and how far you have progressed toward completion.

The progress bar will move further towards completion as you progress through each task.

If any of the requirements need a response from the buyer (e.g. you’ve offered a deviation) this will also be represented in the Bid Status Panel.

There are multiple Sections in a Request that you might need to complete.

... Click on the line you would like to submit your pricing for. A pop up window will appear, click submit price at the bottom of the window.

Enter the pricing for each line item field, you can also leave an additional comment to support this. You will be able to update your price before the deadline by clicking the undo button next to your previous price in the pop up window.

Each document uploaded or requested from the buyer will have an action against it.

As the supplier, you will need to complete these actions in order to complete the Request. These actions include:

You can undo and mark obsolete any documents you upload or action you take as part of a document exchange.

All of your document exchanges will be logged by the Audit Trail. Once a request is closed, awarded or the deadline has passed you will no longer be able to complete document exchanges.

If you need to replace a document that has been uploaded to the platform as part of a document exchange you can mark it as obsolete, and replace it with an updated document.

To mark a document as obsolete, log into the platform and open the relevant Request. Then you should go to the Page tab that holds the document you'd like to update.

Click the complete button under the status column. This will open the document exchange window. Click the undo button next to the document you'd like to update. Select yes, mark as obsolete.

The window will update to allow you to upload files and submit documents. You will also have the option to leave a comment for the buyer letting them know your reason for uploading a new document.

... Click on the line containing the Question you would like to respond to. This will open up a pop up exchange window. Click submit response

Enter your response to the Question, the question will dictate whether it is:

You will need to respond in the correct format.

Use the comments section to submit any additional supporting information.

If there are multiple Stages in the Request you have been invited to, it is at the discretion of the buyer at what point your company is moved to the next stage.

Your company will receive an email notification when you do, and you will be required to click Respond and send your intention to move to the next Stage, when you next open the Request.

There will be new documents to complete and submit, and additional information to provide once you are moved to the next Stage of a Request.

Once the deadline has passed, or the Request has been closed or awarded you will no longer be able to submit any additional information.

If you want to communicate with a buyer on the platform there’s a few ways you can do it.

Firstly you can communicate through messages, you’ll be able to do this if you’re a Team Member who has been invited to a Request and has 'Can edit' access for Messages.

There are three types of Messages;

As a supplier, you can use the Clarifications feature to proactively ask the buyer any questions about the details of the request. Buyers are able to send you Clarifications too.

✏️ Note: You are not able to send documents in a Clarification

To send a Clarification, Log into DeepStream and open the Request which you would like to ask the Buyer about. Go to the Messages tab and select Clarifications.

Click new clarification, type in the subject and message you'd like to send and click open clarification.

The buyer will receive an email notification and will respond to you in the same place.

⚡ Top tip: You can open as many Clarifications as you like. We suggest opening a new Clarification for each query to keep yourself organised.

If you can’t send a Clarification, this means you don’t have permission to access the Messages tab. You’ll need to send a message to the Bid Owner if you’d like access.

The other two types of messages are Bulletins and Chats. You won’t be able to send either of these.

Only a buyer can open a new chat. A buyer can give permission to individual supplier companies to attach and exchange documents within a Chat message.

Bulletin messages are shared with all suppliers on a Request and suppliers are unable to respond directly to it. If you wish to respond you will need to open a new Clarification. Only a buyer can create a Bulletin post.

The below table provides a helpful summary of the different modes of communication.

✏️ Note: All Messages are captured by the Audit Trail