Ways Suppliers can initiate communicate with a Buyer:
Clarifications: Messages sent to the Buyer for further details on the request
Comments: Messages aligned to a specific part of the request (i.e a Line item)
Bulletins: Messages shared with all Suppliers on a Request
Clarifications: Message sent to one Supplier for further details on the request
Chat: Where Buyers can communicate to Supplier's directly, Suppliers can't create chats. They can only respond.
Comments: Messages aligned to a specific part of the request (i.e a Line item)
Who can use these forms of communication?
To communicate with a Buyer, you need to be a user on the relevant request.
Owner - has full access to all content & has the ability to contact Buyers
Team member - needs 'Can edit' access to enable messaging functionality
Please note: all messages are logged in the audit trail & can be downloaded as a .CSV file
Clarifications
To create a new clarification, please go to the 'Messages' tab within the request. You can then click on '+New Clarification' which will bring up a Subject & Message field for you to infill:
The Buyer will receive an email notification & respond to your clarification in the same place
This is a direct conversation between yourself & the Buyer, no other entities will have access to this conversation. We recommend opening a new Clarification for each query.
Please note: you can open a clarification after a request has been closed, awarded or the deadline has passed
To respond to a clarification, please go to the 'Messages' tab within the request & into 'Clarifications'.
If a Buyer has opened a clarification with you, you will see the red notification where they are awaiting a response.
Once you open the clarification, you will have the ability to post a comment back
Buyers have the ability to respond to Supplier's clarifications with:
This links any previous Bulletins they have sent to your clarification
Comments
You can add a comment against any Question, Line Item or Document Buyers have requested you to complete.
Please click into the response field you would like to write a comment on & at the bottom of the page it will say 'Post comment'.
Once you have successfully left a comment, you will see this a number appear in the comments column indicating how many comments there have been
Bulletins
Bulletins are messages Buyers can broadcast to all Suppliers on a request.
Suppliers are not able to send Bulletins & are unable to respond directly to these but will receive an email notification once a Buyer has sent it.
Within the request, you will see a red notification next to the Messages tab to inform you the Buyer has sent communication.
Once you open the Messages tab, any Bulletin messages from the Buyer will appear below:
Chat
Chats allow one to one communication between Buyers & Suppliers, however only Buyers can create Chats.
Buyers can share and exchange documents with individual suppliers through the Chat if they enable the feature.
Please note: Chats can also be sent after a request has been closed, awarded or the deadline has passed
Notifications
Notifications: you will receive a red notification symbol next to the 'Messages' tab to indicate there are updates in:
Bulletin
Clarification
Chat
Once you have clicked into the tab, you can see where the update is & how many messages you have:
For any further queries, please email: support@deepstreamtech.com