How to invite, manage mini-tenders and collaborate with suppliers on your new Opportunities.
This guide supports you in managing your Opportunities end-to-end:
Step 1: Create a draft Opportunity and a long list of suppliers
Step 2: Go live with the Opportunity and invite suppliers
Step 3: Manage your Opportunity
Step 4: Review proposals and make a decision
Step 5: Close Opportunity
Read this guide for more information on why and how to engage suppliers on bids, challenges and frameworks using Opportunities.
You can see all of your Opportunities on the Opportunities Index. This includes Opportunity name, number of suppliers invited, deadlines, status and decisions. Filters on the Index enable you to drill down into the Live tenders/frameworks specific members of your team are currently managing.
Clicking 'Create a new Opportunity' starts the process of managing a new Opportunity.
Step 1: Create a draft Opportunity and a long list of suppliers
Watch this video to find out how to:
- Create a draft Opportunity, including description, instructions and documents (up to 5GB files are accepted).
- Navigate the single Opportunity page where you can manage your tender end-to-end.
- Add Suppliers to the long list - using filters to quickly add Suppliers on a Framework, Suppliers approved to a certain Compliance Level or Suppliers successful in a previous round (e.g. a PQQ).
Note: Suppliers will not be notified at this stage.
Note: Once live, titles, descriptions and documents can no longer be edited.
TIP! You can change privacy settings for Opportunities - see this IAND Academy guide for more.
TIP! You can also use the Companies Index to filter your suppliers (e.g. by SIC code or Service) and then use the '...' under Actions to 'Add to Opportunity'.
Step 2: Go live with the Opportunity and invite suppliers
Watch this video to find out how to:
- Go live with your Opportunity.
- Invite suppliers to the Opportunity. They will be notified immediately.
Step 3: Manage your Opportunity
Watch this video to find out how to:
- Change the deadline on the Opportunity.
- Send updates to all suppliers invited to the Opportunity.
- Respond to individual supplier messages.
- Manage all 1:1 messages regarding the Opportunity.
Note: Notifications are sent to suppliers immediately when an update is sent. There is a short delay (10 mins) on 1:1 messages to enable message round-ups.
TIP! Click on the Supplier widget to view their capacity (total spend, sources), compliance approval level and company category at any time when managing the Opportunity.
TIP! You can also keep additional information in the "Notes" section of the Opportunity page. These notes are not visible to suppliers.
Step 4: Review proposals and make a decision
Watch this video to find out how to:
- Review supplier proposals - you will be notified when suppliers upload proposals, suppliers will be notified immediately on the outcome of your review.
- Close out suppliers if you decide not to proceed - they will receive no further updates but will retain access to information and the updates and messages sent before closure.
- Award work to a supplier, multiple suppliers, or award multiple mini-tenders to a supplier on a framework.
- Easily maintain an audit trail of your bid management.
TIP! You can award work to multiple suppliers, making Opportunities a great feature for managing Frameworks.
TIP! You can mark multiple proposals as 'Successful', making Opportunities a great feature for awarding call-off contracts.
Note: Suppliers are reminded of deadlines, but proposals can be received after the deadline.
Step 5: Close Opportunity
Watch this video to find out how to:
- Close the Opportunity - suppliers will be notified immediately. The Opportunity will move into a read-only state.
TIP! When closing your Opportunity, you can either add a custom message that will be sent to suppliers or close the Opportunity with no notifications sent to suppliers.
