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Responding to vendor questions on Request for quotations

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When your agency has sent a request for quotation (RFQ), vendors sometimes have questions that pertain to the request. Vendors that have questions related to an RFP can submit their questions and read the answers on Vendor collaboration page, when you make that page available to them. When vendor questions are accepted, Questions and answers is available on the Request for quotation bid page on Vendor collaboration, and for your agency through the Request for quotation page, Questions and answers.

Users can publish answers to vendor questions more than once. Vendors can't no longer post questions after a vendor is selected and the RFQ is awarded, or after the cutoff date for questions is reached.

Turn this feature on or off

To use this feature, it must be turned on for your system. As of Supply Chain Management version 10.0.21, it's turned on by default. As of Supply Chain Management version 10.0.32, this feature is mandatory and can't be turned off. If you're running a version older than 10.0.32, then admins can turn this functionality on or off by searching for the RFQ questions and answers feature in the Feature management workspace.

Allow questions and answers to be used in RFQs

  1. Go to Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing parameters.
  2. Open the Request for quotation tab.
  3. Set the following options as needed:
    • Allow vendor questions: Enables or disables vendor questions for RFQ cases. You must set this to Yes to use the features described in this article.
    • Default direct response: When you reply to a question, you can choose to reply to all vendors who received the RFQ or to reply only to the specific vendor who submitted the question. You can make choose this option each time you reply, but this setting controls the default. If you usually reply to all vendors, set this to No. If you usually reply to individual vendors, set this to Yes.

Setting up for vendor questions

When creating a request for quotation, you determine whether vendors can ask questions about the RFQ.

  1. Navigate to Procurement and sourcing > Requests for quotations then click New > Request for quotation
  2. In the New request for quotation page, Header to set the Vendor question options fields to allow questions before a certain date.
  3. Set the Allow vendor question option to Yes so the vendors can enter questions. Users can enter and answer questions and designate commonly asked questions to publish for vendors when the RFQ is sent to vendors.
  4. Optional: In the Cutoff date field, define the final date by which questions must be submitted. If no cutoff date is entered, questions are accepted as long as the RFQ is open and accepting bids.
  5. Click Save to save the RFQ.
  6. Click Send to send the RFQ to the vendors for bidding.

Entering and replying to vendor questions

Vendors enter questions in the Vendor Collaboration > Request for quotations bid page, Vendor questions FastTab. The question is visible only to the vendor and users.

Entering a vendor question

  1. In Vendor collaboration, in the Request for quotation bid page, click Questions and answers, and then click + Ask a question.

    Note

    Alternately, a user can enter questions for a vendor on the Request for quotation page, by clicking Manage replies, Edit RFQ reply then clicking Questions and asnwers.

  2. On the Question field, enter the question text.

  3. Click the Submit. Repeat steps 1-3 to add a question.

  4. When done, click Save to save your questions.

Replying to a single vendor

The question and answer are visible only to the vendor and users.

  1. On the Request for quotations page, click the Questions and answers to display the Questions and answers page.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Enter text in the Answer field to respond to the vendor's question.
  4. Check the Direct response box.
  5. Click Save to save your replies.
  6. Click Send answers to send the answers to the vendor.

Replying to all vendors

If you receive the same question from multiple vendors, you can group the questions and respond with one answer. All vendors receive notification when the commonly asked questions and answers are published. The vendors and anyone with access to the request for quotation can view the summary of questions and answers.

  1. On the Request for quotations page, click the Questions and answers to display the Questions and answers page.
  2. Click Edit.
  3. Choose a code for the common question, such as the letter 'a.'
  4. For each line that asks a similar question, enter the code in the Group code field. For example, for each line asking about item color, enter 'a.'
  5. Choose one of the lines with the code value, and enter the question and answer the way you want them to read in the summary that will be available when the questions and answers are published (Group question, Group answer fields).
  6. Optional: You can mark the Direct response check box to send the answers only to the selected vendors.
  7. Click Save to save your answers.
  8. Optional: You can revert the questions and answers to the previously published values if you want to undo your changes.
  9. Click Send answers to send your answers to the vendors.

Changing RFQ to allow or disallow questions

You can make changes to allow or disallow questions to RFQs until the RFQ is awarded. You can also extend or shorten the time frame in which vendors can submit questions. For published RFQs, you must modify a request for quotation to allow or disallow vendor questions or adjust the time frame for questions.

Important

If you amend an existing RFQ for the purpose of allowing vendor questions, the system will clear all existing responses when you resend the RFQ.