Requirements

Modified on Thu, 5 Jun at 4:28 PM

As part of our E-procurement module, you can create Requirements which can then hold all information relating to a contract - this includes storing all the different questionnaires and notices that have been created as part of the requirement.

You can view and manage all Requirements on your site by navigating to Sourcing > Requirements via the left-hand side menu.

You can filter this screen to only show requirements meeting certain criteria, if you wish to find or pull off reports on certain requirements. Please see here for guidance on how to filter your Requirements dashboard.
You can add new Requirements from this screen. Please see here for guidance on how to add new Requirements.

Click on a Requirement to view the details of it.

Requirement Stage

All Requirements should be allocated the appropriate Stage. This indicates what stage the Requirement is at and is also linked to the type of Notices you can publish.

You can change a Requirements stage by clicking on the 'Stage' button in the upper-right.

The Stages are:

Research (Early engagement)
- Research the market for supply options to fulfil requirement.
- Suppliers can register interest and respond to your questionnaire.
- Need to provide: Closing Date & Time for Research questionnaire responses.
Define (Future Opportunity)
- Research internally to find expected spend requirements
- Draft and test supplier selection questionnaire.
Tender (Opportunity)
- Publish and capture bids using supplier selection questionnaire.
- Evaluate suppliers' responses and (dis)qualify where appropriate.
- Need to provide: Closing Date& Time for Tender questionnaire responses.
Evaluation
Negotiation
Award (Awarded Contract)
Live
Cancelled
- Need to provide: reason for cancelling requirement.
Closed
- Need to provide: reason for closing the requirement. (e.g. contract has not expired, and a new one is in effect)
Expired
- Includes the date and time of expiry.

Classification

To support consistent and proportionate application of the guidance on assessing and monitoring the economic and financial standing of suppliers, we have introduced a tiered classification system: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze which you can classify your Requirement against. See here for more information.

Requirement Tabs

Requirements are made up of tabs that hold different information relating to the contract. Different named users on a Requirement have different access to tabs - please see here for info.

Tabs Contents:

Details
Description
RFX
Notices
Comments
Document Library
*E-Signature
Nudges
People
Buyers
Categories
Expenditure
Supplier Tags
Suppliers
Jobs
Reminders
Audit

Details

Here, you can review all of the information provided relating to the requirement.

This information includes:

Closing date for research and tender response.
The contract start date and the contract end date.
Reference Prefix
Your lowest or actual price, highest price specifications.
Thresholds (optional)
Postcode & region
CPV codes – select type of work from list provided which you can search by name or CPV code.
Suitability for SME's or VCSE's
People (Procurement, Contract Managers and Stakeholders)*
Buyers**
Contract Review Date (optional)
Notice Period (optional)
Extension Period (optional)
Extension Date (optional)
Custom Fields (optional, please click here for guidance on setting up and using Custom Fields)

Subject to access, the above information can be edited in Requirement fields by clicking Edit (unless indicated below)

*Editable by going to the "Peoples" tab of the requirement.

**Editable by going to the "Buyers" tab of the requirement.

Description

This tab holds a longer, more detailed description of the Requirement. This description will be pulled into any Notices you create, so use this tab to provide information on how suppliers can apply/ any additional information they may need to know.

RFX

This tab allows you to view, manage, edit and add:

Tender Questionnaires. Click here for more information on creating, editing & managing Tender Questionnaires.
Research Questionnaires. Click here for more information on creating, editing & managing Research Questionnaires.
RFX Quotes. Click here for more information on creating, editing & managing RFX Quotes.

Notices

This tab allows you to view, manage, edit and add Notices on:

Contracts Finder
Find a Tender
your Public Site
link custom Notes

Click here for more information on creating, managing, and publishing notices.

Comments

This tab allows you to store any comments, notes or information relating to the requirement.

You will need to specify what stage the comment relates to. This cannot be changed later.
Comments can include tables, lists, pictures and website links (these can't be links to files/folders).
Remember to click Save when finished.

Document Library

This tab allows you to upload, view and manage documents relevant to the Requirement. These can be linked to questionnaires in the RFX tab of the Requirement for suppliers to view.

Any documents which are attached in the library, if used in particular Questionnaires, will be marked to indicate this.
If a Key User deletes these documents from the requirement, the marked ones, will also no longer be available to interested suppliers in their interface.
Deleting a document cannot be undone and will present a warning indicating this.

*E-Signature

N.B: This requires the use of our additional eSignature module. Please ask your site administrator to submit a request via HQ if you wish to purchase this module for your site. Note that we use Legal Sign for this. See here for more information on E-Signature.

The eSignature module is an additional feature within our Sourcing package, powered by LegalSign, streamlining the document signing process. This feature empowers users to efficiently manage the entire eSignature process, from document preparation to final storage, ensuring a seamless and legally compliant workflow.

You can upload documents for signing via PDF Templates or from the Document Library tab, and add signing field(s) for each party involved.
These can then be sent out via e-mail and allows you to monitor the status.

Nudges

Here you can send and view all Nudges associated with the Requirement. Nudges act as a way to send messages to people linked to the Requirement, including Suppliers, Buyers and named People.

Click here for more information on creating and viewing Nudges.

People

This tab allows you to view and add named internal users to link them to the requirement for different responsibilities. These could be users you wish to be evaluators, clarification question respondents, or help manage the contract in general.

Procurement - these can manage, process and edit all details and stages of the requirement.
Contract Managers - these can do all that a Procurement person can do except publish notices.
Stakeholder - these can view all details and edit their comments, documents and Nudges. Access to additional items can be granted if shared by a Contract Manager or Procurement manager.

Users within this tab can be assigned different responsibilities for the requirement, such as Clarification Q&A respondent, Supplier Messaging. Click here for more guidance on the Peoples tab.

Buyers

This tab allows you to view, add and manage buyers/clients of the contract, specified as a company/organisation, or specific departments/sections.

Users belonging to the company/department/section(s) specified will be able to see the Requirement on their Dashboard and only view the Details tab.

Expenditure

This tab allows you to see approved expenditure against the Requirement.

See here if using our DirectP2P (DP2P) module
See here if using our ProjectP2P module

Supplier Tags

This tab allows Procurement Managers and Contract Managers to filter/categorise their Suppliers within a Requirement when you are:

Inviting suppliers to an RFX
Inheriting suppliers in a Call-Off

See here for more information.

Suppliers

Here, you can view all suppliers associated with this Requirement, subject to access permissions. Suppliers will appear in this tab if they've:

Gone through a questionnaire process linked to the Requirement
Been added manually by a Procurement or Contract Manager person

This tab allows you to:

View the Qualification status of each supplier
Manually add Suppliers
Manually Disqualify Suppliers
Make a Supplier Live against Categories/Lots (to confirm their use for different categories/lots)

Please see here for guidance on navigating the Suppliers Tab.

Jobs

The Jobs tab shows any Project P2P Jobs that have been linked to the Requirement, subject to access permissions.

In this tab you can view the Status (Live, Completed, Cancelled etc.) of all jobs linked to that requirement.
Click here for how to link a Job to a Requirement.
Click here for how to link a Project (and all jobs within that Project) to a Requirement.

Reminders

Here you can create reminders, that are used to send scheduled and recurring notifications to users within groups on a Requirement. Click here for more information on setting up Reminders.

See here for more information.

Audit

The Audit tab keeps a log of certain activities related to the Requirement for Audit purposes.

You can see the date & time of the activity, what the activity was, and the user. This includes the order in which opened, date and time and by which user attached Documents were downloaded and viewed. Also any amendments in the Requirement will be recorded here.
This information can be exported as an excel or pdf document.
Information stored in the Audit tab includes:
- When a Questionnaire is published
- When evaluators / clarification Q&A respondents are added/changed
- When a document is attached or removed from a Tender Questionnaire
- When a notice is created (drafted), edited, validated and published
- When a user Registers Interest, Requests to Participate and is accepted to participate, and when a user is invited
- When a document is downloaded from a Tender Questionnaire (from both the Register Interest screen and My Questionnaire view)
- When a Clarification Question is raised and answered
- When an Evaluator evaluates a section of a suppliers response to a Questionnaire
- When a supplier is qualified and disqualified
- When a supplier is assigned Categories
- When a supplier is made Live
- When editing details in a requirement
- When a comment/document or nudge is shared with a Stakeholder.

Buyer, Supplier and People Leads:

There is the option to show the lead person, buyer and supplier for each requirement in the requirements table. To enable this Key Users have the option to nominate one lead in each of the following tabs using the crown icon :

• People tab: ‘Project Lead’ – a Procurement or Contract Manager named in this tab for the requirement

• Buyer's tab: ‘Lead Buyer’ – an Organisation Department, or section named in this tab for the requirement

• Supplier’s tab: ‘Primary or sole Supplier’ – a Live supplier organization named in this tab for the requirement

Additionally, these three additions are now optional columns that can be pulled into the main Requirement dashboard for you to see this information at a glance, and allows you to export this information too through pdf or excel report features.

• Project Lead

• Lead Buyer

• Supplier (primary or sole)

These details will also be able to be displayed on the Details tab.