Tender Questionnaires are created and published in your Requirements. Tender Questionnaires are created using a Template as a base, so you must first have a Template set-up, please see here for guidance on creating a Template. Once you've created a Tender Questionnaire, you can tweak the format, set rules and publish it.


N.B. Once your questionnaire has been published & suppliers have begun filling this in, you cannot change the rules. We highly recommend that you create a Test Questionnaire first, so you can test the format and rules before publishing. Please see here for guidance on creating a Test Questionnaire.



Creating a Tender Questionnaire

Tender Questionnaires are created in and linked to specific Requirements. 

N.B: If you would like to add the same Questionnaire to multiple Requirements, you can just select the same Template when creating Questionnaires in the other Requirements
  • Head to Sourcing > Requirements and click into the relevant Requirement.
  • Go into the RFX tab and click the Add RFX button, then select the 'Tender' option.
  • Select the relevant Template from the dropdown list and click New version.
  • This then opens the Manage RFX Tender screen for you to set-up the Questionnaire rules (note that you won't be shown all options for the Questionnaires settings until it's been saved). See below for guidance on this.
  • Fill in the details for your Questionnaire as prompted and then click "Save".

Your Tender Questionnaire has now been created and will be stored in the RFX tab of your Requirement as a Draft.

  • You can click the 'Edit' button next to your questionnaire if you need to edit your sections and questions. This will just edit the questionnaire, and not your template.

You will also now be presented with additional settings so you can finish setting up your Questionnaire. 

Setting up your Questionnaire Rules


General Settings

  • The Name of the Questionnaire will automatically be pre-populated with the name of your Requirement. You can edit this to a unique Version name for the Questionnaire.
    • If you're planning to have multiple Questionnaires within the same Requirement, we recommend changing the name to clearly distinguish between them, e.g ITT, SSQ.
  • The Reference will automatically be pre-populated with the Reference set on your Requirement. You can edit this to enter a unique reference for the Questionnaire.
  • The Open for response Start and Close dates indicate the time frame in which suppliers can respond to the Questionnaire. The Closing Date will automatically be pre-populated with the closing date set when setting the Requirement Stage to Tender. 


Bid Opening Date & Time

This determines the date and time that evaluators will be able to view and evaluate responses to the questionnaire.

  • Evaluators will receive a notification once the bid opening date and time passes and responses can be evaluated.
  • If an evaluator heads to the Participation screen to check suppliers responses before the bid opening date & time has passed, they will not be able to click the "Review" button and will have the bid opening date & time displayed instead.
N.B: The bid opening date must be later or the same as the questionnaire start date, and the Evaluation deadline must be set after the bid opening date.


Clarification Q&A Deadline

This determines the date and time that Suppliers can raise Clarification Questions up to.

  • Suppliers will be shown the date and time of the deadline when raising/viewing Clarification Q&As.
  • Once this date and time passes, suppliers can no longer raise Clarification Questions but can still view published Q&As.
  • The Clarification Q&A Deadline can be amended at any point when the Questionnaire is published.


Qualifying Questionnaire

This determines whether a supplier must have passed a different Questionnaire in order to be able to respond to this one. This is useful for if you require suppliers to have passed a Selection Questionnaire first.

  • Any other Questionnaire that has been set-up with the rule Qualification will result in another questionnaire can be selected as a Qualifying Questionnaire.
  • You can select a Qualifying Questionnaire from the drop-down list.
    • By default, you will only be shown Questionnaires that are linked to the same Requirement
    • Tick Show all to display all questionnaires, regardless of any link to the requirement, except withdrawn questionnaires.
    • Tick Show Withdrawn to include withdrawn questionnaires too.
  • Only suppliers that have been qualified for the Qualifying Questionnaire will be able to respond to the questionnaire.
N.B: Qualifying Questionnaires do not include any versions of the same questionnaire and excludes test and deleted questionnaires


Supplier Participation

This determines the availability of the Questionnaire for Suppliers to participate

N.B: Supplier participation for any of the below options is subject to supplier(s) being qualified for the qualifying questionnaire if one has been selected


  • Public: All Suppliers can participate and respond to the Questionnaire. This is always the default setting. 
  • Screened: All Suppliers can 'Register Interest' in the Questionnaire, however their request must first be approved by a Key User in order to be able to respond.
    • Once a supplier has registered interest, you can accept them by going to Supplier Management > Participation. 
    • Here, you can choose to invite or decline the request.
    • If you select Invite, the Supplier will then be able to respond to the Questionnaire. 
  • Invitation: Suppliers must be manually invited in order to be able to participate and respond to the Questionnaire. 
    • Select this option and click Save, and the Invitations section will then appear.
    • Here, you can choose the suppliers you wish to invite from the drop-down list.
    • Select the particular supplier and click Invite, continuing to add all the suppliers you wish to invite.
      • You can also extend your invitation to more users at any time, even once your questionnaire is published.
    • You can then remove the suppliers by click the X next to them.
    • Only the Suppliers that you invite will be able to see and respond to the questionnaire.
      • If a Qualifying Questionnaire is set, you will only be presented with suppliers that have passed the qualifying questionnaire.
    • You can invite/disinvite suppliers at any point when the questionnaire is published.


N.B: Use the Invitation option when wanting to invite your Unregistered Suppliers (if set-up/applicable). See here for more information on inviting your Unregistered Suppliers.


Knock-out answers

This determines whether a supplier can submit their responses to a questionnaire if they fail a Knock-out question. Knock-out questions are set when editing your Questions. Please see here for guidance on setting a Knock-out question.

  • Select either:
    • Prevent a supplier from submitting questionnaire if they fail a knock-out question (although they will be able to up-date and submit if circumstances change)
      • Use this ONLY if you do not wish to let suppliers submit their response if they fail a Knock-Out.
      • The message "Failed- Knock-Out Question" will be displayed next to the section they completed.
    • Allow all submissions (including responses that fail the Knock-Out rules) and highlight knocked-out response to evaluators  


Qualification results 

This determines what a successful participation in the Questionnaire results in for the Supplier:

  • Approved for the Contract/Requirement as a whole - i.e. the final tender.
    • Please note - only one questionnaire in a requirement can have this set as its qualification result.
  • Another Questionnaire - Suppliers will be invited to participate in another Questionnaire
    • The invitations can be done manually or automatic when a supplier is qualified for the questionnaire.
  • Supplier satisfying Due Diligence checks for... - Can be used for any additional/supplementary questionnaires for the main tender, and can be used subsequently for any due diligence after the contract has been awarded.


Manage Evaluators

This determines which users can evaluate supplier responses to the questionnaire, and which sections they will be able to evaluate.

  • To add a new Evaluator, select the Mange Evaluators button.
  • Click on "Add a New Evaluator" to bring down a drop-down list of users that can be selected as evaluators.
N.B. If an evaluator is not available to be chosen, please contact the Support Team who will check the users permissions.
  • All the Evaluators you've selected will now be listed.
  • Click on an Evaluator to manage the sections that they're able to evaluate
  • This will show you a list of the sections on the questionnaire. These will all automatically be ticked.
  • Deselect/select the boxes to assign the evaluator with certain sections to evaluate
  • This means that the evaluator will only be able to see and evaluate the sections that have been ticked.
N.B: There must be at least one evaluator for each section
  • To remove an evaluator click the Remove Evaluator button. 
  • You must click Update at the bottom of the page to keep any changes you make.
  • There is a tick box labelled 'Evaluators Comments are mandatory' (which is ticked by default). 
    • These will be required when later the Evaluator is asked to make 'Comments' when they 'Confirm Score'. 
  • You can also set an evaluation deadline, or the number of days after the bid opening date in which the responses must be evaluated. 
N.B. If a bid date has been set, the Evaluation deadline must be set after the bid opening date.


Supporting Documents

This determines the files/documents participating suppliers will be able to access. You can only attach files/documents that have been uploaded in the Document Library of the Requirement.

  • You will be shown each Document folder in the Requirement (Research, Define, Tender, Negotiation, Award, Cancelled, Closed),
  • Click into a folder and you can then select the files within it you want to be uploaded as part of the Questionnaire. 
  • Key Users can add or remove documents from the Questionnaire whenever they want. 
  • Please also ensure you have sent the Support Team your Terms and Conditions for suppliers to access when clicking T&C's within the Questionnaire submission. 
N.B. The T&C's will be the same for all Questionnaires published - for Questionnaire specific documentation please use the Supporting Documents functionality.



Create Email Templates

This determines the e-mail templates that will be sent to Suppliers at different stages of the Questionnaire process. You can manage and create default Email Templates specific to this Questionnaire.

  • Click on Email Templates
  • From the drop-down list, select the stage of the questionnaire that's relevant for when the e-mail is sent
  • Enter/edit the text, then click "Save"

        

Weighting

This determines the weighting of the value of sections scoring. 

  • This allows you to have weighted scoring - the number you specify in the weighting column will be multiplied by the total score of the section to produce the weighted score.
    • e.g. If you have a section where you have one question that is scored out of 5 but the section is worth 20% of the overall score then you would input 4 in the box so the overall weighted score is 20.
  • Please see here for detailed guidance on Weighting and how to apply it. 
N.B. Once you've set the Weighting, you'll no longer be able to edit the structure of your Questionnaire. Please ensure you've made any edits necessary before saving Weighting.

Save/Publish Questionnaire

Once completed, click Save or Publish your questionnaire.

  • Clicking Save will save your questionnaire as a draft.
    • You can enter the Manage Questionnaire screen again by going into the RFX tab of your Requirement and clicking on the Questionnaire name,
      • This will allow you to make any changes and save your questionnaire.
  • By clicking Publish, the questionnaire will be open for suppliers to respond to on the open date and time you entered in Questionnaire settings.
N.B. Once you have Published the Questionnaire, certain rules will no longer be able to be edited. If you need to amend some of these details, you can Withdraw the Questionnaire and then Publish it again.