How to recommend a vendor for award (RFA)

You have the flexibility to recommend a vendor (who has Quoted, or been Manually Quoted) for contract award during two stages: when an RFQ is open, and after the RFQ quoting period has closed. 

If your organisation requires Recommendation for Award (RFA) approvals in Felix before awarding, they will have this feature turned on and you will be required to complete the workflow before awarding a vendor from an RFQ.

The RFA approval workflow involves requesting approval from different organisational decision-makers for the award. The recommended vendor selection will undergo a review and approval process to ensure proper evaluation and consensus among the relevant stakeholders in the organisation.

Business rules to be aware of with RFAs

• A recommendation for award may only be raised for a vendor who has responded to your RFQ. Their status must be in Quoted or Manually quoted status.
  
  

• You will not be able to start a new recommendation for award for a vendor if they already have a pending recommendation for award for the same service in the RFQ.
  
  

• A vendor can only be awarded once per service on an RFQ. 
  
  

• If a post tender request is Pending for a vendor, it will be cancelled when an RFA is Sent for approval. You will receive a warning of this as you work through the RFA process. 
  
  

• A post tender request cannot be raised for a vendor who has a Sent, Approved or Awarded RFA

How to recommend for award

To recommend a vendor for award:

1. Navigate to Projects > Requests for Quotation from the main menu.
2. Locate the RFQ you would like to recommend for award by using the quick search or filters.
3. Click on the RFQ Job Name or hover over the ellipsis icon and select View Details from the options. The RFQ will open.
4. Go to the Vendors tab.
5. Locate the Vendor you would like to recommend for award.
6. Hover over the ellipsis icon and select Recommend for Award from the options.
   
   

   If your organisation has the RFA approval workflow feature off, you can directly award the vendor, and will see an "Award" option. See this article for more detail.

   
   
7. Update the following fields:
   • Package - This field will be available and required if the RFQ is connected to a package on a procurement schedule. You can update this field to select the relevant package if there are multiple packages linked to the RFQ.
   • (Required) Award Value
   • (Optional) Currency
   • (Optional) Contract Start Date - This is optional at the RFA approval stage but will be required later when the award is approved.
   • (Optional) Contract End Date - This is optional at the RFA approval stage but will be required later when the award is approved.
   • (Optional) Contract Number
8. Click the Create Recommendation for Award button.
   
   
9. Select the relevant Approval Template from those that have been configured by your organisation from the dropdown and click the Start Approval button to begin working on your approval request immediately.
   
   
10. If you click on Start Approval, you will be directed to the Create an Approval Instance page to prepare an RFA approval where you will find the Questionnaire that requires completion. Refer to this article for details on starting an approval workflow to get approval.

• The content (questionnaire) of approval templates is configured by Felix on behalf of your organisation. Reach out to Felix Support team to set up new or change approval templates.
• If you select an approval template but do not immediately start the approval, the draft will be available on the Awards tab (or Engagements & Awards tab if your organisation utilises the engagements feature) in the RFQ.

Returning to a draft award you started

Pending and approved RFA approvals and sent awards can be viewed on the Awards tab (or Engagements & Awards tab if your organisation utilises the engagements feature) within the RFQ. Additionally, you can navigate to Reports > Approval Instances or Projects > Awards (or Projects > Engagements & Awards).