Managing post tender requests

Now that you've sent your post tender request, just like an Open RFQ period, there are features available to you as an RFQ Owner to manage these requests:

• Keep track of vendor statuses in response to Post tender requests
• Respond to requests for information (RFIs) from vendors related to post tender requests
• View post tender response details to access comments, documents and pricing responses.
• Issue new post tender requests to vendors as needed.
• View, normalise and compare pricing schedule (bill of quantity) submissions (for customers using this feature)
• Recommend for Award or create an Engagement with your selected vendors (for customers using these features)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Keep track of vendor statuses
• Respond to any vendor requests for information
• View post tender responses from vendors
• Issuing a new post tender request
• Ready to engage a vendor?

Keep track of vendor statuses

Vendors who have received a post tender request have two (2) options to respond - they can Submit a response ("Updated"), or respond with "No Update".

In both cases, the RFQ Owner and RFQ Watchers will receive email notifications of a response to a post tender request.

Inside Felix, you can see vendor response statuses in two locations:

1. On the Vendors tab, where you will see a "post tender status" column with status indicators next to vendor names.
2. In the Communication detail view, where you will see status badges next to each vendor recipient for that particular 

Image: post tender status column on Vendors tab

Image: Status badges for vendors on a post tender request communication view

In the case of the Vendors tab, only the latest post tender request status is shown for a vendor. If a vendor has received multiple requests, you can click the status button to access the history of requests.

If your organisation has started or finished a recommendation for award, or issued and had an Engagement accepted by a vendor, then any Pending requests for that vendor will show up as "No Update".

Respond to any vendor requests for information

Similar to the Addendum function on Open RFQs, vendors could send an RFI in response to a post tender request. When they create an RFI, Felix prefills the message title with the post tender request title.

See this article for details on accessing and responding to messages from vendors via the Communications tab.

View post tender responses from vendors

When vendors respond with either an "Updated" or "No Update" status to a post tender request, you can view their response details using the same tools you use on an Open RFQ - the modal that is opened when you click a status button on the Vendors tab, and the modal that opens from the "Quote Comparison" button on the vendors tab.

Image: status buttons next to a vendor, and the Quote comparison button

The modal that opens from the status buttons has the following features, in addition to Original Quote (Open RFQ period) responses:

• All vendor submissions are displayed in order of most recent to original quote. Statuses of submissions are shown, and informational alerts provided where needed.
• Any vendor provided comments and documents are visible for post tender requests.
• If pricing was requested for a post tender request and the vendor responded, it will be visible here or accessible via a link to the Pricing Schedule (as applicable).

For customers with Pricing Schedules (bill of quantities) attached to RFQ services, you can use the "Open pricing schedule version" to access detailed pricing schedules, as well as compare and normalise these quotes. See this article for more details on reviewing a pricing schedule.

Issuing a new post tender request

During the course of negotiations, you may identify the need to revise the required information from vendors or add a new request for information from your post tender vendors.

You can issue as many post tender requests as you like to Quoted vendors on a closed RFQ.

Some business rules to be aware of when issuing post tender requests, especially in the context of vendors you have already requested from:

• If a post tender request is sent to a vendor with a Pending request for that same RFQ service, it will "cancel" the existing Pending request, setting the status for that vendor to "No Update". They will no longer be able to respond to that request - only the new one.
• If your organisation has already Sent an award for approval (or awarded) that vendor on that RFQ service, then you can no longer issue new post tender requests to that vendor for that service.
• If your organisation has already had an Engagement accepted by a vendor on an RFQ service, then you can no longer issue new post tender requests to that vendor for that service. 

See this article for how to Send a post tender request.

Ready to engage a vendor?

If you have completed negotiations and are ready to engage a vendor for services, see these articles (feature dependant at your organisation):

• Recommend a vendor for award
• Send an Engagement to a vendor from an RFQ