missouribuys training material
TRANSCRIPT
MissouriBUYS Training Material
Formal Solicitation Creation
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Table of Contents
CreateFormalSolicitationHeader ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Requirements .................................................................................................................................. 6
Questionnaire ................................................................................................................................. 8
Attachments .................................................................................................................................... 9
Item Specification ......................................................................................................................... 10
Item Specs – Additional Information ........................................................................................ 15
Suppliers ........................................................................................................................................ 20
Solicitation Summary .................................................................................................................... 22
Editing Solicitations ....................................................................................................................... 25
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Formal Solicitation Creation
The formal solicitation module has the lock box technology to enforce the Sealed Bid requirement (meaning a solicitation cannot be awarded or supplier responses viewed prior to the end date and time for the solicitation being reached).
Header
1. Enter your “Username” and “Password” (the password field is case sensitive). Click .
2. Click Solicitations from the Home Page, and then click on Create under Formal Solicitations in the drop‐down listing.
3. The Create page will open. There are seven possible steps to creating a solicitation. The highlighted step on the sub‐navigation bar will indicate the current step in the process.
4. Enter the solicitation Title followed by the agency name – i.e., Software for the Department of Corrections. The title should be relevant as it is searchable to suppliers when looking for solicitations.
5. Select the Solicitation Type from the drop‐down (this can vary by agency). This will default to the first 3 or 4 digits of the assigned solicitation number in Step 6 below, followed by the next available number.
6. Update the solicitation Number. Solicitation numbers can include letters and numbers and is editable. Solicitation numbering will default to the Solicitation Type (3 or 4 digits), Fiscal Year (FY), and next sequential number. It is advised that users select the Solicitation Type before completing the solicitation Number, as any characters added before the Solicitation Type is selected will be erased with the chosen Solicitation Type.
7. Who can see this bid? When creating a solicitation from scratch (Solicitations – Create), this field defaults to Everyone. If Everyone is selected, the solicitation will display on the Public Bid Board and in the Vendor Portal. If Invited Vendors Only is selected, the solicitation will not display on the Public Bid Board or in the Vendor Portal. Everyone should be selected.
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8. Who can respond to this bid? When creating a solicitation from scratch (Solicitations – Create), this field defaults to All Vendors. If All Vendors is selected, all vendors may submit a response to the solicitation. If Invited Vendors Only is selected, only vendors that were specifically invited may respond to the solicitation and may be selected when tabbing a paper response. As a result, All Vendors should be selected.
9. By default, the Calculate Estimated Total Value from Sum of Estimated Line Item Total Price toggle is set to No. If the toggle is No, an Estimated Total Value must be entered in Step 10.
NOTE: OA/Purchasing buyers issue solicitations with the toggle set to No.
If the toggle is changed to Yes, the system calculates the Estimated Total Value based on the Estimated Unit Price values entered during the Item Spec step (see page 17) of creating the solicitation. Once the items and their corresponding Estimated Unit Prices are entered, the Estimated Total Value will update automatically adding all of the Estimated Unit Prices together.
10. Enter the Estimated Total Value of the solicitation. This value will not be visible to suppliers. It will be used for Workflow and Reporting purposes. Enter numbers only; no dollar sign.
11. Enter a Description. The description field provides an overview of what products and services are being requested by the organization. Enough information should be included to catch the supplier’s interest in viewing and participating in the solicitation.
12. Enter a Justification. The justification field may be used to provide the Approver(s) of the solicitation with the business need or additional background information justifying the purpose of the solicitation. This field is optional and will not be visible to suppliers.
13. Justification Attachments may be used to provide the Approver(s) of the solicitation with the business need or additional background information justifying the purpose of the solicitation. This field is optional and the attachment(s) will not be accessible to suppliers.
14. The Solicitation Contact will default to the user creating the solicitation. You can search and update to add additional contacts or delete what is there and replace with a different contact person. Type the person’s name in the Find a Contact search box and select from the available contacts.
15. By default, the Restricted Access toggle is set to No and standard solicitation permissions apply.
If you wish to restrict access to a specific user or group of users, you may change the toggle to Yes, click Add User, search and select the desired user(s), and indicate with the checkboxes whether the user has View Solicitation access only or View/Edit Solicitation access.
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The solicitation creator is automatically added to the permitted users listing with View/Edit Solicitation permissions and cannot be removed. The ability to designate selected users to View or View/Edit Solicitations, is available only while the solicitation is in Not Submitted status.
16. The Solicitation Categories feature allows users to add categories (general or more expansive) that you will be adding at the line item level. These categories will be visible to suppliers on the solicitation header. Click the Select Categories button to search and select applicable categories. Once all categories are selected, click Close.
17. If the solicitation will not contain any line items, check the box shown below. If checked, you are required to select Solicitation Categories (see Step 16).
18. Click the arrow for the drop‐down box to view all available Delivery Terms. Select the appropriate Delivery Term applicable to the solicitation.
19. Click the arrow for the drop‐down box to view all available Payment Terms. Select the appropriate Payment Term applicable to the solicitation.
20. Enter the delivery address and special delivery instructions, if applicable, in the Delivery Notes section.
21. Enter payment notes, if applicable, in the Payment Notes section.
22. Solicitation Custom Header Fields. The State of Missouri is currently using the custom fields for pointing out Vendor Responsibility, Pre‐Proposals, Tours, and Supplier Instructions. This section is optional and buyers can add additional fields and/or sections, if desired.
23. Demand Aggregation. Buying organizations may invite other pre‐configured buying organizations to participate in the solicitation. This is currently not being utilized by Missouri.
24. Vendor Q&A. The Q&A center allows two‐way communication between responding vendors and the buying organization during a specified time frame of an active solicitation. This is currently not being utilized by Missouri.
25. Solicitation Duration. Select the Start Date and Time and End Date and Time. The Start Date and Time defaults to the next day at 8:00 A.M. If the solicitation does not become Active at the selected Start Date and Time, the system will automatically advance the Start Date and Time 24 hours. Therefore, the new Start Date and Time will be the next day at the same time originally chosen.
26. Click .
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Requirements
This section is optional and can be used by Administrators to insert Requirement fields from the Field Library, which will appear for every solicitation. You can also create your own Requirement fields as appropriate for a particular solicitation.
1. If the following Requirement appears for your solicitation, insert your agency name in the Requirements text shown below. If the field or section is required, a green check mark will display next to the field or section that cannot be removed.
2. If there is a checkbox, then the buyer needs to check the box in order for the text to be included in the solicitation. This field is optional and can be included in the solicitation, if desired.
3. If the text is greyed out, then the text is not editable.
4. Buyers that have the Add User Defined Field permission will have the option to add additional fields and/or sections, if desired. To add a field to an existing requirement section, click Add
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Field. To add a new section, click Add New Section. Enter a descriptive text for the Section Title and Field text boxes. Select the appropriate Field Type from the drop‐down menu to determine the type of Field to be added.
After a Field Type selection is made, the page will refresh to display two additional selection criterion: Buyer‐Only and Vendor Response. Check the Buyer‐Only box if the added field will only be visible to users for internal purposes. The field will not appear in the supplier’s view of the solicitation. Check the Vendor Response box to mark this field as Required. In doing so, the supplier must first provide a response to the field in order to submit their bid/response to the solicitation.
5. Click Save.
6. Click .
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Questionnaire
This section is optional and can be used by buyers to ask questions that provide insight into a supplier’s capabilities and can be used to evaluate a supplier’s overall solicitation response.
1. A buyer can add questions to the solicitation by clicking the Add New Section button.
2. Enter a Section Title and Section Description, and then click Add Question to This Section. The buyer can select a Response Type from the Type drop‐down and check the appropriate Options, if Required, Buyer‐Only, or Attachment.
3. To remove a question, click Delete from the Actions column on the specific question. To remove all questions from the section, click the Delete All Questions button above the Questionnaire section. To remove the entire section (Section Title, Description, and Questions), click the Trash Can symbol above the blue Question bar.
4. Click .
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Attachments
If desired, the buyer can upload a hard copy of the solicitation document and/or any accompanying attachments related to the solicitation. All documents are editable and can be deleted from your list of available documents at any time prior to the solicitation Start Date and Time. Once a solicitation is Active, a document cannot be deleted from a solicitation. New documents can be added to an Active solicitation through the solicitation Addendum process.
1. Click the Add new document button.
2. Click Browse, which will open the Upload Document window.
3. Locate and select the desired document and click .
4. Click .
5. Click .
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Item Specs
When creating a new solicitation, the Item Specs page defaults to the Item Spec Library view. In order to create new items to be associated with a new solicitation and also to be associated as an item within the Item Spec Library for future use, follow the below steps for creating a new item.
1. Click the Create New Item button.
2. Enter information in the following fields on the Main Item Fields tab.
a. Item Specification Name (Required).
b. Item Specification Number (Optional).
c. Manufacturer Name (Optional).
d. Manufacturer Part Number (Optional).
e. Description (Optional; however, detailed Item Specifications should be entered here).
f. Click Select just below the Commodity Category and Sub‐Category section. This step is Required and categorizes the item within the UNSPSC code and finds a location in the Item Spec Library for future use and reference in the Solicitation module.
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g. Type a keyword (i.e., software) or the UNSPSC code if known, in the Category Code or Keyword search field and click Search.
h. Click the appropriate category or sub‐category.
i. The chosen category is now visible on the line item.
j. Specify Quantity with a numeric value (Required).
k. The Unit of Measure defaults to each (EA). Update this field, if necessary.
l. The Add Alternative allows the buyer to specify approved or requested options for Brand, Make, Model, etc. Click the Add Alternative button, if applicable.
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m. Type the Brand, Make, or Model, etc. and click OK. Repeat Steps (l.) and (m.) to enter additional alternatives. If alternatives need to be removed, select the alternative from the Specify Requested Brand box and click the Remove Alternative button.
n. To allow suppliers to enter an Alternate bid, the Substitution and Alternatives section must be completed. Check the Allow supplier to specify substitute alternatives option to allow suppliers to enter in an alternate Manufacturer Name and alternate Part Number criteria during their item response. Check the Allow supplier to provide proposals for multiple alternatives option to allow suppliers to enter a response for the item being requested by the buying organization and also allow the supplier to enter in an additional response for an alternative item (Alternate Brand) for the same item during their item response.
3. Click the Additional Item Fields tab. This allows the buying organization to capture additional information from suppliers on line items. Once the item has been added to your solicitation, you may designate specific Data Types as well as determine if the field is visible to the supplier.
NOTE: Due to a current issue with the Data Types, it is recommended that buyers use TEXT for all Data Types to ensure the supplier’s response appears on the Export Bid Tab.
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a. Check the Required checkbox to mark the field as required. If Required is selected, suppliers will be required to enter a response before their bid response will be accepted by the system. If the supplier tries to continue with the response of the items without having provided an answer for the required item field, a message box will display to the supplier stating that a response is required prior to the Save action. The supplier will have to enter a response before continuing to another item.
b. The Order column indicates the order in which the Additional Item Fields will be presented. The order is not editable.
c. Use the Name field to ask additional questions relating to the item. For example, the number of Maintenance Years Included, the Renewal Period Price, etc.).
d. The Description field is where the buyer can help set boundaries around the responses that suppliers will enter. Any direction you can give the supplier to set limits to their answers will be helpful when the Evaluation/Award of supplier responses occurs.
e. Use the Data Type drop‐down menu to determine the type of response (Text, Number, or Percentage) acceptable from suppliers.
f. If the Additional Item Field does not require a response, clear the checkbox to indicate it is an informational/read‐only field. If the Additional Item Field does require a response, ensure the checkbox is checked.
g. The Visible to Vendor field allows you to indicate whether you want the supplier to see a particular Additional Item Field. The default value is Y (Yes). Clearing this field automatically clears the Required field and the Response field.
h. The No Actions Available column will only display upon initial entry. Once you save your new Additional Item Field information, this column will display Edit and Delete action icons.
i. Check the Apply to all items to indicate that the Additional Item Fields should be applied to all items on the solicitation. Click OK on the following message.
j. Once you have completed all of the Additional Item Fields for the item you can either click the Save button at the bottom of the page, or you can return to the Main Item Fields by clicking the Main Item Fields tab and clicking Save.
k. The following message will appear.
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l. Click the OK button to create a new item or click the Cancel button to return to the Selected Item Spec page.
m. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 above to create new items to be added to the solicitation.
4. Click .
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Item Specs – Additional Information
**Additional features for using line items from the Item Spec Library are outlined below.
1. The Item Spec Library view displays a list of available commodity categories that contain items or services that may be attached to the solicitation.
2. Enter a keyword or UNSPSC item code to search for the item specification library for a specific product or commodity code. Click Search to launch.
3. The Item Spec Library results will display below. If more than 100 matching items and/or categories are found, only the first 100 will be displayed. The number next to the Result Description identifies how many items or sub‐categories are located in that category.
4. Click the hyperlinked number to drill down and view each item. Once the desired item is located, enter a quantity in the Quantity to Add text box and click Add Items.
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5. Repeat Steps 1 through 4 above to add additional items to the solicitation. Once your items have been added to your solicitation, click the Selected Item Specs tab to view, edit, delete, or specify delivery information. Additional Item Fields can also be added by following the steps described in the Item Specs Section above.
**Users may also create Groups, such as Accounting, Information Technology, etc. and associate items with those Groups. When awarding the items to suppliers, you may choose to award these user‐specified groups of items to suppliers. NOTE: The system will list Groups alphabetically by the Group Name.
1. Click Create Group from the Item Spec Library or Selected Item Specs pages. The Create New Solicitation Group window opens. As indicated by the asterisk *, the Group Name is required. Enter a descriptive name.
NOTE: Group Names become listed alphabetically on the solicitation.
2. Click Save to create the new group. Cancel closes the window without creating a group and returns to the Item Spec Library or Selected Item Specs page. Once a group is created, it is visible at the top of both the Item Spec Library or Selected Item Specs pages.
3. Once groups have been established, you should choose the group you want to place the item into before searching and selecting an item or creating a new item specification. However, a line
item may be easily moved to a new Group by selecting the icon from the Actions column of the item to be moved. Use the drop‐down menu to select the correct group to move the item to and click Submit.
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4. A confirmation message displays. Click OK to proceed with moving the item. Cancel ends the moving process and the item remains in its current Group.
5. The following sample image shows Two Groups: Accounting and Information Technology.
6. Choose the Edit icon on the far right of the Group Name to perform a name change on the Group and then click Save. Cancel closes the Edit Solicitation Group window without saving.
7. To remove a Group and all of the items in that Group from a solicitation, select the Delete icon located on the far right of the Group Name to delete. The following message displays. Click OK to confirm.
NOTE: All items contained in the Group will be removed from the solicitation. If this is not your desired result, you must first move items out of the Group that is being deleted and into a new Group. Follow the instructions above on how to Move items.
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**On the solicitation Header information page, if the Calculate Estimated Total Value from Sum of Estimated Line Item Total Price is toggled to Yes, then the Estimated Total Value is greyed out and inactive. Your Estimated Unit Price values are entered during the Item Specs step of creating the solicitation and the values you enter are then used to calculate the Estimated Total Value.
1. As a result of the above setting on the Header, use the Estimated Unit Price fields for each line item to enter an estimated amount for the line item.
2. The Estimated Unit Price will be multiplied against the Quantity and then each line item total will be added to the Solicitation Header page.
**When creating solicitations, you may choose to import a spreadsheet of line items. This is helpful when a solicitation contains a large number of line items.
1. From the Edit Item Specs tab, click Download Item Template to download the empty spreadsheet.
2. The spreadsheet will download. Depending on your browser security settings, you may have to select the Enable Editing button to begin entering data. The spreadsheet will contain three tabs (Instructions, Items, and UOM). You will enter line item information in the Items (second) tab.
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3. Complete the spreadsheet as applicable. Columns marked with an asterisk are required. Save the completed spreadsheet to a local or network location.
4. When the spreadsheet is complete, return to the solicitation. From the Edit Item Specs tab, click Import Item Template.
5. Browse to the location of your completed and saved template. Select the template and click Open.
6. Click Import Items. Do not refresh the page while the upload is in process. The application will show the file is uploading.
7. The system will perform an initial validation and display captured error details, if present. Upon a successful upload, the application will display your imported line items on the Selected Item Specs tab.
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Adding Suppliers
The system will match the supplier profiles with the category and sub‐categories associated with the items entered on the Item Specs page and the solicitation header level categories, if any, chosen on the solicitation Header information page. If, by intention, the solicitation does not contain any line items, the available suppliers will be based only on the required header level categories chosen on the solicitation Header information page. The system, by default, will Add all matching supplier profiles to the Supplier Invitation List.
1. To find additional suppliers to add to the solicitation, click the tab or the
button at the bottom of the page.
2. Enter a supplier name in the Supplier Name search box (or a * wildcard to search all suppliers), and then click Search.
3. Select suppliers to add to the solicitation by clicking the checkbox next to each desired supplier. Click Save Selections at the bottom of the page.
NOTE: Clicking Check All or Add All will select all suppliers listed in the search results.
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4. A message will appear confirming that the invitation list has been saved. Click OK.
5. To perform additional supplier searches, click Search Again. Utilize the available search criteria to locate and add additional suppliers to the Supplier Invitation List.
6. Click .
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Solicitation Summary
The Solicitation Summary provides a final review of the created solicitation before submitting into the Workflow.
1. Review the Solicitation Summary document.
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2. In order to view the custom fields added to the Solicitation Header, Requirements, and Questionnaire sections, click the arrow next to each section, and then click the magnifying glass.
An overlay window will open displaying the entire custom field for review.
3. A green checkmark next to a supplier name indicates that the supplier is in an approved status in the system. A purple question mark next to a supplier name indicates that the supplier is in a pending status in the system. Approved and pending suppliers can submit electronic bid responses.
4. The View Audit Detail button will provide detailed audit records of the solicitation creation.
5. The Approval Preview button will provide a preview of all approval steps required before becoming an active solicitation.
6. If you are ready to Submit the solicitation, click the button.
7. Once the Approval process has been completed, the solicitation will move to Approved status until the Start Date and Time. Once the State Date and Time are reached (and the solicitation is Approved), the solicitation will become Active.
NOTE: If the Start Date and Time are reached, and the solicitation was not Approved, the Start Date and Time and the End Date and Time will move out 24 hours (1 day) each day until the solicitation is Approved.
8. If you find a mistake or information is missing after reviewing the Solicitation Summary, click
until you reach the step that requires modification, or click Edit on the section that requires edits.
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9. If you have completed the solicitation, but are not ready to Submit, click the button. You will be returned to the Un‐issued Solicitations, and the solicitation will be in a Not Submitted status.
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Editing Solicitations
Follow the steps below to Edit an Un‐issued Solicitation.
1. Select View Current Formal Solicitations from the Solicitations drop‐down.
2. The Current Solicitations default to the Un‐issued Solicitations tab. You can find your solicitation by utilizing the various filters (Organization, User, Title, Solicitation Number).
3. Click the icon from the Actions column.
NOTE: Clicking the solicitation number link in the Solicitations # column, displays the Solicitation Summary page.
4. Click on the solicitation section requiring edits, or click on the solicitation section from the sub‐navigation bar, for example, the Edit Item Specs tab.
5. You can change the Quantity of a solicitation item, or click Edit from the Actions column to make other line item changes.
6. Click Save to save your changes.
7. Click Return from the Edit Item Specs page.
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8. You will be directed to the Solicitation Summary page where you can click Close to return to the Current Formal Solicitation page, or click Submit, if you are ready to submit the solicitation into the Workflow.
9. To change the Solicitation Duration, click Edit Header. Click on the Start Date and Time and/or End Date and Time to update the solicitation as applicable to reflect the correct Solicitation Duration Dates.
10. Click Save to save your changes.
11. Click Return from the Header page and you’ll be returned to the Summary page where you can Submit your solicitation.