Procedures and Rounds

Sourcing

When creating a sourcing request, you must select the bidding procedure to be used. The choice of procedure is made on the following relevant tabs for Basic RFx or Advances RFx:

• Basic RFx - You can find this on the tab "Sourcing event information"

• Advanced RFx - You can find this on the tab "Procedure"

The procedures that can be selected are:

• Open procedure

• Limited procedure

In addition to these, an electronic auction can be used in the request ( NOTE! "Advanced RFx" only ). 

The choice of procedure influences how the request will proceed. You can find more detailed descriptions of each procedure below.

Open procedure

An open procedure is a procurement procedure in which the request is published as an open procedure in the Supplier Portal. Bidders can find an open request in the “Requests” list of the Bid Service. All willing bidders can then make a bid to the request. Open requests can be published, not only on the Supplier Portal, but can also be sent by e-mail, in which case the bidder is sent an invitation to leave a response to the request. 

Open procedure publication channels:

• Offer service

• E-mail

Restricted procedure

A restricted procedure is a procurement procedure in which the request is published to selected bidders directly by e-mail and only invited tenderers can submit responses. Unlike in an open procedure, this type of request cannot be published publicly on the supplier portal.

Restricted procedure publication channels:

• E-mail   

Open

Receiving and reviewing responses

Bidders can submit responses as long as the "Deadline for the receipt of responses" specified in the request is valid. Answers are left in a similar way as in the open procedure.  (see Sending the offer)

The competing organization can view the received responses from the information page of the respective request. This information page of the request is accessed via the folder view (go to home page, click on Search and choose the respective folder). You will find all answers to requests, for which the deadlines for receiving answers is still valid, under the “Active” folder.

Open

Request rounds

Processing of responses and selection of bidders for the next round

When the deadline for receiving responses has ended, the request is automatically moved to the "Closed" folder. Applications are processed by selecting a request from the list that opens.

Image: Transition to the processing of received responses  after the deadline for submitting responses has expired

Answers can be processed together in the comparison table view, which can be found in the section '“Comparison of answers””. Here, you can also choose the bidders who will be selected for the next round using the comparison table.  (see comparison of offers)

After choosing the selected bidders, you can proceed to preparing the next round in the "Rounds" section. Before moving on to the preparation of a new round, a notification method must be selected.  (see rounds)

Once a notification method is selected, go to the "Rounds" tab to select whether to prepare:

• a new request or

• auction 

You must also select whether the request from the previous round will be used as a basis for the preparation of the next round, or whether a completely new round will be created.

Moving on to the next round

The preparation of a new round of requests follows the same logic as the preparation of an advanced RFx  (see instructions advanced RFx) . The administration of the request as valid and as terminated follows the formula of the first round. 

Closing the request after the last round

When the deadline for the last round of requests ends, the received responses are processed through the comparison table. 

Image: Switching to the evaluation of answers

The comparison table is processed in a similar way as in the other types of procedure  (see comparison of answers).

After processing the comparison and selecting a supplier, we move on to the procurement decision phase. Forming the procurement decision and submitting it takes place in a similar way as in other types of procedures  (see procurement decision).

After the procurement decision phase, an agreement can be created for the selected supplier(s) in Mercell Agreement (if the system has been implemented in your organization).

Linking rounds in the system

Rounds belonging to the same request are linked together in the system. Rounds can be viewed from the "Rounds" tab of the request. By clicking the link "Go to the information of the announcement" you can view the desired round of the request. The documents for the request can be found on the "Documents" tab of the request.

Image: Linking of rounds in the system