How do I invite vendors to respond to an RFx?

Vendors must be invited before they can respond to an RFx questionnaire. Each invitation issued to a vendor is called a "Response" or "Respondent" in PostRFP.

Vendor users belong to an organization account so that they can collaborate on their response. Each Response is linked to a vendor organization.

There are two ways to invite a vendor to respond:

1. By selecting a pre-registered organization
2. By entering an email address for the individual

1 Selecting a pre-registered organization

If the vendor is already registered with PostRFP, and if there are active user accounts within that vendor, then you can simply pick the organization account to invite the user.

You can also ask that vendors register a new organization account before you add them as a Respondent. A registration link is provided on the 'Respondents' page which you can email to the vendor.

2 Invite by email address

Use this option in the following cases:

• The vendor is not registered on PostRFP
• The vendor is registered but you cannot find their organization account in the list (the vendor may have opted to not be listed in the Public Address Book).

When the Response is published (usually when the parent Project is published), an email will be sent to the address provided. This email contains a link which enables the individual to register for the Project. If they are already registered they simply login. Otherwise they can can create a new organization account.

The process is complicated if the vendor's organization is in fact already registered, but the individual does not know which of their colleagues have logins. This situation results in a warning message:

" Organization Previously Registered " Message

When a user attempts to create an organization account, the system checks to see if that organization is already registered. If it is registered the system presents the user with two options:

1. Send automatic emails to Administrator users already registered and request that they create new user accounts for the user attempting to register.
2. Create a new (possibly duplicate) organisation.

A third possibility, if the previous users no longer work for the vendor company, is to contact PostRFP support and ask us to check the account and possibly create a new user.

Response Status

Each Response proceeds through different Status values. These dictate which actions can be undertaken by the respondent (vendor) or the buyer.

1. Not Sent. The Response has been created, but the vendor has not yet been invited.
2. Opportunity. The Response has been published and the vendor is invited to either accept or reject the invitation.
3. Accepted. The vendor had indicated a willingness to participate. The may now save answers to questions.
4. Declined. The vendor declines to respond.
5. Submitted. The vendor has completed work on the RFx and the buyer can now view their answers.
6. Retracted. The buyer has cancelled the invitation.

Deadline

Each Response has a deadline by which the Supplier must submit their Response. After the deadline has passed they are no longer permitted to save or update answers.

The Response deadline is independent of the Project deadline, and takes priority. The Project deadline is used as a mechanism to synchronize the Response deadlines.

Public Projects

For Projects marked "Private", you must explicitly create Responses for each organisation that you wish to respond. For Projects marked "public" it is not necessary to create them. When a Respondent begins to answer a Public project they will self-issue a Response to themselves.