Strategic Sourcing & RFP Management

Available from v1.0.41, the Strategic Sourcing module lets procurement teams create and manage Requests for Proposal (RFPs), collect vendor responses, evaluate bids with weighted scoring, and maintain a full audit trail of procurement decisions — all within the platform.

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Overview

Capability	Description
RFP creation & management	Define scope, scoring criteria, and deadlines for each RFP
Vendor response tracking	Centralised inbox for vendor submissions tied to a specific RFP
Weighted bid comparison	Side-by-side scoring with configurable criterion weights
Evaluation workflow	Structured review and approval steps before awarding
Audit trail	Immutable log of all procurement decisions

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Creating an RFP

1. Navigate to Procurement → Strategic Sourcing → RFPs.
2. Click New RFP and complete the details form:
   • Title — a short, descriptive name for the RFP.
   • Scope of Work — full description of what is being sourced.
   • Submission Deadline — the date and time by which vendors must respond.
   • Scoring Criteria — add one or more criteria (e.g. Price, Technical Capability, Delivery Timeline, Compliance). Each criterion requires a weight (percentage) and a maximum score. Weights across all criteria must sum to 100%.
3. Click Save Draft to work on it later, or Publish to make it visible to invited vendors.

Note: Once an RFP is published and at least one vendor response has been received, the scoring criteria cannot be modified. This preserves evaluation integrity.

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Managing Vendor Responses

Each published RFP has a Responses tab that lists all submissions from invited vendors.

• Responses are timestamped on receipt.
• Each response is linked to a verified vendor record in the system.
• Reviewers can leave internal notes on individual responses without the vendor being notified.
• The status of each response is tracked: Received, Under Review, Shortlisted, Rejected, Awarded.

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Evaluating & Comparing Bids

Side-by-Side Comparison

Open the Compare Bids view from within an RFP to display all vendor responses in a comparative table. Each row represents an evaluation criterion; each column represents a vendor.

Weighted Scoring

For each vendor–criterion cell, enter a raw score (0 – maximum score for that criterion). The platform automatically calculates:

Weighted Score (criterion) = (Raw Score / Max Score) × Weight
Total Weighted Score       = Σ Weighted Score across all criteria

Vendors are ranked by Total Weighted Score in descending order. Scores and rankings update in real time as evaluators enter values.

Evaluation Workflow

1. Assign one or more Evaluators to the RFP — each evaluator scores vendors independently.
2. Once all evaluators have submitted scores, a Consensus Score is calculated (average of evaluator scores per criterion).
3. A designated Approver reviews the consensus ranking and selects a vendor to award.
4. The Approver records a Decision Note before confirming the award.

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Audit Trail

Every action taken during the RFP lifecycle is recorded in the Procurement Audit Trail. Logged events include:

Event	Details Captured
RFP created	Creator, timestamp, initial criteria
RFP published	Publisher, publish timestamp
Vendor response received	Vendor ID, submission timestamp
Score entered or updated	Evaluator, criterion, old value, new value, timestamp
Vendor status changed	Actor, previous status, new status, timestamp
Award decision made	Approver, awarded vendor, decision note, timestamp
RFP closed	Actor, close reason, timestamp

The audit trail is append-only and cannot be edited or deleted. It is accessible under Procurement → Audit Trail and can be exported as a CSV or PDF for governance and compliance purposes.

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Permissions

Role	Create RFP	Publish RFP	Score Vendors	Award Vendor	View Audit Trail
Procurement Admin	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Procurement Manager	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Evaluator	❌	❌	✅	❌	❌
Viewer	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅

Permissions are managed in Settings → Roles & Permissions.

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Related Features

• Contract Lifecycle Management
• Vendor Management
• Spend Management