October - December 2022 (v.22.76 - v22.104)

What's newMegaphone_icon.png

Enhanced purchaser communication for event updates, send email reminders to bidders, new functions added for building formulas, and improved UI updates for the Invitation tab.

Purchasers can now send all bidders an email notification when an event is paused, resumed, a round duration is changed, a round is closed early or when a round is reopened.

You can also send email reminders to remind bidders to log in and accept an invitation when they have not yet accepted the invite or to place a bid if they have not yet bid. 

We have added new functions to Sourcing Optimizer to enhance the formula-building experience and minimize the time spent on creating formulas.

The Bidders page in the Invitations tab has been redesigned, offering a clearer summary of each bidder's invite status and making it easier to organize, update, and send event invites.

In addition, we have fixed a number of minor bugs and issues. The bugs and the version number they were fixed in are listed at the bottom of the page.

Features and updatesGears_icon.png

Easier communication for purchasers with event update notifications

We have improved communication by adding Notify Bidders checkboxes to the Management page which, when selected, automatically sends an email to all bidders informing them of event updates for the following actions:

  • Round Extension
  • Round Re-open
  • Event Pause
  • Round Close
  • Event Resume
RN___Managment_page.png
Figure 1. Bid — Management

Send email reminders to bidders 

You now have the option to send an email reminder to all bidders who have not placed a bid or have not accepted the invite to do so.

Users can set a specific date and time for the reminder to be sent on the new Reminders tab of the Schedule page. All sent notifications and their statuses can be tracked after sending.

Figure 2. Schedule — Reminders

Improved user interface for the Invitations tab

The Invitations tab has taken on a visual improvement, highlighting valuable features to enhance your user experience. The status of bidders in the Invite tab now uses a color-coded display to show users as invited, not invited, rejected and accepted. 

Figure 3. Invite — Bidders — Invitations

New functions added to Sourcing Optimizer's formula-builder UI

We have added a number of new functions to Sourcing Optimizer to simplify the formula-building process and make creating formulas less of a manual effort. The following functions are now available:

  • POWER(), which returns a number raised to the given power.
  • SQRT(), which returns the square root of a positive number.
  • LEN(), which returns a count of characters of a text string.
  • LEFT(), which extracts a given number of characters from the left of a text string.
  • RIGHT(), which extracts a given number of characters from the right of a text string.
  • MID(), which extracts a given number of characters from a given starting position in a text string.

These functions have been added to every area of Sourcing Optimizer where you can build a formula.

Figure 4. Design — Cost Calculation

More accessibility updates for improved user experience and navigation

As part of ongoing accessibility improvements, we have made a number of important updates.

  • We have assigned links and image elements an attribute to clarify their purpose.
  • We have improved the brightness ratio between foreground and background colors to meet WCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds.

Bug fixesList_and_check_icon.png

Table 1. Sourcing Optimizer Bug Fixes
Version Description
22.98 When users attempted to convert already filled columns with text data into columns with numerical data or vice versa, the conversion was unsuccessful and did not transfer automatically, and the user was presented with a blank value. This error has been fixed and these values now will carry over properly. Moreover, the ability to allow users to identify unconvertible values before converting the type was added.