Introduction

This section describes the end-to-end process of making a new sourcing request and explains the user interface for each stage of the request.

To begin the sourcing request process, navigate to the Requests tab of the Autonomous Sourcing page.

To successfully navigate through the New Request process, it is strongly advised that you open a parallel window to display the interface of Autonomous Sourcing alongside this guide.

New Request

Click the button that says New request and follow the guided steps on the screen:

1. Select Bot 

This section lists all available Bots that can be selected for your request. The name of the Bot and a brief description are provided.

Click Select Bot to use the Bot for the request.

2. Enter request details

The form is a template designed for your organization’s specifications. It contains the relevant fields, selectable dropdown lists, and data entry inputs used to complete your request.

Enter the details of the request in the form provided, and then click Continue.

3. Description

Optional: Enter any additional details in the description box provided. 

The description box is limited to 300 characters.

Optional: Add up to 10 supporting documents to provide additional information on items to bidders

Additional details and supporting documents are included in the invitation email suppliers will receive.

Click Continue to move to the next step.

4. Review request summary

Review a summary of your request to ensure all the entered and selected details are correct, and then click Submit request.

After you submit your request, you can return to the Requests tab of the Sourcing Automation page.

5. Confirm your request.

Select Suppliers

Click View Request.

The next stage of the request is to select the suppliers you want to invite to bid. 

A progress bar is now presented at the top of the screen, showing your progress through each of the stages from Request to Award.

Below the progress bar, a list of suppliers appears, displaying a list of suppliers you can invite to bid. You can search the list of available suppliers by using the Filter search box. The list updates as you type. Select the checkboxes of the suppliers you want to invite or select All checkbox to invite every available supplier.

After you select the suppliers you want to invite, click Continue.

Depending on your organization’s configuration, this stage may have to be performed by another user. Users that can perform this action are sent a Request Notification email.

Approve

Depending on whether you can approve requests or if approval has been assigned to someone else, different messages are displayed, and different actions are available.

• Approve — approval assigned to someone else: If someone else in your organization must approve your request, you cannot take any action and must wait until the request is approved.
• Approve — approval assigned to you: If you can approve your own requests or if you are assigned to approve your colleagues’ requests, you can either approve or reject the request at this stage.

Users that can perform this action are sent a Request Notification email.

Reject

If a request is rejected, the request is terminated. If a request is approved, the selected suppliers are notified, and bidding is opened. When rejecting a request, you have the option to include a note.

Bid

The next stage of the request is the Bid stage.

The Bot monitors and updates bids that have been accepted, placed and submitted, and notifies you of any changes. The Bid card will display the bidding status, when bidding starts, and when bidding ends. You can also review and monitor this information on the Activity and Bids tabs.

Activity tab

The Activity tab lists all the suppliers invited to bid, and indicates if they have accepted the invite and submitted a bid. 

Bids tab

The Bids tab displays a table which lists the calculated cost of each supplier’s bid on each lot, as well as the extended details inserted by the requestor and the bidder.

After bidding ends, the request moves to the Award stage.

Award

The final stage of the request is the Award stage, where you select the supplier, or suppliers, you want to award the business to. 

The Bids table lists the calculated cost of each supplier’s bid on each lot. Select the supplier that you want to award the business to from the table.

After you select the winning supplier, click Submit Award.

After you submit your award, the awarded supplier is notified that they have been awarded the business.  Bidders that have placed a bid and are not awarded the business will receive a message. Bidders that have not placed a bid will not received a message. The award message to suppliers and bidders is customizable.

The request in Sourcing Automation is now complete.

Depending on your organization’s configuration, this stage may have to be performed by another user. Users that can perform this action are sent a Request Notification email.