How can I manage supplier responses conducted outside of the platform? – LevaData University

When a Global Commodity Manager (GCM) receives the vendor response outside of the LevaData platform, an RFX response can be uploaded on behalf of the vendor by a proxy vendor/GCM.

Proxy GCM provides enhanced RFX flexibility via the ability for a LevaData tenant user to act as a vendor user. The purpose is to enable the LevaData tenant user to upload vendor RFQ files into LevaData if the vendor user does not or cannot use the LevaData platform to submit their RFQ.

Setting a User as a Proxy GCM

On the Manage Vendors page, a dropdown is provided to Choose GCM for vendors (even if they have users) and from that dropdown a Proxy GCM can be established.

When you act as a proxy for the vendor, you can input their quotes as responses. The buyer then maintains the ability to compare such quotes from different vendors and proceed with more detailed "apples-to-apples" cost scenarios before finalizing awarding.

Responding to an RFX by Proxy

Once an RFQ is sent to the vendor, the proxy GCM(s) navigate to the respective RFX page, where they can find an option to Respond on behalf of the Supplier.

After clicking on the response by proxy option, a dialog appears with RFX preview and a button to download the pre-populated template or upload the response file (if the supplier has already filled it out).

The primary step in requesting the quote from the supplier is downloading this Excel Workbook as part of the supplier request. This will ensure the supplier provides the data back in the correct format.

Note: For the supplier perspective, please see - How can I export RFQs to Excel and import RFQs into the supplier portal?

Mandatory Input and Response Process

Within the Excel Workbook template file, there are several rules:

The supplier (or Proxy GCM) should not make any structural changes to this Excel document.
MPN Cost, MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity), and LT(Days) (Lead Time in Days) are all Mandatory Fields which will not accept the number 0 as an input.
STD/Custom (Standard vs. Custom) and Incoterms are both Dropdown list of values fields which will not accept the number 0 as a manual input.
COO (Country of Origin), MPQ (Minimum Purchase Quantity), Reschedule - Days, Cancellation Term - Days, Supplier Comments, and Distributor are not Mandatory fields, and will accept 0 as input.

When the GCM receives the quote, they should open the RFQ, re-select this upload icon, then upload the Excel Workbook of the supplier response, taking care to account for the rules above.

After successfully uploading the file, a message will appear showing that the changes were successfully validated, and the GCM will then select the Upload button.