New Features for CX Tenders
Since the Tenders Release in August we’ve been gratefully receiving your positive feedback , and the majority of the comments we’ve received have focussed on how easy it is to use. Whilst the development team would have loved a bit of a rest (especially since 3 of us became proud parents! ), we didn’t stop there. So strap in for an epic variety of new features and improvements coming your way in December!
Bulk create packages
The new bulk create feature will allow you to select multiple trades and create many packages at once.
The newly created packages will sit in NOT ISSUED status until you are ready to add documents and select bidders.
Package History Export to pdf
Keeping logs of all activity on a package is even easier now that you can export the history to pdf format for your archive or reporting needs.
New History Tab in Bidder Page
Bidders are now able to see all of their activity on the package with the introduction of the History tab on their Bidder page.
So now a bidder can access all of the information they have submitted, like a bid, as well as the record of all their interactions with this package.
Bidder Intends to Respond
We got feedback from you that whilst it was great that a you could see when a bidder viewed or withdrew from a package, what you really needed was to know if they were interested in submitting a bid.
To provide this we modified the bidders page so that when they first access package they can click “Intend to Respond” or “Not Interested”.
Their selection will update your Tender dashboard and the Package Summary page. That way you’ll know if you need to add more bidders to the package.
View Previous bids
You can now see a list of previous bid submitted by a bidder when viewing the current bid.
Awarding – Unsuccessful Bidders
You can now choose to send unsuccessful bidders an email after you have awarded a package notifying them that they did not win. This option is available at the time of awarding and comes with prepared text that you can edit before sending.
When you click Award the unsuccessful bidders will receive an email containing the unsuccessful text.
Improvements
Along with the new features we made some changes to the existing functionality based on your feedback.
Filtering Packages
Filtering Packages in the Tender dashboard is more accessible with new filter tool for each column.
Issuing a saved package – Add confirmation
We’ve added a confirmation step when you click Issue on saved packages within the tender dashboard to prevent you accidentally issuing packages.
Allow bidders to submit after close date
Previously, once the close date on a package had passed, bidders would no longer have access to their bidder page. Now, that’s an option you can set at a project or package level.
Enforcing the close date option – at the Project level (above) and at the package (below).
If you choose to not enforce the close date , the bidder will be able to download documents, ask questions and submit bids for up to 90 days after the package has closed.
Issuing addenda – Bulk Select new revision
The Smart addenda functionality lets you know when there are new revisions available for a package, and it’s fantastic, but it lacked the ability to update all the documents on a package with the latest revision, leaving you select each one manually.
Now you can tick the Select latest revision check box and all of the documents that have newer revisions will automatically select the latest version.
Tender Emails – Do Not Reply
To make sure bidders use their bidder page and you can track and capture all communications we’ve added a disclaimer to all Tender Emails warning the bidder to Do Not Reply to the email.
Create package – Added a close button
The package wizard was hard to navigate away from so we’ve added a large X to close the create package wizard.
Awarding – Project role
When awarding and choosing to add the successful bidder to the project you can now define their project role as part of the awarding process (e.g. Subcontractor, Supplier Consultant).
Simply make a select the role you want in the Awarded Company Role drop down.
Q & A – Estimator Thread – Show who it was sent to
When answering bidders you can now see who the response was sent to from within the thread.
Q & A – Named responders
Previously, when a user responded to a question the response would only show “You” as the responder. Now it will show the main contact’s name. If someone other than the main contact responds you will see their name on behalf of the main contact.
The new version will be available for most customers from December 3rd.