Assign vendors through availability requests

Owned by Oksana Vishchuk
Last updated: Apr 19, 2024 by Damian Rozmiarkowski
8 min read

Introduction

Before assigning a job to a selected vendor, you might want to ask them first about their availability for the job offer. XTRF Platform gives you an opportunity to send your vendors the Availability Requests with the job details. When you send such a request from the Home Portal, a vendor receives an e-mail with links to the detailed job description in the Job Manager. This enables you to make requests in a timely manner, especially if the deadline for completing a given task is very tight. The availability requests can be sent while you are creating a:

  • Quote. When planning a project, you create a translation quote. Within this quote, you can send availability requests to ask your vendors if they want to participate in the project. This helps you to plan your and your vendors' work. 

  • Project. You want your vendors to confirm that they are ready to do the offered job within specifications.

In this guide, we assume that a project with a translation job has been already created, and the project manager wants to find a vendor who is willing to do the job. To learn how to create a new quote or project, see the Create a Classic quote or Create a Classic project articles.

On the task level

I. Create and send availability requests

  1. Sign in to the XTRF Home Portal.

  2. Go to the Project module.

  3. In the list of projects, find and open the project in question.

  4. In the Project menu on the left, select a task you want to assign your vendor to. The selected item appears in boldface.

  5. Click the icon,

  6. Go to the Job Offers tab.

  7. In the Vendor Selection Rules for Availability Requests row, choose the desired rules from the drop-down menus for different jobs. To learn how to add vendor selection rules, see the Projects and Quotes - Vendor / Provider Selection Rules (Classic) article.

  8. Set the Requests Deadline for the availability requests for particular jobs.

  9. From The Vendor Will Be Assigned drop-down menu select the strategy according to which the vendors will be assigned. The available strategies are:

    • Cheapest at deadline: the vendor with the lowest rates from among those who responded to the request is assigned to the job.
      To use this strategy effectively, you need to provide the Quantity and Calculation unit in the job payables and define rates for potential vendors.

    • First one wins: the first vendor who responds to the availability request is assigned to the job.

    • Manually by PM: the Project Manager assigns vendors manually.

  10. In the Settings section, decide whether you want to:

    • Send E-mail to Project Manager about Vendor Selection to inform the PM that a vendor was assigned to the job,

    • Send E-mail to Not Selected Vendor to inform the vendors that they were not selected for the job.

    • Start Job after Vendor Selection to change the job status to Started immediately after the vendor assignment.

    • Select an e-mail template for informing PM about the lack of a vendor for a job.

  11. Click the Add and Send button.

II. Assign the vendors

If in the step 9 above you have selected the Cheapest at deadline or First one wins options, the vendor will be assigned to the jobs automatically. The job statuses will automatically change to Accepted.

Now the list of potential vendors is displayed on the Classic Availability Requests page, along with the Legend section that explains the icons used in the table above.

  • If the vendor did not accept the request on the Vendor Portal but has informed you about their willingness to undertake the job by other means of communication, click the icon and then click the Approve button.

  • To reject the vendor’s request for the job, click the icon and then click the Reject button.

  • The Change link appears if the system couldn’t find an appropriate vendor or if no requests were sent for this job. Click this link to take a shortcut to the job’s Classic Availability Requests tab.

After the vendors have responded to your requests, you can assign them to the jobs.

  1. Select the icon for the desired vendors in the jobs columns.

  2. Click the Assign Selected Vendors button.

You can use a special request sending workflow job that will send requests for the next job or all workflow jobs. To do so:

  1. Add a new workflow job before the job you want to send requests for.

  2. From the Job Type drop-down list, select the request sending type.

  3. In the Default Vendor section, select Automatic Action and then select Availability Request from the drop-down list.

  4. Click the Save button.

To decide whether this automatic job will send requests for all workflow jobs or only the next one, go to Configuration menu → Projects and Quotes → Automatic Actions (Classic). Open the Availability Request action in edit mode, and check or uncheck the Run Action Only for the Next Job box. If you check this box, the automatic job will send requests based on the rule set in the Availability Requests tab of the following workflow job (see the Workflow Graph section - Add a workflow job section of this article).

The request sending job cannot be placed before another automatic action such as Prepare Packages or External Project Finalization.

On the job level

I. Create and send availability requests

  1. Sign in to the XTRF Home Portal.

  2. Go to the Project module.

  3. In the list of projects, find and open the project in question.

  4. In the Project menu on the left, select a task you want to assign your vendor to. The selected item appears in boldface.

  5. Click the icon,

  6. Go to the Workflow Graph tab.

  7. Click the icon for the job where you want to send the request. Make sure that the job status is set to Open. You will be redirected to the last visited tab for a given job.

  8. Go to the Job Offers tab → Classic Availability Requests subtab for the selected job.

  9. Decide how you want to assign the vendor:

    1. Uncheck the Use Vendor selection settings from Task box.

    2. From the The Vendor Will be Assigned drop-down list, select the desired rule:

      • Cheapest at deadline

      • First one wins

      • Manually by PM

  10. Decide how the vendors should be selected:

    • For an automatic selection, pick a set of rules from the drop-down and click the Select Vendors According to Rules button.

    • For a manual selection, click the Select Vendors Manually button. The Select Vendor Price Profiles pop-up window appears.

      1. Select a price profile for the vendor or vendors you want to offer the job to by checking the box on the left of the vendor price profile. 

      2. Click the Select Vendor button below the price profiles list.

  11. The Availability Requests pop-up window appears.

    1. In the Requests Deadline section, decide how long you are ready to wait for the vendors' replies to the availability request.

    2. (Optional) In the Attachment section, attach raw work files for this job.

    3. (Optional) In the Edit E-mail Template section, click the icon to verify the content of the e-mail that will be sent to the selected vendors.

    4. Click the Send button. Now the sent requests will be displayed in the Job Offers tab.

      The job status has changed to Offers Sent.

  • The selected vendors will receive an e-mail notification with the job offer. In this e-mail, the vendors can click the links pointing to the job in the Job Manager. In the Job Manager, they can accept or reject the job. If you have added the files for review in the Availability Requests pop-up window, they will be sent as an attachment to the e-mail. 

  • When a vendor accepts or rejects the job in the Job Manager, you receive an e-mail notification about the vendor's readiness to perform the job offered. The statuses of the requests will change accordingly.

II. Assign the vendor

If you have selected the Manually by PM option, you’ll need to click the Select Vendor button next to the desired vendor.