Historic Supplier Responses in oboloo provide a comprehensive way to track and compare supplier submissions across multiple rounds of a sourcing activity. When an activity is reopened, suppliers have the opportunity to revise and resubmit their proposals. oboloo automatically saves all responses, allowing you to compare updated submissions against previous ones to evaluate how supplier proposals have changed.
Historic responses are stored for key elements such as pricing, questionnaires, and other textual responses. However, there is one exception: supporting documents. Suppliers can add or remove supporting documents with each submission. If a supplier removes a supporting document when resubmitting, the system does not track the removal, meaning those documents are not retained in the historic responses.
This guide will explain how to access and analyse historic supplier responses in oboloo, helping you make informed, data-driven decisions based on the evolution of supplier proposals.
How Historic Responses Work
When you reopen a sourcing activity and request updated proposals from suppliers, oboloo saves both the new responses and the historic responses from earlier rounds. Each response is date and time stamped, allowing you to easily track which round a specific submission belongs to and compare how suppliers have updated their proposals.
- Reopening a Sourcing Activity: Suppliers are invited to submit revised proposals after the initial round. You can set new opening and closing dates and provide feedback or clarification to guide the suppliers.
- New Supplier Responses: Suppliers submit updated responses within the newly set timeframe. These submissions are automatically stored alongside their previous responses, allowing you to compare their latest proposal with earlier ones.
- Tracking Changes: oboloo automatically saves the following key elements of supplier responses:
- Pricing: Changes in pricing proposals, including unit costs, shipping and total amounts.
- Questionnaire Responses: Updated answers to any questionnaires, including clarifications and additional details.
- Supplier Sections: Revised answers or new information in supplier sections, such as project plans or service level agreements (SLAs).
- Supporting Documents: One exception to historic tracking is supporting documents. Suppliers can add or remove supporting documents with each submission. If a document is removed during a resubmission, that document is not saved in the historic responses, and the system does not track its removal. Only the current set of supporting documents is retained.
Visual Guide - Step-By=Step Guide: Historic Supplier Submissions
Coming soon. Please refer to the text guide below for now.
Text Guide - Step-By=Step Guide: Historic Supplier Submissions
Step 1: Accessing the Sourcing Activity
To review historic responses, first navigate to the sourcing activity:
- Log in to oboloo and navigate to the Sourcing module from the left-hand menu.
- Select the sourcing activity from the Sourcing Home Page where the responses have been submitted over multiple rounds.
- Open the sourcing activity to access the details and responses from suppliers.
Step 2: Viewing Supplier Responses
Once inside the sourcing activity, you can view all supplier responses across different tabs, such as Pricing, Questionnaires, and Supporting Documents. Historic responses are automatically saved and can be easily accessed:
- Go to the Pricing, Questionnaires, or Supplier Sections tabs to view responses from different rounds.
- Each submission is date and time stamped, making it easy to identify which response was submitted during which round.
- You can use the filters above different tables to filter and compare by suppliers different versions of their responses. These can be identified by the timestamp against each response in the filter.
For example, you may find that a supplier submitted an initial proposal with one set of pricing, then revised it in subsequent rounds after feedback was provided. You can review how pricing has changed and whether any adjustments have been made.
Step 3: Analysing Changes in Responses
oboloo allows you to compare supplier responses across multiple rounds, providing valuable insights into how proposals have evolved. For each response type—pricing, questionnaires, and supplier sections—you can view how a supplier’s submissions differ between rounds. This helps you evaluate the supplier’s flexibility, responsiveness, and willingness to meet your requirements.
- Pricing Comparison: You can compare how a supplier’s pricing has changed between rounds. For example, if a supplier has adjusted their unit costs, added discounts, or updated their total bid, you can track these changes side by side with their previous submission.
- Questionnaire Responses: If suppliers were asked to clarify certain points or provide additional information in their questionnaire answers, you can see how they’ve responded to your requests and improved their answers in the next round.
- Supplier Sections: For sections such as project plans or SLAs, you can review how suppliers have revised their proposals. You may notice improvements in their understanding of the project, changes to their delivery timeline, or updates to their service commitments.
Step 4: Managing Supporting Documents
While most supplier responses are fully tracked and saved in oboloo, supporting documents have special handling. Suppliers can upload or remove documents as part of their submissions. However, if a supplier removes a supporting document in a subsequent round, this removal is not tracked in the historic responses. Only the current set of supporting documents is saved.
- If you need to keep a record of all supporting documents submitted across rounds, consider downloading or storing key documents after each round.
- To view the current set of supporting documents, navigate to the Supporting Documents tab in the sourcing activity.
Supporting documents are stored by each submission to ensure there is no confusion against a documents version. For example, a supplier might upload a copy of their terms and then amend their terms based on your feedback when reopening the activity. oboloo allows the supplier to remove their old document and upload their new amended one. This ensures that when you are evaluating the suppliers response, you are looking at the correct and latest version of their document.
Benefits of Historic Supplier Responses
Comprehensive Record of Supplier Submissions: Historic responses provide a clear and detailed record of each supplier’s submissions across multiple rounds. This feature enables you to track how proposals have evolved over time and whether suppliers have addressed your feedback or made improvements in areas such as pricing or compliance.
Informed Decision-Making: By comparing historic and new responses side by side, you can make more informed decisions. You can evaluate how suppliers have adjusted their proposals based on your comments or clarified key points. This allows you to identify which suppliers are most responsive and best align with your organisation’s requirements.
Accountability and Transparency: Historic responses offer an audit trail of supplier interactions throughout the sourcing process. This ensures that decisions are made based on a full understanding of each supplier’s journey through the process, adding transparency and accountability to your sourcing activities.
Flexible Supplier Engagement: If you’ve reopened the sourcing activity to shortlisted suppliers, historic responses give you the flexibility to track the progress of each shortlisted supplier’s submissions. This helps you refine your evaluation and focus on the most promising candidates.
Conclusion
Historic supplier responses in oboloo provide a valuable tool for tracking and comparing supplier submissions across multiple rounds of a sourcing activity. By saving responses related to pricing, questionnaires, and supplier sections, oboloo enables you to analyse how proposals have evolved and make data-driven decisions based on a full record of supplier interactions. While supporting documents can be added or removed with each submission, the core components of a supplier’s response are always saved and accessible for detailed analysis. This feature is essential for maintaining transparency, ensuring accountability, and making informed sourcing decisions.