RFQ Improvement Proposal

[ckosiegbu]

We would like to propose the following features into the RFQ process:

1. Ability to set a deadline for the RFQ after which it closes and suppliers can no longer respond
2. Ability to trigger an email to predefined e-mail address(es) once the RFQ deadline passes. The contents of the emails should be a report with an attachment listing out:
   • Supplier name
   • Supplier contact
   • Quotation number
   • Item
   • Unit price
   • Date/Time submitted

3. Have the ability to link submitted quotations to the original RFQ

4. Have the ability to make submitted quotes inaccessible to users of the system until the deadline for submission passes (possibly by manipulating user-roles on the RFQ)
5. Have suppliers and other specified parties automatically notified if an RFQ is cancelled before the deadline for submission is reached

Regards, Chude

[bcornwellmott]

A couple comments:

• Point 3 already happens. Each SQ that is created when related to an RFQ is linked.
• Can you explain the purpose of point 2 and 4? What's the usage case/concern with the way it is?
• If 5 gets implemented, I'd suggest it be done by way of a button. If you cancel and amend an RFQ, you don't necessarily want 2 emails going to each supplier (one to tell them the RFQ is cancelled, the other to issue another RFQ with a slightly different number). It could be very confusing to suppliers and they may thing that the cancellation was for the amended one.
• On that note, it might be useful to have amended RFQs (as well as POs) provide a special note indicating that they are superseding the previous amendment.

[ckosiegbu]

Point 3 struck through.

Point 2: When submissions to an RFQ have all been received, there is usually more than one party that has to review all the submissions and make a decision on which one wins the bid. Sometimes (as with a current customer) these decisions are time-bound and can't wait for the RFQ-responsible to generate and distributes results. I think therefore that it'd be a benefit to automatically dispatch all the submissions once the deadline has elapsed. This removes the potential bottleneck of needing to wait for a specific actor to publish the results.

Point 3: It's a standard feature in SRM (supplier relationship management) tools. You don't want the RFQ-responsible (or any other users for that matter) being able to see any of the quotations before the deadline or else it produces an opportunity for price-fixing.

Point 5: There's already a Cancel button on the RFQ (as-per submittable DocType). The approach I had in mind was to implement a hook on on_cancel which would trigger the notifications. Regarding notifying the suppliers of the amended RFQ, I guess that could be written into the function tied to the "Send Supplier Emails" button (it would need to check if this was a modified document and then add some highly visible message to the outgoing message indicating that there has been some sort of notification. e.g. Please note that this is an updated version of the previously cancelled RFQ #YYYY). Also, one could avoid the confusion by making sure that submission for the cancelled RFQ does not work and throws up an error message.

[stelden]

@ckosiegbu Point 3. Indeed this applies to many procurement procedures. I've currently tried implement it by adding 'Due Date' to RFQ doctype and some custom scripting. Unfortunately I cant get to prevent the RFQ from opening entirely. The best I could to was to conditionally hide sensitive fields but it is still in the works.

But I think Point 3 and Point 5 should come as out-of-the-box features.

[mhbu50]

+1

[Inayatullahshinwari]

why did the ERPNext team not implement feature no 1 (The ability to set a deadline for the RFQ after which it closes and suppliers can no longer respond ), is there a reason for that?