1. Quotations and Tendering processes in general

The quotations and tendering process is a structured approach used to manage the procurement of goods and services efficiently. It involves gathering formal offers from suppliers, detailing pricing, terms, and delivery conditions to support informed decision-making. By clearly defining expectations and comparing offers, this process helps organizations ensure transparency, accountability, and fair evaluation. It promotes cost control, quality assurance, and consistency in procurement, making it a valuable tool for both standard purchases and complex projects.

2. What is this module about

For more information on the content of this module, including detailed descriptions of some of the core components, see: Quotations and Tendering processes module in the 'Application Managers' section.

3. Why use this module

Workplace Management helps users streamline the tendering process by enabling them to track and compare quotations received from suppliers, monitor progress, and ensure the process is properly approved. It can be used as a standalone module or linked to corrective maintenance and LTMP work orders, allowing users to create a tendering process for a work order before assigning the work to a supplier. This ensures better control, transparency, and alignment with maintenance planning.

3.1 Choices to be made within the module

The most relevant choices to be made are the following:

• Will the module be used as a stand alone module, or in combination with corrective and/or LTMP work orders (or both stand alone and in combination with work orders)

• Do all or some of the tendering processes need to be reviewed before sending out to suppliers. This can be configured per tendering process type

• Which comparison criteria , next to the price, are relevant? These criteria can be configure per tendering process type and used to compare the different quotations received during a tendering process.

For more information on these concepts, see Quotations and Tendering processes module in the 'Application Managers' section.

4. How to activate this module

As for every new module, use the ‘Module activation’ option on the administrator startboard (only available for level 2 and level 3 admins). For more general information about these 'Module activation' options, see Module activation

4.1 Prerequisites before enabling this module

This module does not require any other modules as prerequisites. However, if the quotations and tendering process is to be used within corrective or LTMP work orders, these modules will also need to be activated.

4.2 Module activation

For this specific module activation, the following settings apply:

Settings to be determined:

• Add at least one tendering process type via the page include. For more information on tendering process types, see Quotations and Tendering processes module in the 'Application Managers' section.

• Use tendering process workflow from work order: If corrective or LTMP work orders are also used, based on this setting, a separate tendering process can be started from a corrective- and LTMP work order. The work order process will then automatically resume once a quotation has been accepted.
  This setting can later be found via the Module settings → General work order settings page

4.2.1 Workflow emails

The emails that are automatically sent via the workflow (e.g., the confirmation email to the supplier after the quotation is accepted) are also generated and shown in the include on the module activation after the module activation is started. If the customer does not want to use one or more workflow emails, the emails can directly be deleted from the overview. For more information on workflow emails, see Workflow emails

For a detailed description of the emails sent from the quotation workflow, see: Quotations and Tendering processes module in the 'Application Managers' section.

4.3 Data imports

Relevant data imports can become available in the module activation after the activation has been started. Default data imports can also be found on the administrator startboard (only for level 2 and level 3 administrators).

For more information on data imports in general, see: Data imports

For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, no data imports are relevant.

4.4 System groups

When a module is activated, system groups become available that can be assigned to user profiles. These system groups will give users access to (a subset of) navigation menu options, startboard tabs, and tasks in the relevant workflow(s).

For more general information on user profiles, system groups, users, and the user profile dashboard, see: User management

For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, the following system groups become available:

Via the 'User profile management' option on the administrator startboard, these system groups can be assigned to existing user profiles or add them to newly created user profiles.

4.4.1 Relevant system groups from other modules:

For some modules, other modules might be of importance, to be able to use this module completely.
For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, the ‘Corrective work orders’ and the ‘LTMP work orders’ module can be relevant as the tendering process can also be started via such work order processes. Therefore, the following system groups could also need to be assigned to users (if not already done in the past), to be able to create and manage the related work orders.

When generating the user profiles, it is advised to also include these groups in the profiles or have dedicated profiles (and users) for these modules.

4.5 Navigation menu and startboard options

When a module is activated, the relevant navigation menu options become available to users with the correct authorizations (based on the system groups). Next to that, a module-specific key user startboard tab becomes available for that particular module and is visible depending on the user's authorizations. This tab gives users insights and day-to-day work overviews relevant to the specific module.

For more general information on the navigation menu and startboard, see: Navigation menu and Startboard

For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, the following navigation menu options become available:

For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, the 'Quotations dashboard' starboard tab becomes available:

This tab is available for the following system groups:

• Create tendering processes

This startboard tab has the following buttons:

• Tendering process +: The option to create a new stand alone tendering processes (outside of the context of a work order)

• Search tendering processes: Same option as in the navigation menu to search on all tendering processes.

Next to that, this tab has the following includes (most are only visible if they contain data):

• Tendering processes to be reviewed: This overviews shows all tendering processes that still need to be reviewed before the quotations requests can be send to the suppliers.

• Accept/reject quotations from tendering process: Once the quotations have been received from the different suppliers within a tendering process, this overview will show these tendering processes as they are ready to be handled (accept one of the quotations and (automatically or manually) reject the other quotations in the same tendering process.

5. Additional reports

Additional reports can be available for some modules via the ‘Reports’ navigation menu option.
For the Quotations and Tendering processes module, there are reports available via → Navigation menu reports: → folder Quotations:

• Tendering processes to be reviewed: This report shows all the tendering processes still to be reviewed before the quotation requests are sent to the suppliers.

• Outstanding quotation requests per supplier: This report shows quotation requests that have been sent to the supplier, but have not yet been returned.

• Quotations to reject; This report shows all quotations to be rejected manually, where no automatic rejection email has been sent.

6. Additional settings and options after enabling

For most modules, additional settings can be configured after the initial module activation via the 'Module settings' option on the administrator startboard. A module is always activated with the most used settings pre-defined. After the module is activated, it may have more advanced settings available, which can also be managed via the module settings.

The Quotations and Tendering processes module settings do not have any additional settings, apart from the option to also manage the tendering process types via this page (similar to the navigation menu option).

7. Additional information

No additional information currently.

8. User manual

For the user manual with a more step-by-step explanation of the process itself, see: Quotations and tendering process for users

9. Q&A

Waiting for questions to answer.