Maintain Inquiries - Intergraph Smart Materials - Version 10.1 - Help - Hexagon

The P.30.11 Inquiries screen is used as a starting point for the maintenance of inquiries. On this screen, you can create inquiries and maintain inquiries. Using the buttons on this screen, you can switch to the preparation of the RFQ (request for quotation), to the maintenance of the quotes, or to the commercial and technical evaluation.

Inquiries can only be created by users with either the ASSIGN BUYER or the BUYER privilege.

Here you can see all the inquiries that have been created in the current project. If you have the MULTI PROJECT privilege, all inquiries of all the projects to which you have access are displayed.

When creating a new inquiry, all commercial evaluation checklists and other costs that have been marked as the default are attached to the inquiry.

An inquiry can only be deleted if:

• the inquiry is not approved

• the user logged on is either the buyer assigned to the inquiry or has the ASSIGN BUYER privilege granted

• the user is logged on to the project in which the inquiry has been created

This screen is a core workflow screen. For more information, see Core Workflow Screens.

On the top of the screen, the Context field is shown. You can select a value from the drop-down in the Context field to restrict the number of displayed inquiries. The available options are listed below.

Most of these context options reflect the workflow of an inquiry. This means that in the course of the workflow, the inquiry "moves" from one context option to the next.

Regardless of the display context, the number of available inquiries is additionally restricted by the ASSIGN BUYER privilege. If you do not have this privilege granted, you can only query for those inquiries that have been created by yourself or to which you are assigned as buyer for at least one bidder.

If you are logged in as an engineer with only the TECHNICAL EVALUATION privilege, you can view all inquiries. However, the use of this screen is very limited. You cannot apply any changes or use any of the buttons except the Order By ... and the Technical Evaluation buttons.

If project default ZP_LIM_INQ is set to N (default value), all available inquiries are displayed, only depending on the granted user privileges. If ZP_LIM_INQ is set to Y, inquiries are available and displayed only to users who are either originator and/or approver of any of the requisitions which are assigned to the inquiry. This limitation applies in addition to the usual limitations of assigned privileges.

The view on the inquiries can further be restricted by sections that have been assigned either to the user on the A.20.06.02 User Securities for Projects screen in the Section field or to the user's role on the A.30.03 Roles/Menus screen on the Sections tab. For more information about sections, read User Securities for Projects and Sections. See also Sections. If no sections are assigned to the user securities or the user’s role, all inquiries are displayed because a section assigned to an inquiry is not considered. If a section is assigned to the user securities, you can only see inquiries that have been assigned to that section or that have no section at all. Any sections assigned to the user’s role are disregarded. If no section is assigned to the user securities but sections are assigned to the user’s role, you can only see inquiries that have been assigned to that section or that have no section at all.

The Project field shows the name of the project to which the inquiry is related. If you have the MULTI PROJECT privilege assigned, the inquiries of all projects you can access are displayed. You can only view the inquiries that were not created in the project you are logged in, and you cannot change any data. This applies also to all screens that can be opened from here, for example, P.30.21 Prepare RFQ, P.30.22 Commercial Evaluation. If you do not have the MULTI PROJECT privilege, you can only see the inquiries of the project you are logged in.

The Inquiry Number field shows the number identifying the inquiry. Approved inquiries are highlighted by a magenta background color. To restrict the number of displayed inquiries to those already approved or not yet approved, you can change the display context to option 'Approved' or 'Not Approved'. When you double-click the inquiry number, the P.30.21 Prepare RFQ screen opens if the inquiry is not approved. If the inquiry is approved, double-clicking opens the P.30.22 Commercial Evaluation screen instead. Logged in as an engineer who is only allowed to perform the technical evaluation, the double-click leads you to the P.30.23 Technical Evaluation screen.

The supplement or revision of the inquiry is shown in the Suppl field. The default value for this field is 0 (zero).

If you have created inquiry supplements and at the same time changed the inquiry name, right-click in the Inquiry Number field and select Show all supplements from the context menu to get a list of all related inquiry supplements.

If the Purchase indicator is selected, you can create agreements from the quotes associated with the inquiry. If this check box is not set, you cannot transform any resulting quote into an agreement; you can only create a blanket order and a master agreement, respectively.

The type of the inquiry is displayed in the Inquiry Type field; it is either Order or Subcontract. The inquiry type specifies which agreement type is available for an inquiry later on.

The Agreement Type field shows the type of the agreement. The available agreement types depend on the value of the Purchase indicator, the selected inquiry type, and the setting of project default ZP_CONSPCI.

If the inquiry can only be used for inquiries and ZP_CONSPCI is set to Y, only the agreement type Blanket Order is available for inquiry type 'Order' and only the agreement type Master Agreement is available for inquiry type Subcontract.

If the inquiry can be used for purchasing or if the project default ZP_CONSPCI is set to N, more options are available.

For the inquiry type Order, you can select:

• Blanket Order

• Purchase Order

• Notice of Commitment

• Notice to Proceed

• Blanket Order Release

• Field Order

• Rental Order

If the inquiry type is Subcontract, the following types are available:

• Master Agreement

• Subcontract

• Notice of Commitment

• Notice to Proceed

• Service Agreement

• Work Order

When a blanket order is assigned to a requisition, you can create a purchase order (= blanket order release) based on this blanket order; when a master agreement is assigned to a requisition, you can create a work order based on this master agreement. A notice of commitment can be converted into a purchase order.

If project default ZP_TND_PRD is set to Y, you can select the Show Bids indicator to open the P.30.22 Commercial Evaluation screen during the tender period.

You can select the payment type of the subcontract inquiry from the drop-down list in the Payment Type field. The available values are:

• Measured Qty

• Milestone Progress

• Schedule of Values

The pricing type can be selected from the LOV in the Pricing Type field. You can double-click in this field to open the P.10.66 Pricing Types screen where the pricing types are defined.

The Agreement Budget field can be used, for example, for estimated values or for values that are larger than the total of the line item budget values, to have a kind of buffer. If an inquiry is created, the value of the budget is copied over from the requisition.

The Currency field shows the currency of the inquiry. When creating a new inquiry, the setting of project default ZX_CURCY is used as the default for the currency; this value can be overwritten. If you double-click in this field, the A.10.12 Units of Measure screen will open where currencies are defined.

The user who is assigned as the buyer of the agreements created from any bid of the inquiry is displayed in the Buyer field. The buyer must be assigned on P.30.01 when creating the inquiry.

The Bidders Approved check box is an indicator showing whether the list of bidders assigned to the inquiry has been approved by the client. If project default ZP_SUPAPRV is set to Y, the inquiry can only be approved if this check box has been selected.

To assign a CMS (Component Management System) class system to the inquiry, select a value from the LOV in the Class System Code field. The class system revision automatically appears in the Class Rev field.

You can assign a material/work group type to the inquiry by selecting a value from the LOV in the Matl Group Type field. Double-click in this field to open the P.10.42 Material/Work Groups screen where material/work group types are defined.

To assign a material/work group to the inquiry, select a value from the LOV in the Matl/Work Group field. If a material/work group has been assigned to an inquiry, you can only assign bidders to the inquiry that have been assigned to this material/work group. Double-click in this field to open the P.10.42 Material/Work Groups screen where material/work groups are defined.

If technical and/or commercial questions are defined for the selected material or service, these questions are attached to the inquiry and the line items. Click Attachments and open the Technical Questions or Commercial Questions tab on D.90.21 to view the questions.

The revision of the selected material/work group is displayed in the Rev field.

As explained previously, the view on inquiries can be restricted by sections assigned to inquiry in the Section field.

You can assign an expediting level, inspection level, and criticality level to the inquiry using the LOV in the corresponding fields Expediting Level, Inspection Level, and Criticality Level. Double-click in any of these fields to open the P.10.55 Expediting Levels screen where these levels are defined.

When the inquiry was created, the current date was automatically filled in the Created On field; you can update this field when needed, but future dates are not allowed.

The date before which the bidder is requested to inform whether he wants to submit a bid can be entered in the NIB Due Date field (Notice of Intent to Bid due date). A date LOV is available for this field.

Enter the date before which the bids must be returned from the bidders in the Bid Due Date field. A date LOV is available for this field. If an inquiry is created, the bid due date is set automatically depending on the setting of project default ZP_CALC_BD as described below.

• If ZP_CALC_BD is not set, the bid due date is the actual date plus 14 days. The project calendar is not taken into account for this calculation.

• If ZP_CALC_BD is set to any negative value, the bid due date is not set.

• If ZP_CALC_BD is set to a positive value, the bid due date is the actual date plus the number of days given by the project default. For this calculation, the project calendar is taken into account.

• If ZP_CALC_BD is set to 0 (zero), the bid due date is copied from the previous supplement when a new inquiry supplement is created.

If the calculated date is not in the range of the project calendar, the system date plus 14 days is taken as the value for this field because this field is mandatory. When you update the Issue Date of an inquiry that has not yet been approved, the bid due date is recalculated according to the rules described above, based on the entered issue date instead of the actual date. If the issue date is cleared, the bid due date remains unchanged.

The time before which the bids must be returned from the bidders can be entered in the Bid Due Time field. This is a free text format field.

If the bid due date must be revised, you can enter the revised date in the Revised Bid Due Date field.

If you enter a date in the Bid Opening Date field that lies before the bid due date and the revised bid due date, and project default ZP_TND_PRD is set to Y or I, the bidding information will be available on P.30.22 and P.30.23 from that day on. If no date is entered, or the entered date lies after the (revised) bid due date, the bidding information will be available when the tender period ends.

If you want to disable the Split Tag functionality for this inquiry in Smart Materials Portal, clear the Allow Split Tag check box.

If you want to disable the Create Split functionality for this inquiry in Smart Materials Portal, clear the Allow Split Qty check box.

If project default ZP_ALLOPTD is set to Y and the Non-Public check box is selected, the inquiry is only displayed in Smart Materials Portal to the suppliers who are assigned to the inquiry. If Non-Public is not selected, the inquiry is shown to all suppliers regardless of whether they have been assigned to the inquiry or not.

If the inquiry should not be available in Smart Materials Portal, clear the Portal check box. If the project default ZP_DEF_PTL is set to Y, the check box is marked by default when a new inquiry is created.

The date when the inquiry is approved is displayed in the Approved Date field, with the user who approved in the Approved by field.

The date on which the inquiry has been issued can be entered in the Issue Date field. Future dates are not allowed. When updating the issue date of the inquiry, the bid due date is recalculated as described above in the Bid Due Date section. If the project default ZP_SET_ID is set to Y (default), the issue date of the inquiry is copied over to the corresponding quotes. If ZB_SET_ID is set to N, the issue date of the quotes is not changed.

The date when all quotes assigned to the selected inquiry have been received from the bidders is displayed in the Bid Return Date field. This field is populated during the bid download, but you can overwrite it. It will be set by the system if the quote received date or the No Bid indicator has been set for all assigned quotes.

In the Prelim Comm Eval field, you enter the date on which the preliminary commercial evaluation has been done. The date for the preliminary commercial evaluation can only be set as long as no date for the final commercial evaluation has been entered. If the Prelim Comm Eval field is still empty when the date of the final commercial evaluation is set, this date is also copied over as the date for the completion of the preliminary commercial evaluation. When setting this field, its value is copied over to the related quote summaries.

In the Final Comm Eval field, you enter the date on which the final commercial evaluation has been done. When setting this field, its value is copied over to the related quote summaries.

In the Reason for Supplement field, you enter the reason for building the inquiry supplement. You can only enter/change text in this field if the supplement is greater than 0 (zero) and the approval of the inquiry is not yet started. To start an approval, you must enter a reason for the supplement.

The No. of Bidders field shows the number of bidders assigned to the inquiry.

The No. of Started Quotes field shows the number of bidders assigned to the inquiry who started quotation.

The No. of Finalized Quotes field shows the number of bidders assigned to the inquiry who finalized quotation.

The Tender Closed indicator shows whether the tender period of the inquiry is closed.

The date on which an agreement has been created for a bid based on the selected inquiry is displayed in the PO Created On field.

The date on which an agreement based on a bid for the inquiry has been issued is displayed in the PO Issue Date field.

The date on which an agreement associated with the inquiry has been closed is shown in the PO Closed Date field.

The inquiry descriptions appear in the Short Desc and Description fields.

The Submit Email Receptors field can be used to specify email address(es). Double-click in the field to open another dialog, select a user from the LOV in Last Name, and enter a valid email address in Email. Select Just for this in Assigned Inquiries to specify this email address only for the selected inquiry. This email address will be highlighted in green. Alternatively, select For all to specify this email address for all inquiries in this project. Add further users if required, and click OK. If a supplier submits a bid for this inquiry, additional emails will be sent to the recipients defined in this field.

For the description of the Attribute 1 - 10 and CIP Field 1 - 10 fields and the Order By ... button, see Core Workflow Screens.

You can click the Attributes button to open the A.50.21 Attached Attributes screen. For more information, see Attached Attributes. This button is not available for engineers who are only allowed to perform the technical evaluation.

Tender Period

The project default ZP_TND_PRD specifies whether to consider the tender periods of inquiries. The default value is N, which means a tender period is not considered.

The tender period begins with the approval of the inquiry and ends with the bid due date, which is defined with an entry in the Bid Due Date field, as long as no revised bid due date is entered. If a value is entered in the Revised Bid Due Date field, the tender period ends with the revised bid due date.

If the tender period of an inquiry is active and ZP_TND_PRD is set to Y, you have only limited access to the quotes in P.30.22 Commercial Evaluation and P.30.23 Technical Evaluation, where you can only open the RFI/Clarifications, Files and Questions tabs to communicate with the bidders, and you cannot open the P.30.24 Download/Load Bids screens. Furthermore, you cannot create a supplement on P.30.11 or reverse the approval of the inquiry on P.30.21. On P.30.01, you cannot create an inquiry supplement or update the inuiry.

If ZP_TND_PRD is set to I, the software prevents you from viewing quotations during the tender period, but allows the creation of inquiry supplements.

You can select the Show Bids check box to open the P.30.22 during the active tender period.

If ZP_TND_PRD is set to E, all inquiries that are not available in the Portal (cleared Portal check box in P.30.11/P.30.21) are excluded from closed tender, means they are available in P.30.22/P.30.23 without any restriction.

Buttons

Prepare RFQ

The first step after creating an inquiry is to prepare the request for quotation (RFQ). Click the Prepare RFQ button to start this process by calling the P.30.21 Prepare RFQ screen. As long as the inquiry is not approved, you can double-click in the Inquiry Number field to open that screen. On this screen, you can not only maintain and approve the inquiry but also assign requisitions, bidders, commercial evaluation checklists, text and terms, documents, and other costs to the inquiry. For more information, see Prepare Request for Quotation (RFQ).

The Prepare RFQ button is not available for engineers who are only allowed to perform the technical evaluation.

Commercial Evaluation

Click the Commercial Evaluation button to open the P.30.22 screen and enter the section where you can maintain the quote summaries and their details. That is, here you can perform the commercial evaluation. This button is only active after an inquiry has been approved. It is not available for engineers who are only allowed to perform the technical evaluation. An approved inquiry is displayed with a magenta background color. You can double-click an approved inquiry in the Inquiry Number field to open the P.30.22 screen. For more information, see Commercial Evaluation.

Technical Evaluation

The Technical Evaluation button is only active after an inquiry has been approved. Click this button to view and perform the technical evaluation for the individual quotes on the P.30.23 Technical Evaluation screen. Apart from any restrictions on account of a user's role, the screen for the technical evaluation can be called by any user. But changes can only be applied by users who have the TECHNICAL EVALUATION privilege. For more information, see Technical Evaluation.

Download/Load Bids

If you want to download or load the bids of an inquiry, you must click the Download/Load Bids button. This will open the P.30.24 Download/Load Bids screen. This button is only available after an inquiry has been approved, because the quotes (bids) are available for the inquiry only after approval. This button is not available for engineers who are only allowed to perform the technical evaluation. Moreover, this button is only enabled if no higher supplement of the inquiry exists and if you are logged in to the project of the inquiry. For more information, see Download/Load Bids.

New Supplement

If you need to create an inquiry supplement without having a new requisition supplement, you can click the New Supplement button. The new supplement is not approved. This button is only available for the highest supplement of an approved inquiry. It is not available for engineers who are only allowed to perform the technical evaluation. If the tender period is active for an inquiry (ZP_TND_PRD=Y, not I or N), you cannot create another supplement. If CIP m_pck_po_custom.gen_inq_number does not return NULL, this return value is copied over as the name for the new supplement. Otherwise, the number (name) for a new supplement is copied over from the previous supplement. In a standard installation, the CIP returns a NULL value.

If a supplement of an inquiry is created, all alternates and options of the inquiry are copied to the new supplement. If you now delete the alternates and options on the inquiry supplement and approve the supplement, the alternates and options of the corresponding quote which were created by the supplier are copied from the previous supplement and are available in the Portal. Alternates and options created by the buyer on the previous supplement in P.30.22 are not copied.

Record Visualization

Record vizualization can be used to highlight certain values or data constellations. For more information and how to setup record visualization, see Record Visualization.

If record visualization is defined for this screen, the Color Visualization button is displayed to the left of the Order By ... button. You can click this button to open a dialog that shows

• which conditions have been defined,

• that a single field or the entire record is highlighted.

Additionally, you can click Filter in this dialog to filter the records according to the defined conditions.

Requests for Information

For approved inquiries, the green RFI indicator underneath the grid shows that requests for information assigned to the inquiry can be edited on the RFI/Clarifications tab in the P.30.22 Commercial Evaluation screen. Red RFI indicates that a higher approved supplement exists and the requests for information are no longer editable.