4. RFI, RFP, RFQ: the practice of tendering

The role of tendering

Tendering—or formally, the request for proposal process—is the central element of sourcing. In Fluenta One, this appears as a structured event: the issuer defines the requirements, invites potential suppliers, and evaluates the received proposals.

The three main types of requests

Fluenta One supports all three types. In practice, RFP and RFQ are most common—RFI typically plays a role in the preparatory phase of the sourcing cycle.

Creating a tender

The system guides the user through event creation on a wizard-based interface. The main steps:

1. Defining basic data

Event name, type, category classification (CPV code or internal taxonomy), scheduling (publication, proposal deadline, evaluation, announcement of results). The schedule can also be displayed in timeline view, which helps communicate deadlines.

2. Selecting participants

Suppliers can be selected from the system's database, or new suppliers can also be invited. For new invitations, the system sends a registration link, and the supplier accesses the event after registration. Invitation status (accepted, pending, rejected) can be tracked.

3. Assembling the questionnaire

The essential element of the tender: what do we ask suppliers? Fluenta One has a rich set of field types:

• Text fields (short answer, long description)
• Numeric values (integer, decimal, with currency specification)
• Date and time
• Selection (single and multiple, dropdown or checkbox)
• File upload (individual or bulk)
• Table (e.g., itemized price quote)
• Information block (not a question, just information for the supplier)

The system doesn't just collect responses but enforces Structured Bid Sheets. This requires suppliers to record commercial variables (e.g., unit price, currency, unit of measure) in validated fields. This avoids information loss between tender and order while enabling immediate, objective, mathematical comparison of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

4. Evaluation criteria

Not every field is an evaluation criterion—but those that are can have weight and scale assigned. Weights can be given as percentages (totaling 100%), and the scale is customizable (e.g., 1-5, 1-10, percentage).

5. Access rules

Fluenta One provides detailed authorization management:

• Access gate: the supplier only sees event details if they've accepted the specified document (e.g., NDA, procedure rules)
• Anonymization: it can be hidden from evaluators which proposal came from which supplier
• Role-based access: evaluators only see the parts assigned to them
• Confidential fields: certain fields are only visible to designated persons

6. Approval and publication

If the organization uses an approval workflow, the event can only be published after approval from designated approvers. Upon publication, invited suppliers receive notification.

Communication during the tender

Suppliers often have questions about tender conditions. Fluenta One's Q&A module handles these in a structured way:

1. The supplier sends a question through the system
2. The issuer decides whether the answer is only for the questioner or for all participants
3. The answer is recorded in the system and is searchable
4. Affected parties receive notification

Multi-round tendering and BAFO

In complex procurements, it's common for narrowing to follow the first round, then shortlisted suppliers submit another proposal. Fluenta One supports this:

• Opening a new round within the same event
• Selective invitation: only selected suppliers enter the new round
• Clear marking of transferred data
• The process can be repeated until the Best-and-Final Offer (BAFO) phase

Gap filling

If a received proposal is incomplete or needs clarification, the issuer can request gap filling. The supplier receives notification and can supplement the missing data by the specified deadline.

Templates and reuse

For efficient handling of recurring tenders, Fluenta One offers a three-level template system:

• System templates: starting points provided by Fluenta One
• Company templates: standardized templates maintained by the organization
• Private templates: configurations saved by individual users

A previous tender can also be copied in its entirety—in this case, all settings transfer to the new event, and only elements needing modification need to be changed.