New proposal management module - Release note 11.31 (February)

This update to the LittleBig Connection platform includes the implementation of a new proposal page in the client universe, to ease the qualifications and appointments of proposals for your projects. 

Within this article

• Introduction to the new proposal page
• Navigate within the proposal page
• Qualify a proposal 

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Introduction to the new proposal page

With this release, we are delighted to unveil the new proposal page, built to facilitate your finding an expert for your projects. We have reviewed the whole experience on this module, from the navigation to the features displayed and decision-making tools, to better guide you in the proposal analysis and qualification process.

Finding the right expert for your projects becomes even faster and easier than before!

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Navigate within the proposal page 

When you are on the proposals grid of a Request for Proposals (RFP) and clicking on one of them, you will now be redirected to the new proposal module. 

Once on this module, you can go from one proposal to another thanks to navigation arrows and, to easily find the information you need, the module is now made of 4 tabs: 

• Profile: resume (if any) and profile details of the Consultant
• Proposal: proposal details filled in by the supplier (rate, availability date, sales pitch, daily fees if applicable and contact information), the submission and last modification date of the proposal
• Messages: messages between you (or your colleagues) and the business manager or freelancer from the proposal
• Negotiation (if applicable): If the Negotiation module premium feature has been activated on your company account, you will see this additional tab.

Finally, regardless of the tab you are in, you will find a new set of information on the right of the page to help you in your decision-making process: 

1. Action buttons: they will depend on where you are in the evaluation workflow (more details later in the article)
2. An evaluation workflow: to quickly know at which step you are of the qualification process
3. A comparison table: to allow you to compare the rate and availability date of the proposal to the ones indicated in the RFP
4. Internal notes: you can write a comment on the proposal received. You can edit or delete it until a proposal is appointed for the project. This comment will be shared with your colleagues having access to the proposal.
5. RFP details: by clicking on this, a panel will expand with the main information of the project RFP

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Qualify a proposal 

We have enhanced your experience of qualifying a proposal for you to know more clearly the action to carry out. The proposal qualification process in itself is still the same.

Among the changes we have made, we have renamed two proposal status for more clarity: 

• Unread becomes New: the proposal has not yet been consulted
• On going becomes Read: the proposal has been consulted but not yet qualified

Moreover, another one has been added: Approved. This status is used in case the proposal needs to be approved by the RFP buyer before the Operational manager can appoint the proposal and create the purchase request (PR). 

Then, if you wish to use the negotiation module on a proposal, the form that will appear for you to make your counteroffer has been improved but includes the same fields as before:

And as always, once you have set the proposal as Interesting, you can select the profile for your project and fill in the form. When it is complete, you can click on the action button in the top right corner (you will see one of the following depending on your workflow):

• Send selection to buyer: if the proposal amount is higher than or equal to the buyer validation amount set in the spending line. The proposal status becomes Selected and the RFP buyer will need to review and approve the selection to appoint the profile and create the project. 

• Validate and create project: if the proposal amount is lower than the buyer validation amount set in the spending line (and purchase request (PR) option is not activated). The proposal status becomes Appointed and you can follow the progress of the project via the Projects tab.

• Validate and send PR:  if the proposal amount is lower than the buyer validation amount set in the spending line (and the PR option is activated without custom workflow). The proposal status becomes Appointed and the PR is created. 

Approval by the RFP buyer

Finally, as buyer, once you have reviewed the proposal selected by the Operational manager, you can click on Unselect if the proposal doesn't fit, or on Review to open the approval form. If all the information of the form is correct, you can click on the validation button (you will see one of the following depending on your workflow):

• Validate project creation: if the purchase request option is deactivated. The proposal status becomes Appointed and the project is created.
• Validate and send PR: If the PR option is activated without custom workflow. The proposal status becomes Appointed and the project is created.
• Validate and send to operational: If PR option is activated with custom workflow. The proposal status becomes Approved and the project is created. The Operational manager will then need to appoint the proposal and fill in the custom fields if there are any.