Creating a Sourcing Project
A Sourcing Project (SP) is a container for all information and documents pertaining to a formal solicitation for bids on goods or services. The process begins when the user clicks on the Guided Sourcing Project link. By default, the user who initiates the SP becomes the Project Owner. Once a SP has been initiated, the user populates the Create guided sourcing project fields, which trigger the appearance of either a State of North Carolina Sourcing Process – Guided Sourcing template or an NCDIT Sourcing Template – Guided Sourcing depending on the nature of the solicitation. These templates guide the remainder of the user’s steps in the SP creation and management process, based on the P&C or NCDIT prescribed procurement process (e.g., Phases and Tasks).
For more detailed step-by-step information regarding this topic in a printable format, see the following job aid.
The first step in creating a Guided Sourcing Project is to click on the Guided Sourcing Project link and fill in all the solicitation’s attributes. These Project Details attributes act as the framework for the project.
After filling out the Project Details fields, scroll down the screen to the Template section. Based on the selection made in the Solicitation Vehicle field above, either the State of North Carolina Sourcing Process – Guided Sourcing or the NCDIT Sourcing Template – Guided Sourcing template will populate, and the Project Owner will be required to answer a few questions.
After clicking Create on the Create guided sourcing project page, the Sourcing Project (SP) is saved and given a workspace number beginning with “WS” that will include six project sections:
• Project Summary
• Process
• Project Insights
• Tasks
• Events and other documents
• Project Message board
The Tasks section consists of phases and tasks. The purpose of phases and tasks are to provide a road map for the Project Owner to navigate the P&C or NCDIT prescribed procurement process and to track the progress made throughout the SP. There are multiple phases, each containing various tasks which will differ between Non-IT and IT SPs. There are three types of tasks in each Tasks section:
• To Do Task: A simple task that tracks an action. Users will indicate when these are completed.
• Approval Task: Requests approvers to approve or deny a document before it is finalized. When approval is granted, the system will indicate this task has been completed.
• Review Task: Designed to route a document to others for review, and reviewers can usually edit and suggest changes.
The Events and other documents section is a central storage location for all documents related to a SP. By default it includes various folders that differ in name and contents between Non-IT and IT solicitations. Many folders are tied to approval or review Tasks and contain pre-loaded document templates that can be downloaded, completed, and replaced for P&C or NCDIT review. Users can upload new documents, and all documents are version controlled.
The Team section lists the project groups and its members. Each project group can have different roles that specify the permissions for the users in that group, the objects the users can access, and the actions they can perform. Each Entity template is set up with the necessary Project Groups, but it is possible to edit the assigned Project Groups within each SP should the need arise. Only users included in a Project Group will be able to view the SP, and only those with a Project Owner role will be able to edit the SP. The Team section is accessible via the two-person icon to the right of the title. Clicking this icon will open the Team section up in a pop-out screen.
The Project message board allows members of the SP to communicate with one another. It is an internal message board and is not visible to vendors. Messages do not trigger notifications for other users, so it is not considered extremely useful, however, emails exchanged outside of the SP can be added to the Project message board which can be of use.