Multi-Envelope Events
Vendor responses to Sourcing Events are concealed from Sourcing Agents until envelopes are opened after the Due Date has expired. By default, all aspects of a vendor’s response are put into one envelope. If a “Two-Step” solicitation is necessary, Sourcing Agents can choose to conduct Multi-Envelope events where certain aspects of a vendor’s response are only accessible after reviewing the contents of an initial envelope.
For more detailed step-by-step information regarding this topic in a printable format, see the following job aid.
After filling out the Sourcing Project Attributes fields on the ‘Create Sourcing Project’ page, the user should navigate down the screen to the ‘Select a template’ section. Whether the user selects the IT or Non-IT template, they will be required to answer two questions. The second question relates to Multi-Envelope events.
When initiating a Sourcing Event, the first of the four sections to edit is the Event ‘Rules.’ The first field that can be edited is ‘Number of Envelopes’ which defaults to “1.”
Each section of the Sourcing Event’s ‘Content’ where vendors are expected to respond – Section 3 (Vendor Information), Section 4 (Pricing Submittal), and Section 5 (Vendor Response) – are tied to Envelope 1 by default. When additional envelopes are added to an Event, the Sourcing Agent needs to update whichever sections need to be tied to the additional envelope.
When the event status becomes ‘Pending Selection,’ Sourcing Agents can open the first envelope to evaluate the preliminary portion of vendor responses. Before they can open the second envelope, they’ll have to get approval from P&C through the ‘Gain P&C Approval to Proceed with Opening Cost Proposal for Two-Step Solicitation’ task.
Once P&C has approved that the user can proceed with opening the cost proposal, users can decide which vendors will progress to the next round and open the remaining envelopes.
