Creating a Sourcing Project

A Sourcing Project 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 ‘Sourcing Project’ link. By default, the user who initiates the Sourcing Project becomes the Project Owner. Once a Sourcing Project has been initiated, the user populates the Sourcing Attributes fields, which trigger the appearance of a preset Template. This template guides the remainder of the user’s steps in the Sourcing Project creation and management process, based on the State’s Sourcing Project Lifecycle.

For more detailed step-by-step information regarding this topic in a printable format, see the following PDF:

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Initiate Sourcing Project and Enter Attributes

The first step in creating a Sourcing Project is to click on the 'Sourcing Project' link and fill in all the Sourcing Attributes. These attributes act as the framework for the project.

Note that there are 7 required fields when entering the Sourcing Attributes including:

Name
Description
Test Project (Should be "NO")
Entity
Estimated Base Contract Value
Execution Strategy
Solicitation Vehicle

Template Selection

After filling out the Sourcing Project Attributes fields, the user should navigate down the screen to the ‘Select a template’ section. Despite the name, there is no choice for the user to make – all users will follow the preset ‘State of North Carolina Sourcing Process’ template – and the radio button will be automatically selected once a value is populated in the ‘Entity’ field.

Overview of Tabs

After clicking ‘Create’ on the Sourcing Attributes page, the Sourcing Project is saved, and the Overview screen is displayed. From this screen, users can access six other tabs for the management of the Sourcing Project:

Documents
Tasks
Team
Message Board
Event Messages
History

Managing Phases and Tasks

The Phases and Tasks are located under the ‘Tasks’ tab. The purpose of the Phases and Tasks are to provide a road map for the Project Owner to navigate the State’s Sourcing Project Lifecycle and to track the progress made throughout the Sourcing Project. There are 6 Phases with subsequent Tasks under each phase. These should be considered as best practices, but none are required to complete the Sourcing Project.

Managing Team Members

The ‘Team’ tab 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 Sourcing Project should the need arise.

Managing Documents

The ‘Documents’ tab is a central storage location for all documents related to a Sourcing Project. By default it includes folders for ‘Sourcing Project Documents,’ 'Solicitation Document,’ ‘Sourcing Event,’ and ‘Document Templates,’ within which users can keep record of the Sourcing Project’s most important documents.

Using the Message Boards

The ‘Message Board’ allows members of the Sourcing Project to communicate with one another. The ‘Message Board’ is used internally and is not visible to vendors, while ‘Event Messages’ (read-only within the Sourcing Project) are for communication with the vendors responding to the Sourcing Event.