Inviting suppliers is the last step of building a sourcing activity: you choose the suppliers and contacts who should respond, then send it. You can also invite more suppliers or contacts after it's sent, and check that each invitation email arrived.
Before you start
Invite suppliers and send the activity
Choose a supplier
On Invite Suppliers To Respond To This Sourcing Activity, select a Supplier Name. To add one that isn't in oboloo yet, choose New Supplier at the top of the list.
Choose their contacts
Select one or more people in Supplier Contact, or add one with New Supplier Contact. Each contact gets their own access code, and they all work on one shared response for their company.
Add more suppliers
Click Add Another Supplier for each extra supplier. To remove a supplier before sending, click the bin icon on its row.
Preview the activity
Click View As Supplier to see a read-only preview of the activity as suppliers will see it.
Set Record Access
Choose No restriction, Only owners can edit or Only owners can view and edit. See Record Access – Restricting Individual Records.
Click Send To Suppliers
In Confirm you want to send this to your supplier(s), tick I understand that I cannot change the activity after sending the invitation and click Confirm And Send. Click OK on the confirmation.
Invite more suppliers after sending
Open the Overview tab
Go to Sourcing > eSourcing, open the activity and stay on Overview. The Invited Suppliers table shows each supplier and whether they've Responded.
Click Invite New Suppliers
Choose each Supplier Name and Supplier Contact as before, then click Send To Suppliers. The suppliers are added to the table and their contacts are emailed.
Check invite status and manage contacts
Open a supplier's contacts
In the Invited Suppliers table, click View/Edit in the Supplier Contacts column. Edit Supplier Contact lists each contact with Contact Name, Email Invite Status, Email, Last Logged In and Revoke Access.
Check the Email Invite Status
Delivered (green): the invitation reached the contact's mail server.
Delivery Failed (red): the invitation bounced or was rejected.
Pending (grey): delivery hasn't been confirmed yet.
The statuses are for information only and can't be clicked.
Invite another contact
Click Invite New Contact. In Invite Supplier Contacts To Respond To This Sourcing Activity, choose people in Supplier Contact (each shown with their email) or add one with New Supplier Contact, then click Send To Supplier Contacts. They're added to the list and emailed straight away.
Revoke a contact's access
Click Revoke Access on the contact's row, then Confirm Revoke. Their access ends immediately and they're removed from the list. You can invite them again later.
What happens next
Contacts are emailed: each invitation includes the activity details, a unique access code and a button to open the supplier portal. See Log In to the oboloo Supplier Portal.
Suppliers are reminded: invited contacts are emailed 24 hours before the activity opens (if it was set up at least a day ahead) and 24 hours before it closes.
You're told when they respond: the activity's creator and Sourcing Owners are notified when a supplier submits. See Automated Sourcing Notifications.
Troubleshooting
A supplier isn't in the Supplier Name list
Only active suppliers are listed. Check whether they've been archived in Supplier Management, or add them with New Supplier.
A contact shows Delivery Failed
Check their email address on the supplier record in Supplier Management. Revoke the contact, correct or add the right contact, then invite them again with Invite New Contact.
I can't revoke a contact
Each supplier must keep at least one invited contact, so you'll see Cannot revoke access. Invite another contact first, then revoke this one. Revoke Access is also greyed out if you can't edit the activity.
Send To Suppliers is greyed out
You don't have edit access to this activity. Ask its creator, one of its Sourcing Owners or an administrator.
Related articles
If you need further assistance, please contact your internal platform administrator for support. Otherwise please reach out to oboloo's support team. If you are unable to view the above area in the oboloo platform, please check your user permissions and access rights.