Supplier Hub Overview

Supplier Hub

1. What it is

Supplier Hub is a buyer-side sourcing workspace. You issue solicitations (RFQs, RFPs, and RFIs) to vendors, capture and score their quotes, and award a winner — then hand the result off to Procurement or Contracts without re-keying vendor or line-item data.

• Enablement: Supplier Hub requires a license. An admin enables it per tenant from the Apps Marketplace.
• What it is not: Supplier Hub does not include a vendor self-service portal. Vendors do not log in to submit quotes or ask questions; an internal user captures those on their behalf.

2. Standing it up

1. Go to Apps Marketplace and enable Supplier Hub. The app appears in the sidebar for all users.
2. Go to Supplier Hub → Vendors and add at least one vendor. Each vendor needs a name and, for email notifications, a contact email. Vendors are shared with Procurement, Contracts, and Asset Pro — if any of those apps already have vendors, they appear here automatically.
3. Go to Supplier Hub → Settings and review the workflow toggles. The key decisions:
   • Whether to require single-vendor justification, finance-approval thresholds, or award justification.
   • Whether awarding an RFQ automatically creates a Procurement requisition or a draft contract (each requires the corresponding app to be enabled).
   • Whether to turn on vendor scorecards and vendor rating.
4. Optionally, go to Supplier Hub → RFQ Templates and create one or more reusable templates so future solicitations start with pre-filled line items and questions.
5. To confirm it worked: go to Supplier Hub → RFQs → New RFQ, verify you can select vendors, add line items, and save a draft.

Access rules:

• All users can view the dashboard, browse RFQs and vendors, and see their own RFQs.
• Manager or above can create, issue, and award RFQs; enter and submit quotes; manage evaluation stages; and manage vendor records.
• Admin or above (or app admin) can access Settings and load/remove sample data.

3. How it fits together

Solicitation types

Every solicitation is one of three types, chosen when you create it:

• RFQ (Request for Quotation) — you need priced line items. Vendors quote quantities, unit prices, and totals.
• RFP (Request for Proposal) — similar to an RFQ but typically used for services or complex purchases where the evaluation weighs more than price alone.
• RFI (Request for Information) — information only. RFIs carry no line items and no pricing. “Awarding” an RFI selects the best response but never creates a requisition or contract.

Example: you issue RFQ-00001 to three office-furniture vendors with five line items (desks, chairs, monitors, etc.), a submission deadline of two weeks out, and a question deadline of one week. Each vendor’s quote prices those five items. After the deadline you compare quotes side by side, run an evaluation, and award the winner.

Lifecycle

A solicitation moves through these states: Draft → Issued → Accepting Questions → Quotes Due → Under Evaluation → Awarded (or Cancelled at any point before award). The transitions are mostly manual — you issue a draft, then move to evaluation — except that auto-close can reject new quotes once the submission deadline passes.

Vendors, qualifications, and scorecards

Vendor records are shared across Supplier Hub, Procurement, Contracts, and Asset Pro. Within Supplier Hub, each vendor can have:

• A qualification record tracking approval status (Pending, Approved, Rejected, Probation, or Blocked), risk scores across three dimensions (financial, operational, compliance) rolled into a 0–100 overall score, insurance and license expiry dates, and diverse-supplier certifications (MBE, WBE, DVBE).
• A scorecard tracking performance across quality, delivery, price, service, and responsiveness (each 0–100). The system calculates an overall score and derives a performance status: Excellent (90–100), Good (75–89), Fair (60–74), Poor (40–59), or Unacceptable (below 40). Scorecards appear only when the Vendor Scorecards setting is on.

Evaluation pipeline

Each solicitation can define multiple evaluation stages — for example, Technical Review, Commercial Review, and Final Selection. Within each stage you assign evaluators (managers or above), and each evaluator scores every submitted quote against weighted criteria. The default criteria are Price (30%), Quality (25%), Delivery Time (20%), Vendor Experience (15%), and Support & Service (10%), but you can change the weights or the criteria per solicitation.

Blind evaluation hides vendor names from scorers. You can also require a minimum number of evaluators per stage and require written comments before a score is submitted.

Cross-app handoffs

When you award an RFQ or RFP:

• If Auto-Create Requisition on Award is on and the Procurement app is enabled, the winning quote converts into a Procurement requisition.
• If Create Draft Contract on Award is on and the Contracts app is enabled, a draft contract is created and linked to both the RFQ and the vendor.
• RFIs are never converted.

4. Running it

Creating and issuing a solicitation

1. Go to Supplier Hub → RFQs → New RFQ.
2. Choose the type (RFQ, RFP, or RFI), give it a title, select invited vendors, add line items (for RFQ/RFP), and optionally add vendor questions.
3. Set a submission deadline and, if applicable, a question deadline.
4. Save as draft. Review it, then click Issue to send it to the invited vendors.

If Email Vendors on RFQ Issue is on, each invited vendor receives an email notification with a link.

Entering and comparing quotes

1. On the issued RFQ, go to the Quotes tab and click New Quote.
2. Select the vendor, enter their per-item pricing (unit price, quantity, lead time), answer any RFQ questions, and save.
3. Repeat for each vendor’s response. Once quotes are in, use Compare to view them side by side.

Running an evaluation

1. On the RFQ, go to the Evaluation tab and add stages (or click Add Default Stages to start with Technical Review, Commercial Review, and Final Selection).
2. Assign evaluators to each stage. Each evaluator receives an assignment for every submitted quote.
3. Evaluators open their assignment, score each criterion, add comments (required if Require Evaluation Comments is on), and submit.
4. When a stage’s evaluations are complete, a manager can mark it complete to move to the next stage.

Awarding

1. On a solicitation that has received and evaluated quotes, click Award on the winning quote.
2. If Require Award Justification is on, provide a written reason.
3. The vendor is notified (if Email Winning Vendor on Award is on), and downstream handoffs to Procurement and Contracts fire automatically based on your settings.

Managing vendor Q&A

Vendor questions appear under the Q&A tab on each RFQ. You can answer a question privately (visible only to the asking vendor) or broadcast the answer to all invited vendors. Internal-only comments let your team discuss a question without the answer being visible externally.

5. Settings

All settings are at Supplier Hub → Settings. The workflow settings are stored in the app’s configuration; defaults apply until you change them.

Setting	Section	Default	What it changes
Enable AI Agent	Supplier Hub Agent	On	Lets users query vendor and RFQ data through Ask AI
Require Single-Vendor Justification	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Issuing to only one vendor requires a written reason
Require Manager Approval	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Only managers can issue RFQs
Require Finance Approval	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	RFQs above the finance threshold cannot be issued
Finance Approval Threshold (USD)	Thresholds & Numbering	10,000	The value above which finance approval is required
Auto-Approval Threshold (USD)	Thresholds & Numbering	1,000	RFQs at or below this value are auto-approved
Allow Editing Issued RFQs	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Permits amendments after a solicitation is issued
Notify Vendors on Amendment	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Records and notifies vendors when an issued solicitation is amended
Require Award Justification	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Awarding requires a written reason
Auto-Create Requisition on Award	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Creates a Procurement requisition from the winning quote (requires Procurement app)
Create Draft Contract on Award	RFQ Workflow & Approvals	Off	Creates a draft contract in Contracts from the winning quote (requires Contracts app; RFIs never convert)
Allow Late Quotes	Quotes	Off	Accepts quotes after the submission deadline
Auto-Close After Deadline	Quotes	Off	Rejects new quotes after the deadline (overridden by Allow Late Quotes)
Auto-Score Quotes	Quotes	Off	Calculates evaluation scores automatically on the comparison page
Require Evaluation Comments	Evaluation & Vendors	Off	Evaluators must provide overall comments when submitting scores
Blind Evaluation	Evaluation & Vendors	Off	Hides vendor names from evaluators during scoring
Vendor Rating	Evaluation & Vendors	Off	Allows rating vendors after award
Vendor Scorecards	Evaluation & Vendors	Off	Shows vendor performance scorecards across the app
Minimum Evaluators per Stage	Thresholds & Numbering	Not set	Evaluation stages must have at least this many evaluators
RFQ Number Prefix	Thresholds & Numbering	RFQ-	Prefix for auto-generated solicitation numbers
Quote Number Prefix	Thresholds & Numbering	QTE-	Prefix for auto-generated quote numbers

Notification settings (RFQ lifecycle, vendor interactions, evaluation events, and channel preferences) are configured in the lower half of the same page.

6. More help

• Supplier Hub FAQ — specific setup and operating questions, limits, and troubleshooting.
• Ask AI — the assistant answers read-only questions about vendors, RFQs, quotes, and vendor performance.