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Supplier Help
This document outlines the buying process used by RigSupplies.com RFQ. The instructions presented below are intended to aid a supplier through the process of selling in the virtual business-to-business marketplace using RFQs (Request for Quotes). This document was created with the supplier in mind, and mall administrators should refer to the RigSupplies.com RFQ Administration Guide. Note that RigSupplies.com RFQ is used for Request-for-Quote transactions in a business-to-business environment, and therefore a supplier can also be a buyer, but this guide focuses on the supplying process only. For more information on the buyer options, please see the RigSupplies.com RFQ Buyer guide. (NOTE: if registered as a supplier, there are both buyer and supplier options available, though if registered as a buyer, there are only buyer options.) Registering is as easy as filling out the form. Some fields are required, such as the e-mail address (for invoice notification). Phone numbers are optional, but they will help us notify you in case there is some problem. The demographics section is optional. Note that the nickname you enter here will be the one you will use for your future log-ins in to the site. Choose a name and password that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for anyone else to guess. Please verify that the information entered is correct before pressing the Submit Registration button. You will receive an email thanking you for your application. Once your form is submitted, a site administrator will review your application, accept (or reject) it, and notify you by email. Once you have received notification of acceptance, you are a registered supplier for the site. Once you are a registered supplier you can log in with your nickname/email and password, and you will be presented with both supplier and buyer options. (These options may be available as soon as you log in, on your 'home' page, or you may have to select a link such as 'Your Account'.) The buyer options are explained in the RigSupplies.com RFQ - Buyer Guide. This guide will explain the supplier options. These include RFQ options, such as View Posted RFQs, Manage options such as Review New Customer Applications, and personal options like Edit Your Supplier Profile. All of these options are explained in detail below. The first thing you will want to do after becoming a supplier is choose materials zones that match your inventory and choose your shipping carriers. Remember that you can make changes at any time after. Tailor the master material list to your inventory by selecting all the zones from the Unregistered Zones list that apply to your inventory. Click the Add Zones button to register these zones and they will appear in the Registered Zones list. To remove zones, make your selections from the Registered Zones list and click the Remove Zones button. You can update your material zones as often as you wish, so that it most accurately reflects your current inventory. Also don't worry if you don't sell everything within a zone, as you will be able to further exclude materials within each zone (see Choose Exclusions from Material List, below). To view the contents of each zone click the 'here' link for a preview. Select a zone to view from the drop-down zone selection box. 'Display All' will show products in all of the zones. The top-level products/materials are shown in the left most area of the tree. Each of the top-level products has a ">>" to its right to show that there are sub-products under it. If you click on one of the top-level products in the list it will be highlighted and the box to the right will fill with sub-products for that product. If you click on a sub-product with a ">>" symbol, it too will highlight and fill the box to its right. When you see a product with a "*" symbol beside it, you know it is a bottom-level product, with no sub-products. For example, a top-level category might be Hand Tools (General Supplies). General Supplies would be the zone, meaning that Hand Tools would only appear in the top-level box when General Supplies or Display All was selected from the zone selection drop-down list. When you click Hand Tools, the next box might show Wrenches, Screwdrivers, and Hammers. Clicking on Screwdrivers might fill the next box with Flat, Philips, and Robertson, and so on, until a bottom level of Stanley was reached. NOTE: At any time if you find the text in the material selection tree difficult to read, you can change the size of the text displayed with your Internet Explorer browser. Select View from the browser menu at the top of the screen, then Text Size. Making the text larger will make it easier to read, but less will fit in the boxes. Making it smaller will allow you to see more of the text but make individual words more difficult to read. Try different sizes until you are comfortable with the result. (In a Netscape browser, it's View, Increase/Decrease font size.) Create a list from all the available transport carriers for your buyers to choose from when creating a Purchase Order. To register carriers, make your selection from the "Unregistered Carriers" side and click the Add Carriers button. To Unregister carriers, make your selection from the "Registered Carriers" side, and click the Remove Carriers button. You may also choose to select a default carrier that will be preselected for the buyer (though the buyer can always choose other carriers from your list). Select one of your registered carriers from the drop-down selection box and press the Set Default button.
Choose the materials you do not carry and do not want to receive RFQs for by hiding materials. This page also includes registering your material zones and the product selection tree, both explained above. Hiding a material means that you will not receive a request on that item, so only hide the materials that you are not able to supply to your buyers at this time. You can change these at any time. It is only necessary to be concerned with the materials within the zones you are registered since you will never receive a request on a material in an unregistered zone. To hide any material, simply select it from the product selection tree (causing it to show in the 'Material Selected' box) and press the Hide button. Note that all the materials under that one (sub-products) will also be hidden, if it is not a bottom level product. Select a material and press Unhide to remove the hiding feature from that material and all of its sub-materials. Hidden materials will appear in the selection tree with '#' symbols around them.
The next step, after setting up your materials list, is to sign up your customers. Once you are a registered supplier, your name will be shown to buyers when they want to apply to suppliers. Buyers cannot submit RFQs to suppliers unless they are approved by them. When a buyer applies to you, you will get an email informing you of that fact, and listing the buyer's name and including the previous account number if applicable. Then you can review those buyer applications and approve or reject them on this page. If there are no applications awaiting your decision, this page will show you a message to that effect. Otherwise, all applicants will be shown on this page with company name, contact name, and account number if the buyer has a previous number with you, until their application status is either approved or rejected. To approve or reject an application, and view more information about each applicant, click on the organization name. To approve the application, complete the message informing the applicant they have been approved, and enter an account number (or keep the old number if it's there). To reject the application, complete the message informing the applicant they have been denied, and select the Check to Reject Application checkbox below. Then press the Process Application button. If you checked the 'reject' box, you will get a pop-up box asking you to confirm your decision. The applicant will receive an email detailing the new status of their application. If there are no RFQs, you will get an alert message telling you that. If a buyer submits an RFQ, you will receive an email letting you know there is a post, and you can come to this page to view it. If a buyer submits a Direct Purchase RFQ, you will get an email informing you it's a direct purchase, you are the only supplier being contacted, and asking you to ship ASAP. The buyer will create the purchase order immediately, and you will get another email. Select an RFQ to view from the drop-down selection box and you will see the details of the request, including the buyer name and address, creation date, expiry date, and delivery date as well as the status of 'posted'. There will be a table of requested materials where you can enter prices and available quantities on any of the materials you can supply. If you do not carry any of the materials and do not want to receive other RFQs on them, check the 'Unregister' box to the right of that item. Click on the little pencil symbol beside a product you wish to comment on. (Materials with little camera symbols have a picture associated with them that you can view by clicking the camera.) You can enter general order comments in the area provided and then press the Submit Response button to respond to the request for quote. You will get a warning pop-up box reminding you that you can not make changes once a response is submitted. If you confirm submission, you will see a summary page, and also get an email summary of your response. Direct purchases work the same way except that there is also an Unable to Fulfill Direct Purchase button if you cannot fill the order. Remember that you are the only supplier responding in a direct purchase, and that they have issued a purchase order and expect immediate shipment. This will arrive as a normal PO except that you will have to enter prices and Invoice number. This is where you can view your MTDs (Master Tracking Documents - invoices and Purchase Orders). By default, the page shows uninvoiced purchase orders. You can also click on links to view Invoiced Purchase Orders and Archived Purchase Orders. Select a purchase order from the drop-down box to see its details. You can enter an invoice number for the order and press Submit, and the order will now show under invoiced orders with a button that you can use to Archive the order. There will be a new link for Printer Friendly Format, which will open a pop-up window with a MTD you can print easier. Once the invoice or work order number is inserted you can print the MTD and attach this to your existing paperwork. You can upload a logo for your invoices and MTD documents. It is recommended that the logo image be roughly the size you would find on a letter head (150 x 100 pixels). Once a logo is uploaded it will appear on this page, otherwise a message No image has been uploaded will be displayed. To upload a new logo, click the browse button and locate the image to upload (must be .gif or .jpg), then click the open button. Lastly click the Upload Image for Logo button. To delete a logo, simply click the Upload Image for Logo button without actually selecting an image to upload (i.e. blank text box). This is where you can change your seller name, contact name, address, phone and email. Simply change whichever fields you need to and press the Update button at the bottom of the page.
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