Buyer Guide.pdf

■ www.unisonmarketplace.com

Buyer Guide Unison Marketplace:

Table of Contents

Getting Started

How to Navigate Your Profile

How to Add a Seller Community

How to Post a Buy

Reposting a Buy

Specialized Buy Types

Chat Feature & Guided Walk Throughs

Answering Questions

Draft Buy Builder

ActivityCard®

How to Award a Buy

How to Cancel a Buy

How to Transfer a Buy

How to Clone a Buy

How to Extend a Buy

How to Navigate Supervisory Access

How to Download a PDF Package

PDF Package Overview

Login to the Marketplace

Dashboard: This is your Buyer Dashboard. Here you will see a snapshot of your Draft, Open and Pending Award buys, as well as Pending Questions.

Current Buys: The Current Buys tab contains the same information as your Buy Snapshot, but will list all your Draft, Open and Pending Award buys as well as Pending Questions.

Getting Started

How to Navigate Your Profile

Quick Links: The Quick Links on the left-hand side of your screen allows you to quickly access commonly used Dashboard tools including creating, editing and awarding buys.

Additional Filters: Options Pending Exercise, Questions Pending, help and training can be found towards the bottom of your dashboard screen.

Buy History: From the Buy History tab you can view all of your Awarded and Cancelled buys and any Seller Activity Notes for Sellers that have placed bids on your buys.

Profile: The Profile tab contains your personal Buyer information. If you need to edit any of your profile information you can do so here.

Manage your notification preferences, manage your address, access your Seller Communities and view your Buy Terms.

Seller Communities: To access Seller Communities, select Seller Communities from the Profile tab.

Here you will find the Seller Communities you have created. To create a new Seller Community, select ‘Create New’ at the bottom of the screen.

Fill in the Vendor’s information. For example, ‘Starts with’ will contain the company’s name.

Narrow the search results by selecting the company’s socioeconomic set-aside or location.

After identifying the company information, select ‘Search’.

Review the Seller’s information and select ‘Add to List’. If multiple Sellers appear, click inside the check box to deselect any Sellers that should not be added to the Seller Community.

Once the Seller has been added, select ‘New Search’ to add additional Sellers or ‘Remove’ to remove any vendors from the Seller Community.

Name the Seller Community and select ‘Continue’ once all identified vendors have been added.

How to Add a Seller Community

Once the contact has been named and the Sellers have been added to the community, select confirm to add the Seller Community to the Marketplace.

To confirm your new Seller Community has been added to the Marketplace, select ‘Create New Buy’ under the Quick Links section on the dashboard.

The Seller Community can be found on the first page of the draft buy process.

To edit the Seller Community, select the pencil icon.

Login to the Marketplace

Create a New Buy: Complete 5 quick and easy sections in the Create Buy process to post your buy;

Start Buy, Line Items, Buy Terms, Additional Info and Confirm Buy.

Start Buy: Begin by filling out the Buy Information, then move through the Start Buy section and press ‘Continue’.

SECTION 1: START BUY

How to Post a Buy

Select Category: Choose a product or service category that best fits your purchase.

SECTION 1: SELECT CATEGORY

SECTION 2: LINE ITEMS

SECTION 3: BUY TERMS

Line Item(s): Enter a Line Item description detailing exactly what you are asking for.

Buy Terms: Buy Terms are automatically populated.

You can also add, activate, inactivate or reorder Buy Terms.

Additional Info: Fill out additional information such as, the Target Price, Bid Decrement, Suggested Seller(s), Shipping Information and Attachments.

Confirm Buy: Review all buy information for accuracy and if necessary, return to previous sections for editing. Once confirmed, post the buy.

SECTION 4: ADDITIONAL INFO

SECTION 5: CONFIRM BUY

Reposting a Buy

Specialized Buy Types

Unison Marketplace is equipped with a repost feature that will allow you to update your buy requirements if your contract changes (ie. updated quantity, CLIN structure changes etc.) This will not cancel the buy, it will simply amend the requirements.

Find the buy you would like to repost and and click the ‘Repost’ link under the ‘Quick Links’ section on your dashboard.

From the buy workflow, edit the fields necessary, review your changes and click ‘Repost’. Vendors will then be able to view your updated buy requirements.

Note: If you would like to save time, your Unison Account Management team can assist you in amending your requirements.

BPA and IDIQ Contract Buys: Unison has added the functionality for Buyers to create and compete Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) and Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts through the Marketplace. To activate one of these specialized buy types, you can do so by clicking ‘Yes’ next to the feature on the 1st page of a new draft buy as shown below.

How Does it Work?

1. Post a buy with a Specialized Buy Type of Master BPA or Master IDIQ. Here you will set the period of performance, contract type, price ceiling, set-aside and other specifications for the contract, including the start date and expiration.

2. Sellers submit competitive pricing and technical proposals based on your requirements.

3. Select the Sellers you wish to include on future orders within the contract.

4. Once created, Buyers within your organizationcan create orders against the BPA or IDIQ you have created.

Note: Upon request, you can receive reporting on agency orders, ceiling price and Seller bidding behavior.

Option Year Buys: To compete a multi-year contract select Specialized Buy Type ‘Option Buy’ within the buy workflow.

The Line Items section will allow you to enter the Period of Performance and the associated lines items for a Base year and up to 4 Option Years.

Note: If you are unsure of the Period of Performance dates, you can update the information prio to reflecting your award.

Chat Feature & Guided Walk Throughs Chat Feature: A member of your Account Management team is available quickly and easily to you through our chat feature found in the bottom right-hand side of the Marketplace.

Ask a quick question, submit requirements for drafting and more. A team memeber can respond to your request(s) typically within five minutes.

Guided Walk Throughs: Contextual guidance and interactive training is available to you when you log into the Marketplace.

Click on the ‘Guide Me’ button on the right side of your browser window and choose from a list of tutorials available to you. The system will then walk you step-by-step through an interactive tutorial.

Tutorials are available on tasks such as Creating a buy, reposting a buy, extending a buy, canceling a buy, navigating your profile, and more.

Answering Questions Seller Questions: When you receive a question on a buy you have posted, it will be listed under ‘Pending Questions’ from your Buy Snapshot.

Note: You can also access your list of pending questions by clicking on ‘Answer Seller Questions’ under the Quick Links.

Under ‘Pending Questions’ you will see the buy number and the Question which was asked. You can then choose ‘Reply’ or ‘No Reply’.

When you click on ‘Reply’, you are brought to a response screen that will contain the buy information, Seller information, the question asked and an area to reply to the question.

To reply to the question, first select if you would like to reply to all Sellers or if you would like to reply only to the Seller that asked the question.

Then, you can choose to select from the ‘Quick Response’ drop down, or type your own answer in the available text box. Once completed you can click on ‘Reply’.

Note: You are not required to answer questions. All questions and answers will be recorded in your PDF Package for your records.

Draft Buy Builder

ActivityCard®

Drafting Services: Your Account Management team can save you time by drafting your requirements for you.

Select ‘Draft Buy Builder’ under your Quick Links navigation.

Upload your requirements, statement of work, bill of materials, IGCE etc. to the Draft Buy Builder and your Account Team will be notified.

Note: Be sure to include a start date, end date, contract vehicle and set-aside.

Once drafted, your buy will be placed under the Draft Buys tab on your dashboard. You can then review the buy and post it to the Marketplace.

Seller Activity: The ActivityCard® summarizes a Seller’s marketplace award history. Buyers have the opportunity to place an activity note on a Seller’s profile with any good or bad experience they may have had.

Note: This is not official past performance. If you have any questions about the activity note or want more information, the Buyer contact information will be located with the note.

Viewing an ActivityCard®: From the Bid Summary page, click on the ActivityCard® icon next to the Seller’s name.

Adding an Activity Note: From the Bid Details page you can select ‘Add Activity Note’ from the Quick Links Menu. From the Seller’s ActivityCard® select ‘Add Activity Note’ at the bottom of the page.

Fill out the Activity Note form and click ‘Submit’.

How to Award a Buy Pending Awards: When your buy has closed, you can find it listed under the ‘Pending Awards’ tab on your Dashboard.

Note: You can also access buys that are pending award by clicking on ‘Award Buy’ under your Quick Links panel.

Select the buy you wish to Award from the Pending awards tab.

From the Bid Summary page, you can download the PDF package for documentation. You can also view the buy details, the activity report and view the bids submitted on your buy.

View Bid Details: To view the full bid details, click on the Seller Name. Here you will find all of the information submitted by the Seller, including any requested Seller attachments.

Accept Bid: To accept a bid, click ‘Accept Bid’ under your Quick Links panel or at the bottom of the Bid Details page.

Finalize Payment: Next, you will need to finalize payment by entering the Purchase Order or Authorization Number associated with the buy. Then click ‘Continue’.

Review and confirm the selected bid information, then click ‘Continue’. If you need to change any information, click ‘Edit’.

You can now find this buy listed under ‘Awarded Buys’ in your Buy History.

How to Cancel a Buy Select the buy you wish to Cancel. It may be under the Draft Buy, Open Buys, or Pending Awards tab.

Select ‘Cancel Buy’ from the Quick Links.

Select a cancellation reason and submit.

How to Transfer a Buy Select the Buy you wish to Transfer.

Note: To transfer an Open Buy, Pending Award, or Awarded requirement, please contact your account manager

Select ‘Transfer Buy’ from the Quick Links.

Click the drop-down menu to find the new Buyer representative and select Transfer.

How to Extend a Buy Select the Buy you wish to extend.

Select ‘Extend Buy’ from the Quick Links.

The dropdown menu will allow for date and time extensions as well as seller question deadlines.

Note: Extensions must be a minimum of 1 hour.

How to Clone a Buy Select the Buy you wish to clone.

Note: Cancelled and Awarded Buys can also be cloned. These buys are located under the Buy History Tab.

Select ‘Clone Buy’ from the Quick Links.

Once cloned, the buy will be added to your Draft Buys where additional edits can be made.

Select the cloned draft buy and click ‘Edit Draft Buy’ under the Quick Links section to make additional edits before posting the buy on the Marketplace.

How to Download a PDF Package Select the Buy Number.

Note: PDF packages for Awarded and Cancelled buys under the Buy History tab can also be downloaded.

Select ‘PDF Package’.

The PDF defaults to include the top three Sellers, but this option can be modified by selecting the check boxes. Seller Name (i.e. company name) and the Seller Price can also be redacted, after customizing the PDF click Create PDF.

Note: Full List of No Bid Sellers can be included in the PDF. Depending on how many vendors indicated that they did not want to bid on the buy the PDF could be numerous of pages.

How to Navigate Supervisory Access Role Selection: At the top of the dashboard select the drop-down menu to toggle between Supervisory access and your personal Buyer dashboard.

To gain access to a Supervisor account, contact your Account Manager. Supervisory access will allow a Supervisor to view/transfer/clone any Draft Buys, Open Buys, Awarded Buys, Cancelled Buys, Pending Awards, and Pending Questions of other members on their team.

PDF Package Overview Buy Information: Outlines how the Unison Marketplace buy was set up. This includes every field selected by the Buyer.

Your Bid Summary: Summarizes the total number of bids and rebids received on that iteration of the buy.

Bid Summary: Shows every participating Seller ranked by price. This will also show the Sellers’ delivery timeframe and if they have any Activity notes.

Competition Summary: Graphically displays all bids and rebids across the course of competition.

Each dot represents a bid that was placed. Multiple dots indicate Sellers bid multiple times in attempt to be competitive. The red dotted line represents your Target Price.

Bid Details: Shows the full information for each Seller bidding. This is broken into multiple sections:

Company Information: Outlines basic information about the Seller’s company, including DUNS, Federal Tax ID, and physical address. This will also include all set-asides a Seller qualifies for as determined by their SAM.gov profile.

Seller Information: Contact information for the representative who submitted the bid. This will be your point of contact with any questions regarding the bid.

SAM Information: Unison Marketplace is integrated with SAM.gov and can provide you their up-to-date registration status.

Contract Information: If posting a contract buy, all contract information will be here. This includes contract number, contract holder, and expiration date.

Line Items: Will show your line item description right next to the line item description of what the Seller is offering. You can also see the Seller’s unit and extended pricing broken out by line item.

ActivityCard: Summarizes a Seller’s marketplace award history. Buyers have the opportunity to place an Activity Note on a Seller with any good or bad experience they may have had. Please note, this is not official past performance. If you have any questions about the activity note or want more information, the Buyer contact information will be located with the note.

Chronology: Shows time stamps for the lifecycle of the buy. Any amendments or extensions will be tracked along with any changes to the contract type or set aside that would have been made.