Online RFP RFQ generation, supplier management & bidding system - Case Study

Client Profile

The client is a Texas based company having over a century of experience in designing, rating, costing, building, and repairing fin/fan air cooled heat exchangers.

Purpose

  • To provide the functionality to allow design engineers to check air cooler exchangers rate, calculate tube bundle dimensions and access air cooler manufacturing tips.
  • To develop an application where buyers can configure air cooler design, create RFPs / RFQs, send the RFPs / RFQs to registered suppliers for bidding, solicit proposals and compare the quotes submitted by the suppliers.
  • To provide the functionality to allow suppliers to receive RFPs / RFQs, create the proposals, submit the proposals and manage sales agents / sub-contractors.
  • To provide the functionality to allow sales agents / sub-contractors to receive RFPs / RFQs from suppliers, create the proposals for these RFPs / RFQs and submit the proposals.

Business Need

Manually managing the air cooler design, floating RFPs / RFQs / tenders, receiving the bids / quotes and comparing different quotes is very tedious job and takes a lot of time. The client wanted to develop a web based system that can take care of equipment designing, RFP / RFQ generation, procurement management and supplier management. The system was also expected to have an administrative interface to manage the equipment designing formulas & algorithms, suppliers, multiple system users and payments.

Solution

To meet the objective of designing such web application, we developed a system that effectively offers a user friendly interface to provide required features to four users group through 1.Engineer Portal 2.Packager / Buyer Portal 3.Supplier Portal and 4.Sales Agent / Sub-contractor Portal.

Features

Website is developed in 4 sections – Engineer Portal, Packager Portal, Supplier Portal, Sales Agent Portal and Administrator Section.
  • Engineer Portal includes
    • Check Rate Calculator.
    • Access ASME Code Library.
    • Design Un Stayed Box Headers.
    • Calculate Tube Bundle Dimensions.
    • Access Air Cooler Manufacturing Tips.
  • Packager / Buyer Portal includes
    • Create RFPs / RFQs / tender.
    • Properties details.
    • Invite suppliers for bidding.
    • Track RFPs / RFQs.
    • Track changes made by suppliers in the specifications made in original RFP / RFQ.
    • Track responses to RFPs / RFQs and proposals submitted by suppliers.
    • Finalize supplier and sign-off on pricing.
    • Compare proposals / bids submitted by suppliers.
  • Supplier Portal includes
    • Receive RFPs / RFQs / invitations for bidding.
    • Securely escalate queries to buyers.
    • Automatically receive change in RFP / RFQ specifications .
    • Securely respond to RFPs / RFQs and submit proposals.
    • Assign RFPs / RFQs to sub-contractors / sales agents.
    • Track sub-contractor’s / sales agent’s performance.
  • Sales Agent Portal includes
    • Receive inquiries from suppliers
    • Securely escalate queries to suppliers
    • Respond to inquires
  • Administrator Section includes
    • Manage member accounts
    • Manage multiple user accounts
    • Manage Log Information
    • Manage settings

Tools and Technologies used for implementation

  • ASP
  • JavaScript
  • MS Access 2003
  • Google Chart API