Navigate to the Negotiation Summary page for the negotiation to which you wish to respond by clicking its Negotiation Number link under the Open Invitations section of the Negotiations Home page. Alternatively, you can enter search values into the Search Negotiations fields and click Go to list all negotiations in the system, including ones to which you were not explicitly invited to. On the Active Negotiations page, find your negotiation and click the Negotiation Number link there.
When a solicitation amendment is published, as a supplier, you have to review change description, acknowledge the amendment, and then resubmit the offer, after making any revisions.
You can see details of the negotiation on the Negotiation Summary page. If less than 24 hours remain for the negotiations, the countdown clock at the top of the page shows the amount of time left before the negotiation closes in real time.
To submit response online:
On the Negotiation Summary page, select Create Offer from the Actions menu to create a response to the negotiation.
If the buyer has defined Terms and Conditions, you are asked to read and accept the negotiation terms and conditions. After reading the terms and conditions, click Accept.
On the Create Offer page, depending on the contract type used on each line, you click the Update button and enter the relevant details.
See: Common CLM Functionality for more information on Contract Types
If the solicitation controls are selected for allowing suppliers to enter unsolicited lines in offers, the Create Offers > Lines page displays an Unsolicited Lines region to enable suppliers to add the relevant unsolicited lines information.
The Header tab of the Create Offer page allows suppliers to enter the required header details. If the solicitation is of type Fair Opportunity Notice, the supplier may select an IDV from the Internal IDV or External IDV LOVs, to reference the IDVs that were part of the original umbrella program. Thus, even unsolicited lines can refer to IDVs that were part of the original umbrella program. Enter the other field values such as Offer Valid Until or Note to Buyer, as required. When done, click on the Lines tab.
The Lines tab displays the following regions: Solicitation Lines, and Unsolicited Lines. The Solicitation Lines region defaults the line information from the original solicitation. Fields such as Offer Price are available for entry. Click on a line number link to see more line information from the solicitation.
The Unsolicited Lines region enables suppliers to enter unsolicited lines (CLIN/SLIN structures) as part of their offer. Suppliers may have additional goods/services that they wish to offer that might be related to the solicited items, but are not specifically listed in the solicitation. Please note that the supplier needs to manually complete the line items details for the unsolicited line.
To create an unsolicited line, select Create CLIN from the Actions LOV and click Go. The Create Offer: Line page displays, with the following regions: Main, Related to Solicitation Lines, Additional Item Information, Federal Customer Designation, Notes and Attachments. The main region enables you to enter line details such as Description, Quantity, Offer Price, etc. If the default values for Unit Of Measure, Category, Contract Type, Cost Constraint on the Negotiation Configuration page have been selected, these default values will display in the relevant fields. If the buyer has opted that these values are updateable by the supplier, suppliers can replace the default values with any other valid values.
In the Related to Solicitation Lines region, click Add Solicitation Lines to select the solicitation lines you wish to associate the unsolicited line to. The Add Solicitation Lines LOV displays, and you need to select one or more solicitation line to link the newly created solicitation line to. Click Select after choosing a line, and return to the Create Offer: Line page. In the Related to Solicitation Lines region, the original solicitation line details are displayed. Select Alternate or Additional from the Relation with Solicitation Line LOV to specify the nature of the association or relationship between the original solicitation line and the newly created unsolicited line.
Enter any other relevant information in the other regions. Attributes, Cost Factors, Quantity Based Price Tiers, Price Breaks regions are not available in the create Offer: Lines page.
Priced Exhibit Lines (non-CDRLs and non-Informational, Non-NSP / No Cost) lines are similar to priced CLINs and SLINs, except that they have a different Line number such as A001, A080 etc. These lines are called priced ELINs. Priced ELINs are displayed in the offer as are other CLINs and SLINs. Offer Totals include the priced ELIN values as well. No Cost / Not Separately Priced ELINs are used in the same way as No Cost / Not Separately Priced CLINs and SLINs.
Use the Manage CDRLs button to enter the Price Group and Estimated Price on the deliverable. The Mange CDRLs button opens the Data Deliverables page, using which you can update the deliverable information. If the solicitation has been created with a deliverable, the Manage CDRLs button displays, otherwise it does not show up in the Create Offer page.
When suppliers create an offer, or buyers create a surrogate offer on behalf of the supplier, the Lines page (Offer Lines tab) has the following Delivery Based Event fields:
Delivery Event (read only)
Period (read only)
Period of Performance Duration (read only)
Promised Period (updateable)
Promised Period of Performance Duration (updateable)
Suppliers, or buyers entering surrogate offers, are required to enter values for the updateable fields. The field values are saved along with the offer.
Click Apply to return to the Offer page, or click Apply and Create SLIN to create a CLIN/SLIN structure. The Create Offer page displays, showing you the offer details. Click on the Lines tab and note that the unsolicited lines numbers start from the next available numbers of the original solicitation lines.
When you have entered responses to all your line responses, and any specific requirements from the buyer, click Continue. This returns you to the Create: Review and Submit page.
You can click Offer By Spreadsheet to use the a spreadsheet to work with the solicitation data. Select the type of spreadsheet format you wish to use: XML Spreadsheet or Tab-Delimited. If you choose Tab delimited, you will also have to select which spreadsheet you wish to download: Requirement or line. Click Export. Save the spreadsheet file to a convenient location. Open the spreadsheet file and complete your work. Once done, select the format of the spreadsheet you wish to import. Browse to the location where you saved your spreadsheet file. Click Import. The system will validate the response information you entered in your spreadsheet.
Note: If you use MS Excel to open and work with this spreadsheet, then select the Data menu, select Get External Data, and then select Import Text File. Browse and select the downloaded response text file. In the Text Import Wizard that displays, select Delimited in Step 1 of 3 and click Next. In Step 2 of 3, ensure the Tab check box is selected, and click next. In Step 3 of 3, select the second column containing Solicitation Line Number and select the Text radio button. Click Finish. This ensures that your line numbers display in the correct format.
When you are satisfied with your bid, click Submit.
Note: If for some reason you do not wish to submit your response immediately, click Save Draft to save your response information for a later session. Your draft will be assigned a number which you can use later when accessing the draft for editing or completion. You can access your draft responses by clicking the Manage Draft quick link from the Negotiations Home page. You can access the draft for editing or for submission.
The supplier can create multiple active offers for a solicitation or revise an existing offer, if permitted by the buyer.
Using the appropriate supplier responsibility, navigate to the Negotiations page. In the Your Active and Draft Responses region, the offers you have created for the solicitation are listed. Click on a response number to view the offer, the Offer page displays. Click Create Offer from the Actions LOV and click Go. A warning message displays, telling you that you have already created an offer for this solicitation. You now have two choices: to create a new (alternate) offer or to revise the existing offer. Select the appropriate radiobutton and click Ok. If you choose to revise an existing offer, all the offers that you created till date for this solicitation are displayed.
From the Quick Links region, select the Active link to view all the active and draft offers you have created. Click Revise to revise an existing offer. The Create Offer page displays, where the details of the offer are defaulted in the fields. You can update the defaulted information. Click Save as Draft or Continue to save and apply the updates to the offer. Click Revert to Active Offer in order to replace the current draft offer details with the parent offer that was originally created. You get a warning message, asking if you wish to proceed with replacing the revised offer with the original offer or not. Click Yes to revert to the original offer.
When the buyer amends a solicitation, any offers submitted prior to the amendment have to be resubmitted after acknowledging the amendment.
Select an active solicitation that you wish to create an offer for. You can search for a solicitation by using the Search Open Negotiations LOVs, or by selecting from the links in the following regions: Your Active and Draft Responses, Your Company's Open Invitations, Quick Links.
When you find the solicitation, you need to select it by choosing the Select radiobutton and then clicking Respond. A Warning message displays, telling you that the solicitation has amendments which require your acknowledgement. Click Yes to continue and No to not acknowledge the amendment to the solicitation. If you click Yes, the Acknowledge Amendment page displays with the amendment details. When you have read the amendment information, click the checkbox to acknowledge that you have read the terms and conditions of the amendment and also click the Acknowledge button. You get a confirmation message that the amendment has been acknowledged successfully and that you can proceed to respond to the solicitation. Click Yes to proceed to creating your offer, then click Accept in the Terms and Conditions page to accept the terms and conditions of the agency. The Create Offer page displays, where you can create your offer for this amended solicitation.
Note: CLM enables surrogate entry of an offer on behalf of the supplier even if a draft offer exists in the system from the same supplier.