Availability Requests - Task - Project

License Agreement

The article presents the features available in the Premium plan of XTRF Language Business Platform. Please keep in mind that your access to the described options might be limited due to your license agreement. If you would like to change your plan of XTRF Language Business Platform and gain access to the additional features, contact your XTRF Customer Success Manager .

Target audience: Home Portal's users

Project Module

Availability Requests display

The Availability Requests tab is where you have notifications sent to vendors in order to identify which vendors are available for and interested in the task's jobs. You also decide here how the vendors will be assigned to the their jobs:

Manually assigned by the Project Manager,
Automatically assigned on the request's deadline date to the cheapest vendor,
Automatically assigned to whomever accepted the request first.

Project/Tasks/Jobs section

The section allows you to switch between project, task and job settings. In the section you can also add tasks and jobs to the project or remove existing ones.


Project/Tasks/Jobs tabs	The tabs allow you to switch between project and constituting for it tasks and jobs.
icon		Select All option	Click to select all entities in the list.
		Deselect All option	Click to deselect all selected entities. At least one entity needs to be selected in order for this option to be available.
		Upload Input Files option	Click to upload files to the selected entities.
		Deliver Files option	Click to send output files to the client.
		Deliver All Files option	Click to send all output files from all tasks to the client.
		Multiple Change option	Click to change properties of multiple tasks at the same time.
icon	Click the icon to edit the properties of the task.
icon	Click the icon to remove the task from the project.
Add Task button	Click the button to add new task to the project.
Copy Task button	Click the button to duplicate an existing task.

Availability Requests tab

In the Availability Requests tab you can send job offers to the vendors and select vendor assigning strategy to determine which of the vendors will be assigned to the job, should they accept the offer.


Vendor Filtering Rules for Availability Request section	The filtering rules used to limit the number of candidates for the job. Depending on its configuration, a filter selects a specified number of candidates based on how suitable the vendors are to its settings. Click the drop-down menu and select a filter. Configuring Filtering Rules You can add filters in the Workflows section in the Home Portal's configuration. When creating a filter, you can specify what information will be used to suggest or exclude vendors and set the limit of vendors who will receive an Availability Request.
Request Deadline section	The final date permitted for the vendor's response to this job. To provide deadline you can: Manually provide the date in the proper date format Click the icon and select the date from the calendar.
Add and Send button	Click the button to initiate the Availability Request procedure. As you click the button, the system automatically and instantly selects a specified number of suitable candidates and then sends the availability requests. This button only appears before the Availability Requests have been sent.

Availability Requests sent display

After clicking the Create and Send button potential vendors are displayed. You can decide how and whether they are approved.


Assign Approved Vendors button	You can click this button to have the accepted vendors be assigned to their selected jobs. When you click this button, a new window appears. For more information go to the Assign Approved Vendors Window article.
Approve button	You can click this button to approve a vendor's request for a job. Approving and Rejecting Vendors To approve or reject a vendor's request, first select the vendor's icon for the job in the table. When selected, the square around the icon transforms from segmented to solid and turns red. Below is an example of two selected requests:
Reject button	You can click this button to reject a vendor's request for a job.
Select All Requests link	Click to select all the requests in the table.
Deselect All Requests link	Click to deselect all the requests in the table.
The Vendor Will Be Assigned drop-down menu	The method in which a vendor will be selected for the job. Manually by PM: The vendors respond to the bid, and then the Project Manager manually assigns a vendor to a job by selecting the response icons in the table and clicking the buttons below. Cheapest at Deadline: The system analyses the information of the vendors who accepted the job and then selects the cheapest candidate for the job on the request's deadline. Example: Availability Requests were sent for a task which contains the translation job. Vendor 1 and Vendor 2 received availability requests for the job. Vendor 1 accepted the translation job as well as Vendor 2 but Vendor 1 is less expensive than Vendor 2. XTRF Platform analyses the responses and decides that it is best to assign the job to Vendor 1. First One Wins: The first vendor who accepts a request is automatically assigned to that job.

Legend panel

The Legend section is visible after the availability requests are sent.


symbol	The request has been created but was not sent.
symbol	The request was sent to the vendor but the vendor did not respond to the request.
symbol	The request was rejected by either the vendor or the project manager.
symbol	The request was approved by the Project Manager.
symbol	A vendor was tentatively assigned to a job by the system. The assignment is not definite and can change depending on the responses of the other vendors. Tentative Assignments Tentative assignments are not definite, and as a result, tentatively assigned vendors will not actually be given their jobs until the project manager approves the vendors' job acceptances and assigns them to their respective jobs.
symbol	A green rectangle surrounding a cell signifies that the request was managed by an automatic prioritizing algorithm. An action of the algorithm is not permanent and can change when the other vendors respond to their Availability Requests.

Settings section

In this section you can configure the automated actions that occur after a vendor was assigned to a job. You can also select the template to be used when a request exceeds its expiry date and no vendors were assigned to it.

Settings

The settings are only applicable when a vendor responds to an availability request. They are not used when there is no bid and a Project Manager manually changes the statuses of the Availability Requests.


Send E-mail to Project Manager about Vendor Selection checkbox	You can select this option to have an email sent to the Project Manager after a vendor was assigned to the job.
Send E-mail to Not Selected Vendor checkbox	You can select this option to have emails sent to the vendors whose requests were rejected. The e-mail notifies the rejected vendors that they were not selected for the job.
Start Job after Vendor Selection checkbox	You can select this option to have the job start immediately after the vendor's assignment.
E-mail Template Sent for Expired Job without Vendor drop-down menu	You can select a template from the drop-down menu. The template to be sent to the Project Manager when a request has exceeded its deadline and no vendor was assigned to it.

Edit button

Click the button to enable the editing mode.

Save button

Click the button to apply modifications.

Cancel button

Click the button to discard any changes and leave the editing mode.

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