Vendor Sourcing & RFP Management

With ProcessUnity Sourcing, organizations:

• Implement standardized sourcing procedures to ensure a fair, predictable and efficient vendor selection process and prove compliance
• Simplify RFI/RFP creation, distribution, communication and review, while making it easier for vendors to respond
• Adhere to vendor selection timelines and reduce negotiation time while reducing procurement costs

ProcessUnity Sourcing (RFx) automates the entire vendor evaluation phase of the third-party risk management lifecycle, making the source-to-contract process more efficient by executing RFx processes, performing initial due diligence and driving the awarded vendor through initial onboarding. Whether issuing a Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposal (RFP), ProcessUnity Sourcing helps organizations progress beyond cumbersome spreadsheets, manual processes and dated legacy systems to effectively organize, track and document the evaluation of potential suppliers from initial request to supplier selection.

ProcessUnity Sourcing makes it easy to organize, launch and complete vendor evaluations. Questionnaire templates provide sourcing teams with common questions typically asked of vendors, such as general supplier information, non-disclosure agreements, certificates, certifications, diversity status, pricing, implementation requirements and more. Working with the service requestor inside the organization, the sourcing team can quickly extend questionnaire templates with a variety of question types including true/false, multi-select, and long-form text. Questionnaires can be saved, cloned or reused for similar sourcing events. Intelligent scoping allows teams to add question logic that adds or skips questions in real-time based on responses to other questions – ensuring vendors only respond to necessary questions.

Questionnaires are distributed via email and vendors are invited to participate in evaluations via ProcessUnity’s secure vendor portal. In the portal, participating candidates have access to a comprehensive overview of all bid requirements and instructions, creating a level playing field and a predictable process for both vendors and sourcing teams.

Vendors can complete the questionnaire online or download an Excel version to work offline. Questions and sections of questions can be delegated to specific individuals in the vendor’s organization to speed completion. ProcessUnity allows vendors to submit attachments on a per-question basis so vendors can submit documentation or supporting evidence as needed.

Vendors can use the portal to submit questions that are automatically routed to the appropriate member(s) of the evaluation team for review and response. The portal allows vendors to repurpose prior questionnaire responses to save time as well as keep corporate and contact information up to date.

At any point in the process, sourcing team members can check the status of in-flight requests and view vendor progress on a question-by-question basis.

Once submitted, vendor responses are automatically scored via a customer-configured scoring system and preferred responses determined by the evaluation team. Responses from multiple vendors can be compared on a single screen, candidates can be ranked based on specific criteria and analysts can drill into questions for deeper analysis.

With standardized questionnaires and scoring methodologies, no supplier is given preferential treatment and compliance is ensured. Evaluators validate their conclusions based on a consistent process, ensuring the right vendor is ultimately awarded the business. Teams can communicate vendor selection and regrets within ProcessUnity.

With ProcessUnity Sourcing, procurement teams can perform initial due diligence on prospective vendors prior to vendor selection to systematically weed out higher-risk business partners early. Interactive reports and dashboards apprise key stakeholders of evaluation status and flexible workflow and notifications ensure vendor selection processes stay on schedule.

The ProcessUnity platform maintains a record of previous sourcing events and responses for metrics tracking, compliance audit requests and uses them as templates for future evaluations.