Run your procurement events from start to finish: use Scout to both track which bids you've awarded and to notify the awarded supplier!

Scout provides award/reject templates to make communications easy and efficient, and tracks your data for you so you can more easily manage your Suppliers.

Here, we'll discuss:

• How to select a bid to award,
• Preparing the award communication for the selected Supplier, and
• Confirming the award and/or notifying the Supplier.

Note: You can follow the same basic steps below to reject suppliers' submissions and/or send an email notification to them via Scout.

Select Bid to Award

From the Event's Dashboard, select your winner by clicking on the Supplier Name. Then in the side window click the either the "View Bid" button or the "Award" or "Reject" buttons.

If you click the "View Bid" bid button this will open the bid.  Then, scroll to the bottom to locate the "Decision on Bid" section:

Prepare Supplier Communication

Clicking the "Award" button will open a text field where you can prepare an email communication and/or Scout notification for the selected Supplier, if desired:

Enter your communication to the Supplier here. If your Company Admin has written a pre-set "Award Template", that template will appear here for you to use and/or modify. (Note: Click here for a full list of variable/autofill options.)

Note: Sending award communication to the Supplier via Scout is not required, but does allow you to run your entire procurement event seamlessly through Scout. If you want to notify your Supplier outside of Scout, skip to the next section below: "Award and/or Notify".

Award and/or Notify

Once you've finished preparing your email notification, go ahead and let your Supplier know they won!

Click the orange "Confirm Award" button to award the bid and send the Supplier your email.

That being said, you can also award a bid without sending an email notification to your Supplier. Simply uncheck the box to "Send Email Notification to [Supplier Name]". 

Then simply click "Confirm Award" to award the supplier without sending an email.

Note: Suppliers will not receive an automatic notification if they have been awarded, they will only know they've won if you choose to tell them. However, you will see this award status in the Supplier section of the Event Dashboard (Suppliers will NOT see this):

You will also see the Awarded supplier(s) list in the event. Clicking into the "View Event" tab to view the Awarded Suppliers section on the event page.

Click here for more articles about how to Evaluate Submissions