OAE Respondent RFQs – a User Guide

In this User Guide, we cover OAE’s Respondent RFQs feature, including how to create them, manage and import work scope,
and how RFQs interact with other features.

OAE‘s Respondent RFQ feature handles a common situation in which an organization receives the same (or similar) RFQs from multiple organizations for the same work. It would be clunky and inefficient to have to create a separate OAE project to handle the differences in the requested work scope for each RFQ.

The Respondent RFQs feature lets you build a single estimate that covers the work requested by all customers. You can then copy and export OAE projects based on the scopes for one or more respondent RFQs. Let’s see how it works.

Entity Relationships

There are a few new concepts introduced with this feature, including Respondent RFQs, Scopes, and Paragraphs. Here’s a diagram to illustrate how these relate to Project, Work Item, and Line Item.

Definitions

• Respondent RFQ: A project can have one or more Respondent RFQs created on it. Each Respondent RFQ record should represent an individual RFQ from a customer. The Respondent RFQ record stores relevant information about the RFQ including, Company, Due Date, and Scope.
• Scope: The Scope of a Respondent RFQ specifies the Work Items and Paragraphs included in the RFQ. This Scope determines the estimate values included in Project Copy and Project Export functions when filtering by Respondent RFQ.
• Paragraph Settings: Determines the list of Paragraphs that are available to be linked to Line Items for a Work Item
• Paragraph: A line item can be associated with one paragraph. The paragraph association with a Line Item, together with the RFQ Scope, determines if the estimate for a particular Line Item is part of a Respondent RFQ.

Associate Line Items with Paragraphs

Estimators can now associate Line Items to individual paragraphs, making it clearer how the estimate links back to the specification.

When the feature is enabled, estimators will see a new Paragraph column in the Line Items table within a Work Item.

To set the list of available paragraphs in a Work Item, estimators can go to the Work Item Settings > Paragraphs tab. From there, estimators can enter the paragraph options that will be available for selection in the Work Item. The Paragraph value can be any value desired, including individual Paragraphs or a range of Paragraphs.

There is no restriction on the allowed formatting for a paragraph value. Users can include any text, including – or other text. For example, the following example paragraph values are all allowed:

• 3.1
• 3.2-3.3
• 3.4 Inspect

Rather than entering paragraphs one at a time, users can bulk add paragraphs by pasting a comma delimited list of paragraphs and clicking Enter.

When entering estimates on a Line Item, the estimator can associate the line item with a specific paragraph from the dropdown. Users can also type ahead to filter the list of options.

If the paragraph is not yet available in the dropdown, the estimator can also create a new paragraph value directly from the Line Item. When a new value is entered in the Paragraph column, the option will automatically be added to the list of Paragraphs for the Work Item, making it available to select in other Line Items as well.

Create a Respondent RFQ

To add a Respondent RFQ to a project, go to Project Settings > Respondent RFQs.

Click the + icon in the top right of the Respondent RFQ Responses table.

There are three required fields when creating a new Respondent RFQ.

1. Respondent RFQ Name: Enter an identifier for the RFQ.
2. Company: Select a Company record indicating the Customer the RFQ was received from.
3. Due Date: Enter the due date for when the response to the RFQ is due to be submitted to the customer.

Details of the Respondent RFQ, including the status and scope, can be changed at any time by opening the Respondent RFQ record by clicking on the Respondent RFQ Name of the RFQ you need to edit.

Managing work scope

The Scope of an RFQ defines the work items and paragraphs that are included in the RFQ. After adding a work item to the Scope, users can select specific paragraphs that are included in the RFQ, or indicate all paragraphs are included in the RFQ for a particular work item.

Manually configuring the Respondent RFQ scope

To associate a Work Item with the Respondent RFQ, click the + icon in the top right of the Scopes table. Select a Work Item from the Work Item dropdown. A user will be able to select any Work Item that has been added to the project.

If the “Include all paragraphs” setting is selected, all paragraphs associated with a Work Item will be considered part of the RFQ. If only specific paragraphs are included in the RFQ for a work item, unselect the “Include all paragraphs” setting. Once unselected, the user will be able to select all the paragraphs that are included in the Respondent RFQ.

The Work Items must already exist in the project to be added to the Scope.

Paragraphs must already exist on the Work Item to be selected in the Scope.

Import Respondent RFQ scope configurations

Instead of manually adding each work item and their paragraphs to a Respondent RFQ, users can import the scope instead.

To download the import template, click on the import icon in the top right of the Scopes table and click the Download Import Template button.

The import only requires two columns: Work Item Id and Paragraphs. An example is below:

Work Item Id	Paragraphs
100-00-001	3.1, 3.2, 3.3
200-00-001	All

Import Notes:

• The Work Item ID entered in the first column must already exist on the project. If it doesn’t, the work item will not be added to the scope.
• Enter paragraphs separated by commas. If a Paragraph does not already exist on a work item, but is included in the import, the paragraph will be added to the Work Item Paragraph settings and added to the Scope.
• To include Include all paragraphs for a work item in the scope, import “All” as the Paragraphs value.

Company records

Companies in OAE are used in various pieces of functionality. In Respondent RFQs, Companies represent the organizations that submit RFQs to you, and you complete estimates for. The Company records created in the Companies database will be available in the Company dropdown list within the Respondent RFQ settings.

To manage the list of Companies available when creating a new Respondent RFQ, click on System Menu > Companies.

To create a new Company record, click on the + icon on the top right of the Companies table. Three fields are available on the Add new company window. Only the Name is a required field.

1. Name: Enter the name of the Company.
2. Services Offered: List of services offered by the Company. This field is not relevant for Responded RFQ functionality.
3. Address: Enter the Company address. This field is not relevant for Responded RFQ functionality, but may be helpful for estimators to be able to reference.

Once the Company is created, additional fields are available to be populated, if desired – but OAE Respondent RFQs only need those three fields.

Some additional fields worth mentioning here are:

• Alternate Names: Store alternative names the company.
• Company Contacts: Store contact information for the organization in a centralized location for all estimators to access.
• Files: Upload documents relevant to the Company for all estimators to access.

Copy Project Now Filters by Respondent RFQs

In some scenarios, a user may want to create a copy of the project, but only include the work items and line items that are part of specific RFQ(s). When using the Project Copy functionality, users have a new option to Filter by Respondent RFQs.

If “No Filter (Copy Everything)” is selected, then no filtering by Respondent RFQ will be performed. If “Filter by Respondent RFQs” is selected, then the user will be prompted to select one or more RFQs. Additionally, users will have the option to “Include line items not associated with any paragraph” in the copy.

The following logic is used when including Respondent RFQ filtering in Project Copy:

• The copied project will only include work items and line items that are associated with the selected Respondent RFQ(s).
• All line items in a Distributed Work Item are copied, no matter what customer RFQs are selected in the copy. The distributed values will be re-weighted based on the work items and line items included in the copy.
• If a work item has no line items associated with a paragraph included in the scope of the Respondent RFQ(s), the work item will not be copied at all.
• If the “Include line items not associated with any paragraph” option is selected, a line item not associated with any paragraph will be included in the copy. Only line items in work items that are part of the RFQ will be copied.

Project Export Now Filters by Respondent RFQs

When using the Project Export functionality to export estimate details to Excel for submission to a customer, users are able to filter the export to one or more OAE Respondent RFQs. Additionally, users have the option to “Include line items not associated with any paragraph” in the export.

If “No Filter” is selected, no filtering by Respondent RFQ will be performed. If “Filter by Respondent RFQs” is selected, the user will be prompted to select one or more RFQs.

The following logic is used when including Respondent RFQ filtering in Project Copy:

• The output will only include work items and line items that are associated with the selected Respondent RFQ(s).
• Estimate values from distributed items do not have their weights recalculated based on the customer RFQs included in the export.
• If the “Include line items not associated with any paragraph” option is selected, a line item not associated with any paragraph will be included in the export, assuming the work item is included in the RFQ.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Oxalis Support at support@oxalis.io.

Learn More

Check out the rest of our User Guides to learn more about OAE.

• Using OAE Assembly
• Using OAE Calculators
• Using OAE Custom Properties
• Using OAE Distributions
• Using OAE Import
• Using OAE Math
• Using OAE Multi-Period Projects
• Searching OAE Projects and Work Items
• OAE for Project Reviewers