In Cloudia Sourcing, any items put out to competitive tendering are referred to as procurement objects, so irrespective of whether you are putting goods, services or contract price out to open tender, these will be entered in the system as ‘procurement objects’. Procurement objects are created in ‘groups’ or ‘lots’. If the procurement concerned has been divided into lots, a sub-area will be created in the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section of the call for tenders, under which the procurement objects will be listed. If the procurement concerned has not been divided into lots, a group will be created in the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section of the call for tenders, under which the procurement objects will be listed. The selection on whether the procurement is to be divided into lots is made in the ‘Procurement procedure’ section of a national contract notice, and in an EU contract notice, under SECTION II: Procurement object.
The tenderer’s electronic tender consists of two electronic forms: ‘Suitability requirements’ and ‘Procurement object criteria’. The ‘Procurement object criteria’ section is used for defining the items being procured, i.e. procurement objects, and the requirements pertaining to them, i.e. procurement object criteria (see Procurement object criteria).
Add group/sub-area
The creation of procurement objects is started by adding a group or a sub-area, depending on whether or not the procurement has been divided into lots.
Add group (procurement not divided into lots)
Under the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section, create a group for the procurement objects using the ‘Add group’ button. The edit group window is displayed.
Enter a name for the group
Asking the price and price decimals (see Asking the price)
Add the objects and their criteria
FIGURE: Adding a group for a national contract notice that has not been divided into lots.
Add sub-area (procurement divided into lots)
Under the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section, create a sub-area for the procurement objects using the ‘Add sub-area’ button. The edit sub-area window is displayed.
Enter a name for the sub-area
Asking the price and price decimals (see Asking the price)
Add the objects and their criteria
FIGURE: Adding a sub-area for a national contract notice that has been divided into lots.
The following options will be displayed in the sub-area basic information if you allowed partial tenders in the ‘Procurement procedure’ section.
Select whether you want to allow partial tenders within a sub-area
If you select ‘Yes’, the tenderer may choose which objects in the sub-area to tender and which objects not to tender
Select whether the sub-area concerned must be tendered
If you select ‘Yes’, the tenderer may not choose not to tender the sub-area concerned.
FIGURE: Procurement sub-area ‘School transportations’, where the tenderer may choose whether to submit a tender for both areas.
Processing groups or sub-areas
Processing all groups or sub-areas
The top-right corner of the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section includes functions for processing all the groups/sub-areas at the same time.
Check information
The system highlights in red any missing mandatory information or conflicting choices
Preview
The preview opens on a separate tab where you can check what the entry form of the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section looks like for the tenderer.
NOTE! If the procurement includes several sub-areas or groups, they will be closed by default and the desired group/sub-area can be opened from the ‘Expand group >>’ link
Object metadata fields
The function can be used for adding a specific metadata field for all procurement objects at once to accommodate additional information when the object is saved (e.g. package size, product code).
Upload procurement objects from an Excel file (see the instructions below)
You can import the procurement objects all at once from Excel
Close all groups/sub-areas
You can close all groups/sub-areas as single lines to make processing easier
Open all groups/sub-areas
You can open all groups/sub-areas so that all the information they contain is visible
FIGURE: Procurement with three sub-areas. The figure depicts the shared functions of the sub-areas.
Processing an individual group or sub-area
In the top-right corner of the group/sub-area, you will find functions for processing the group/sub-area concerned.
Delete the selected objects and criteria of the group/sub-area
Select the desired objects and/or criteria of the group or sub-area by checking the box at the end of the line.
Click the red recycle bin
Export the selections in the form of a criteria group (see Criteria library)
Select the desired objects and/or criteria of the group or sub-area by checking the box at the end of the line.
Click the icon with a cloud and an arrow
Criteria library (see Criteria library)
Select the desired objects and/or criteria of the group or sub-area by checking the box at the end of the line.
Click the book icon
Moving and copying group or sub-area objects and criteria (see Moving and copying group or sub-area objects and criteria)
Select the desired objects and/or criteria of the group or sub-area by checking the box at the end of the line.
Click the arrow icon
Close group/sub-area
Click the underscore icon to close the group/sub-area as a single line
Delete group/sub-area
Click the red cross to delete the group/sub-area from the call for tenders
Above the objects of the group/sub-area, you will find functions for processing all the objects of the group/sub-area concerned at once:
Close all objects in the group/sub-area
Open all objects in the group/sub-area
Select all objects in the group/sub-area
NOTE! You may select an individual object from the end of the object line concerned.
FIGURE: The figure depicts the editing options available for an individual group
Procurement objects
Procurement objects can be created manually or imported from Excel
Add new object
To add a new procurement object, type its name in the ‘New object’ field.
Add the quantity being procured. NOTE! If you leave the quantity blank, the system will treat the quantity as one
Add organisation unit
Add the unit to be used in comparison and the unit in which the price should be entered
FIGURE: In the figure, a new object ‘Plumbering’ has been added in the ‘HVAC Contract’ group, and a new object can be added under ‘New object’’.
Editing an object
The icons at the end of the object line allow you to edit the object.
Delete object
Click the red cross to delete the object from the group/sub-area
Move
To move an object to another location within the group/sub-area, drag and drop the line to the desired location
NOTE! If you want to move an object to another group/sub-area, select the ‘Moving and copying group or sub-area objects and criteria’ arrow icon from the top of the group/sub-area (click here for more detailed instructions)
Functions
Close object
Click the underscore to close the object as a single line to make the objects easier to manage
Copy object
The function creates a copy of the object below the current object
Object metadata
This function can be used for adding text in the metadata defined for all objects (see Processing all groups or sub-areas > Object metadata fields)
FIGURE: The ‘Functions’ menu of an object
Upload procurement objects from an Excel file
Procurement objects can be imported using a pre-defined Excel template
Click ‘Upload procurement objects from an Excel file’
In the window that appears, click ‘download template’ to download a pre-defined import template
Define the procurement objects in the pre-defined import template
Click the ‘Select file’ button to import the pre-defined template back to the system
Select the ‘Groups/sub-areas and objects imported from Excel will replace the current ones’ option to overwrite the information in the ‘Procurement object criteria’ section
If you do not select this option, the groups/sub-areas and objects will be added after the current ones
Click ‘Submit’ to import the groups/sub-areas and objects to the call for tenders
FIGURE: In the ‘‘Import groups/sub-areas and objects from an Excel file’ window, select ‘download template’ and import it to the system by selecting it from your computer.
Filling out the pre-defined Excel template
The Excel file includes pre-defined fields for entering the necessary information. Columns A and B in the Excel file are mandatory; the remaining fields are optional. Any information entered in the fields will pass to the procurement objects under the respective headings
Column A is used for defining whether the row concerned is a group/sub-area (G) or identifier (I)
Column B is used for defining the object name
Column C is used for defining the quantity to be procured
Column D is used for defining the unit
Column F is used for defining the product code
Column G and the subsequent columns can be used for creating own additional columns that will be shown in the procurement objects as additional information
FIGURE: Example of filling out the Excel file