Introduction

The Appian Government Source Selection (GSS) solution is a customizable application built on Appian’s low-code platform using expert knowledge and best practices for acquisition processes. This solution allows government agencies and federal civilian agencies to provide a guided automated experience for creating and completing a vendor evaluation. This allows organizations to efficiently evaluate vendors while remaining in compliance.

The application consists of two main work spaces that are made up of two different sites:

• The Government Source Selection site allows users to:
  • Create and update an evaluation: Enter in all the evaluation data needed through a guided experience.
  • Upload and maintain evaluation documents: Upload all the vendor and evaluation documents through a guided experience.
  • Create, configure, and complete evaluation approach tasks: Select configurable approaches when the evaluation is created or add configurable approaches when evaluation events occur. Add, edit, and rearrange those tasks as needed. Each evaluation approach is completely configurable.
  • Maintain visibility into the state of evaluation: View all of the data for an evaluation in one location. Allow your departments to see the status of the evaluation and visibility of approach tasks.
  • Receive email notifications about tasks: Receive emails when you have been assigned to a new task or when your task has been updated. Reminder emails will also be sent when tasks are due or overdue.
• From the front end of the application, the Source Selection Settings site allows business users to:
  • Manage Phases: Use phases to group approach tasks together, usually by the function of the task or the group that performs the tasks. Business users can update these phases as their needs change.
  • Manage a Library of tasks: Making an evaluation approach set up quick and easy is what we are all about. You can create a library of tasks that make it easy to add tasks to templates and individual evaluation approaches.
  • Keep evaluation approaches up to date: Realizing that users are always marking a task as not needed? Remove the task. Have a new evaluation approach type? Create a new evaluation approach. Your evaluation approaches can be as flexible as you need them to be. GSS is designed to help you make an evaluation approach set up quick and easy.
  • Manage document review process: Establish a review process for each document created from a document template. Are your users always adding more reviews for a document template type? Add another review group to the process. Have a new document? Create a new process.
  • Manage consensus process: Consolidate evaluation responses and make a final decision on the factor or vendor rating through a guided consensus process.

Source Selection Site

Home page

When you log in to the GSS site, the MY ACTIVITIES page displays. This page contains several features that help business users get a quick view of information that is pertinent to them:

1. Evaluations assigned to current user display in tabs across the page.
2. Action shortcuts to CREATE NEW EVALUATION.

Additionally, the top of the page contains links to the records for EVALUATIONS and VENDORS.

Record lists

Clicking any tab on the top of the page takes you to the associated record list. From the record list page, you can:

1. CREATE NEW EVALUATION or ADD VENDOR.
2. Search and filter the record list.
3. View a short summary of information about the records.
4. Click a name to open the associated record summary view.
5. Export the record list to Excel, clear filters, and refresh the record.

Source Selection Settings site

The Source Selection Settings site allows business users to manage evaluation approaches, including managing phases, tasks, and approaches. They can also manage the evaluation document review processes.

Accessing the Source Selection Settings Site

The Source Selection Settings is a separate site in the GSS application. Only business users with the appropriate group membership are able to access it. This ensures that only a select few have the access to sensitive processes and information.

To access the Source Selection Settings site:

1. Make sure you are part of the AS GSS Source Selection Settings Site Access group.
2. From the Source Selection site, select the navigation menu > Source Selection Settings.

The Welcome to Source Selection Settings page displays. You can click a card to choose the settings page, or navigate to the page from the left navigation menu.