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Vendor Quick Start Guide

This content applies solely to Vendor Management, which must be purchased separately from the Appian base platform. This content was written for Appian 24.1 and may not reflect the interfaces or functionality of other Appian versions.

Getting started

As a Vendor, you will gain access to the Vendor Management self-service landing page after a contracting officer registers your account, or you have registered yourself through the vendor portal. Here you can review opportunities posted by the contracting officers of the Government Agency you are working with and submit a proposal when an opportunity looks like the right fit.

After you mark an opportunity as interested, you can work with the contracting officer or manager to:

  • Clear up any pending questions.
  • Submit all required documents for the opportunity proposal.
  • Wait for notification of the results once the proposal is processed.

The Vendor Management solution makes it easy to manage the entire opportunity proposal process in one place. This guide walks vendors through the most common views and actions you will use to view and manage your opportunities.

Vendor portal

The Vendor Portal is set up on the contracting agency side and acts as a landing page for public users to browse or search for public opportunities and register themselves as vendors. After registering your vendor account, you can sign in and gain access to the secure vendor site, communicate with contracting officers, and take action on opportunities.

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Register as a vendor

To register as a Vendor from the Vendor Portal:

  1. Click +REGISTER.

  2. Fill the following fields in the Profile Information section:

    • Vendor Legal Name
    • Contact First and Last Name
    • Email
    • DUNS
    • CAGE
    • UEI

  3. Fill in the following fields in the Business Information section:

    • Doing Business As
    • Business Type
    • Address

  4. Click REGISTER.

Search for opportunities

You can still view and search for public opportunities without being a registered vendor by searching the Opportunity ID or Keyword. You can also see all of the public opportunities posted by the agency by clicking SEE ALL PUBLIC OPPORTUNITIES.

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Home page

After logging into your vendor account, you will see an overview of your ongoing opportunities. You can also check opportunity statuses at a glance and review any upcoming deadlines for opportunities you are involved in directly from HOME.

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Opportunity statuses

Under Opportunity statuses, you can view an overview of how many of your opportunities fall under the following statuses:

  • Interested
  • In Progress
  • Submitted

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My opportunities

Under My Opportunities, you can view a detailed card for each opportunity you are currently involved in. Each opportunity card will be color coded and tagged by status.

Clicking View All will bring you to the opportunities list view and view all available opportunities.

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Updates and Calendar

The updates section will show you updates from the last thirty days to any of the opportunities you are involved. The calendar will display any upcoming deadlines.

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Profile

Click the Profile tab to go to your vendor profile page. From here, you can view information about your business, manage users, and see any ongoing opportunities.

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Summary

The Summary tab in the vendor profile summary view includes your profile information added during the registration process.

  • Primary Vendor Details: Important information such as your Doing Business As and Business Type information.
  • Additional Vendor Details: Other additional details about your business such as a physical address, UEI number, and DUNS number.
  • Active Opportunities: Any opportunities you are interested in, in the process of applying to, or have submitted proposals for.

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Users

The Users tab displays a list of all users assigned to your vendor account. A user is either an administrator or a Point of Contact (POC).

Add users

Vendor admins can add additional users to the vendor account. To add a new user, click + CREATE USER and fill out the form with information about the user. The new user will receive an email with sign in instructions.

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Edit profile

Vendor admin users can also edit vendor profiles if updates are needed.

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Update your profile information

To update your profile information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.

  2. In the Summary tab, click the edit icon in the Profile section.

    NOTE: After completing the vendor registration process, you can no longer edit the Vendor Legal Name field.

  3. From the Update Profile dialog, update the information in the respective fields as necessary.

    NOTE: Unique Entity ID, CAGE, and Expiration date are applicable for Federal vendors only. TIN and FEIN are applicable for State and Local Government vendors only.

  4. Click UPDATE to confirm.

Add your business information

To add your business information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.
  2. In the Summary tab, click ADD in the Business Information section.
  3. From the Add Business Information dialog, add the necessary information in the Doing Business As, Business Type, and Web Address fields.

  4. To add PSC, NAICS or NIGP codes, click Add Another in the respective sections and add the information in the respective fields as necessary.

    NOTE: The PSC codes are applicable for Federal vendors only. The NIGP codes are applicable for State and Local Government vendors only.

  5. Click ADD to confirm.

Update your business information

To update your business information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.
  2. In the Summary tab, click the edit icon in the Business Information section.
  3. From the Update Business Information dialog, update the information in the respective fields as necessary.
  4. Click UPDATE to confirm.

Add your financial information

To add your financial information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.
  2. In the Summary tab, click ADD in the Financial Information section.
  3. From the Add Financial Information dialog, select your preferred payment mode in Mode of Payment field.
  4. Enter the business account name in the Remittance To (Pay to) field.

  5. If your business remittance address is same as your primary business address, then select the Same as primary option in the Remittance Address field. If the remittance address is different from your primary address, then enter the address in the respective fields.

    NOTE: The Same as primary option will be disabled if there is no address in the vendor profile.

  6. Click ADD to confirm.

Update your financial information

To update your financial information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.
  2. In the Summary tab, click the edit icon in the Financial Information section.
  3. From the Update Financial Information dialog, change your preferred payment mode in Mode of Payment field.
  4. Change the business account name in the Remittance To (Pay to) field.

  5. If your business remittance address is same as your primary business address, then select the Same as primary option in the Remittance Address field. If the remittance address is different from your primary address, then enter the address in the respective fields.

    NOTE: The Same as primary option will be disabled if there is no address in the vendor profile.

  6. Click UPDATE to confirm.

Update contact information

To change your contact information:

  1. Click PROFILE tab.
  2. In the Summary tab, click the edit icon in the Point of Contact section.
  3. From the Update Point of Contact dialog, update the information of primary contact in the respective fields as necessary.
  4. To add another contact, click Add Another and enter the contact information in the respective fields.
  5. Click UPDATE to confirm.

Submit a proposal

Vendor Management makes it simple and easy to view active opportunities and take action on individual opportunities. For example, you can mark an opportunity as interested or submit questions to the contracting officer. When you are ready to submit your proposal, you can view instructions and required documents clearly outlined on the opportunity summary page.

Browse opportunities

Go to the Opportunities tab to browse opportunities available to your business. You will see the following details about each opportunity:

  • Opportunity status: The options for opportunity status are posted, awarded, drafted, or closed.
  • My Status: The options for your status are interested, in progress, submitted, or not started.
  • Opportunity: The ID and title of the posted opportunity.
  • Type: The type of opportunity. The options for type are Sources Sought, Presolicitation, Combined Synopsis, Solicitation, Award Notice, Sale of Surplus, Intent to Bundle, Justification, or Special Notice.
  • Response Due: The due date for the opportunity proposal.
  • Resubmission Due: The due date for the resubmission of the opportunity proposal.

You can filter by Opportunity status, My status, Type, and Response Due to focus on what you are looking for.

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Click the opportunity name to drill through and learn more about that specific opportunity.

View an opportunity

When you land on an opportunity summary view, you will see a detailed view of the opportunity's information including its description, instructions, required documents, and updates.

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Proposals

To see all the documents required for submitting a proposal for this opportunity, click Proposals.

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Mark as interested

If you are interested in submitting a proposal for this opportunity, mark it as interested by clicking MARK AS INTERESTED. Once you mark an opportunity as interested, you can submit question documents and required documents for your proposal.

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Submit opportunity questions

You can submit questions or upload question documents about the opportunity until the questions due date. The questions allow you to correspond with the opportunity manager and clarify any questions you have about the opportunity.

To submit a question:

  1. Click Questions tab of the opportunity summary page.
  2. In the Quick Add section, enter the question in the Add Question field.
  3. Click SUBMIT.
  4. Repeat steps 1-3 to add another question.

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To submit a question document:

  1. Click Questions tab of the opportunity summary page.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Click IMPORT NEW DOCUMENT.
  4. Click Question Template to download the spreadsheet template for the questions.
  5. Fill up the downloaded spreadsheet template with your questions and save it.
  6. Click UPLOAD to upload the updated spreadsheet containing your questions about the opportunity.
  7. Click IMPORT AND CLOSE.

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After the question documents are submitted, an update will be issued by the Contracting Officer or Manager managing that opportunity once a response is made.

Submit required documents

In order to submit a proposal, all required documents need to be uploaded by the proposal deadline.

To view and submit required documents:

  1. Click Proposals tab of the opportunity summary page.
  2. View the required documents for the opportunity in the Proposal Documents section.
  3. Click UPLOAD.
  4. In the Upload Documents section, click UPLOAD to upload a required document.
  5. Upload all the required documents and click NEXT.
  6. Tag each document you uploaded by adding a description for each document and selecting the type of document and click NEXT.
  7. In the Review and Upload section, verify the details of the uploaded documents.
  8. Click UPLOAD.
  9. Click SUBMIT PROPOSAL.

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After uploading all of your required documents, you can submit your proposal to be reviewed by the contracting team by clicking SUBMIT PROPOSAL. You will receive an update with the result of your proposal once it has been viewed and processed by the contracting team.

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View Awards

You can see the awards allocated to your business from the Awards tab. From the list view, you can see the award name, status, vendor, and contract dates. Click the award name to drill down and learn more about that specific opportunity.

Award summary

When you land on an award summary view, you will see a detailed view of the award's information including its description, award documents, funding, instructions, and updates. From the summary view, you can upload documents and correspond with the contracting officer about the award.

View Messages

From the Messages tab, you can see ongoing correspondence with contracting officers or managers related to an opportunity or award. This functionality allows you to handle more of your workflow in one central location and associate existing data and documents with messages.

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Compose a message

To compose a new message, go to MESSAGES and click COMPOSE MESSAGE. Fill in the opportunity, subject, message, and attachments related to your message. Proposals should not be attached to a message but rather submitted through the opportunity.

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Opportunity messages

You can also view, compose, search for, and reply to opportunity specific messages from the opportunity summary page. To do so, click on an opportunity and go to the Messages tab.

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Ready to start

Now that you have walked through this Vendor Management User Guide and understand some of the basic features and views, you can start using VM to set up your profile and browse opportunities.

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