> Negometrix4 has been renamed to Mercell Source-to-Contract. Read more about the change here.

>> If you ever see a feature in these release notes, that you can't find in the software - please get in touch with your account manager at Mercell. We can help and activate the feature for your organization.

>>> The Mercell Source-to-Contract platform has two tender management versions: Portal and Mercell Source-to-Contract. Read here how to recognize which version your organization uses.  

1 December

Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)

• Question & Answer: see suggested answers from colleagues in the Ready and Published tab
• Published tenders: new design and version management on the information page of a published tender

Question & Answer: See suggested answers from colleagues in the Ready and Published tab

In the Ready and Published tab within Question & Answer, the buyer can now also see the suggested answers from colleagues in the details of a question. Go to a question and click the 3 dots. Open Details and the pop-up will show the history of suggested answers.

Published tenders - new design

When you publish a tender publicly using tender management Mercell Source-to-Contract, it's also published on the Published tender page. 

On the published tenders page, the information page of a tender has been redesigned. The description, planning, extra information, but also published questions & answers are arranged more clearly. A navigation menu on the left makes finding all the information even easier.

Published tenders - version control

In a tender, documents, schedule or descriptions are sometimes updated. These updates will now be better visible on the published informatie page. After this update, an earlier version of the additional information and the schedule can be downloaded (if available). In a next update, this will also apply to the questionnaires and documents.

11 November

• Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)
  
  • Drafts: create a draft and immediately implement changes in a tender where necessary. This no longer has to be done via Properties.
  • Q&A: Assign multiple questions to your colleagues at once.
• Supplier management
  • Linked tenders: from now on, you can also view tenders that have been run in the Mercell Source-to-Contract version of Tender management within a supplier profile.

Tender management - (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)

Q&A: Assign Multiple Questions at Once

Instead of assigning questions to colleagues one by one, you can now simply select multiple questions at once. In the list of questions you will see a checkbox as soon as you move the mouse over a question.

Select multiple questions directly.

Then choose 'Assign' at the top right and point the selected questions to the relevant colleagues.

Supplier Management

Tenders from Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version) are visible in supplier profile

Until now, Supplier Management only supported information about tenders from the Portal version of Tender management.

From now on, the tender are also visible from the Mercell Source-to-Contract version of Tender management. You will find these in the Requests menu in a supplier profile.

Does your organization use both versions of our Tender management module? Then two tabs are visible within the Requests menu, each with the linked tender for the relevant supplier.

October 14, 2021

Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)

• Questionnaires: it is now possible to allow multiple answers for a multiple choice question
• Schedule: add dates without specifying a time

Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)

Questionnaires

Within questionnaires it is now possible to activate an extra option for multiple choice questions to allow multiple answers.

If it's a weighted question, the points to be obtained for each answer will be added together.

If it is a Knock-out, not all answer options can be marked as KO. There should always be one answer option without a KO label.

Schedule

In Schedule it is now also possible to add dates without a time. Consider, for example, an date for conducting interviews or organizing a demo. An exact time is initially not yet relevant as you want to coordinate it separately with the suppliers.

For dates such as the submission of offers, a time is of course always required.

16 September 2021

• General
  
  • New name and design: Mercell Source-to-Contract is the new name of Negometrix4.
  • Registration new profiles: new users who want to register using an already registered organization, can request access at the administrator during the registration process.
  • Notification settings: in the Profile settings new options are available regarding newsletters and release notes.
• Tender management (Mercell Source-to-Contract version): 
  • User roles in tenders: define user roles for Tender management in the Business Process Management processes.
• Supplier relationship management: 
  • New import function: import KPI ratings from an MS Excel file.
  • Supplier KPI rating: suppliers can now submit KPI ratings.
  • Task management: task management for vendor managers and suppliers.
• Contract management: 
  • Currency as a contract property available.

General

New name and design

As of September 16th Negometrix4 has a new name: Mercell Source-to-Contract. Furthermore the design has been updated in Mercell's branding. Read more about this announcement here, or check this Questions & Answers overview.

Registering new profiles

Previously, when someone wanted to register a profile and organization, the process stopped as soon as the organization was already registered. 

From now on it is possible to request access to an already registered organization while registering a profile.

This way as user can continue with the registration. The administrator of the organization approves the request for participation after the email address is verified. 

Managing Release Notes and Newsletter Settings

Until now, there was no way to indicate in your profile settings whether you want to receive Mercell's newsletter or release notes with information about updates. That option is now there.

When you confirm the choices in your profile, you will receive the next release notes and newsletter in your mail. The frequency depends on the content of the update.

Tender management - (Mercell Source-to-Contract version)

Defining user roles in Business Process Management

User roles can now be defined in the processes used to set up a tender. This prevents the buyer from having to re-create or adapt commonly used roles for every tender.

This update makes it possible to adapt existing, standard roles in the software to the wishes of the organization. It is also possible to add custom roles. 

Please contact your account manager at Mercell if you would like to make use of this.

Supplier management

Import KPI ratings from a spreadsheet

Within Supplier Management, there is a new option within the Suppliers tab to import KPI ratings. After you click on Import, choose Import KPI ratings. The import assistant will then help you go through the steps.

The following columns should be available in the spreadsheet:

• kpi_id (number)
• supplier_id (optional)
• kpi_ratingvalue 
• kpi_ratingdate (YYYY-MM-DD)
• kpi_ratingremark (text)

After uploading the spreadsheet file, the import assistant will preview the result.

Only administrators can import these KPI ratings.

KPI ratings by suppliers

Recently we introduced the possibility to share KPI ratings with suppliers. From now on it is also possible to let suppliers enter KPI ratings themselves. A number of new functionalities have been added for this purpose:

• Indicate per KPI whether it will be rated by the supplier.    
• KPIs that may be rated by suppliers are visible to them. The supplier then submits the rating.
• The vendor manager then approves or rejects a submitted rating (including comment).

Once a KPI rating has been submitted by a vendor, the vendor manager receives a notification about it. The administrator receives a notification after the rating is approved.

A new report type has been added: KPI ratings (by vendors)

Task management

The previous release brought the tasks within Supplier Relationship Management to the 'My Tasks' view. With this release, it's made possible for the vendor manager to create, assign and complete tasks themselves. Not only colleagues work on these tasks, but also suppliers can be assigned tasks. 

In each vendor profile there is a new menu: Tasks. Here the vendor manager creates new tasks, assigns them to colleagues or contacts and manages their status.

The menu is visible to both the buyer and the suppliers. For each task, you determine whether it will be visible to the vendor. Someone who has assigned a task will receive a notification about it, as well as a reminder before and on the deadline.

In addition, a new report type has been added: Tasks in Supplier Management

Contract Management

Currency selection per contract

Instead of only amounts in Euros, it is now possible to choose a currency per contract. This simplifies the use of the module for users outside the euro countries. In the contract go to More and select Setup.

Minor changes and improvements

• Added three new languages: Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
• The language of the login page is adjusted based on the visitor's IP address. By default this was English.

12 August 2021

In this update we've  made improvements for Tender management Negometrix4 and Supplier relationship management.

The Negometrix4 platform has two tender management modules: NegometrixPortal and Negometrix4.

Read here how to recognize which version your organization uses. 

Tender management Negometrix4:

• New! Question & Aanswer: asking private questions as a supplier
• ZIP exports: continue working while the ZIP export is being created in the background
• Improvements in the product list

Supplier relationship management:

• Added tasks from Supplier relationship management to My tasks overview.

General:

• During login, you will only see the organizations to log in to, in which you are active as a user.

Tender management Negometrix4

Question & Answer: asking private questions

From now on it is possible for suppliers to ask the buyer private questions in Question & Answer. If the buyer answers the question, both the question and answer remain hidden from other suppliers. Useful when you, as a supplier, want to ask a question that contains competition-sensitive information.

Previously, a supplier would have to ask this question via Messages.

When asking a question, suppliers can indicate whether it concerns a private question. The user checks this option underneath the question text.
		Once the question is saved, it is labeled so that the user sees that it is a private question.
It is visible to buyers that the question has been asked privately. The label is shown again when answering the question.
		And after publication of the answer, the label remains visible.

This feature is available for all new tenders based on standard Negometrix4 tender processes. If your organization has custom tender processes, please get in touch with your account manager to have this feature activated.

ZIP exports: continue working while the ZIP export is being created

If you request a ZIP export of a tender, the file will be generated in the background. You can continue working in the tender and you will receive a notification as soon as the file is ready for download.

Improvements in the product list

The improvements in the product list in this update are mainly focused on the columns. They now have different widths depending on the type.

For example, the Quantity column is less wide than the Description.

After adding, you can edit the width and the text will be wrapped for improved legibility.

This is recognizable behavior for people who work with Excel.

Smaller changes

• Number of characters for the motivation in Evaluation has been increased to 4,000 characters.
• You can now sort by publication date in Q&A. Exports will follow the sorting that has been applied.

Supplier relationship management

Tasks added to My tasks

After logging in, every user has an overview with My tasks. From now on, the tasks arising from Supplier relationship management will also be displayed here.

General

List of organizations while logging in

Previously, for some users, Negometrix4 listed organizations that only other colleagues had access to. We have adjusted this to avoid confusion.

For administrator, the list will stil contain all organization that all colleagues have access to.

15 July 2021

In this release we have made improvements to Intake management, Tender management Negometrix4, Contract management, and Supplier management.

Intake management

Manage options without data loss

Previously, as an administrator, you could not edit or remove the options in multiple choice or selection questions in order without data loss. From now on it is possible to manage these options yourself.

You adjust the order by clicking on one of the arrows, or deactivate options to hide them. A list of inactive options will appear at the bottom with which you can use to restore the action.

Tender management Negometrix4

New report capability

Now there is a new type of report in which information from the various rounds can be included. It is a separate type of report because of how the information is structured—each round is a new line.

For example, the report shows per round the number of suppliers, quotations, invitations, or dates related to the schedule.

When you create a new report, you now have the choice between Tender report and Round report.

The fields are divided into different sections.
You may add sections via the + icon or by dragging in the desired fields.

Then you may view the result via Save And View. You can download the report as an Excel file.

Contract management & Supplier Management

New matrix structure available for reports

With this update it is possible to create reports in both contract and supplier management that are displayed as a matrix. Previously, this was only possible to a limited extent in Supplier Management.

If there are multiple options for a particular field, it will be displayed as a checklist, instead of a list of the selected options. This way you can easily create an overview with the properties that apply to suppliers in a contract.

As an example, see the original view on the left, with the view in the new matrix structure on the right.

When creating a report, choose the Matrix report structure as one of the options. You can easily convert current reports to this structure via Settings.

Supplier management

Visibility of self-defined fields for suppliers

Self-defined fields in the supplier profiles can be made visible and editable for the supplier after this update. For example, the supplier can view, update, or fill in certain data themselves.

The fields can be made visible and editable under the settings within Supplier Management. These settings then apply to all suppliers and cannot be set specifically per supplier.

Once a field has been edited by the supplier, the vendor manager of the purchasing organization will receive a notification. This change can also be found in the supplier's logbook. A field that is editable by the vendor is also editable by the vendor manager.

Visibility KPIs for suppliers

In addition to the self-defined fields, results from the KPI measurements can now also be shared with the supplier.

At the organizational level you set which KPIs may be visible to suppliers.

It is then possible to set per supplier whether the data is actually shared.

June 24, 2021

In this update only improvements and new features for Tender management (Negometrix4).

Tender management

Filters in Q&A

The question & answer module has new filter options. This makes it easier to create smaller overviews, specifically with questions and answers that you are looking for as a buyer.

This filter option is available for all tabs within Question & Answer.

Set up a filter

Open a tab within Q&A and choose Add Filter.

Depending on the tab in which the filter is set up, you will see different columns on which you can filter. It is possible for each tab to filter by keyword within the texts of questions and answers.

Stack multiple filters

If you stack multiple filters, the overview will show results to which both filters have been applied.

For example, in a combination like "subcontractors"+"submitted by company name", results will only appear from questions or answers containing the word "subcontractors", in questions submitted by a specific supplier.

Overviews with filtered results can be exported. In that case, these exports in PDF or Excel format only contain the filtered results.

Question assigned? Open the filtered overview immediately

If a colleague is assigned a question to help with an answer, he or she will be informed about this in an email, a notification in the software and a new task in My Tasks. In all cases there is a direct link to the overview in Questions & Answers, in which the filter is directly based on the questions that have been assigned to the relevant user.

An applied filter is saved when the user subsequently changes menus in a tender.

Messages and Public Announcements split

Until now, in Messages, there was a menu to switch between Messages and Public announcements.

From now on, this page has been updated and both overviews have their own separate tab.

This simplifies navigation:

Smaller Items:

• New placeholders for the document generator: automatically add information about the submission date, publication date and number of notified suppliers via the CPV codes.
• In a mini-competition, it is now visible under the name of the tender from which qualification system it was created.
• No longer do evaluators need to review submitted answers from all suppliers within one section, before they can save. Even after rating only one supplier, an evaluator can save and continue later.

3 June 2021

Tender management

Add suppliers to a mini-competition that has already started

From now on, it is possible to add suppliers, admitted to a Dynamics Purchasing System, to an already started mini-competition.

Supplier relationship management

Add roles to vendor contact persons

In the May 12 update, we already introduced some improvements around managing supplier contacts.

You can import contacts, suppliers can manage their contact persons themselves and a new report is available for buyers.

With this release, different authorizations are also linked to the roles, administrator and member.

An 'administrator' can perform all available actions on behalf of the supplier in the various menus within Supplier Relationship Management (such as managing statements, sending messages and adding documents).

'Members' only have viewing rights. This is therefore the default role that a new contact person is assigned.

When adding a new contact person, the supplier who adds a colleague determines whether the colleague is given an administrator role.

Tender management NegometrixPortal, Contract management and Performance measurement

Manage categories in Negometrix4 instead of in 'Classic'

In the modules Tender management NegometrixPortal, Contract management and Performance measurement, managing the categories is now available in Negometrix4. This was previously only available in 'Classic'.

With the categories you divide parts of these three modules into an appropriate category. For example, you place a tender for Laptops in a category such as IT/Hardware.

To manage these categories, a new 'Categories' menu is available in the 'Organization settings' menu.

Open in this menu to import, export, delete or modify categories.

12 May 2021

Intake management

Archive declined requests

Currently requests are kind of stuck in the tab ‘Evaluated’ in the Intake management module in case a request is not converted into a tender or declined. 

To enable users to better manage the requests in the tab ‘Evaluated’ a second option to move requests to the tab ‘Archive’ has been created. Next to declining a request a request can now also be closed. When closing a request, the request is moved to the tab ‘Archive’. In the tab ‘Archive’ the request will be shown with the status ‘Closed’. In addition, the user needs to add a comment related to closing the request (e.g. reason why the request is closed/moved to the archive).

Tender management (Negometrix4)

New: Tender reports 

This first release includes the ability to gather basic data on all of your tenders.  

My reports 

In the main menu, you will find a new option: My reports. Your organization administrator can activate this feature for you to create reports.

Creating new reports

Within My reports, you easily set up your first report. 

Simple drag and drop the desired data in the middle of the screen to create the columns of your report.
	Once you are ready, save the report and view the results. You can edit the report...
... or export it as a spreadsheet.

New: Schedule Templates 

Up until now, a buyer was required to completely create a new schedule for each tender. Many events are actually common for every tender. With these templates, you can now set up your new tenders much faster. 

Related events 

With these new templates, you can relate events to each other. Instead of setting specific dates for each event, you will relate the date of an event to that of a previous or next event in the schedule. 

For example, the deadline for submitting offers - you can set the date to a fixed 40 days after the publication date of the tender. The same for the deadline for posing questions. You could set the date for this deadline to a fixed number of days before the deadline of submitting offers.

In your new tender, you select your template and fill in the start date (like the date you want to publish the tender or send out your invites). All events will then automatically receive their correct date and time.  

Improvements for mobile devices

The interface of Negometrix4 has been greatly improved for mobile devices. The general navigation, your tender overview and navigation in a tender has been renewed.  

Right after you log in, you see your overview with tenders. If you tap on a tender, you will be presented with our new slide-view of all your tenders. You can swipe through them one by one (people with Instagram know how this works ? ).  

The navigation in a tender is now more user-friendly with larger buttons and a different set up.   

Navigating between tenders	Navigating inside a tender

Improvements for Dynamic Purchasing Systems (DPS) 

• View and manage categories in mini competitions.
• New search functionality added to the Evaluation menu in a DPS.
• Starting a mini competition was always followed by an email to the suppliers and a notification in the notification center. The notification in Messages is therefore redundant and will not be shown anymore.  
• You can now add processes for mini competitions to your existing DPS.  

Improvements for notified suppliers based on procurement codes  

Last update included a new feature for buyers to see which suppliers received a notification about their published tender, based on the suppliers' procurement code selection.  

We have improved this overview now with a search box and an export. You can now search for specific suppliers and see their status, or export the whole list in a spreadsheet.

Other improvements 

• New Excel export available: all evaluations and motivations within the score tab in Evaluation. 
• Offer screen for suppliers: navigate easily between multiple offers from one offer to the other. 
• Adding a new round in a tender: in Schedule, only mandatory events will be copied to the next round (like the deadline for submission of offers), instead of all created events.

Supplier relationship management

Supplier contact import function

The usage of the Supplier Management module is growing: not only the number of organizations using it, but also the number of suppliers that are being managed through the module. This has made the need for a more efficient way of adding contacts more eminent. Therefore a supplier contact import function has been added.

In order to import supplier contacts an Excel sheet with the following columns needs to be created: company id, company name, username, role.

The import process is started by clicking the ‘Import supplier contacts’ button in the tab ‘Suppliers (see screenshot below). Clicking this button will open an assistant that supports the import process. 

Allow suppliers to manage contactpersons

From now on supplier contacts can manage contacts without involvement from the buying organization. With this release supplier contacts with both the role administrator and member are able to 

1) add new contacts, 2) delete contacts and 3) change the role of a contact. 

Supplier contact report

In the SRM module a new type of report, named ‘Supplier contacts’, has been added. This report enables users from the buying organization te create reports listing relevant data related to supplier contacts being added to a supplier. 

Support pages renewed

All the support pages for the previously NegometrixPortal modules Intake management, Tender management, Contract management and Supplier Relationship management have been renewed. Have a look by clicking the Support button in the top right corner of your screen.

8 April 2021

The focus in this release is on Tender management and the former NegometrixPortal modules Intake management, Supplier relationship management and Contract management.

• Tender management:
  • publication forms updated to the latest versions
  • set up approval for the awarding statement
  • insight into the suppliers notified by CPV codes
  • improvements around partner organizations in tenders
• Intake management: set up dynamic approvals
• Supplier relationship management: renewed authorizations
• Contract management: export all documents
• Other changes to user rights, ZIP exports and Suppliers tab in tenders

Tender management Negometrix4

Publication forms updated

The latest publication forms by TED have been implemented in Negometrix4. Some changes have been made to the NUTS codes.

Set up approval for the award statement

Earlier this year, we launched the tender approval workflow in Negometrix4. With this, you can request approval from your colleagues about the content of your tender and the award advice. As of today, the award statement has been added.

Insight into the suppliers that are notified by the CPV codes

If you publish a tender, you include CPV codes in your publication. Suppliers can indicate in their organization profile which CPV codes they want to be notified about. This will keep them informed of interesting tenders on Negometrix4. As a buyer you can now see which suppliers have been informed by your publication. Interested? Then contact your account manager at Negometrix, who can activate the feature for you.

Improvements around partner organizations in tenders

In Negometrix4 it is possible to add multiple organizations to your team. This way you work together with colleagues from your own organization, but also from other organizations. Some improvements have been made to this functionality.

For example, it used to be that adding an organization directly led to the addition of the administrator. That has now changed. You invite someone based on an email address and they activate the invitation by opening it.

As soon as that happens, as a buyer you will see that Partner organizations are listed which organizations are partners in your team. The relevant colleague of that organization is then added as a Viewer.

Intake management

Set up dynamic approvals instead of fixed approvals

Instead of setting all approvers in the set-up of the Intake management module, it is now possible for the applicant to indicate who should approve the request. A new ID tag is available to link to the approval workflow.

This will automatically add an e-mail address entered in the purchase request as an approver to the approval workflow.

Supplier relationship management

Renewed authorizations

Until now, anyone who had access to the Supplier relationship management module could see and edit suppliers. There was no authorization per supplier.

This has changed with this update. Colleagues with access to the Supplier relationship management module can no longer work with all suppliers by default and edit them. You now grant colleagues authorization per supplier.

It works like this with possible 3 scenarios:

1. User has access to the module, but has not been added as a vendor manager at one or more suppliers:
   • All suppliers will be visible within Suppliers, but only the Profile can be viewed within a supplier.
2. User has access to the module and has been added at some suppliers as a vendor manager with the role "Follower":
   • The user sees all suppliers within Suppliers, but can see everything at a couple of suppliers because of that role. The user cannot perform any actions within those suppliers.
3. User has access to the module and has been added at some suppliers as a vendor manager with the role 'Manager'
   • The user sees all suppliers within Suppliers, and can see and edit everything at some suppliers because of that role.

Instead of adding colleagues one by one to suppliers, you can also work with user groups.

Finally, an extra role has been added: "Supplier relationship management default user". A user with this role can access the module but cannot add new suppliers. Depending on the role at a supplier, a user with this role may or may not edit information about a supplier.

This role is primarily intended for users who do not need to be able to enter suppliers, but who must be able to view and edit supplier data to a greater or lesser extent.

Contract management

Export all documents

It is now possible to export all documents at once in the Contract management module. If you want to use this, please contact your account manager at Negometrix. He can activate the feature for you. This feature is to support an efficient deactivation of the Contract management module (and not yet for regular periodic archive purposes).

Other changes

• Userrights: a new user can be added directly to new user groups without waiting for registration.
• Tendermanagement:
  • the Suppliers tab now contains pagination per 30 suppliers.
  • the ZIP export has been expanded with award statement, award advice and award letters.

22 March 2021

In this update, several improvements have been released for Tender management Negometrix4, as well as for the modules previously available in NegometrixPortal.

Tender management (Negometrix4)

• The Public Buyer Profile has been renewed and updated with new tabs. Besides general information and tenders, there is tab for contracts available (mainly used by buyers in the United States)
• You can now set up the pricing component without a total price (if allowed in the BPM process). Simply remove the total price after adding the pricing component in your requirements.
• View a publication on NegometrixToday straight from the tender.
• Add documents to text items, to prevent using yes/no questions for sharing files.
• The visibility of comments in evaluation is now more clear.

Tender management (both NegometrixPortal and Negometrix4 versions)

All publication forms have been updated to the newest version.

Contract management – phasing out of Classic (address book)

For users who have only access to the contract management module there is currently no way in Negometrix4 to add and modify suppliers. These activities have to be executed via Classic. This release will change this by making a limited set of functionality from the Supplier management module available to Contract management users. These users will now also see the menu ‘Supplier management’ when logging in which gives them access to the supplier list in this module and the option to modify data from a supplier.  

For all modules previously known as  NegometrixPortal

Content ownership - At the moment there are several menu’s for which only the person who created the content of the menu can modify it (e.g. messaging templates). This is causing problems since not everybody with administrator rights can modify the required content. As part of this release authorizations have been adjusted so users with admin rights for a certain menu can also modify content of other users.

Labels of security groups language dependent - Currently the naming/labels of the different ‘Portal security groups’ in the menu User rights in Negometrix4 is shown in one language. Most of the time this is Dutch. With this release the possibility is added to show the labels in the language of the user.