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Client's preferred vendors

Monika 6 years ago in Home Portal updated by Jelle Maes 5 years ago 15

Hello. I could not find any specific information about how "Client's preferred vendors" work in XTRF. There is only a short release note, but I am not sure if this only works for SmartProjects or for Classic projects as well?


Also, if I choose a set of different vendors under "Preferred vendors" - would the system suggest me to assign them in my workflows, taking into consideration the correct language pair and job type specified in the vendor's profile?


In the release note it was also mentioned the "job offer". Does it mean it would only work for Availability Requests?


Thank you for your reply,


Monika

Answer

Answer

Hello all!

This was already available in Smart Projects, the information about it in Release Notes was specifically about Classic Projects.

So let me show you how you can use it.


First, you need to add the vendor to the preferred list of certain client,

Adding vendor to the Clients Price Profile.mp4

Second, you need to add the filter to the vendor selection view.

Adding filter to the Vendor Selection view.mp4

Be aware that after the first time that you add it, this filter will be automatically filled with the price profile of the Client. Of course, you can always remove this filter. I suggest considering having two different views there, one for 'regular' selection and second for 'preferred by client'. The same view is used when you select vendors for job offers (as I did the full manual approach in the video above) so you don't need to worry about this case neither.


For you that are using the Vendor Filtering Rules, you can add this specific filter also there, please follow the third video down below.


Adding filter to the Vendor Filtering Rule.mp4

I hope it helps! Please let me know if there is anything else you need from this topic.

I have the same question:


"Also, if I choose a set of different vendors under "Preferred vendors" - would the system suggest me to assign them in my workflows, taking into consideration the correct language pair and job type specified in the vendor's profile?"


What's the point in selecting "Preferred Vendors" in the client profile if they can't be filtered?


Thanks


Laura


+1

As far as I can tell, in Smart Projects, it's only functional in the "Send Job Offer" and "Select Vendor" views, where you can select a "preferred by client" filter and see only your preferred vendors. (We only use Smart Projects though, not Classic)

+1

I'm also interested to know if this only happens in Smart Projects. We are still using Classic and I would like to be able to assign a preferred vendor, by language, to a client's specific job type, without having to use an availability request.

I'm also with Classic Projects...

Answer

Hello all!

This was already available in Smart Projects, the information about it in Release Notes was specifically about Classic Projects.

So let me show you how you can use it.


First, you need to add the vendor to the preferred list of certain client,

Adding vendor to the Clients Price Profile.mp4

Second, you need to add the filter to the vendor selection view.

Adding filter to the Vendor Selection view.mp4

Be aware that after the first time that you add it, this filter will be automatically filled with the price profile of the Client. Of course, you can always remove this filter. I suggest considering having two different views there, one for 'regular' selection and second for 'preferred by client'. The same view is used when you select vendors for job offers (as I did the full manual approach in the video above) so you don't need to worry about this case neither.


For you that are using the Vendor Filtering Rules, you can add this specific filter also there, please follow the third video down below.


Adding filter to the Vendor Filtering Rule.mp4

I hope it helps! Please let me know if there is anything else you need from this topic.

Dear Bartosz,


we find this idea very usefull, but we have a little problem. I can't see the 'Preferred by Client' filter in any of our views:




Could you please advise what to do?


thanks


Laura

Laura, that would suggest you are not on version 7 or 8. Could that be true?

That is true.


We'll update soon.


Thanks


Laura

+1

Is there a way to quickly copy preferred vendors to other clients / price profiles? We have a number of clients for which we use (quite extensive) office structures. Right now, it seems we need to add all preferred vendors by hand to each and all of these offices. Ideally, we would be able to copy them in some way, or by using multiple change.


Is this possible?

Hi Thijs!

You can copy the list of preferred vendors between price profiles of one client. This can be achieved with an option 'duplicate from' when you are adding new price profile.

Video:
Adding new price profiles.mp4

Right now, there is no default way of copying one price profile to a price profile of a different client (even if linked with offices feature). I believe that it could be done with some macro but if you are interested in it, please contact our Helpdesk.

I hope it helps!


Thanks - I'll look into the macro myself first, then.

Hi Thijs, what occurred to me is that you can prepare a list of vendors that multiple offices of your client use - and create just 1 rule for Availability Request. And then use this rule for any project that corresponds to your office. Instead of assigning the same, preferred vendors multiple times. Or am I understanding something wrong?


Best,

Monika

Hi Monika,


Thanks for your suggestion! This is actually what we currently do for a few clients. We assigned a specific category to a number of vendors and have a rule that selects from these categorized vendors.


It works, but it means we are using a different rule, and ideally I would like to standardize the rules as much as possible, to give our PMs the greatest flexibility in choosing workflows (while still keeping the number of different workflows managable...)


+2

looking at the other end of the spectrum, is there a way to "blacklist" one or several providers, but only for a specific client? Preferably in such a way that this can be configurable in provider selection rules.