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Communicate With the Contracting Authority

Updated

This article describes how to send and receive messages from the contracting authority and how to track which messages have been read and answered. Messages are available for both procurements and awarded contracts. The article demonstrates the process for a procurement, but it works the same way for a contract.

The article covers the following topics: 

Find the Messages

You can find messages in the Communications tab of the relevant procurement or contract.

 

 

Information: You must be following the procurement, or have created a draft application/offer, in order to send messages to the contracting authority for procurements.

The messages are private between you and the contracting authority. Other suppliers cannot see them. However, the contracting authority can choose to answer your question in Questions and Answers, so that all suppliers can see the answer.

Filtering the Communications Overview

You can filter the list to find the conversations you need:

  • Unread only – conversations with messages you haven't opened yet
  • Awaiting reply – conversations where the last message was sent by the client

 

 

Keeping track of the message statuses

In the overview, each conversation has two statuses: one for your organisation and one for the contracting authority. The status applies to your whole organisation. When one of you opens a message, it shows as read for everyone.

Information: A message is highlighted in blue in the overview until you open it yourself. This lets you see which messages you haven’t seen yet, even if a colleague has already read them.

A message can have the following statuses:

  • Draft- you have started to create a message, but have not sent it to anyone yet
  • Unread - you have received a message from the buyer that you have not opened yet
  • Sent - you have sent a message to the buyer, but the buyer has not opened it
  • Read -  you have sent a message to the buyer, and the buyer has read it
  • Completed – the contracting authority has marked the conversation as completed. If you send a new message in a completed conversation, it automatically becomes active again.

Awaiting reply

In addition to the status, a conversation can be marked Awaiting reply. This appears when the last message in the conversation came from the contracting authority. It helps you quickly see which conversations need a reply from you, even if the message has already been read.

The label disappears when you reply in the conversation.

Deviation

A message can also be marked as Deviation. The message from the contracting authority is then related to a deviation reported on the contract. 

Create and Send a New Message

To create a new message, first click +Start Conversation in the Communications tab.

 

  1. Open the submission or the contract where you want to send the message

  2. Click on the tab Communications
     


     

  3. Click +Start Conversation
     

 

Then fill in the Title and Message body fields. If you wish, you can upload file attachments by clicking Upload files.

Click Send message to send the message to the contracting authority. Click Delete to delete the message. Note that you can only delete messages that are still in Draft status.

Information: The system automatically saves your message as a draft if you choose not to send it immediately and want to finish it later.

 

 

The recipient will be notified of your message by email. If you receive a reply, you will also be notified by email.

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