Concept: Message Center
The message center is the line of communication between sourcing managers and suppliers on any given sourcing event. The sourcing manager can send messages to suppliers, and suppliers can send questions to the sourcing manager. Each sourcing event has its own message center.
The message center eliminates the need for communicating with suppliers through email because you can:
- Answer a question directly or share the answer with all suppliers.
- Send messages to all suppliers.
- Attach files to your answers and messages to suppliers.
Answering Supplier Questions
When a supplier submits a question to you through the message center, you can answer the question yourself or assign it to a stakeholder with
Answer Q&A
or Read/Write
permissions. You can access the Message Center
by accessing the event and selecting the Message Center
tab in the navigation pane.When you answer a question yourself, you can send the answer directly to the supplier that asked it or share the question and answer with all suppliers. When you share a question and answer, Strategic Sourcing makes the supplier that asked the question anonymous. You can edit the question before sharing it.
Stakeholder Permissions
Stakeholders with a permission level of:
- Read Only have no access and aren't able to answer questions.
- Answer Q&A have restricted access and can answer questions, but the sourcing event owner must approve the answers.
- Read/Write have full access and can answer questions independently. They're able to send their answer directly to the supplier or share the question and answer with all suppliers.
Supplier Question Deadlines
You can set a supplier question deadline when you build a sourcing event. After the deadline passes, your suppliers can no longer submit questions for the sourcing event.
To modify a supplier question deadline for a closed sourcing event, contact the support team.
Notifications
The sourcing manager and stakeholders with read and write permissions receive message center notifications through both email and Strategic Sourcing. These notifications ensure that they're aware of message center activity, such as a supplier sending a question or a stakeholder answering a question.
Strategic Sourcing sends email notifications in twice-daily intervals to limit the number of emails sent to your suppliers and stakeholders.
Sourcing managers and stakeholders receive email notifications in these scenarios:
- A supplier asks a new question in theMessage Center.
- A sourcing manager or stakeholder posts a new answer to a question.
- A sourcing manager or stakeholder sends a new message to all suppliers.
Stakeholders also receive email notifications when assigned new questions.
Suppliers receive email notifications when the sourcing team:
- Posts a new answer.
- Sends a new message to all suppliers.
- Shares an answer with all suppliers.