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Accepting Supplier Responses and Asking for Revisions
Accepting Supplier Responses and Asking for Revisions

Once a supplier has responded to a survey, you can review the data and if acceptable, add it to your library.

Evelyn Ritter avatar
Written by Evelyn Ritter
Updated over a week ago

Survey Dashboard

Navigate to Surveys to see your draft surveys, sent surveys, and their statuses.

When a supplier accepts and later responds to your survey request, you'll be notified by email and the survey status will be updated in 3E Exchange.

The survey dashboard will be your central hub for submitting draft surveys, viewing sent surveys, sending reminders about sent surveys, and viewing completed surveys.

 

Accept a Supplier Response

You'll be notified by email when a supplier submits data back to you. You'll also see the status reflected in your survey dashboard. 

Click anywhere on the survey's line to open your supplier's response. Depending on the survey you sent, you'll have options to view and accept questionnaire responses and BOM submissions.

Once you open the survey response, you will see different sections for Supplier-level questionnaires and BOM level data/questionnaires. To view the data that was provided by your supplier, select the blue text that starts with "Material Response". You can preview the questionnaire and BOM data before accepting the data into your library.

Once you have confirmed that you are happy with the data you've received, click on "Accept" to pull that data into your 3E Exchange account.

-Accepting the material will add it to your library

-"Accept and mark" as approved will automatically mark the Workflow Status as "Approved"

Ask for Additional or Corrected Data from Suppliers

If the response data is not what you expected and you need to get additional information from your suppliers, you can ask for a revision of the data.

To place a general revision request, select "Send a Revision Request" in the top right-hand side of the screen.

In the pop-up, you can then specify your revision instructions.

The supplier will receive an email with your request and the survey will then be returned to the supplier with all the completed data still included. They can then make any changes requested and return the survey back to you.

If you have advanced survey features on your account, you can also place specific revision requests. Start by selecting "Add Revision Request" next to the questionnaire or material of your choosing. Once that is open, select "Edit Revisions".

You will then need to click on the "Edit Revisions" button on the top left.

To ask for specific revisions on a BOM column, you will mark that column for revision using the drop-down, then you can add specific revision instructions for that chosen column. Once you are done adding revision requests, you will click the "Back to Survey" button.

On the survey page, you will see your revision requests. Once you have marked all revisions accordingly, select "Send a Revision Request" to submit that back to your supplier. You will have the ability to customize the email message being sent to them as well.

Accepting Responses and Sending Revision Requests in Bulk

There may be times when you have surveyed a supplier on more than 10 products/materials. Parsing through that amount of data can be tedious, however, our bulk accepting and revising options make that process much easier!

You will go to your survey the same as you would with any other survey. You can click into each individual BOM or questionnaire to review the data. To add a revision request, you will select "Revisions". You will then add the revision request (see instructions above).

If you notice that the same mistake occurs for every material that was surveyed, you can apply that revision request to other selected materials (use the checkboxes or select all button at the top of the list). Once the materials are selected, click the "Copy Revision Request to all Selected Materials" button. To send the revision request back to your supplier select "Send a Revision Request". You will have the ability to customize the email message being sent to them as well.

You can also accept responses in bulk by using the "Accept Response of Selected Materials" button. This bulk functionality allows you to manage your data effectively while also saving time!

Questionnaire Responses

Once you view and accept a supplier-level questionnaire response, it will copy the answers provided into your Supplier Summary Data. You can view this information at any time by navigating to Suppliers, selecting a supplier, and clicking Edit Summary Data:

When you view and accept a BOM-level questionnaire response, it will copy the answers provided into the product or material's Summary Data. You can view this information at any time by navigating to your library, opening the BOM editor, and choosing Data > Edit Summary Data, then select the desired survey page from the "Data Page" drop-down. 

The information is also merged into your inventory's overall data summary, which you can edit through Data > Edit Summary Data.

BOM Responses

If your supplier has responded with new or updated BOMs, you will have the opportunity to accept their response and merge these updates into your library. 

For Open BOM responses, new materials or products will be created and automatically associated with your supplier. For specific-BOM responses, you have the option to merge the response into your existing data or create a copy of the material or product.

If you're using a Linked Material and choose to overwrite the original, all the products that link the material will automatically update as well. Learn more about linked materials here

Completing the Response

After you've accepted a response, you can delete the response from Surveys. Or you can save it to re-send survey updates, and for auditing purposes.

The status of the survey will be updated to Response Accepted in your surveys list.

Data Source Column as a Record for Supplier Data

Once you've accepted that supplier's returned data in your library, the "Data Source" column in 3E Exchange will be updated with the supplier survey information. For example, since I accepted the data from the supplier for the material listed below:

The data source column for that material now contains the information that this was accepted from a supplier survey.


Re-send a Survey

For surveys that have not yet been submitted by a supplier, you can edit and re-send the survey. For example, if you forgot to include a question you needed to be completed in a questionnaire, you can resend that survey with the question added to that supplier. 

First, edit the questionnaire. Then click "Edit Survey" in the survey dashboard. Click "Send Survey Update" to resend the survey with the new questionnaire. 

This feature is designed to be used soon after the original survey was sent. Different from the Ask for Revision feature, any data that was entered by the supplier but not submitted will be deleted with when the survey is updated.


Add an Offline Survey Response

If your supplier responses offline, i.e. via an email instead of logging into 3E Exchange, you can easily add that data to the system. Navigate to the survey of interest and you'll see a button to "Add an Offline Response".

First, it will ask you general information about the response received. In this area, do not upload specific regulatory documentation. Instead include any general files, such as an excel sheet that has the list of products and their compliance status.

Next, you will upload can upload the matching answers and documentation using the Assign Summary Data workflow within 3E Exchange. Use the button below to kick off that workflow.

The workflow will be automatically populated with all the materials in that survey. You should remove any materials that don't have matching answers, and then you will be walked through how to add the questionnaire responses and the documentation. Follow the instructions in this article:

Getting Help

If you have questions about using 3E Exchange or the material covered in this help article, reach out in chat in the bottom right-hand corner or email support@3eco.com.

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