Your Trading Partners are a refined list of companies for which you have a professional interaction with. This could be:
A buyer organisation that you supply goods and/or services to
A peer organisation that you often collaborate with on projects
A supplier organisation that supplies goods and/or services to yourself
To access Trading Partners, from any page, select 'Trading Partners' in the top navigation menu. You will need to be logged in to see this option.
Searching
In the main selection box, you can search for the following options:
Classifications - these are broad groups that help differentiate companies on the type of company that they are. Examples include contractors, consultants and manufacturers
Categories - these are groups that help differentiate companies on the type of work that the company does. Examples include electrical, mechanical and plumbing
Company Name
"Wildcard Search" - there are certain areas within the company profile where companies can give more detailed descriptions about themselves. The wildcard search will pick up any particular keywords that are within the profile.
The next box can help refine your results to a particular region. This can be by:
Address (e.g. Buckingham Palace, London, United Kingdom)
Zip/Post Code (e.g. SW1A 1AA), or
Current Location
Once a location search has been applied, the default radius is 100 miles (160 kilometres). Using the scrub bar provided on the location search menu, this can be reduced down to 10 miles (16 kilometres) or increased to search across the entire nation.
To clear any search options that are applied, under the search box are pills of all current applied searches. Within the right of the pill is a cross (X) within a circle; selecting this icon will remove that search
To clear any location options that are applied, within the location search menu, press 'Clear' that is visible in the top-right corner.
Filtering & Sorting
Within the filters menu is a list of status for which another company can have a relationship with you. Most of the status are used when either prequalifying to working with a buyer or when asking your supply chain to prequalify to work with you.
More details on prequalification is covered in invitation to prequalify and request to prequalify. The options are:
Status | Meaning for Buyer | Meaning for Supplier |
Invited | You have invited this company to prequalify in order to become a part of your supply-chain | You have been invited by this company to prequalify in order to become a part of their supply-chain |
Pending | Your invitation to prequalify has been accepted OR you have accepted a request to prequalify and the company is completing the prequalification questionnaire | You have accepted the invitation to prequalify or your request to prequalify has been accepted and you are now able to complete the company's prequalification questionnaire |
Qualified | Either:
| Either:
|
Rejected | The company completed the prequalification questionnaire which has been rejected | You completed the prequalification questionnaire for this company which has been rejected |
Requested | This company has requested to prequalify in order to become a part of your supply-chain | You have requested to this company to prequalify in order to become a part of their supply-chain |
Revise & Resubmit | The company completed the prequalification questionnaire which has been returned to make amendments and resubmit | You completed the prequalification questionnaire for this company which has been returned to you to make amendments and resubmit |
Under Review | You are currently reviewing this company's prequalification submission | You completed the prequalification questionnaire for this company which is being reviewed by them |
For sort options, at the top of the listing view, there is the option to sort the companies returned by the search, location and filter options alphabetically in both ascending and descending order.
Listing
Whether search or filters have been applied, the returned companies will show in a listing below the above options.
The following information is provided per company:
Company Logo
Classification
Categories (Companies can have up to 5 categories assigned)
Company Name
'DUNS Number' (This is a unique, 9 digit reference number produced by Dun & Bradstreet used for business identification)
Primary Address
Primary Contact Number
Primary Email Address
A selection of 'pills' to identify if a company has provided evidence of specific accreditations, insurances, or compliance information
Some/all options to:
View Profile - View that company's profile
Invite - Invite that company to prequalify
Request - Request to that company to be able to prequalify
Connect - Make a direct connection with a company without prequalification
From here, when you find the specific company that you are looking for, you can click into that company by clicking the 'Company Name' or 'View Profile' button to view their company profile.
Adding a Trading Partner
To add a company as a Trading Partner:
Click on 'Directory Search' in the top navigation menu
Locate the company that to be removed via searching, filtering, or just scrolling through the list - more information on using the company directory can be found here
When the company has been has been found, click:
'Connect' - this will directly add the company to your Trading Partner's list without prequalification. This is useful for companies that are peers that you collaborate on projects will, or for members of your supply-chain that do not require prequalification, such as statutory authorities.
'Invite' [Buyer Only] - this will invite the company to prequalify in order to become a Trading Partner. The Primary Contact for that company will receive an email notification for the invitation that they can accept or decline. More information on invitations to prequalify are covered here.
'Request' [Supplier Only] - this will make a request to the company that you wish to prequalify and become a Trading Partner. The Primary Contact for that company will receive an email notification for the request that they can accept of decline. More information on the requests to prequalify are covered here.
When connecting with a Trading Partner, or once prequalification has been completed, the company will show within the Trading Partner's listing with a light-blue ribbon against it, signifying that this company is a full connection and not currently undertaking prequalification
Removing a Trading Partner
Given the correct privilege, it is possible to remove a Trading Partner from this listing at any point. To do so:
Click on 'Trading Partners' in the top navigation menu
Locate the company that to be removed via searching, filtering, or just scrolling through the list
When the company has been found, click 'Remove'
A confirmatory prompt will appear. On this prompt, click 'Remove'
Please note, this action cannot be directly undone. However, you can re-connect with a Trading Partner by either Connecting (does not require prequalification), as described above , or by Requesting Prequalification (does require prequalification).
You can also remove a Trading Partner from directly in their company profile. When in the company profile, the same 'Remove' icon will be visible next to the name of the company in the header. Clicking 'Remove' will produce the same confirmatory prompt to delete.
Next Article: Invitation to Prequalify [Buyer]