Coupa Sourcing Optimization for Suppliers

Learn how to log in and participate in a Coupa Sourcing Optimization (CSO) sourcing event.
If you have any questions, contact the event team using the email link at the bottom of the left sidebar, or use the Write a message option.

Log in to the CSO for the first time

To log in to the CSO site for the first time, follow the steps below:

1. Go to your email inbox and open the event invitation email. Invitations are custom to the Sourcing Event, but in general a buyer may choose to include the following information:
   1. The CSO site URL.
   2. Your username: a combination of letters in lower case and upper case, alternatively at login you may enter the email to which the invitation was sent to as the username.
   3. A one-time password (OTP): a combination of letters and numbers only valid for 7 days.
   4. A Login With Ticket link.
2. Log in to the CSO site using any of the following options:
   1. Go to the CSO site and login using your email address or the username, and the one-time-password from the email.
   2. Select the Login With Ticket link in the email. The CSO login page opens and automatically fills your login information.
3. Select Login.
4. Create a new password.
5. Update your name, last name, and country/region.
6. Select the checkbox to accept the Privacy Policy.
7. Select Continue. You are redirected to the CSO home page.

Regular login to the CSO

To log in to the CSO site, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the CSO site indicated in your invitation email.
2. Enter your username or email and your password.
3. Select Login. You are redirected to the CSO home page.

Recover your password

If you forgot your password, follow the steps below to log in:

1. Go to the CSO site indicated in your invitation email.
2. Select Forgot password?
3. Enter your username or email address.
4. If applicable, select the checkbox I’m not a robot to complete the reCAPTCHA and select Submit.
5. Open the Reset Password Instructions email from your inbox. The email contains a new OTP to login.
6. Go to the CSO site and login with your username and the OTP.
7. Create a new password.
8. You are redirected to the CSO Home page.

The interface of sourcing events

The modern supplier interface is the default for all suppliers participating in CSO events. However, suppliers can temporarily switch back to the previous interface. This interface update does not affect any submitted supplier responses. All data from in-progress and historical events remains fully accessible.

What you see when they participate in a sourcing event

Suppliers access the new interface by default when they join an event, and they have the option to switch back to the previous interface.

Welcome to the CSO Home page, in this page you can see the Events table with the list of events you've been invited to along with related information.

Filter events

To find a specific event, filter the Events table. The following table describes the available filters.

Review notifications

From the CSO Home page, select the Bell icon to review your notifications.

Access user and company information

From the CSO Home page, select the user icon to access:

• User profile.
• Company profile.

Before participating in an event

Before you can participate in an event, you may need to accept documents, or you may choose to decline participation.

Accept document requirements

For some events, you may be required to download, read, and accept terms and conditions and informational documents before participating in the event.

To accept terms and conditions, do the following:

1. From the Events table, select the event name.
2. Select the link for each document to download it. The status changes to Downloaded.
3. Select the Do you accept our terms and conditions today checkbox.
4. Select Confirm and continue. A list of informational documents appears.

To accept informational documents, do the following:

1. Select the link for each document to download it. The status changes to Downloaded.
2. Select the download document text checkbox.
3. Select Confirm and participate. The event overview page appears.

Decline participation

Prior to access the event, you can decline your participation:

• Before accepting terms and conditions documents.
• Before accepting informational documents.

To decline your participation in the event, do the following:

1. Select Decline participation.
2. Enter the reason why you are declining.
3. Select Decline.

Event home page

When you select an event from the CSO home page, the event home page appears with the following information:

• A left sidebar with the following information:
  • The name of the next event phase and the time remaining before the next event phase begins.
  • The name of the current event phase.
  • The email to contact the event team.
• A top bar with the different tabs of the event. The tasks tab is the default tab.

On the event home page, you can do the following:

• Focus on the list of tasks.
• Go to the different tabs inside the event.

Go back to the home page or the event home page with the breadcrumbs at the top.

Navigate within an event

Use the breadcrumbs at the top of the page to navigate to previous pages or back to your Home page.

Event tabs

According to the event configuration, you may see the following tabs inside an event:

Communicate with the event team

Use the Messages dialog to communicate directly with the event team. The system creates a dedicated online thread for each conversation and delivers all messages by email to ensure you receive all notifications.

Send a message

To send a message to the customer team, do the following:

1. In the event, select Write a message in the up right corner. The Messages dialog opens.
2. To reply to an existing message, select the conversation thread from the list.
3. To start a new conversation, select Write a new message.
4. Enter your message.
5. (Optional) To add a file, drag the file into the attachment area or select click to browse.
6. Select Reply to send your message in an existing thread or Submit to send a new message.

Complete event tasks

In the Tasks tab, do the following:

• See the list of remaining and fulfilled tasks.
• Answer questions online or through Excel.
• Answer questionnaires online or through Excel.
• Place bids online or through Excel.
• See the task history.
• Skip optional tasks.

Answer questions

To answer questions online from the Tasks tab, do the following:

1. Expand the questions task and select Answer questions online.
2. Enter your responses in the designated fields.
3. Select Submit. A Submitting answers window appears.
4. Wait until the submission succeeds and close the Submission succeeded window.

Go back to the Tasks tab. The task status updates to Fulfilled.

Answer questionnaires

To answer questionnaires online from the Tasks tab, do the following:

1. Expand the questionnaire task and select Answer questionnaire online.
2. Select Edit and enter your responses in the designated fields.
3. Select Submit. A Submitting answers window appears.
4. Wait until the submission succeeds and close the Submission succeeded window.
5. Go back to the Tasks tab. The task status updates to Fulfilled.

According to the event settings, you may have the option to answer questionnaires through Excel. To answer questionnaires through Excel, do the following:

1. Expand the questionnaire task and select Answer questionnaire using Excel upload. The page to answer using Excel upload opens.
2. Select Download questionnaire form.
3. Save the file to your computer.
4. Open the Excel file and enter your responses in all required fields.
5. Save your changes.
6. Return to the CSO task and select Upload your questionnaire replies.
7. Select the completed Excel file and select Upload.
8. Review errors in the Task History.
9. If successful, the task status updates to Fulfilled.

Place bids

Before you place your bids, review the bidding rules at the top-right of the bidding table.

You can place bids online or by uploading an Excel file.

To review the bidding information before submitting bids, do the following:

1. Expand the Place Bid task and select Place bids online. The bidding page appears.
2. Select the item type you want to bid on. The different item types have different bidding pages and are listed on the left side bar.
3. Review the bidding rules information located at the top-right side of the bidding table.
4. Review the fields, some of them may be mandatory.
5. Filter the fields according to your needs.

To place bids online, do the following:

1. Select the item type you want to bid on.
2. Enter your bid information in the designated fields. Fields can have:
   1. Multiple choice: dropdown options to choose from.
   2. Numeric: textbox to enter a numeric value.
   3. Percentage: textbox to enter a percentage.
3. Review lines with the Invalid status. When you are filling your bid information, the system flags invalid entries. See the validation rules when selecting the invalid field.

1. Review your bids. Lines have the Not Submitted status after editing a new or a previously submitted bid.
2. Select Review and Submit. A Review bids window opens with valid bids selected for submission and the remaining invalid bids highlighted and deselected.
3. Before submitting, you can:
   1. Reset all invalid bids.
   2. Reset some selected bids.
   3. Submit only valid bids.
4. Select checkboxes next to valid lines and select Submit Selected. A Submitting bids window appears.
5. Wait until the submission succeeds and close the Submission succeeded window.
6. The status of submitted lines updates to Standing.
7. Optional: select Reset All to reset the modified lines in the Not Submitted status.
8. Go back to the Tasks tab. The task status updates to Fulfilled.

According to the event settings, you may have the option to place bids through Excel. To place bids through Excel, do the following:

1. Expand the Place Bid task and select Place bids using Excel upload. The page to submit bids using Excel opens.
2. Select Download bid form.
3. Save the file to your computer.
4. Open the downloaded Excel file and complete all required fields. The Excel file may contain validations.
5. Save your changes.
6. Back in the CSO task, select Upload your bids. An Upload bids window appears.
7. Drag the Excel file to the area or browse the document from your files.
8. Select Upload.
9. Review errors in the Task History.
10. If successful, the task status updates to Fulfilled.

Participate in a clock auction

Clock auctions are fast-paced events where you accept prices as they change. A timer indicates when the next price adjustment occurs. 

To accept a price in a clock auction, do the following:

1. Monitor the Time to Next Price Change timer to track when the next price adjustment occurs.
2. Select the checkbox for that item line. Your acceptance is submitted immediately without a confirmation step.

Upload documents for a task

For any task that requires you to upload documents, you can add, view, and delete multiple files.

To upload documents for a task, do the following:

1. Expand the document upload task.
2. Select Upload documents.
3. Drag your files to the upload area or browse to select them. You can add up to 15 attachments for each task.
4. (Optional) To remove an attachment before the task closes, select the delete icon next to the file name.

Skip optional tasks

To skip optional tasks from the Tasks tab, do the following:

1. Expand the task. If a task is optional, the Skip Task button appears at the bottom.
2. Select Skip Task. The task status updates to Skipped.
3. Optional: Select Unskip Task to revert this action.

View activity history

To view a history of your task actions and submissions, including errors, do the following:

1. Expand a task.
2. Select Activity History. An Activity History window opens.
3. Review the activity history, each activity has:
   1. Timestamp
   2. Result
   3. Activity performed or Document uploaded
   4. User
4. Select Close.

Download event documents

In the Documents tab you can see a table with all the documents uploaded by the event team.

The Documents table has the following information in columns:

• Document Name
• Category: If the document is an agreement or is an informative document.
• User Action: If you have read and accepted the information in the document.
• Last User Action Time: The timestamp when you accepted the document.
• File Type
• Size

To download documents, you have the following options:

• Download all: Select Download All at the top of the table.
• Download selected: Select the checkboxes next to the documents you want to download and select Download Selected.
• Download one: Select the name of the document you want to download.

View invited colleagues

In the Invited Colleagues tab, you can see a table with all of your colleagues that were invited to the same event.

The Invited Colleagues table has the following information in columns:

• Name
• Email Address
• State
• Phone
• Mobile

Manage your documents

In the My Documents tab you can see a table with all the documents uploaded by you or by a colleague. You can upload any documents that you might want to use later to answer questions.

The My Documents table has the following information in columns:

• Document Name
• Size
• Last Modified: The timestamp when the document was modified.
• Modified By: The name of the last person who modified the document.
• File Type
• Description
• Actions: Edit or delete the document.

To upload a document, do the following:

1. Select Upload at the top of the table. An Upload Document window appears.
2. Drag the document or browse the document from your files to the area.
3. Write a description of the document, this is optional.
4. Select Upload. The document appears in the My Documents table.

To edit the document’s description, do the following:

1. Select Edit in the Actions column. An Edit Description window appears.
2. Write the description in the text box.
3. Select Submit. The document’s description appears in the Description column.

To delete a document, do the following:

1. Select Delete in the Actions column. A Delete Document window with a confirming message appears.
2. Select Yes. The document disappears from the My Documents table.

View your bid history

In the Bid History tab, you can see a table with the bids you have submitted in the event. The Bid History is displayed according to the item type selected. Change the item type from the dropdown at the top-right of the Bid History table.

The Bid History table has the following information in columns:

• Status
• Item Name
• Submitted on
• As many columns as the bid configuration requires.

View Frequently Asked Questions

In the FAQ tab, you can do the following:

• See the FAQs list with the corresponding answer from the customer.
• Sort the list of questions from last updated questions or from oldest to newest.
• Search specific questions or key words in the FAQs.
• Download the FAQs.

To contact event support from the FAQ tab, do the following:

1. Select the event support email address placed at:
   1. The bottom of the FAQs list.
   2. The bottom of the left sidebar.
      
      Your default email service application opens a draft email with the event support email address automatically selected.
2. Describe your question in the email editor.
3. Send the email to the event support team.

Decline participation

In the My Documents tab you can see a text box to provide a reason to decline participation along with the Decline button.

To decline your participation in the event, do the following:

1. Enter the reason why you are declining in the textbox.
2. Select Decline.