Configuring supplier groups

In Beeline Professional, a Supplier Group is a list that can contain a single supplier or multiple suppliers who can be organized by levels of distribution. Supplier Groups can be configured based on the business requirements of a particular client.

As a Beeline Professional administrator, you can configure customized supplier groups and distribution rules. Supplier groups establish which suppliers should be invited to fill a position (job posting) and distribution rules establish when the invitation should be sent. Use tiers to define your supplier distribution structure. A tier includes a distinct list of suppliers and the distribution rule that applies to them.

To invite suppliers to a job posting immediately, you can configure one tier to use the immediate distribution option.

To invite suppliers to a job posting later, you must configure at least two tiers for a group. You must configure an immediate distribution tier and an additional tier that will release the job posting to suppliers later, after a delay relative to the immediate distribution tier. The offset distribution option allows you to delay when the job posting is released to suppliers. You can define the delay period in minutes, hours, or days.

Before you begin

  • Ensure that the suppliers which you want to add to a group have accepted a connection request.

  • You must have administrator access to the tenant site you’re setting up.

Steps

To configure a supplier group, complete these steps from any supported browser.

  1. Log in to the Professional site you’re setting up.

  2. From the left navigation, go to Settings  Sourcing and select the Supplier Groups tab.

  3. To create a supplier group, complete these tasks:

    1. From the upper right of the Supplier Groups table, select Add Supplier Group.

    2. Enter the name of the group and a description to summarize the supplier group.

    3. Optional: To organise suppliers more efficiently, add any of these criteria that apply:

      • Job Family Group

      • Location

      • Worker Classification

    4. Select Add Supplier Group.

  4. Select the group name in the Supplier Groups table to open it.

  5. To configure the first tier, complete these tasks:

    1. Select Add Supplier Tier.

    2. To add suppliers to a group, start typing the name of the supplier in Search and then select the supplier you want to add from the list that displays. You can add multiple suppliers to this tier.

    3. Select Immediate Distribution to send a job posting to suppliers immediately.

    4. Select Add Supplier Tier.

  6. Optional: To configure the second tier, complete these tasks:

    1. Select Add Supplier Tier.

    2. To add suppliers to a group, start typing the name of the supplier in Search and then select the supplier you want to add from the list that displays. You can add multiple suppliers to this tier. Only add suppliers that you haven’t included in previous tiers.

    3. Select Offset Distribution and configure the delay period using minutes, hours, or days. The offset difference is derived from the immediate distribution tier.

    4. Select Add Supplier Tier.

After you configure the first tier to use immediate distribution, you can configure as many additional supplier tiers as you require. Configure the additional tiers to use the offset distribution option.

Next steps

You can invite suppliers to a job posting. For more information, see Adding a supplier group to a job posting.