Staff Spotlight: Cecile van Deventer

CvD STAFF SPOTLIGHT - doc

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About Cecile Van Deventer

I joined the L2Q Team in 2006, as a L2Q Support Assistant and have been the HOD since 2010. I supervise L2Q Bills, Daily Tender Bills, Control Lists and Directory.

How To: Trade Mapping

For our L2Q Buyers: Learn how to add and/or remove Trade Mapping

(Duration 1m 24s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
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About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Advanced Search for L2Q Buyers

For our L2Q Buyers – use the Advanced Search with keywords, page numbers and/or payment reference to select specific items to send RFQ’s to Vendors.
Learn about some L2Q basic functionality with a quick video tutorial from “The How-To Series”.

(Duration 1m 39s)


To view more from our How To Series, please visit Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view our Wiki Help with screenshots and video tutorials, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

How To: Add a Preferred Vendor

Are you a buyer using our Leads 2 Quotes (L2Q) system? Do you want to create a list of Vendors you can contact regularly or find easily? Add a Branch as a Preferred Vendor and they will also appear at the top of your search results when sending out Requests for Quotes.
Find out how – here’s a quick video tutorial from “The How To Series”.

(Duration 1m53s)


If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit Leads 2 Business Wiki.
To view more How To Video’s, please visit our Leads 2 Business Blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

Jumpstart your spread with L2Q

posted in: General 0

Jumpstart your spread with L2Q

I must be honest…when I first started working at Leads 2 Business, the department that “freaked me out” the most was by far L2Q. I knew the only way I would overcome my fear was to get myself into L2Q and learn as much as I possibly could. And here I am.

So firstly, what does L2Q stand for? Leads 2 Quotes (L2Q) is an electronic pricing platform used by buyers to send out requests for quotes to their preferred suppliers.

You have the following benefits:

  • One system – which makes it easier and more efficient for you so you don’t have to try and find vendors to provide pricing. It is all right there for you – just by a click of a button;
  • Trade Mapping – where we will code the trades according to your company’s needs;
  • L2Q has the ability to transfer a bill of quantity into various electronic formats;
  • Easy access to a database of vendors / suppliers within different regions;
  • Time saver;
  • We have a support team who will follow up on the requests for quotes and update you accordingly on their response;
  • We upload any drawings that you may have.

The L2Q process is super simple and straight forward and is as follows: Buyers / main contractors will do an L2Q Bill Request on the L2B system, which guides you through the steps such as contract number, description, respond by date, closing date, then on to the trade mapping, attaching files, etc as below:

The bill of quantities can either be attached on the request or the contractors can send it to us directly via e-mail. From there, we will convert it, make it “pretty”, code it into the correct trades and upload it onto the buyer’s L2Q Desktop, for you to begin the process of electrically requesting quotes. This process does take some time, our turn-around times are as follows: Excel bills is a minimum of 24 hours and PDF a minimum of 48 hours.

We then also have Trade Mapping available which is where we will code the trades according to your company’s needs.

You will have the option of selecting your preferred suppliers/vendors. You can earmark the businesses that have given you the best response, service and pricing. Our pricing platform will also start recognising the vendors on our system who have given you the best response to the requests for quotes. So should you not have dealt with a company before, their rating will give you a guideline on their response rate. You can then generate a Control List report which will show you the vendors you have sent to as well as your engagement with them, how they are responding to you as well as the follow ups done by our Control List team.

We understand the time constraints and therefore our directory of over 90 000 companies is expanding and updated on a daily basis which then gives you even more options to your business and ultimately more competitive pricing when submitting a tender.

The e-mails that are sent to the vendors through the L2Q system include your company branding, drawings, addendums, terms & conditions and specifications which bring clarity to the vendors when responding.

In conclusion, Leads 2 Business’ biggest and strongest point of differentiation is our Leads 2 Quotes platform – our very own. I hope that my explanation of the L2Q system has been useful as well as beneficial to you, and that those who have been a bit weary of it, will now grab it by the horns 😉

 

To view more articles, please visit the Leads 2 Business Blog.
If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit Leads 2 Business.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit the Leads 2 Business Wiki.

About Bianca Edgcumbe

I started working at Leads 2 Business in May 2013 in the Africa Tenders Department. I worked my way to the Leads 2 Quotes Department in September 2016 and have been there ever since.

Respond by Dates (RFQ’s)

Respond by Dates (RFQ’s)

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Are you familiar with these phrases?

Time is money.

No time like the present.

Take time to smell the roses.

Time will tell.

Third time’s the charm.

Time heals all wounds.

Time’s a-wasting!

 

You get the idea…

 

“Timing is everything,” A statement that is obvi to most ppl these days, but alas not everyone (SMH as I type this). We live in a fast paced world where instant messaging is not only an app but a way of life. As a Millennial myself I can attest to this. It is the norm to get a response within 5 minutes from someone and if it takes any longer something must be wrong. Possible scenarios (some involving serious injury or death) come to mind.

 

Do you know what a RBD is? It’s a crucial bit of info within a RFQ. There I go again with my acronyms… (Yes, the previous ones were intentional)

RBD is otherwise known as a Respond by Date and RFQ is also known as a Request for Quote, these terms are probably familiar to you if you subscribe to L2Q (Leads 2 Quotes) .

*For more details on how L2Q works: https://blog.l2b.co.za/l2qosis-symbiosis-through-l2q/

*For more on the in’s and out’s on RFQs: https://blog.l2b.co.za/pricing-online-rfqs/

 

Now that you are all caught up on the acronyms let’s get into why timing is so crucial to them.

When a Buyer sends out RFQ’s he specifies a date by which he requires prices back (aka the RBD). The RBD is usually prior to the Closing Date (CD) of the tender. The reason for this is because the Buyer needs to complete the Tender Document before the CD so that it can be delivered timeously to the Client to avoid being disqualified. Now I’m not going to go into depth regarding the CD as this will be covered in next week’s blog (check back same time next week if you want to know more).

Vendors are often aware of the actual Closing Date (as referred to on the tender notice) and may often advise that they will only respond closer to this date. Imagine you are a Buyer and have multiple tenders to submit, multiple prices to collate and the Vendors you have sent RFQ’s haven’t responded, you might start to stress (a lot).

In the end it’s all about communication and timing and at L2B we endeavour to facilitate this.

Here are a few tips to consider:

Buyers can take into account that Vendors require adequate time between receiving an RFQ and the RBD in order to respond positively.

Similarly Vendors need to make note of the RDB on RFQ’s and please respond to these on time.

Buyers are able to send through the relevant drawings and specs for Vendors to be able view for accurate pricing.

Vendors have the ability to register as a Vendor on L2B (this is free of charge) in order to view drawings and price online.

Buyers are encouraged to communicate with Vendors regarding receipt of their prices as well as potential use of their services.

Vendors can easily make use of the links on the RFQ to advise if they ‘intend to price’ or ‘decline’ which only takes a few seconds. This informs the Buyer accordingly which prevents unnecessary follow-ups while aiding communication.

Taking the above into account it all amounts to copious amounts of time saved and I think we can all agree that that’s one thing we can never have enough of.

Want to save time and subscribe to L2B? Comment or Contact me on SashaA@L2B.co.za

 

Sources:

http://time.com/4373616/text-abbreviations-acronyms/

http://www.bucknell.edu/communications/bucknell-magazine/instant-gratification-and-its-dark-side.html

http://socialmarketing.org/archives/generations-xy-z-and-the-others/

If you are interested in becoming one of our subscribers, please visit our website.
To view notes with screenshots on how to use our website, please visit our Wiki site.
To view more articles, please visit our blog.

About Sasha Anderson

Millennial Mom + wife living the hash-tag life. Remember: If You Fail - Fail Forward

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