Drafting a Vendor Questionnaire

Provide Instructions, Specify Answer Requirements, and Preview the Vendor Experience for each question type.

This article discusses the use of Vendor Questionnaires in procurement projects. It explains different question types that can be used to design an intuitive vendor response experience similar to answering a survey.

The question types include Short Answer, Long Answer, Yes/No, Multiple Choice, Confirmation, File Upload, Downloadable Documents, Data Verification, Notarize Documents, DocuSign PowerForm, Surety2000 Bid Bond Verification, and Section Header.

Question Type

Your template will typically start with a standard set of boilerplate questions. From there, these are your options for adding a new question:

• Short Answer: Use this when the answer to the question is one sentence or less.
• Long Answer: When you expect 3-4 paragraphs from the vendor response, choose this option.
• Yes/No: This can be a very powerful choice. When you need a vendor to confirm their understanding of anything, choose this option. When you need to classify vendors, choose this option as well!
• Multiple Choice: When you want the vendor to choose from a list of pre-defined options.
• Confirmation: For items that need to be agreed upon or acknowledged by the vendor.
• File Upload: For items like Executive Summaries, Marketing Materials, Presentations, Certification Letters... anything that requires the vendor to upload a PDF, choose this option. This option will be a common choice for standard vendor responses. We prevent suppliers and customers from uploading zip files, executable files or other potentially malicious file types.
• Downloadable Documents: Upload document(s) that the vendor will download, complete and upload as part of their response.
• Data Verification: Use this option when you want the vendors response to be quickly verified through another website.
• Notarize Documents: Use this option when you have documents that you need the vendor to notarize. The vendor will have the option of using our partnership with NotaryLive to complete the documents online or they can download and notarize them manually.
• DocuSign PowerForm: If you have a DocuSign account, you can link vendors to fill out a DocuSign PowerForm.
• Surety2000 Bid Bond Verification: Require an electronic, verified bid bond ID using Surety2000.
• Section Header: Use this to categorize the questions (i.e Company Background Questions, Project Delivery Questions, Vendor Certification Questions, etc.)

For each Question Type, you'll have the option to:

1. Ask the Question
2. Provide detailed instructions in the "Prompt" box
3. Determine whether an answer is required or optional
4. See a preview of the vendor experience.

Conditional Vendor Questions

In some cases, a question is only relevant when the vendor responds “yes” or “no” to a qualifying question. In these cases, you can add a conditional question to the project questionnaire.

To enable this feature, a System Admin must Enable Conditional Logic for Vendor Questionnaire:

Once enabled, conditional questions can be added to the vendor questionnaire, both in the template editor and the project editor.

Please Note: Only the Yes/No question type can be used as the parent question for conditional vendor questions. The Conditional Logic Icon will only appear when the Yes/No Question Type is used.

Click the Conditional Logic button for the yes/no question that should trigger the conditional question.

Example: When: Are you licensed to do business in Clark County, [Equals]/[Does Not Equal], [Yes]/[No]; Ask Another Question*

After creating the logic condition, click Ask Another Question. The next step will allow you to choose from the standard list of Question Types.

Select the Question Type you'd like use to collect the vendor response, then define complete the Question setup. When finished, the conditional question appears indented to indicate its relationship to the preceding question.

After the project has been reviewed and published, the public and vendors will see both questions on the Vendor Questionnaire, including labeling the associated logic for each response a vendor may choose.