The Communication options available depend on the User Roles and which items are enabled. When all are enabled the visibility will be as follows:
- Administrative/Project Manager will see Notifications, Clarifications, Authority Queries, Tasks and Messages.
- Internal Data Room Users will see Tasks and Messages.
- Suppliers will see Notifications, Clarifications and Authority Queries.
Note: There is an AWARD Communications Guide available which provides detailed information on these items and the flow of data between them. Please contact the Commerce Decisions Support Helpdesk or your Account Director if you require a copy of this.
Clarifications
Clarifications are used by Suppliers to ask questions to which the Project Manager can respond. For example, they might be queries about missing Documents, or about information in specific Documents.
You can configure Clarifications from the Supplier Settings option under Setup/Tools. The following shows the default settings; if required you can enable the use of Confidential Clarifications and Clarification Notices by checking those options.
You access Clarifications from the Project/Communication/Clarifications list:
Creating Clarifications
Clarifications can only be created by Suppliers.
The Clarification will be created with a Status of New and given a consecutive Clarification Number. Each Supplier has their own automatic numbering system, for example Supplier A will have their Clarifications numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on, and Supplier B will have their Clarifications numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. This ensures that no Supplier will know how many Clarifications have been raised by the other Suppliers. When they appear in the Project Manager’s Clarification list, all Clarifications for all Suppliers will be assigned new unique numbers (for example, CL-0001, CL- 0002 and so on) that will be seen only by the Data Room Project Users, that is, non-Supplier Users.
On creation of a Clarification, email alerts will be sent to Project Managers, Project Support and Stakeholder Users. When a Project Manager responds to a Clarification (either a comment or an answer), emails will be sent to all Supplier Users who are assigned to the same Supplier.
Users with Data Room access will not be able to see the original Clarification but they will be able to see any Tasks automatically generated from the Clarification (if they are included in the appropriate Work Group).
Auto-routing of Tasks from Clarifications
Using Clarification Categories, you can have Tasks created automatically, based on the information in a Clarification. This Task will then be sent directly to a defined User or group of Users to action. Please refer to the earlier section on Work Groups for how to configure this setup using Clarification Categories. To create a Task on creation of the Clarification, select the relevant Category: 
Responding to Clarifications
Only Administrators and Project Managers can edit and respond to Clarifications. Suppliers cannot edit their own Clarifications.
Note that where there are Tasks that are linked to Clarifications, you can respond to the Supplier’s Clarification directly from the Task once the Task has been responded to. See the section Answering a Clarification from a Task in the following Tasks section for more information.
Adding Comments
Project Managers can use the Comments field to notify the Supplier that they have received the Clarification and are working on it.
You can only add Comments when the Project is in the “Active” State.
Once a Comment is added it will automatically set the Clarification Status to “In Progress”. The Add Comment button will remain enabled until an Answer has been supplied, so up until this point you can add as many comments as required.
All Supplier Users for the Supplier, as well as Internal Stakeholders and other Project Managers, will be sent an Email Alert each time a Comment is added. Note that you can only add Comments if you haven’t already added an Answer.
Entering an Answer
Only Project Managers/Project Support can add or update Answers. Once the Answer is added, it will automatically set the Clarification Status to “Closed”.
You can only enter Answers when the Project is in the “Active” State.
Click Enter Answer to respond. The Answer can be updated as many times as required. All Supplier Users for the Supplier, as well as Internal Stakeholders and other Project Managers, will be sent an Email Alert each time an Answer is added or updated.
Once you provide an Answer you can no longer add Comments.
When you add an Answer you can also create a Notification which will be associated with this Clarification. It will go to ALL Suppliers in the Data Room and will appear in the Notices list. Once the Answer is saved, a Related Notification section will appear at the bottom of the View Clarification page. You can update the Answer as many times as needed, but only one Notification can be sent.
Editing Clarifications
You can also enter an Internal Note which will not be visible to Suppliers. Clarifications cannot be deleted.