Supply Portal instructions

Please select the ‘Register’ option to begin your portal registration.

Enter the information requested (email address, organisation name, etc.) and click the 'Register' button.

After clicking the register button, you will receive the following message:

Once Proactis have approved your supplier account, you will receive an e-mail containing this message:

"Your recent request to join the Proactis Supplier Network has been approved. Please use the activation link below to navigate to the Supplier Network website, where you will be asked to complete the registration process."

Select the activation link at the bottom of the e-mail ‘Click here to activate your account’. You will then need to accept the Proactis terms and conditions and set-up your account password.

Sign into the portal using your login details. If you do not have an existing login, you can create one by clicking ‘Register’ (if you require more guidance on registering for an account, please follow the registration guide).

Click on the ‘Opportunities’ tile to view all available opportunities.

Use the search bar to search for the relevant opportunity, e.g. opportunity title, reference number, or simply Southampton City Council to see our open opportunities.

The closing date and time of a tender can be found under the corresponding columns on the right-hand side. To view more details about an opportunity, click the orange arrow in the ‘Show Me’ column.

After clicking the orange arrow icon to expand the opportunity details, if you would like to proceed further with a response to the tender, click the blue ‘Register Interest’ button.

Your interest will be registered with immediate effect and at this time all the relevant documentation and full opportunity details will be made available to you.

All documentation can be found in the ‘Request Documents’ section, and a summary of the opportunity details can be found under the ‘Request Overview’ section.

Request documents can be viewed at any time whilst the tender is open. Once the tender has closed you will be unable to view the documentation.

Sign into the portal using your login details. If you do not have an existing login, you can create one by selecting ‘Register’ (if you require more guidance on registering for an account, please follow the registration guide).

Select the ‘Notifications’ tile to view your messages.

Find the relevant notification and click the orange arrow.

You will then be directed to the tender opportunity. For further information on how to submit a tender or clarification message, please refer to the relevant sections within this guidance.

If you wish to submit a response to a tender after registering your interest, please complete any requested information in the ‘General’ and ‘Questions’ tab. You may upload any supporting or requested documentation to the ‘Attachments’ tab.

To save a draft of your submission, click the ‘Save Draft’ button at the top of the screen. This will enable you to come back to your response later without losing the information you have already input.

If you click the ‘Submit’ button without having completed the mandatory question or item pricing, you will receive an error message. You can use the ‘Validate’ button to run a check that all mandatory questions and item pricings in the ‘Lots’ and ‘Questions’ tabs have been answered. Clicking the ‘Validate’ button will not submit your response, instead the validity of your response will be checked.

If any mandatory questions have been unanswered, a red exclamation point will be displayed on the ‘Questions’ tab button.

When you are ready to submit your response, click the ‘Submit’ button at the top of the screen.

You will then receive a notification pop up in the top right of your screen confirming the response has been submitted.

To participate in the e-auction please review the instructions within the Invitation To Tender (ITT) and submit opening pricing. You may be required to provide quality question responses before the e-auction. This can be done by inputting pricing information in the 'Lots' tab and quality/method statement responses in the 'Questions' tabs.

To save a draft of your submission, select the 'Save Draft' button at the top of the screen. This will enable you to come back to your response later without losing the information you have already input.

If you click the 'Submit' button without having completed the mandatory question or item pricing, you will receive an error message. You can use the 'Validate' button to run a check that all mandatory questions and item pricings in the 'Lots' and 'Questions' tabs have been answered. Selecting the 'Validate' button will not submit your response, instead the validity of your response will be checked.

If any mandatory questions have been unanswered, a red exclamation point will be displayed on the 'Questions' tab button.

If any item pricing is missing, a red exclamation point will be displayed on the 'Lots' tab button.

There is an option to ‘opt-out’ of a Lot by de-selecting the ‘opt-in’ button to the right.

Use this option if you do not want to submit pricing or take part in the auction for a specific Lot.

When you are ready to submit your response, select the 'Submit' button at the top of the screen.

You will then receive a notification pop up in the top right of your screen confirming the response has been submitted.

When the e-auction begins click on the 'Auction' button.

Or click on the ‘auctions’ button in your homepage dashboard.

E-Auction bids are submitted per Lot. To submit a bid, change your unit prices and click the 'Submit Bid' button underneath the Lot.

If the e-auction includes a minimum bid decrement (where the council requires the next bid to be lower than the previous bid by a fixed amount) it will be displayed on the bottom left hand side.

If you wish to provide an item for free use the 'Free Issue' button.

See time left on the e-auction and your current rank compared to other suppliers in the top right, 1 being the supplier with the lowest current bid. The amount of time left in the auction may be extended if a supplier submits a bid. Details of these extensions can be found in the ITT.

The 'Messages' button can be used to contact the council during the e-auction.

Once the e-auction has finished it will be shown as complete.

Following the end of the e-auction the council will be in touch to provide information about the outcome of the e-auction.

To submit a clarification message relating to the tender opportunity, open the relevant tender opportunity. Then click ‘Messages’. Enter your message using the subject and text box, and then click ‘Send’. You can also add attachments by clicking ‘Attach Files’.

PLEASE NOTE: this is the only way to contact the relevant buyer. There is a clarification period deadline when buyers can answer all questions, this will be clearly stated within the tender document, please make note of the date as officers are unable to clarify questions after the deadline.

When a message is sent out from Southampton City Council to suppliers regarding a tender, you will receive a notification from Proactis informing you of this. Notifications can be found at any time by going to the home page and clicking on the ‘Notifications’ tile.

To view a notification, click on the orange arrow on the right-hand side under the ‘Show Me’ column. Then click ‘View’.

You will then be taken to the messages screen and shown the correspondence. You can also view all tender related messages here.

To submit a clarification message for your active contracts, go to the home page and click on the ‘Contracts’ tile.

You will then see a list of all your active contracts. To view more information about a contract, click on the orange arrow in the ‘Show Me’ column.

You will then be able to see information such as the start & end dates, and related documents. These can be downloaded by clicking on the file icon. To submit a message, click on ‘New Message’.

Complete the subject, text, and upload any supporting documentation by using the ‘Attach Files’ button. Press ‘Send’ when you are ready to submit your query.

When a message is sent to you from Southampton City Council, you will receive a notification from Proactis informing you of this. Notifications can be found at any time by going to the home page and clicking on the ‘Notifications’ tile.

To view a notification, click on the orange arrow on the right-hand side under the ‘Show Me’ column. Then click ‘View’.

You will then be taken to the messages screen and shown the correspondence.

If you have any problems with the system and need to contact Proactis Supplier Support, follow these instructions:

• Visit the Supplier Support helpdesk
• Click 'Raise a case'
• You will be presented with a dropdown menu with the Buying Organisations within the Proactis Portal. Please select Southampton City Council.
• Please note you do not need to log in. Click 'Next' and it will then direct you to the ticket logging screen.
• Fill out the ticket with as much information as possible, including your account username, organisation ID and email address. If you do not know your organisation ID, it can be found by logging into your supplier portal account and going to ‘Your Business’. Your ID will then be displayed in the top left hand corner.
• Click the 'Send' button to submit your ticket to the Proactis Support Team

Sign into the portal using your login details. If you do not have an existing login, you can create one by clicking ‘Register’ (if you require more guidance on registering for an account, please follow the registration guide).

Click your business name in the top right to open the drop-down menu.

Click on ‘Your Business’.

Use the tabs along the top to review your current account information.

Click into the text box of what you want to amend and type in the updated information. Then click the ‘Save’ button.

To view all changes made to your account, click on the ‘Change History’ tab. Changes made to your account will be displayed with the date and the user who made the change. To see more information, click on the orange arrow under the ‘Show Me’ column.

Go to your account information (see the How to update your Proactis account information guide). 

To manage the list of users who can access the account, go to the ‘Users’ tab. You will then be able to see a list of all current users on the account and their access levels.

Edit an existing user

To amend a current users access, click on the orange action button in the right-most column.

You will then be presented with the following user details that can be amended as necessary.

If you wish to amend the type of contact, click the ‘Contact Type’ tab and amend as necessary.

PLEASE NOTE: Your organisation must have at least one contact for each category.

Click ‘OK’ when you’ve completed your amendments and your changes will be saved.

Add a new user

To add a new user, go to the ‘Users’ tab and click the ‘Add User’ button.

Then add in the requested contact information on the user details tab. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Then click the ‘Contact Type’ tab to set up and confirm what kind of user they will be. Click ‘OK’ when you have completed the information and the new user will appear in the user list.

To change your password, open the drop-down menu by clicking on your organisation name. Then click ‘Change Password’.

Enter your current password, new password, and new password confirmation. Click ‘OK’ to save.