Substituting a product in an RFQ response (Business Edition)

You can substitute a product in your RFQ response. This is especially useful for a made to order item. The buyer may include a made to order item in the RFQ; the seller then reviews the RFQ, and substitutes the one the buyer had for the one the seller has in the catalog. This can only happen if the buyer has stated that the product can be substituted.  To see this, go to the RFQ Summary page, and click category. In the RFQ product category page, it will indicate if the product can be substituted.

If the item does not exist in the current catalog, the seller has to create the item through the Product Management Tool first.

To make a product substitution:

  1. Open the WebSphere Commerce Accelerator.
  2. From the Sales menu, click RFQs. A list of RFQ requests displays. If you do not see this menu, then your logon ID does not have the appropriate authority to perform this task. Contact your Site Administrator.
  3. Find the RFQ you want to create a response to on the RFQ Request list page. Select the check box for that request and click New.  Note: If this response already exists in draft, from the RFQ Request list page, select the RFQ response you want, and select Change. (This is part of the Modifying an RFQ response process.) Navigate to the Products page and then select the product. Select Change. The Respond page displays. Select Substitute Product. The SKU Search page displays. Skip to step 16 in this process.
  4. The General form displays. Or, to determine if any previous responses to this request exist before creating a new one, click Responses. The RFQ Response page displays any existing responses for the selected request. Click New to create a new response. The General form displays.
  5. Type the name for the response into the Name field. In order to avoid the possibility of duplicating an existing response name and the associated error message, your response name must be unique within the e-commerce site. For example, you could use a combination of unique personal information, date, time and sequence number when creating the name.
  6. Type any remarks you wish to make into the Remarks text box.
  7. Select the fulfillment center to be used from the list.
  8. Determine if all products must be accepted when the response is accepted by selecting yes or no.
  9. Click Next. The Attachments page displays. After making any necessary responses to the attachments, click Next. The Terms and Conditions page displays.
  10. After making any necessary responses to the terms and conditions, click Next. The Products page displays.
  11. Select the product. Select Respond. The Respond page displays.
  12. Select Substitute Product. The SKU Search page displays.
  13. Search the catalog to determine if the product exists by typing any search information you have (such as code, name, category) and clicking Find.
  14. The catalog SKU search results in a product list. The Product List page displays.
  15. Select the product you would like to use as a substitute, and select Substitute Product. (If you did not find the product you wanted, click Find to return to the SKU search page.) The Respond page displays, with the original request information listed first, followed by the substituted product information.
  16. Click OK if you are satisfied with your substitution, or click Substitute Product to return to the SKU Search page. If you clicked OK, the Product page displays again. Click OK.
  17. When all product related responses have been made, click Finish to transmit your response to the buyer. It will be submitted directly to the buyer if approval has not been enabled. If approval has been enabled, the response will be submitted to the approver for review.
  18. View the RFQ Response Summary page to confirm that the product has been substituted.