Inbound RFQ Management

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Boost sales efficiency by consolidating inbound RFQ management to minimize the manual effort of sorting emails, prevent missed opportunities, and accelerate response times.

A slow or disorganized process can result in missed sales, lost revenue, and inefficient use of resources. Without centralized RFQ management and automation, teams waste time manually sorting emails, copying data into siloed systems, and chasing down missing details—leading to delays and errors that frustrate both customers and sales teams.

By centralizing the inbound RFQ workflow, automating data entry, and intelligently routing requests to the right people, Vista-Suite Enterprise ensures that every opportunity is processed quickly. This reduces turnaround time, increases the likelihood of winning business, and prevents costly compliance violations. Additionally, features like batch processing, inventory visibility, and direct research links give sales teams an edge over the competition. In an industry where response speed and reliability directly impact profitability, having a robust RFQ management system is not just beneficial—it’s essential.

Collecting Inbound RFQs

As a premium feature, traditional emails will be recognized as RFQs and staged in Vista-Suite Enterprise following the automation and hyperlinking of information, just like RFQs from other sources.

Collect RFQs from email messages, listing services like PartsBase, SkySelect, Locatory, The145, and over a dozen more, website contact form submissions, and spreadsheet files. A unified RFQ management interface is a tremendous competitive advantage because it offers focused efficiency, which increases response capacity and speed.

Automated restricted party screening for export compliance due diligence can be activated through a separate membership with Descartes Visual Compliance. Once integrated with Vista-Suite Enterprise, incoming RFQs are evaluated upon arrival and categorized as clear, hold, or restricted. Predefined filter groups for export compliance categories are available for users with the appropriate permissions to review.

Inbound RFQ Details and Workflow

All RFQs received are aligned with the same information layout, regardless of their origin. This consistency makes sorting, filtering, and searching possible, which are not available in a traditional email inbox. Visually, information is easy to locate and immediately actionable.

Routing rules are a companywide setting that determines the automatic distribution of RFQs to relevant persons and teams. The information factored into the routing includes that from the RFQ and Vista-Suite Enterprise records. The RFQ routing criteria can be used individually or combined, such as: Email Address, Email Address Domain Name, Sender Company, Country, Company Type, Listing Service Source, Sale Type RFQ, Repair Type RFQ, Part Number, NSN, AC Model, ATA Chapter, Availability of Requested Stock, Capability Type, Intensely Managed Unit, Significant End Item, Default Group, Tier.

An exclusive view for every user, My RFQs displays the RFQs assigned to the user manually, by others, or automatically through RFQ routing rules. The advantage of My RFQs over a traditional email inbox is that My RFQs are not duplicates of the original but rather a single RFQ with different viewing permissions, like how cloud file storage works. My RFQs can be reassigned to other users or become unassigned and available for others to use.

A unique filter group is available to view all other emails that are less likely to be RFQs. This crucial feature provides a dedicated RFQ workspace while keeping you connected to different emails. Forward or reply to other emails without leaving the Vista-Suite Enterprise interface.

Contained within a default filter group called Alerts Only, every RFQ that triggers on user-defined alert criteria will have a color overlay of the user’s choosing. Three alerts, each having a mix of triggers, are specific to the individual. User-level RFQ alerts ensure that individuals notice RFQs of personal interest without affecting others' RFQ visibility

For as many details that are provided in the original RFQ, the information will also be parsed and presented in Vista-Suite Enterprise. The potential elements include RFQ source, type (i.e., sale/repair), number of items, RFQ reference number, priority (i.e., AOG/Routine), email date, when to quote by, company name, contact name, contact email, status (i.e., quoted/blocked), email subject, country, part number, description, alternate number, national stock number, national stock number description, quantity, unit of measure, condition code, and customer notes.

The original RFQ message is readily available for viewing and interacting with (e.g., replying, forwarding). When clicked, a link to the original message will reveal a new window atop the user’s workspace. Preview, reply, forward, and access digital files for attachment. The same capability is also available when forming a quote to ensure constant access to potentially vital information throughout the process.

RFQs with the same sender email address can be selected and bundled in a single quote response. Consolidating RFQs saves time by reducing the redundancy of replying to every request separately.

A wealth of information can be gleaned from RFQs that are not quoted, but too often, no-quotes are not consistently retained because of the effort required. But now, no-quoting is made easy, and no manual data entry is required. Batch-selecting multiple RFQs and choosing to no-quote simultaneously achieves consistency and data retention for more accurate data analysis. Upon choosing to no-quote a customer, an option will appear to confirm whether the customer should receive a no-quote message.

System Navigation and Research

The ability to rearrange and hide columns makes the RFQ information table fully customizable. Each user can adjust the workspace to their preferences for optimal productivity. This same feature is utilized across the system wherever data tables are present.

Find specific RFQs through additional filtering options, individually or combined: RFQ number, email date, company country, company name, email address domain, marketplace source, part number, sale or repair request, stock availability to meet the request, etc.

Visual cues like a company logo are undoubtedly faster to recognize than reading plain text. That is why RFQs in Vista-Suite Enterprise are represented by a logo-inspired icon of the source or marketplace. The icon also hyperlinks to the marketplace’s RFQ portal, if applicable.

Every RFQ indicates inventory availability, showing whether the requested part number or alternate part number is in stock. To support various sales strategies, the criteria for displaying availability can be permanently configured to include allocations (on-hand but unavailable).

After an RFQ is staged in Vista-Suite Enterprise, the parsed company and part numbers immediately become hyperlinks to their corresponding historical records for immediate accessibility.

When the RFQ’s contact person has an email address that contains the company’s website (e.g., name@company.com), Vista-Suite Enterprise repurposes the website address and presents it as a shortcut to the customer’s website. Considering all the clicks and copy/paste motions in most RFQ workflows, Vista-Suite Enterprise provides immediate ROI in many areas, especially by eliminating redundant motions.

The company name in an RFQ is repurposed and presented as a shortcut for launching a Google search for the customer’s company, eliminating redundant motions, and achieving immediate workflow process improvement.

Rather than searching for part numbers online through multiple tabs and copying/pasting, Vista-Suite Enterprise includes bespoke research hyperlinks. For example, a customized list of hyperlinks can be created that launch a prefilled part number search on the website of your choice. The custom list of part number researching websites is available within every RFQ and the quote creation area, ensuring an incredibly cohesive workflow.

Focus on specific stages of the RFQ process through predefined filter categories such as Unassigned RFQs, Ignored/Blocked, and Quoted/Worked. While finer levels of filtering and sorting are available, the convenient filter groups provide a unique alternative to traditional menu systems.

To maintain an organized workspace, RFQs will be hidden from view automatically based on a company-wide time parameter. For example, if RFQs older than seven days are of no interest, the RFQ expiration parameter should be set to seven days. This guarantees an uncluttered list of only the best opportunities. The expired RFQs are not deleted; they are only hidden from view and can become visible again by selecting a conveniently located checkbox.

Collaboration and Access Control

Create custom security profiles from a comprehensive list of detailed features and functions. For instance, limit the ability to add and edit RFQ assignment routing rules by establishing a security profile lower than the admin but higher than the typical user. Another example is restricted party screening, where only the individual responsible for the export compliance process can modify that part of company records. Security profiles are a powerful tool for managing access throughout the RFQ and quoting workflow, from controlling access to a single data field to the RFQ application area entirely.

Individuals can work on behalf of co-workers by selecting the co-workers with whom they will share their workspace. Going beyond simple workspace viewing, individuals can work as the selected co-worker by sending quotes under the co-worker’s profile—all without sharing login information.

This is for when an RFQ needs to be sent internally for immediate visibility and action toward the seamless creation of a quote. Imagine fielding a phone call while composing the RFQ for internal distribution to relevant people and teams or for automation to trigger the next step.