This document covers the procedures for configuring Instant Estimating within the Claritum System and how to create RFx’s that automatically obtain supplier prices from the Instant Estimating system.

The Instant Estimating itself is provided by the 3rd-party system, SpeedQuote. This document assumes that the Claritum/SpeedQuote implementation has been completed and so this document covers the controls and procedures available to the Managers and Buyers on the Claritum System itself.

Obtaining Prices from Suppliers

Before the Print Buyers in your organisation can begin obtaining instant estimates from your suppliers, the following conditions must be satisfied:

• Instant Estimating suppliers must be set up and configured on the Claritum System (typically this will be done by Claritum during the Instant Estimating Setup).
• The Customer must be enabled for Instant Estimating (this must be done by a Manager/Super User).

Once suppliers have been set up on the Claritum System and configured as Instant Estimating suppliers, the Print Buyers can begin getting instant prices:

1. Select ‘New RFx’ from the side menu to begin creating a new RFx.
2. Click the ‘Create RFx’ button of the required job specification form.
3. Select the appropriate customer contact for the job.
4. Complete the specification form and click ‘Next; Delivery Details’.
   The system may take longer than usual to progress to the next page. This is because it is busy calculating your prices.
   Also, please see the note below on which specification form elements are incompatible with instant estimating and may prevent you from getting prices.
   Note: If the ‘Send RFx’ button is available on this page then the system was unable to obtain any prices.
5. Click the ‘Save’ button to proceed to the Quote Sheet.
   You should now see your suppliers’ prices in the ‘Supplier Pricing’ section.
6. Select your preferred supplier, check your markup and send the Customer Quote in the usual way.

Reasons why instant estimating might fail

Here are some of the key reasons for instant estimating to fail to obtain prices:

• No suppliers configured for instant estimating.
  You don’t have any suppliers configured for instant estimating on the Claritum System.
  See the notes above for how to do this or contact Claritum Support.
• No ‘instant estimating’ suppliers mapped to the chosen customer.
  You have instant estimating configured for appropriate suppliers but those supplier may not be assigned to the chosen customer.
• Customer is not configured for Instant Estimating.
  The customer must be enabled (see above) for Instant Estimating before prices can be obtained.
• Incompatible fields in the specification.
  Some fields in the specification are incompatible with instant estimating. If these fields are specified then the system will not be able to obtain prices and the buyer will only be able to obtain prices via RFx.
  These fields are:
• ‘Kinds’
• ‘More...’
• ‘Special Instructions’
• Incompatible options
  In addition to some fields being incompatible, some of the options within the acceptable fields may also be unrecognised.
  These are generally where a paper-weight has been specified but that paper weight has not been priced on the supplier’s setup on the SpeedQuote system itself.
  Pleas check with the supplier/SpeedQuote that the specification meets the prices available.

Configuring Instant Estimating Suppliers

Before you can obtain prices from suppliers via the Instant Estimating, the Manager must first create the supplier accounts on the Claritum System. These should match the details of the supplier accounts created on the SpeedQuote system.
A key part of this supplier’s details is the ‘Speedquote ID’ field:

This is the supplier’s account ID on the SpeedQuote system. Without this, the Claritum System will not recognise the supplier as an Instant Estimating supplier and will not automatically obtain prices from that supplier.

Configuring Instant Estimating Customers

Before prices can be obtained via Instant Estimating, the customer must be enabled for Instant Estimating.
This can be done via the customer’s details page:

Once enabled, any RFx specification created for that customer will be passed on to the Instant Estimating system for pricing.