This article shows you how to run a sourcing event in the Strategic Sourcing module across multiple rounds: stage new content for the next round, advance the round with a chosen set of suppliers, understand what suppliers experience, and track pricing across rounds.
Why run multiple rounds?
Multi-round sourcing lets you narrow the field and sharpen bids without creating a new event. Every sourcing event has a current round (starting at Round 1), and the key building blocks are scoped to a round: lots and line items, questionnaire sections, document requirements, supplier invitations, and supplier responses each belong to an "associated round". Typical uses are a shortlisting round followed by a best-and-final-offer round, or adding a new scope (new lots, new questions, new documents) that suppliers must respond to. Because published content is locked within a round, advancing the round is also the only way to publish structural additions to suppliers.
How do I prepare the next round?
Open the sourcing event and choose Prepare Next Round from the header actions (also available as a quick action on the Overview page). This opens the event in the builder's edit mode.
Add content for the next round. The Questions step is described as "Add questions for the next round and configure scoring"; the Documents step as "Add document requirements for the next round"; in Pricing you can add new lots and line items. Existing published content is marked locked and cannot be changed; the label reads, for example, "Question locked (from this or a previous round)".
Staged items are labeled Staged until the round advances. Nothing is visible to suppliers yet.
How do I advance the round?
Click Advance Round on the event header. The dialog "Advance to Next Round" opens with the subtitle "Move from Round 1 to Round 2".
Select which suppliers advance. The dialog lists the current round's suppliers with Select All Suppliers / Deselect All Suppliers controls; at least one supplier must be selected.
Set the submission deadline for the next round. If the current deadline has passed, the dialog requires a new one: "You must set a new deadline before advancing."
Review the confirmation summary. It states "Advancing the round will trigger the following:" and lists that invitations are sent to selected suppliers for the next round, that non-selected suppliers are notified they have not advanced, and exactly which staged content goes live, for example "3 new questions will be published to suppliers" or "2 new lots will be published to suppliers".
Click Confirm Round Advancement. The event's current round increments, and the header shows the new round.
What happens to invitations and responses across rounds?
Advancing a round re-creates supplier access per round. Each selected supplier receives a fresh invitation for the new round and an email with the subject "<event title> - You've been selected for Round 2". Suppliers who were not selected receive an email with the subject "<event title> - Round 1 Results" informing them they have not advanced. For every advancing supplier the platform creates a new response in status Draft for the new round and copies the previous round's answers, pricing, and documents into it, so suppliers do not start from zero. The supplier side shows the banner "You've been invited to Round 2. Your previous responses have been preserved. Please review and complete the new items below." Items carried over from an earlier round are marked "From previous round", while new content is grouped under "New in Round 2". The previous round's submitted responses remain unchanged for your records.
How do I track rounds and compare pricing between them?
Round tracking runs through the whole event workspace. The Supplier Responses table has a Round column, and analysis pages carry a round selector labeled "Round" whose options read, for example, "Round 2 - 3/5 submitted", so you always know which round's data you are viewing. Rounds show a status of Open, Closed, or Advanced. On the Pricing analysis page, once at least two rounds exist, the delta view compares them: a bar chart of "Total price change by supplier", a lot-by-supplier change heatmap, and a "Price trend across rounds" chart; suppliers new to a round are tagged New, departed ones Dropped, and unpriced items No Bid. In the Heatmap tab you can color cells by "Round-over-Round Change" to spot who moved prices. Note that advancing a round marks existing simulations as Outdated, with the tooltip "Source data has changed since this simulation was last computed". Click Recompute to refresh them.
