SupplierEvaluations search is designed to meet the needs of users at any level - from beginners to very sophisticated database savvy users. There are two options users can use to search for supplier s - Quick Search and Advanced Search.
Quick Search
Quick Search works as a wild card search against all the fields in our supplier database. To use quick search enter any part of the company name, country it is located in, product it manufactures or industry it might be associated with and click the Search button.
The diagram below depicts a typical flow of the search using Quick Search tools:
Depending on the search word of phrase you use, you will either get a list of suppliers or no results.
Evaluated checkbox allows you to narrow the search down to only those suppliers that were already evaluated by other members and have at least one Supplier Performance Evaluation (SPE) available in our database.
Advanced Search link takes you to the Advanced Search options.
New Search link clears all the current parameters and lets you start from scratch.
Country, Supplier Type, Industry and Product represent a search hierarchy you can use to narrow down the results. For example, selecting Manufacturer under Supplier Type you will be able to narrow the results to list only suppliers of this type.
User can navigate back and forth via this hierarchy to try the fastest way to the information they are looking for.
Search Path (also called 'bread crumbs') - displays user's choices of search parameters selected in sequential fashion. User can navigate through these parameters by clicking any of these items.
ADD EVALUATION - starts Supplier Performance Evaluation Process. To see help on Supplier Performance Evaluation Process click here.
EDIT EVALUATION - opens this SPE entry for editing purposes. User will only get the option to edit an evaluation if he or she have submitted a portion of this SPE entry.
RENEW EVALUATION - opens this SPE entry in edit mode for renewal purpose. User will only get the option to renew an evaluation if he or she have submitted a portion of this SPE entry.
SUBSCRIBE - subscribes the user to be notified on any new SPE entries for this supplier.
UNSUBSCRIBE - unsubscribes the user from being notified on any new SPE entries for this supplier.
ADD TO CART - adds this item to the Shopping Cart. This option is only available if a valid SPE report exists for this supplier.
VIEW CART - takes the user to view all the items in the Shopping Cart. This button is only available in case this item has been previously added to the Shopping Cart.
DOWNLOAD - lets the user download the SPE report for this supplier.
Advanced Search
Advanced Search allows the user using multiple search parameters at the same time. Advanced Search has three sections - Quick Search, Advanced Search Parameters and Multiple Search Parameters.
Quick Search is described separately.
Advanced Search Parameters section consists of two sub-sections - Search By and Find Products.
Search By - lets you add search criteria using combination of Country, Supplier Type, Industry and Location. If the user clicks Search after adding all 4 parameters, the logic between these will be
Find Products - lets you find product categories to use as search parameter.
Quick Find works like a wild card search in the list of product categories. Users can enter a part of the product name or category they are looking for and click on the spy glass button. If any results are available users can select any of the displayed ones in the list by clicking any of the displayed entries. Once such selection is made Subcategories will be filled in automatically and users will be able to add any of the displayed entries into the search criteria.
Alternatively you can manually select Product Category and Subcategories to get to the desired list from which to choose. Product Category and Subcategories are organized in cascading hierarchy that gets narrowed down with each level.
Once all the search parameters are identified users can click Search button or use "To add multiple choices click here" link. Clicking this link will let the user identify additional search parameters and combine then with those already defined earlier using OR or AND logic.
