How do I send a connection request?

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• I. Adding suppliers
• II.  Upload Excel Template
• III. Add tags
• IV. Sending the connection requests
• V. Changing already sent requests
• VI. Re-invite a supplier who has previously declined the connection request or whose profile was disconnected from yours (either from his or from your side) 
• VII. Details of the request from the perspective of the recipients

I. Adding suppliers

In this step, you will only add suppliers to the platform without sending a connection request. The suppliers will be added to your personal supplier list (e.g. for master data management or risk analysis), but they will not yet receive an invitation to register on the platform. In the next step, you can decide whether and which suppliers you would like to invite to the platform.
If you already know that you want to invite suppliers, please fill in the contact information in the Excel template.

• Click on "Suppliers" in the main menu bar and select "Add / update suppliers"
  

• To import your supplier contacts, download the Excel template.

Fill the Excel template with the following supplier information:

• Company name *: Your supplier's company name
• [Optional] Supplier ID: You may enter the internal ID used by your company to identify suppliers
• [Optional] First name & Last name: The first and last name of your supplier's contact who should receive the connection request
• [Optional] Email: The email address of your supplier's contact who should receive the connection request
• [Optional] PO Spend of the last year (in EUR): The Purchase Order Spend is the value your company spent on a specific supplier in a particular year. This information is relevant for companies who fall under the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) to determine the degree of influence on their suppliers 

• [Optional] DUNS number: Your supplier's DUNS number; it is not used in all industries
• [Optional] Company country code or ISO3 code: The country in which the headquarter facility of your supplier is located. Choose from the drop-down list.
• [Optional] Company activity (NACE 2nd level category): Main economic activity of your company's supplier according to the NACE Rev. 2 classification of economic activities in the European Community. Economic activity is to be provided in the form of a second level category ("division") of the NACE classification. Select the appropriate NACE 2-digit category from the drop-down list.
• [Optional] Countries of raw material origins (separated by comma): The countries from which the raw materials that the supplier delivers originate, might also be a selection of raw materials delivered by the supplier according to your priorities. Enter the ISO3 country codes or English county names separated by comma, e.g. "DEU, FRA, CHN" or "Germany, France, China".
• [Optional] Company street: Street and house number of the supplier’s headquarter address.
• [Optional] Company postal code: Postal code of the supplier’s headquarter address.
• [Optional] Company city: City of the supplier’s headquarter address.
• [Optional] Revenue (estimated): Estimated revenue of the supplier.
• [Optional] Revenue currency: Currency of the supplier's estimated revenue.
• [Optional] Website: Your supplier's website for better identification.
• [Optional] Tier: Indicates the supplier tier within your supply chain (e.g., direct supplier or sub-supplier). Enter the appropriate tier level of the supplier (e.g., Tier 1 for direct suppliers, Tier 2 for sub-suppliers, etc.).

II.  Upload Excel Template

• Upload the Excel template with the supplier contacts.

• Click on "Save and continue"

Independently of your sharing settings, this data will not be shared with anyone until your suppliers complete their registration.

If there are errors in the upload template, the system will indicate this. Correct the errors and upload the corrected template again.

III. Add tags

• You can add tags for the suppliers by selecting the respective suppliers after adding the suppliers
• Click on Suppliers > Suppliers

• Select the suppliers you would like to assign tags to and click "Manage tags".

   

If you would like to assign different tags to individual supplier groups, we recommend inviting the suppliers in several batches. This allows you to assign the desired tags to all suppliers in one batch.

IV. Sending the connection requests

1. Click on Suppliers > Suppliers

2. Select the suppliers you would like to send a connection request to and click "Invite suppliers".

Fill out the form:

1. The "Due date" is the deadline by which suppliers are expected to fulfill your request. This date determines when automatic email reminders will begin to be sent. The default due date is two weeks - you may change it if necessary.

2. My company information: Enter contact information for recipients of the connection requests. The contact information will be provided in the invitation email (see: What does the invitation email for my suppliers look like?)

3. Company Logo: Your company logo stored in your company profile will be inserted automatically. If you have not yet saved a logo, you can also upload your logo here using drag and drop. The logo will be visible to suppliers in the invitation email and will help them to recognize you.

4. If you want your suppliers to complete another request right after registration - or if your customer told you to do so for the supplier disclosure request - you can select a "Follow-up request". 

5. If you choose Maturity Assessment: Define which "Topics" of the Maturity Assessment your suppliers will have to answer:

• Custom topic selection: make your selection based on your company's priorities

6. For the case, you have customers that are also using the VERSO Supply Chain Hub, you can select the customers of your company with which the suppliers you are inviting should be able to share their data under "Share data". In this case, we recommend that you contact our Customer Success Team in advance to coordinate appropriate communication with your suppliers.

7. Click on "Submit"

Afterwards, you can track their status in the sent request list view by clicking on the menu item "Requests" >> "Sent" >> "Connection requests".

V. Changing already sent requests

You may need to change a connection request you sent already, but the supplier has not yet completed (status = Pending). You may not delete an already completed connection request. 

Delete a pending connection request completely:

By clicking "Requests" >> "Sent" >> "Connection" and then "Delete".

Reasons could be, that you figured out that the supplier is not relevant anymore or has been phased out, that the request has been sent twice to the same company, that two suppliers belong to the same parent company, etc.
Deleting a request will result in deleting it both from your outbox (>>"Requests" >> "Sent") and from your supplier's inbox (>> "Requests" >> "Received") and make the connection link unusable for your supplier. 
You may inform your supplier that he/she is not expected to answer this request anymore. 

VI. Re-invite a supplier who has previously declined the connection request or whose profile was disconnected from yours (either from his or from your side)

If a supplier declined your connection request, you can re-invite him if he decides to connect with you later on. 

To do so, all you have to do is sending him a new connection request. 

You can see the declined connection request under "Requests" >> "Sent" by using the filter function "declined". 

The same goes for a disconnected profile. You can re-invite the supplier by sending him a new connection request. 

VII. Details of the request from the perspective of the recipients

To see the connection request email from your supplier's point of view, please click on the link below to see the article:  What does the invitation email for my suppliers look like?

Supposedly, you would like to see, how the registration process on the Supply Chain Hub works for your suppliers after receiving your invitation email, you can take a look at this article: How do I register on the VERSO Supply Chain Hub?