With our increased Supplier Diversity-focused suite of Vendor Management, Project Setup, and Registration tools and improvements, you'll be able to gain increased visibility into the participation of Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned, Small Business Enterprises, and other historically disadvantaged groups on your projects quickly and easily.
Key Features:
- Bonfire helps you surface key vendor data throughout your sourcing process which enables buying organizations to track vendor participation as a project progresses.
- Buyers can easily access a participating vendor’s profile in Bonfire, which further connects our Projects and Vendors modules to create a seamless experience.
- Subcontractors can identify their interest in projects on Bonfire allows larger organizations and state agencies to fulfill their Federal Minority/Woman/Small Business Entity requirements using Bonfire.
Here are the Bonfire features that help our buying organizations track and increase the participation of diverse suppliers in the sourcing process:
Connecting Vendor Registration Fields to Projects
Buyers can configure vendor registration fields to appear on tables that list vendor information in the projects module. This allows buyers to more easily access key pieces of vendor information during the sourcing progress.
In Bonfire, Buyers can create different documentations and registration requirements for vendors. By creating a highly customizable registration experience, Buyers can obtain every piece of information you need about the vendors before accepting their submissions. This is also a useful feature for many Buyers who want to track the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) or Historically Under-utilized Business (HUB) status of the vendors that are participating in procurement events. In Bonfire, Buyers can choose to make individual vendor registration fields visible on the tables in the Project module (Project Tables), making the information more easily accessible. In the Custom Field Creation Wizard, select "Yes" for the Show On Project Tables option. NOTE: Project Tables include Invite Vendors, Submissions, Document Takers, and Intent to Bid.
Buyers have the option to make the fields public as well, so that they are also visible to the vendors in the Public Document Takers and Subcontractor Listing tables (more on Subcontractor Listing later). Select "Yes" for the Public option in the same wizard.
After you completed the configuration, check the Registration Settings accordion to confirm the set up. For each vendor registration field, a checkmark in the Projects? column indicates that the field is visible on the Project Tables and a checkmark in the Public? column indicates that the information is also visible to the vendors (in the Document Taker and Subcontractor Listing tables only).
Taking the example above, the DBE Certified field will be now visible in all Project tables. It is also visible to the vendors in the Document Taker table. Below, we can see how the result looks like in the Submissions Table from a Buyer's perspective. The information is displayed similarly for the other Project Tables including Invite Vendors, Document Takers, and Intent to Bid.
In addition, on each of the tables listed above a link to the vendor record has been inserted beside the name of each vendor. This allows buyers to quickly cross reference a vendor record as they progress through the project.
Lastly, Buyers can enable visibility of these vendor registration fields to the vendors as well. More specifically, they will be displayed in the Public Document Takers and Subcontract Listing tables. These are the two types of information that can be made visible to the Vendors on the Opportunity page. We will discuss more about them in the following sections.
Public Document Takers
As mentioned previously, every vendor registration field that was made public by the Buyer will be displayed in the Public Document Takers Table. This makes the information more easily accessible to vendors and allow them to see public information about who has downloaded the project documents.
Below shows the Public Document Taker Table in a Vendor's perspective when accessing the Opportunity page, given that the feature is enabled by the Buyer for the project.
Please note that if the Buyer has not enabled Public Document Takers, no vendor registration field will be shown even if the field is configured to be public.
For more information on enabling Public Document Takers and additional tips, visit Listing - Document Takers.
Subcontractor Listing
NOTE: This feature is not enabled by default, please contact Support@GoBonfire.com to have it turned on.
Subcontractor Listing allows vendors to submit their interest in being a subcontractor for a project on the project listing page. This allows vendors to connect with interested subcontractors outside of Bonfire, which in term helps subcontractors to participate in the sourcing process.
As mentioned previously, all public vendor registration fields will also be displayed in the Subcontractor Listing Table. 
Once the feature is made available to your portal, it can be enabled on a project-level when creating projects using the Edit Project page. To access, navigate to your main Project Details page, then click Actions -> Edit Project.
In the Vendor's perspective, the subcontractor listing can be found beneath Public Document Takers on the Opportunity page. However, keep in mind that this feature is independent of the Public Document Takers, which means that it will be visible even if Public Document Takers is not enabled.
The listing displays all the Vendors that have put forward an Interest in Subcontracting. This listing is visible to both the Buyers and the Vendors. For Vendors that are interested in participating by fulfilling certain aspects of the project, an Interest in Subcontracting serves as a useful alternative to Intent to Bid. An Interest in Subcontracting indicates the Vendor's interest in being contacted to fulfil specific requirements or responsibilities of the projects. This opens up more opportunities for the Buyers and Vendors to find a good match. It also allows Buyers to build vendor diversity more efficiently.
Unlike an Intent to Bid, Vendors do not submit any documents to indicate their interest in subcontracting. Instead, they are only required to indicate the service(s) offered and any other information that they were required to provide during registration.
If a Buyer is interested in making a subcontracting offer, the Buyer can contact the Vendor using the information available under Subcontractor Listing or any other external channels outside Bonfire. Bonfire does not manage any further processes regarding subcontracting.
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