The HERO News this week is about quote requests, also called RFQs or requests for quote. Quote requests are an essential component of Harmony’s CMMS.
The mailbag has some great questions, and there’s a quick article to read.
There’s a deep dive video on all things maintenance, including quote requests.
Enjoy!
– The HERO PM Team
Did you know?
Quote requests are only one component of the Harmony CMMS (Maintenance Management System). Other pieces include services agreements, automated routine maintenance schedules, appliance warranty tracking, key and access management, work requests, work orders, appointment confirmations, work permits, job logs with GPS validation, checklists, vendor suitability with AI analysis, experience surveys, and inspections.
Community Mailbag
When would I use a quote request instead of a work order that’s set to “Estimate”?
When you have a simple maintenance item and have a vendor in mind, you probably find yourself creating a work order. You can designate it so an estimate is required, and if the estimate comes back too high, you can reassign it to a different vendor for their estimate. You can continue this until you get an estimate in line with your expectations, or the limits of the owner.
For more complex projects, you’ll find the quote request a much more efficient tool. Rather than getting estimates sequentially, you can spec the project clearly and fully, and get multiple bids simultaneously. When it’s time to award the contract, a work order is generated for the winning vendor, from the quote request.
Is work automatically assigned for the lowest bidder in an RFQ?
When a vendor submits their quote, they provide not just the quoted price, but any conditions, restrictions, or other comments.
You see a chart of each vendor’s quoted amount, along with the other quote details, including the vendor’s suitability for the job. (Vendor suitability is a function of the Harmony AI, and its own topic.)
Considering all this information, you can award the work to any vendor, as your policies dictate.
Do all vendors see each other’s bid, and can they adjust it up until the deadline?
All of this is configurable in each quote request.
You can set the bidding to be sealed, anonymous, or open, and can set additional instructions, parameters, and dates.
It’s another Harmony function that’s both highly flexible, and super easy to use!.
Featured Harmony U Article: May the best bid win
Sometimes maintenance is simple. Sometimes it’s not.
In a simple case, a tenant submits a Work Request with a nice explanation and video of their issue. You generate a Work Order, assign a vendor, and send out the system template email. The vendor completes the work, clicks the loginless link to report work is complete, and sends an invoice. Harmony takes care of all this with only a few clicks and taps from you.
Featured Harmony U Video: Where can I find an overview of Maintenance?
