The Opportunities feature is a powerful tool within the Graphite Systems platform, designed to streamline supplier management by offering two distinct methods for initial engagement: Prescreening and Direct Connection. This functionality allows organizations to efficiently evaluate or rapidly onboard other organizations, complementing the standard onboarding process.
Opportunity Types
There are two main, distinct types of opportunities, each with a different purpose.
Connection Prescreening
The Prescreening Opportunity type is designed for evaluating potential suppliers before establishing a formal connection, leveraging existing company profile questions as the primary method for gathering necessary information. Users can selectively choose which available profile questions will be used for screening. This process generates a secure, unique invite URL that is sent to targeted organizations, enabling them to complete the selective questionnaire.
Once an invited organization submits the Opportunity, they are moved to a "Registered" state, granting the user access to the provided data, though the organization can then be managed outside of the user's active connections. Furthermore, Prescreening Opportunities offer visibility options, including "Public," which means any provider possessing the link can view and respond to the Opportunity.
Use Cases:
Managing unsolicited supplier emails.
Requesting pre-onboarding documents from compliance teams.
Prescreening potential suppliers for certain qualifications or certifications.
Direct Connection
The Direct Connection (DC) Opportunity type simplifies and speeds up the onboarding process by eliminating the need for sending massive individual invitations. This Opportunity acts as an efficient supplier onboarding mechanism by allowing the user to build a pre-filled New Supplier Justification (NSJ), which is applied to all suppliers invited through the Opportunity.
Use Case:
Onboarding groups of suppliers without having to fill out individual NSJs (e.g., a large-scale media and production company that needs to rapidly onboard contractors and suppliers at a movie set location).
Notes for both types of Opportunities:
If you want to add or change your organization's standard questions as part of configuring Opportunities, you must follow the standard process for configuration requests and work with your Technical Account Manager.
Graphite does not provide a built-in QR code generator for Opportunities URLs. Therefore, QR codes should be created using an external, standard online generator.
Creating a New Opportunity
Please follow the steps below when creating a new Opportunity:
In the Opportunities page, click on the "Create Opportunity" button:
Then, select the Opportunity type and click on the "Create Opportunity" button:
You will be taken to the Opportunity Overview module. In the General Details section, you will be asked to assign a name to your Opportunity (the Opportunity URL will get autopopulated with the Opportunity name). Additionally, you can set Start/End dates to your Opportunity (These are optional, and if set, your Opportunity will only be valid during that period of time), and set if your Opportunity will be immediately active after save, and/or public (Public opportunities are visible to all companies in the Graphite platform, otherwise a company must be invited or have access to the opportunity link to register.)
In the Portal Content section, you can add an optional description or instructions to your Opportunity. The information entered here will be visible to the supplier once they access the Opportunity link. You can always preview how this information will look on the supplier's end by clicking on the "Preview" button:
Once you have completed all the required fields, you can then hit the "Create" button:
A success message will be displayed at the top, and additional modules will appear on the Opportunity navigation bar (the purpose of these modules is explained in the section "Opportunity Modules"):
After saving your Opportunity, you will be redirected to the Opportunities main page, where you will see your newly created Opportunity, or search for it with the search bar at the top:
Opportunity Modules
As explained in the previous section, once you create a new Opportunity, additional modules will appear on the Opportunity navigation bar. They serve the same purpose for both Connection Prescreening and Direct Connection, with two exceptions outlined at the end.
Overview (applies to both types): You can always come back here and edit the basic Opportunity information (except the Opportunity type):
Requirements (applies to both types): In this module, you can set additional requirements for your Opportunity (e.g., the country of registration, number of employees, or any additional requirements you would like to add. You can always preview how these requirements will look on the supplier's end:
Enrolled Companies (applies to both types): Here, you can see and access the list of supplier profiles that have been enrolled through your Opportunity:
Questions (only applicable to the Connection Prescreen Opportunity type): Here, you can customize what questions and/or sections from your existing configuration will be required for this specific Opportunity. You can turn on/off entire sections, or expand them and turn on/off specific fields:
Onboarding Settings (only applicable to the Direct Connection Opportunity type): This section allows you to build a pre-filled New Supplier Justification (NSJ), which will be applied to all suppliers invited through this single process. (Important: if all NSJ fields are not filled out properly, then the onboarding process will stop at the NSJ until someone completes the form.)