Defining a supplier

Suppliers are defined in the CISAdmin tool. In addition to basic contact information there is information that must be set correctly for QuoteArchitect vendor search, Pilot, the RFQ email interface and some Portals to work correctly.

A typical supplier definition is shown here.

The name is required. Other contact information is optional. The remainder of this article describe the fields that are functionally significant.

Email: An email entered here will be used as a default when sending an RFQ to this supplier.

MPN Search: This is a URL that can be used to search the supplier’s web site for a given part. It is used by the following.

• QuoteArchitect’s vendor search option
• Pilot

The placeholder %1 indicates where an MPN should be placed.

Locale: This is used by Pilot. Pilot loads up the supplier’s web page for a part and allows the user to capture price and availability data. As the format of numbers is used varies according to the country the web site is defined for, it is necessary to specify this value to inform the software what format is used. So if the web site uses US format for numbers then use en_US. If European numbers are used then any appropriate EU locale code can be used. A list of common locale codes can be found here

US formatted integers: some web sites that show prices in a European style; e.g. €1.000 for one thousand Euro use a the English / US style for integer values (such as stock levels and order quantities), i.e 1,000 for a quantity of one thousand instead of 1.000 which would be normal European notation. Setting a European locale and setting this value to checked directs the software to treat all integer values as being in a US format.

Currency code: The ISO currency code used by the web site referred to by MPN search. When Pilot captures a price from a web site that is using a non-local currency it is automatically converted to the local currency using the information in the FX Rates CISAdmin tab.

Spread: This is an adjustment that can be applied to the FX Rates. The rates are retrieved periodically from an API provided by the European Central Bank. If a spread is entered this is subtracted from the automatically derived rate. This allows for fine tuning of the rate whilst still enabling the use of the varying live rates. This is useful for example to compensate for FX conversion losses.

Re-reeling charge: This is the supplier’s standard re-reeling charge. It is added to prices retrieved from an associated portal that are identified as re-reeled. This charge is specified in the currency of the portal.