COBBLESTONE SOFTWARE

Contract Insight — User Guide

Scheduled Jobs: Solicitations

Configuration Group: Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations

Note: Each procedure in this guide begins at the Contract Insight homepage, so any section can be followed on its own. Solicitations and Procurements are provided through an Optional Add-On Module, so this group is only relevant where that module is licensed. The jobs that send these alerts are managed on the Scheduled Jobs screen, as described in Section 7.

1. Overview

The Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations configuration group holds the settings that control the solicitation alert and task alert email the system sends on a schedule. It defines what those messages say, which links and information they include, who replies are directed to, and how often each alert job runs — including the change notifications sent to assigned respondents.

Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations contains 17 settings, organized under four subsection headings in the settings panel: GENERAL, SOLICITATION TASKS, SOLICITATIONS, and TIMERS.

Note: The SOLICITATION TASKS and SOLICITATIONS subsections each contain a setting named Email Body Beginning Text, Email Body Ending Text, and Email Subject Line. They are separate settings: the SOLICITATION TASKS versions apply to solicitation task alerts, and the SOLICITATIONS versions apply to solicitation record alerts. Confirm which subsection a setting sits under before changing it.

As with every configuration group, each setting is presented as a single row containing:

• The name of the application setting
• A description of what the setting does
• An editing control holding the current value — a toggle, a text box, or an Edit content button for the rich-text message settings
• A “Last changed” line recording when the setting was last modified and by whom

Because this group is maintained from the Administration area, only Application Administrators — or other users specifically granted the appropriate permission — can view and change these values.

2. Accessing the Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations Group

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu.
2. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings.
3. In the CATEGORIES rail on the left, click Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations. The category is highlighted, and the count beside it shows the number of settings it contains.
4. The settings panel on the right is headed Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations with its setting count, and lists the settings under the GENERAL, SOLICITATION TASKS, SOLICITATIONS, and TIMERS subsection headings.

A specific setting can also be reached without browsing the category, by typing part of its name or description into the Search box at the top of the Application Settings screen. Because several setting names appear twice in this group, the search results show which subsection each match belongs to.

3. GENERAL Settings

The GENERAL subsection controls which links are included in solicitation and solicitation task email alerts, and where replies are directed.

The GENERAL settings are:

• Display Link for Solicitations — Displays a link to the solicitation record in the email alert. Toggle.
• Display Link for Solicitations Task — Displays a link to the solicitation task record in the email alert. Toggle.
• Display Social Media Links for Solicitations — Displays social media links for solicitations in the email alert. Toggle.
• Display Social Media Links for Solicitation Task — Displays social media links for solicitation tasks in the email alert. Toggle.
• Reply To Address for Solicitations & Tasks — The email address used as the Reply To on all scheduled solicitation and solicitation task email alerts. Multiple addresses can be specified, separated by semicolons or commas. Entered in a text box.

4. SOLICITATION TASKS Settings

The SOLICITATION TASKS subsection controls the content of solicitation task email alerts and what those alerts allow the recipient to do.

The SOLICITATION TASKS settings are:

• Email Body Beginning Text — The beginning text for the body of solicitation task email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Body Ending Text — The ending text for the body of solicitation task email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Subject Line — The text appended to the subject line of solicitation task email alerts. Entered in a text box.
• Include Solicitation Info — Displays solicitation information on all solicitation task email alerts. Toggle.
• Include task complete buttons in email — Adds buttons to the email that complete a task upon login authentication. Toggle.

5. SOLICITATIONS Settings

The SOLICITATIONS subsection controls the content of solicitation record email alerts.

The SOLICITATIONS settings are:

• Email Body Beginning Text — The beginning text for the body of solicitation email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Body Ending Text — The ending text for the body of solicitation email alerts. Edited through the rich-text editor using Edit content.
• Email Subject Line — The text appended to the subject line of solicitation email alerts. Entered in a text box.

Note: The message settings supply the wrapper around the alert. The beginning and ending text surround the solicitation or task details the system inserts, and the subject line text is appended to the subject the system generates — so neither replaces the alert content itself.

6. TIMERS Settings

The TIMERS subsection sets how often each solicitation alert job runs. Values are expressed in minutes and entered in text boxes, and specifying 0 disables the job.

The TIMERS settings are:

• Solicitations Emailer Timer — How often solicitation email alerts are sent, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.
• Solicitation Tasks Email Timer — How often solicitation task email alerts are sent, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.
• Solicitation Tasks Escalation Timer — How often escalations to solicitation tasks are checked, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.
• Solicitation Change Email Timer — How often change notifications are sent to assigned respondents, in minutes. Specify 0 to disable.

Caution: The Solicitation Change Email Timer governs notifications sent to external respondents, so setting it to 0 means respondents are not told when a solicitation they are bidding on changes. Each timer stops silently when set to 0 — no error is raised and nothing is queued for later.

7. Modifying a Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations Setting

Function: Changes the content or timing of solicitation alerts for the entire system.

Steps:

1. From the Contract Insight homepage, click Administration at the bottom of the left navigation menu. On the Administration page, under Configuration & Fields, select Application Settings, then click Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations in the CATEGORIES rail.
2. Locate the setting by name under its subsection heading, confirming whether you need the SOLICITATION TASKS or SOLICITATIONS version where the name appears in both.
3. Change the value using the control on the right of the setting row — a toggle, a text box for the subject lines, reply address, and timers, or Edit content for the four rich-text message settings.
4. For a rich-text setting, a drawer slides out from the right headed SCHEDULED JOBS - SOLICITATIONS and the setting name. Edit the content using the editor toolbar — Bold, Italic, and Underline, a Paragraph format dropdown, Blockquote and list controls, Insert Hyperlink and Insert Image, Code View for the underlying HTML, and Undo and Redo — then click Close.
5. The setting is marked with a CHANGED badge, an Undo link appears beneath it, a dot appears beside Scheduled Jobs - Solicitations in the CATEGORIES rail, and a banner at the top of the screen reports how many changes are ready to save.
6. Click Save changes in the upper right to commit the change, or Discard to put every changed setting back to its saved value. Undo on the setting row reverts that one setting only.

8. Related Solicitation Alert Administration

This group defines what the solicitation alerts contain and how often they are sent. The jobs that actually send them are managed on the Scheduled Jobs screen, reached from the Administration page under Automation & Data.

The corresponding jobs under the E-Mail Alerts Scheduler are:

• Solicitation E-Mails — driven by the Solicitations Emailer Timer
• Solicitation Task E-Mails — driven by the Solicitation Tasks Email Timer
• Solicitation Task Escalations — driven by the Solicitation Tasks Escalation Timer
• Solicitation Change E-Mails — driven by the Solicitation Change Email Timer
• Bid Alert Emails — driven by the Bid Alert Emails Timer in the Scheduled Jobs - Contracts group

On that screen each job can be run immediately with Run now and its outcome reviewed in its History, which is the quickest way to confirm that a change to these settings has taken effect.

Related settings in other configuration groups are:

• Solicitations — the behavior of solicitation records themselves, including the Questions and Answers section, the awarded vendor email, and survey down selection
• Schedule Manager — the system-wide sweep frequencies that these jobs run alongside
• Vendor/Client Gateway — the portal respondents use to view and respond to solicitations
• Scheduled Jobs - Contracts and Scheduled Jobs - Reports — the equivalent alert settings for those areas

9. Quick Reference Summary