Services are bought on scope, rate basis and who answered the last time. All three are on the profile rather than in a proposal you have to request first.
Professional services are bought from the same three firms until one of them fails, because building a new shortlist means a week of calls and a stack of unrequested proposals.
Service providers list what they do, the industries they serve, their coverage area and whether the work can be done remotely — searchable in the same place as everything else you buy.
Supplier directoryOne quotes a fixed fee, one a day rate, one a retainer, and none of them scopes the same work. Comparing them is a judgement call dressed up as a spreadsheet.
An RFQ fixes the scope, the deliverables and the terms, so responses come back in the same shape with rate basis, timeline and exclusions in named fields rather than buried in a covering letter.
SourcingAn enquiry into a contact form disappears. There is no way to tell in advance which firms answer within a day and which take a fortnight.
Every firm's reply rate and typical response time are computed from real inquiries — counting only those they have had time to answer — and shown before you write to them.
Inquiries & messaging